So, so, SO much to catch up on...

Okay, so I'm just going to combine our summer into one post with mostly pics.  I know, I am TOTALLY slacking on the blog.  But I have a lame excuse:)  Have any of you heard of Pinterest??  It is literally my new favorite thing.  You just "pin" all of the awesome things you see on the web to your boards and look at all of the other awesome things other people pin to their boards.  Sound confusing??  You'll just have to trust me - it is totally addicting:)  If you want an invite, let me know and if I don't have your email, send it on.  Click here to see what all the pinning is about!  So, there is my excuse!!  Sorry to my fam (Cindy and Brent and Mom) who like to see what's going on!

Our Summer....

West Virginia..
We were able to go to West Virginia with Spencer's whole family in July for a week.  All 40 of us!!  We were all in the same hotel and totally took over the pool when we went swimming and totally took over the breakfast area when we ate as well.  We had eight cars traveling at all times together - it was funny and crazy but an adventure.  We were doing a family history trip to learn more about Spence's grandma and where she grew up.  We did a lot of fun little day trips, like float the river, hike the Organ Cave, and we saw the house his grandma grew up in and other places that their ancestors lived. It was really neat and fun to be all together.  Rebekah (Spence's sister) organized the whole trip and put a ton of work into it.  The cousins had a great time being together and Grady still talks about going back to W. Virginia...

Thurgood Family Reunion..
I LOVE my family!!  We have such a good time together and this year did not disappoint!!  We got together at Spence's parent's cabin which is such a great place to have a reunion.  We played "minute to win it" games courtesy of Heidi on Wednesday night and it was SO funny.  The next day we all trekked it up to Lagoon and spent the whole day there with a night dinner with my mom's side of the family that night.  Friday, we went out on the boat and did some wakeboarding, surfing and good old tubing for the kiddos.  That night we did the dreaded family pics, but it had a been awhile and my cute cousin and his wife did a great job and got some great photos.  The next day, we cleaned up and came back to our house for a lunch with my dad's family.  It was totally crazy and busy, but we had a great time and loved being together..

Bear Lake..
One last trip we took was to Bear Lake with our good friends the Glines!  Her parents own a house right on the lake and we were able to stay there for a couple of days.  They have 5 girls and our girls get along really well.  We pulled off some great lunches and dinners, went jet-skiing, knee boarding, tubing and surfing - Rick caught on super quick  -  and had a yummy Raspberry shake!  The boat had a few problems up there, but all in all, it was a great trip.  My kids were bummed to leave their friends and that gorgeous lake.  I completely forgot to take ANY pics, but we got one day in there.  Thanks for the trip Rick and Rosemary!!

Lot's of fun stuff as you can see....Luckily today still feels like summer, so I'm not too sad just yet:)

Just Keep Swimming...

We have been swimming SO much this summer!!  I love it and the kids love it - especially when there are plenty of cousins to swim with:)  All of the kids took swimming lessons this year at the Rec. Center and I was really impressed with their teachers and lessons.

Grady of course, has no fear and is now jumping off the diving board sans floaties or ANYTHING!!  He scared me at first, but now it's just fun to watch.  His favorite thing is to have Spence take him down to the deepest spot and touch the bottom.

Adri is the queen of the diving board for our fam.  She goes off and shouts things hopefully we can hear, like "Grandma is the BEST" and "I love mom" - super funny!  She doesn't do any flips, just legs out, or twirls or dives.  

Kendalyn just swims.  She doesn't like the diving board anymore, but she is a great swimmer.  She loves using her mask and flippers.  Lately they have all been using the boogie board we got years ago from Hawaii and they have been trying to "surf" on it.  Grady is the only one who has been able to stand so far..

SO sad to see the summer end - going to miss the pool for sure!

Ta - Da

Out with that dirt/mud and in with the grass!!  Here is the finished product of the 3-4 month long rained- us- out process.  I am LOVING the fire pit.  It is gas, so we don't get that nasty (I know some people love it (CINDY!!!)) campfire smell every time we want to roast some marshmallows!!  I am also LOVING the shade we have!  We didn't have ANY in our backyard in our last house, so we are totally taking advantage of sitting outside in the evenings.  I've had these pics forever - sorry it took so long to actually sit down and blog about them:)

Adri Stuff!!

So, my Adri is quite the little crafter, colorer, and artist.  She just has always been that way.  Although she is more of a tomboy than Kendalyn, she can still sit for hours with crayons and paper and be great, and the other two just can't be bothered with that.  Since school has been out, she has started doing the melty beads like CRAZY!!  I think she has made about 35 or so - and these things take up to an hour for some of them - nuts!! I have been ironing them all, with some complaining at times:),  but we thought we would take a picture of the few we had at the time - they are really cute!!  Good job Adri!!

Puerto Vallarta

We just seem to love these all-inclusive resorts so much that we keep going back for more!  We have done Cancun twice and this year we decided to do Puerto Vallarta ( I finally know how to spell it:)!!  We went with our good friends the Glines, and had a great time.  Mostly we just relaxed and drank cold drink (sin alcohol) after cold drink.  It was so beautiful and the ocean temperature was the warmest I have ever felt.  I could have been in there for hours if I wasn't so freaked out by little crabs and baby mantarae's(spelling?) that we kept seeing so close to shore.  Spence and Rick did a lot of body surfing, which I did once (liked it, but serious sand was in serious places), Rosemary was out for quite awhile one day and another day for a bit too, and they also went on a two-tank dive while Rosemary and I got facials - a great idea!  Such a funny thing that happened, was that the resort somehow thought Spence and I were on our honeymoon, so we had a Honeymooners banner across our door the whole time, and some chocolates and champagne with the bathtub filled with bubbles when we got there.  SO funny, but we totally went with it!
We had entertainment nightly, and sometimes it was super weird, but we always watched it anyway.  We also took a bike tour and that was a fun way to see what was surrounding our resort.  We went to a spot to see dolphins swimming in a tank and they were literally 5 feet away from us.
The one thing I did right this year was to get my legs waxed right before we went.  I have never waxed my legs,  but I have done "other" areas and loved the results.  So I grew my sick hair out for about a week, and went for it.  It hurt a bit, but it wasn't too bad at all.  Plus, it has been 4 weeks and I am still barely shaving - SO FANTASTIC!!  Anyway, that's my little tip for anyone going on a bathing suit vacation - it was heaven not to shave for a week!