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".