We made it to CA safe and sound! We left at 11 pm after our first softball game! We took Adam's grill, the Big Green Egg, so he could bbq at the Fiesta. It got the front seat in the van for the ride!

This was the beginning of the trip when everyone was still happy!! The kids slept most of the way. Tori had a horrible time though! She couldn't get comfortable. She cried and cried. She got three nose bleds. One of them was really bad. She got blood all over my shirt. I wasn't able to help Adam drive. He is amazing and made it with no sleep! Then when we got to CA he took a short nap and was ready to go!  So we are here loving the perfect weather! The Fiesta was so much fun! I will post pictures of that soon!! 
 

We are in CA soaking up the sun and having fun fun fun at the Fiesta! There will be lots of pictures of that later. I decided to use this time to catch up on posts I've wanted to do for a while. 

We usually go to the reservoir once a week. The kids love to go. These pictures spread out all the month of June and July so there are lots of pictures of Nik. It makes me miss him even more!

It took weeks for Tori to let the kids bury her. She held her arms like that the whole time!

It is so fun to see the progress the kids make. They started off barely in the water, very timid. Now they go as deep as possible and are always in the water. Zoe even swam all the way across last week when we went! 

Cold Stone had a sweet reading incentive. Ice Cream!! I mean really, can it get better than that?  I picked up a bookmark for each of the kids at the beginning of summer. They had to read 5 books. Only 5!! The younger kids have read way more than that but it took the older two a little longer. They all finished last week so today we went to Cold Stone and each kid got a free kid's creation!

Mom and Marie went with us too! We love hanging out with them!!

A slip-n-slide is another way we stay cool around here. Our neighbor across the street gave it to Ammon one Saturday at the beginning of summer when he was having a yard sale. Apparently Ammon told our neighbor that his Mom never buys fun things like slip-n-slides! He took pity on Ammon and gave it to him. It has provided hours of fun for the kids!

Ariana doesn't like to slide. She usually just runs.

It can also be used as a drinking fountain, who knew?!

Tori stays far far away from the water. She loves to put on her bathing suit but stays up on the porch with me!

Tori is my little smartie pants. She is at such a fun copying age. She says whatever last word is said. She can get lots of things for me. She even puts away clothes for me. Today she amazed me. She was watching me make dinner. I had a can of green beans on the counter. She wanted me to open it and kept banging it on the counter. I was just ignoring it so she got down off the bar stool, got a step stool put it in front of the drawer and pulled the can opener out! She went back to her bar stool and worked and worked to get that can of green beans opened!! She knew the concept but couldn't figure it out! 

I finally helped her open the can and after a lot of Yes's and Please's I gave her some green beans! She ate about half the can by the time dinner was finished!! 

We celebrated Pioneer Day on Saturday by going to the fireworks that night! The fireworks started way later than I would have liked them to so Britain and Ariana slept through them. They were beautiful. I love watching fireworks. 

We stayed up way late, but I was so proud of the kids because the next morning they all got up with smiles and there was no grumpiness all day!

Tori sat with Marci through the fireworks show and really had no response. She just sat and watched.

Tori found this glow in the dark bracelet and had so much fun shaking it! 

Right now Fiesta Days is going on in Spanish Fork. We went to the parade this morning with our good friends! It was warm but it was a lot of fun!! I loved the Civil War actors. They shot off their guns and canon right in front of us!

Tori had a good time watching and eating lots of candy!

Ariana and her bestie! They are so cute together!
 

Another fav, the tank!

 Waiting for candy!

Our friends have all girls so poor Ammon continues to be the only boy!

Always fun to see a old John Deere!
 

Love The General Lee!

This float was pretty awesome!
 

Some friends from the ward road antique bikes in the parade. The bikes were very cool and it was fun to see them. This is our home teacher. He is a great kid!

Zoe loved the pig float, of course! 

They gave out candy and pig masks!
 

We brought home way more candy than we needed but it was a blast!

We went to feed the ducks last week. It surprised me that everyone liked this activity!!

Meet George! Zoe liked him because he has a mohawk! She would only feed him! 

Tori's first experience with ducks was a little scary. She loved feeding them and would get as close to the edge as she could and then throw the bread with all her might. I thought she was going to fall a number of times and would hold onto her shirt or pants to help her balance or catch her quick! She hated my hand there and would knock it out of the way and scream. She would quack and yell duck so they would come closer! 

We also went on a little nature walk. I gave the kids sticky bracelets (duct tape turned backwards) and told them to stick things to it that they liked on there walk. They had a good time finding things and walking around enjoying the outdoors!

 I think the best thing was throwing things into the pond! Yeah, go figure!!! They did stop for a moment so I could snap one picture! There was no way I was going to let Tori on that rock and she was pretty mad about that!!!

Ariana has been cracking me lately! I decided I needed to write some down so I will remember. Adam, Ariana and I were driving in the car, just the three of us. Adam and I were talking about the kids and what they did and didn't do at similar ages. Ariana sticks her head to the front of the car and says, "And I am the cutest of them all!" We just laughed and laughed!! On this same trip she would lean forward in the car and say, "What's going on back there?" with her priceless smile! 

When Ariana spent the night with Marci and Kenny for her birthday she learned to make a new face that was cracking them up. When she got home she showed us.

She is a silly goose!

Ariana continues to have a vivid imagination. She makes up conversations as she plays with everything! One day she ran and got me and told me I had to see her fashion show. I went downstairs where she had her stuffed animals set up and doing a fashion show!!

My Grandma sends the kids saving bonds for their birthdays. In their card is always the "pretty" certificate and then the real one arrives later in the mail. The "pretty" certificate has a flag on it. Grandma had written a little note on the back of the one she sent Ari. I let Ariana keep this one down in her room with her special things. The other day she comes running up the stairs with it, show it to me and Adam telling us that it is an invitation for her to visit the President some day! I don't know where she comes up with some of her ideas! She is a doll though!!! 
 
 
 

The kids love playing at park. I need to take them more. We went last week and it was such a beautiful day I couldn't help but get the camera out and snap a few pictures!

Love this picture!

Ariana is getting very brave and can climb to the top now!

I love to see Ammon holding her! I feel like she is almost as big as he is. He has to lean back to carry her!