Leah's 4!

August 21st was Leah's birthday. The two pictures above are on her actual birthday. She had fun opening her presents and having a family party. If you look closely at the brownies there has already been samplings by the birthday girl earlier in the day. She had a birthday party a few days later with her friends. This was her first birthday party she has had. We're pretty sure she had a fun time. It was complete with a treasure hunt, relay races, water balloons, opening presents and eating with her friends. We are so happy to have Leah in our family. We love that she is independent, a great sister, and has an incredible imagination. We love you Leah!

Back to Business

It's that time of year again. School has started. There are soccer practices to get to. Life is busy once again. Although I have to say routine is good in our family. Brynn is in first grade and gets to stay all day. She enjoys getting to have lunch at school and comes home exhausted! Abby is now in 4th grade. I can't believe it! She has tests to study for, projects to do, and not enough time to get everything done. Leah can't wait to start preschool in October. For now, she gets to rule the house for 6 hours everyday. Shea and Leah are getting pretty good at playing together. And I feel like I have a chance to get things done.

Beach House #2

We spent another week at another beach house with Trent's side of the family this year too! We had lots of fun catching up with everyone.
Brynn and Leah stayed at home instead of going to a baseball game. Trent brought home some cotton candy for them, and yes they got to eat it for breakfast. Some things you can get away with on vacation!
Serious Uno playing
Leah loves this game.
Grandpa Mark enjoying some cookie dough.
Another week of playing in the sand.
We had a great time!

Beach House #1

Time to catch up on our summer vacation. The first week in California we spent at a beach house in Newport Beach with the Harts. We had a great time catching up with family. Playing in the sand and the water.

Climbing a rope structure after eating at Ruby's

Abby really love boogie boarding this year. It brought me back to when I would go out all day in the water. Now I'm a wimp and wish the water was warmer.
Shea loved it!


Leah and Rusty running from the waves.

Elder Richard G. Scott

Yesterday Elder Scott came to speak to our Stake. We left our house with plenty of time to make it to the meeting... about an hour and 45 minutes early. Abby really wanted to sit where she could see him. (At Stake Conferences before we end up in one of the other rooms where you watch on TV). We arrive at our Stake Center about an hour before the meeting starts. After finding our seats I decided it would be best to walk around the building with the girls. So we walked around and after a few times around we found a shady spot to sit and play a few games. We were playing charades when a car pulls up and our Stake President gets out and so does Elder Scott! He is about 20 feet away from us we go over to meet him. We got to shake his hand. He told me what beautiful daughters I have. He talked to Abby for a minute. He asked her what her name was she said "Abby" and he replied "My name is Richard." It was really neat to be able to shake the hand of an apostle. He had love emanating from his countenance. It was awesome!

Reaching the Valley

In Wyoming we stopped at Little America and had some tasty ice cream cones. This was our last stop before arriving in Salt Lake. On our way out I was telling the kids that this was the way the pioneers went to get to Utah. Abby asked if it took them 3 years...it really is an amazing thing they did coming out west so they could be free to worship what we know is true.
Shea meeting Great Grandma Hart for the first time. We stayed at my grandma's for a couple nights. I've always had the best memories at my grandma's house, it was fun to let my kids have those memories too.
Visiting Temple Square in Salt Lake
The Garner's had a fun party for Abby's 9th birthday. It was lots of fun being able to celebrate with them.
Shea meeting Uncle Danny
I wonder what her wish was.
Shea's birthday is two days after Abby's, so we celebrated her 1st birthday too!

The Beginning

We started our trip in the middle of June, during the floods in the Midwest. This was our first stop. We had just crossed over the Mississippi River into Iowa. The Mississippi is in ithe background. Notice the happy faces, I don't think they understood just how long we would be driving. When we got back on the highway we found out the I-80 was closed due to flooding. We were taken on a 2-3 hour detour, but we did get to see the entire state of Iowa. It was really sad to see all these farms that were completely flooded.
This was our hotel the first night. We were happy to finally make it there. The girls really liked that they got to stay in a castle.
Here is another rest stop. This one is in Nebraska, although I'm not positive I would guess that the playground equipment was made out of old farm equipment. The girls loved it anyway.
We stayed in Denver with my sister's family for a few days. We had fun with cousins and playing at the sprinkler park.
We also got to see the Wilsons! They are friends of ours from Champaign who moved out to Denver it was lots of fun catching up with them.