The Lagoons

This evening we decided to go out to the lagoons and go canoeing with our friends, the Bairds. It was soooo much fun. The Bairds have a canoe and we were able to go to a place and rent one. We then headed out. I was so surprised how beautiful and peaceful these lagoons were. We are so lucky to have so many neat places, within 15 minutes of our house.





Mom and Casen

Dad and Jace

The Bairds

The perfect mormon family (we had a few borrowed kids)

Brothers......Best Friends!!

Just Cruisin Around

Here are the kids with their motorized vehicles. They have a lot of fun riding them together. A lot of times, I think that they think they are bumper cars. Casen has definitely got a lot of use out of his jeep, it is three years old (he seriously barely fits in it now).

Roastin Marshmallows...Makin Smores!!

Saturday night we decided to have a little get together with some friends. We started off by roasting marshmallows and making smores. The plan was then to go in and play some games....the games never quite happened.....but we had a ton of fun anyhow. Here are some pictures of the evening.

Skip's Birthday

Monday was Skips Birthday.....I know I am a little late on this post. Life seems to be so crazy right now.

Skips birthday started first thing in the morning. On Sunday he saw that guitar hero for the wii was a really good deal at circuit city. So first thing Monday morning he had to take his birthday money and go and get it. He then spent some time playing the game (a waste of time if you ask me, but he seemed to enjoy it).

We then used one of our birthday gift cards and went to Olive Garden for lunch. YUMMY!! The kids even ate really good there.

For dinner we ended up running to Moes and each getting a burrito. We totally scored on this deal. They have a deal where you get a free burrito for your birthday, you can use it on your birthday or up to three days later. Skip and I totally worked the system and got both of our birthday burritos on the same day. Free dinner you cant beat that.

Skip was then off to work for the night.....sad, but he didn't want to ask for it off. No one at his work even knew it was his birthday.

Skip's Birthday was a lot of fun. NEXT YEAR IS THE BIG 30!!!!!!!

Hill Cumorah Pageant

After looking at all the historic church sites we headed back over to the Hill Cumorah to watch the pageant.

We were so lucky and got to meet up with Skip's grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins. It has been so long since we have seen all of them so it was great to do a little catching up. (I have no idea why we did not get a picture of all of us together.). Skip and I just wish we could have spent more time with them. We got to the pageant so late so there was not a lot of time.

The above picture is my favorite one , that I took. There were so many different scenes that were amazing....this is just one.

The picture to the left is Skip and Casen enjoying the show. Yes my child is a dork and has his hoodie on with the hood up (when it wasn't even that cold). We all really enjoyed the show.

Palmyra, NY

About six months ago we planned a trip to go to Palmyra and the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Saturday the day finally arrived that we were leaving. We planned on leaving at about 9am which meant we ended up leaving 11am. We then set off on the three hour drive to Palmyra.

Finally we arrived in Palmyra (just in time....before my kids went really crazy sitting in the car). We started off by going to the Hill Cumorah Visitor Center. This was great because it gave us all the information about the sites in Palmyra. We were also able to visit with some missionaries, watch a video, look at exhibits, etc.

We then hiked to the top of the Hill Cumorah. This was a little bit of a hike, considering we have two little boys and it is way hot and HUMID!! It was so neat to know you are standing where the plates were once buried.

After the Hill Cumorah we drove over to the Joseph Smith Farm. Here we were able to see both the Smith Log Home and the Smith Frame Home.

This picture was taken at the Joseph Smith Farm. There is a separation in the trees that allow you to see the Palmyra temple. It was so pretty. (Jace was so tired and was obviously not going to have anything to do with posing for a picture).

After looking around at the Smith Farm. We walked over to the Sacred Grove. The grove borders the farm. It was such a special place. Even Casen thought it was really neat to know that Heavenly Father and Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove....where we now were sitting.

This is a picture of my boys sitting on a bench right before entering the Sacred Grove. They needed a little rest along the way.

28th Birthday

Okay, so it almost seems like I have typed in a mistake when I type in my 28th birthday. Is that really possible? How time flies when your having a blast.

I had such a terrific birthday that I just had to do a post about it.

I woke up in the morning to my boys bringing me in birthday cards which they had made. Skip had gotten up with them and helped them make these cards. So sweet. Skip was then off to school rotations.

My friends had called me the night before and said that they wanted to get the kids together for a swimming party. I thought that was a great idea. Little did I know that they had stuff planned for my birthday. They gave me some great gifts, made brownies (with candles and everything) and even sung happy birthday. It was so much fun. I have such incredible friends. *I wish I had some pictures to post but this took me by complete surprise so I didn't even have my camera with me.

That night one of the young women came over and watched the boys so Skip and I could go out to dinner. It is amazing how different dinner is without two wild and crazy boys. It was a lot of fun.





Skip also got me a great gift which I was in desperate need of....a swimsuit. Of course I did pick it out myself, Skip would have never attempted that. Here is a picture of the great suit.

Our little hill

This is a hill that is in our backyard. The kids love it. They are always running, ridding their scooter, etc. up and down this hill. Skip and I were doing yard work when we decided to join in on their fun. Yes, there are three of us in that little wagon (me or skip, casen, and jace). The kids thought this was a blast and we had to do it several times.

The Beach

Okay....so you will probably be seeing a lot of beach pictures on my blog. I hope to make it there a lot this summer. It is fabulous!!

This is Casen totally enjoying the beach. He loves to race his trucks across the beach and into the water. He also loves his new boogie board and playing in the water with that.

So, let me explain this picture. I decided to take my sunscreen and apply it to the boys when we got to the beach. I rubbed sunscreen all over Jace and then sure enough 5 seconds later he was covered in sand. The sand and sunscreen was everywhere. All of my friends were making fun of this.

Needless to say, I have since bought the cool new aerosol sunscreen that you mist on them and it dries really quickly. Works much better.

Our 4th of July

We had such a great 4th of July.

*We actually started the celebrating a little early by going to the Erie Seawolves Game (baseball), with a bunch of friends, on the night of the 3rd. The game was a lot of fun and they launched fireworks afterwards. So we got home from the game at about 11pm.

*The 4th of July morning began early. We had a ward breakfast that started at 8am. It was so hard getting my kids, and actually my husband, up and out the door. We were a little late...getting there at about 8:20 but so was half the ward.... so we were good.

*Next we went to the beach for a BBQ (thanks Suzi and Levi). This was a lot of fun. The kids totally loved the sand and the water. We played for hours.

*That night we went to a friends house and lit fireworks off (thanks Michelle and Matt). It was great to spend time together and see a great show, put on by none other than our husbands. We are pretty lucky there were no injuries.

*Unfortunately, my night did not end there I then went in to work for the night. Skip and the kids were off to bed.

What a great Day!!!!!