{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!!