The Grand Slam Summer!

I swore I would never get behind again, and yet shoot! Here I am again. We have had so much fun this summer, with so few breaks, that I'm cramming all of our latest summer pics into one monstrosity of a post!

The best part is that Jamie, Gina, Anna and Blue all came from Houston, Texas and stayed for 3 weeks!!  We had so much fun playing with them.  Truly, Gina took all of the amazing pics, and I forgot to steal them from her memory card, so you are stuck with my camera pics... and nothing fantastic... but it helps me remember our happenings!

 Here we are at Jump Street!  The kids had so much fun and I am thrilled to find it because it is just a few miles from our house!

Emma participated in Jenny Prince's music theater summer workshop.  Rehearsals were every day for two weeks and they they had a performance up on Junior High stage.  The theme was "everything green" and they sang songs such as "I do not like green eggs and ham", "pay check" and other medleys from Wizard of Oz and Wicked.  Emma had the time of her life!!  She loved the singing and dancing and can still be seen DAILY going through her routines and songs.

Thank you Costco for having these TACKY purple flowers for my daughter.  She LOVED them.  And they sat on her dresser for 2 weeks strong! 

The cousins and Grammie Lou came to watch her perform!  She loved all the attention!!

Playing with cousin Tate at the splash pad.

Playing pirates with cousin Blue.

Hiding under the computer desk with Grandpa's dog, Mister.  We dog sat for a week while Grandpa was taking care of my Aunt after knee surgery in California.

Yep.  Still do not want a dog.  I already have two kids thank you.  Don't need another "being" around the house to clean up after, feed, bathe and worry about sleep habits.  No thanks.

Greg can seriously fall asleep ANYWHERE.

ANYWHERE.

Greg's birthday breakfast!  He chose blue pancakes and had his initial to eat!  Emma even got her very own "E" even though it wasn't her birthday!!  Lucky girl!!

Grant celebrating Dad's birthday by climbing on the table for the first time!  UGH.

Trip to the Museum for Youth.  Grant all dressed up.

We went to Jambo the evening of Greg's birthday!  Since he is a kid at heart and LOVES anything amusement park, we celebrated here!  He (and the kids) loved it.

All tuckered out after a busy morning at the Phoenix Children's Museum.

Celebrating Blue's 4th birthday early... at Grandma Becky and Grandpa Bob's pool.

And some of our own backyard fun!!

She crashed anywhere this summer, so tired from all the swimming, heat and FUN!  This is not like Emma at all.  So I knew she was always so hammered.

We spent a wonderful week at the cabin with Jamie and Gina.  The kids had a blast and we LOVED the cooler weather.

Grant has recently begun a fetish with Emma's dress up shoes.  He likes the loud noise they make when they hit the tile, so he puts one on his foot and marches around the house, smiling all the while.

Emma's first day of preschool.  A greasy hand must have covered my camera lens for this one.  All smudgy looking??  Anyway, she switched preschools, so that we have one closer to our house... and it has been so fun for her!!  Her teacher is Jenny Stratton.

My brother John came home from his mission!!!  We get to see him tomorrow when we travel up to Utah for our family reunion!!!  YEAH!!!!

Lauren and Dylan (my cousins) got sealed in the temple.  It was so special to be there with them!!

A few more random (out of order) shots of Emma's workshop performance.  She was very nervous here and did not want to smile.  haha.

And a few more bday pictures from Greg's special day...

I spent so much time making him an ice cream cake and then our freezer was not cold enough and the ice cream melted all out of the middle!!!  So frustrating!!

The Phoenix Children's Museum with cousins...

We had a GREAT summer, but we are ready for cooler weather and a more structured schedule!!!