Off to the races!

This weekend we went down to Salt Lake to watch Adam drag race. He's been working many hours on his truck and was very excited to do this! Since we were in Utah, we had to make sure and see all my siblings, so it worked out nicely! A splash park near my brother's house. It was freezing cold!! My brother's wife and I are huddled under blankets and telling the kids- "It's not that cold, go have fun!" :)

Ashton's not so sure it's "Really not that cold". hehehe

Adam had quite the cheering section. His mom came (his dad raced too!), and my sisters and their spouses, and my brother came. My brother's wife decided sitting on bleachers while pregnant- for several hours- didn't sound like the best of times. (smart girl)

There were 2 race tracks. Adam was on the drag race track, and there was a circle track, and some race cars were practicing. Ashton was in heaven- Ella and Aaron thought it was pretty cool too.

Here's a video of Ashton watching some race cars. He was loving life.

This is one of Adam's races. He did really good. It was fun to watch! (He is the white truck)

Random sampler!

Since nothing major has happened around here lately, I thought I'd just throw out a "random sampler" of pictures that I've taken the last couple of days. :) Enjoy!We were at the park and Livia fell asleep in the swing!! This is when she was almost asleep. I thought it was the sweetest thing. She loves the swing.

Yes- we really gave our baby a pickle. A dill pickle to be exact. She loved it!! Adam gave it to her mostly to see her pull a face- but she would not let it go. It's her new favorite food. They are great for teething babies apparently.

Now take special note of 2 things in this picture. #1 the coolest Spiderman shoes in the world. and #2 the happiest boy in the world. If only we had learned earlier on how easy this boy was to please- he would have a whole closet full of Spiderman shoes. He shows everyone, and talks about nothing else. This is his world right now. He has cool shoes.

Sorry this picture is sideways for some reason. That is Aaron up there on that pole. Aaron is our climber. He will climb ANYTHING. He is really good at climbing! We have to watch him though. He'll climb in door frames, he loves to climb swing sets obviously, and the other day, he climbed to the top of a yield sign while we were waiting to pick up Ella. He calls it his "sticky power". :)

Ella is officially in 2nd grade!!! Crazy! I think it gets harder for me to send her every year. She has a guy teacher this year named Mr. Blauer. She really likes him so far, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

She was all smiles when we picked her up on her first day. Let's hope it lasts. She did look adorable though. :)

So that was our "random sampler". It's good for me to look back on these cute moments- it makes me really appreciate these 4 awesome kids I've been blessed with.

Trip to the beach

We decided to head down to the beach this week- since school starts tomorrow! AHH! We went with our friends the Browns. After Ashton decided you can have fun even without throwing sand on everyone- we had a good time! These two look like little miniatures of their dads!! (Aaron and Dylan)

Livia didn't quite know what to think about the sand. But she loved getting her toes wet.

Here's Marshall- he really had fun crawling around and exploring everything!

This was their "mud-hole" that Ella and Allyson made. Aaron and Ashton wanted to help too. :)

Even Max went. Yep. Wet dog, then sandy wet dog, then sandy wet dog all over the blanket. Gross.- I think we'll leave him home next time! But it was a great way to spend an afternoon with friends!

Fun at Steadman's

There is a really fun place to spend an afternoon not too far from our house. They have 2 long slip and slides that you go down on tubes, a zip line, a trampoline, a giant sand box and a fun swing set. Our church's youth group was going on Tuesday night, and since Adam is involved with that, we decided to make it a family affair! We had a blast. :) I love this picture! It was so fun to watch Adam have fun with his kiddos!

Terrible picture, yes- but this is just showing that I even went down. I didn't get dressed for the occation because I thought I would be holding Livia the whole time.

Livia LOVED the swing! We are going to have to put up a baby swing at our house.

Adam and Aaron getting ready to go!

Ella had so much fun! She even went down without a tube!

What being spontaneous can lead to.....

Adam and I had not been on a date in who knows how long (because our favorite babysitters moved away from us- you know who you are )- anyway- we get out and decide to just do something spontaneous- I'm thinking maybe a random movie or to go see the Parade of Homes that was going on- but no- we ended up buying a car. This is our new run around car. It actually seats 5 believe it or not.

And supposedly it gets about 50 miles to the gallon....we shall see....with the way Adam drives I really doubt that.

So that is what we did on our date. We ended up driving separate cars! Adam drove the excursion home and I got to drive our new little "golf cart". It is actually a VW Golf. Aaron came up with the name golf cart. :)

Our family reunion

We have an annual reunion with my dad's side of the family and this year it was at Yellowstone. This year was quite the year! We had rain/ sleet, freezing temperatures (in August!), dead battery in our camper -(no heat), and a run in with a very no nonsense, power tripped park ranger about a power cord, yes just a power cord- resulting in a $75 fine and Adam practically in handcuffs--really- it was all blown WAY out of proportion at 11:30 at night. Good times hehehe. Anyway- despite all this we had a pretty good time and definatly made some memories. The kids loved seeing the wildlife and getting lots of attention from everybody! And surprisingly- the kids did very well on on the trails surrounding the "boiling hot lava"-which I had been stressing about for months. So- enjoy the pictures! The family!

Very cool hike to Natural Bridge

Livia and Adam on the hike

At Artists Point

My mom and Ella and Aaron- yes I was a tad bit worried about the cliff behind them (understatement)- but it was beautiful.

Ella and Aaron Artists Point

Some "Boiling hot lava" as the kids would say!

Ashton and my dad. He loved the binoculars!

Grandparents and their grandkids. :) Do you notice everyone has a hand to hold- that was a #1 rule of the entire vacation!

Chris, Marla, me and the kids at Old Faithful. It was freezing!!!

The buffalo were fun to watch! They were "courting" as the park ranger put it.

We got stuck right behind a very slow moving buffalo. It was very entertaining for the kids. We followed it for almost a mile! And this is a video of Old Faithful.

Summer fun

We decided to get a little pool for our backyard to add to our summer fun! The kids have loved it-and I've loved having some entertainment watching them! Ella and her best friend Allyson

Ella and Ashton having fun!

That water is cold!