Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Fun In Bear Lake !!

We had another great vacation in Bear Lake!! Scott and I were only able to spend the weekend as we needed to get back for Scott's work and my Young Women's Camp! A huge thank you to my Mom and Dad for watching Jake and Court the rest of the week. From what I've heard, they had a great time with lots of swimming, bike riding, watching Toy Story, ice cream and Skipbo!


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Here are some pictures of our fun weekend!!


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We were surprised and excited to find a water slide at each of the pools. Jake spent most of his time playing on them and Courtney wanting to be like her big brother insisted on going down them as well. I would help her climb the ladder and Scott would catch her.

About the fifth time doing this, I pushed Courtney down and yelled "here she comes", I looked down and instantly panicked as I saw that Scott wasn't below to catch her, he was a few feet away swimming with Jake. I screamed, Scott looks up and we both watch our 2 year old land in the water and sink. (No life jacket). Scott swims over as fast as he can (I'm still on the ladder) he dives and grabs Court from the bottom of the pool. It was only a few seconds but in the moment it felt like forever. Courtney came up coughing and scared but thankfully she was ok. It really shook us up, I still can't get over how fast Courtney sank. Crazy!

It's one of those bad memories that will be embedded in my mind forever. Ugggh!!


We made Courtney go down the slide immediately after as we didn't want her to be scared of the water. After the third time she began to like it again, it wasn't until Heather missed her when she was trying to catch her that she refused to go on the slide again. By then we had two close calls and we figured we better keep her away from the slides. This turned out to be the best idea; Court was happy, we weren't stressed, my parents weren't stressed and everyone was safe.



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We celebrated Heather's Birthday and Fathers Day while in Bear Lake!!


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Perfect weather and a perfect vacation!

Thanks again Mom & Dad!!!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Highlights from Laura's visit

My sister Laura came for a quick last minute visit. It was a fun surprise to have her here for a week. As you can tell from the pictures below we were picture crazy. We see her, Tyson and Lydia only a few times a year so we feel the need to document every fun second we have with them.


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Courtney adores her Aunt Laura


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The 4 Amigos back together again!! These cute cousins sure love each other.


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Lydia had no problem remembering us (it's been 5 months since she's seen us) especially with her cousins. As soon as she walked in the door she pointed to Jake and Coco and smiled. Two seconds later they were off playing together and having fun.



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I know I've said it a million times but these two little girls have such a special bond and are truly kindred spirits.



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Laura was having fun taking action shots of Jake

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I took this picture... Pretty cool eh!!


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The little boy next to Coco is Zachery. Laura and Tyson became good friends with a couple in their Oklahoma ward who are from France and studying abroad for a year. My sister Laura can speak french so when she met this sweet girl who could hardly speak any English a bond was instantly made and they became the best of friends. Marie & Antoine (the french couple) their son Zachery and Marie's parents came to Utah to see all the amazing sights.

It was quite the experience being with people who can't speak English. It was fun but at times awkward especially when Laura wasn't in the room to translate. All we could say was "Bonjour" (hello) so we would just smile at each other and then do our own thing. We did learn a lot about France and I've come to realize that sadly I know nothing about other countries. This is something I'm going to work on.

I asked Marie if it's true about French people hating Americans. She replied "not the LDS ones". In total that is what, a few thousand people in all of France? We had a good laugh about this.

My favorite time with Marie was when she said her husband is a "gerk, gerk, gerk". I looked at her strangely and wondered "wow, her husband really must be a gerk," but then I clued in that she said "joke, joke, joke". Meaning her husband is funny. We had tears in our eyes as we laughed at the misunderstanding.

Marie was an answer to many prayers including mine as she became the sister to Laura that I can't be anymore. I know Marie will never read this because she can't read English but if she could I would want to tell her thank you for all she has done for my little sister. Thank you for her service, kindness, understanding and for truly loving Laura. Friends like these are rare and I'm grateful she was there when my sister needed a true friend. Thank you Marie!!

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The little girls visiting their Nana the librarian



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The little girls visiting their Granddad the Insurance Agent



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We spent an entire day in Salt Lake, we started with taking Jake and Logan to see the Joseph Smith movie for their first time. Both boys seemed to enjoy it, Jake had a lot of questions throughout the movie and Scott was patient in answering and explaining everything to him.

Court and Lydia lasted only 15 minutes so Laura and I took them for a walk around Temple Square while we waited for the movie to end.


