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.