Halloween

Every year I like to try and do a theme for Halloween.  This year we found Max and Isabel's old costumes (and mine) that helped us decide on a Beauty and the Beast theme.  Max was Gaston, which turned out amazing. Izzy was Bell of course (Thanks to some assistance from my Mom and Aunt Missy), and JoJo was our little beast.  It was fun, and the kids really enjoyed dressing, and acting their parts :)

 Reece did not participate in our theme, unless I missed something in the movie???

 This boy told me he wants to dye his hair black with blonde highlights.  So silly, but he is a handsome boy!

Halloween is always a fun time to get out and have some fun.  We def. had lots of fun, but I'm kinda glad it's all over for another year. 

Reece's birthday

OK, so I get the worst wife of the year award because I had absolutely nothing planned for Maurice's birthday.  Luckily a few days before, my dad called and asked if we wanted free tickets to Lagoon.  We had never been before and so I was hesitant, but you can't turn down free tickets.  My parents came up with my Aunt Missy and we all went to Lagoon for Reece's birthday.  It was really fun.  They had a halloween thing going on, and so that made it extra cool.  Although Isabel did not think that any of the zombies were fun at all.  Sorry Izzy!  I'll just post a few pictures

Isabel and Joe had their faces painted thanks to papa

there was a cute little maze with some picture opps.

 

 

The little kids land was awesome, and not many long lines, so Joe was in heaven!

 

Thank you for the free tickets, and the wonderful time!  Oh yeah, Happy Birthday Reece :)

Wicked

Back in October, the 6th to be exact I drove to Las Vegas with my sisters.  We were given one of the coolest birthday presents ever.  My Mom and Dad bought us tickets to go see the show Wicked.  It was amazing.

  It was fun to go with my sisters, and at the end of the day we went to cheesecake factory.  Couldn't have asked for a better day.  Thanks Mom and Dad, (and Mavis for suggesting it :) 

Just a few random Pictures

Just some random pictures for any blog checkers out there

This was a few weeks ago at the kids school carnival

 Here's Joe gettin' some serious air time.  He was just a little nervous :)

Not the best picture, but this is a photo for my mother of the year award

 What I mean by that was when my son told me he couldn't see things far away, I didn't believe him.  Took him in for an eye exam, and he couldn't even see the third line down.  That = mother of the year!

Next up, injured my thumb playing ball, and got to wear this beauty for a few weeks.

Lastly, Max is still loving football.  Here's a shot of his team this year.  Max plays corner back or something on defense, and is on the kick off team.  Their record is 3-0, off to a great start!  Game 4 this coming Saturday, Go Orem!

Pre-schooler

Jo-Jo started Pre-School this year.  Here are a few pictures of his first day:

 

 Here's Joe, and his friend Gavin

 

Here's a few things he's created so far:

 

 

What a big boy!  I'm a little lonely without my budah, but I'm not gonna cry about it :)

1st day of school 2012

Max

4th grade

Mrs. Hill

Isabel

2nd grade

Mrs. Kawala

Best buds on their first day

 

  ...but wait, there's another one who wants his picture taken too

 Joseph

Preschool (starts next week :)

 Mrs. Lynn

 

(I'll have to take more of this guy on his first day)

So it begins...

another year of hard work.

Good luck monkeys!

Summer time

It has been an amazing summer!  I've spent every day with my amazing children, and I've loved every minute of it.  There was no time to sit at this life draining computer, because I was soaking up all I could from the sun and my darlings.  I realize that I will want something for my records, so now I will sit and try to post as many pictures as I can to give an idea of what we did this summer.

First off, we went to seven peaks water park quite a bit

 

This is the only picture I have of that, we were with the Toiaivaos this day, as well as many other days.

Next up...New Harmony!

What would our summer be without a few trips down south.

These first few photos are of a trip we took to the narrows, in Zion national park.  The kids LOVED it.  My dad and mom, Maley and Lauric, and me and the kids.

 We took a little shuttle up to the trail head

 

 Swimming and lunch

 In the narrows

 

 

 

 On our way out, wanted to show just how deep it was in certain spots

We also did a mud run, well the kids did a mud run...

 

 

 

 I think the kids enjoy the mud run until they're cold and wet at the end.  We always bring them home to Papa and Grandma's house to warm up in the hot tub, and the sun.

 

Next day we drove out to Panguitch to see some hot air balloons.  We had to wake up super early, and some of us were not happy about that.  We made it there just in time to find out that they would not be sending the balloons up due to high winds.  Super good news for an already grumpy Jessie :)

We didn't let our trip go to waste, we headed out to Bryce National Canyon which was just 20 min. outside the town.  It was beautiful, not just the wasted trip I thought it was after no balloons.

