LiKe PeAs In A pOd!

I never considered myself a "country girl" or considered Newton "country", but after being away for a while I've realized you don't get much more country that this! I love it though. It's so nice to have nice fresh air and beautiful mountain views everywhere you look. Also, it's SO QUIET there! Besides the cows and goats and dogs there's really no other noises. Another thing I love is picking home grown vegetables and enjoying them at your dinner table just minutes later. Is anything more delicious? My mom's peas were ready for the pickin' so we took the kids out with us and had a pea picking fest!

Halle and Carson were super helpers and cooperated very well together. They were having a competition with me to see who could fill up their bowl the fastest.











Carley and Alivia gettin in on the pea picking extravaganza!




Then it's time to shell the peas. It's like my mom said, "It we had to live on our crop of peas, we'd starve!" You don't get many peas for all your labor, but it's fun just to sit around and visit while you shell, and shell, and shell and shell some more peas.



Kjeaton helped out by keepin us entertained and riding the tractor sprinkler.


Carson and Halle very dedicated to the shelling of the peas.

fun with the family

We went to Willow Park for our "Ladies Get Together" that our family tries to have every so often. I certainly hope it becomes a tradition, because it's loads of fun to get together and let the kids have a chance to play and get to know one another.




The crew ready to go! Get a load of all those strollers! It's so fun to have kids around to same age to be friends and play together!

Kjeaton enjoying his snow cone. It was very refreshing on such a hot day!


Carson, Brooklyn and Halle showing off their snow cones. Halle and Carson had to get Tiger's Blood. I guess it sounded the most dangerous.

Darling little Gracie and sweet little Garrett!

Me and my sisters. My best freinds in the whole world!

So, then Monday we all got together again at my mom's house for a pool party and picnic. I couldn't believe the slide Camille brought for the kids to play in. I wasn not expecting it to be so big! It was awesome and the kids had SO much fun! Halle especially enjoyed it. So worth the money to keep your kids occupied for the summer!

S'Mores night!

I'm so glad Carley and Grayson decided to put a fire pit in their back yard (for 10$ too.. you go you pro DIY's :) Summer just isn't summer without at least one campfire to roast s'mores over, right? Mmmmmm.... s'mores!






Halle and Carson with quite a mouth full!

Pool par-tay!

We had the first of many pool parites at Carley's house on Wednesday the 10th. It was so HOT outside! Donovin and Alivia enjoyed basking in the sun. All the kids enjoyed the picnic. The moms enjoyed staying in the air conditioned house!

Frontrunner to the Bees game

We all decided to go to the SLC Bees game together on Wednesday the 9th. We decided the best, and most fun way to get there would be to take the frontrunner train from Layton to downtown SLC and have Grayson meet us at the station and then all of us take TRAX to the baseball field. From Carley's previous experience with kids and the frontrunner, we knew we may be asking for trouble. We thought we got to the station in plenty of time, but right as Kim started getting her ticket, we noticed the train coming down the tracks. We were a ways down the platform and Carley and I grabbed all the kids and started haulin' booty to the station. We were probably quite a sight to behold, but we made it and can laugh about it for years to come. The train proved to be a great idea. The kids loved it and we got to the game right on time.


The game was a lot of fun, and the kids tolerated it really well. We had an interesting time trying to eat hamburgers and hotdogs with toddlers on all of our laps, and I think my kids were more covered in ketchup then their hot dogs, but it was still great fun. Donovin wanted to meet the "BEE" SOOO bad. He kept saying,
"I wan da Bee!" "I wan da Bee!". Apparently while he and I were on one of our many bathroom breaks, diaper changes, or trying to find the right hat for Tyler, all the other kids got to go meet "BEE" and give him a high five. Poor Vinny! Oh well, ignorance is bliss right?




The train ride home felt like utter chaos at times. I feel really bad for the other passengers who were in our car. Luckilly there weren't many. Oh well, what can you expect from five very tired kids?

Happy 4th of July!!

One of the main reasons we come home over the 4th is because Tyler's mom's family has a BIG reunion every year, and it's the only time we get to see everyone. The family is getting SO big! It's fun to see all the kids play together and get to know eachother again after a year has passed. Tyler's aunt is so great to let everyone stay at her house since the family is from all over the place. It is a 3or 4 day event, but the main event is on the 4th. We had the big shin dig at a stake center complex this year. There was softball, a bounce house, food and games. It was really over cast, so it wasn't too hot, but a huge wind storm came through after dinner and blew things all over. I didn't know if they would be albe to do the fireworks that night because it was really windy all day, but it finally died down and we got to enjoy them from a distance this year. We usually go to the baseball field where they shoot them off and sit right under them, but it's really crowded and some of the little kids don't like it very much, so we decided to be farther away this year, and it worked out great.

Our Vacation Begins...

We were so excited to be able to go "home" for the summer and see our families. We left early afternoon on Friday the 27th and got to Tyler's sister's house in Highland at about 3 am on the 28th. We felt really bad because she already had tons of people staying with her from her husband's family, but she was really generous and let us stay anyway. We got up and ready and went to visit another friend in Highland, then we left to make our way to Cache Valley! It was wierd because I thought things would look so different to me, but actually, I felt like I had never left. It is eerily quiet there though. That was one thing I had to get used to. Anyway, so we got to my mom's house and had a BBQ and attempted to take some family pictures.

They didn't quite turn out the way we expected, but at least we got a lot of laughs trying to get all the kids to sit together and look at the camera.