A day in the Mountains

That following Saturday we headed up the Mountains to Red Feather with our friends the Ortiz's. It was a fun day of letting the kids run around in the woods and play with sticks and rocks and climb rocks. We also got to ride in their ATV and we shot some pellet guns. It was a lot of fun being up in the mountains. We have not been up in the mountains for a very long time. So it was fun to smell the fresh air and to have some fun together. By the time we headed out the kids were all beat and they went to bed really well that night. haha 

Brandon and the boys all went on the ATV first. After they got back we did some shooting. We shot some old soda cans that we shook up and they would explode. It was pretty fun to watch. Ethan shot a couple of them right off the bat. Wyatt did a good job too. He had really good form in his shooting even though they have never shot a real gun before. haha Deanna and I had a little competition going between us as we tried to shoot the soda cans. haha We are both really competitive. After that Jason took his boys and Deanna and I and the little boys. Emmett and Logan fell asleep during the ride which is just crazy with how bumpy it was. Just goes to show you how tired they were. haha After that we relaxed a little bit longer and then backed up and headed out. We stopped at a place just down the hill to heat some dinner before making the hour drive back home. It was a good thing too because our kids were almost out in the car just driving 5 minutes down the road. haha All three of them fell asleep probably within 10 minutes of our drive home. We got home bathed them up and then put them to bed. We will have to go up to the mountains again. Maybe next time we will rent a cabin and stay the night. We shall see! :-)

9 Years and still going strong!

That Wednesday after getting back Brandon and I celebrated our 9th Anniversary! I can't believe we have been married for 9 years! It has gone by so fast and yet it feels like it has always been like this. We were thankfully able to get a babysitter for that night so we could go out on a date. We had a lot of fun! We first went to "Bad Daddy's" for some burgers and tots. Then we headed to Rollerland to get our skate on! haha We had fun just goofing off together and had lots of laughs. 

I am seriously the luckiest girl alive!! Brandon is my best friend and is so loving and kind. He is my other half and I couldn't picture my life without him. We have had the best 9 years and I am looking forward to the forever that we have together. I love this man more today than I did 9 years ago. I never thought that was possible!! We are like two peas in a pod, like peanut butter and jelly, like chocolate and ice cream. We are the perfect match and I am so thankful that he decided to ask me out instead of that other brunette he was thinking of taking out on a date! Dreams do come true! 

Getting back to Summer at home

After we got back from Nebraska Brandon went back to work and the boys and I had a full day of grocery shopping and running errands. It was a busy Monday but, we got a lot done. The next couple of days we tried to take advantage of the hot weather and get outside a lot. 

After work that Monday Ethan and Brandon worked on Ethan's birthday motorcycle. It was a lot harder than Brandon expected and he was getting frustrated with it. haha I guess sometimes the age on the box is more accurate than we think. haha  

Emmett living the life!! haha This is how he likes to ride to and from the pool these days. He lays on the towels and chills as I pull him around. 

That week Chick-Fil-A also had their Cow Appreciation Day. So I got the all of us dressed up into some cow gear and we headed off to meet Brandon at Chick-Fil-A to get some free food! We sure have some cute cows in our family! I should have brought a white shirt for Brandon but I forgot to. It still worked out and we all ate for about 7 bucks. The entree is the only thing free, so anything more than that we had to pay for. I will take it paying 7 bucks for our family to eat Chick-Fil-A. 

Pulling out the slip N slide!

One afternoon I decided it would be fun to get the Slip N Slide out and let the kids have some fun in the backyard. Emmett had a blast with it. It was his first time really playing on a Slip N Slide and he was loving it! Ethan and Wyatt were having fun too but they also were a little bummed that the water was not spraying as far as it used to. I think the one we have has holes in it somewhere so it is not shooting the water up very high. Time for a new one. At least they had fun with it and Emmett I think loved it even more because the water was not spraying all over his face! haha 

Family Reunion Part 3 and some Birthday Fun

Friday morning started with the guys going golfing. So us women got up and fed the kiddos breakfast and let them play around. We also had a little dance party while we cleaned up and vacuumed the house a little bit. After a week of lots of little ones in one house their becomes a major need for the carpet to be vacuumed. haha 

The guys had a lot of fun golfing and were starving by the time they got back right at lunch time. 

While the guys were gone Devin and I took the kiddos to the park to play for a little while. The rest of the day was spent playing games and letting the kids just play together.

Such cuties!! They sure were enjoying their watermelon! :-) 

That night we had a movie night in the garage! The kids were pretty excited about it but the youngest little ones kept getting up and walking around and causing problems with the projector. So the little ones didn't make it long for the movie. Emmett thought it was so fun to lay on his pillow and eat popcorn. Wyatt and Ethan were so excited to be having a movie night. Especially Wyatt since he is my tv fanatic. haha The family movie night kind of turned into the older kids and a couple adults watching the movie while the rest hung out in the house.  

