Happy 5th Birthday Jesse!

It seems like yesterday we were welcoming Jesse into the world. Sounds cliche' but I seriously don't know where the time goes. The last 5 years have just flown by! Jesse has such a funny personality. He is always telling me he is "hungry" which is his way of saying "Do you have any candy in the house or can we stop by Macey's for some donuts?" He loves to watch Ninjago and play Lego Marvel on Xbox. He is a flip master on the trampoline. He LOVES skin! He loves to rub my arms, neck, belly and any other skin he can get ahold of. Weird fetish that I think is cute now but hope he grows out of by the time he starts dating!

Right after we celebrated Jesse's 1st birthday Ryan headed to Mongolia for the first time. It seems like life has flown by for us since that time. Jesse, and all of our kids, have changed so much the past 5 years. We've added Tegan to the family. We've moved. We've began homeschooling. I thank the Lord for all of my blessings and all of His guidance. I wonder what the next 5 years will bring?

Jesse and neighbor friend Gib.

Back: Breck, Gib, Gavin
Front: Tegan, Oakley, Jesse, Lex

Stewart Falls

Our cute Japanese exchange student Ayano came back this summer and brought her friend Asumi with her. They stayed for 3 weeks. It was A LOT of work for me to have 7 kids and Ryan in Mongolia, but we survived. 

We went to Bridal Veil Falls the second day they were here and got rained out almost immediately. So about 2 weeks later we decided to hike to Stewart Falls with Tina and her kids and Jackie and her kids (plus one of Ava and one of Oakley's friends). It was so much fun. Tegan had just had surgery again and was not able to join us. I was worried about taking Jesse but I could barely keep up with him. The two oldest girls were about the only ones that stayed close by us, hence all the pics of them.

Why the fuzzy head Gracie? Dirty camera?

Gavin, Tana (Oakley's friend), Megan, Amber, Jesse, Gracie, Breck and Oakley

Palisade State Park

We went to Palisade State Park, down by Manti, over the weekend with Jackie's family and Tina's family. Eleven kids and five adults made for quite the lively adventure. It would have been nice if it was 20 degrees cooler at night, but we had a fantastic time chatting, stuffing ourselves and playing for hours at the lake. We spent about 4 hours out on a floating dock in the middle of the lake jumping off and pedaling our boats around. It was fantastic! I love family!

Frog anyone?!

Amber, Megan, Gracie, Tyler and Tina waiting to set sail.

All aboard the Mary Poppins express. I was SO grateful for my umbrella.
Ava, Jesse, Breck, Tegan, Ryan and Rachel

I'm assuming the face is for the wedgie he is receiving from the life jacket. ;-)

Tyler, and Gavin with Lex at the helm. 

We celebrated my niece Amber's 13th birthday on the 28th and my nephew Oakley's 6th bithday on the 29th.

Cutest cousins around: Back bench (Lex, Breck, Tyler, Megan, Oakley, and Gavin)
Front bench (Gracie, Amber, Ava, Tegan, and Jesse)

Gary, Jackie and kids

Zoo Bear (i,e Lex) is unsure about this new adventure

Gracie and Amber catching some air! Love the pose Amber. 

We had to really talk Oakley into his first jump! He loved it!

Gary and Ryan jumping through tubes. This was clearly before Ryan's horrible sunburn surfaced.

After eating dinner we went back to the lake. We were only there about 15 minutes and it got
 really stormy, so we decided to pack all 11 kids into the back of the truck and head back to camp.

Bike Ride x2

Tegan did have a helmet but it seems to be MIA in these pictures ;-)

We rode from Vivian Park to The Riverwoods 2 times last week. It was SO fun and refreshing to get out and just have fun together. We were up in the canyon by 8 am both days and enjoyed most of the area to ourselves. We survived 2 bike malfunctions and a huge Breck biff, but those are things we can laugh about later right?  Imagine my dismay when I was ripped out of sleep this morning at 5:20 am to take Ryan back to the airport. Good times fly....

Bridal Veil Falls

Songbirds

One of the classes the girls took through their homeschool co-op this semester was Songbirds. They both loved it! They had 2 performances this past week at the Draper Theater. We survived a huge diesel wreck that shut down the freeway the first night, and a massive rain storm the second night, but we really enjoyed watching all the kids work together to make it a really neat program. Some of the songs they sang are "Lollipop, Fly Me To The Moon, America The Beautiful, and Glorious, which is a beautiful song you can find by clicking here. 

I'm so proud of my two beautiful girls. They have been growing up so quickly. They are my friends and I LOVE them so  much!

Draper Theater 'Welcome Songbirds Show Choir'.

The boys going a bit nuts waiting for alllllll the songs to get over. 

Gracie and Ava just right of the microphone.