Yellow belt

So right before karate classes ended for the summer Connor was able to go up from his white belt to his yellow belt. He has only been taking karate classes for a couple months and is the youngest kid in his class by at least two years so it is pretty cool for him. He loves being in karate and does a really good job in there. He really has an amazing memory and it transfers over to karate. It is good too because karate gets to be "his" thing that he does. He kept worrying that he wasn't going to get it but we all knew he would because he is good and he knows everything and he did an excellent job today. He has really great teachers too. They did a little sparring at the end of class and it is so funny to watch little Connor out there because like I said he is the youngest in his class by like two years and he is extremely short for his age anyway so he looks like a shrimp when they spar....but he can spar with the best of them. We are so proud of him and that he loves it and sticks with it....

Jumpin High

So a few months ago we inherited a trampoline from my in-laws (thank you so much for hours and hours and hours of entertainment and exercise for my kids Grandma and Grandpa Spendlove)....We have a great backyard for a trampoline and the kids have definitely taken advantage of it. Kylie never liked trampolines but has gotten a lot more daring on it too. She will actually get on it now and will let the boys jump on it if they hold her and if nobody else is on there she will jump to her heart's content. The boys are getting really good doing flips and they have jumped with the sprinkler's on...that was fun to watch with water coming in from all sides. The tramp really has been a ball for them and gotten them outside a lot more. We all love it!!!

These are a few pictures I took of the kids jumping on the tramp with the sprinklers on.







This is Kylie getting the water gun thinking she was going to get the boys wet....little did she know they were already soaking wet from the sprinklers...but it was a good thought...

Doing some exploring

So my parents are coming down in a few weeks and we want to do some fishing so we wanted to go for a ride last weekend to take a look at some nearby lakes and also to do some exploring at some of the cool sites around Fillmore. My parents used to take us all on rides when I was little...I have to admit I was not one that liked to be in the car all day. I used to get car sick...I ended up sitting next to the stinky brother who bothered me and I just wanted to get there and with my parents we never got there...the ride was there.....but now I am totally like my parents....I just want to hop in the car and drive around and spend all day driving and seeing cool things and now I am the one torturing my kids, especially my middle child Connor....he absolutely HATES it and complains the loudest. It is kind of fun and I guess it is payback for the rides I HAD to go on.....We really did do some pretty cool stuff so I don't know why I didn't like it when I was younger but I do now.

So on to our ride....we saw the name of this river and thought we for sure could find it...well we didn't but instead we found the Fremont Indian State Park museum. On a whim we decided to stop there and it was pretty cool. They had a movie we watched and some displays we looked at. The coolest thing were the petroglyphs on the mountains that you could see. They had anywhere from half mile up to 5 miles of hiking to see them. Well we weren't really dressed for the walk (I wore the wrong shoes for that so we will have to go back on another day because they had a cool cave you could hike to). Garrett really wanted to hike to more stuff. We had to get the kids picture by the teepee with the mountain in the background that had the petroglyphs on it and Connor was hot and in a bad mood as you can tell in the picture.



Well since the river was a bust we decided to head over to a lake by Delta and then get dinner in Delta. We drove by the lake and well we could see the lake but there was no access to get to the lake...it certainly didn't seem like a lake that anybody actually fished at or actually used...maybe but we couldn't find a way to get to it...the road just circled by it without getting to it...at that point the kids were so hungry and done with being in the car so we headed to the big city of Delta (ha ha ha)...I had never been to Delta....after living in Fillmore I was actually expecting it to be a lot bigger but I must say I really like living in Fillmore...(it is always Delta versus Fillmore--They don't have that much more stuff than us). We got some food and went to a park to eat. The kids had a ball playing at the playground. Kylie is usually a wimp at the park but she is really starting to get a lot braver now. They had three slides...and by the time we left she went on the biggest tunnel slide there all by herself. After that we headed home. We have since found out from friends in Fillmore where the best fishing sites are...no more guessing for us...but it was a fun ride and some fun finds.

This is the first time she went down the "baby" slide...kind of looks terrified



Monkey man



Connor was always there to make sure he was there to catch Kylie



Connor must have went on the slide 100 times



I made Garrett hold this pose while I took the picture and I think he was really sore afterwards

Birthdays (Garrett, Chelton and Grandma Debbie)

So June is our Christmas of Birthdays..we spent the first week of June up in North Ogden because Chelton had EVO training so I didn't want to be home alone so I went up and spent the week with my mom...Chelton's birthday was the day before we left so we got to spend his birthday at home. We had already went clothes shopping for mine and his birthday but the kids wanted to get him something so we went to the grocery store to get stuff for the strawberry pie I always make him for his birthday and I let them pick out something to get him....Kylie got him a bag of cornnuts, Connor got a box of zingers (which I think when it came down to it, he only actually ate like one or two out of the 12 that were in there) and Garrett got him a bag of trail mix.....they were SOOO excited for him to open his presents...It was so funny. We made a sign to hang up and they all made homemade Pokemon and Dora happy birthday cards....It was a cute birthday for Dad....



Two days later up north we had a small birthday party for Garrett where we went to Toads Fun Zone. He took his brother and his cousins Ethan and Jayden with him. They had a blast. They played laser tag, indoor golf and outdoor golf and lots of video games and had pizza and ice cream. This is the second year in a row where he has celebrated his birthday at Toads. He loves it. Ethan and Garrett spent most of their video game money on this one pirate game. They had a good time. We went back to my mom's for cake. He was excited to get a new wii for his birthday as his has been broken for a long time and we got him a membership to blockbuster online where he can rent games for the summer (rather than buying him a new game that he gets bored of or beats in like a day and never plays again--then he can trade in for a new one)...

Kylie, Connor, Ethan, Jayden and Garrett by the Toad's sign


Garrett, Jayden and Ethan playing that pirate game FOREVER!!!



Laser tag goofs!!!



Opening presents (grandpa and Chelton were trying to take pictures and Jayden, Ethan and Connor thought they were funny and tried to jump in front of the camera...they succeeded a lot too)



Then later that evening we had a BBQ at my sister Mandee's house for my mom's birthday which was the day before. We had a really nice time just visiting with everyone and letting the kids all play together and play on the swingset and play volleyball. It was a nice birthday week. Can't believe Garrett is 9 years old!!!

Connor and his cousin Logan playing volleyball (and might I add Logan is 11 months younger than Connor and they are the same height--man my kid is a shrimp)



Garrett and Jayden swinging on the swingset



Kylie hanging out with my mom's dog Diego (the only dog in the world she likes)



Abby, Logan, Kylie, Ethan and Connor versus



Uncle Chris and Shaylee



Fair fight? I'm sure the little kids can take them on!!!

It is always fun for everyone to get together...birthday week is almost as exhausting as Christmas but we have a lot of fun!!!! I am almost a month late in posting but better late than never!!!