Pizza making with the Scouts

Blake got to go to Stefanina's with his cub scout den to make pizzas.  This was an awesome opportunity!  Blake loves to help out in the kitchen. He cooks his own breakfast and makes Vi shakes for himself and his little sis.  He thought this would be a great way to find out what it's like to do it professionally!

my bear cub!

The owner had set the scouts up on the line and helped them along the way!

whewwww...that was HOT!!!

This was one of Blake's favorite summer events and we learned a ton about Stefanina's Pizza...the food was awesome!  I'm craving pizza again, now!

2nd grade...here Blake comes!

Family Zoo Day

We love visiting the zoo and with the new Sea Lion display, it made it even more exciting!  We had a great day.

the seal lions were amazing!

1st time we saw the sea lion show!  We
absolutely loved it!



Touching the sting rays were another fave of the day, Tay is still talking
about it!

The weather was super hot, but still enjoyable.  We took our time, didn't try to fit "everything" in, and really enjoyed the parts we got to see!

Taylor goes under!!!

I remember the day that Blake took off his water wings and "jumped in"...he has been a fish ever since.  Tay did the exact same thing!  She tried on Bubby's goggles and went underwater to "see" what she could see...well, that was the last day that this little gal would stay ABOVE water!!!  She wants to be under all the time...she even jumps off and goes under!  Yesterday, happy to just swim around with her little swim jacket...hating to even get splashed in the face...Today, a little fish!!  It seems to all happen in just one day!



Swimming!!



learning to "not breathe" underwater...thumbs up!

That's Tay underwater after jumping!!!

Tay spent the day, going under...her big Bro has sure
taught her a bunch!!!

Vacation Week

Summer vacation week for us is our favorite part of summer because Daddy gets to take time off work for us to hang together as a family!!  He works so much that this is HUGE for us!!  Even though we can't go "away" on a vacation, we make this week special by filling it with events that we plan together, as a family.  Some of our plans were changed by the record-breaking heat wave and drought...we didn't think Six Flags would be very enjoyable.

We started off by spending a day at the house to clean and organize...doesn't sound like much of a vacation, but since we got the whole basement redone, we can now enjoy that space and have a clean house to enjoy for the rest of the week, felt awesome!

We went to Indian Camp Creek.  It has a large creek that you can swim and explore.  It has several play areas, a big lake with a boardwalk, and an overlook tower to climb.  One of my favorite parks!

Blake soaked himself in the fountain

Daddy too!

We spent much of our "at home" time in the pool, grilling, and just spending quality time playing with the kids.  Another fave was our fort night!

Sophie loved being part of it!  It made us think that she would do good
camping with us...

We turned it into "movie" fort night...we watched Indiana Jones and ate pizza
and popcorn for dinner.

 Swimming was something that we did every single day, when it's over 100 degrees, it's the best thing to be doing!  Taylor learned to go under and now jumps in by herself.  We relaxed...

Our favorite, most memorable time of the week was our camp trip to Huzzah Valley.  I had to devote a separate blog post for it, but here are a couple pics...you can see that these kids LOVE camping!  They were both, literally, face down in the river, the entire time!  The river was cool, refreshing, sparkling and clear...perfect for snorkeling and fishing! 

We had a fantastic, much needed vacation week...our goal is to have MORE days to spend together as a family!