Cousin LOVE

Elizabeth has loved spending time with her teenage cousins this summer.  She is a happy baby but she lights up when she see's those boys. Michael and Jasen are in baby love and I think she loves them too. 

Erica's Baby Shower

Erica is having a baby BOY!!  I am so excited for her and so anxious to meet this little man.  Deanna is so wonderful and she organized a baby shower in Denver with all of Erica's friends.  Because she has most of the stuff needed for a baby (hand me downs are AMAZING) she was given some "Mommy Make-over/Relaxation" certificates.

 

Painting the Green Room...Blue?

Rachel enlisted Ben and I to come and help paint at the Newson's house.  The 'Green Room' is a big room with a beautiful book shelf/library, Nedra's office and Ron's TV nook.  It has been a dark green color since the Newson's moved in 25+ years ago and they decided to brighten it up a bit by painting it a lighter color (soft blue-ish). 

 

The only problem... the Green Room is no longer Green! hum...?

Rockies Game!

Ben got us tickets to the Rockies Game on July 24.  We were in the super fancy level and had great seats.  Elizabeth was not a huge fan of the cheering- especially when Mom cheered (yikes).  But she did pretty good.  

 Ben has also started softball with work again- he has had a couple games and is doing good.  He loves sports and is having a lot of fun. 

Dawson Summer

Dawson Summer

The Dawson's spent the summer in Colorado this year and it was sooo much fun to have them here.  We did so much- went to the county fair, went boating, went swimming, went frog hunting, went shopping and soo soo much more!! 

A couple times I got to go to the Rec Center with the kids.  We had so much fun swimming in the deep end (yes, this is an accomplishment for me because I have just felt confident swimming this year- thanks to Mat, Jasen and Andrew's expert lessons); jumping off the diving board in weird ways, playing underwater telephone, playing basketball and much more.  We spent hours swimming and playing and it was so much fun (and great exercise).

I took Andrew, Mylie, Emma, Spencer and Wyatt frog hunting at Golden Ponds.  Last time Emma, Spencer and I went frog hunting we caught a lot and saw a ton but this year we did not see a single frog.  The kids did jump in the river and get to swim for a bit though.  It was fun watching them (no, I didn't get in because I did not have extra cloths and didn't want to smell like a river all day) and seeing their pure youthful joy.  It made me happy to see them out in nature being kids.

Emma is what we might call a 'tween' aka between childhood and teenhood.  She is starting middle school this year and is starting to care about how she looks but at the same time... isn't.  This tween-hood was causing Andrea some 'back to school shopping' woes, so Emma and I had a girls date (Aug 8) went shopping.  We didn't buy anything but we went to two stores and tried on cloths/modeled for hours (with a lunch break at Smash Burger).  It was fun to see Emma get so excited about different things and a little sad to see how big and grown up she is getting.  

 Michael Angelo did his Eagle Project while they were in Colorado on August 10th (I am so proud of him).  He restored an old cemetery in Boulder that had some water damage that made some of the grave sites sink.  It was a really old cemetery and before we started working a lady from the Park and Rec came and told us stories about the cemetery and some of the people buried there.   We had four big piles of dirt to be moved in wheel barrows around the cemetery to fill in the holes and honestly I thought it looked pretty easy when we first arrived but it ended up being exhausting and a lot of work.  But in the end it was fulfilling to know we had helped and great to have helped Michael with his Eagle project.

(Ben tripped over a gravestone while we were working and hurt his back pretty bad.  Everyone was teasing him that it was a zombie coming from the graves to get him. I am glad he is okay but.... that is a pretty crazy way to hurt yourself). 

We also went back up to Evergreen (Aug 16) and got to go boating (we tried earlier in the Summer with Michael and Taylor and got rained out).  The Evergreen lake is beautiful and it was so much fun taking canoes, kyacks and paddle boats across the lake.  Afterwards we walked around the lake to downtown (so cute and fun) and got icecream.  That night we had hotdogs and smores at Mat and Andi's house.  We had super gormet smores with brownie bites, graham crackers, chocolate chip cookies, three kinds of oreos, chocolate, reeses, rollos and marshmallows..... YUM!!

