Randomness

So we finally switched over to smartphones.  A friend of ours told us about this service that uses your wifi and it's only $10 a line with unlimited talk and text.  It's unlimited data on a wifi, but only on the wifi.  Anyway, it's been great so far.  And the camera on it is pretty good, so I always have a camera with me.  These are pictures from my phone.
One morning, we set off to hike part of section 16 in Black Forrest.  The kids were pretty whiny, so we didn't do the whole thing.  Baby Girl loved it though and wanted to walk.  She loved the horses we saw. She is such an outdoorsy girl.

I loved seeing the wildflowers growing up amidst all the burned and blackened trees.  It just reminded me of new growth and how we can all bounce back.

I loved this picture of Minnie holding her little cousin.  He was loving her toting him around.  Every time she tried to put him down, he would reach back up for her to hold him again.  She reminds me a lot of one of PC's nieces who was always carrying a baby on her hip at that age.  

We took our neighbor's kids one night on for their anniversary.  We just love them and wanted them to have a nice dinner together.  It rained that night and we saw a beautiful double rainbow.  I do love that about Colorado; they get the prettiest rainbows. 

The kids wanted to make the survival bracelets out of paracord, so I put PC in charge of that since he had done it before.  I think he really enjoyed himself.  In no time at all, four bracelets were made!

I found this classic 1960's Fisher Price play farm at a garage sale for $1.  The kids LOVE it!!

Baby Girl finally got the cyst on the inside of her lip removed.  The surgery went great.  The doctors were all amazing.  The whole thing took about 20 minutes from when she went to sleep and when she was awake and screaming for me.  It is so nice to have it out, and she did great.  Here is a picture of her later that day.  You can see that the doc drew a spot on the side of her mouth so he knew what side it was on.  She kept sticking her tongue out because she was still numb.  

Baby Girl loves the movie Frozen.  She stole Minnie's Anna doll and they struggle over who gets to play with it all the time.  We put it on in the car a few times and this is what she looks like:  frozen!

We went to a park we don't normally go to and the kids loved playing on different equipment.  Baby Girl just walks around and wants to be a part of everything!

Our subdivision has been putting on some fun things this summer.  One thing that is really neat is "Concert in the Park."  They have gotten a few different bands to come to our park and play for 2 hours.  It's all free and it's the one right by our house.  We didn't make it to the first one, so we were excited to go to this one.  We invited Nana and Johnny to come since Papa was out of town.  The kids loved it because a lot of their friends were there.  They even had a bouncy castle out for them.  There was a good turnout and once the sun went down and wasn't right in our eyes, it was really nice weather.  

We came home and had ice cream afterwards.

On Saturday, Tink had her swim meet.  She did well.  She decided to only do the backstroke.  She had a hard time breathing inside.  It is so muggy and she is used to swimming outside, which is a big difference.  I didn't get a very good picture, though.  She is the one farthest away.  

I was worried about keeping Baby Girl contained so close to the pool, but she did really well. She loved sitting next to Minnie and reading her book.

And finally, yesterday, I was able to get her hair into the cutest little pigtails!  LOVE them and that cute little girl!

Blog

For my "Teachings of the Living Prophets" class, I had to compile quotes about eight different topics.  Four were given to me and four I chose to work on myself.  We had to find 10 quotes for each topic.  As part of the project, we had to present it someway.  I am using a blog for mine. If you are interested at all, the site address is: gcoquote.blogspot.com
I only have two topics up so far.  I am finished compiling my quotes, I just need to write position statements for the other six topics.  I think I will keep the blog updated even after the class with some of my favorite quotes, not necessarily from the living prophets, that have affected me in some way.

Youth Conference

We had our ward Youth Conference this weekend.  I had so much fun.  It was so nice to just go and not have to plan anything.  (They had called a committee to take care of all that!) Since Baby Girl had just had her surgery on Thursday, I didn't go Friday night, but I had a blast on Saturday.  We started out with breakfast and a great speaker, and then headed out to Black Forrest to help with moving the "slash" (the burned branches they had cut off the bigger trees) off of people's property who had lost their homes. The couple we helped out had just had their barn rebuilt.  The foundation for their house was finally finished (they had to wait for the ground to thaw).  We heard some really sad stories from them too.  Their neighbor across the street was a 90-year-old lady who was in the hospital recovering from a sickness when the fires came through last summer.  When she was finally ready to be released from the hospital and go home, they had to tell her that she didn't have a home to go to.  She was so depressed, she passed away.
The picture above it me holding a completely burned water pipe and spigot. The one below is me and the girls I was working with to clear the slash.

Next, we headed out to Homestead Ranch Park for some fun.  The best part was when the youth built forts and the leaders attacked them with water balloons, shaving cream, and pool noodles.  It was so much fun--even with the shaving cream in my ears and eyes!  Here are some of my favorite photos:

To finish off this amazing day, we were blessed to hear from Andrew Propst.  He was one of the LDS missionaries who was kidnapped in Russia in 1998.  There is a movie about his and his companion's experience during that time.  It is called The Saratov Approach. I watched it last weekend, and it was a great movie.  It was so fun to meet him and hear about his experience firsthand.  I was so glad I was able to be a small part of Youth Conference and make such great memories.

Summer Fun

I was selected to receive an early release copy of Chevy Stevens new book called That Night.  It was great to read a book for fun and not school!

Bucko won the Limbo at pack meeting for the Webelos.  So fun!

We went to Glow Golf one day with friends.  Baby Girl loved the glowing balls.  She even tried to take the ones attached to the course!  We had a fun time.

I even let them play on the toys at the mall for a little while.  Baby Girl LOVED that!

And the kids did the Insanity Mud Run.  They had a blast!

We also got our house painted.  We love the dark brown color so much!  It is much better than the pinky "dreamsicle" color that was on it before.

End of School

Tink had her final band concert of 7th grade.  She just got a haircut and looked so pretty.

We went to the park with some friends on our last day off of school before the end of school.  Homestead Ranch Park is one of our favorites!

Goofy had kindergarten graduation. They had so many special things prepared.  They all read a cute poem for us, they sang a song in sign language, and their teacher had them all take pictures in her cap and gown that she then made into a slide show.  It was so cute, and Goofy was so proud.

Utah

My sister decided to do her endowments at the Draper temple a couple months ago.  PC watched all the kids and I flew out to attend.  It was so quick, but so nice.  My parents came down from their mission in Oregon, and we all stayed at my older sister's house.  It was great to see my nieces and one cute nephew.  My aunt and uncle were also able to go to the temple with us.  I think that was the first time I had ever been to the temple with her, and it was obviously the first time all of us sisters were there.  It was great to be with my parents as well.  It was just a quick trip, but I loved it.  I was also able to take my brother-in-law and his new wife out to breakfast the next morning at Kneaders.  It was all so quick, but a great trip.

Easter

I know Easter was later in the year this time, but I am really behind with posting!  We dyed Easter eggs and did an indoor egg hunt.  It was just a lot easier, especially since we had snow off and on all the way into May!

Here's our Easter Bunny selfie and all the kids before we let them loose!

We did Resurrection Rolls, of course.  The children love doing this.  You teach the story of Christ's death and Resurrection with crescent rolls and marshmallows.  A good lesson and tasty!  Here the kids are before church.  Minnie's and Shortcake's dresses are from Tink and Minne years ago.  Love that I was able to use them again!