AUGUST!

After a busy busy July, August seemed pretty low key.  We did start out the month by going down to Las Vegas for the Wittwer Retreat. We went down on Thursday night and went to the "Knights of the Round Table" show at the Excaliber. It was a lot of fun especially for the kids and the 'Eat with your hands' food was actually pretty tasty. It was tomato soup, potatoes, broccoli, biscuit,we each got a whole cornish game hen, and then a fruit pastry for dessert. After the show we walked around the strip just a little and then headed to our hotel, SouthPoint.  The next day we had meeting and activities for the kids all day.  Dinner we ended at a Mexican Rest. there with all the Wittwers.  After eating some of us went down to the pool to swim.  Lincoln had a great time. Sat. morning we swam a little more and then headed to the outlets for a little shopping before we headed back home to Santa Clara. Another Wittwer Retreat complete!

Our trees in our front yard are huge and were taking over everything. You couldnt even walk down the sidewalk without hitting them so we thought it time to trim them up. Pops and Uncle Tim(who was visiting from Texas) was nice enough to help Adam out! 

We also had a fun work weekend in Pine Valley. While the adults (well mostly Adam and Tyler with help from others) put together the swing set.... I tried to keep the kids entertained a bit by taking them on a nature scavenger hunt. They loved finding old animal bones, turkey feathers, garbage , and other things on their list.  

 Then they came back to Otter Pops.

 Here are Tyler and Adam near the beginning of the whole process. It took all day--- like 6-7 hours. It looks awesome now that it is all complete and the kids love having somewhere to play.

 We loved having the Thorleys in town for a couple of weeks!  Claire and Lincoln always have a good time together.

 Channing and Lincoln trying out the place house while we are putting on the roof.

 Of course there always has to be Rhino Rides!

We also helped Nana and Pops pick, shuck, and eat corn! Norah was in corn heaven! 

Other random happenings. 

Lincoln was in time out--- and a few minutes later I found him sleeping like this. 

 We bought new shoes (punky brewster) for Norah and she is obsessed. She is constantly getting them and bringing them to us to put on.  It is too cute--- and we put them on her even if they dont match.

 I couldnt find Lincoln and Norah so I went searching and found them behind their chair in their bedroom and they were playing 'Go Fish' together... well mostly just passing cards back and forth.  I think Lincoln was trying to teach her how to play.

 One day Lincoln was playing with his car mat and I came in and he had taken all his cars and lined them up for the drive-thru at McDonalds. haha. I guess that was the place to be.

 These kids are just too cute to not take pictures of them.

Lincoln likes to hug---- or strangle Norah.

 Sharing Ice Cream with Norah!

 Lincoln learned how to take pictures with our phones.  So this is one of his first ones and he did pretty good.  He now takes hundreds at a time and they are usually of the carpet, ceiling, or really anything up close.

Misc. JULY

Here is our day to day July......

Norah is always getting into her shoes, socks, bows and trying to put them on.... She was pretty proud of what she accomplished with these two headbands.  

 So our tire swing has def. seen better days and really only one of the tires is even safe to swing on, but it didnt stop the kids from having fun on it.

 Lincoln is still obsessed with water..... the hose, the dishes, cups of water. Really anything(except when it is time to wash up and wash his hair in the bath).  He loves to help me do dishes!

 Some days as a Mom look like this!  Lincoln had been playing with his cloud dough that is in a contained container.  He is usually really good about keeping it in the container because I tell him I will take it away if he gets it all over. Well--- I was not paying attention and the silence brought me into the kitchen to a huge mess of cloud dough flour all over!! Norah had joined in on the fun and was having a great time.

 We started to have peaches!! Yay... my favorite fresh food and time of year. Thanks to Pops for always keeping us stocked.  Norah doesnt seem to mind them either.

 We went to the splash pad a couple of times but it gets so hot here in St. George that you have to go at like 9 in the morning so you dont get fried and burnt out by the sun.  Lincoln and Norah always love when we go and especially meeting Andrew there.

 Lincoln found Norahs old chair and decided he could it.  He sure did---- nice and snug.

 Lincoln and Norah are always looking out the window waiting for Dad to get home!!

24th of July weekend: PINE VALLEY with the Butterfields

We invited all the Butterfield clan down to the cabin in Pine Valley to spend the holiday weekend with us.  Mike and his family weren't able to come-- but everyone else was there and we had a great time.

The first day we headed down to the reservoir and had a picnic lunch and then took a little walk/hike/bike ride around the stream and lake.

 We made our way down to the reservoir and started fishing. Some of us just observed and others had pretty good luck catching some little fish. I think Bella and Gabi were the ones that did the most catching.

 The kids enjoyed playing together and exploring.

 Lincoln LOVES his cousins and hanging out with the bigger kids.

 Later that day we did some rhino and 4 wheeler riding, relaxing, did a nature scavenger hunt with the kids, and did smores and dough boys!

 We also had some yummy homemade rootbeer.  The kids liked watching it brew.

 The next day we went down to Veyo to go swimming in their pool and check out crawdad canyon.  We had fun swimming and then headed to the little creek and canyon.  The kids had fun trying to catch crawdads with hotdogs and going across the wood bridges.

We loved having the Butterfields down! hope they come again!