Summer Vacation, Part 1

We returned last night (at about 1:30 AM - yikes!) from our 2 1/2 week vacation in Utah and Idaho, so now it's time to update y'all on what we were up to . . .

Because Russ just started his new job a few months ago, he couldn't take a lot of vacation days, but the girls and I flew to Utah (the PROVO airport!) on June 23rd and spent a week and a half having fun with my family.

Adventure #1: Seven Peaks Water Park

I haven't been to Seven Peaks for MANY years, but we all had a great time.

Kaylee and Ashlyn spent nearly all their time playing at this children's pool.

 They went down this slide over, and over, and over, and over again. It was the perfect size for them!

 It was especially fun to be there with cousins!

Fabulous day for all, and only a few minor sunburns on the kids to show for it (we won't dwell on the major sunburn I received). Hooray for summer fun!!!

Father's Day

A very HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to my wonderful Dad!

And to the fabulous father of my beautiful girls!

One Final Birthday Surprise

And here they are with the bikes they picked out:

Even though Brenna didn't celebrate a birthday last week, we decided to let her in on the "new bike" fun. :)

Birthday Girl, Take 2

Kaylee's birthday was yesterday (June 7th), but Russ had to be in Houston until later into the evening, so we did most of our celebrating today.

The girls and I did take her to lunch at Olive Garden yesterday.

And she got to open one gift.

Her celebration day began with going out to breakfast with Dad.

And ended with playtime at Chuck E. Cheese, 

cake and ice cream, 

and more presents, which she neatly organized about as soon as she could get them unwrapped.

We feel so fortunate to have this obedient, intelligent, and wonderful girl in our family!!!

One Year Older . . .

Happy, Happy Birthday to our beautiful FIVE-YEAR-OLD, Ashlyn!!!

Russ had to go down to Houston for some training today, 

so we did a lot of our celebrating on Monday.

Out to breakfast with Dad in the morning.

Time for presents!

Ashlyn requested a "Star Wars" cake this year. 

We ADORE this little girl!!!

Woohoo!

So, after about a month of living in the "real world" (as opposed to the student world), we've decided . . . that it's AWESOME!!! They even pay you real money!!!

Temple Trip

We were able to visit the lovely Houston Temple today. It is a little closer to us than the Washington DC Temple was from our home in Delaware, but it is much smaller. So, there's no fabulous visitor's center for us to take advantage of for entertaining the girls. Luckily, the surrounding area is filled with plenty of stores and restaurants where we can take them when it's too hot to spend much time on the temple grounds (which will likely be very often).

So, here it is:

I attempted to take a picture of the girls out front, but it was too sunny and none of them would look at the camera.

So then we tried a shot in the shade, but it was obviously a little too shady to turn out well.

Here it is minus the not-so-willing live subjects. Very beautiful!