4th of July and Avery's 5th Birthday

Ok I kind of feel like I am drowning lately in life! Sooo busy all the time! Tonight I have a Pack Night in about an hour that I need to prepare for still. Avery's birthday was yesterday so we are still kind of recovering and cleaning up from that! In about 5 days we leave for Wisconsin! Soccer season will be wrapping up here tomorrow with the boys' last games. It's just nonstop!

Other things we have done in the past few weeks include seeing a movie at the drive in (actually we went twice - Cars 3 and Despicable Me 3), we went to the Sand Dunes and the Civil Defense Caves, we went swimming a couple times at Rexburg Rapids water park, we had our fourth of July celebrations, Avery went to a Princess Dance day camp, swimming at Monkey Rock (waterfall pictures), dinner with the Rhodes extended family at the Bar J in Jackson, a day at Rigby Lake with the Buis family, and more!

For the 4th of July, we went to the parade in the morning  and then we came home and relaxed for a little while and the kids played outside in the sprinkler and pool. For dinner we had a BBQ at the Buis' house. Then in the evening, there was a neighbor that put on a big fireworks show - like the legit kind that go up in the air and everything! So everyone in the neighborhood took lawn chairs over to their backyard and watched our own private fireworks show! It kind of worked out perfectly because Josh had to work all day long. He had to work in Rexburg his normal shift from 7am to 3pm, then he worked in Idaho Falls at the big fireworks show directing traffic and such from about 5pm to 1am. Oh the joys of being a police officer's wife!

For Avery's birthday, she decided she wanted a mermaid party this year. I, of course, turned to Pinterest to gather ideas. It's something I have been thinking about ideas for for about the past month. I'll admit it. I like planning parties. And I tend to go a little bit overboard. But hey! You only turn five once! For Gabe's fifth birthday I remember we did this huge Pirate party at Northgate (the apartments we managed at the time) and we invited his whole preschool class! like 20-30 kids were there! We did a treasure hunt in the clubhouse, had a movie on the big screen, a piñata, it was a blast! Kids still talk about it when we run into them now six years later! lol I like parties okay. So anyways, at Avery's party we had mermaid bracelet making, painting these little treasure chests, digging for buried treasure in this kiddie pool filled with sand, pin the fin on the mermaid, and then of course just the pool and sprinkler running so they could play at the end. We had it from 1-3pm on her birthday (the 18th) and I was super exhausted but it was worth it!

Here are some pictures of our adventures this past month!

Family Pictures - June 2017

So every year I make my family take pictures. Yes, they hate it. Yes, Josh complains about it more than anyone else. But do I force them? Yes. Someday they will thank me for it. Someday I want to have this big wall somewhere in my house where it's like a HUGE collage of all our family pictures over the years. lol But here are some of my favorites from this year!

We had planned to go to Cave falls area again (where we went last year) but then this hail storm came through the area a couple of days before our scheduled day and so the photographer (Peyton Tanner of Paint the sun Photographer) emailed us and suggested we go to this Upper Mesa Falls area instead. I honestly am glad we did. Aside from the mosquitos, which were about to lift us up and carry us away, it was soooo beautiful. I also love that it gave our pictures a different look than last year's.

So here are some of the best ones!
(Note: No, Caleb is not taller than Gabe… he was standing on a rock in some of these, thus throwing some people off… lol)

End of School for the Boys, Avery's Dance Recital, Idaho Falls Temple, Camping, Caleb's 9th Birthday, Mom's Utah Trip

Lots of stuff to catch up on here!

End of School Year for Boys
First off, the boys both ended school just before Memorial Day, I believe it was May 25th. They had lots of fun activities on the last week of school. It was like one big party week! Caleb had to leave Mrs. Burt behind and I am so sad about that! She's so amazing. I had these little potted mums that I got for each of the boys' teachers with a candy bar and a thank you note. So they gave them those and said their goodbyes! I took a picture with the boys in front of the house, showing my sad face that school was out and they are happy! lol It is in contrast to the one we took at the beginning of the year where they are sad and I am happily jumping for joy!

Avery's Dance Recital
Then Avery had her big dance recital at Rigby High School. They struggled with some technical issues with the sound, but it was still sooo cute. Avery did two dances - a Cinderella one in a blue costume and a "Candy Girl" dance in a pink polka dot costume. They were both really fun to watch. Avery mostly knew what she was doing haha. Stacey (my friend/Avery's best friend lol) drove all the way up here from Utah just to see her dance and then drove all the way home the next morning to catch her flight to LA for the Memorial Day weekend. That's true friendship! Avery was so excited to see her there.

Idaho Falls Temple Dedication
So the Idaho Falls Temple was actually built originally in 1945, but about two years ago they closed it down for refurbishment. They had to get rid of some asbestos and redo a lot of things to make it all fresh and new I guess. So it took a LONG time but it was finally done! They had the open house going on for about two weeks where you can walk through it with your families (Mormons and non-Mormons, anyone who wants to) and so we took the kids to go see it. Then on June 4th it was dedicated. So here is a picture of us at that!

Camping
My idea of a perfect camping trip is getting to the campsite at about 6pm, cooking hot dogs and smokes, going to sleep, and leaving to go back home at about 10am the next morning. That's about my extent of living outdoors. So thats about what we did one night. We drove to this spot by the river in Rigby where Josh's family owns some riverfront land (I say family because it's kind of in question right now as who actually owns it since his grandma passed in November…) but we set up our tent there and built a fire and had a fun evening. The boys even swam for a little bit in this little section of the river that is kind of closed off and doesn't rush by.

Caleb's Birthday
Caleb was so excited for his birthday. I think he had a count down going on for about two months leading up to it. He decided he wanted to go to Squealers again for his birthday this year. So he invited Kayson, Tom, Douglas (all from his class), Noah, Porter, Carter (neighbors), Gabe (of course), and Avery and me and Josh. We got there at about 4 and did the go-carts, climbing wall, buck-a-roo, mini-golf, etc. and then we came back to our house and had Little Caesar's Pizza and cake and opened presents. We didn't end up taking boys home until about 8pm. It was a long day! lol But Caleb had a lot of fun and it's good to have him have a special day. I'm just glad it's only once a year… lol

Mom's Utah Trip
So the weekend after Caleb's party, I took a little trip to Utah to visit Stacey and Kamrie. Kamrie was in the play, Hairspray, and it was so cute. It was at this outdoor theater in Orem, Utah. She has been working hard on it for the past couple of months and it was so well done. So I drove down for that on Friday night and then on Saturday we went to a pool at Stacey's friend's apartment, went shopping, ate a lot of food… all the good stuff! Then I drove back on Sunday afternoon. It's always a fun getaway!

Hanging out at home
Here are just some pictures of daily life! Mostly it consists of the boys playing with legos and outside with friends. Avery likes to be outside too and we bought this little kiddie pool! She loves water. She takes her little princess toys out there and they all go swimming together! She also LOVES going to the Carousel at Porter park and getting cotton candy afterwards. She would do that every day if I'd let her! There is also this thing going on in Rexburg right now where people paint rocks and hide them around town. We have painted and hidden some too. But Avery found one at the park one day and was so excited! I have a feeling this summer will go fast. We really only have a month until we go to Wisconsin and then when we get back it will be a week until school starts! So that's all for now! I just got our family pictures back so I have to do a separate post with all my faves of those!