Ahhhhhhh....Summer

Already the first week of summer, and we're off to the sandy beaches of...

Not!  (But we can dream, right?)

In reality, Nate and Jeran are off doing their scout thing at Silver Moccasin, and Megan is in Colorado at a basketball camp.  Tim and I are here at home with Joie and Gabby, thinking how only two kiddos can make life really, really quiet.

But we've enjoyed the late nights, friends, a little swimming, and the laid back life of no homework and fewer deadlines.

I always say I'll post later about all the goings on, and I'm sure I will (wink, wink) but not today.  Happy summer, everyone!

Months and Months of Photos

This post is for posterity.

And for grandma and grandpa.

First, taking care of business...

Lost item photos I meant to email to my family but didn't.  These items are still at our house.  Does anyone claim them?

Cute earrings.  If no one claims them...

And the flour babies...  

This was a school assignment last spring for Megan and Jeran to carry around duct-taped wrapped 10 pound sacks of flour decorated as babies.  

Megan named hers Claire (after cute cousin Claire, whose face she borrowed for this project)

And Jeran named his Captain Sawyer America...or something like that.  Maybe it was Sawyer Steve Rogers...  Or Baby Captain America.  Either way, he thanks his cousin Sawyer for the borrowed baby face.

They had to carry them everywhere, phone in four times at night (over a two week period) and hire a babysitter if they were busy...

Gabby the babysitter

Moving right along...

I think this is a picture Tim took of Gabby when he took her lunch at school.  Her new favorite (2nd only to pizza with toppings peeled off) is a veggie sandwich from Subway.  (Please don't sound the protein deficiency alarm.  She can eat quinoa, legumes, eggs, whole grains, and her share of dairy products like no child you've ever seen.)

And a little cousin love...Adrienne is 20 years old, and such an awesome role model of an older cousin for all her younger cousins.  They love her!  (Which is a good thing, since Adrienne is the only girl in her family.)

And a cute pose with the Jarman cousins, who are equally awesome...

Love Megan's look here.  It seems to say:
I don't know them...

And while we're on the subject of cousins, there are the Vernal cousins...those would be cousins from Joie's dad's side of the family.  We visited them in June, and Joie stayed an extra three days.  I love that she is excited to continue to grow the family connections to her dad's side of the family as well.  

Left to right:
Joie, Lexie, Gabby, Hailey, and Gracie

And don't try to explain to Gabby that Joie's cousins on her dad's side of the family aren't Gabby's "real" (hate that word) cousins too.  Don't you just love adoption?  Take a bunch of non-biologically related people, add a judge and an adoption decree, and anything is possible, right?

But when it came time to go, Gabby was not happy that Joie was staying and she was going home with Tim and I...

So not happy, in fact, that she pouted and yelled for the first 15 minutes...

Until I climbed in the back seat with her, a bag of chips, and a DVD...

Yes, those are chips on her tongue.  We just had to share.

And as she settled down, she started talking about how leaving Joie felt like leaving her sister.  So sad.  And she talked about missing her brother.  It doesn't take a lot to remind us of how much she's really lost.  Thank goodness for cuddling.  Thank goodness for chips and a DVD.

Gabby also got a cute haircut...

And Gabby continues to crack me up almost daily with her candor and honesty.  In this picture she walked into the room and told me, "These goggles fit perfect!"

Then this was her reaction when her friend told her they were upside down...

And Gabby on River (one of Ruth and Nick's old horses that has been kept in Juniper and cared for by Dani, one of Joie's cousins).  

River does a little skip to try to throw people off when she isn't happy about being ridden.  This day was hot, hot, hot.  Poor River.  (But to help a little with cooperation, we lead her instead of letting the kids just ride.)

And then there was July 4th...

A fun day that ended in watching Sandy City fireworks (since it was too dry to set off our own).  Joie wasn't happy that she didn't get a spot by dad, but eventually she warmed up was willing to accept second best (sitting by mom).

Megan & Jeran (who were by dad) waiting for fireworks to start...

And Megan got more pictures of fireworks that you could ever scroll through in a single day, which she can post if she feels the need.  (Nothing like watching fireworks twice!)

And then there's my awesomely cool 16 year old.  I think he didn't know I snapped this one.

And there was a (sort of) bathroom remodel that involved a toilet sitting on our front porch for a number of days.  It was called everything from redneck yard art to just plain annoying.  Thankfully no one knocked on our door asking to use the toilet!

And Megan has the job of cleaning my office.  One day she left this note for me.  I was so, so curious...  But I didn't open it until I actually had a bad day.  (Then I kept it in my drawer just in case I have another bad day.)  Sweet Megan.  I love her love.

And a few more Las Vegas photos...

The oldest three

All five of them...

And a little celebrity moment at Planet Hollywood...

And that's a wrap.  (And a lot less mommy guilt about not preserving memories...because scrapbooking isn't even an option.  Not if mommy is to remain sane.)

