Peach Days...

Yummy Peach Days!  I love our little town festivities!  This year at Peach Days, we played in these hamster balls on water.  HiLaRiOuS!  Best of all, it was really quiet to watch because all the noise is trapped inside.

Maxine was also in a play about our city's history called, "Come See Our Valley."  I learned quite a lot about Hurricane.  

She was a pioneer girl named Naomi.  We made the bonnet and apron and the dress was supplied.  It turned out really cute.  And then I looked at displays of quilting and they were amazing!!  I feel like quilting could be a passion when I'm older.

A 2nd chance at Mark's baby photos...

At the hospital, a photography company offered to take some pictures of Mark.  I agreed, thinking it was a great idea.  After getting home from the hospital and checking out their website, they wanted $150 for the digital copies of the jpgs.  Holy SMOKES!  Not happening.  I didn't end up ordering any but decided to shoot some myself.  I was satisfied, end of story.

Fast forward 11 months: I received an email from the company saying they were going to give me another chance at the digital jpgs for $50 before they deleted them forever.  I was excited and decided to do it!  After downloading them, I noticed the resolution on them was not great.  I could print 5x7s but anything bigger and I was going to start losing quality.  A little disappointed, I emailed the company regarding the resolution.  They responded and explained that for some reason, my gallery of images weren't high resolution and said unfortunately there was nothing they could do and they'd refund the $50 bucks.  So I was able to get all the photos for FREE.  And even though the resolution isn't as high as I'd like, I'm pleased that I was able to get them at all to remember his sweet little body just a few hours old.  Here's sweet baby Mark, 11 months late!

Splash pads are fun...

 Now that the kids are in school, my neighbor Dana and I decided to go to the splash pad with our 2 little kids.  Mark thought the splash pad was sooooo much fun!

He laughed and splashed and giggled.

Best place on Earth for him.

Mikayla had a good time too but I had a hard time chasing her and getting a picture.  

She sat down after a while to dry off and it was easier to catch a smile.

First Day of School 2014...Yay!

"So I love you all but get out of my house so I can get some stuff done."  That sums up my feelings on the first day of school.  I love summer, I really do, but by the last 2 weeks, I'm ready for my routine back.  Julie woke up at 5 a.m.  The rest of them were up pretty early as well.  Maxine is out of elementary school and over to the intermediate school for 6th and 7th grades.  It starts so early: 7:45 a.m!  She has to be down to the bus by 7:05 a.m.  That's going to be an adjustment, especially for her because she tends to sleep in.  But she made it the first day!

Juliet's hair looks messy because it was done so early, it already had time to mess up.  And she wasn't in the mood to pose.  She's in 2nd grade this year.

Jack was all smiles though.  He's in 3rd.

We put the elementary kids on the bus and drove to the school to make sure they got to class okay.  Mikayla was playing on a rock and declared she was "the queen."

The kids were honestly excited to go back to school.  

Julie gave me one smile before the bell.

Mikayla is still just little and won't even be in preschool for another year.  So I have my big kids in school and the little ones still at home for a few more years.

Zion Jeep Tour...

Merril entered a contest for a free jeep tour in Zion and won!  They let us take our whole family, which would've cost over $500.  We felt very lucky!  Our tour guide drove around on some back roads by Zion and we even stopped by the old ghost town of Grafton, UT.  I had no idea we lived so close to a ghost town.  The kids thought the open air Jeep was fun.

It was a fun little adventure to end our summer!  School starts in a week and a half!!

Pioneer Day 2014

I guess most of this post is dedicated to the day before Pioneer Day.  The kids had earned quite a few coupons through the library's summer reading program.  So we cashed in a bunch of lunch items and took them to the park.  There's a park near us that has a cool little stream directed through it.  Everyone wanted to play in it.

This is Mikayla's latest picture pose.  Not quite sure what's up with her hands but she does it a lot.

 Despite several warnings not to get wet, everyone was a little wet.  Mikayla was pretty darn wet and refused to wear her clothes anymore.  She's 2 so she can still get away with that.  ;)

The 3 older kids were in the Pioneer Day parade and Mikayla sat on the sidelines and picked up candy.  She thought it was the best!

Lazy lake summer...

I'm the first to admit that a new baby makes a person lazy.  Things I used to be super vigilant about start to slide.  Having a baby put me on survival mode.  I'm focusing on food in the mouths of the kids, diapers being changed, relatively clean bodies and trying to keep up with the laundry.  Taking pictures with my good camera tends to be less of a priority.  With diapers bags, carseats, strollers and 5 kids, lugging one more bag with my camera is less than appealing.  That being said, it's so worth it!  I took my camera to the lake and loved almost every shot.

 Ok, Merril's blurry because the camera was focusing on Mark's head but I still like it.

Mikayla is getting pretty good at swimming with a life vest and likes to swim on her back a lot.

Poor Mark didn't get his afternoon nap and fell asleep playing with the underside of my flip flop.

We love the lake!

California in the RV...

We bought my parents RV for the summer so we could do a California trip.  Merril put the speed triple (motorcycle) on the back of the RV and away we went.  The plan was Death Valley, Yosemite, and Sequoia National Parks.  We got up at 5:00 a.m. on Thursday and took off for Death Valley.  It's on the edge of California, almost in Nevada.  We hoped to get there early so it wouldn't be so hot but we had a tire develop a bubble and needed to be changed.  By the time we lumbered down into the valley, it was getting on to lunchtime and hot!  Oh, and Mikayla had developed a fever that morning and had been throwing up.  Oi.

