fourth of july...

We kicked off our fourth of july with the Taylor Family Reunion.  Family came in from 

Arizona, Washington and West Virginia.   all Cory's siblings were together and all 28

grandchildren with 3 new little babies.

we are growing quite large.  Jake and Candace were in charge this year and planned 

lots of activities with beads that they got to put on their "Big T" necklace if they passed 

off the activities.  it was well planned and my children were in cousin heaven!

sleepovers every night and plenty of late nights!! 

the scouts presented the flag early on the fourth and then we spent 2 hours on a service project.

all the kids and family cleaned up broken tree branches, trimmed trees and did lots of

 yard work at Aunt Mary's {Mary Pulley} 

it was  a great way to start out the fourth of july honoring our beautiful country, and 

watching our boys present the flag.

I always choke up this time of year and am so grateful for the freedoms that we enjoy.

we are truly blessed!

getting our gloves on to start our service project...

Uncle Sam showed up with music to say hi to the little kids! haha  

these girls are tired and done helping. ha  

i guess they had a late night at their sleepover!

after the service project we played all sorts of water games, launched water balloons and 

played on papa's go kart!

after we had lunch and played games at nana's house we shifted over to our house for a polynesian chicken and coconut rice dinner.  the kids performed skits and passed off some more beads for their "big T" necklace.

we played all night and then watched the fireworks from our own backyard.  it was quite the 

show with the neighborhood fireworks and watching the fire

 on the mountain all night.

  

 these crazies were hilarious holding hands together and backflipping at the same time.  It's amazing no one was injured that day... er uh well actually cute little cousin hailey broke her leg that night.  good thing my awesome neighbor is our pediatrician.  boo!

Red, White & Blue swim meet...

my kids are on the swim team this summer and love it!

this was the twins FIRST swim meet and they were pumped.  I was so nervous that

they would be freaked out, but they did awesome!!

hayes and olivia swam in 'freestyle' & 'backstroke'

hayes placed "5th" in both {who knew they gave medals for 5th place?} 

and olivia placed 10th in freestyle. {she got a ribbon}

Boston swam the 50m butterfly, backstroke and freestyle

placing 1st in all 3 events with a record for freestyle.  

He was pumped!  

olivia loved having her bff tessa there to swim with!  

Hang Time.

The new "Hang Time" in Orem is seriously the Bomb! my kids loved every second of 

jumping into foam pits, playing dodge ball and just hanging 

with their arizona cousins!

the taylor family reunion was starting on the 4th of july so we had a little pre partying before that.  

Strawberry Days!

We look forward to this time of year!  "Strawberrys & Creme & the carnival!" 

I am officially a carni rat!  We love the carnivals, the games, rides and especially the

Strawberries and Creme!  

we went to lunch with some friends @ sammy's burgers {fav burger spot} in Pleasant Grove

 and then walked over to play on the carni rides! haha

Lehi Round Up...

What would summer be like without going to the Rodeo!  It's always so nerve racking 

watching the bull riding, but the kids loved it along with the sweet Moto Cross

show that they did afterwards.

p.s.   Lehi hamburgers are TO. DIE. FOR!

AF Canyon

We live right here by these beautiful mountains, it's breathtaking!

this is our stomping grounds for mountain biking and running. we love this canyon!

we took the kids and some cousins up to make and eat tin foil dinners and roast marshmallows!
it was the perfect evening, {besides the mosquitos we weren't prepared for}

we went on a little hike and then the boys went fishing while the kids played in the

water. 

this was on our summer bucket list!  we will definitely be doing this again.

Scout camp

This was Boston's first year of Scout camp! yikes!  

he had so much fun with 14 other boys!  They passed off tons of merit badges that he said took

a lot of work, especially Orienteering.  I can't wait to go to the court of honor to

 see what all he achieved.

I was a bit nervous for him, since one of the nights he had to do is survival night.  make 

their own hut to sleep in and sleep all night in it. 

cory went up to help out on friday night so that helped me feel a ton better.

i love that he had so much fun, but he did say he got a little homesick.

