dairy days parade, backyard fun and a special fhe

michael and i each realized separately recently that eleanor will forever be our baby girl

and we're both a little sad we didn't know that until she was four

so we'd better soak her up as much as possible

although she's looking extra old in this picture

(sometimes i feel like i get glimpses of what my children will look like later and this is one of those)

 all about the accessories these days

 cool kids hanging out downtown before the dairy days parade

 we tried a new mexican restaurant before the parade started

 waiting patiently for it to start

i love olive's arm around henry

she's really sweet to him

 henry loved all the cars, motorcycles and animals he saw

 headstands before bed

 hanging out at the village before olive's party

noah was gone at cub scout day camp all day

 sunday i was twenty five weeks

noah took some pictures for me

 hazel, too :)

 we played in the backyard for hours after church

i felt silly for bathing the kids for church when they were sitting in dirty buckets of water right after

 michael set up a water slide on the playhouse

 my view from the hammock

 cuties

 monday night michael taught us a special lesson on baptism since hazel is getting baptized this week

 we had s'mores, too

 henry saw me taking a picture and said cheese!

we are really enjoying summer

hanging out in our backyard, letting the kids stay up too late

and spending time together

roaring springs!

yesterday was the day the kids look forward to all year

we went to roaring springs!

it was my first time (as well as henry and eleanor's)

in the past i've stayed home with them but eleanor was so excited to go this year

michael took the big kids the day she got her tonsils out last year

so she really missed out but this year she and henry are older and it was a lot of fun

the kids earn passes there from school for reading so the three big kids were free

 i was about to take everyone's picture 

but michael asked someone to take it for us so we could all be in it, yay!

 we lasted almost five hours in the 100 degree weather

i mostly hung out with the little kids in the kiddie area while michael took the big kids on water slides

it was perfect

we were all hot and thirsty so we stopped at brodie's for shaved ice on the way home

 then we grabbed pizza and watched kung fu panda 3 in our jammies when we got home

it was a really fun day

the kids loved it

olive's sixth birthday party

michael offered to take over olive's birthday party as i was feeling overwhelmed with girl's camp

i loved what his shopping trip looked like all over the counter

olive wanted a "water" party to play with her friends in the backyard with her little pool 

 michael made her cake and everything

 we had punch, cake, fishy crackers and watermelon

 michael bought all the kids water guns, filled the pool and made a slip and slide

 oh, and they ate lots of otter pops

 the kids had a lot of fun in the backyard playing in the water

 time for cake!

her friends tanner, haedyn, paisleigh, halle, rory, brinley, roxie, porter and matthew came

 blowing out the candles

 opening her presents

 pinata time!

michael bought her this cute fish pinata, the kids loved it!

all in all it was a success

michael really nailed it and olive was very happy to have her friends over to celebrate her

father's day 2016

 we were a tiny bit late eating breakfast (waffles with strawberries and whipped cream)

but i had to get a picture of michael with the kiddies for father's day

even if we were a couple minutes late for church

 during sacrament eleanor impressed me by writing her name

she turned the R into me because my name starts with R

 twenty four weeks on father's day

 we had a big french bread sandwich for lunch

and fajitas on the patio for dinner

(that was, after a water fight. everyone was cold and wet for dinner including michael who made them a make-shift slip and slide and went down it first fully clothed)

we watched the sound of music as a family while the kids ate all of michael's fathers day treats

and he worked a little on the playhouse

it was a low-key day

but hopefully michael knows just how much we love and appreciate him

father son camp out and girls night!

michael took the boys to the father son camp out

i wasn't sure how it would go getting henry to bed but he asked michael to put him in the tent

and laid down with his special blanket and went to bed around 8:30pm

of course he was up at 5:30am but they had fun playing in the hot springs that morning

henry was very happy to be included with the boys and that he got to ride in dada's car

 i wanted to take the girls to a movie (finding dory) but it was sold out because it was opening day

so we rented a couple red boxes, got pizza and treats and they were thrilled

 of course we had to wear our matching nightgowns :) 

 the next day we went and met the boys at their camp out because they were already about half way to

the girl's camp and i needed to check it out before camp

so we met up and drove there together

all three boys fell asleep for almost the whole drive

 we got to see lots of parts of idaho we've never seen

it's really pretty

 and the girls camp looked great!