Catching up!

So much for staying on top of the blog and trying to write more often!  Perhaps that will be a good winter thing to do.  We have been super busy this summer.  We have had lots of fun and enjoyed it all!  Here are quite a bit of posts catching up on the last few months.  Hope you are enjoying summer as much as we are!

A week in Paradise...

Well, perhaps it isn't paradise, but it is a great place to spend time.  Each summer one of my besties Trish, and I, pack up our kids and head to Del Norte to visit the Freemans.  This year Becky and her crew joined us for the week too.  It is rather exhausting and is a week spent making meals, cleaning them up, making more meals, cleaning more dishes, getting millions (okay just 11) kids ready for bed and then starting it all over again!  But, besides that part, it is wonderful and truly a bit of paradise because we are together with friends, not just any, but amazing friends that challenge, bless, laugh, and love you through anything.  The kids thoroughly enjoy it as well and can't seem to get enough of each other.  We love you Freeman's and thank you SO much for letting us invade your life for a week each summer!!

Where else do you look out the window in the morning and see a bunch of cows stopping the traffic on the hwy?  Well, here in Del Norte you can!  We all went out in our pj's to watch the cowboys move their cows!  

The day at the Rio Grande!  The Freeman's live with in walking distance of the river so 

we always enjoy a day of play there.

Did I mention that I love spending the days chatting with these ladies?!

 20 miles away from their house, there was a huge forest fire.  On Thursday night we went and helped a friend of the Freeman's pack up their house since they were going to be evacuated.  Pretty scary!  Thankfully, they were able to move back into their house a few weeks later.

My traveling buddy!  Love you Trish!!

Father's Day

I think my kiddos have the best dad in the world...really I do!  He is very present when he is here, he loves to interact with his kids.  He is patient, kind, silly, and fun.  He is an amazing teacher.  I love how he teaches the kids things so that they understand life and can then work through things that might be difficult.  He is an example of our heavenly father and for that I am so thankful.  Nate, you bless us beyond words, thank you for being an amazing father to our children, there is no one I would rather share life with!

The card we made daddy!  

VBS

We had a great week at VBS this year.  We brought a few friends along and enjoyed the week together!
Each day there was a different theme...

Red Shirt day

Hat day

I helped out two of the days so I wore the old family heirloom hat!

Pajama day

Crazy Hair day

Water day

It was a fun week and I think the kids even learned a thing or two! 

Ballerina Beth

Elizabeth performed in her 3rd ballet recital this June.  She was beautiful and did a fabulous job.  We love seeing her graceful and thoughtful movements as she dances on stage for all to see.  She has confidence and loves performing, something we didn't realize about her until she was on stage for the first time.  She has dreams of many more recitals and performances to come!

Getting ready before the show!

Sarah and I waiting to get seats

Elizabeth has loved dancing with this group of girls.
They have all become friends and
have a good time together.
The mommies have become friends too,
which makes it all the more fun!

Miss Kat has been Elizabeth's teacher for the past 3 years.

Daddy brought her flowers!

Beautiful job Elizabeth, we are so proud of you!

Sarah's news...

Sarah has had a loose tooth for about a year now and this week it finally came out!!  She was so excited and  pulled it all by herself, in fact Nate and I didn't even know she did it until it was done.  She looks so cute and I just can't stop looking at her little smile!

In other Sarah news...

She has LOVED gymnastics this year and has grown so much through it.  She is strong, confident and enjoys it so much.  We are so thankful for her teacher Miss Hillery, who encourages, teaches, and loves all the kids so much!

She loves creating things and always comes out of rest time with something new.  I love seeing her express herself in so many different ways.

This is her French beret, she was very proud of it and spoke with a French accent too!

She is playing T ball this summer and has just had two practices so far but is really loving it. 

Ready to go in her ball cap! (and showing off that toothless grin too!)

My Sweet Sarah, just love this girl!!

UTAH vacation!

Each year, right before Nate gets really busy at work for the summer, we take a little family vacation.  It has been so fun to explore and adventure together as a family.  This year we went to Canyonlands National Park in Utah.  Nate and I had been to Moab a few times years ago, before kids (great memories with our dear friends the Freemans!).  This time we decided not to stay in Moab but traveled on to Canyonlands, thanks to another friend's suggestion.  It was wonderful!  We camped for 3 nights/4 days, did lots of hiking, swam in some pools, climbed on rocks, saw wildlife and beautiful views.  It was a really fun vacation and our kids did awesome.  They are such troopers - even when we started a hike at 4 in the afternoon and didn't get back to our campsite for dinner until 9!

Nate and I love sharing in adventures with them and seeing them love what we love.  They are great campers- very helpful, and becoming so much more independent, ah yes, and sleeping amazingly well in the tent which makes camping so much better!

My Mother's Day surprise, waiting for me when I woke up
 after they all let me sleep in!

Love that they were all standing the same way!

The dessert has a beauty all it's own!

We saw too many of these whip tail lizards.
(the kids loved them!)

We did spend one day at Arches National Park.  

Hmm, not my favorite part, but was a
bit exciting to see this snake when we were climbing around on the rocks.
We  found out it is a Great Basin Gopher Snake - not poisonous!

Splashing in the Colorado River

Our amazing campsite!

The girls thought this caption should be "Girls Rock!"

My cutie sleepy heads

Yes, it looks muddy but it was cool and refreshing after the dessert heat!
We found this our last day there so we got to wash up a bit before heading home.

A trip with Nate wouldn't be complete without some cliff jumping!