The 4th

What a weekend! First we had Chad's family reunion in Bountiful on Saturday. After the reunion, we met up with our friends, the Butlers and the Martinez's, for our favorite firework show in Riverton. Sunday, the 4th, Ken and Becky drove out with reunion left-overs and fed us dinner. Then the neighborhood gathered, as we usually do, for a firework show. It was my favorite kind of weekend! We enjoyed quality time as a family, with family and friends, and kept really busy with all sorts of fun stuff.

My baby is adorable! Have you ever seen anything so cute?


Here are Ken and Becky with their grandson's and Hallie, our neighbor... Not to confuse future generations, although I would take her if her mom would let me. She'd fit right in!



Our super fun neighbors, the Richharts



Grandpa Ken and Cohen



Chad the Firework Master



Neighbor Girls



I'll probably get in trouble for posting this picture, but I don't care. These people are the reason that we love our neighborhood so much. The world should know that they are the BEST NEIGHBORS EVER!



Love him :)



Brownie face!



Sparklers!



Nixin loved them.



And so did Grandpa Ken and I!



Chad's cool pic #1



Chad's cool pic #2



We hope your 4th was a great one. Ours sure was!

Williams Family Reunion

Chad's family got together for a family reunion. It was great to see everyone! I feel so lucky to have married into such a great group of people.

School's Out For Summer!

Here's my 1st grade graduate! When I look back at the past school year for Jack, I realize what an important year it was for him. He learned so much. His reading skills have made leaps and bounds, he can do math, tell time, and spell. He has made wonderful friends and absolutely loved his teacher, Mrs. Eberle. What a year of accomplishments! To celebrate, I jammed the song "School's Out" by Alice Cooper when Jack walked in the door. Then we crazy danced together in the living room. Yay! My kids are home with me for the summer! I just can't explain how good that feels. I love to have them here with me.

Special Awards

The last week of school, we were invited into Jack's class for an awards program. Each child told why they were special. Jack said "I am special because I work hard at school."


Jack received a Gold Medal for his reading minutes and also earned his Paws for Success Award.


Then Jack's teacher got up and explained that there was another award that she was going to give (one to a boy and one to a girl). This award was the Friendship Award. It was to be awarded to the child who the class voted would make the best kind of friend. The teacher expressed that they talked about friends and good qualities to look for in a friend. This was not a popularity contest, but a chance to award the child who has been a really good friend to the other children in the class. Jack won! What a good feeling to know that you are raising that kind of child. Jack is a good boy and I am so glad that he is my friend :) Here is Jack with Mrs. Eberle, his wonderful 1st grade teacher:


And here is Jack with two of his best friends, Jake and Caleb:

First Outing

The weather has finally warmed up and that meant that it was time to take our boat out for its first outing! We left Tuesday night and stayed with my dad and Debbie at their house in Hyrum. Wednesday morning we got up, ate breakfast, and loaded up the boat for a day at Hyrum Lake. Hyrum Lake was perfect and my dad and Debbie were awesome helpers! I will admit that I was really nervous about getting the boat in and out of the water, learning how to drive it, pulling Chad on his wakeboard, etc. all with a little baby. But, I didn't even have to worry about it. They helped Chad take care of everything. I did back the boat down the ramp (with a little help from Deb) and I drove it around a bit. It was fun.

The boys couldn't have been any happier to finally be out on the water!


This is my favorite picture! Look at that adorable little face!


Even though the water was cold enough to take Chad's breath away, he was excited to use his wakeboard. The coolest part was that he had the lake to himself!


Chad went and went and went. My dad dragged him around the lake a few times and finally Chad wore himself out enough that he just had to stop. He's pretty good... and you should have seen his bulging biceps!


Infant life jackets...they just make my baby look so miserable. He wasn't complaining though. In fact, Cohen did great on the boat!


We had one of Debbie's grandsons with us, Colton. The boys had a blast with him. The three of them hopped in the tube (they're much braver than me!) and couldn't wait for their ride. Nixin is much smaller than them and you just couldn't see him at all in the tube. It had me nervous a few times, hoping that he was still in there. We had told them that if they wanted to go faster, we needed to see three thumbs up. It was the cutest thing to see Jack and Colton with their thumbs up and then all you could see of Nixin was his little hand poking out with his thumb up. So cute!


Here is Chad driving his new baby:


And here I am with my little baby:


The boys loved watching Chad wakeboard. They can not wait for us to get a board small enough for them to use.


Grandma Debbie was the best! Isn't she so cute with the boys?


Cohen could not keep his eyes open on the boat. I think the combination of the snug life jacket, the hot sun, and the lull of the boat just knocked him out. Every once in a while you would see his eyes peek open and he'd look around for a second, then bam! He was out again.


Later in the afternoon, Chad and the boys decided that they would hop in the lake for a little swim.


My dad was the flag holder:


The boys and their dad in the lake:


Nixin was so brave to jump in! His face when he popped up out of the water was awesome, I wish that I would have gotten that on camera. I don't think that he expected to go all the way under the water. It was really funny.


Here's Cohen half in and out of sleep:


After boating, we went out to dinner and then headed back to my dad's to roast marshmallows (GIANT ones that we found @ Harmons!).



We had a wonderful time and can't wait for our next trip to the lake!