McCall Revisited...

To keep up the tradition, my family all gathered again, for a week in McCall, Idaho, for some fun in the sun. Well the first day it rained, but the rest of the week was great! Here are the highlights...

Zach's favorite activity, water fights with the "Brother Cousins" (Alec and Parker).

The beach, well what there is of it anyway. The water is so high from all the great winters Idaho has been getting. Still, we love it for all the kids to be able to play without the fear of the "deep" waters.

Zach's other favorite activity, tubing. The kid could not get enough!

On this particular run Zach hit a huge wave that caused him to soar into a back flip barely hanging on to stay in the tube. My sister Paige has it on video...so footage soon to come hopefully. He thought it was great...the same kid who is fearful of the "deep"! I don't think I will ever get it.

OK, so maybe this was his favorite activity, playing with all his boy cousins. My brother Andy bought this new Aquaglide. Britt, Paige and I tried it out...so much fun, so many options to keep yourself on, that is unless Paige is holding onto you to keep herself from falling off the darn thing.

Kate with her new suit on...I saw this at my Costco, they were out of her size, called my mom to check her Costco, and sure enough they had it. I just love the ruffle bum! Thanks to cousin Halle for the cute piggy tails.

A little "Man Tubing"! AKA tubing without holding on to the tube while the driver of the boat attempts to eject you as high and as far away from the tube as possible. Many head-aches are suffered here.

How does one fall asleep sitting up? Pure exhaustion. Poor Zach could not keep his eyes open.

Kate's new best friend, my new found babysitter, cousin Lauren. This sweetheart made my vacation that much more fun and relaxing.

If you could not find that "something" you were missing and you were sure it was in the house somewhere, rest assured Kate had it and was stashing it in her little hideout, the bathroom cupboard.

Another one of Zach's favorites, "Grandma's Store" where they trade coupons for treasures. This particular day he chose glow bands. His favorite trade by far though were his finger lasers, which were featured this last week in Travis Wall's dance on SYTYCD.

First ever McCall Olympics, or just a swimming race. Justin vs. Marnae vs. Casey.

Justin's favorite activity wake boarding. Also the cause of his worst crash and whip lash to date. Those darn edges, or attempts to get the biggest air. He's still learning...maybe it's better to attempt big air at the end of the summer and not the third day after a year long break.

Kate with cousin Heath. They had a love-hate relationship all week. He loved her and wanted to just play. Kate on the other hand sometimes wanted to share her toys, sometimes wanted to hug, but in the between times stuck out her lower lip and pouted like those Angelina Jolie lips of hers can! What a sass-o-frass! It is cute for now, but we are hoping she eventually grow out of her little "tude."

There he goes again pulling his face.

What a great vacation...hopefully it won't be our last for the summer.

Fun With the Cousins...

Now that we live closer to our cousins, we have been able to play with them. Zach has really missed this and Kate is learning to enjoy it. My sister Heather and her kids were in Utah for three weeks and we got to do some fun things with them. We went up to Silver Lake and walked around the trail. Zach was so excited when the boys came over to play at our house. They were the "Pirate Band"...you can imagine that Zach was in heaven given his obsession for music. It is so great when you can leave kids alone to play for hours and never hear a peep out of them because they get along so well.

It was Maddi's 9th birthday on the 1st of July and we were able to be there for that too. Before the party Zach and Kate were watched by Britt and the girls. They did not want to go home. I guess they will have to watch my kiddos more often. The kids loved her party. Zach especially loved the water balloon toss. He was prepared from the very beginning sitting, patiently waiting, with his shirt off.

Then on the 4th we went down to Aunt Ashlee and Uncle Paul's for a BBQ and to watch the fireworks at Thanksgiving Point. They have the perfect view from their yard. Zach borrowed Paul's work earphones to drown out the noise. He has never had to do this in the past, but on the flip side it was the first year he would actually hold a sparkler in his hand. He is such a particular kid. Kate on the other hand, grabbed hers right away. She is so daring for her age.

Now we are headed off to McCall, ID to play on the lake all week. The kids are so excited to see more cousins and go tubing! We got them new life jackets from Costco, and they are a hit. Zach wanted to sleep in his...he didn't, we told him it would squeeze him for too long. We are so mean huh?

Four Years Ago...