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Playing

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Court was in awe of all the girls wearing white 'princess' dresses. She informed me that she's going to wear a princess dresss and mary her Dad in the temple. Too cute!



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It was sweet when we took the girls to see the Christus. Courtney at first thought Jesus was sleeping and kept telling us to be quiet. Laura showed Coco Jesus's hands and she now tells everyone that Jesus has owee's and he was sad but now he's happy.



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More pictures on Temple Square.


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Best Friends Forever!!


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Grandad & Nana with their four grand children




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This is my favorite picture as it captures our life. I don't know how to explain it in words but when I saw this picture my immediate thought was "yup, that's our life".


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After temple square we headed to Liberty Park to play on the playground, play in the water and ride the ferris wheel. It turned into one of those picture perfect days.


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The kids loved the water.


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I don't usually get scared on rides but having Coco next to me made me extremely nervous and then when we looked down and saw a maintenance man working on the ferris wheel this didn't do much for my confidence. Lol!! But we lived and the kids loved it!



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Good times!!


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We ended the day eating at the Mayan restaurant and then the boys headed to a Real Salt Lake soccer game. Perfect ending to a perfect day.



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The two girls hanging around!!


Last but not least here are pictures of our visit to the Tree House

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Courtney standing on Utah and Lydia standing on Oklahoma

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Laura posted this picture on her blog, I thought it was so cute so I had to post it on mine. (The desk the girls are sitting under is the exact replica of the Presidents desk in the White House).

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There were no good bye tears this time around as we will be seeing Laura and Lydia in July. But that hasn't stopped us from counting down the days until then!!!



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Laura said I needed to post a picture of Marie on my blog. So here it is..Marie and her sweet Mom!!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Memorial Day!!

We had a great Memorial Day weekend with Scott's family. We went to Idaho on Sunday to visit Cole family graves and Monday we went to South Ogden to visit Lewis family graves. Both days included beautiful weather, delicious food, and fun visits with family!!


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Here we are in Idaho visiting Grandpa Cole's parents graves.

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My nephew Nick and niece Emma, My sis in-law Amber holding baby Jude and niece Abby with my sis in-law Gidget.

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Here we are in South Ogden visiting Grandma Cole's parents graves.

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Notice the absent of Scott! He bailed on us on Monday as he had tickets to the World Super Bike races. We missed him but we're glad he had fun!!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Our Kindergarten Graduate!!


Jake on his last day of school!

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Most mornings Courtney would also put on her back pack and ride in the car with Jake to the bus stop. Good times!!!

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Look how much Jake has grown!!!

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I honestly feel like it was just yesterday that I was writing about Jake's first day of school but here I am now writing about Jake's last day of school. I can't believe how fast the school year went. Wow!!

I also can't believe how much my little boy has grown up!

It's crazy how emotional I've been about Jake finishing Kindergarten. I don't know if it's the thought of him going into first grade. Or, if it's me wanting to stop Jake from growing up so fast. Or, if it's because I love Jake's teacher and I'm going to miss her. Or, if it's just me being my regular emotional self? I don't know? Probably all of them combined!!

But.. enough about me. This post is about Jake who is officially our little Kindergarten Graduate!!! Yeah!!



WARNING: This post is especially long but I felt the need to include all of the detail for the journal purpose of my blog.. feel free to exit my blog at anytime. No hard feelings! Lol!




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Look how happy Jake is!! It's amazing to think that at the beginning of the year Jake cried when he had to ride the bus. Jake was really scared the first week of school but look at him now! Jake loved everything about school!!! He loved the school work, the homework, his teacher, his friends and even the bus. We're so proud of him. We love you Jake!!!



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My friend Lacey and I went as parent chaperones to the Dinosaur Park for the end of the year fieldtrip. This was our little group. It was a beautiful day, the kids were well behaved and everyone had a ton of fun!


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Lacey and I didn't see the sign that said "no climbing on the rocks". Oops!!! Some chaperones we are!! Lol!!



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Jake and Skylee have been friends for 3 years. Don't they look adorable together??!! Lacey and I have already started planning their future wedding. Lol!!! (Totally kidding!)


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This is Jake's Kindergarten Diploma. Too cute eh!! The school held a kindergarten graduation. They played the graduation song, Jake walked across the stage, he received his diploma from the principal and hugged his teacher. He looked so grown up, it was all just so adorable. Yes..I cried!!

