Summer...in a nutshell

So school starts in less than 2 weeks.  Yep.  Summer is just about over.  That means I have nearly a whole summer's worth of blogging to do.

On your mark....

....get set....

...GO!

Our Mr. Ty Man turned the big THREE!  Hooray for Ty!  I won't lie, we didn't do much.  But he loved being told all day long it was his birthday and being the special dude of the house.  Now he just likes to continue it on and say everything is for his birthday.  Here he is with some gifts.  And of course I didn't even take a picture of the little t-ball set we gave him until about a week later...just scroll down:

We just extended the celebrations into the following day for Jacob.  Happy 33rd Jacob!  And once again, my mad photo-taking skills failed me because this is the one and only picture I got for Jacob's big day:

A sweet little note from Kenna that says, "Thank you Dad.  Dad thank you so much for doing work for us.  You're the best dad ever.  Love, Kenna."  Pretty darn sweet!  Just for the record, I DID hang some streamers, I DID hang up some balloons, I DID put out a fun little birthday tablecloth, and I DID make a nice big birthday dinner.  I did NOT take a picture.  Eh.  Just use your imagination for a visual.

We have had a handful of afternoons running through the sprinklers.  Here is one early evening while out getting wet.  Even Lexi got to join in on this one:

We ventured out to the 4th of July parade:

And I finally got a pic of Ty with his t-ball set:

We took a little road trip up to Nephi for the Ute Stampede Rodeo.  Here we are checking out the rides before the rodeo started:

Lexi just got to ride the stroller.  But she seems ok with it!  (For a few minutes, anyway).

My two handsome cowboys:

One of my favorite things about this parade is when the Amerian flag comes in via parachute.  Love it!

Then a crew of men in their military fatigues rush in to pick it up:

It gets me teary-eyed every time:

And hey, look at that!  We got to have Aunt Marlene come with us!  It made the night:

Yee Haw!  Let the games begin!

A man named "The One-Armed Bandit" performed.  I have seen him before and love to watch him.  Yes, that is a one-armed man standing on top of his horse.  Said horse is on top of the trailer.  Not to mention prior to standing on his horse, he herded two full size buffalo up on top of the trailer as well.  So amazing!  

We went into the rodeo knowing we were toting along a one-year-old, so it was no surprise she didn't quite make it through the whole thing.  But, we got to see most of the exciting stuff and called it a night.  Hope we can make it again next year!

That should catch us up a little bit anyway.  Up next:  Connie's wedding!

The Last of Catalina

All good things must come to an end.  The same held true for our Catalina trip.  We are down to our last full day on the island.

Here we are getting ready to take a golf cart tour of Avalon:

We took a pretty good climb up the mountain to get some great views of the water and island below.  Waaaaaay down in the water are crazy people who get their kicks out of gliding high in the air in a parachute behind a boat.  Some people have serious thrill issues.  Then again, perhaps there are those out there who think that people like me have serious lack-of-thrill issues.  Guess I have to see both sides!

Another shot looking down:

Lexi loves a good ride!

Later that afternoon we went out on a semi-submersible ride to get a look under all that beautiful blue water.  While we were waiting to get on board, Ty was getting a little too friendly with Bridgy.  Oh boy, we are in for trouble!

Well hello?!  Doesn't everyone do the limbo while waiting in line?

In we go!  Let the voyage begin:

Below deck:

A look at the underside of Catalina:

So fun!

As we were coming back into the pier, all the passengers got to come up and ride up on top of the sub:

This fella here has the right idea:

And of course for our final night of the trip we had to head out to find some souvenirs:

The rest of the night was spent lamenting as we packed up all our stuff to head out early the next morning.

Here we are getting ready to board the Catalina Express to head back to the mainland:

So sad to say goodbye to everyone!  We had such a great time!  Here we are on the way back where a certain member of the family didn't tolerate the waves so much.  Don't worry Jake, we won't hold it against you.

Keeping Lexi entertained sometimes proves to be a bit of a challenge, but we made it through relatively unscathed:

We made it safely back to the car then hit the road for our 7+ hour ride home.  We loved every second of our trip!  The only bad part was trying to get back in the swing of things again....you know, the whole "needing a vacation from your vacation" deal.  Thanks again Bowers family for a perfectly perfect trip!

Still more...

Sheesh, I have so many pictures....I just can't choose!  More highlights:

A little miniature golf competition!  Ready golfers?

Kenna getting a little lesson from Tiger Woods: 

(Well, maybe an albino Tiger Woods)


Allie Gal strutting her stuff out on the green:

Ty LOVED this.  Of course, he loves anything that involves a ball.  Future PGA star:

We made it through all 18 holes!  The scorecard doesn't lie:  BRITTNEY WON!  Poor Jacob.  Poor poor fella.

What's that, more ice cream?  Hello?!  With a name like Big Olaf's, how do you not stop in for a sweet frozen confection?  This time all 17 of us stopped in for a treat.  So fun!