Right before the Dawson's left we had Andrew and Gwyn's Birthday Party (Aug 17).  Andrew is 12 years old and is getting the priesthood.  He is so helpful and grown up that I have felt like he was 12 for a while but at the same time... he's 12? When did that happen? Speaking of aging quickly Gwyn is turning 1!!  It feels like life is going in ultra drive...everyone is getting so big!  For the party we all went down to Cathy's house for a pool party.  It was fun to see everyone and play in the pool.  This was also Elizabeth's first time in a pool (we didn't have a swim suit so she is in a onsey but she does have a swim diaper on).  She didn't hate it but she didn't seem to love it either.  If I had to pick one word to describe her reaction it was just 'meh'- she kept looking at me like I was crazy for thinking it was SOO COOL.  

Newson Family Reunion 2013

The week of July 13-20 we went back to Utah for the Newson Family Reunion.  This year the Newson's decided to do something different and go to Bear Lake (Paris, ID) for the reunion.  We rented the Hermitage (a city block of offices converted into a family vacation retreat) and it was so cool; everyone had their own rooms, there was a big kitchen, a beautiful porch, a game room/movie room/toy room.  It was so much fun to all be together and still be able to have some alone time (that was especially good for Elizabeth's naps).  Nedra's relatives all originated from the Bear Lake Valley so we were able to learn a lot of family history while there and at the end we had a great presentation with stories and testimonies.  It is wonderful to learn about our ancestors and see their influence in our lives and see how we will, hopefully, someday influence our posterity!

We spent two days at Bear Lake.  It was fun to play in the water and enjoy the outdoors.  The first day we were there it was a little cold but it was beautiful and perfect the second day.  Elizabeth walked through the water and seemed to enjoy it- she shallow water stays pretty warm.  We played in the sand, lounged on floaties and had lots of fun together.

 

Hannah, Elizabeth and Malcolm

 

One night everyone went to the Ice Caves (I stayed home with Elizabeth becuase she was asleep).  They had a lot of fun and thought it was really fun.  The next day the girls went to a hike, up by the caves, to a natural spring. I had never been to a spring before (the water comes straight from the mountain side) and it was beautiful and the water tasted delicious and soo cold.  While we were hiking the men-folk all went fishing.  We did not think they would be gone to long but they were gone most of the day- they ended up catching 11 fish.  They were all really excited. 

 After the reunion some of us went to Jeremy's house in Layton to hang out over the weekend.  Ben got to go golfing with his brothers (easily one of his favorite things to do) and Rachel and I took the little boys and Jared miniture golfing.  It was really cool because it was glow in the dark and fantasy themed.  It was really fun to be able to see everyone and spend that time together! 

Week with the CA Stones in Town

After the reunion Michael and Taylor caravaned back to Colorado with us to stay a week in Colorado.  It was so much fun to have them there and to continue our little reunion for longer (the Dawson's came back to CO also).  

One day we went up to Evergreen to go boating and hiking with Andi and the kids.  After a delicious picnic, we took some pictures of the three little girls- it was crazy to see how different they are in development (just a couple months apart).  They are all so cute and will forever be our three musketeers- I am excited to see them grow up together.  Sadly we were not able to go on the lake because we got rained out.  

One day we went on the Maple Hike in Boulder (easy, short and kid friendly).  As always it was fun to spend time outdoors in nature. 

We spent a lot of time hanging out and talking.  One night, when we were planning to just 'hang out' an awesome new movie premiered on the SciFi station, "Sharknado." Yes, you guessed it- thousands of sharks got sucked up into a tornado (which was actually more like a hurricane) and as the sharks swirled through the air they ate, squished, bit and mangled people.  It was full of horrible acting, gruesome deaths (both shark and people deaths) and a horrible plot.  However you get a room full of 'Stones' together and it was the PERFECT movie.  We cheered, booed  and cried (mostly from laughter) from  this movie- it was priceless.  A couple weeks later it was showing again so we threw a 'Sharknado' Party so that Mat and Andi could see it. The tagline for the movie really sums it up "Sharknado: Nuff Said!" 

This is sharknado jello for our PARTAY!!

We also went to (yes, you knew it was coming) CASA BONITA.  It was crazy busy/crowded, mediocre food, hot and humid, a little hectic and, as usual, SO FUN!!  Jasen is a beast and ate 13 soapapias (the all time record).  He also won the 'favorite cousin' award when he got all the little boys light sabers.  Elizabeth did not seem to notice how awesome the whole experience was, she is still too young, but it was a good first experience. 

Our last night there (we were heading back to Utah for the Newson Reunion) we took some family pictures at Ole Mill Park in Longmont.  It will be wonderful having those pictures forever and remembering the fun summer we all spent together.