Fun at the Fair!

Man I love the fair! I love watching my kids have fun, the food is great, I get to hold hands with my cute husband, and if you're a people watcher like I am, you can't find a better place to be entertained! No really. The hosts of "What Not to Wear" would be beside themselves as to what to do! They could do 2 years worth of shows with what they'd find here! Gotta love it!

The zoo train is always such a big hit! I'm sad that Dallin will probably want nothing to do with these rides next year! What are we going to do when he wants to go on the twirl-spin-and-barf rides? Brett and I don't do well with those. I guess we'll have to invite a friend! Aunt Shannon or Aunt Natalie?!!

Jenna was in heaven. She loved this ride and the helicopter one too.

I grew up on a ranch, so as a child the animal barn was my least favorite place to be! My kids love it! I wish I never would have introduced them to the rides! I could have saved a lot of money over the past few years!

The kids loved this little bunny. The little 4-H boy was so nice and patient to let all of the kids pet his little rabbit.

Dallin saw these and just had to drive one. He promised he'd go home and do lots of jobs to pay for it! He was so careful to stay on the dirt path. Even though he got lapped a few times by the other drivers he got out at the end and said, "I won the race and I didn't even drive off the road!" That's my boy!

Fun in the Sun!

The other day our friend Hayley invited us over to play in their new pool. In the early afternoon she started filling the pool with the hose. She also added hot buckets of water to make it a little warmer. (It was only about 66 degrees outside so we knew the sun wouldn't heat it too much.) She even hooked the hose to her kitchen faucet so she could add more hot water. Two and a half hours later (and no hot water to be found) the pool was still filling up! I couldn't believe Owen, Hayley's son, just dove in face first. The water was FREEZING!! Later the pool buckled and the water started flooding their backyard. It was so funny watching our delayed reactions. "Hey, where's all this water coming from? Augh!! Hurry! Fix the pool!" I'm sure her husband was delighted when the lawn was way too wet to mow that night!

While Owen and Dallin enjoyed the water, Quinn, Jared and Jenna had fun playing with the toys!

TENNIS ANYONE?

Last night for Family Home Evening we took the kids to try out their new tennis rackets that Grandma and Grandpa Gardiner gave them for their birthdays. We had so much fun attempting to hit the ball! We learned two things from the whole experience.....One, Jenna needs her own racket and two, we definitely need to go again. We had a blast and we all need a lot more practice. Help us, Uncle Steve!

You go girl! Jenna loved this, but didn't last too long. She ran to play on the slide while the rest of us played some more.

Look at that form. Actually Jared did pretty well when he wasn't being a wild child!

After Brett worked with Dallin on keeping his forearm straight, Dallin started hitting the ball a lot better.

Randomness

This week was actually pretty uneventful, except for the fact that we had two sunny days. One of those days was spent at the zoo and the other at two different parks. I've learned that when the sun does pop through this summer I need to drop everything and go out and enjoy it!

This is Jenna's new dollhouse. This is where she will eat, sleep and pretty much live until she outgrows it! Our friend was having a garage sale, so I couldn't resist! (Just what I need....one more big toy in my house!) The kids have been having fun though! The house is already filled with stuffed animals. I'm sure in future years Barbies will take over!

Dallin was so excited for me to take this picture so we could put it on our blog. This is a snow leopard from our zoo.

Brett taught the kids what an owl says.....

"Hooo, Hooo, who's your daddy?!

This is Jenna's version. These kids don't stand a chance
with us as parents! We are such nerds aren't we?!

SCORE Jared!!

I can't even tell you how excited I am today! Jared has been saying every day that he is going to score a goal on the last day of soccer and he did just that! The past few games have just been killing Brett and me because he has come so close to kicking that darn ball into the net. He had been the only one on his team that hadn't scored and had been feeling a little sad so I was just praying that it would happen.

The coach, Shannon, was cracking me up. Every pre-game drill was focused on getting the ball to Jared who then was supposed to kick it in the net. She told all of the kids to let Jared kick the ball a lot. (We felt bad because some of the kids took that literally and were scared to even touch the ball!) All of the parents were cheering him on and wanted him to play extra minutes. (They probably just wanted to silence the psycho soccer mom!)

