The End of Summer

Summer has been crazy for us Hons. We have gone on a few trips, spent a lot of time with family, but mostly we have just liked being able to spend so much time together. We went to Snowflake for the annual 4th of July Rodeo and fireworks. Spencer's grandparents, family, and some of the aunts, uncles, and cousins joined us and it was really fun. I actually enjoyed my first rodeo! I like the barrel racing the most because nobody was going to get hurt. I was fun however watching my mother-in-law next to me flinch every single time the riders would fall off. (Ok, I did too!). We watched the fireworks and headed home. The next morning we raced home to teach our primary class. That next weekend we drove up to Payson for the day. We ended up taking the Bealls with us and it was a blast. It's fun to go to the same place and have a completely different experience than any other time. I got to have it as an adult this time! It was beautiful weather, a little rainy and perfect for a day outside. We got home really late and that was that.

On July 14 was my birthday!! I am officially 20!! It was such a fun day. We met up with the Hons for frozen yogurt and then Spencer took me shopping at Arizona Mills mall and I got a new shirt and two new pairs of shoes! Then we went to Olive Garden and he surprised me by having the Ayelsworths and the Bealls there to eat dinner with us! It was so fun! We met up with my parents and the Johnsons for frozen yogurt again!! We went back over to the Hons to play games after and I got to spend some time with this little girl!

My favorite trip so far though has been our adventure to California. I took quite a few pictures of the trip so I am going to try to limit the amount I put on here but It's fun for future :). We drove my dad's truck there (we were going to drive our newly acquired car but we were just a tiny bit worried and my mom wanted the space in the truck so we went with that. We had the two littlest children in our car so that made the drive interesting. They were SO good except when they got bored and got kinda noisy.  We made pretty good time except for the fact that we had to drive 55 mph all the way through Cali because we were pulling the trailor. We got to camp, set up, and spend the rest of the night on the beach. Spencer and I were on a different campsite than my parents so we got to fall asleep listening to the sound of the ocean while they got to listen to some stupid drunk people all night long! The next morning we got up and took family pictures. I would have to say that it was one of the easiest family pictures sessions ever. It was short and the pictures turned out great from what I have seen. We then proceeded to Knotts Berry Farm! I didn't take ANY pictures there except for the Snoopy on Ice show which I will DEFINITELY be posting. It was so fun, except for Katy puked right before the show started. I had given her a little hard candy and she says, "I was just smiling and then it went into my throat!" She then proceeded to cough and try and get it up until she puked. No fun but a funny story! We got Little Caesars and went back to camp. We were all exhausted so it was an early-ish night.

The next day was the worst best. We woke up to find that our entire tent, cooler, suit case, and everything else was completely infested with ants. We have never had problems with ants at this campsite but they were EVERYWHERE!!! I definitely cried a little and then Spencer and I Spencer went through all of our stuff, shook it out and got it ant free (I don't like ants). We moved all of our stuff down to the Smith lot where we would spend our last night. The rest of the day was great. We hung out on the beach, ate yummy camping food, and oh yeah I DIDN'T HAVE A VOICE! I have no idea what happened but I woke up that morning without a voice. Spencer loved playing out in the ocean with the boys. He was out there the whole time we were at the beach. Luckily we kept reapplying sunscreen because he is as white as it gets and was already a little bit burnt. That night all of the adults went to this restaurant that had hula hoops in the front. There was this crazy girl there that seriously looked pro. We all just watched as she hula-ed away. It was really fun hanging out with the adults.

The next morning, Spencer and I woke up early and got dressed in our Sunday best. We packed up everything that we needed to take with us, grabbed Whitley, and left for the San Diego temple. It was beautiful. I was so excited to actually get to go inside. All day Saturday, everything was in spanish pretty much. We got signed in to sit in a Spanish sealing session and it was amazing. Spencer loved it so much. Whitley just sat outside and, "watched bees pollinate, walked around, wrote in [her] journal, walked around some more...". It wasn't the most fun thing she could have been doing but I was proud of her for choosing to be there. We headed out to Sea Port Village and ate lunch with the family (they met us there). The pizza never lets us down. Spencer and I looked around for souveniers for a while and then decided to just get something for Tatum (my cute little sister in law) and headed home. We made great time because we weren't pulling the trailer. We almost ran out of gas near Maricopa but we made it and then got stuck standing still in the middle of the biggest dust storm I had ever seen. We couldn't see the car in front of us. We got home and went to the in-laws to give Tatum her gift. Then we went home and SLEPT. (voice still gone).

I didn't have my voice until yesterday. Weird. Anyways, our lives have been a ton of fun lately and we are excited to be getting things back into the norm. We have started waking up earlier, not even using an alarm. (I know, what are we thinking?!) We love it though. We have time to eat breakfast together, not rush to get ready, and we have started reading scriptures and saying prayers in the morning instead of at night so I'm actually conscious for it! 4 months and counting!

Sorry the pictures are all out of order, I don't have the patience to rearrange them.

This is what happened when the real rain started to fall from the sky onto the stage.

This was so neat, there was a thing to catch the water down at the bottom and the dancer were behind the water.

These were the two pro dancers. They danced in only 3 numbers but they were the crowd favorite

Eye of the tiger, snoopy

"Now the moment you've all been waiting for...Justin Beagle!!" They danced to Baby!

This was a cool skate show they have at the park. It was amazing

Piper's lollipop.....she was SO sticky!

Katy came up and laid on the ground and said she wanted to take a nap. I tried to put the towel under her but she didn't want to get up. She fell asleep playing with the sand in her hands!

Bo made a "water bed". A hole filled with water that only his butt could fit it. I asked why there was water in the whole and he said, "Cuz it's a water bed, duh!" haha my bad!

Huge jellyfish!

Dad dug a life size Bo hole. He laid in it and felt so cool

then dad buried him :)

This picture was his idea haha

There is no way to truly explain this picture. You had to be there. But I will attempt. We look over and Bo is just standing there, looking at these kids with his arms a weird distance from his body and his back slightly bent. And he didn't move. My dad actually had to go get him and take him into the water to wash off so he could go take a nap or something. It was hysterical how long he just stood there for....

Bo says, "Katy, you look like you have a beard made of sand!!"

These little boys and girls were digging these holes pretty much the entire day and they let Bo jump in.

Sea Port Village. Spencer's poor sunburned face!

I don't know if you can see but that tan spot is a dust storm

This is the line from dust storm to rain storm. It was crazy watching it from the outside