{Insta-catch up....take 2}

Lauryn is a pretty determined thing.  She made up her mind in January that she was saving her money to buy the American Girl of the Year doll.  As you can see in the above picture, she hadn't spent one penny since then.  Ryan and I joked that it her wad of money looked like she was a drug dealer or something.  There were plenty of Ones in there.  Just a few weeks ago she had earned enough to buy her doll.  She got a few birthday money and gift cards and that helped out as well.  Lucky for her there is an Amerian Girl store not far from us and so on a Saturday morning we drove down so she could pick her out in person.  The store clerk chuckled when Lauryn handed over all those Ones.  We are proud of her determination to set a goal and stick to it!!

Meysa learned that she could jump off the diving board and not drown!!  She is is pretty proud of her new found skill!!

I lost my keys in a creek after taking pictures for a family in our ward.  Thankfully someone had longer arms than I did and was able to find them on the creek bed.

These two are getting to be good buds.  They started their summer program at school and get to ride the bus together!!

I barely got a backward glance from Wyatt.  He didn't even remember to give me a kiss goodbye.  Any questions I had about him being ready to start school evaporated that morning.  He loves it and is doing just great!!

We helped 7-11 celebrate their birthday on....7-11.  They were giving out free slurpees and so we had to take advantage of their generosity!!  It was perfect on a hot day!!

Crazy Meysa.  One of Ryan's collegees had a get together at his home in Viriginia.  It was a beautiful home with a wonderful pool that they kids loved.  Meysa enjoyed an ice cream cone after swimming for a few hours.

Ryan is the bomb!!  Love that man!!

I guess if you play together, you crash together!!  Tired kids the last few weeks!!

 Waiting on the bus one morning!!

One morning last week when Ayden had baseball camp, and the little ones were at school, Meysa and I took a little hike with some friends.  It was the beginning of our really hot spell and we were melting by the end of it but had a great time!!

Saw some deer along the way too!!

This van has been so good to us, but it was starting to show it's age.  We have had this van for 8 years and there are a lot of memories and miles wrapped up in it.  But we have been saving for a while now and with the deals that they were offering, we decided it was time to upgrade.  To this....

We hadn't exactly meant to purchase it on the day that we did.  We went looking to see what the inventory was and to see how much longer we needed to save based on the prices in the area, but again the deals and all were too good to pass up.  They wanted to move existing inventory to make room for the new 2014 models and we reaped the benefits of that.  To say the least, I LOVE IT!!  The kids went bananas over the automatic doors, the salesman couldn't believe how excited they got when he opened the doors.  Almost like we were backwoods country bumpkins and hadn't seen electricity before!!    We feel very blessed!!

Don't let Meysa's expression fool you.  She is more excited than she is letting on.  She started her National Youth Scholars Program camp this week.  She was a little nervous the first morning but she is having a blast and can't believe she only has one more day of the camp!!  It has been a great experience for her!!

We couldn't resist stopping off at a local bakery for their donuts!!  They were as delicious as we had heard they were!!

Ayden is learning to me a gentleman.  He offered to clean my windshield the other day when we were getting gas!!  Love that kid!

Our latest nugget of fun is our fridge died.  We are living out of coolers until the repairman can replace the compressor.  Thankful it isn't 110 like it was last week!!

I think I have caught you all up now.  Maybe I should do that weekly so it doesn't take me three post to do it!!

{Insta-catch up}

I have documented some of what has been happening around here, with my phone.  It is really convenient  and it is about a fraction of the size of my big camera.  Though I did take it downtown to take pictures of the fireworks on the 4th!!  Here is a catch up of the random happenings around here.....

 We are learning not to take food, especially liquids, away from the table.  Meysa was Cinderella one morning after spilling mango juice all over the rug in the living room.

Bug-eyed baby boy!!  He loves wearing his goggles and swimming under water.  The pool has been awesome this summer!!

Wyatt the strawberry bandit struck again.  It was almost an entire carton of newly purchased strawberries.  He dipped them in chocolate peanut butter.  Quite the snack!!

The library is one of our favorite places to go this summer!!  I think on this trip we hit our check out limits.

Almost nothing is better than getting my hair brushed by someone else.  That is why I had girls.  So we could create a human hair brushing train.  Ahh, heaven!!

We enjoyed our ward's 4th of July pancake breakfast.  They invited members of the military to come in uniform.  Also a very rare picture of my mug!!  I am usually behind the lens not in front of it!!

Lauryn dressing up in Daddy's uniform!!

 We had a wonderful 4th of July this year.  We invited a few families over to our house for a BBQ and then we headed downtown to watch the fireworks.  One of our friends works downtown and we were able to park in his garage and then walk a short distance to just below the Washington Monument to stake a out a spot of grass.  On our walk we passed by the White House.  This is the side of the White House that you can't see from the National Mall.

It was perfect weather, not too hot and sticky!!  We really couldn't have asked for a better night!!

They have the scaffolding up and surrounding the entire monument for the renovations that they have to do on it.  It has been closed since the earthquake in 2011.  We hope it opens before we leave the area!!

Cutie patootie girls!!

Handsome boys!!

Oh, the sight!!  We were close enough that we could feel the boom of each explosion in our chests!!  The kids loved it!!  If we happen to be here next year we know where we are going to be for the 4th of July.  Right here in this spot again!!

{Goshen Scout Camp}

I am just now blogging about the boys' week at scout camp.  It is only a month later.  My only excuse is that we have been BUSY around here.  Between baseball camp, summer school, swimming and just life in general, we haven't let the grass grow under our feet one bit.  

The boys' had a good time at scout camp.  It was a good first experience for Ayden.  He earned 6 merit badges (plus one partial) and will earn the rank of Star at the next Court of Honor.  Ryan took some pics of the troop during the week.  Ayden got invited to attend another scout camp in a few weeks with another troop.  This summer has been productive for him.  

 

 Ryan and Ayden bunked together.  I like to think there was some great bonding going on between them!! :)

A snap shot of our Bishop just after they arrived.  The group had been up since 3:30am, so they were ready for a nap already!!  Either that or he was contemplating how much "fun" the week was going to be!!

Ayden is the camp bugler and it was his job to play revelry to wake the camp up!!  It was a very thankless job I hear!!

Ayden getting ready for his swim test the first day.  He earned his swimming merit badge that week too.

He also earned his archery merit badge.  He isn't too bad of a shot!!

He earned Pulp and Paper.  He thought of you Papa Don!!

They had a sand castle building competition!!

This bug is called a Goshen zapper.  It is a poisonous caterpillar and the boys were told to kill them on sight but to be careful not to get even any gust on them or they would swell up like a balloon!!  Yikes!

Next year I think the troop is wanting to do a 50 mile hike instead of scout camp.  We are hoping to still be around for that one!!