Jarman Brothers

When I met Tim, he told me he came from a family of 10 children, "all girls but eight."  

Like most large families, it's rare to get everyone in one place at the same time, but having six out of the eight in one place at one time isn't bad!  

The occasion:  Family party to celebrate the upcoming wedding of one of Tim's nieces (Parry's daughter).

Matt, Paul, Peter, Tim, Dean Sr., Parry, Dean Jr.
Missing:  James, Lee

We told them to do something funny...creativity at it's best.

What an awesome group of guys!

The Rest of the Vacation

Warning:  You're about to see more vacation photos than you ever wanted to see.

Everything was amazing...one of my personal favorite was all the water features.  (It's a Pisces thing.)

Bellagio fountains...one of the first stops on our first day.

Check out the height of the water and the buildings in the background...

Water explosion...
Gabby wants to work here when she grows up so she can swim in the fountains.

And of course we had to stop at the M & M factory...

Circus Circus was another favorite.  We were crazy enough to think about walking there (in 106 degree heat) and by the time we realized how far away it was, we decided to just keep walking...

Right before Circus Circus was a McDonalds.  Tim called out, "Ice cream for everyone!"  He gets most popular dad points for that one.

The girls and Jeran got their faces painted while we were waiting for the circus show...

We passed around the camera, and everyone (but mostly Megan) got a chance to take pictures.  It was interesting to see Vegas through everyone's eyes.  Here's the "bright and colorful" Vegas through Gabby's eyes...

Waiting for something or watching something...we did a lot of both.

Amazing gardens inside Bellagio

Amazing

 There were street performers everywhere, and watching the kids try to decide whether or not to try to get this guy (below) to move was one of my favorite Vegas moments.

You are supposed to walk up, put money in his cup, and he'll move (and when he wasn't moving, he really did look like stone).  Joie walked up and put money in the box, and he moved...  Finished, right?

...But no.  He then held up his hand for her to give him bones.  She was hesitant to walk up there twice, but she did it, and each time she gave him bones, he'd do mechanical rotation movements and reach in his pocket and pull out a sucker...one for all the kids.  Gabby sooooooo wanted to try, but didn't.

More bright and colorful...

This was inside the Venetian...yes, INSIDE.  We loved all the painted ceilings.

And then there was Phantom...

Even now the girls are downstairs watching the DVD and singing along...Amazing!

Before we went to Vegas, a friend told me, "Vegas is great in the daytime, but if you're there with kids, leave the strip when it gets dark." But Tim had kept talking about the cool pirate show at Treasure Island after dark, so we walked down after Phantom and waited forty-five minutes for the show to start...

Gabby, not happy about waiting.

No pictures except for the ones we took while waiting...

...Then that awkward moment when the show starts and you realized there was a really good reason this wasn't listed on the family attractions at Vegas...and that other awkward moment when you look around and realized you're the only family with children there...

Not our brightest parenting moment.

But we did get to see more great lights...

Then as we were leaving the strip, we walked past a cute little restaurant that my sister-in-law had mentioned in a facebook post the day before.
And yes, Joelle, the frozen hot chocolate was fantastic and it was a great ending to a great day (minus the TI experience).

Other experiences worth noting...

• Swimming late at night...still so hot it felt good!  (And any other time of day they could get in the pool.)
• Eating at Planet Hollywood before we left Vegas (restaurant was cool...food, meh...not as impressive)
• Electronic comas while driving in the car (I'm a huge fan of electronic comas while we're on the road.)
• Early morning trip to the Las Vegas temple with the oldest kids...what a contrast from life on the strip.
• The Bellagio buffet for Jeran's birthday meal (the day after his birthday because let's face it...Grand Canyon just doesn't offer anything as amazing as the Bellagio buffet).
• Numerous other free shows...love, love, love free shows.
• The discovery by our children that arcades are nothing more than casinos for children.

Things we didn't do:

• Gamble...even though the boys kept daring each other to walk up to slot machines and put a quarter in (just to see if they could get kicked out of a casino).  Silly boys.
• Go to visit Pawn Stars pawn shop...  We meant to do it, but ran out of time.
• Sleep...not nearly enough sleep.
• And many other things, I'm sure...probably most of which we're ok missing.
• The New York, New York roller coaster...Gabby really wanted to go back for that one but have you ever walked the strip?  It takes forever...no time.
• Mandalay Bay shark reef aquarium...Again, it takes longer to walk the strip than you'd think.  Poor planning on our part.

And on an unrelated sad note, on the way out of town we got a text from Joie's uncle, letting us know he and his wife had lost their baby.  She was almost 7 months pregnant, and went in for an appointment to learn the baby had died.  

Picture of their family taken in June when they were sealed in the temple.

Our hearts wept with them all week as they went through this loss and buried their baby on Saturday.  It's hard to imagine.  Love and prayers to Spencer and Amy.

And work starts early tomorrow... (sigh).