Rest and Relaxation

I love going to Matt and Lori's for vacation because it is so relaxing.  We all just lounged around and played games when we weren't in the pool.  Keith and I slept in every morning and it felt great!

We took the girls shopping a couple of times, but other than that we really didn't go out much.  We didn't want to risk getting the virus and face masks are mandatory in Arizona, so we just stayed at the house. Lori got all of the kids shirts and stuff to tie dye them.  The kids had a lot of fun with that and they were so excited to see how their shirts turned out.

They all loved their shirts and wore them the rest of the trip!

Elena and Caitlyn made some delicious cup cakes one night.

Here is a cute picture of the kids on Sunday. 

Jonah and Cody crack me up. 

More fun in the pool. 

The kids had fun jumping off the rocks and the side of the pool.  I love the big palm tree in their back yard.

Every night the older kids would stay up and play games together.  We loved hearing them laugh together from downstairs.  The adults played some games too and watched a couple of movies.  The evenings were so fun and relaxing.

We were planning to drive home on Saturday, but we didn't want to go home, so we decided we might as well stay one more day and drive home Sunday.  I'm so glad we did.  Saturday morning Matt and I took the convertible to sonic for drinks.  Later we played volleyball in the pool for a while and then the adults got dinner that night and parked and ate so we still felt like we were getting away.

We let the kids stay up late Saturday night.  Here they all are up in the loft. They had fun playing games, watching movies and playing video games up here.  The four older kids rented a movie that night and stayed up late.  It was sad to leave to come back home.  It was such a wonderful, relaxing week.  

This is the Life

Hallee kept kicking back in the pool and saying, "this is the life."  Yes, it is! We loved spending hours in the pool every day.  Keith and Hallee played UNO in the water every day.

The boys did a lot of fun tricks while we played volleyball. 

They loved to have someone throw the ball up and they would jump and spike it. 

Cody was really good at volleyball.  His wingspan was amazing.  He could hit it from anywhere! 

Cody would run and jump over the net.  He would do flips over the net too.   

Jonah had fun jumping over the net too.

He usually made it over the net, but you can tell by the twisted net that he did not clear it this time.  Ha! We decided we should stop jumping over the net at that point.

The boys and the girls had fun playing against each other.   Keith, Lori and I started playing games with them every afternoon.  It was so fun.  On Friday and Saturday Matt was able to join in and we did kids verses adults.  I think they would want me to record that they beat us two games to one both times.

Hands-up-stands-up in the water is always fun. 

On Saturday Matt brought out the go pro and Wyatt and Hallee had fun filming each other and themselves. 

Hallee loved showing me her front flips and back flips under the water. 

I loved seeing everyone play together and come up with fun things to do in the pool. 

The kids were excited to meet Maizy.  She is a cute dog.  Hallee loved that she would sit with her while she was drying off.  Maizy loved to bark any time Wyatt was break dancing!

The older kids stayed up late one night and watched "47 Meters Down Uncaged."  They had so much fun.  Cody was a little scared watching a shark movie from the pool.

Another night we all watched "Moana."  It was so fun to watch it in the pool. We started it just as it was getting dark. 

Swimming in the dark with the pool lights was a lot of fun. 

Matt and Lori made us all smoothies to eat while we watched the movie.  This really is the life!

Fabulous 40!

Monday was my birthday.  I turned 40, yikes!  Some days and weeks seem to go by so slowly, but the years pass by so quickly!  I'm feeling my age.  I can't remember words or speak in complete sentences. My body aches and it's hard to get off the floor.  I am so thankful for my body though. It is healthy and strong and I can do everything I need to in a day and even push it do to hard things when I want to.  

I opened presents that morning. Lori was so sweet and gave me an oil diffuser that I have been wanting. 

Keith got me an apple watch!  He had Lori order it so I wouldn't know.  

It was so nice to celebrate my birthday with my family. 

Lori got me a cheesecake and we went and got pedicures. After that we all swam for a while. Later the adults went and got take out for dinner.  It was the perfect way to celebrate my birthday.  I enjoyed getting messages from friends and family that day.  It means a lot to me.   

Elena curled the girls hair with her curling wand.  

It turned out so cute. 

We decided to order one because the girls loved their hair so much.

Arizona

Last Saturday we drove to Arizona to visit Matt and Lori for a week.  We were all so excited to see them and have a vacation.  Keith was a champ and drove the whole way while we all slept on and off. We made it in ten hours!  We were all so happy to be there.

Lori had a meal waiting for us.  She is always so generous with her time and energy, she will stop whatever she is doing to help someone. After we ate we all went out back to swim.  Here is a picture of their backyard.  We love it here!  The pool is so fun and relaxing.  They just got this volleyball net, it was so much fun!

All of my kids have learned how to swim in this pool.  Wyatt and Hallee didn't need any type of floaty this year, it was great.

We spent at least a few hours in the pool every day.  It was so hot while we were there and the pool felt great!

Sunday was Father's Day.  Lori and I asked the kids to each talk during church and to sing a song. They sang, "The family is of God." Cody played the piano while the rest of the kids sang.  It was beautiful!  It was special to have Cody and Jonah take care of the sacrament for all of us.  It was so special having church together in their home.

All of the kids did a great job.  They all spoke about how grateful they are for their dad and how wonderful Matt and Keith are. 

I'm so glad these kids know how lucky they are to have such a great Father.  He is loving, kind, hard working, selfless, funny, smart, faith-filled, empathetic, compassionate man.  He puts his family first and we know it.

The kids talked about how kind Keith is, how hard he works, how smart he is, how funny he is and how much they love him.  Caitlyn talked about when she was struggling in 2nd grade and Keith offered to come have lunch with her and how much that meant to her and helped her.

We gave Keith a couple of presents.  Hallee gave him $5.  This month has been expensive for her, she keeps giving us all of her money.  She is such a sweetheart. 

I bought a book where the kids fill in things about their dad. The kids helped me fill it out before we left.  It was fun to read those.  You can see that some of them were really funny!

We made eggs benedict for a late lunch.  Matt and Keith were happy men!

Everyone loved the eggs benedict.  It was a great day celebrating Matt and Keith.

Keeping Busy

We decided to pull out our garden boxes in the back yard.  We don't use them so they are just taking up space.  It turned out to be a huge project that took a lot of time and money! Jonah did a lot of the work to payoff his portion of his plane ticket from Oregon.  He really is a hard worker and I'm so grateful for all he did.  We had to level all of the dirt after we took the grow boxes apart.  Keith added some tubing to use those sprinklers to water parts of the lawn that don't get watered very well.

We decided to lay turf over the dirt so Jackson wouldn't get dirty and muddy all of the time.  Everyone helped lay the turf and then we moved the trampoline over there.  We are happy to be done with that project!

Jonah's basketball teamed signed up for a basketball tournament.  He was thrilled to play again.  He was able to play in 3 out of the 4 games because we left for Arizona before the last game.  

They played tough teams.  Jonah played the entire game on Friday, he was so tired.  He did great and had some excellent plays.  It was fun to watch him play again.  

Tiff offered to have Hallee and Wyatt over to play while I packed for Arizona.  It was such a big help.  I was able to get a ton done and they were so happy to see Tessa and Rockwell before we left. 

Tiff went downstairs and found Tessa and Hallee cleaning the bathroom.  Sweet girls!