Summer Fun

So we have been pretty busy out here doing all sorts of stuff out here. The other morning we went out and found the two baby deer that we have been seeing with their mama out right by our swingset! We got this pic before the kids scared them away...so cute!! Oh what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green??? Make Jam! A few Saturdays ago we spent the day making peach, strawberry and blackberry(made from the blackberries out back!) jam!! It was so fun and its so yummy to have our freezer full of this yummy abundance of summer!!

Britton and Jalan have been playing baseball again...and I have not done a good job at keeping up on the blog here. Here is one of Brittons games the other day. He is so dang cute! I will post Jalans stuff later... Batter up!

He has played mostly 2nd base this year....he's really good and makes most of the plays out there for his team!

The kids finally talked their dad into taking them fishing the other day to Raccoon Lake. Of course it was upper 90's with tons of humidity, we were SOOO hot, but the kids didnt care. Here is one of the many fish Jalan caught. They were all small little guys like this. Sister even caught one!! Well with some help from mom. yipee!!

The boys trying to get the hook out without pliers. Not easy! Poor Britton didnt catch even one, but was a good sport and helped his brother!

She finally lost one!

Last night Macee was eating a nectarine...when she said, "Mom, I have a loose tooth!" I looked and it was bleeding like crazy! We had never noticed it loose at all. So she got upset when she saw all the blood. I held a paper towel on it for a while, and grabbed the tooth with the towel, and out it came! She was happy after that! So here is my baby as she lost her first tooth...oh man, this is killing me, she is growing up!

California/Arizona trip!

So we finally got to go on our anticipated CAlifornia/Arizona trip! We did our "Give a DAy GEt a DAy" for Disneyland and got free tickets!! Back in January, we took the kids to spend a day at a nursing home helping out. It was wonderful! So we decided to plan our AZ trip to include CA and go to Disneyland. We flew from ST Louis to LA. My parents met us there. First night, we found a Bobs Big Boy to eat dinner at! yum! The next day, we spent the day sightseeing around LA. We headed over to see the Hollywood sign! Troy took us up some crazy winding road to get a good view!!

Then we headed to Hollywood Blvd. You cant read it but this is Mickey Mouse's star! We loved the "Walk of Fame" See how busy it was!! CRAZY!!

We had to go see the Kodak Theatre!!

We found this cute clown and he made the kids some fun balloons! Here they are in front of the hollywood blvd sign! This was before we lost papa in hollywood! He stayed in the car to take a nap...when we got back he was gone..and didnt answer his phone! Troy finally went back to look around for him, and found him wandering around the millions of people!! whew!

Our next stop was rodeo drive baby!! Disnee HAD to go here to check it out..it was hot and not too exciting, other than to say we went.

Then we headed to the beach. We went to Santa Monica Beach. the kids loved it, and got all wet. The girls got their feet in and thats it. The water was freezing!!

enjoying the Pacific!!

The next day was Disneyland!!! Here we were waiting in line for it to open! We had the best luck! We walked right on Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Carribean, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was not busy at all first thing! The more the day went on, the busier it got. The longest ride wait was Space Mountain and it was 35 minutes!! Not bad for July!!!

Splash mountain!! It knew I was on camera, but still couldnt hold in the scream!! Macee was terrified and did cry on this ride..the only one! Papa and Disnee loving it in the back! The other guys were on another boat and we didnt get their pic:( We were so proud of Macee, she rode ALL the rides, and was such a trooper!! Britton was also very brave!! Britton and Macee getting ready for Thunder Mountain Railroad!! It was alot of fun!!

Getting on Small World!! Our all time favorite!!!

Here is a classic pic of us on Space Mountain!! Macee was such a champ, and didnt cry..but she was definitely scared! she did say it was on her top three rides though! Troy and I both had forgot how fast that ride goes!! Walking around Downtown Disney!! I LOVE this place!!

We found Mickey!! Macee had her stuffed Minnie with her all day!

The best idea for Disneyland is to have a hotel close by! Around noon, we headed back to the hotel for a rest. We ate some lunch at the restaraunt..then went back to the rooms for a nap!! We all crashed until around 4. We then headed back for some more fun! We were rested and ready for the crowds! Here is the kids and Grama and Papa in front of the famous Disney flowers!

Cinderellas castle!!

once we had enough of the crowds, we decided to head back. There is just something about nightime at Disneyland! Cinderellas castle in the back was beautiful...it didnt show up very well in the pic...cute kids tired out after a long day, but not nearly as tired as papa and grama..and mom!! My feet hurt so bad I was limping on the way back to the hotel! Just as we were about to leave, we saw Minnie! Macee was SOOOO excited..as she had bought everything minnie...but was devestated as she had forgotten her stuffed animal back at the hotel, and so wanted to show minnie! poor sweetie!!

The morning before we left Cali..we let the kids take one last swim. They really enjoyed the pool and jacuzzi at the Hotel Menage! It was an awesome hotel!!

We got to Queen Creek Monday night. It was nice to back to the valley! Tues night we met Damon and Julie, Tim and Steph, and Nic and Casey and had a yummy dinner at Benihana! It was the first time Troy and I had been there, and it was definitely an experience to remember! Yummy food and a great time with family! We stayed in the valley until Thursday...swimming, shopping and eating!! Thursday we headed up to Heber as tradition has it for the 4th celebration. Friday we had a wonderful experience at the Snowflake temple. Most all of Troys siblings and spouses were able to go with Jack and Val...and we were able to do lots of sealings of family members that we have recently just found on Jack's line. These newly discovered relatives have had their temple work done, and we got to do a huge session of sealing many families together! Wow what an experience it was to never forget!!

