Boating

Mary and Rolf took us boating one Sunday and we had so much fun!!  It would have been even better if I could have gone wake boarding or tubing.  Mary took Alex for a ride on the tube and he loved it.

Cole wanted to be held the entire day and cried when we took his life jacket off.

Their favorite part of boating was jumping in the lake and swimming around.

We had a bbq at Mary's house that night and the boys got to ride and feed the horses, play with the chickens, and jump on the tramp.  Kids paradise

and look at those beautiful mountains, I miss them so much.

We met Tonya at the Natural History Museum one morning.  I hadn't been to the new location by Red Butte Gardens so it was fun to see and had amazing views.  We had lunch at the Pie afterwards and let the kids color on the walls, so fun.

Totally normal to wear sunglasses while eating an orange.

Al came back Sunday or Monday night and on Tuesday afternoon we went boating with my friend Danielle and her family.  Al learned how to wake surf

We bought some little fishing poles at Wal Mart for Fish Lake and took them boating.  They were the hit of the night.

We love boating especially this boat, wow.

We were once roommates at Gateway apartments and 10 years later we are married with almost 6 kids between both of us.  

Go Go Go

We got to do so many fun activities and see so many friends the 3 1/2 weeks were in Utah.  My mom took a Friday off so we had some pictures taken of Alex and Cole, had a delicious lunch at Red Iguana, and spent the afternoon at the Childrens Museum at Gateway.   

I wish we had a museum like this in Dallas, so many fun things to do.

That night we went to dinner with my family and then everyone met where my Grandma lives now to surprise her, elevator selfie.

Cole loved Rolf, I think he just loves males in general.

and then there is Elisha.  All kids love her, she needs like 10 of her own :)

Sno cones on the way home from Grandmas house.

That Saturday I talked Ryan and my mom into hiking to Donut Falls.  Right when we started Cole wanted to be carried and Alex fell down and hit his knee.

I remember Donut Falls being pretty mellow and low key but there were so many people there, wow.

Happy 7-11 day!!

I got to celebrate Megan's birthday with a yummy dinner at Brio and then we rented bikes downtown and rode them to get dessert, so fun!!

Hogle Zoo

We met my friend Aspen at the Hogle Zoo one morning. The weather was kind of cool and it rained off and on but it turned out to be the perfect zoo day and the kids had a blast.  Grace and Alex are the same age so it was fun to see them interact.

I have so many pictures next to the Gorillas when I was little so it's fun to get some of the boys.

We love carousels and how random I ran into my friend Kat from Kappa that lives in NYC.  We also ran into each other at the zoo last summer so we promised each other we would go together next year.

Best brothers.  I don't know what they would do without each other.

They still played in the splash pad even though it was chilly.

Friends since 4th grade, so fun!!

and the infamous lion drinking fountain picture.

That night we had dinner with Liz and hung out in her backyard and played tennis.

This is when we discovered Alex wanted to play Tennis so he started lessons in September!!

Swig

Al traveled back and forth between Utah and Texas so it was fun to have him there part of the time.  Cole and cousin Hadley, everyone thinks they could be siblings.

Lexi and I took the kids to the aquarium one afternoon.

They have this really awesome playground you can pay a couple extra dollars to let them play in and couches everywhere for the parents.  Cole and Alex played forever while we sat there and hung out.  I keep hearing a cry that sounded like Cole and I had to hike up to the top of this playground to help him down and find out he pooped his pants, no!!   So many accidents while we were in Utah, but as soon as we got back to Texas and had normal schedules again he got back on track, thank goodness.

We ate at so many of my favorite restaurants and I found some great new ones too.   This place had the best pho which my little foodie Cole loves.

I dropped my car off one day to get the brakes fixed and Lexi was sweet enough to pick us up and hang out with us all day!!  We got diet coke and cookies from Swig, dropped off our rings to get cleaned.

Walked around Temple Square and told the boys thats where Mom and Dad got married.

Al always sends them funny face pictures so they love to do it back.

We walked through City Creek and let the kids play in the fountains and then we were asked to put water shirts on the boys or we had to leave, haha.  Lexi was dying and I was pretty shocked too.  I didn't have water shirts so we had to leave and went to Cafe Rio and gorged ourselves, yum.  Our last stop was getting Hadleys ears pierced.  It was such a fun day!!

4th Of July

We had lots of fun at the pool with Grandma Ranes!!  

Sleeping every night was kind of crazy!!  We were all in the same room, but it took at least an hour or  longer to put them to bed every night.  I would've thought they would have crashed every night after how much stuff we did every day.

It was so much fun to be able to spend the 4th of July with our families!! 

We started off with a 4th of July Breakfast with my moms ward.  I used to go to this every year growing up so it was fun to go back and see some familiar faces.

Cole and Alex got their faces painted

Patriotic family photo

They got to decorate their scooters and then ride around in a mini parade with the other kids.  There is a big hill in the church parking lot so when all the kids started going down we saw Cole and knew it was going to be bad.  Al and I both started sprinting after him and luckily he just crashed into the curb where there was grass, but it could've been really bad, haha.

That afternoon we went to the Camerons and let the kids play in a bounce house/water slide Niki bought and had a BBQ.

That night we went to Park City with everyone, ate at Wendys and stopped at the famous white barn for pictures, yay.

I was so excited to finally get a pic by this barn and Al was so annoyed :)

It looked like it was going to rain all night and it was so nice to not be dying of heat!!   We had a hour or two until the fireworks went off so we let the kids play and then when the fireworks went off realized we were in the worst viewing spot ever, haha.  Oh well it was still  fun!!