24th of July Celebrations

We have had one CRAZY week. It has been a lot of fun though.

Wednesday the kids and I spent the day at my sister's house in North Salt Lake. We went swimming, played on the waterslide, jumped on the trampoline, sat in the hot tub, watched movies... you name it we did it. Because all that other stuff wasn't enough to wear us out we then headed to the Bountiful City Parade (I'm so sad I didn't have my camera for this). The parade was fun for about the first hour (it was way too long and we ended up skipping out early). Ashlyn loved catching candy and seeing the floats. Tanner drew a crowd when he started dancing to the marching bands. It was a lot of fun and my sister is extremely patient doing anything with me and my two kiddos. Brad was glad he missed out on this event.

Thursday/Friday we headed up to the cabin. Ashlyn was having a moral dilema all day Thursday waiting for Brad to get home from work. She wasn't sure she wanted to wait for him to get home because she was so anxious to get to the cabin before Grandma and Grandpa left. I kept telling her they would still be there when we got there, but she wanted to make sure she got to hang out with them this trip. And hang out with them she did. She had my mom going 90 miles and hour all day. I kept hearing her say, "Grandma, what do you want to do with me now? I'll do whatever you want to do." My sweet mom did activities with her ALL day. They painted rocks, colored, played Bingo a million times, did puzzles, made bracelets and glasses, watched Dora, read books and made a hat. Ashlyn was in heaven. She felt like a little princess and loved all the attention.

Brad and my dad had a great time working on little projects. Brad has done most of the electrical work in the basement and they finished up a few things. The guys crack me up because we think we're going to the cabin to relax, but they can't handle sitting around "relaxing". They ALWAYS have some project or another to be working on (I think mostly it gets them out of kid duty).

I got to be on Tanner duty! He had a riot and actually started really walking up there. I think it helped to have all hard wood floors. He was so excited he could reach the light switches, something he only dreams of at home. He thought he was the one driving the 4-wheelers and got so excited every time we went for a ride. I had fun hanging out with him and trying to keep him out of trouble.

Saturday we went boating with my cousin Tammy and her family. Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of the whole morning because the rest of the time I was hanging my head off the side of the boat... pathetic I know. (I just have a weak stomach and NO I'm not pregnant!) Brad and I had a great time on the tube (we are by no means water skiiers). We couldn't ever talk Ashlyn into trying it out, but she had fun putting her feet in the water and playing on the shore while we were docking the boat. Tanner was a mess for the most part... surprise. He thought it was fun at first watching people being pulled behind the boat, but that lost its novelty and he decided crying was a better option. Next time (if there is a next time) we will leave the kids home and I'll be looking into some motion sickness medication.

Ashlyn holding hands with Kayla and Kylie so they don't fall out of the boat.

We were exhausted by Saturday night and had a great time hanging out with Brad's sister Lisa and her boyfriend Brandon (I'm afraid we weren't very exciting company though). It was a great weekend, and we loved that we got to spend so much time with our families. We feel so blessed to have them close by.