SO DID WE!!

when he got home, ivy started crying when she saw him because she missed him so much.

he's an awesome big brother!

fathers day...

My kids pretty much have the best daddy in the world!  they loved showering him 

with their homemade cards and treats.

Fathers Day weekend was my Ragnar race and so when i got home on Saturday afternoon cory had surprised me with a 'porch swing'  i have always wanted one but couldn't ever find a cute one.

Isn't he the best!  that's the kind of guy he is, giving me everything and on his own day!

love this boy so much!

Ragnar Relay {wasatch back}

Loved my "Wicked Fast" team!   

We had a blast at Ragnar this year.  Even with my bummed injury! Boo.

These girls were superstars, 3 of them have never ran ragnar before and had no idea what to expect! 

so much fun!

200 miles + 2 vans +12 runners....through the beautiful wasatch mountains!!  

thanks for the memories ladies... i may not be up for it next year. haha

 The night run was all of our favorites... well er uh except hollie's! 

getting ready to send shannon on the first run of the night for our van.   

we loved that we finally got to see VAN 2 at the exchanges.  We met them up at Snowbasin. 

So fun to see my hellbusch girls!!

 nothing sounded better than Cafe Rio to end the 2 days of running!!

Utah Valley Half Marathon

I did it!!

  

I was so excited to do a marathon this year and when i hurt my achilles in january, i was bummed

so i entered the half instead.  hoping to heal in the meantime.  

two of my girlfriends ran it too, so that was fun to train on my saturdays with these beauties.

we had fun training and it was their first half marathon. 

beautiful course and perfect weather! i finished in exactly 2:14

not what i was hoping for but at mile 4 my knee started killing me and realized later that

it was my IT band. ugh...

Baseball Playoffs

Hayes has some serious fans at his baseball games!!  

we all LOVE to cheer for him and hope he gets a hit.

his team made it to the semi finals and hayes hit and scored!  

he was SO proud and the happiest kid!

we celebrated by eating some JCW's Ice cream!

GO Hayesie! 

one of his buddies {who is also our neighbor} was in the championship game too!

Dance company Showcase

miss livi had her Dance Showcase in June at the Covey Center of the Arts.  

It was so fun to watch all the amazing dance companies! 

 we were missing our cute nieces Charlee

 {decided to take a year off} and Witney {she's on SYTYCD, watch and VOTE!}  

Olivia's bff Tessa came to watch her perform.  She is trying out with olivia to be on the 

same dance company at Vibe this next year! yeah!

Olivia danced so good and we all loved to watch her!

Summer so far...

has been a BLAST!

filled with lots of swimming, splash pads and diving board tricks!

so far we've had scout camp, basketball camp, crossfit kids, dance showcase,  Lehi Rodeo, strawberry days carnival, taylor family reunion, swim meet and lots of bike rides!

The twins have been totally coming out of their nervous shell. It seems like this year they've all of the sudden grown up.  They are diving off the diving boards {high dives too}, swimming with confidence, it is so much fun to watch them grow. {sniff sniff}  

Boston and the twins started "crossfit kids"  they love it!  My brother in law Trevor

owns "Crossfit Hyperion" and we are huge fans. {husband and I have been going since october}  

so it's fun to see our kids enjoy it so much.  It's good for pre football season for Boston too.

after the workout trevor races Ivy and she runs fast!  maybe she might follow in her mama's footsteps

and love running! {wink}

Cory took Hayes out golfing at the Alpine Country Club and he really liked driving the 

golf cart.  He fully surprised Cory when Hayes shot a HOLE IN ONE! feeling like a champ!

Boston is my little trickster... i could watch him and his friends do tricks and backflips off the diving board all day! Boston perfected the gainer!

olivia and hayes got into it too.  Highlight of my summer!!!

Ivy cracks us up with her swimming.  She loves it and actually swims 

very well {if you are with her} she now jumps off the diving board.