It's a Hot Hot Summer.....

It's been a busy last few weeks. I think it's because it's summer. There's just so much to squeeze in before it's over, not to mention the regular stuff that always has to be done! :D
Mom hosted a "Girls weekend" at her house the last weekend in June. It was a great time to catch up with my sweet mom, sisters, aunts, cousins, & nieces! Unfortunately, not everyone was able to make it, and we missed those who couldn't terribly! However for those of us who were able to come I think it was a great success. Also unfortunately, I forgot to bring MY camera, so I'll need to get some copies of the pic's that others took! My poor sister Amie was attacked in water wars and I know Mandie and Heidi had some fun in a food fight. (Whoever said girls are not rambuncious did NOT meet my family!) And of course when there's that much estrogen in one house the water works are bound to surge... and they did a couple of times, LOL, but I think mainly because we all felt how much we each care for each other and want to support each other. It was a good fun weekend! Thanks to Josh for letting me have the get-away!
And then, to bring in July with a big welcome, the boys and I spent one day in the HOT, HOT sun trying to cool way, way down in the water. It was a lot of fun. We set up the inflatable pool, put on our bathing suits and whipped out the water guns and the hose.







Later that same day, Joyce-- my mother in law, called me and invited me to go see the play "Brigadoon" with her and my 2 sister's in law, Jodi and Michelle. It was a lot of fun! I LOVE plays. And it was such a treat to have another "girls" outing! I had never seen Brigadoon before and so I'm really glad to have had the chance!


Ah, yes. And then it was the Independence Day. My, how time goes by! My father in law Roy invited us to join the rest of the Jardine's in Idaho Falls to watch the "Freedom Celebration" and to have a BBQ at Freeman Park.


Here's Andrew and Jodi's little one, Maddie



And here's Andrew after pouring the chips onto the lawn returning them to the bag. (Sorry, by the way, to anyone who might have got some grass in with their chips :P)


Nick, giving me a face for who knows what reason...?


One of the few pic's I was able to get of Paul because he was so busy running around!


Josh and Me.



Grandpa Roy and Grandma Joyce playing cards with the boys... The kids were THRILLED to be included in their game!


Jason and Josh singing and playing while we waited for the fireworks to begin.


Here's Brandon.... NOT sleeping (wink wink)


Jodi just Chillin'.


Robert groovin' to his music.


Jessie trying to steal Bege's chair... (as you can imagine, that didn't work out well for her. :D)


And Michelle, FINALLY getting to sit down! :D



So that catches me up for the most part until this last weekend. We checked out our schedules and it looked like it was going to be about our only chance to go camping this summer, and since we wanted to squeeze that in, we just up and went. We took off to Pleasant Valley, ID. It's just past Spencer and West of Kilgore. It's kind of a drive, (a windy one too-- check out my hair on the way there) but a very beautiful area. The kids had a good time. We made "Snores" (not S'mores-- I couldn't get Nick to say it the right way, so we left it as snores)we drove to the top of the mountain (where we could still see some snow), played near the creek and did some fishing, gathered rocks and sticks, made some campfires, cooked some hot dogs, got filthy dirty, slept in the cold night air, and got a few bites from some hungry mosquitos! It was great!
















WHEW!!