Tuesday, September 24, 2013

July

Hopefully this will become a tradition, we've done it two years now.  We enjoyed watching the USU fireworks from the amazing backyard view of the Jensen's neighbors.  We didn't have to fuss with traffic or anything, beautiful evening and great way to start the celebration.
 For the Fourth Of July our family did our own thing this year, which is kind of a big deal for us.  We all went down to the Stadium of Fire.  On our way down we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants, Red Robin.
 This photo above is absolutely incredible.  This girl did a back flip and was thrown in the air and landed perfectly on top of the third standing man's shoulders.  Cirque De Soleil is in an awe inspiring class of their own.
 Kelly Clarkson, what can I say?  Every single one of us just love her!  We had a great jam session in the car on the way down listening to her music, and her performance lived up to our expectations.  That girl can SING!
 We loved the Patriotic program the stadium performs.  It was all very moving and really does make you proud to be an American.  The fireworks display at the end of the night was truly the best I have ever seen.  The finale had lights and sound like I didn't know was possible.  So glad we made the efforts to come down. 

 We spent a lot of our days up at my parent's house enjoying their pool.
 Lydia loves playing on Annie's ipad and iphone and snuggling in the tiny bed just her size. This above photo is Lydia's signature smile, it melts my heart.
 This photo doesn't really capture the joy I have from a night time swim.  Okay, let's be honest, a night time skinny dip.  It's one of my favorite things to do.  I love water, and not being encumbered by a swimsuit, nothing beats it.
 These little girls were such great friends this summer (at least up through July) and I loved watching them play, be silly together, quarrel, and work it out themselves.
 We enjoyed many trips to the Logan Aquatic Center
 Loved playing with the neighborhood girls.  I am so blessed to have our neighborhood filled with 7 other girls and only 3 other boys.  Perfect!
 Every time we go to the mall the girls love to go to this arcade....which is where games go to die.  It's the most depressing and sketchy "arcade" you have ever seen.  This merry-go-round just needs a push and it will spin and play creepy carousel music like that from a horror film.  But the girls love it here, so who am I to begrudge them some play time.
  Ahhh the Wimmers.  What can I say about these friends of ours who we cherish? I know what I can say, I sure as H wish they wouldn't have moved from Cache Valley!  Oh well.  We always appreciate the effort they put into seeing us when they come to town.
This above photo is of Britney catching Lydia after the water slide.  It's so fun to have kids the same ages, but our girls could NOT be more different, which makes for great conversations and laughs as we try to maneuver this whole Motherhood thing together.  
I can't believe this is the only photo I have of this little baby that Bundy and I are obsessed with, but oh well, here he is, in his perfect baby glory.

 No words necessary, just a beautiful summer sunset.
 Emma and Jaken loved having a slumber party with my 85 year old Grandma.  She is very good to them and they both love her dearly. In this photo Jaken is wearing Emma's sparkly shoes and so he is posing the way she usually does. 
 Absolutely love having this little Addi come and spend time with us.
 Bundy is such a champ.  Our dryer wasn't performing at it's best, so he went and rigged something up to clean out the pipes and vents, I love having a fix it man!  I should call him Felix.  Get it? Get it?  Like Fix it Felix.
 Absolutely LOVED reading this book to Emma this summer.  It was a page turner!!  It was quite mature for her, to be honest, I loved it more than she did, but it was a great activity for us to do together this summer.
 Ryan's sister Julie and her husband Scott came to stay with us for a week.  Unfortunately, I only took these few photos, which is super lame because we really did so many fun activities.  Here we are at Lava Hot Springs.  We left Lydia and the five of us spent the day there.  One day when they went down to visit their Grandma, Julie and Scott stopped at my FAVORITE smoothie shop, bought a cooler and some ice, and brought me back my very most favorite smoothie.  Seriously, THAT is a good friend!
 We tried to get to Bear Lake as often as we could.  I don't think there is a better spot for families in all of Utah than North Shore Beach at Bear Lake (which technically is in Idaho)
 The girls think it is so fun to help me with the house hold chores, hopefully they'll keep the enthusiasm up when they have homes of their own.
 What the?!  This little girl came walking up to me with her tortilla as a mask.  It is so very funny and clever, and yet rather disturbing at the same time.
 So....remember those friends the Wimmers?  We went to Las Vegas with them, and just barely went to Brigham Pool with them.  Well, one day we had a package arrive in the mail.  No card or note, but inside was THE WEAVE!!!  The same Weave from "You betta get yo weave right!"  It stunk like you can't believe, but boy howdy did it have us rolling with laughter.  Who does that?  Awesome, amazing friend, that's who!  I love a good prank war, I've already got my next one planned :)
 Yep.  That's 12:40 A.M.  Just up late making cookies for our picnic the next day.  I love summer nights!
 One of the highlights of my summer was having a girls day at Lagoon.  Me with my best friend Carrie and her daughter, Emma's best friend Addi.  It was completely awesome!!  No little siblings, girls had our undivided attention, and we were able to go on all the rides, whether the girls liked it or not!
 Another great night this summer was when Cody and Holly Stowers came up and we ate at our favorite restaurant, Elements, for the boy's birthdays.  We stayed chatting for a couple hours and then hit up Cold Stone on the way home.  We absolutely love the Stowers and sooooo wish we saw more of them.  We are constantly laughing with them and have such great history.  I didn't even get a picture of all of us together, so as they were driving away I ran up to their car window and hurried and snapped a shot.  It'll have to do. 
 Many happy times spent playing with these Utah cousins this summer.  So glad these four are so close, because they're all each other has in the Skeen family.
 So I made a choice this summer.  I'm DONE BEING AFRAID OF SPIDERS!!  This has been quite the journey, but it has been building up to this summer, and I think I finally did it.  I decided to appreciate spiders for all they do for us.  So when we would see one in the house, the girls and I would capture them and release them out in the back field.  They're just trying to eat bugs that bother us and stick to themselves.  They're not super poisonous, they're not out for human blood, and they serve a great purpose.  Sooooooo, this was all fun until summer hit, and spiders were pretty much everywhere, so then I just started killing them, it got too busy to put them in jars constantly.  The true victory is that my girls aren't afraid of them and appreciate them for what they are.
 Amazing summer storm, washed it all down with a beautiful rainbow.
What a wonderful month this has been!  This summer in Hyde Park is everything I hoped it would be for my girls.