Sat of course was the fourth festivities. We missed the parade this year...due to so many valleyites coming early and setting up chairs...the locals cant even attend anymore:( They need to make some changes I think!) But we did head down to the ball field around 4 pm...and did our usual. We ate some of the food at the booths, and hung out and visited old friends we see once a year! It was a great time. Here is cute nicole with two of her adorable kids!

Ryan, Nic and Troy hanging out. Yes Nic was on his phone alot! haha!

Macee and Emma enjoying each other!

Here is the crowd and the kids enjoying playing some games. The fireworks were amazing as usual, with an extra exciting finale this year!! We love this time of year in Heber!!

So on Monday, we took a trip up to Fossil Creek near Payson. We had a group of the porters, as well as my brother and his boys, and my sisters family. It was a huge group and alot of fun! Here we found a great spot with some shade, some shallow places for the kids, a swimming hole, and a nice little cliff to jump off. It was nice and hot weather and the water was perfectly cool! Its a mineral spring, so the water was clear, blue and so beautiful! My poor nephew Dallin just had spine surgery a couple weeks ago, so he could only go in up to his waist, talk about torture! poor kid! Here is Jalan jumping off the cliff!

It was so beautiful there! the water was so blue and clear.. These cliffs were alot of fun to jump off...we had alot of brave kids! Emmie, payton, seth, josh, lindy(well if damon dropping her off counts!), cooper, hailey,lauren, emma, jalan, britton, and of course brendon doing flips! (hope I didnt forget anyone)As well as the older boys who were crazy..and then there was uncle joey..the craziest of all, doing wild dives and flips like a madman!! He is nuts!!

This is Troy after jumping into the "right spot" to avoid the rocks!!

Here is some of us hanging out warming up on the rocks!We headed back to the valley on Wednesday. We did more shopping, eating and visiting. One of the highlights of our trips is a meal at one of our favorite places, Abuelos!! Jalan decided to stay home with papa..so it was just troy, me, my mom and the four kids...it was yummy! unfortunately, Troy had some canker sores and so the salsa didnt set too well...but it was worth it!

We truly had a wonderful trip visiting family and experiencing many wonderful moments! We even got the chance to go to Phoenix with Jack and Val and Damon, and meet Troys blood grandmother, who we recently found in the last 6 months. What an experience it was! To see this miracle unfold is truly a blessing in our lives! We sure love and miss all of our loved ones far away, but it is always nice to back home to our own beds again!!

Girls Weekend!!

Ok so this last weekend we got the priviledge of spending the weekend together as Porter sisters in law...and had a trip to Vail Colorado! Nic and Casey gave us all this as a Christmas gift...and so this is the first of the two trips..girls trip and boys trip later this summer. We had an absolute blast, and made memories that will last forever! These pictures are out of order, but here are just a couple of the hundreds that we took.

This picture is us waiting to go up to the top of the mountain in Vail on the last day. We got alot of attention everywhere we went! We told everyone, "We are sisters in law, married to her (Nicole) brothers! And we have 24 kids between us all!!" It was amazing!
This was our view out of the balcony of our suite! It was so amazingly beautiful and serene!!

This is from our first night in Denver, when we went to dinner. This is Nicole, me and Heidi, Brandon's wife. She is our newest sister in law..and so wonderful! Hope we didnt scare her away with our craziness!

We were suprised and taken to dinner in a limo!

Here we are at the Melting Pot! YUM! Waiting to leave in the limo for dinner!!

We stayed in Denver the first night, then headed up to Vail on FRiday. Casey had suprise after suprise waiting for us every day. One of those was that we got to go White Water River Rafting!! This is us with our guide, Tim! Arent we lovely with our gear on! It was sooo much fun, we had an absolute blast. It was pretty scary for some of us at first, but we finally got the hang of it and loved it!

The last day, it was sad. We went up to the top of the mountain on the gondola...and here we did a little trampoline jumping!

We had plenty of photo shoots...we had such a fun time taking tons and tons of pictures. Look at this cute group of women!!

This is us on the gondola waiting to go back down the mountain after it was closed due to the snow!!

We did so much I could fill pages of our trip. Here are a few of the highlights that stick out...

got treated at the salon- hair, nails, pedicures; limo to dinner at the Melting Pot; many photo shoots, rafting, Treasure Boxes full of letters from family/friends, treated at the spa with a massage and use of the spa facilities for the day!!, shopping in Vail Village in the rain, jacuzzi in the rain:), Gondola ride to top of mountain, heaven!!, bungee trampoline, and being stuck up on top due to snow...shopping, and crazy freeway driver, well it was Casey!! haha...It was such an amazing time together...Thanks to Nic and Casey for such a generous wonderful time!!

Macee's haircut

So today I got a wild hair and decided to cut Macee's hair. It was soooo long and straggly. So I started cutting and ended up with this.....I definitely am not a beautician!!! But it turned out ok I think, at least until Aunt Nicole can fix it when we get to AZ!!! Troy isnt too sure about my decision...but I think she looks adorable, and now older!! what a girl!