Fun friends and fun places

Greetings! We have been so busy squeezing the last few drops out of summer that I haven't had time to post for a while. But now school has started and we are getting back into a routine. But let's back up to a couple weeks ago!

This is Amanda D. We met in 9th grade. She was instrumental in helping me start going to church as a teenager, we fooled a bunch of 1st Year campers that we were twins born 6 days apart (we actually were born 6 days apart, by the way), we were roommates at BYU and had weekly playdates for our kids until she decided she just HAD to move to Virginia! Her sister-in-law was getting married out here a couple weeks ago, so she and her family ventured back for a visit and stayed with us. It was so fun!

Aren't her kids just gorgeous?!? We had fun playing in the water and just catching up. Thanks again for coming out to see me (I know the wedding was just an excuse)!

And here is The Beast. Just a few days after Amanda left, we loaded up The Beast and headed out on a trip to Truckee, CA to visit Thunder's brother. They live in some beautiful mountains nestled in next to Lake Tahoe. We had an unexpected delay from a very stubborn hydraulic jack that refused to raise, but after only 4 hours we were on our way!

Before we left, I got pillowcases for all the kids and they decorated them with fabric paint. I surprised them later when it was dark and the paint glowed!

This is a pristine beach of Lake Tahoe called Sand Harbor. The sand was soft and the water was crystal blue. Thunder's brother, Kevin, made sure we got to the best beach and was like a tour guide, showing us all the cool rocks to jump off and explore. The kids had a great time splashing around with their two cousins. Later that evening we went to an evening church service with Kevin and Vicki.

This is a typical vista where they live- beautiful trees framed by a perfectly blue sky. We went swimming all together and had a great time.

This was baby Sunrise's first real trip, and unfortunately decided he hated his carseat. And missed his swing. He also didn't appreciate it when I forgot his pacifier at the pool and he wanted to go to sleep! After screaming for an hour, he wore himself out and had a short nap... before waking up screaming again. Sorry fellow pool-goers!

As a mom, don't ya just love days at the pool? I sure do. It was the quietest ride we'd had.

Thunder and his bro. He and Vicki were the best hosts.

Here is the whole clan! We met up at Squaw Valley, where Vicki works, for dinner and ice-cream.

And here are the cousins together!

Here are the boys at a 4-hour stay the the park in our RV campground. Not exactly planned. However, Friday morning we got ready to go play and discovered a flat tire (after having black water come out of the RV sink faucets, yum). The guys were able to blow up the tire enough to get to a tire shop just up the road, and I watched all the kids at the park. They were actually really good.

After fixing the tire, we went up to the Northstar ski resort. You can ride the tram all the way to the top of the mountain for only $5 and all the kids were free. There were tons of mountain bikers who would ride up on the tram and bike down.

We had a few tired kids, but they all wanted to go roller skating. So we figured, why not, it's vacation right? It was actually really fun and the kids did much better than the last time they went. All in all, a great trip to a beautiful part of the world with wonderful people!

Water, Foam, Dirt.... and White Clothes

Every year, our company does a party in the summer. Of course, since we just started this whole shibang in 2007, that really means that this was our second summer party. We went up to Ragin Waters and everyone had a blast. They have a good mix of rides for the older and younger of us and the day was perfectly hooooooot for getting in the water. There is one set of rides (last pic here) where you lay on a mat and ride on your belly down a huge drop off. I nearly lost my lunch on it... but Cloudburst went on it and loved it! She swears that she didn't even get scared on it. Sheesh, she's only 6! This girl is a daredevil.

For Pioneer Day here in Utah (July 24 for all you out-of-towners), Lehi city brought out the firetrucks and sprayed a huge field with foam. You know, just for fun. The kids loved it! Poor Cloudburst got lost and that was a bit stressful at the end, but other than that, the kid had a great time slipping, sliding and eating watermelon.

And we decided to finally pull out the ol tent and set it up in the backyard this summer. Everyone was all excited... until it was time to actually go to sleep and there were strange noises outside. I totally roughed it... inside in my bed with baby Sunrise. Yes, our tent is awesomely huge and yes, Thunder can stand up inside it!

Thunder had a business trip to Florida and brought back a T-shirt he made... Cloudburst fell in love with it and wore this cute number to bed that night.

And here are a bunch of pictures from the Fathers and Sons campout! I was not there, so I don't really have any commentary... but it looks fun, doesn't it?

And we were able to bless Sunrise on this past Sunday. We didn't have any family in town but it was such a special experience to hear Thunder give him a blessing in church. One part of the blessing talked about Sunrise turning to Heavenly Father in prayer as he goes to school and participates in athletics... maybe he will be a star athlete? He certainly has long feet for excellent stability!

Nana and Papa!

Last week we were able to have Nana and Papa come to visit. Yes, they were just here a few weeks before when Sunrise was sick, but this visit had actually been planned for a while, so of course we welcomed them back for more fun! We went swimming at the Legacy Center and it was so nice to have one adult per kid. All the kids ended up on the big green slide, even Tornado (you locals will know what I'm talking about!)

The kids love riding this thing! And Thunder doesn't think it's too bad either...

This past Sunday was our first back to church with the whole family. They all looked so nice I just had to grab a few pics. Of course, Thunder had already been to church for 5 hours or so. In church the kids had a bit of a rough time sitting still, but I was just happy we made it on time!

And little Sunrise is now 2 months old! He's doing just great. He is getting into a pattern at night where he goes to sleep at 8PM, wakes up around 3AM and then again around 6AM. I can definitely handle that. Now if I could just get MYSELF to bed earlier than 11PM, I could actually get some sleep!