After the movie we got the kids to bed and I got to work finishing up Ethan's birthday cake and putting up streamers before heading to bed myself!

Brandon decided to have fun with his shaving Saturday morning. haha Ya.. this didn't last very long! haha 

So like I said Saturday was Ethan's birthday. He is 7 years old which is just crazy!! How did my little boy get so big. Next year he will be getting baptized!! These kids of ours our growing up too fast! Anyways, Ethan was super excited about his birthday. We could hear the kids running around all excited about Ethan's streamers and Ethan's birthday cake. Before we even got out of bed I heard Tate yell, "Ethan I know what you cake is... It's a spinner cake!" Way to ruin the surprise Tate!! haha The rest of the kids kept trying to keep Ethan away from the kitchen so that he couldn't see his cake. Then a little after breakfast Brandon mentioned opening Ethan's presents. Which of coarse Ethan was all for! So we called the kids in that wanted to see him open presents and opened them up. 

Ethan loved all of his presents from just his family. We told everyone that they didn't need to get him anything. After presents we decided to go get some shaved ice at this "shivers" place that we tried to go to on the 4th of July but was closed. So I figured that would be fun for Ethan's birthday! So we headed there right before lunch time. 

We even got Ethan a small instead of a mini sized shaved ice because it was his birthday. It was super sweet though so he didn't finish it. haha He is such a handsome little boy! 

All of the other kids were pretty stoked about their snow cones as well. 

Emmett got the pick of the litter. haha My shaved ice had way too much syrup in it so I didn't really care to eat all that much of it. So I let Emmett drink my sugary syrup. haha

He was in love with it. I am surprised he wasn't bouncing off the walls for the rest of the day with how much sugar was in those things. haha 

Pool time!! Emmett can't resist getting into a pool even when we tell him not yet and that he needs to get his swim suit on. As soon as we turn around or he sneaks outside he is in the pool with his clothes on. haha 

We also did some water balloons and uncle John let the kids have a few free shots to his bum. haha The kids were enjoying it a little too much! haha Sadly none of the balloons would pop. They kept bouncing off of him and popping on the floor! haha 

Cake time!! He was pretty excited about his spinner cake! 

What a handsome little man!! Thankfully the cake tasted pretty yummy this time compared to last year!! The kids ate it up with some ice cream and then ran outside to play some more. Since bed time was coming up super fast we decided to have some bubble fun before bed time! 

If you can't tell by the pictures.. the kids had a blast with the bubble machine before bed time. So bubbles ended our fun of the reunion. The kids were put to bed and us adults had a little Family Home Evening about our marriage relationships. We talked about what we were attracted to when we first met our spouses and then played a "not so newly wed" game. It was really fun! I am too competitive and couldn't believe Brandon and I were almost in last place. haha With all the lack of sleep we had gotten that week with sleeping on a crap air mattress my brain was having a hard time functioning and I was doing terrible at the game. haha Thankfully we came in 3rd place at least and it was a lot of fun. After playing that game for a while we played the writing sheraids game. We had so many laughs that night. We were all laughing so hard that we were crying! It was a great way to end the reunion. The next morning was pack up and leave day. Andy had to leave early for a meeting before church and so we said our good byes to her and then finished packing up everything. Then right before leaving Brandon and I tackled a little bit of cleaning for Vandy. I mopped the kitchen floor and Brandon cleaned the bathroom. We figured with Vandy being 6 months pregnant and Tyrel leaving the next afternoon for the week it would be helpful if she didn't have to feel like she had to clean up a completely destroyed house because of all of us people invading their home for a week. After cleaning up a little bit we got the kids in the car and made our 7 hour trip home. Our trip home went pretty well. We stopped half way and got some lunch at an Italian place that Tyrel had suggested and it turned out to be pretty tasty. Then we drove the last little bit home. We got home and were able to unpack a little bit and let the kids play. Brandon then headed out to grab some dinner for us since we really didn't have anything at home to eat that would be substantial. So he grabbed some burgers from Freddy's for the kids and some burritos from Taco Bell for us. We ate some dinner, got the kids bathed up and then put them to bed. Sadly, Brandon had to go back to work the next day. However, we were so glad to be home and to be able to sleep in our own beds! I literally could not have slept on that air mattress one more day. My back and neck were hurting so bad and I slept so crappy. I was so exhausted that I was having such a hard time just functioning. So to lay on our bed that night felt so amazing!! Even though we didn't get much sleep and our backs hurt us because of the bed we were sleeping on we had lots of laughs and made good memories. Plus the kids had so much fun together and really played well together for most of the time we were together which was a success! So it was a good reunion and it always makes us sad that we don't have family living by us to be able to see them more often! For now we will take advantage of the times that we do get together!

Look at that handsome boy. He is looking so much older these days! It is crazy how fast they grow up! We sure do love him!!