Cousins Week

 We decided it would be fun to have some of the cousins come and stay for a week, so we invited two of my brothers kids to come stay with us for a week and play, and play we did. We picked them up on our way home from the black hills, then the fun began! The first day they were here we had a water day, we set up all kinds of stations in the yard to play in and had some friends over, the girls above are playing in shaving cream pool, the boys are playing on the slip and slide

 While I would love to recap all of our fun I will spare you the details and what nots and just hit on the highlights, which we really didn't stop while they were here except for naps and bedtime, we played and played and played, so fun! 

 One night we had a super hero party, we made capes and masks and ate super hero food, we did super hero training building towers as high as we could, collecting kryptonite, target practice with silly string, and of course an obstacle course full of super hero tricks crawling, climbing, hopping, and flying!

 We took advantage of the kids starting school in our area and went to the splash park to enjoy it, The kids did a lot of running, we stuck to just the splash pad as this is the park Addy broke her arm at, and it was her first time back since the accident she did great considering the trauma of it all, and we had fun.

 Grandma and Grandpa were good to join us here are there, grandma almost every night she would come and play with us. We loved having her/ them here. Another night we did a Drive in Movie, Doug got appliance boxes for the kids to turn into cars and decorate, Grandma brought pizza and we watched a movie. Everyone got five tickets that they could use to shop at the concession stand I put together they could choose their treats.

 We made flubber which was a huge hit, we do this a lot, but everything is more fun with friends and cousins.

 Like I said we did oodles of playing inside and out, the kids loved playing in the toy room but also loved the scooters and toys outside, Alex and Addy are close in weight which makes a teeter totter much funner then with your little brother because you share the work. 

 James loved having someone to play ball with, every kind of ball

 We played baseball one night, or our version of baseball, it was quite funny. My little guy has been working all summer long on a skill he has now kind of got down, he still misses some but for the most part he can hit a ball that is thrown to him, with a bat, he has crazy tracking skills. We went to a baseball game while the cousins were here and then we played baseball or some version of it everyday. Even though it was our last semi pro game for the season I have a feeling we will see many more baseball games with this kid before we are really over.

 Grandma and her grandkids.

 We had a pirate party one night, we made fun food James helped me make the gold dabloon pancakes. He is such a good side kick.

 We did pirate games, after we had a treasure hunt to get find our pirate attire. I made eye patches and sash's out of stuff I had around the house, and then I found some rags for their hats.

 More playing! Addy loves having passengers in her car, to which she is rather a crazy driver.

 The last night the cousins were here we turned their cars into a big fort for a cousin sleep over, which our kids only lasted like 2 hours of but it was a fun idea. and The cousins had fun.

 The kids did all kinds of artwork which then became our decorations for our party's We so loved having the cousins to play, The kids were so sad they had to go home but we have returned to life as we know and soon fall will be in full swing and we will have oodles going on again, so we are thankful for the time we had.

Black Hills

 Doug and I both dearly miss the black hills and all the fun family things they have to do there, don't get me wrong we love where we are, but we do miss the hills and our friends we left there. So we planned a trip to go and play and see what friends we could. Our trip lost a day due to some scheduling changes, but we still crammed a ton into our weekend getaway. We left one day after work and got as far as we could then crashed in a hotel, the next day we finished the drive to spearfish where our fun began, we went to the fish hatchery (which is so sadly slotted to close the first of oct) but it is one of my favorite hatchery's so we wanted to take the kids there in the event they do actually close it. The kids loved feeding the fish and seeing the historic train cars and buildings 

 The hatchery is right by the city park, which is a "PARK WITH A PURPOSE" I love the parks that are designed thematically for the area they are always so fun and have great purpose.

 After the park we went to the city swimming pool which I still have to upload those pictures, we swam almost everyday of our vacation which made it that much better for the kids, we are all fish we just love the water. After we had explored spearfish and crammed in all we could in one day with a 2 & 4 year old and a pregnant lady we headed to deadwood, where we stayed at a hotel with the pool below, our favorite! And we had the whole place to ourselves, of course it is pirate themed so that really is perfect for our kids, they couldn't get enough of it.

 Both Addy and James have significantly improved in their swimming skills this year  they are doing so good which makes me feel much better about giving them a little space to keep improving, not always easy to do.

 They had a river that rolled around to a jungle which Doug and jim had a great time on, but along the way you could play basket ball which of course was a hit with jim, he is so strong he held himself waiting for me to take the picture and then just kept hanging because he could. Then he dropped into the water, came up saying again, again!

 After a fun time in deadwood, we headed to the lake and hill city, this is on of our favorite lakes ever, an all of our kids have been hiked around it while still inside me, although I must say the improvements they have made recently made this kids hike by far the easiest. Addy and James loved hiking around the lake and climbing the rocks, they also loved going out on the row boat with dad

 They played out on the boat for an hour or so, finding fish and frogs, and all kinds of fun. 

We also made it to some of our favorite restaurants and finally into rapid so we could see what friends we could, we went to our old ward and it was nice to be there. All in all we had a great time, hard to believe but this is the condensed version of our trip, it was so fun. On the way home we stopped in my hometown and saw my BF, we had such a nice visit, we also met my brother and picked up two of his kids, more to come on that. We made it home and all went to bed, we were exhausted.

The Fair And Summer Parks

 Another month has passed and again I find myself shocked I have not been on top of documenting all our fun, and fun we have been having, we had several weeks where we really took summer to the fullest and had loads of fun, on top of getting ready for the baby, more to come on that her room is almost done I am waiting for a print of a picture we took to arrive and we need to do some mattress swapping, Doug has been busy in the garage building more to come on that too. We have spent oodles of time at the pools and getting our outdoor swimming in more to come on that. And as much time as possible with our little friends that were starting kindergarten..   The kids love to go to the fair, Addy has been asking when it would be here all summer, she can remember it from last year, Finally the fair arrived and we packed it into our already crazy schedule. The kids loved it and cried when we left, which was a little earlier then I had planned as Doug and I both had to piggy back meetings into the evening after the fair, CRAZY! Grandma and Grandpa met us at the fair this year and grandma was so good to take my place and go on all the rides so this pregnant lady got to hang out with her dad and for the most part enjoy the fun, I don't care for the smells of the fair, but other then that it was fun. We started off watching a llama show and got to hold some animals, then we moved on to the 4H displays and ICECREAM fundraiser, yum!  Then on to the rides and fun! Our little kids do love rides and fun! 

 This summer like last we did summer Adventures at the parks once a week, we send out a schedule at the beginning of the summer to all our friends and some we want or hope will become our friends to let them know what park we will be at and when, this year we had a great turn out, every week we had 5-7 families (mom's and kiddo's) my kids now don't even comprehend going to the park and not having friends there, so any kid they see is surely there to be their friend, it is cute. We are sad the summer is coming to an end and school has started we miss our older friends already. We did venture out and try a number of new parks and area's and found some great adventures. Not to mention some great friends, we keep it super casual so no commitments from others by any means but our list made it to many we didn't even know that now we just adore. We all loved the parks and all the fun and friends we made this summer.