Granite Flats

We are very lucky to have some of the best neighbors ever! We love hanging out with them. This summer we decided to plan a camping trip all together (Four families). The kids were in heaven being able to go on a vacation with all their best friends!

We ended up camping in American Fork Canyon at Granite Flats. None of us had ever been there before but it ended up being beautiful!

Ashlyn and Katelyn
Mickell and Aubrielle
Hailey and McKenzie (apparently we should have moved away from the smoke)
Tanner and Braden
Here are all the kiddos together. I did kind of feel bad for the surrounding campsites. We definitely weren't quiet!
We had lots of fun fishing and playing at the lake!
The Mangone's rented a canoe that we had a blast with! although there were a few times that I feared for my life with all the crazy, fearless kids that we would jam into the canoe!

Happy 4th!

This year the 4th was on a Sunday. So, we got to party all weekend! We went to two different parades, did fireworks, Baylen played in a volleyball tournament, and we went to a splash park. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera for everything. But, we did get a few pictures...

The kids and I went to the Kaysville parade with Brian and Tavi. It was a much better parade this year than it's been in the past. In fact, I think they overdid themselves this year. It was almost two hours long!!!
We also painted faces...
We HAD to do something on Sunday (since it was the actual 4th). So, we made a yummy flag cake

Camping in Shasta

One weekend in June we were able to go camping with Grandma and Grandpa Sillito in their motor home "Shasta." I've decided that I LOVE motor home camping. Packing and unpacking were a piece of cake when we didn't have to worry about tents, sleeping bags, camp stoves, etc. Plus, Terry was so sweet and provided most of the food! We were very spoiled!!!

We had a lot of fun. We did a little fishing...
sang around the campfire...
and just had fun hanging out...
Tanner singing from "the bible" (that's what grandpa calls his huge song book.
This next picture is to remind us that if we ever go to South Fork again, we really liked sight 27

The Graduate and Last Day of School

Hailey is now a kindergarten graduate! She had a fun little program on her last day of school. It was so cute when all the kids walked in with their graduation caps on...

The kids had amazing teachers this year! We are going to miss them.
Hailey with Mrs. Hutchings...
Tanner and Mickell with Mrs. Kawa... (Poor Tanner got sick on his last day of school and had to be checked out early. What a bummer day to be sick!)

The Lazy Days of Summer

*I have been waiting a long time to get the kid's camera downloaded on our laptop (since I don't know how to do it.) Since I keep forgetting to ask Baylen, I'm going to go ahead and post the pictures I have.

I was really excited for summer so that we could take a break from the craziness of "the schedule." We have absolutely no schedule now but still seem to be busier than ever. We definitely haven't experienced the lazy days of summer. But, June was a very fun month. Here are a few of the things we've been busy doing.

Tanner, Mickell and Hailey all took swimming lessons for two weeks. They did awesome at them. I really enjoyed watching them each day. I think Tanner and Mickell are far better swimmers than I am now. Hailey is a little fish. She absolutely loves the water!

I was able to go up to scout day camp with Tanner. It was a lot of fun to be there with him. It was fun to spend some one on one time with him.

We were able to go see Toy Story 3 and Prince of Persia at the drive in. It was awesome to be there with Cherice, Corey and kids, Grandma Whipple, Leslie and her friend Jacob. Nothing beats watching a cool movie at the drive in theater... even if we didn't get home until 2:30 in the morning.

We had fun spending a Wednesday with family. First we took the kiddos to the park where Leslie gave Tanner and Mickell a tennis lesson. Then we headed down to Lehi for Bailey's birthday party. We had cake and ice cream and went swimming at their pool.

We've been trying to get together and do something fun with our Sillito cousins at least once a month. In June we went to Liberty Park. We had a picnic and spent several hours playing at the park and the splash pad.

Kayla invited us to go with the Binghams to Seven Peaks for her birthday. We love Seven Peaks and were glad for an excuse to go! It was a really fun day. Tanner was insane and went on all the crazy scary slides. I decided to be a cool mom and go on the boomerang with him. I think I could hear my heart pounding when I got off of the slide. It's a miracle that it didn't stop all together out of pure fear. I won't be going on that slide again... EVER! Mickell went on most of the bigger slides, too. Hailey and Ashlyn were in heaven in the kids pool. There were several little slides that they could go on by themselves. They went on them over and over and over again while I sat at the bottom and watched. The lifeguards thought Ashlyn was hilarious. She would always give them at least three "high fives" every time she went down.
(Pictures of Seven Peaks will be posted later!)

The Big "3"!!!

I'm not quite sure how my baby is old enough to celebrate her third birthday already! But she is... and she did on May 14th!

I was really worried that Ashlyn would end up having an awful, lame birthday because it was the day that worked out best for everyone to head down to California. I had to keep reminding myself how lucky she was that she was on her way to Disneyland for her birthday.

Most of her gifts were things that would entertain her as we drove in the car. So, I think she had lots of fun playing with her new toys and activities and watching her new movie.

