June

Life in June via Instagram.

1 – Our upstairs AC went out in June in the desert.  No bueno.

2 – So we packed up and slept at my parents that night.  Ryan was up at 5:30am so we went outside so everyone else could sleep!

3 & 4 – We had a fun outing to Boulder Beach at Lake Mead with some friends.  We like it out there!

5 – I turned 31.  And my friends/sisters know me well.  I was showered with a diet coke and junk food that morning!

6 – We went to Lucille’s for my bday dinner.  This is Nate trying his first fried pickle.  He loved it.

7 – Goofiest chef I’ve ever seen.

8 – Feeding the nasty carp at Lake Mead!

9 & 10 – Wes and I actually went on a date!  We had dinner at Settebello and then test drove mini vans.  Romantic, I know.

11 & 12 – We had an aunts/sisters/cousins afternoon at the multi-gen pool.  We got Abbie on the water slide for the first time and that’s all she wanted to do the rest of the day! 

13 – I love coming home to a creative babysitter.  Allison Rich built lots of forts with these two!

14 – I took just the boys to the park – no friends – and it forced them to play together!  This particular time Ryan hit a little boy who tried to take his squirt gun and he always tells me about how he hit that boy at the water park.

15 – Ryan eats all of my mom’s raspberries every week!

16 – These Pellegrino drinks are the most addicting things I’ve ever purchased.

17 – One Saturday morning, Nate went on a cleaning rampage!  He cleaned his room, Ryan’s room, the playroom [it was a disaster], baseboards, walls, dusting, etc.  He was on fire!

18 – We made homemade vanilla icecream and topped it with raspberries.

19 – We discovered The Rio pool.  It has a great little beach area and kid pool.  And it’s free!

Kendal came to visit!

Nate & Ryan have some fabulous cousins – one of which is Kendal Thornton.  She’s our cute 8 year old cousin who lives in Alabama.  She genuinely loves playing with kiddos so for her birthday this year, we gave her a flight to come to Las Vegas to play with us! 

We had a great time with Miss Kendal.  However, Nate & Ryan were pretty rotten – especially the first 2 days.  It was like they channeled all of their excitement in to being just plain naughty.  And Wes was out of town – which never helps.  But Kendal was a total trooper and not one time got mad at them.  You rock, Kendal.

We were out and about a lot!  We went to the Children’s Museum, Pump it Up, Rio Pool, Chuckee Cheese, Bowling, out to eat a few times, slurpees, The Bellagio,  swimming & more!  Kendal and I were even able to escape a few afternoons for some girl time.  One afternoon I took her shopping where she found a great new outfit!  Another afternoon we got manicures.  And the rest of the time we were out and about with the crazy boys.

Thanks for coming, Kendal.  It was great to see you.  Ryan is still walking in your room every morning asking “where Kendal?”

The Beach

Since Nate was born we’ve spent our 4th of July’s at the cabin.  We were planning on going up right after the 4th this year to celebrate the rest of the weekend with the Fireman’s pancake breakfast & Duck Creek Parade.

And then a fire started 4 miles away from my parent’s cabin.  And it’s still burning. [cabin will be fine – luckily winds blew fire the other way]

I had in  my head we were going to do something fun so I thought – “lets go to the beach!”  Luckily my family was on board.  Unfortunately Ali and Tripp were still going to Cedar and Salt Lake so we missed them on this beach trip.

After asking around for hotel recommendations – 2 people recommended the Newport Marriott Coastal Villas. It was PERFECT.  It was a 2 bedroom villa that held all of us perfectly.  Since we don’t have a beach in Vegas but plenty of pools we didn’t spend very much time in the hotel pools or on the grounds – but I am sure we will be back there.   For the sake of remembering, Nate was on the pull-out couch in our room and he fell off the bed twice in one night!  He’s the craziest sleeper ever.  And Ryan got a cough while we were there and sounded like a seal the entire last night we were there.  Poor guy.

On Friday morning, my dad and Wes had a tee time at Pelican Hill.  That got the wheels spinning in my head - what to do with a Mr. Ryan at 7am when it’s still pretty chilly out?  Disneyland, of course!  That’s the best part about having an annual pass.  Sam & I and the boys went for 3 hours that morning and the sun came out right as we were getting back.  And the park wasn’t busy at all while we were there!  It was Ryan’s first visit and Nate got to meet Peter Pan for the first time.

The weather was only in the 70’s . . . which usually isn’t my ideal beach temperature because I like to be in the water but it was a nice break from our desert heat!  We loved it.  On our last day, Sam’s dear friend and Nate’s idol [she was his hip hop teacher] Natalie and her boys Reed and Dean-o met us at the beach.  They recently moved to California so it was fun to see them.

We had a nice time enjoying some pure fun, relaxation & just doing something different.  I’m glad everyone was up for a little spontaneity!  We heart the beach. 

4th of July

We’re usually at the cabin on the 4th of July but since it was on a Wednesday and all of the festivities in Duck Creek were over the weekend, we decided to stay home for the actual 4th!  We haven’t done traditional fireworks and a 4th of July BBQ in years and years.

We woke up to an overcast day [a rarity in our desert].  Luckily we scheduled the swim/BBQ for 10am because we were able to swim for a few hours before the rain hit!  Quite a few friends from our ward showed up and it was a fun morning. 

After naps, we met up with a group of friends and drove to Boulder City for fireworks.  Veteran Memorial Park is quite busy so we went out there a few hours early and it was PERFECT.  That park is beautiful and because of the rain it wasn’t very hot!  The kids played and played in the grass until the fireworks started.

The firework show was fabulous!  Boulder City is definitely my new favorite spot for fireworks.  The finale was amazing.  Ryan was not a huge fan of the fireworks.  He stayed snuggled in my lap the entire time and kept saying “go home” or “scare me”. 
And then when it was all over, he said “dat fun”.

It was a great 4th of July!  It’s one of my favorite holidays – I love our country!