Back to Utah!

The boys and I took another trip to Utah to celebrate with this handsome young man!
We had a huge celebration for Grandpa Riska's 90th Birthday!
He is such a party animal! By the time the party was over I was ready to crash, but him and Grandma were ready to keep partying!


We also took a trip out to Tabby.
Horses and water. 
All you need to entertain a couple of boys for the day. 
Oh, but a couple four wheeler and tractor rides are good too!

The boys got to spend a lot of time with their cousins: sprinklers, splash pad, Bean Museum. . . 
but the sisters did their fair share of catching up too!

Here's the same picture from 3 years ago!
Fun to compare, and see what a big difference braces makes! :) 

Like most trips to Utah, this kid decided to get sick again.
Luckily it wasn't anything too serious or contagious!


Oh! Did I mention that Spencer got to spend time with his FAVORITE person ever?

Slide Rock

In June we met up the Trumps (some Tucson friends) in Sedona for the day!
We visited Slide Rock, and oh what fun we had! It was the perfect place, a little of everything: an area just the right height for the kids to wade in, rock water slides, cliff jumping for the brave women, and an area deep enough to swim in.
 

 

Spencer caught a grasshopper while we were waiting for our friends to arrive. It was cute until he said: "Look mom! It can't jump anymore!" after he had pulled off his legs!
 

 

Here is Brooks starting down one of the slide rocks.

It was such a fun day and we loved spending time with our friends!

Lava River Cave

We went out to Lava River Cave one evening.
Who'd have thought you'd find a cave in something like this?


Spencer LOVED it, until we turned off all the flashlights, then he got a little freaked out!
  
Kevin was kind enough to let us borrow his headlamps. They were life savers. We could see where we were going while using our hands to help the kids over the rocks.

This was about 30 seconds after we got out of the car. Benson did a face plant and was covered in dirt before we even got on the trail!
 

He loved his headlamp!
 

 

And now . . . ready to be done!
 

What do you do when you're 4?

That's what Spencer kept asking me before his birthday:
"What do you do when you're 4?"

Here's the birthday boy!
 

Birthday celebration!
 

"THE ROCKET"
 Benson was pretty jealous!  

It took Spencer a while to warm up to it. He just doesn't feel as comfortable on it as he does on his tricycle.
 
The question now: "What do you do when you're 5?" I tell him he gets to go to Kindergarten when he's five, and then he starts to cry saying he doesn't want to leave me and Benson all day!
We'll stick with 4 right now!

More Summer Fun!

On our way home from Utah we got to meet this sweet angel.
Cindy had her baby while we were on our trip. She is a precious little girl.
Cindy even let me use her as a guinea pig for an infant photo shoot! It was so much fun!
 

We don't do flowers around here very often, but a nice bouquet when you come home from a long week apart is quite a treat! :)

We saw the "Three Javelinas" at town square one evening! The boys really enjoyed it!
It takes on more meaning when you've come across javelinas in your own backyard! :)

Just the beginning . . .

I can't believe it's already the 4th of July! Time has flown. After school finished we headed up to Flagstaff for the summer for Brooks' internship. Here's how we started our summer:

Another airshow, and LOTS of outdoor play time!!

Planting grandpa's garden

 

Roasting marshmallows in the fire pit! It's a good thing we did this early in the summer before all the fire bans went into place.

A trip to Utah which included:
Amber's graduation! My little girl is all grown up :)
 

Grandpa Turnbow had his horses in Highland so the boys had plenty of rides on the horses this trip!
 

Splash park
 

And plenty of time with their aunts and cousins!
 

 

One year down!

Brooks finished his first year of graduate school at the beginning of May. We celebrated at the end of the year formal and a family trip for ice cream! He had an awesome year and we are so proud of him.

Here's to another great year!


This is one of the other MBA students. He is actually heading to Alaska this fall on a mission.