5 comments:

Brittney Wimmer said...

Who knows, maybe our last conversation was the motivation you needed to give us a blog update. And I am so glad! But seriously, I'm sitting here mind boggled over how you can possibly think my life looks so full of excitement when your post is like a mile long of the funnest life EVER! Let's start with the stadium of fire. That looks like a 4th of July dream. I have always wanted to go. We may have to join you next year if we come back to Utah! I was CRACKING up over the creepy mall arcade! We always jump started that carosel too and it could totally be the theme of a horror film! hahaha! I teared up over the throw back to our Brigham City Pool day. I love that picture of me and Lydia. Oh, my heart could just burst! Funny how Riggs can barely be seen in the corner of our pic. I'm suprised you didn't just crop me out ;) I love that you snapped a few pics of the wig incident. You may have to send those to me. When I was reading your little exerpt on the whole ordeal I could almost smell the weave myself! I have to give a shout out to fix it felix! That really is a fantastic quality! (Only one of many reasons why we need to live next door! Hehe don't tell Landon). And Finally, late night skinny dips. If for no other reason, this would be enough for me to love Lindsey Bundy. I girl of my own heart. I can just see you out there in the great out doors in nothing but your birthday suit. Good for you! It's so liberating! Thanks for making my day today with this post!

Vonnie said...

Great recap of your summer activities. Now you know why we attend S of F every year. Wouldn't miss it! It was another awesome year with Kelly and crew.

Lee said...

So many things to comment on that I had to take notes. First off I want to say how great it is that you're making such wonderful memories with your family and you're not spending a lot of money on extravagant vacations to do it. So good for you for that. I love that you did your own thing for the 4th w/ just your little family. You're going to love doing more of that in the future. The sunset picture- oh my gosh- stunning. Baby Riggs is SO cute. I love your shout out to the Wimmers- very sweet- and the wig- that is the greatest prank! I can't wait to hear what you do back. Hearing that story again last week just made my day. That pict of the kids w/ Mom is darling. Enjoy having the girls like helping w/ chores while it lasts. . . love the late night cookie baking (wish I would have done more of that kind of thing) and hurray for conquering a very real fear of spiders. I'm proud of you! Good times in July- now get working on August!

Kylee said...

I love your life and I love when you share it on blogs so I can still feel like I'm part of it :) I think the stadium of fire is a great tradition! I was in it once a loooong time ago, (helping hold the ginormous flag) but I didn't get to see much of the actual event, so I would love to go back sometime and just watch. Cirque de soleil looks AWESOME!! really?? That girl did a back flip and landed on THREE other guys standing on top of each other????? That's amazing! Another item on my bucket list. I hope someday I'll get to swim in your mom's pool. I love that you guys skinny dip too. That mall carousel IS creepy. Kind of like clowns -- kid friendly but creeeeeepy! Love the sunset and rainbows... or and lydia's face with the tortilla on it. don't love the spider. but good for you!

Jessica said...

I don't know how I haven't commented on this yet. Sorry about that!! Your Stadium of Fire festivities looked like fun. I hope I can go to that one year... I love that you are just completely honest about your skinny dipping! ;) I love that Emma and Lydia are such good friends. That is so fun for them and you! I love Lydia and her tortilla mask- I used to do that ALL the time! That prank that the Wimmers did is hilarious! I hope you got them back with something good! I can't believe that you got over your fear of spiders. You must have not really been that scared before, because I would NEVER capture them and release them!!! haha But good for you for getting over your fear! I fear that my kids will be whimps just like me!