Family Time!

For our Anderson family reunion this year, we went to Bear Lake. The weather was perfect and the kids all had a blast!

Avery, Gavin, Hayden, and Rylee couldn’t wait to build sand castles!

Cute SydneyKyrieAlek and Rylee

Grandpa helping the kids collect seashells

Jaxon and Avery

Mackenzie, Gavin, and Avery having fun in the sun!

Taylor, Avery, Joye, and Kyrie chasing their shadows

Mackenzie and Sara…. I don’t know what they were doing lol!

Cute baby Camden

Grandma and baby Paityn

Camden and Alek

Grandpa teaching the kids how to skip rocks.

Story time….Now, no family reunion is complete without a little drama right? The kids all played so well, we had no problems at all so leave it to me to set it right by adding a little drama and excitement. First a little background.. Last weekend when we went to the Gorge as I said in my last post, Mackenzie locked my keys in my car. I mentioned that while we were at Bear Lake and I added that I have no spare key for my car.  After a little conversation about how I had taken my key to get it copied, and how they wouldn’t do it because it was chipped, I said it was ridiculous that the ornery lady wouldn’t copy it just because it had a little chip in it (meaning the key was damaged). Mark started laughing and pointed out that she probably meant the key had a microchip in it so it has to be copied at the dealership where they can duplicate the microchip. Aha! After feeling like an idiot, I let the whole key subject drop. That night, we were getting ready to leave and we had a long drive back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house so I took Avery into the port-a-potty. I should probably mention that Dallas wasn’t there at this point. He had left earlier and gone home.  Anyhow, Avery was scared and didn’t want to go potty because it was dark in there. I put my keys and my cell phone in my sweatshirt pocket, and dragged her in. I was holding on to her, trying to get her to go potty and as I sat her down, she panicked when she saw the gaping hole full of –well, you know what. Anyhow, she panicked and grabbed the front of my sweatshirt. Then I hear a “PLOP”. I just about died. I knew what had happened and I was just praying that it was my cell phone. I reach into my pocket…. My cell phone is right where I left it and my keys are no where to be found.  After using my cell phone as a flashlight and confirming that yes, my keys were indeed sitting on top of about a ton of crap, I started laughing.. hysterically. It was one of those times where you are going to either laugh or cry. I laughed. I guess I am just lucky they didn’t sink! A few minutes later, my dad pulls up and you should have seen the look on his face when I told him what had happened. Priceless! Mark and Sherin had left but we knew Mark had a big shovel in the back of his truck so we called him and they came back and my dad and Mark went fishing. They were pretty creative. Using a shovel, a thin piece of metal shaped into a hook, and some electrical tape, they got the keys out without any trouble. As Mark is cleaning my keys, I look at them and notice the ignition key is not among them. I have a magnetic keychain that separates so the ignition key can be separated from the others. You’re thinking the ignition key was in the toilet?? No, It was safe and sound in my car the whole time. Phew! So, all that fell into the toilet was my house key, my mail box key, and the clicker (I don’t know what they are called(The automatic door locker thingy). If I had realized that sooner, I would have just left them there! But, My dad and Mark saved the day anyway. Here we are over a week later, and I still have not touched those keys. I just can’t do it! After all of the excitement, I just wanted to go home and stay there!! Really, why does this “crap” always have to happen to me??

After retrieving my keys, we headed back to my parent’s house and after some much needed sleep, we got up and had a fun run for the kids then went to the Wheat and Beet days parade.

mmmm. Candy!

Then we went to the annual fire fighter’s water fight. They had about 6 trucks spraying water and the kids all got soaked. They loved it! Especially Avery. She thought it was a great time!

We had a delicious dinner at my mom and dad’s house then we went to the fireworks. I even convinced my friend Constance to drive down from Idaho and come with us. She lived with me for a couple months when we were 12 or 13 and I have not seen her in 3 1/2 years so it was great to see her and catch up a little bit.

Before I left, Mark snapped this picture of Sherin, Staci, and I. I stole it off of Sherin’s facebook page. We missed Erick and Leslie but It was great to spend some time with my family. I just wish we could get together more often!

Summertime!