 

Next up was pre-4th of July festivities with the Browns.

Stan was running in the Spartan race up near Park City, so we went and hung out with them the night before.

Olympic park, and then some dinner and swimming at their hotel...

 

 

After Stan's race they headed to our house to continue the party.  We went to our favorite little waterfall up the Provo Canyon

We also did get to see some hot air balloons on the 3rd AND 4th of July.  Turns out they flew right over our house this year.  Some even landed at the school where we were having our ward breakfast.

The balloons that landed at the school even offered to take the kids up for a little ride.  They went about 20 feet up and then just back down.

 

After the breakfast and balloons, we went home to get ready for the day.  We let the kids decorate their bikes for their own little parade.  It was amazing!  I have a video, but it will not upload for some reason.  Sorry, all you get is this happy guy...

The 4th was super fun, we had a ton of family here, and we partied all day!!!

Here are a few random things:

We went to trafalga (fun center) a few times

 

 Lawyer Atuaia's animal birthday party

 

 I got in a little R&R with my girl.  

Although this R&R stands for Raquetball, and Running, still tons of fun!

and I hiked Y mountain with some cool chix!

 

This summer also brought us 2 Tracy Blackwells.  Zac and Noah came out for E.F.Y. up at the U.  After their thing they came and spent a few days with us in O town.  We did a lot of boring things that I'm sure the teenage boys hated, but the kids had fun having them here.

We hiked to the Y (I was thrilled to be doing this twice in the same week)

 

 

 

 Then when Reece went to work, the kids and I brought the boys for a picnic to bridal veil.  They also had some fish stalked up there and there was food to feed them.  That was fun!

K, next, no pictures to document, but we did spend some time up in Park city with the Daytons.  They are always so kind to let us come invade their family time.  While there, we ate, swam, danced, and had too much fun!  In between Park city fun, I had the chance to run my first half marathon.  I finished alive :) I think my time was 1:53:00, making about 8.6 min. miles.  Not bad for my first/last!

 Buffy killed it!

Also, let's not forget Chick-fil-a day,

The mall had a 2 hour long line all supporters of chick-fil-a (fast food).  We didn't make it to the front, but we were there the next day to show continued support

 

I also got to go with Max to his scout day camp:

 

Super fun!

K next and last we took a trip out to Cali. for our last burst of summer vacation.  Blackwells were having a big family reunion.  We loved every second of that time that we got to spend with family!

We left early Wed. morning, and made the trip in 12 hours (only 3 stops this time)

 

We did so many things upon arrival that I can not write about them all.  I have pictures, and there have been lots of photo's on f.b., so enjoy!

Good ole Haystack

Cousins!

Boys

 Girls

 Looks like they're building another bridge next to the bay bridge

Here's our Bay cruise...

Super foggy under the bridge

 

 

 

 

 Still pretty

 Alcatraz

 My little monkeys

The perfect way to feed a gazillion Blackwells after a day in the city...

 

 We got to take family photo's up at the temple.  This is the only one I got with my camera.  Hopefully more to come later.

Love my boys!

 Snacks after pictures, always nice!

 Also while in Calif. we celebrated a very important occasion...

Mom and Dad Blackwell's 50th wedding anniversary!  They are still so cute and in love!

Thank you for all the good times!

 

On the way home from Cali., we stopped off in Lake Tahoe for just a few more days of fun in the sun.  My parents were kind enough to invite us to share they're time share.  We are so grateful, Tahoe is one of our favorite places to play!  Thank you Dad and Mom!

First stop was actually Virginia City.  We had to drop Reece off at the Reno airport so he could get back to work, then we drove to V.C. to walk the streets of this cool old town.

The next day we picked papa up from the airport, and stopped at this beautiful shoreline on the way to the hotel

 

 

 

We did a lot of swimming...

 

 

 Actually Joe was pretty amazing! Watch out Michael Phelps!

 A day at the beach,

Started out super nice and burnin' hot, but then cooled off and almost came down on us.

 

 

 

 Got to jump off some rocks, Isabel was brave and went first

 

 

 

 Two cold girls

 and of course the little man actin' all tough!

After getting rushed off the beach, we headed to my Aunt Kathy's house.  There she let us play with all her toys, she fed us dinner, and just flat out treated us like royalty.  Thank you aunt Kath!

That was it, our last night of vacation.  The next morning we ate some food, packed up and headed out. 9 hours later we were safe and sound in our sweet little home.  Daddy was all ready to snuggle us, which we always enjoy!  

After all was said and done, there are absolutely no regrets this summer.  We did everything we wanted to, plus a few awesome things we didn't even expect.  I will miss having my monkey's at home with me, and I will count down the days with them until summer comes again.