Our Summer...

Was full. Quite full. Let's go back to the beginning, shall we?

We organized and held a southern fish fry in our neighborhood. (LOTS of work, but delicious!)

First piano recital with this cute boy and my other piano students.

Trips to the zoo

Playing with LOTS of friends

Sam finished his first soccer season! He LOVES it and is actually quite good!

Girls Camp in St George!

Where unfortunately one of my ribs popped out and my muscle spasmed on the second day. Don't let my smile fool you. I was in A LOT of pain in this pic. In fact, whatever the cause (the myriad of muscle relaxers and pain killers, my back, or just some stomach bug), I threw up during intermission at The Little Mermaid at Tuachan. Lovely, right? I was so dizzy that I had to cling to the Bishop's arm just to make it to the car without falling over. Luckily, Matt had arrived in St. George this very evening so that he could pick me up and take me to our next event....

Tricia and Robbie's wedding! Tricia has mad skills. She worked on my back and neck each night before her wedding (what a gem), so that I was functional on this fun day.

Zack was tired and hot most of the day so we did a lot of this...

My three cute boys

After the wedding festivities, the boys and I stuck around Cali to hang out with these wonderful people.

We went to the beach. It was FREEZING. But we went anyway!

No chilly weather that smores can't cure. Am I right or what?

We spent time at various parks

Serendipitous-ly caught up with old friends.

Went to Chuck E Cheese - a Sam and Zack favorite with their Gpa M. And yep. My mom rode the carousel with the boys!

We even managed to spend a day at this fabulous place. (Thanks Alyson!)

Toon Town is a favorite right now

We convinved Sam and Zack that they wanted to go on the new Star Tours. Zack just BARELY made the height requirement!!
Zack LOVED the carousel. I think we rode it 2 or 3 times in a row.
Outside Mr. Toads...
And Autopia. LOTS and LOTS of Autopia. Maybe 3 or 4 times, Nate? When you love racecars as much as my boys do, this ride is a dream come true. And the line was basically nonexistent.
Sam DRIVING!
Zack and me
Love Nate in this pic!
Nate, Z, Sam and Lindz. (You might notice that everyone wore an Angels hat except me! Zack even had his, although he stopped wearing it early on in the day! True fans, I tell you. True fans.)

Leaving the park. The boys finally dropped off to sleep around 9pm after Sam rode Splash Mountain three times in a row. Funny boy. It's one of his favorites!

Back home, we went to lots of parks. These boys are getting pretty good at tee-ball!

You just never know what you'll find in this house...

Our Fourth of July parade!

And fireworks with family that night!

We've spent lots of time up the canyon, usually with these fabulous people.

We even managed to catch up with some wonderful old friends. Wish we had more time to spend with you guys while you were here!!!

Then family came back in town because Bel and Mike were visiting. We checked out BYU one day and this AWESOME display in the Museum of Art. It's entirely made out of books!

We went up the canyon

And had smores.

LOTS of smores.

We spent a day downtown - temple square (trying to find my cousin Emma!), touring Steve's photos, meeting up with Mike for lunch and more. (Sam and Zack were happy recipients of ANGELS shirts this morning! So it became Angels shirt day. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!)

We spent a fun afternoon up in Park City, riding the Alpine Slide, of course.

Mom and Lindz

Nate's photo finish.

Grandpa and Sam.

And we spent a LOT of time all crammed into my van. In fact, we even drove all the way back to CA in this van with every seat filled. Some had their doubts, but I thought it was quite fun.

Missing because I actually have ZERO pictures of it (how did that happen??), was our fun three days in Oceanside with Matt's family. It was so relaxing! We went to the beach, swimming, hung around with Matt's family and aunts, uncles, and more cousins. Wish we could have stayed longer, but we had another commitment...

TREK

Where we spent hours and hours and over 30 miles doing something like this...

You're jealous of our clothes, I know. (And this pic needed a flash, but oh well!) Thanks Mom for sewing my oh so fashionable attire. :)
We had the best family - the VOLDEMORMONS. Yep. Chant with me. "We are You Know Who." Now, I have earned a new nickname with the youth in my ward. Voldemarci.

12 days after Trek finished, we celebrated another wedding for these fabulous people. Congrats Rach and Sean!

My not-so-little Z and me.

And Rach asked me to do her hair. I think it turned out pretty well!

