Fun of the 4th Of July

We had a great week last week in Richfield for their 4th of July celebration. Matt (my brother) and his family were up from California for the week and everyone else was together for about 4 days. The boys spent one day 4-wheeling all day. The covered about 160 miles in the day. Us girls had a fun time shopping, laying out and just relaxing. We had a mean game of kickball one night and Mel & Tandy made a fun Scavenger Hunt game. Remember the old movie where they had to run around and get the most ridiculous things and bring them back to their station at the house, well that was us. It was a lot of fun. My dad had also just returned from Morocco. He had brought gifts for everyone. The little girls got hand carved, hand painted little jewelry boxes and us older girls got a hand painted bowl. There is a special name for it, but I can't remember right now. We also did family pics while we were all together. Here are a couple of pictures from our fun weekend. .

Summertime

Wow, I can't believe it's the end of June already. This summer is flying by. We have spent June just running here and there. We spent the first week at Youth Conference with the Fielding Stake at Beaver Mountain. Ted was in the Stake Young Men's Presidency and since they knew they were being released the next week (after 7 years) he wanted our family to go up and stay and experience the week. It was an amazing week and I think we all left on a spiritual high. The following week I went to girl's camp. Yet again, a great experience.

Holden is done with their league baseball games and we are just now waiting for the tournaments to begin next month. He has loved baseball and Brian & Brad Theurer have done a great job with those boys. He is now just counting down the days until football starts.

Easton leaves next week for scout camp. I can't believe he will be gone for 6 days. He's never been away from home that long before. I'm trying not to be nervous about it, but it's now working real well.

I am excited for July to be here. July is my favorite month. I love the heat, I love the long days and I love the 4th of July. My dad returned home from Iraq 2 years ago last week. I've been thinking about that alot lately. My dad is an amazing man. He has been activated a couple of times, but the longest was the 6 months he trained in Mississippi and then left for his year in Iraq. 18 months is a long time to be without your spouse, father, and grandfather. Kinley was only 5 months old when we found out they were going to be activated and almost 2 year old when he came home. I also think my mom is amazing for her strength. There have been numerous times in their 37 years of marriage that she has had to go through things alone while my dad's been gone, but she doesn't complain. Dad is now the Command Sergeant Major for the State of Utah. He is full-time now and spends his time traveling everywhere. He just came back from Morocco in May and will go to Venezuela and Iraq this summer. Mom is able to travel with him sometimes, so that is fun for them. I was looking back at old pics last night and found a few of my favorites of my kids with my dad.

We love you dad! Thank for the example that you are to our family.

More Baseball

Holden had a great day of baseball last Saturday. He had 2 great hits, one being a double and 2 great plays. One while he was playing 2nd base and made a diving horizontal superman catch to get the out and the other while in center field. He keeps improving every game.

New Family Pics

I had to post a few of our new family pics we had taken last week. Kinley once again was our little poser. It's kinda scary that she is only 3, but directs her brothers of how to pose and what they are doing wrong.

Lake Powell Fishing

Ted just returned home from 8 days in Lake Powell on their annual fishing trip. He had a ton of fun and is now darker than dark from the sun. He truly looks like he should in September after being outside all summer long and it's only May.

The Big Night

Kinley had her dance review with Dance Factory last night. I know that I am a little biased, but I do believe that she stole the show. I was so proud of her. She danced so well and was full of smiles during both dances. We left the camera home, so while we don't have any pics of her during the dance review, we did get it recorded.

Those of you who know Kinley know that she likes to do her own posing for pictures. I guess she has seen her dad take a few pictures.

Also, thanks to Nikki for doing her hair. It lasted all night. Kinley even had silver sparkles in her hair. She couldn't stop looking at herself in the mirror after Nikki finished her hair. She doesn't look very happy in the picture, but that is because she is getting anxious for Nikki to finish and get the sparkles in her hair.

Update

We had another great weekend of baseball. Holden's team won both of their games on Saturday. They called the first game because they were ahead by so far in the 5th inning and I believe they won the second game 16-2. I'm finally posting a couple of pics from his game. As you can see, he loves to slide.

Easton had a monumental weekend. He did fast offerings for his first time on Sunday and also passed the sacrament along side his dad. It made me a little sad to realize that he was old enough to be doing that. But, he was so excited (and a little nervous). He did a great job and looked so handsome.