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Jake did so well in the Kindergarten program. His favorite song he sang was "It's a Small World". He also had a speaking part and wasn't even nervous. He said "T is for teeth, we have lost many of those this year". The funny thing is, Jake hasn't lost a single tooth!

(The top left picture is Jake with his best friend Drake).


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Some of Jake's art work he made throughout the year!! The tooth brush is his favorite!


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Jacob's kindergarten class. I'm not sure why Jake looks so small in the picture as he is one of the tallest kids in his class??? He still looks so adorable!



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More of Jake's art work!


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This is Jake dressed up after his 'You are special day'. They had a Hawaiian Luau party for the kids. Jake had a blast!



I asked Jake if he's sad that school is over and he said... "a little but I'm more excited to have more time with you". Dido! I'm sooo excited for Jake to be home with me all day long!!!! I'm looking forward to spending every single summer day with my little boy.

Starting... NOW!!!

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Mrs. Meyer

Jake's teacher, Mrs. Meyer, did a count down for the last 26 days of school. She reviewed the letters one last time by celebrating a letter of the alphabet for each day. Jake loved it and looked forward to every single day. So much fun!!! Jake's teacher is so creative, she is a fabulous teacher, she truly loves Jake and we are both going to miss her a ton!!

This is the Alphabet list that was sent home to all the parents (for those of you who have requested a copy of it). Again, so creative!!

A- Alphabet day- bring something that starts witht the same letter as your first name for show and tell.

B- Bear Day! Bring your favorite Teddy Bear.

C- Crunchy Day- Bring a crunchy food for a snack.

D- Dot to Dot day.

E- Eskimo Pie Day.

F- Favorite Food Day - Bring your favorite food to share (must be store bought).

G- Goofy Dress Up Day.

H- Hat Day.

I- Insect Hunt - we will look for insects outside.

J- Join us for lunch in the cafeteria.

K- Koolaid day.

L- Licorice day.

M- Mix & Match day - wear something that doesn't match.

N- Nice Neighbor Day- sit next to a friend all day.

O- Orange day- Wear the color orange and bring an orange to snack on.

P - Play with us today - The school will provide play toys outside for Incredibel Kid Day.

Q- Quiet as a Mouse Day (Jake thought this day was soooo boring because they had to whisper the entire day. Lol!)

R- Read-a-thon day- bring books, a blanket and a snack.

S- Sing- sing for parents for our kindergarten program.

T- Triangle day- bring something in the shape of a triangle to show the class.

U- U.S.A. day- wear red, white or blue.

V- Video day- watch an educational video.

W- Wow! Watch out as we walk through the Dinosaur Park for our end of the year fieldtrip.

X- eXtra recess.

Y- You are special day- we have a special day planned for you.

Z- Zzzzzip up your bags and zoom home for summer!



Jake made a scrap book about all the fun stuff they did throughout the year. The last page had this picture of Jake & Mrs. Meyer and next to it was this very touching poem.
(sorry the picture is so blurry, my scanner is not working very well).

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Friends Do Not Forget

A year ago I met you
And loved you from the start,
Your caring eyes and cheerful face
You really touched my heart.

I’ll miss you as you leave my room
I hope you’ll miss me too,
I know the world is fortunate
To have a child like you.

I never will forget you
And wish you all the best,
For we were once the best of friends
And friends do not forget.

Love,
Mrs. Meyer

Jake wouldn't have had such an amazing school year had it not been for his amazing teacher. Thank you Mrs. Meyer for everything!!! You truly are an incredible teacher whom we will never forget!

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Courtney and Baby Lydia

Courtney and Baby Lydia
Courtney and her favorite Baby. Baby Lydia. How do I explain to her that baby has moved away? Breaks my heart!!!!

My hot husband!!

My hot husband!!

Mom and Courts morning routine. Hair & teeth time!

Mom and Courts morning routine. Hair  & teeth time!

Sarah's 23rd Birthday! LOL!!!

Sarah's 23rd Birthday! LOL!!!

St. George

St. George

Jake swimming in Pine View

Jake swimming in Pine View

Jake and Coco with Cousin Tyler hanging out in St. George

Jake and Coco with Cousin Tyler hanging out in St. George

Coco kissing Chucke Cheese

Coco kissing Chucke Cheese
We took Jake and Coco to Chucke Cheese for their first time. We all had a blast!

almost kissing counsins. Too cute!!!

almost kissing counsins. Too cute!!!