Ahh.. Where to begin. Last time I posted I mentioned how I knew the summer was just going to fly by. I couldn’t have been more right. Here we are now, just a few short weeks left until school starts. It makes me sad though- I had a big long list of things I wanted to get done this summer and only about half of them have been completed. Which brings me to what I am doing now. Two of the things on my list were to keep caught up on my blog and to get caught up on the kids scrapbooks. As you can see, I have done no blogging or scrapbooking this summer so here I am. I have been glued to this computer for 2 days now. The good news is, that my scrapbooks are all caught up besides the pictures I still have on my camera, and here I am working on the blog. If I am being honest, I don’t like doing it- any of it. Scrapbooking and blogging take so much time and I dread doing it but I don’t keep a journal and I don’t print many of the pictures I take so printing my blog and the kids scrapbooks is important to me. I love having them. I just don’t like the time that has to go into them! Our summer has been crazy but nothing really exciting has happened. Lots of swimming, playing, sleep-overs, swimming lessons, play dates, picnics, bike rides, cooking, cleaning, and yard work. That pretty much sums it up!

Mackenzie and her friend Zoie. This is a picture I found from when I went with Mackenzie to her class field trip to the zoo.

To start off the summer, we had a campout in the backyard. We cooked hobo dinners and roasted marshmallows and starbursts. Yes, Avery is wearing a bike tassel in her hair. Don’t ask!

We got to keep Jordan and Breann’s kids for a night. Avery LOVEs Aubree. She was so cute with her.

It looks like they wore her out!

For the 4th of July we went to the parade, and then to the park for the kids games and fireworks. I love fireworks!

I almost forgot what Mackenzie would consider the most important part of our summer…..she got braces!

We packed up the trailer and went camping only once. I am hoping we can go one more time but we are running out of weekends!

Avery falls asleep in the wierdest places.

We went fishing in the rain. That lasted about 10 minutes…

Kenzie and Avery painted rocks while the boys went fishing…

Avery put her pants on backwards. hehe

It might seem strange that I am writing about this but it will probably never happen again so I figured I had better document it.. I made home made chicken noodle soup and homemade noodles! I decided it was worth a try and it was really good but I don’t think I will be making noodles again anytime soon. It’s so much easier to just buy them!

chicken noodle soup over mashed potatoes and topped with cheese = heaven!! Yes, that is a plastic bowl and spoon. That’s just how we roll. We do use our glass dishes and metal silverware once in a while. Like on Thanksgiving or when the president comes for dinner. Other that that, it’s plastic. I have issues. I do not like to eat with metal silverware and I don’t get it out for the kids because the sound it makes when they clink it on their teeth or scratch it across a glass plate, is enough to make me want to rip my ears off!!

and this is what Avery looks like when she dresses herself. Can you see why that doesn’t happen very often? She is always running around with a hat and gloves on. Apparently she doesn’t realize that it’s 90 degrees outside!

Mackenzie and Gavin did great in swimming lessons. Gavin got bumped up to Mackenzie’s class because he was doing so well. Avery had her first class this year. On her first day, I was standing there with the swimming bag and she kept trying to take her floaties out and I kept trying to explain to her that we don’t use floaties in swimming lessons. Finally, she started crying and blurted out “but I’ll drown!!” It was adorable! After her first day, she loved it. She would tell me “my teacher held me and drowned me but I didn’t die!” Sounds like a nice teacher doesn’t it? I finally got her to understand that going all the way under water isn’t drowning.

This is from one of the times I took the kids to swim. Avery sure loves her floaties! Think she’s safe?

A few weeks ago, the kids and I went to Flaming Gorge and spent the day boating with some friends. Besides the minor set-back of Mackenzie locking my keys in my car, we had a great day!

I even tried wake- boarding. Doesn’t look too hard does it?

Well, it is! And this is about as close as I came to standing up. I don’t know what I was doing wrong but it just didn’t work for me. Better luck next time I guess!

The kids loved playing in the sand…

Tiffany tried killing Dawn, Denise, and I when we rode in the tube. I went home with some nice whiplash. My neck was pretty sore for a few days. It was worth it though!

I had to bribe Gavin to get him into the tube but once he got in, he loved it!

Avery refused to get into the tube but she loved the boat! Mackenzie of course loved the tube and wanted to try water skiing but didn’t get a chance to this time.

poor Scott had to spend the day with us crazy ladies and all of our kids. What a good sport! Tiffany said our beach neighbors probably thought we were sister wives or something. Scott with his 4 wives and our 13 children lol!

Someone needs a hair cut! Cute boy didn’t want to go home!