Ty will never turn down ice cream:

This will be my go-to picture when we are all bundled up enduring sub-zero temps in January:

Later this night we went out on the flying fish excursion.  We headed out on a boat where they shine giant spot lights out on the water which causes the flying fish to start popping up out of the water.  They have fins that cause them to glide up in the air over the water when they jump up.  It wasn't an extremely active night with the fish, but we did see a few and were lucky enough to have one fly right into the boat!  It was so cool!  It was so fun to be out on the boat in the dark to see if we could spot these crazy fish pop up out of the water.  Here are some of the kids decked out in their glow gear:

Catalina at sundown:

When we were back at the dock, the kids all gathered around the flying fish who met his untimely demise when he flew into the boat:

Grace, who grossed out her mother by using her jacket sleeves as a barrier between her and the fish:

Allie is just plum tuckered out!

...And Some More...

Here are the highlights of another fab day on the island:

Seashells, delightful!  I may or may not have been a bit....what's the word....casual maybe...with doing the girls' hair while we were there.

The water was beautiful, and all along the shore you can spot these native garabaldi gold colored fish:

This particular morning we all walked down to the Casino.  But we had quite a few little ones in the crew and decided it best to not venture in.  So we headed back into town to have some lunch at Pete's, a local little outside eatery.  So fun!  Notice Lexi in the stroller.  She's out cold!

The girls had their eye on Lloyd's, the candy store.  After lunch we headed over to see what Lloyd's had to offer. 

Love it!  They each picked out a treat and were happy as could be.  We steered clear of the cantaloupe-sized caramel apples.  But oh my they looked amazing...


Later on we had (yes, HAD- it was a necessity) to venture out to grab an ice cream cone.  And of course get a reach-your-arm-out-and-shoot picture with each of the ice cream lovers!

If this one had a caption from Lexi it would say, "Seriously, a picture?  More ice cream, NOW!"  She couldn't get it fast enough!

And of course the day wouldn't be complete without more swimming, laughing, and all that other great vacation stuff.

Catalina Continues....

Despite Lexi having some Oscar-the-teething-grouch issues before we left, something about Catalina sent her into awesome mode and she slept like.....well....a baby!  So after having a restful sleep, we were ready to get out and play!

Here are some pics of the main drag.  Looking up the street (At least according to me it was up.  Perhaps it was down.  Perhaps it really doesn't even matter.  Getting lost in Catalina isn't necessarily really possible.)

A look down the street.  The streets are pretty much lined with quaint little shops and restaurants on the one side, and the other side goes directly to the shore looking out at the harbor.  Beyond the shops on the left in this picture (or to the right of the picture before this one) are streets filled with quaint little houses and condos.

And a look at the harbor:

The most prominent feature of the island is The Casino, which actually has never been used for gambling.  Rather, "casino" simply means a gathering place.  So it's basically a large gathering place with a ballroom and is home to the local movie theater.  We never made it inside (probably not conducive to little kiddos) but rumor has it the theater is beautiful with an old pipe organ.  See I did listen to the mini history lessons from the locals on some of our excursions!

This first morning we took a little boat for a ride out on the deep blue sea!  Well, okay, the Pacific Ocean to be precise.  Big thanks to Wendy and Bob for taking Lexi on her own little island stroller tour  ;)  Heading out of the harbor- aye aye Cap'n!

The trusty shipmates getting a good look of the island:

Shipmate Kenna didn't necessarily appreciate the boat ride.  It seems she likes to keep her feet safely on land:

The rest of the mateys had a good time!  Ty and Allie took turns helping to steer the ship:

We made it back on land and headed back to the condo.  Here is Ty man out loving life with Bridgy, one of the twins.  He is rather fond of this blonde little bombshell!

When we stepped out of our condo, we looked directly at this:

The POOL!


The girls actually finished up their summer swim lessons a few days before we headed over and were ready to try out their new skills.  Let's just sum it up by saying we need a LOT more swim lessons.  However, Allie is now able to put her whole head under water which is an accomplishment years in the making!  We had actually gotten in the pool the night before, but Ty got a little too friendly with the hot tub and decided he preferred to keep his airways open.  Needless to say he too kept his feet safely on the side of the pool the rest of the trip.  The girls were sure to visit the pool daily!  They had so much fun playing in the pool with all the other kiddos too.  Lexi took a turn in the pool too, but I was with her while Jacob and the boys took a golf cart expedition around the island.  Sorry Lou, no pool pic with you.  It was at this point, however, I wanted to take a picture and couldn't find my camera-  I was pretty certain it got left in our boat earlier that day.  Yikes!  I hurried back down to the pier and fortunately the nice man on the loading dock had it in his pocket.  WHAT A RELIEF!

*insert my little tidbit here:  I try not to put up pics of other people's kids (at least not too many of them) seeing as though this is a public blog.  So even though we were with other people and loved every minute of them, I just hesitate posting other people and their kids over the WWW*

Kenna and her mad floating skills:

Allie and her fully wet head, a huge breakthrough!

Beach babes:

Each family took a turn for dinner every night.  It turned out perfect and was so fun to all sit and eat and laugh each night in the different condos.  Then of course each night the kids would usually head out to the pool again before calling it a night.