She kept saying "When we get to my birthday, can I..." I'm not quite sure what she was envisioning as "her birthday." Playing along with it, we decided that we would take a dinner break at a park in St. George and call it "her birthday."

Ashlyn ended up sleeping for several hours of the drive. That made me feel a little better about having her buckled into her car seat for 7 hours.

She had a blast at "her birthday" at the park. We stopped at McDonald's and got her a happy meal. We ate, played on the playground, opened presents and had melted, smashed cake (she didn't seem to mind!)

Here are a few things about Ashlyn at 3...

*Her favorite color is yellow. She is fiercely loyal to this color.
*Some of her favorite foods are string cheese, hot dogs, and anything spicy (she loves putting Tabasco sauce on things!)
*She's not a big TV watcher but if she had a favorite show, it would probably be Dora.
*She can't say the "r" sound. It is the cutest thing ever!
*When she was ready, she did awesome at potty training. She even wears underwear all night with no problems.
*Her best friends are her cousin Raylee, Katelyn Hintze, Jack Owens, and Landon Stott. We often catch Landon and Ashlyn walking down the sidewalk together holding hands. Whenever Raylee and Ashlyn get together, they always run and give each other a huge hug.
*She calls Mickell "Kelly".
*She is a night owl. She can stay up later than anyone in our family (not that I let her stay up by herself). She is also really good at sleeping in. There have been a few times that she slept in until 11:00! Morning preschool may be rough this fall!
*Her favorite toys are her snap n style dolls and her princesses. She also loves playing Barbies.
*She has the vocabulary of a twelve year old. Here are a few examples...
One day she was fighting over something with Hailey. She ran up to me and said that she got the thing away from Hailey. I asked, "How did you do that?" She responded, matter of factly, "Just normally."
Another day I was getting some things in my closet. She came in and asked if I could get something down for her out of our birthday gift box. When I didn't respond, she said, "I need you to get that down... seriously."
One night Baylen and I were watching Everybody Loves Raymond. Ashlyn was sitting on the floor playing toys. At one point she looked up at the TV. Ray and Debra happened to be giving each other a kiss. At the top of her voice, Ashlyn yelled, "EEEEEEWWWWWWW they're kissing on the lips."

She really is quite the comic relief.

*She is a very polite little kid. She almost always thanks me for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
*She has a couple nick names. Raylee calls her "Ashes". The name has kind of stuck. Several other people call her that now, too. In fact, she just came in from outside. I told her I'm writing about her right now and asked what she wants me to write. She said, "Ummm, Ashes."
We also call her buggy and buggy boo.
*She still has very cute curly hair. However, it's become more of an issue now that it is longer. It is always tangled. She HATES getting her hair done because she knows that means I'm going to have to get the comb through all the knots.
*She does an extremely cute "best friends forever" cheer. She holds hands with Raylee, Hailey or Mickell (or whoever she's doing it with), and jumps up and down while saying "best friends forever".

California

I LOVE CALIFORNIA! If we could afford a trip to Anaheim every month, I wouldn't get tired of it. Really. I love the weather, I love the water, I love the mouse, I love the palm trees, I LOVE IT ALL! So, after lots of planning and waiting, I felt like a little kid when we finally hopped in the car to head south!

I wasn't quite sure how to organize all the zillions of pictures, so I guess I'll attempt to post it day by day.

Our travel day ended up being on Ashlyn's 3rd birthday. She definitely deserves a post of her own, so stay tuned for the details. We ended up sleeping in Primm that night. We stayed at Whiskey Pete's. My kids were so excited when we drove up. They remembered it from last time we went to Disneyland and stayed there. They said it was their favorite hotel. Ashlyn said that it was so pretty. I had to laugh that their favorite hotel was a smelly casino.
The most memorable part of that night was our whole group of 17 getting lost in the middle of the casino. We couldn't find where to go to get to our hotel room. I felt like we were a big parade following each other in a line though the casino. I wanted to do the parade wave at all the people who were staring at us. A kind security guard finally noticed us and rushed us off to the correct elevator.

The next morning we headed out again on the final stretch of our drive. We ended up getting to our hotel before check in time so we walked around downtown Disney for awhile. My dad was worried that it would be hard for the kids to be right next to Disneyland and not be able to go in. I don't think the kids even thought about it... but I sure did!

That night all the guys and Leslie went to an Anaheim A's game. They had a great time. Baylen still talks about how much fun it was and how he is sad that he didn't try harder to talk Tanner into going (Tanner wanted to stay at the hotel to swim). Us girls and Tanner had a little pizza party at the hotel and then went swimming. We swam until a little boy threw up in the water. Man, it was gross. Later that night we went up to the roof of the hotel where we saw an amazing firework show being shot off from Disneyland. There were some of the most awesome fireworks I've ever seen: Mickey mouse and smiley faces were some of the favorites. Ashlyn wasn't so sure about the show. In fact, she was terrified until Baylen called the fireworks "fireflies." After that, she tolerated them.
The next day we decided to head to the beach. The weather definitely wasn't on our side. It was overcast and cold. But, we were at the ocean. How can you not have a great time at the ocean?!
Of course, the cold didn't stop the kids from trying the water out.