Such a beautiful bride!

Our family's superhero pose.

And that brings us to the present... where SAM will start kindergarten on Monday, and Zack will start joyschool the following week. Ahhh! How did they grow up so fast?

Congrats if you have stayed with me to this point. You made it! Now, I think I'm excused for another three months, right???

Something's Missing...

Can you tell what it is??? Look closely.

Here's a hint.

And it happened during this.

Sam's turning into a good little soccer player.

This little guy wanted in on the up close and personal face photo shoot

And... their superhero faces of course. :)

New Pajama Pants and EASTER!

For my brother Jake's birthday, we made Sam, Zack, and Jake matching Batman pajama pants.

We're still waiting to see a pic of Jake in his pajama pants, but here are the boys...

Then, we also made Sam, Zack, and Nate matching Superman pants. (Too bad JoAnn's didn't have enough of one print for everyone!) Here are the "superhero" poses.

Lookin good, Nate. :)

We also had some Easter bunnies make an appearance around here.

After the Easter Egg hunt.

(I think Nate has the stretchiest cheeks of anyone I know...)

Happy belated Easter!

Sam was a Viking Too...

Just in case you were wondering...

Zack's Lightning Party

Well... when you're a whole whopping FIVE years old, you get really excited about birthday parties. So, you just might wake up your brother at about 6am on the day of his party because you just can't wait any longer. That would be the same brother who was up for two hours in the middle of the night. That results in one GRUMPY GUY.

(I can't help it. This pic cracks me up...)

Sam was silly enough to break Zack down eventually.

We made it through the party with this emotionally unstable boy. Just barely though. :)

To prepare for this party, I drew a racetrack. Our boys hardly play trains anymore, so the train table has been converted to a race track table. They LOVE it.

And since I KNOW you wanted to see more detail on those truck's parking spots... here ya go.

Zack's birthday cupcakes. I found a screamin' deal on Lightning cars at Target (a set for 50% off)! So, we figured it would be more fun for everyone to have a car as a cupcake topper.

Our first game: Luigi's Leaning Tower of Tires. Stack up "tires" (donuts) and see how tall you can make it!

Sam playing

I always find myself being silly with kids. And getting them to run. It wears them out and makes everyone a little less rambunctious. Enter Game 2 - RACING. So here we are "revving" our engines and getting ready to RACE.

Running through streamers is a dream for a three year old.

And a five year old. Check out Sam's game face. :)

Game 3: Mater's Red Light Green Light. Same as the original except you're driving "in reverse".

Zack with his birthday cupcakes...

...and blowing them out.

Sam

One of Zack's classic "smiles"

Our family. Matt insisted on this height pic. Nice sweatband, Matt.

Family Pic, Take 2. Would be decent except for Zack.

Take Three... It's degenerating...

Take 4. If you can't beat them, join them. Silliness abounds.

Zack was really REALLY excited to get his "own own" computer on his actual birthday. (I got it for $6.66 shipped! SWEET deal since it retails for about $50!)

Zack's other favorite present. We've played Candyland countless times now.

Cute brothers...

Happy THIRD birthday Zack!

Guess Who Greeted Me...

When I got out of the shower on Monday?

A VIKING and a KNIGHT!

And just in case you wanted to see that viking face again...

(we're just happy the viking hat sorta fits on Z's head...)

Happy Birthday Zack!

A few days ago, this little monkey turned THREE. We celebrated by going to the Splash Zone, playing race cars, doing puzzles, and playing Candyland multiple times. All Zack's favorite things.

Coming up (if I ever get around to it!) and in no order are: Matt's birthday, matching pajama pants, Z's birthday party, Shipoopi (finally), our Austin trip, my family visiting here, and many Sam the knight and Zack the warrior pictures. (Classic.)

And the Winner Is...

me: Hey Matt. I hear that if you dry your face using an upward motion that you can discourage wrinkles and sagging down the road.

Matt: Makes sense I guess.

me: Let's see if it works. For the next 10 years, I'll dry my face using an upward motion and you dry your face using a downward motion. Then, we'll see who has more wrinkles and a saggy baggy face.

Matt: You're on.

Check back in 10 years to see the winner...

All Shipoopi'd Out

We've been busy. But I promise to blog updates soon...

***Important Side-note: We stuck the lift at the end of our dance every performance! Booyah!***