concert

when i saw that the piano guys were coming to the sandy amphitheater, i knew we needed tickets.  the cellist is pretty amazing and i wanted a little inspiration for abe, who's teacher keeps telling me he is so natural at the cello.  we all thought it was a great concert and abe was extremely interested the whole time. 

 vivian did a great job.  it was a late night and she was a trooper.  

 max made his own fun.  he took pictures of awesome cars through the fence, watched some of the concert and then fell asleep.   this is only a sample of the amazing shots he took:)

my two cute boys admiring the instruments.  you know dave was wishing he could hop on stage and play them.

sadie was pretty excited when we found this you tube video of the piano guys playing a little one direction!  it actually is pretty cool.  watch it here
(it's almost as good as holly playing the piano with her elbows...and one of the guys did go to my high school and i remember going to good ol' classic to watch him in his band.  good times.)

zoo

kai's summer fun pick:  hogle zoo

my mom was tending my brother's kids for a few days so we invited them to join us.

sadie was at girl's camp and was actually really disappointed we went without her.

 we really liked the new exhibits.  it felt like a whole new zoo.
the river otter exhibit was my favorite.  the polar bears were doing all kinds of tricks.  they were great, but i really have a deep dislike of bears, so i refuse to post pictures.

 

 the reptile/bird house was a hit.

max and ben doing their scary snake face.

random iphotos

a few photos i found on my iphone that i didn't take, but loved finding.

vivs is super smiley!  anytime i make eye contact with her, she will pretty much give me the cutest smile.

 sadie likes to mess around with my photo camera app.

 where was i when all of this was taking place?  i really don't know:)

vivian loves to hold on to a blanket.  it is so safe and secure.  i love it.

my favorite quotes of the week:

a lady in our ward that has a son sadie's age stopped me in the hall and said, "i just love your daughter. she is so cute.  there is something about her...she is just so smart and modest.  i'm so glad there are still girls like her around."

abe in the back seat talking to vivian:  "you are so intelligent and you look great in rainbow!"  she was wearing different colored stripes.  i loved it.  i always tell the boys that big brothers can make a huge difference.  if they tell her how wonderful she is, she will believe it and won't need other people to tell her that.  they really do build her up.

i love that abe!

RSL camp

 more photos from real salt lake camp.  it was the favorite soccer camp this summer.

 max's slow motion, keeper, posing for the camera shot.

kai worked hard!  he also told me that someone at camp had TWO PAIRS of soccer cleats!  how does he notice these things?

 abe had a one on one drill.  he did a header and then without the ball touching the ground, kicked it in for a goal.  it was pretty awesome and we sort of got a picture of it :)

why?

in our new house, why did we make sure everyone had their own room???

vivs in 3-D

for family night, we met dave for dinner and a movie.  ice age in 3-D.  when we got home, i found vivs like this :)

her brothers love her and pay attention to her.  my favorite quote of the week has to be when kai climbed up on my bed next to her and said, "nice onesie vivs!"

summer days

i absolutely love summer!  i love calm mornings when i get to sit and hold vivian and i can hear my kids playing.  i love hanging out with my kids and having adventures with them, but mostly,  i love just talking and laughing with them.  sadie left for girl's camp with our new ward and i am missing her!  they went to bear lake and i hope she is having a great experience. 

i am also tending my niece for a few days while her parents are being in charge of trek. 

this summer abe and i are training for a 5k.  someone said you don't train for a 5k, but i am.  this fifth pregnancy about did me in.  it's hard for me to run, but i wanted to pick something that was hard for me and show my kids i could make myself do it.  abe is helping me and we are going to do it together.  i love saying things like, i'd better eat since i'm 'training'...sadie will laugh because she knows i only run a mile.   ANYWAY,  we always run past this little pond and it's full of little guppies (dave informed us they are called minnows).  we decided today's adventure should be catching guppies.  

before vivian and i reached the pond, abe was already up to his shoulders in the water and his shoe was stuck in the sinking mud.  gross.     

 they caught five.  their names:  max, kai, abe, mini abe, and HUGE abe :)

 i kept thinking how gross the water was and reminding myself that my mom used to send my brothers to the canal to swim...ghetto.  point is, they survived without catching any major disease.

the boys thought it was great!

 after guppy hunting, we headed to the pool.  i strategically planned pond then swimming, in hopes the chlorine would kill any germ left on us from the yucky pond water. 

i love this picture of max wearing his life jacket that always pushes up on his cheeks:)

 i dipped vivi's feet in the water and she liked it.  we decided to let her get in in her clothes--i hope it reminded her of when she was in my tummy and i jumped in fully dressed to save max.

I LOVE FUN SUMMER DAYS!

**our next adventure will be releasing the guppies.  abe has such a tender heart.  i love that about him.