Smooth As Glass!

It was so nice to have Brad in town for the week.  We went to the design center and picked out our exterior colors and stone.  One evening I met up with my sister-in-law Crystal at the design center to get a jump start on picking all the interior stuff.  She's doing an amazing job at remodeling her home and we have a lot of similar design tastes.  We had a lot of fun and she gave me a lot of good ideas.  I just have to show Brad and hopefully he approves of everything on the 3rd. 

I also got to go out one evening with my friends from high school.  It was awesome to get out of the house and visit with them!  I have always been blessed with the best friends.  It was a good time!

On Saturday we got to go boating.  We have been so busy this summer.  I'm so glad that we finally had a free Saturday!  Aleah and Cade have been wanting to go on Grandma's and Grandpa's boat for a long time.  At first I told them that we had to wait for it to warm up.  On Saturday Aleah kept saying, "I'm sure glad it finally warmed up!".

It was a perfect day to be out on the Lake!  The water was as smooth as glass until we started heading in.  Then the wind kicked up and it got really choppy.  

Brad is always fun to watch with his big jumps, and switches,

 and crashes!

My Dad, loving the glass

 and getting some air!

I had so much fun!  The water was so perfect and I couldn't help screaming and yelling WAHOO!

 I loved every minute and I didn't want to stop.  

But, the next morning I was glad that I did, ouch, getting out of bed was tuff.

My Mom hurt her arm playing tennis, but she couldn't resist that glass!

Aleah loved cheering for everyone. She kept saying, "This is so much fun!".

Cade would say, "The boat is so much fun!".

Every time the boat stopped, in the water the kids went.

Snack time with Grandma, yummy grapes!

My Dad on the air chair.

 Brad on the air chair.

We forgot the pump for the tube so the kids were sad about that.  When I told them that we would have to go on the tube next time, maybe next week, then they got excited.  So far this week when we are driving on the freeway Cade will ask, "We going to put Grandpa's boat in the water?".  I think he had fun and is excited to go on the boat again.

Moving on up and Family Reunion

While Brad was in California for WWDC (Apple Conference) last week, Cade got moved up to the 3 year old gymnastics class.  He is only 28 months old, but he is really good and he did great with all the big kids.  

In this picture he is waiting for his class to start.  A few minutes after I took this picture the gym filled up.  It's a little crazy during the summer!

We went to Red Butte Gardens with some of our favorite friends.  We all had a wonderful morning!

We had dinner at my Grandma Stone's house.  During dinner we could hear a helicopter right outside.  When we looked out the window we saw that the mountain right up from my Grandma's house was on fire.  It was pretty exciting for the kids to watch the helicopter dump water on the fire.

Aleah and Cade also enjoyed playing in my Grandma's downstairs park.  She has a swing, teeter-totter, hammock, and a little zebra bouncy toy.  They loved it and it got us out of the heat!

I made some quiet time bins.  I love this idea because these are things that we had around the house that Aleah doesn't really play with anymore.  Now that they are in a bin and she can only play with them once a week, they are fun again.  She is so excited to see what's in her bin each day.  I have building things, drawing things, creating things, learning things, and audio books.

Brad got home from California late Thursday night, went to work for a little bit on Friday, and then we went up to BYU's Timp Lodge for his Barlow family reunion.  We had so much fun with his family!  There was a huge swing set that was awesome because we could get swinging really high.  I think that is the swing set that I want in my new back yard!  That's right, I said new back yard, we are building a new house.  We just got our lot and we are going in to the design center to choose all the colors and stuff tomorrow.  We are excited.  Sorry for that little sidetrack, I will post more about that later.

We had yummy food, a huge slip and slide, olympic games, skit in a bag skits, family history trivia (which was very funny), crafts, finger nail painting (Aleah choose an ugly green color with silver glitter on top for me, it came off the minute we got home and the next day she kept asking me what happened to my nail polish), matching tie-dye shirts, and a dance party every night.  Watching Aleah and Cade dance was one of my favorite moments of the whole weekend.

