Painting Juliet's room...

Before Juliet's birthday, Maxine came to me with the idea of painting Juliet's room.  *groan*  Juliet has wanted to repaint her room ever since Maxine's room got finished in the basement.  It's a brilliant idea but I was reluctant.  She talked me into it and I tried not to cringe as they picked out paint colors.  Why doesn't everyone like tan!!!??  Oh boy, here we go!

They're over-the-moon excited!  I'm just trying to bite my tongue.

 

They settled on turquoise and salmon pink.

But she loves it!

I hope to accept it over time.

Juliet's 9th birthday...

Juliet and her friend Lauren almost share the same birthday.  Valerie and I planned it out a long time ago to go see Finding Dory because it came out July 17th.  We were hoping to catch it in the VIP theatre but it didn't go in the VIP.  

 But first, let me back up.  Juliet started her morning opening presents!

Then after the movie, we decided to hit the pool!

Mikayla was sad so Mark stood beside her and put his arm around her.  So cute!

It was a perfect day and there was hardly anyone there.

After swimming, we picked up pizza and an ice cream cake and headed home to blow out candles.

Awesome day!

Angel's Landing Hike...

Darryl and Shauna Zitting invited us to hike Angel's Landing with them and their kids.  Merril and I switched off carrying Mark in the back pack and also made him walk part of the way.  Mikayla walked the whole way up by herself!

Merril took the 3 older kids out to the chains to the point and I took the littles down.  Mikayla was not happy about it.

Coming down "Walter's Wiggles" switchbacks.

Mark wanted to ride and by now Mikayla was getting tired so she'd ask for a ride.  I'd switch out Mark and carry her in the back pack until it was too much.  Then they'd both walk.  A funny hiker even stopped me to take my picture carrying Mikayla.   

Refrigerator canyon.

Stopping for a rest.

It was a beautiful hike and I think the last time I hiked Angel's Landing, I didn't even have any kids.  It was fun and a great workout!

Loving the swoopy eyes and a project...

I'm in love with swooping my eyeliner way out lately!  I think it makes my elf eyes look even more elfish.  :)

This crummy picture is displaying my new sock clothes line in the laundry room.  It's my new system to store unmatched socks until it's mate comes through the wash.  I've been thinking about it forever and it was so easy!  Just some twine and some 3M removable hooks.  Thumbs up!

Such sad eyes...

Poor Mikayla.  She got pink eye.  I tried to put some allergy drops in her eyes to see if it'd help but by the afternoon, I knew that it wasn't allergies.  When I called the doc, we were able to get her an appointment for the next day.  

The next morning, her goopy eyes were totally sealed shut so she went into the tub.

After a few days of the drops, Mikayla's eyes were looking great except for these crazy eye hematomas.  They were gone after about another week.

Such lazy boat owners...

We've owned our boat for 11 years and it's been great but I'm starting to get lazy.  It's June and we haven't even pulled it out yet.  To be fair, May was really stormy and we didn't even feel like going to the lake.  Merril had other commitments so the rest of us took off to the lake with the Tahoe!

The air was warm but the water was still a little cold.  That never stopped Maxine before.  

I promise Mikayla is happy but she was starting to get pink eye and her appointment was for the next day.  Her eyes are starting to look sad.

I love having a capable vehicle !!  If we want to go to the lake, we can just drive down to the beach.

Unfortunately, it was kind of windy and Mark would try to run away from the wind.  Ha ha

I'm sure we'll get the boat out soon.  

Yay for the pool!

There goes Juliet off the high dive!!  Yay for summer!

I didn't take very many pictures but happened to get these two at snack time.  I think Mikayla is going to improve a lot at swimming this year!

Toquerville Falls 2016...

After we got back from the cabin, we decided to jaunt over to Toquerville Falls for a nice evening barbeque.  Everyone ran down to the falls will I started grilling dinner.  

We took our folding table, which is about on its last leg, and ate up some hamburgers and watermelon.

After dinner, all the other visitors left and we had the Falls to ourselves.  I played on the top by the river while Merril cleaned up.  The sun set and we went home.  It was a nice way to start the summer!

Pine Valley Cabin over Memorial Day Weekend...

Memorial Day weekend was the weekend Grandma Campbell scheduled the cabin in Pine Valley.  The kids were really excited to spend time with cousins.  I took pictures of the bicycle ride from the reservoir and out at the Laub ranch but not much else.  Mikayla was riding her bike like a boss!

I was running beside Mikayla because Mark wanted to ride the wiggle car and I had a strap to pull him when he got tired.  That trail is about 2 miles long and he did so great except for the last 5 minutes.  Then he was done.  

Who can blame him?  That's a long way on a wiggle car!

On Saturday, we went to the Laub Ranch.  The kids loved playing in the pond.

Sunday we went to the cute Pine Valley branch.  There's no nursery so it's a lot of chasing Mark on the grass until church gets out but I could still feel the Spirit.  During sacrament meeting, the entire shady side of the grass was covered with chairs, blankets and families who had come to listen to Sacrament meeting.  It looked like a tent revival.  It was great!!

What else?  There was a cupcake wars competition and our cupcakes finished first.  Because of the elevation, most everyone was having trouble with baking the cupcakes.  A lot of them were big, gooey messes that needed to be redone.  I can't explain why, but ours turned out okay.  Julie really wanted me to bring my piping bags for the frosting so they looked primo!  I totally didn't hear the part about making the cupcakes "Memorial Day" themed.  Woops!  Oh well, we were all tired anyway so I don't feel like it was anyone's best work.  Ha ha!

My Dad's birthday!

My Dad's birthday is on May 12th.  We were a little late getting our present together but I wanted to take my Dad to the sand dunes.  He was at our house a few months back and commented on how much fun it would be to head up to the sand dunes with Merril.  He used to have a Jeep, Suzuki Samurai, and Toyota Land Cruiser.  I think he was missing them.  So we loaded up some lunch and headed out for a morning of wheeling!

There's my Dad, as happy as a clam.  

We wheeled the morning and stopped at a nice shady spot for lunch.  Afterwards, my Dad was about to cry and said he had so much fun!  He asked if we could make this an annual event for his birthday.  Absolutely Dad!  He's 68 this year.  To be honest, I don't know how many more birthdays I'll get to spend with my Dad.  Ever since his aneurysm 15 years ago, I feel like he's been living on borrowed time.  I hope my kids get a few more years with him.

These two just had fun in the sand.  They totally don't care if they get sand everywhere.