When we first started Dental School, Justin and I always talked about taking a trip after graduation, to get a break before the next chapter in our life started. I voted for some place tropical and he voted for Argentina, where he served his mission. We compromised and ended up in Exotic Island Park! Our friends the Broadbents invited us to stay in their cabin/house for the weekend. Okay so not really exotic and by no means anything close to South America, but we had so much fun! It was the perfect little getaway before Justin started his residency. We even got a visit from the Orr's. We have definitely missed these guys. It was so great to see them again.

The kids all back together again, ready to watch Bolt and eat popcorn

This is one of the last pictures Amy took of these two before they moved. I thought it was fun to see what a years difference made.

After the kids were in bed we played a little couples ping pong. We lost.

Me, Amy and Val

We were initiated into the annual Island Park trip with a visit to Big Jud's. They are famous for their 1 lb. burger. If you can finish the entire meal, burger+fries+drink, you get your picture posted on the wall of fame. They have since upped the burger to 5 lbs...can you imagine? Here's Justin's attempt to the 1 pounder. Are you kidding me? We split it.

We went boating. Cold but fun.

We took a little day trip up to Yellowstone Park. We saw a lot of geysers and hot pots, lost patience when waiting for Old Faithful to do its thing, and managed to see one animal up close.

Justin and Austen liked to disappear for a few hours here and there to fly fish and four wheel.

Thanks Broadbents. We loved it!

How Do I Pick...

From a handful of favorites? I asked Michelle to take some pictures of my kids before we left Philadelphia. I don't normally take pics of my kids at 18 months, but thought that Kate has changed so much that I better capture it before it disappears. It also gave us a chance to forever remember Valley Forge Park, and our time spent in Philadelphia while in Dental School. Thanks Michelle!

Me + A Craft Night =

InSpIrEd!!! When I was living in Philadelphia, my friend, Jill, would have me, along, with some other friends, over at her house for the occasional "Craft Night". One of the nights Jill pulled out some of her fabric books that she was collecting. One of them was an Anna Maria Horner book, which I had never heard of before, but fell instantly in love with after thumbing through just the first few pages. Needless to say I found this picture of a simple quilt that was filled with dark fabrics and then bound with a bright fabric that made the quilt pop. I absolutely loved it and thought that if I ever got the courage to make a quilt someday, that I would make one like that.

Well, in preparation for our move to Utah, being the de-junkster, that I am, was going through my storage bins and throwing out what I didn't want to move with. I always go through my old dance bin. Inside I have kept several things. I still have a ton of leotards from high school and college that I just can't part with...maybe because of the amount of sweat and hard work that was done in them, but below them also was a stack of shirts that I couldn't part with either. These shirts were only worn but a few times, and were kept for just sheer memory sake. We all had them, and some maybe have them still. I love looking at them, but got so annoyed by the fact that I would place them back in a bin every time. That's when ding, ding, ding...the idea came...Justin's mom had made him a huge quilt of all his shirts that he had saved from soccer camps, jerseys, etc. while he was on his mission. It is amazing! So I thought I could do the same, and hopefully find some great fabrics to go with them. Luckily Justin's mom was more than willing to help me, as this was going to be my very first quilt...and voila, here it is!!!

The front

The Back

This is a dance T-shirt from my high school days as a Jefferson Dancer. Justin's mom helped me start with all the cutting of the t-shirts and strips, and sewing them all together. She was the perfect teacher. She made me do all the cutting and sewing so that I could really learn, and guided me when I had questions. She helped iron all the sown pieces flat and laid them out. She was a huge support.

This is a T-shirt from college when I was a dancer in The Light of The World. The actual quilting I had done by the talented Shellie Blake in my old ward. She is amazing. I love the pattern she did over it, and it really shows up on the darker shirts. She taught me a ton about quilting from squaring it up to how to make and sew the binding.

I learned that fabric is forgiving, thank goodness, and that the key is to measure up along the seams, to keep all the strips and squares lined up. I was so afraid it would come out lopsided!

The actual binding probably took me the longest, because you have to finish it by hand, and I was trying to teach myself how to round the corners, which I still am not sure if I know how to do or not. But I love it, and it was a lot more fun than I thought. I might just have to make another one. Thanks again to Justin's mom for all her help!

Happy Father's Day...

To the best father and husband any wife and kids could ever ask for. We have been so spoiled this last month having him around every minute of every day. The one day he was gone for four consecutive hours, attending his orientation up at the U, Zach bawled, only wanting daddy to be home. We love you!