United Angels Walk: Team Edison

Trish invited us to do the Walk With Angels for the United Angels Foundation.  It was a fun activity for the kids and for a great cause!  Go team Edison!

the girls loved all the fun characters they had there...

We also went with the boys to the splash pad at the Gateway in dowtown SLC  :)

Edison was all smiles... and all drenched!

McKel in her Hello Kitty swimsuit.  She LOVES Hello Kitty!

sweet, cute girls!

Nice action shot of Avril

Love the summer sunshine!  :) :)

Owies

Major owies.  Mike's dad was in a very serious biking accident.  We were about to head out on a bike ride ourselves when Mike received a text that his dad was in the hospital.  We went to go visit him that night in the Neurological Critical Care Unit of the University of Utah.  He suffered from a broken collar bone, broken pelvic bone, and two brain bleeds.
We don't have a clear story of what happened because he doesn't remember.  All he knows is that he went out for a bike ride and then woke up in the ambulance.  The pressure in his head is cause for concern so they've been monitoring him 24 hours a day.
I know its been hard for Dennis, who is such an active person, to be bedridden, so we are hoping for a speedy recovery...

Fun Filled Day

We started the day with a fun charity run for the Brain Injury Alliance, at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City.  The girls were happy because they got to spend some time with the Glenn triplet boys and Olivia.  Next we headed up to Logan so mommy could go to a Homeowners Association Meeting, and then it got REALLY fun!  We spent the rest of the day at Lagoon, which we'd never done before, and the girls said it was their favorite place to go EVER!

Me and my sweetheart

Finish line!

And here are some photos of all of us having a blast at Lagoon!

McKel and Avril try out their aviation skills...

Trish and the boys met up with us there :)

Parker and George at the wheel!

McKel tries out an army helicopter

Avril picked out a colorful helicopter of her own!

I tried to capture a pic of all of us on the dragon ride :)

This is one of my favorite pics.  Fearless McKel always wanted to try no hands!

Wheeeee!!

Such a handsome pic of my handsome hubs with Macky :)

Swinging!  One of the girls' favorite activities...

My sweet Avril ready to swing

Two sweet cutie pies!!

Happy girls!

So cute!

This splash pad was a huge hit with the girls!

soaking wet, but having a blast!!

SPLASH PAD VIDEO:



I have the cutest girls imaginable.  I am the luckiest mom in the world!!

Another Lagoon pic, on the tea cups!

Mother's Day

Avril's gift to me for Mother's Day

I am one very lucky mommy.  I have two absolutely adorable sweetheart daughters, and a big-hearted 17 year old step son too now!  Avril made this gift for me at her school and wrapped it up for me.  She could not wait to give it to me, it was killing her to wait all week for me to open her gift.  Its actually very cute!  I am sure her teacher helped out, but Avril is quite the artist herself.
I had a wonderful morning sleeping in, and then had dinner with my own mom up in Logan.  It was so nice to be with family and my sweetheart girls who made me a mom.  Words cannot express how much I love my family.  I am a very blessed mom.

Annie's Wedding Trip

Road trip!!  We were so excited to get away for a little bit and visit with wonderful Montana people :)  Luckily, Mike happened to have a scheduled work trip to visit his IHOP restaurants in Montana, the same week that Annie was getting married.  It worked out perfectly for us!  The girls and I drove up and met Mike there.  Long drive, but we made pretty good time and the girls were surprisingly well behaved on the way there.  Avril was mostly super super excited to get to stay in a hotel.  Ever since our Disneyland trip she's been asking if we can stay in a hotel again.  I think she must associate it with fireworks and Disney fun.
In the car ride, I downloaded a few songs from the Frozen soundtrack, which we listened to a LOT of times!  The girls can recite the songs word for word, its actually quite impressive for a 3 and a 5 year old!

Here is McKel, on the road and ready for our adventure!

Avril passed out pretty early on.  She was so proud of herself for taking 2 naps on the drive!

We made it to IHOP in Bozeman!!  Mike was busy with meetings, etc. so we waited for him and dined on pancakes!

This is my handsome husband, lucky me!

Avril and cute little Ellie!  This was taken at the rehearsal dinner for the wedding, up in Billings...

Ellie is just constant entertainment.  She is not shy at all, and always in the mood for playing!

McKel being camera shy, with Mike

Sisters!  Grammy Carme with Aunt Star :)

A sweet shot of "Mackey" and "Mikey"

McKel was excited to be the tallest person there, with a little help from Mike!

Look who it is!  Papa Bryan!  It was such a nice surprise to see him there.  The girls love their Papa Bryan...

After the rehearsal dinner we headed back to our hotel room, which was a cheapo room at Motel 6.  They could only give us a smoking room, which I was SOO not happy about.  It was miserable.  But we somehow made it through, and they were able to get us a non-smoking room the next morning so we didn't have to suffer for two nights in a row.

The other terrible thing that happened was that my neck went out.  I have two herniated discs in my neck and it is just something I have to deal with on occasion.  It seems to only be the unbearable pain a couple times a year, but it is just awful when it happens... especially when it happens on vacation right before a wedding!  Turns out it was so bad that I needed to go to the ER in Billings to get a shot for the pain, which did seem to help enough that I could make it through the wedding.

The girls stayed with their grammy Carme and Papa Jim while Mike and I headed for the hospital...

McKel has some fun with the banister on the stairs...

This was the first time I'd actually seen Avril not be afraid of a dog.  They loved petting this gentle doggy...

We made it to the wedding!  It was freezing, but a beautiful ceremony...  Mike keeps Avril warm in his jacket.

McKel watches all the excitement around her...

This was one of the coolest things I'd seen done at a wedding.  Since Nate is a Lieutenant in the Navy, they had all the military men there with their swords, and they had to kiss to walk through.

Next we headed inside for food!  We got to sit next to Papa Bryan :)

This blurry picture was of Avril doing "Blast Off" with Papa Jim.  I thought the parachute dress looked pretty neat.

A picture of the girls with their Grammy Carme :)

The first dance as husband and wife!

Sweet McKel wasn't sure what to think of little Isaac, who kept trying to play with her...

Who is this kid, mom?

So sweet...

McKel and Avril, watching the newlyweds dance, waiting their turn to hop out on to the dance floor!

Ellie enjoying the music

Two very happy girls.

Ellie gives Avril a hug

Precious...

These girls were full of energy!

Papa Bryan dances with McKel

I tried to capture some of the awesome dance moves on video.  The lighting really wasn't great, but you get the gist of how awesome it was :)

...And my sweet husband was able to take a few action shots of me!

We played some ring around the rosies on the dance floor...

I had all the cutest girls to dancing with me!

We were lucky enough to grab a pic with the gorgeous bride, and the groom, before we headed back to the hotel for the night.  Mr. and Mrs. Nate Adams :)

Mike and I tried to take a bunch of shots of the two of us, since we were all dressed up, which is rare (mostly for me).  We wanted a nice facebook profile pic!

Not too bad!

Also a cute one...

I love having a hot husband!

One more pic...

...And back at the hotel:

Mike loves this one... me, not so much...

ok, this is really the last one...

Now I'm all ready for bed, with my reading glasses on :)

And finally...we head back to Utah.  McKel decided to cover herself in Cheetos...

Makes for a very messy car!

Such a fun family trip! Congratulations to Nate and Annie :)  So glad we could make it to the wedding and see so many loved ones.