The very last play of the game he booted it in! As you can see from the video, I was very excited! I captured the goal but then my memory card was full. So went crazy and then it ends. The cutest part took place after he made the goal. All of the kids ran over and hugged him and were jumping up and down. (I swear it was straight out of a movie!) As I was wiping tears away I looked over to see another mom and the coach crying too. It was just great to see how everyone helped my little boy achieve his goal!

The greatest part of all was that Grandma and Grandpa Gardiner were there to see both boys play! They both earned little trophies and got some cool visors to keep the rain, oh I mean sun, out of their eyes!

After the big game, the kids enjoyed pizza and yummy cupcakes. We really had fun this year and will miss going to soccer.

Fish On!

In Alaska when you have a fish on your line you yell, "Fish On!" to let everyone around you know to get out of your way so you can land your fish. Well let me just tell you that Brett and I had some massive fish on this weekend!

Brett's parents, brother and 7 other guys (Bart's brothers-in-law plus one of Brett's friends) came to town to fish and enjoy Alaska. We fished the Kenai from 6:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. and here are the facts.... (It's late, I'm tired so I'm trying to keep this short!)
**I out-fished my husband again! (3 for 3)
**I caught the biggest fish! (50 pounds)
**I'm really humble about it!

Actually, Brett and I were really glad that we both caught fish, but were bummed for everyone else. (Another guy caught a 30 pounder, but everyone else got skunked. Because it rained in the mountains three days earlier, the water was really murky so the fish couldn't see the bait. There weren't many fish being caught in other boats either.)


Okay, I love my triple chin here, but this fish was so heavy! I couldn't even lift it off the ground!

Out of the goodness of my heart I let everyone pose with my fish. (I am such a brat, aren't I?!) These are Brett's parents, Errol and LeiMomi Gardiner. We had a lot of fun with them in our boat.

My stud of a husband pulled in this 40 pounder. He is actually strong enough to lift his up!

Here's the gang! Although we only landed 3 fish for 12 people, (five other people had bites but were unsuccessful hooking and landing the fish.) everyone still had lots of fun!

Happy Birthday Dallin!

I can't believe I have a 6 year old now! (I guess many people my age have teenagers, but it's still a shock to me!) Dallin wanted a sports party this year. The kids had fun out in the yard playing, "Soccer Ball, Soccer Ball, Baseball" (Duck, Duck, Goose), frisbee, soccer and a tag game. After we wore them out the kids ate pizza, opened presents and played with the things he received.

Dallin was so excited to receive his very own pastels and drawing pad from Grandma and Grandpa Lacey. He also received a tennis racket, some sticky ball paddles, lots of art supplies, a Webkinz, a dino cave, some dinosaurs and some other fun things.

Dallins' friends were very generous! He's a very spoiled and lucky boy!

Can you tell I said, "Say cheese!" Here's the soccer cake that took way too long to decorate. Dallin made my day when he said, "Mom, that cake is awesome!" It was all worth it!

Happy Fourth of July!

Ever since moving from Utah, I've struggled with the way we celebrate the 4th of July in Alaska. It's just not the same watching fireworks in broad daylight! This year we decided to go downtown to the parade. Wow, talk about exciting! (Okay I was kidding! It was the most boring parade I've ever experienced.) I do have to say that the chubby rollerskaters and the belly dancers with bellies like mine were the big hit! Pathetic huh?!

What's more American than a hotdog bun? Jenna enjoyed watching peoples' doggies and liked waving her flag.
It's pretty sad when the most exciting part of the parade is cheering on the pooper scooper who follows the reindeer. (I bet you've never seen a reindeer in your parade, have you?!)

Since good 'ol mom and dad were too cheap to buy tickets for rides, the kids sat on the front of the fire truck instead. Woo hoo!

I love my little patriotic family! (Nice sweatshirts and jackets in the middle of the summer huh?!)