But that wasn't going to stop us from having our vacation.  Badwater Basin is 282 feet below sea level.  There's a mountain right next to the valley and if you look along the hillside, you can see a big sign that says, "SEA LEVEL."  It was very cool to be so far down and looking up at sea level.  Death Valley is a sad sort of place, with very little vegetation and I didn't see any animals.  Down at Badwater, there is some water but it's all salty and not drinkable.  It's the lowest place in the western hemisphere and I think that's pretty awesome!

Ok, the kids don't seem that excited to be there but I made them pose like they were hot.  It wasn't really that bad.

Here's the RV with the Triumph Speed Triple strapped to the back.  I doubted whether we "needed" to take it or not but I'm so glad Merril convinced me.

So then we loaded in the RV to head out of Death Valley.  The hill coming out of Death Valley is several miles long and it was around lunchtime.  The RV started venting all of it's automatic transmission fluid and we had to pull over.  Merril unloaded the Triumph speed triple motorcycle and headed to the nearest town to get supplies.  We fired up the generator and turned on the A/C and waited.  The nearest town was Beatty, NV and about 20 miles away.  It took about an hour for Merril to make the trip.  A nice County Sheriff's deputy stopped to make sure we were ok and not roasting.  Mikayla was still throwing up about every hour, which was a bummer, but other than that, we were fine in the RV.

So Merril got back and put in the ATF and we started off again.  We'd gone less than a mile and the RV started to vent it all out again.  Urg.  We pulled over and started using water to try and cool and transmission.  We tried again.  Barely 1/2 a mile.  At this point, we were a little concerned about the generator running out of gas so Merril buzzed back to Beatty for gasoline.  Got back, put in the gas and said he thought he'd call Jason N. to bring all new tires and parts to fix the transmission and we'd just get a ride back to Beatty.  So Merril ran back to cell phone service and got everything arranged with Jason and brought back the Nye County Sheriff Deputy and his prisoner transport van to give us a ride.

We got a hotel room, Mikayla stopped throwing up, Jason arrived in the middle of the night and they fixed the RV.  When the tire place in Beatty opened the next morning, we got the 6 tires put on the RV.  We headed out of Beatty and started towards Yosemite.  Yay!

The first place we happened upon in Yosemite was a mountain lake.  We decided to stop there for dinner to let the kids run around while we barbecued some hot dogs and brats.

Yosemite is so pretty!  I had no idea it was so huge!!  (Half Dome in the background.)

We hiked to Bridal Veil Falls but it was getting late and the falls were almost dried up for the season.  It was still pretty but not as impressive as it is in the Spring.  I like when the kids take candid pictures of Merril and me.  :)

Oh, and Mikayla has this crazy face that she pulls lately and I thought I'd include it.  What a nutty kid.

This was down in Yosemite Valley towards sunset.  Again, the kids were playing with the camera.  We were on the side of the road when they snapped this. 

Then we drove out of the park and looked for a place to sleep.  Just as a side note:  There are signs everywhere saying not to leave food in your car because the bears will try to get in and eat it.  Since our car was also our sleeping accommodations, we didn't know what else to do but sleep with the food.  Around 2 a.m., I heard a noise by the driver's door and in my sleepy stupor, figured Mikayla had gotten out of bed and was playing in the driver's seat.  Getting close to the front of the RV, I saw a bear standing on his hind legs with his paws against the door,  He was scratching the door, TRYING TO GET IN!  I made sure the door was locked and stumbled back to bed.  I shook Merril awake and in a whisper shouted that a bear was trying to eat us!  Merril put on his glasses and looked out front and saw the bear starting to run away.  I guess we made too much noise.  It didn't wake the kids so we just tried to go back to sleep.  I had a hard time settling down after that.  I was convinced that every noise I heard was a bear trying to get in.  But he never came back and we slept the rest of the night without any other problems.  

So the next day we got up and headed to Glacier Point in Yosemite.  That road to Glacier Point was super narrow and the RV was just barely within the allowable length limits.  At one point a sign said, "Road Narrows" and I thought, "You've got to be kidding!"  I was driving because Merril wanted to ride the motorcycle up the windy road.  But we made it without running into anyone or anything.  The viewpoint looks down into Yosemite Valley.  (Half Dome again.)

 There was a rock house that explained about the glacier that shaped the valley and the kids played in it for a while.

I snapped this just as we loaded up to head down the mountain and go to Sequoia.

We really did go to Sequoia but I don't have any pictures of it.  :/  Juliet developed a fever on the way and didn't feel good the entire time in Sequoia.  So we hurried and hit the highlights and headed for home.  We drove all night.  The RV isn't exactly super fast.  We got home at 7:30 a.m.  After driving all night I guess Mikayla was glad to be home?  She laid down in the driveway.  

It was a pretty crazy trip but I had a great time.  Traveling in the RV was so great for the kids.  Juliet wants to know when we're going to use it again!

Blue hair...

I've never dyed my hair, ever.  Just never had the desire, mostly because I'd have to keep dyeing it.  Maxine wanted some turquoise streaks in her hair.  Since it's summer, I agreed.  School dress codes won't allow blue hair during the school year.  Juliet jumped on board.  So we tried to get some semi-permanent hair dye but that didn't end up coloring their hair at all.  So we went full in with a bleach kit and real permanent hair dye.

Juliet just got the tips done.

Maxine got streaks.

I didn't think I'd like it but it's not that bad!  It's fun for the summer and for once I can say I did something cool for my kids.