Our summer of fun-Part 2

We headed up to Snowbird and left Dad in CA. We even got Josh to go up the tram! (This was a big deal.) We got a day pass and did the Alpine Slide with Josh and Nathan a bunch of times. The kids love Snowbird!

We met our friends the Retkowski's (from Virginia) at the Children's Museum in Salt Lake. Josh had lots of fun playing with Hannah. This is them in a tornado tunnel.

 

We had lots of fun in Provo bowling and hanging out at Grandma's. Michael started his love/hate relationship with Daisy the dog. Poor Daisy.

 
Nathan turned 4. He really wanted a fire cake. I found some fancy ideas on Pinterest and then decided making it out of sprinkles would be just as great (and way easier!) so that's what we did! Nathan still informs everyone who will listen that he is NOT 3 anymore but FOUR! (Even though it has been 4 months...)
 

And the highlight of our summer was that Uncle Zach came home from a 2 year mission to Paraguay. My boys prayed for him EVERY day he was gone. And it wasn't me reminding them, because I forgot. They were just good. In fact, he is still usually a subject of their prayers. We are convinced this is why Zach has been having so many good things happen to him since he has been home.
 

A few days after Zach got home, Justin, Emily, Justin's Mom and I ran the Hobble Creek Half Marathon. It was fun to run with Emily during the race. Though she kicked my trash even though she was 5 months pregnant.

 

 And I look so terrible in this photo because I just fainted right before. The race beat me up!
 

We actually had the entire White Family together for the first time in years which meant family PICTURES! It was an awesome summer and we were pretty sad to go home to start school at the end of it.
 

 

 

Our summer of fun-Part 1

We had a great summer! I want to account for all our adventures so I can go back and make a photo book or something at some point. But a blog post will do for now!

We left the day Josh got out of school, Thursday June 13, for Utah. Justin had flown to England the day before for a conference. We went to the Tippetts family reunion on Saturday and then I flew off to meet Justin in London. Other than getting pretty sick while I was there, our trip was fabulous.

     

I got home a week and a half before Justin and so my mom drove back with me to California. My sister Katie and her 3 kids followed close behind. We went to the science center and the beach. My Dad, Jacob, Steph, Dan and Pete's new wife Valerie then joined us for a Disney adventure. Here are the kiddos watching fireworks.

We then all headed up to Monterey to where Pete and Valerie moved. (Pete was at army basic training) Steph's husband Josh joined us for the 4th of July. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and had a blast!

Chris and Myleka came and met us on the beach after my family had all left. We flew kites. Josh got pretty good!

We were home for two weeks after that, where I finished teaching my Lets Play Music classes and the kids did a week of swimming lessons. Josh turned 6 on July 21st and had his first real birthday party!

On Josh's birthday, I left with the kids for another adventure in Utah...to be continued...

 

Halloween & Santa Barbara

One Halloween pic, just for archival purposes. Mario, a tiger, and Jake (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates)

November has been busy. But super fun. We went to Santa Barbara so I could run a half marathon with Jaclyn. I was slow, but she didn't care. That was nice. Justin and I spent the rest of the 3 day weekend trying to figure out how we could make enough money so we could move to Santa Barbara. Seriously. Beautiful.

Santa Monica Trip

Justin's cousin got married in L.A. a couple of weeks ago and we decided to make a day trip out of it. We had never been to Santa Monica, so we chose that as our destination. It has been SO hot, we thought maybe we'd get a little relief!

The boys wanted to hold (and hand over) the money for a snowcone.

This little gem just made my day. Love these smiley kids!!

Kindergarten

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Kindergartener on our hands! Joshua is a champ thus far and it has already been a blast to hear about what he does all day. It's a big change for Nathan and Michael, and mostly MOM, to have big brother gone for 6 hours a day, but we are surviving...

Somehow.

What we've been up to...

 So we have been busy, busy bees.

Moving...

Taking a break at Disneyland...

Buying a new (pretty!) piano. We actually moved so that I could teach more. And I decided I wanted a new piano to teach on! So now I have two. And a little more space to do it in.

And of course, an Easter picture of my sweet little guys.

Adoption

So I know I am behind the times here, but I don't think I have mentioned that my sister Katie is going through the process of adopting from Ukraine right now. She is hoping to bring their little girl home sometime this summer. I thought I'd post her blog here for anyone to go see. We are pretty excited!

changinglives-oneatatime.blogspot.com/ 

And here is my happy little Michael, the best baby on the planet.