Alana's Baptism

 Alana was just baptized on Saturday!  All the family was there to celebrate her special day!  The cousins all sang a special song and both Grandma's gave beautiful talks.  It's crazy that I now have an 8 year old!  The kids are growing up so fast.  Alana said she felt very happy.  After the event we had all the family over for some food and visiting.

Fun Weekend with the Gustavsen Family

 Ingeborg's parents were having a vacation in California and Ingeborg had to come here to start school....so they took the weekend and drove over from LA to meet our family.  Ingeborg's 2 sisters stayed at our house and her parents stayed in a hotel close to our house.  They were only here for 2 days so we crammed in a lot of fun!  They are from Norway but their English is very good.  They are a very active family and like to have fun!  They arrived on Friday afternoon, we visited and ate a good dinner then went out.  All the girls have been in gymnastics so we thought it would be fun to take them to Airworx in Chandler....it's a place with huge trampolines. After working up a sweat we took them to Coldstone Creamery, the best ice cream in town!

 Saturday we took them to Canyon Lake.  It was busy with lots of people but we had a picnic lunch and stayed cool in the water.  We all had a great time!  Alydia really liked Johanna and Synova her sisters.

 Anden loved the water!  We put an infant life jacket on him and he just layed on his back and relaxed in the water.  Aaron and Christen and their girls came along so we had lots of fun and laughs.

 This is the family from Norway.  Knut, Ingeborg, Synova, Johanna and Marit (I hope I spelled them right)

 After the fun at the Lake we went home and showered and got ready for a fun night.  We left the 2 youngest home with a babysitter and went to Rawhide.  We went to the steakhouse for dinner.  They had live western music and the kids could dance.  The food was good and the company was great.

 The kids doing their favorite thing....Dancing!

 We threw the kids in jail

 Sunday morning they made us yummy Norwegian Pancakes....they wer big and thin like crepes, we put whipped cream and strawberries inside.

 For Sunday dinner we had the Pratt's and the Hunsakers over along with the Gustavsen family so we had quite the party! 

 Ingeborg was showing us a book of her pictures.

 Liddy found a friend!

 Allden enjoyed going to the "cowboy" town.

 Playing at the park at Rawhide.

Pearl and Alydia

Canyon Lake

 Our neighbor and friend took us out on his boat at Canyon Lake.  We had a blast! 

 Alydia quickly became friends with Ingeborg and wanted her to take her swimming at the lake.  The kids were all excited to get new life jackets so they could go in the deep water and float.

 Brett tried to wakeboard for the first time.  It looked pretty hard.  I just stuck to ski's it's much easier. 

 They had a huge tube....the size of a queen mattress so we all piled on and got pulled behind the boat it was a lot of fun!

I ski'd all around the lake till I got tired....it was a lot of fun....it makes us want to get a boat.

First Day of School

The first day of school!  Alana is in 3rd grade this year with Mrs. Farkas (she also had her in first grade) Adalynn is in 1st grade with Mrs. VanDeBueken.  They were both excited to go back to school and see their friends.  The summer went by very fast!

Welcome Ingeborg! Alana's 8th B-day party

 Our new foreign exchange student arrived on my B-day.  She is from Norway.  Since it was Sunday we all got ready for church then went to the airport with the posters the kids made and got there just in time to see her get off the airplane.  We were all excited to meet her.  Her English is very good.  We took her to church for the first time and helped her meet some new friends in young womens.  We got her into Perry High School so she will meet many people there and get to walk to school.

 We had a little B-day party to celebrate Alana turning 8!  She invited her cousins and her best friends from school.  We had pizza, cupcakes and icecream and then headed to Basha Pool for a fun evening!  They all had a blast swimming, going down the slides, lazy river and the diving board.

 Alydia and Ingeborg are already friends.

 Alana got a couple gift cards from Target which she used towards a Kinect for the X-Box.  She loves it!

Her cousins Patsy and Monroe gave her a fun game!  She also got a scrapbook kit and art supplies.  We also took her to build a bear where she picked out a dog and an outfit....she loves stuffed animals, art, and games.

Cibola Vista Resort and Arizona Science Center

We stopped at the Cibola Vista Resort near Lake Pleasant in Peoria for 2 nights on the way home from the cabin.  We had a 2 bedroom suite with 2 baths and 2 kitchens.  It was a nice place and had a huge pool with a waterslide.  The kids were very excited to go swimming.  Brett attended some meetings the next day and the kids and I went down to the pool and went swimming for a couple hours. I put the baby down for a nap so that made it a little easier to manage. Alana was the only one tall enough to go down the water slide but she didn’t want to go on her own then Addy needed to go to the bathroom but wanted me to go with her so that was the hard part because I can’t leave the other kids on their own in the pool. We had fun playing red light green light and I gave Alydia and Allden shark rides. We had some lunch then we had to go to a time share presentation and we put the oldest 3 kids in the child care place and the presentation seemed to take forever! Of course we didn’t buy anything but had to listen to it all….we feel bad saying no but the numbers just don’t make sense to us.

Saturday morning we checked out of the resort early at 7:30am and headed to the AZ Science Center for the United Way Intel event.  They had breakfast and we could get into the planetarium and the IMAX theatre until 10 am.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to the planetarium it was cool but the kids got bored about half way through.  The next show was a 3-D IMAX show about the waves in Tahiti.  That one was really cool the kids were holding their hands out trying to grab the fish as they floated by and it felt like you were in the movie as the waves were pounding down and the surfers were surfing.  We need to go to Tahiti sometime it looks beautiful!  After the show we wondered around the science center for a couple hours and let the kids explore the different exhibits.  It’s a fun place for kids and adults.  Everyone was hungry so we went to lunch at Kwan’s SamPan in Mesa.  It’s a chinese restaurant and Alana says it’s her favorite.  It’s old and reminds me of Granny….I remember taking her to dinner there.  We had fun looking at the different animals we were depending on the year you are born.  After lunch we headed home.  We unpacked and cleaned out the car and started on the laundry.  

 Alydia didn't want to go on the weather thing she was scared....the kids watched all the different types of weather and feel the wind, rain, heat and even an earthquake.

 You sit on a seat and have to pull yourself up with the rope.

 Addy is lying on a bed of nails!

Alana and Addy had a wheelchair race.  We all had a great time!

Utah trip....Rhino's and Bryce Canyon

The cabin was open for 4 nights so we headed up before the kids had to go back to school.  Summer is the best time to go to the cabin but it is also when we rent it out the most.

We spent one day out on the Rhino’s, my parents rented one and we rented one.  I put Anden in the little pouch and he sat up front with me.  Then we had 2 kids in the backseat and 2 kids in my parents backseat.  We made a big huge loop and really enjoyed the beautiful countryside and scenery.  I think this is as good as it gets.  It started to pour down rain the last 15 minutes of our ride and it was freezing!  I love riding the trails throught the aspen trees and meadows, it's so beautiful!

Brett had to work some more but my parents and the kids and I went down to Bryce in the suburban for the day.  When we got there it started raining but stopped long enough for a picnic lunch.  Then we went to the visitor center and hung out and watched the movie about Bryce Canyon and looked at all the animals until the rain stopped.  Then we drove to the Bristle Cone trail and the hike only took about an hour it was really easy.  My dad hiked with Alydia and I hiked with Anden.  It was a beautiful hike with nice views.

 Alydia played music for papa on my phone for the entire hike.

The weather was beautiful in the 60's and had to wear a light jacket.  It was a nice getaway from the heat in AZ.