Little hikers :)

While Kelli and I were gone to Sara Evans, Lars took the boys for a little hike. He said they did great and they sure looked cute as I look through these pictures he took.

They love their little camelback backpacks they got for their birthdays this year from Nana and Papa.

I can't wait to go with them next time!

Vacation Bible School...2010

All last week the boys and I went to Vacation Bible School.

Ashton was in the pre-school part... I took Gunnar to the daycare (and he did surprisingly well!) and my friend Lauren & I had fun in "the Galley"...

Where we were in charge of snacks...

It was such a fun week. Ashton loved it just like he did last year. It was great to see how much he enjoyed singing the songs & dancing, learning bible stories, doing crafts, playing games & had fun when he got to help prepare the snack the first day. He would come home every day excited to tell Aunt Kelli and Daddy all about it and show them the things he learned and made. He didn't want the week to end! It was nice that I could take Gunnar and he had fun too. He would cry for a few minutes each day when I dropped him off in the daycare room, but then he loved it.

Ashton was cute one day saying..."One day when Gunnar gets older, I'll be old enough to be his crew leader."

It was a great way to spend a week of our summer!

Swan Valley weekend...

Here are pictures from our fun 24th of July weekend up in Swan Valley, Idaho. We went up and stayed in this house that Thursday and Friday night with our good friends Nate and Brianne. Our beautiful views from the deck...The guys floated (and fished) the South Fork of the Snake River all day Friday while Brianne and I hung out with the 6 little boys. We took them to the Haise (pronounced high sea) hotsprings and pool for about 5 hours that day.

It was fun...but a long day! Gunnar kept pulling on my swim top...so I told him not to and he said "Why...because that's your shake your body's?" Haha!

Saturday we got up, had a big breakfast and cleaned the house and took off. We stopped off for some ice cream, then headed home. As we were driving I noticed that we were driving right by my friend Bonnie's house, (who I never get a chance to see), so I made Lars turn around and we stopped off for a surprise visit for about an hour.

So fun to see you and your cute girls Bonnie and Andy!

Swimming Lessons...

For most of July Ashton was in swimming lessons. I put him in two back to back 7 day sessions (that lasted 2 weeks each). Let's just say he had kind of a love/hate relationship with them. He was so excited to start them until the first day when he realized that I wouldn't be able to stay and watch him each day. He had a complete meltdown and I ended up having to hand him off to his teacher screaming and crying. It broke my heart, but I knew he would be okay once he got in the water and settled down. That first day when I picked him up he was fine and had had fun, but the first words out of his mouth were that his teacher had told him to shut up! I felt bad for him and told him that the teacher never should have said that to him, but that he needed to just be quiet and listen so that he (and everyone else in his class) could learn.

This year I decided to take him to a lady in Logan who has a pool in her back yard. I heard that she did a great job and the kids really learn to swim.

Anyway after the first day he was fine most days during the first session. He got used to me dropping him off and picking him up half an hour later. However most days he would yell to me as I was leaving "Don't forget Mommy...come back for me in 30 minutes!!" Anyway he had a lot of fun in the first session and loved getting to show us all that he had learned when we were allowed to come watch on the last day. He really did learn a lot.

Then it was time to start the next session. He got nervous again the first day, then stayed and was okay, but then each day after that he began to dislike it more and more. He just said that it was a lot harder than before, and he had to do things that he didn't feel like he could do (all in the deep end)...so basically he was scared. And I gradually learned that his teacher was not only very strict, but pretty darn mean to a lot of the kids. As I watched a class that was ending before Ashton's class started one day, I felt so bad for one little boy that it made me cry...he was terrified and all she did was belittle him for it and make him more scared!

Of course I wanted Ashton to finish off the lessons we paid for, so he did and again we went and watched him on the last day. He was doing great and then I think he must have sucked in some water or something because he started to cry and get scared and tried to climb out of the pool. Well his teacher pretty much grabbed him and told him to "knock it off" a couple of times, so he tried to calm down and do what he was supposed to. Then he got scared again and really started crying. At which point she kind of raised her voice and started calling him a baby and saying "I'll send your Mom home!" Which she already knew was his biggest fear. Anyway all this is happening as we and all the other parents are sitting there watching! Lars just about lost it and told her off, but he restrained himself and Ashton finished off his last lesson.

So I guess I feel like he really learned a lot, but it broke my heart to see how he was treated...I think we'll look for somewhere else to go next year.

I'm so proud of you Ashton for facing your fears and finishing your lessons!

Good job buddy!

Sara Evans Concert...

Last Saturday my sister and I drove to Evanston to go to the Sara Evans concert at the fairgrounds. It was so fun! Sara has always been one of my very favorites, so I was so excited when I heard she would be in concert at the fair this year. Her opening act was Danny Gokey (a former finalist on American Idol) and he was good too. He had Kelli and I both in tears at one point with his new song "I will Not Say Goodbye" that he wrote about his wife who passed away not long before he went on American Idol. He dedicated it to anyone who had ever lost someone they loved.

He played for about 45 minutes, then basically got kicked off because it started raining and there was a lot of lightning too. So they covered everything up and shut everything down for about an hour.

Luckily my smart sister suggested we go buy a cheap umbrella at Walmart before we headed over to the concert. So we sat on the bleachers and huddled under it until the rain cleared out. We were sitting by some fun people and I actually also realized that my 8th grade history teacher was sitting right in front of us. I kept thinking he looked so familiar and I couldn't help but call out his name and see if he turned around. Sure enough it was Mr. Carroll and as soon as I mentioned my name he knew exactly who I was (not because I was his star student).

If you're an Aggie basketball fan, you might recognize him as J.C. Carroll's dad. Anyway kind of entertaining to chat with him all these 20 years later! We thought for awhile that the concert would be cancelled, but luckily the lightning quit and Sara came out and sang for about an hour and a half.

She was awesome!

The big 34...

Happy Birthday to me yesterday!

And of course my little brother Jordan who is 4 years younger than me. I wish you could have been here to celebrate with us!

I had the best day!

Here are some of the highlights...

First of all I was woken up at about 6:45 by Gunnar yelling for me, but then I heard these 3 beautiful words from Lars "I'll get him." So I actually got to sleep in. Only until about 7:15 when something upset Gunnar and he came running in and jumped in bed with me. But that was still okay because the first words out of his mouth were..."I love you so much Mommy."

Then he eventually went back out with Lars and a little while later, they all came in and brought me breakfast in bed and a cute Chipmunks card.

Lars had to work, so then it was life as usual until after lunch. Then I put Gunnar down for a nap and Aunt Kelli and Ashton got to work on my cake and said I had to leave the house for a few hours. So I went shopping kid free for about 4 hours. Heaven!

Kelli even texted me a couple times and told me I had to stay away a little longer. It was hard, but somehow I managed.

Then when I finally came home, my house was oddly quiet so Kelli and Lars told me to go downstairs and look around and I opened the door to the little room under the stairs and was surprised by my Mom, Stepdad, and my Aunt Kathleen all stuffed in there with Ashton and Gunnar yelling Surprise!

Then we all went to dinner at Olive Garden...their Five Cheese Ziti is one of my favorite things to eat (in case you haven't heard)! Then we came home and I finally got to see my cake. Isn't it great??

I loved it! And I loved how much thought and time Kelli put into it to make something she knew I would like. (You know how I love pink!!)

Thank you Kelli!

And Ashton for being such a great helper :)

(Gunnar helped for a minute before his nap) Anyway it was De-Lish!

Oh and today all of my neighbor friends took me to lunch at Bajio!

Thanks girls :)

I have the best friends and family in the world...

Thanks for a great birthday!