Looking back a few months to play catch up. I did not have much for May and then by the end of June was in full "hosting the entire family" mode!
Cute Sydney had her eye surgery early May and was such a little trooper. They did surgery on both eyes for her Strabismus. It went well and they feel good about the results. She began crawling within a week to 10 days after the surgery now that she is not seeing double or getting dizzy.
I finished up my school year with so much fun and energy! This was AIRPLANE DAY and the kids loved throwing their paper planes at ME!
It is hard to let the current year kids go and know I will get super young kiddos to start over with for next fall!
I helped my friend Esther with a Pysanky activity at Jennifer's house this month. The ladies and a couple daughters had such a good time. It was really therapuetic for them and Esther is a master at helping with this activity! I helped a young girl do an egg and it turned out really pretty (the top turquoise and pink floral egg)
Our RS Presidency was undergoing changes yet again. Cute Ashli, our secretary, was moving the end of June and we caught her for a final photo before she was gone on a bunch of trips before the move. She will be missed!
Then the end of June, I was actually called away from the RS to become the Primary Secretary. Lynda was on a trip to Alaska and it totally blindsided her, which was not very cool. I really thought they would leave me until they reorganized the RS, which they should be doing soon.
We had SO MUCH FUN on our trip to Costa Rica, late May to early June,with Bree and Elliot. They were so easy to travel with and so accommodating to all the things we wanted to do, like look for birds and wildlife EVERYWHERE!
This was at the Mistico Hanging Bridges tour that we did the second morning of our trip. Very beautiful place with lots of animals and birds.
We saw monkeys all the time on this trip. These were some Spider Monkeys that we saw either on a hike or near one of our hotels. Pretty much every place we stayed was near a jungle (by design) so it was really fun just seeing what was out there.
This is how Scott looked most of the days of our trip...camera in hand!
On our Arenal Volcano Peninsula hike, we got poured on with rain! It actually rained almost every day of our trip but usually in the evenings when we were trying to find someplace to eat dinner. This day we hiked, got rained on, hiked more and just worked through it and it was fine. Still saw tons of stuff!
This is us at CROCODILE BRIDGE. This silly place ended up being one of the best birding hot spots of the trip! HA! We spent a long time there walking both sides of the bridge and seeing the only Macaws we saw the entire trip! Oh, and a few crocodiles as well.
So, this bird must be my favorite surprise of all time. We hired a guide in Monteverde Cloud Forest area who took us to Curi Cancha Reserve early in the morning. As we looked for birds prior to the park opening, we heard a metallic clanging sound almost like an electronic alarm, and we thought it was the maintenance area of the park...but NO, it was this bird!
The Four Wattled Bell-bird is only in that area part of the year and had just come to the area so we were very fortunate! Made our day. We saw and heard it all morning long!
We enjoyed so much seeing many animals while out and about. This Coati baby got hauled away after a bit by mommy Coati, carrying it in her teeth by the nape of the neck. Our guide thought there must have been a threat to the baby up on the log. We could hear the Mom sort of growling and breathing loudly to get the baby's attention.
Here is our guide Justin after our morning with him. We found like 35 new species with him and he was so good at spotting and hearing so many birds!
We loved our entire trip and would go back in a heartbeat!
We got back in time to participate in Sydney's first trip to Hogel Zoo!
They had a "Dad's get in free" on Father's Day weekend so we paid for the girls and all of us went to the zoo! Scott and I went early to bird the park next door and save a parking spot in the shade and to be there to get tickets.
It was a hot day so we wore hats and sunglasses and just had the best time! We loved taking Bree and Elliot as well! We all had a picnic in the zoo before heading home.
Next year we will have 2 little local grandkiddos to take to the Zoo!
Sydney was always looking and wanting SOMETHING! She is so expressive and always on the lookout!
The following weekend we got another fun surprise...FAMILY FROM NEW JERSEY! We picked up Jenna and family Saturday June 21 and had most of them for 2 full weeks.
The kids were so excited to meet Kaia when Bree and Elliot came over. We had many fun times together all week long while the boys were at BYU Basketball Camp!
