What fun is!

Every year it is our tradition to visit Lagoon one day with my family and another with Jeremy's.  The kids love to go all season but love it the most on these days.  Often this is the time when we can convince one of our girls to hop on a ride they have never been on just because their cousin is going on it.  Gotta love peer pressure and traditions!

Reunions

While growing up we lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico most of the time.  My parents extended families all still lived in Utah.  Because of this I only got to see my cousins occasionally and my family would tease me that I could never name them all.  I may not be able to name them all in order by family now, but I do know their names when I see them.  I don't feel so bad about being teased because every time we all get together someone fails to recognize me.  This summer we had the opportunity to all get together with my Mom's side of the family for a reunion.  It was fun to see everyone again and see how their kids have grown.  This time I was mistaken as a new bride of one of my cousins kids.  Flattered I guess is the word for this!  My kids had fun getting acquainted with all of their second cousins and we stayed till dark visiting and having fun.

Parade Time

One of our most favorite things to do every summer is go to the parades. We have a specific spot we go every year for each parade we attend.  It's fun to sit back and relax while the kids fight for candy.  At this particular parade Kate was pretty sad she wasn't getting any.  Her sisters and cousins soon helped out and she had plenty!

Belt it out Baby!

My favorite thing to do in the car is listen to Kate.  She is either singing or saying something extremely funny.  The other day we were all driving down the road when my phone rang.  My ring tone is "I Don't Want This Night to End" by Luke Bryan and Kate knows every word.  When my phone rang she began belting out the lyrics with my ring tone.  I answered it in the middle but Kate just kept on singing, "She's lookin' so damn hot!"  We all started laughing so hard I couldn't even talk on the phone.  I guess that's what I get for having a ring tone with a swear word in it!

Rotary Dial Phone

One of our favorite times of year is during our city days.  This year we decided to try something new by visiting our city museum.  To be honest, I didn't really expect much.  But when we got there we were pleasantly surprised to find a hands on museum that the kids loved.  They let them try on all the old hats and hoop skirts as well as play with the phones (which by the way made me feel really old since it the rotary dial phone was from my own childhood).  Then we went around back and saw the one bedroom pioneer home and into the barn to milk the life size cow and take a look at the real two headed calf.  Yes real!  They also had a few pioneer games and activities.  I think we will add this to the list of festivities for next year too!

Lilah Ann

All year Lilah had loved going to Miss "Bickie".  It's been a tradition in our family to go to preschool at Miss Vickie's the year before you start Kindergarten.  Lilah gets to cheat and go two years.  She was so cute at her graduation and knew every word!  You would never notice that she is a full year younger than all of her class mates.  She learned so much this year she just might be the star of the class next year when she gets to experience Miss Vickie again!

Hundred $ Smile!

Jeremy always says that Neeley is great at the commitment pattern he learned on his mission.  So good in fact that he can't wait for Neeley to work for him in sales when she gets older.  She wont take no for an answer and if it is no, she finds a way to negotiate something else that works.  So one day Jeremy promised to take her to the movie.  Several weeks went by and Jer hadn't had a chance to take her so Neeley started her commitment pattern on him.  Through that, he committed to take her to the movie that week!  He even took it a step further when she made him promise by saying he would give her $100 if he didn't take her THAT week.  Well, Saturday afternoon rolled around and it became evident that they were not going to make it to the movie.  Neeley started razzing Jer just as he drove by the bank.  He pulled in, went up to the ATM and started to withdraw money.  Neeley just chuckled, never thinking he would do it.  When Jer passed her five crisp $20 bills she laughed and passed them back to him, sure he was teasing.  When he handed them back to her and said, "I gave you my word.  I mean it, you can keep it!"  She tilted her head back, gave the biggest grin with her eyes squinted shut.  She was elated to have the rest of the money she had been trying to save up for new glasses.  What she didn't know is that we were going to get her the glasses anyway.  It just made it way more fun to give her the money this way!  Now whenever dad says, "Give me a $100 smile!" we get one just like that day.  AND, whenever Jer promises anything, they know dad will follow through!