Baylen and Jared also decided to jump in. They had a great time jumping waves and boogie boarding. These pictures bring one word to mind... BAYWATCH :)

We had fun playing ball and frisbee and playing in the sand. Dave dug a huge hole for someone but we couldn't convince the kids to get in. So, grandpa decided to give it a try. Pretty darn funny!

After the beach we headed to the orange county swap meet. We heard that it was huge. But "huge" is definitely an understatement. We were there for several hours and didn't see it all. It was our first swap meet and was a fun experience.

Monday and Tuesday were DISNEYLAND DAYS!
Here are Raylee and Ashlyn ready to head over to their first time ever at Disneyland...
On Monday we used our Give a day, Get a day passes. We got to wear awesome "Honorary Volunteer" badges. I know lots of people who argue that you shouldn't take your kids to Disneyland until they are old enough to remember it. I totally respect that. However, the look on a little kid's face when they are face to face with a Princess, or Minnie Mouse, or Buzz Lightyear is priceless (even if they don't remember it!). Seeing Ashlyn ask each character if she could give them a high five was so cute. One of my favorite moments of the trip was when she ran up to Mickey Mouse and gave him a huge hug.

Here are a very small few of our character sightings. The day that my kids don't care to see the characters anymore is definitely going to be a very sad day. It was a highlight of our trip!

Our first sighting... Buzz. The younger girls were a little freaked out at first.

This was the little girl's first princess sighting... so fun!
Of course, we also loved the rides. There really is something for EVERYONE at Disneyland. I was really surprised how many of the rides the little babies could go on. It made it fun to be able to all go on lots of rides together! Although, you won't catch me on this ride...
I love my dad's face on this ride. He looked soooo excited to go on the Pooh Bear ride! Yes, Disneyland brings out the kid in all of us :)
Screamin on Screamin...
Some of us liked the bug show better than others...
The kids were able to dance in the Celebration parade...
Our hotel was perfect! It was right across the street from the main gate. So, people could come and go as they wanted. I am now a firm believer that one of the most important aspects of a hotel at Disneyland is location, location, location!

Here are some of the favorites of Disneyland...

Baylen: Sitting with Ashlyn on the Jungle Cruise, taking Tanner on Indiana Jones. (I'd have to say that I'm pretty darn lucky to have a husband who loves Disneyland just as much as the kids and I do. I love being there with him!!!)

Alison: The musical Aladdin, watching the kids with the characters, the Peter Pan ride, being in the happiest place on earth with my ENTIRE family

Tanner: Screamin, Space Mountain, Meeting Chip

Mickell: Thunder Mountain, Screamin, Tower of Terror

Hailey: Seeing Jasmine, going on Thunder Mountain, going on the Pooh Bear ride with mommy

Ashlyn: Finding Nemo Submarine ride, the Pooh Bear ride, seeing Mickey Mouse

On Wednesday we decided to go to the beach again. We went to a fun little beach area that had lots of tide pools. It was so fun to find hermit crabs and shells.


After the tide pools, we went to Laguna Beach. One month later, I still find myself daydreaming about this beach. We had so much fun.
Kell doing cartwheels in the ocean...

The guys spent a long time in the ocean. At one point, Baylen and Jared were out boogie boarding. My dad spotted a seal right next to them (Jared could have touched it). We started yelling out to them for them to turn around and look at it. Baylen thought we were screaming because we saw a shark. He is terrified of sharks. He got up out of the water real quick :) It was pretty funny.

We spent hours walking on the beach, playing in the sand, and playing in the water. I love the feel of the water coming up on my feet and washing the sand out from under them. I was very sad when everyone decided it was time to pack up. If I ever strike it rich, I am definitely buying a beach house on Laguna Beach.

On Thursday we headed back into Disneyland again. We let each of the kids choose their three favorite rides to go on one more time. We went non stop all day. We had a blast. But, by the end of the night, everyone was beyond exhausted. We tried to do a little souvenir shopping but all the kids were crying and upset. It sure felt good to crawl into bed that night!


Baylen and I decided that we were in no hurry to get home so we thought it would be good to divide our drive over two days. Everyone else had to get home so they left early on Friday morning. It sure felt sad and lonely every time we would walk past their empty hotel rooms.

Our kids were sooo good on the drive back. We made it all the way to Cedar City and decided to stay over night there. We had fun swimming that night and hanging out together with our own little family. It was a fun end to an amazing trip.

We are so blessed to be part of such an amazing family. I'm so glad that everyone was able to go on this trip. We made memories that I WILL NEVER FORGET! My parents were so kind and were always doing all that they could to make sure that everyone was having an amazing time. They were so sweet to help with all the kids. In fact, on Tuesday night they took all the kids back to their hotel room and let all of us adults spend a few hours in Disneyland alone. What a treat! It was sooo much fun. I sure do love my family!

Well there you have it. A small portion of the 281 pictures I took on this trip. Now, to scrapbook the rest of them!