Teka's School

 Austin has been going to mother's day out once a week since January of 2010 and has really learned a lot-- socially, emotional, and mentally. Mikayla started joining Austin this year and it has been a great thing for her too. These are picture collages I got showing the kids at play.

This is Teka, the kids main teacher. She is WONDEFUL....so full of energy and love for kids. We took this picture on Austin's last day of "Teka's school." 

My Little Brother is Getting Married

At the beginning of August I got to fly out (solo) to Utah for my brother's wedding. Although it would of been great to have Craig and the kids come too, I enjoyed being able to spend some quality time with my sisters minus Jamie who unfortunately couldn't make it (we missed you and thought of you often).

 After I landed in SLC we went down to temple square.....stopped at Deseret Book (love that place), ate dinner in the cafe at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. I love temple square!! Funny thing is....as we were walking back to our car, us girls were too busy talking about where we wanted to go shopping the next day that we walked right passed Elder Oaks and didn't even notice!! My dad (not too interested in the shopping talk) did however notice and told us about it afterwards.

On Friday, August 5th, my (little) brother Brandon married Jenna for time and all eternity in the Bountiful Temple. I actually had never met Jenna until that day in the sealing room of the temple. But she seems nice and sweet and fun and it is great to see my brother so happy.

It was wonderful being in the temple surrounded by family and remembering the promises that me and Craig made together in the OKC temple 8 years ago. I am so grateful for the wonderful family relationships that I have and for all the support and strength that we all give each other.

Welcome Jenna to our family!!!  

Cousins

One of the great things about family (especially large ones) is watching your kids have fun with their cousins.

 Austin enjoying an afternoon movie with his cousins  

 Austin and Mikayla enjoying the Splash Pad with their cousins

 And even better is that 2 of Austin's cousins live in the same town....just 5 minutes away....so Austin gets to spend lots of time with them. They even had quite a few sleepovers before the summer ended.

 In fact, one day after taking his cousins home Austin replied "But mom, we don't have 2 boys at our house." I reminded him that he has Kayla to play with to which he replied "But I don't want her. I want another boy." Austin does actually enjoy playing with Kayla but it is nice that he also has such a special bond with his cousins.

Austin calls Connor and Klayton his "best friends"

Splash Pad

This summer has been HOT!!!  I don't know the exact numbers but I do know that we went at least 30 days with temps reaching over 100 degrees. I even remember one day the high temp was 114 degrees!!!   

 Going to the Splash Pad was one of the easy (and free) ways to keep ourselves cool.

 For most of the summer our playgroup met here on wednesdays. The kids had fun playing in the water with their friends while us mom's enjoyed some social time.

 

 

I love this picture....and I LOVE THESE KIDS!!!

Frontier Pool (aka the Nemo Pool)

We LOVE this place!!! Almost every monday afternoon for the whole summer, the kids and I would meet Andrea and her boys here to swim.

Going down the Nemo slide

Kayla really suprised me this year. The first day we came she went on the yellow slide all by herself. She LOVED the slides and would go up and down for hours.

And once Kambria (my niece) was introduced to the yellow slide she constantly begged to go down it too.....whether her mommy wanted to or not.

Time to Slide Race

Kids Will Be Kids

Kambria and Kayla had a fun time playing together.

Hmmm.....practicing his front float maybe???

Dads and their Baby Girls

We also came to Frontier Pool on some saturdays so the dad's could join in on the fun.

Austin's favorite part of Frontier pool was where the water came up to his chest. I could never get a good picture of him because he was under the water so much and could never hold still long enough.

The Big Bucket Splash

I thought it was so funny how during this trip to the pool the kids were huddling underneath waiting for the down pour.

I was actually really sad when it was the last day this summer at Frontier Pool......we had SOOO much fun here.

Until next year!!

Swimming at Grandma & Grandpa's House

One nice thing about having both Craig and my parents in town is that they have the swimming pools and we just get to go and enjoy them.

When my dad filled up his pool at the beginning of the summer, he left the water low enough so that Austin and Kayla could touch the bottom. They loved that!!

We also had lots of fun going out to Craig's dad's house to swim.

The kids spent lots of time jumping into the pool. Even Kayla was saying "1...2...3....canonball" while she jumped in.

Even though these pics show Austin with his life jacket on....his favorite part was taking off the lifejacket and jumping in and swimming half way across the pool all by himself.

 While we were swimming one day Austin got into this position and said "Mommy, look. I relax!!"

My guess is that while doing back floats during swimming lessons they must tell the kids to relax.

Good times!!

Kiddie Park

Here are the pictures we took at Kiddie Park this year. We didn't go as much this summer but it has just been sooo hot!! But the kids love it there and it is always great fun and cheap entertainment. Enjoy the pictures (and there are lots of them): 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We put Mikayla on the rollar coaster by herself with Connor. I was a little worried she might get too scared and start crying but she did great!!

We LOVE the Kiddie Park!!

See you next year!!