Birthdays and Family visits and Baptisms!

These are the elders who taught Tommy the Gospel and prepared him to be baptized. We loved having them in our home.

 

 

Here is Tommy on Baptism day.

 

 

Then my mom and sister and nephews came and we took Katie out to dinner at Outback for her birthday. Party of 9--the waiter was so nice and didn't seem to mind the chaos we bring. 

 

 The next day was Katie's turn to be baptized.

 On a walk with Daddy.

 

 

Grandma looks so lovely. 

 

 

 My nephew, Zach, baptized Katie

 Brother Hunsaker confirmed her.

 The whole gang.

 

 Then we celebrated both kids' birthdays and baptisms with a big bounce house and cake. And rain. So we made friendship bracelets under a canopy while we waited for the rain to stop. Which it never did. 

 

 What would a cousin visit be without a Pokémon tournament?

 We were so sad when everyone had to go home but it was an amazing week!

School Begins

 

Before the first day of school, Katie and I had to go to the mall and do some shopping. I had such a fun time with my little girl.

 

 

 

And then, the first day of school. Please look right into the sun as I take your picture! Lucky for us it's sunny in every direction. 

 Second grade look out...drama queen is on her way.

 Bestie from last year.

 Second day of school- just as good as the first.

Off to church. Just one normal picture please...never mind.

 Tommy is doing homeschool this year. After we went and did some testing, we enjoyed a fabulous lunch at On The Border. Who says school has to be boring?

 After the fires and floods our beautiful city has endured this year, we haven't lost hope.



Summer 2013

Once again, I haven't blogged for a really long time. I thought I better put some summer pictures in before I have two "first day of school" posts right by each other. Katie has turned horse-crazy as I think all little girls do. I still am. She's watched every episode of "The Saddle Club" 50 times or so. We took the kids riding at the Air Force Academy stables. They loved it! The ride was in the beautiful woods around the academy. It was so peaceful and relaxing. None of us can wait to go back!

 Every year, my Reserve Wing has a family day. They let the kids see all the jobs their parents may do. They have all sorts of fun things for the kids to do too, like a Velcro wall and bungee trampolines. The kids had a great time.

 This summer we also had the Black Forest Fire. I took this picture on my way home from work the day it started. It was so sad to see so many people lose their homes. The way the community rallied together, though, was awesome. The folks who endured the Waldo Canyon last year were especially quick to offer help. The Flying W Ranch was burned last year but they offered to put up at least 100 horses this year. We used to drive into the Black Forest a lot to look at the beautiful landscape and homes. We spent a lot of time hiking there as well. What a terrible loss.

 This  one is from my front porch. It looks like the fire is in our neighborhood but it is actually about 9 miles North.

 What would summer be without playing in the fountain?

 We spent a couple of weeks in Utah with family. We went to the Leonardo Museum and the Treehouse Museum in Ogden which is the best children's museum I have ever been to.

Riding the train back from Ogden. The kids are tired!

 

 Katie got her first pedicure with me, my sister, and my mom. Now if I ever go again, I will either have to take her, or sneek out because she loved it!

 

I was able to work all of June. We brought my nephew, Zach out to be our Manny. He was amazing. He played with the kids every day and I loved coming home to a clean house! We hated to send him back home.

 Well we still have a couple of weeks until school starts so hopefully we'll do something blog-worthy.