One project that we did was to go paint Braden and McKenna's old red shed gray using our old house paint. This is a pic after one night of painting the flat walls.
The next night, we redid wood on the doors, then painted all the trim white. It looks brand new!
Our other painting project happened the following Monday before Austin arrived, as we painted the front of Bree and Elliot's garage green to match the house and did some painting of trim in the back of the house and helped haul some wood chips to their new garden area. So hot, but so worthwhile. It was a fun labor of love! Pizza and Mac and Cheese to follow was a nice treat too!
One of the grandkids favorite things to do is to go to the Rec Center pools. We went with all Jenna's family and Braden and McKenna one afternoon at the end of that first week. It was Sydney's first time at the public pool too! Very fun time!
And, as no surprise, we made a stop at In and Out for dinner one evening much to the joy of everyone!
They like the burgers, the fries and the shakes!
Caught this pic of Ty holding Sydney who was engrossed in reading a book and so happy to be on uncle's lap. She was really good at meeting so many new people!
We went on a hike up to SILVER LAKE with Jenna and family the Saturday before Ty and Carter had to leave for basketball at the high school. We saw 3 Moose that morning and did a nice hike up to Lake Solitude. Saw a pretty Summer Tanager that was so pretty too.
No surprise that we ended up back at the pool the following week with AUSTIN'S FAMILY!
Not as crowded as I remember it being in years past, and a great way to cool off in hot weather!
Bree brought their ceramic painting activity to the house and kept the kids busy for days! They got to paint glaze designs on many ornament size pieces and it was so much fun! We can't wait to see the finished results!
We took the whole family to the LIVING PLANET AQUARIUM one afternoon. It was really a great outing for everybody and we loved the touch pools, the Penguins, the Otters, the animals like the Cloud Leopard and the SHARKS!
We invited Lori and Carole to join us and here is our group! Then it was another In and Out night for dinner!
We did CAKE DECORATING one afternoon prior to our July 4 BBQ hosted at our home for my side of the family. Scott took the one broken cake and turned it into a MIND-BLOWN EMOJI!
All the kids got to decorate their own cake and then we had Brooklyn and Bennett, take on Sydney's first SMASH CAKE! They did a 2 level cake and made it SO CUTE!
On July 4, we took Jenna and Cassidy and Klay to run the 5K and 1 mile respectively. We had McKenzie and Evan join us early AM to get them to the starts. We stayed with the kids and Jenna ran to her start by Brick Oven.
It was amazing to get the kids in at the very front of the start and to see them hold their own the entire race...Klay came in like #20 or so in the entire race, number 4 in his age group, and Cassidy came in like #31 and first in her age group by 2 minutes! People were like "Look at that little girl" when she came in so fast! Jenna came in first in her age group as well around 20.5 minutes for the 5K, which is awesome!
We then had to find a spot at the parade and we did that, behind another group but in full sun! The kids LOVED getting all the pre-parade goodies that were tossed or handed to them. They raked it in! We stayed for maybe half the parade with their families before bailing due to the heat!
That afternoon we had over my sisters and their kids for our usual family BBQ and fed them tons of food and played lots of games and played in the sand area. It was a lot of fun!
Sydney did NOT smash her cake, but poked at it for like 6 minutes...so cute!
We sang happy birthday to everybody and ate lots of cake and ice cream!
Everybody left on July 5 and the house was SO QUIET!
Then on July 10, Sydney really did turn ONE and on the 13th, we enjoyed her birthday party at her house where McKenna designed the cutest SYDNEY IN ONE-DERLAND theme party based on Alice in Wonderland! It was just adorable and we loved being involved!
She again did NOT smash her cake, but poked at it but liked the whipped cream that uncle Elliot (McKenna's brother) gave her.
The week of the big party, we spent a few nights helping Braden with this project. The old garbage heap from the old owners, turned to branch pile got moved, cleared off, dug down and then the sand we had hauled from LeAnn's got spread, the pavers placed and the pea gravel put in between...to create a lovely patio space to extend their current patio area. It was an amazing project that happened so quickly!
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