Tonight was the first night in three weeks that Brad ate dinner at home with us.  Our home was filled with excitement and surprise when he got home from work today.  These statements from the kids pretty much sum it up:

Brad just got home:
Cade:  "Daddy!  Daddy, shoes off?"
Brad:  "Yes, Cade, I have my shoes off."
Cade:  "Yay!  Daddy home!  Daddy, no work anymore?"
Brad:  "That's right Cade, I don't have to work tonight."
Cade:  "Yay!" (jumping up and down)

At the dinner table:
Aleah:  "Sometimes I just miss you guys Daddy!"

We really miss Brad when he is gone.  But we are so thankful that he has a good job and that he is a hard worker!  We love having him home!

Dawn's Wedding!

Last week was a busy busy busy week.  The week started out with Brad flying out to Milwaukee for work.  Ugh, I'm not sure if we remember what it is like to have him home during the week!  Poor guy traveled a lot last week.

Cade's booster seat arrived.  He was very excited and kept telling everyone, "No more highchair!".  Ever since Brad sent us a picture of him making a funny face, Aleah loves to make funny faces for the camera.  Then she immediately wants to see it.

The night before Brad left on his trip, as I was tucking Aleah in bed she said, "If Daddy's plane lands bad then it will crash!".  I have no idea where she came up with that idea, but she was very worried.  We talked about prayer and how Heavenly Father will protect him.  The next morning before Brad left we prayed for his safety.  When Brad got to the airport his plane was delayed.  He finally got on the plane and sat there for 30 minutes and then got off the plane because they were having communication problems.  There was no way that he was going to make his connecting flight so he got a flight to Chicago and then drove the rest of the way.  I'm thankful that Brad was protected!  I wonder if Aleah knew something was going to be wrong with Brad's plane or if it was just her active imagination.

Aleah and Cade knew that Brad's plane was broken and so he had to get on a different plane.  When I made them a fort so that I could mop the floor, they decided to get all of their tools together and fix Daddy's plane so that he could come home.

The night that my parents came over to help me Aleah and Cade got their cell phones and sat down by Grandpa.  It totally made me laugh!  They sat there for about 5-10 minutes playing on their phones just like Grandpa.  Their phones do not work, that's imagination for you!

Brad got home around 2 am Friday morning, slept for a few hours, went to work for a meeting, and then drove us down to St. George for his sister Dawn's wedding.  He was so tired!  But it was nice to spend a few days with him.  Aleah and Cade would not let him out of their sight!

We spent Saturday morning playing in the water at the splash pad and at the pool.

Swimming with Dad was what Aleah and Cade wanted to do most of all!  We played tag in the pool with Brad's sister Crystal and her kids, we all enjoyed that!

Saturday evening we drove up to Pine Valley for Dawn's wedding.  She got married at the oldest running church.  Aleah and Cade loved dancing to the music.

 Handsome boys and beautiful girl!

These are the stairs that go up to the chapel.  Cade is so cute, man I love him!

And I love this girl too!  She is so much fun.

Aleah had to check out Dawn's beautiful cake!

 Cade had to see what all his boy cousins were up to.

Climbing on Dad while we wait for dinner.

Coloring on the table while we wait for dinner.

Dinner didn't start until probably 7:30 which is when Aleah and Cade usually go to bed.  After dinner Cade came and told us that he was tired.  Brad told him that he could rest on the couch.  He ran right over.  He even got the pillow and put it under his feet!

A little bit later Aleah told us that she was tired.  Again, Brad told her that she could rest on the couch.  She also ran right over.

It was a very late night for them.  They didn't get to bed until after 10.  But it was wonderful to spend time with our family and to see Dawn get married.  We are so happy for her!

Sunday we went to church, drove all the way home (which always seems longer than the way down), had some dinner, and put two very tired and whinny kids to bed early!