Summer- July

 

Our July is ALWAYS our busy month. Andrew’s family reunions are in July and they are usually back to back, and this year was no different except the last one was in the first week of August. It makes it so hard to get things done!

 

 

The first reunion was the Lee reunion. This one always has a theme and activities to it. This year was water themed and they went all out with blow up water side, bouncy house and slipping slide. I didn’t participate so honestly, I was bored. We were just teaching Gavin to go potty so I had the potty watch on me so we wouldn’t forget to take him with all the fun.

 

It was Grandma Lee’s b- day too and it was a big one the 90th! They did something super cool with the candles. I didn’t get pics of it since it happened so fast but there were 6 cakes. On all the cakes were the 90 candles, yes they did all of them. The candles were connected with some kind of paper product. They only had to light one candle and then the fire would travel down the paper to the next candle and so on until they were all lit. Austin called it the fire train. It was cool to watch. A few of them weren’t connected so they did have to light more than just one of the candles. We sang and grandma and everyone blew out the candles. it was fun. Reunions make it impossible for naps so when we were ready to leave around 4pm we were prepped for them to fall asleep. We didn’t even have the car started and Gavin was out.

 

On our way home we went to the Cracker Barrel for the first time. Their food was good. Some things were was awesome others we’ve had better else where. The boys loved the furniture outside the store.

Gavin had he’s first real injury. We were at my parent’s house since everyone was here and Gavin was playing with the shopping cart and fell. Something made he’s nail get ripped off. He was just crying. We covered it with a BandAid but then he decided he didn’t like that on there. So we took it off. It was so hard to remember to dry his hands a different way. He would cry off and on about it all day long. He told Andrew “This is my burn.” It was cute and sad.

 

The extended family Pound reunion was at the end of the month. It was at Willow park and we had access to horseshoes, volleyball and played water kickball and everyone brought games to play and good food was had. The boys had fun climbing in the trees though I had to tell them to stop. They were getting too frustrated about how to get up. They were just a little to small to do it themselves. Andrew and I played a game of horseshoes with Chad and I ringed one! Woot! Woot! Otherwise, I lost.

 

Climbing trees with cousins

Summer- June

 

At the beginning of June, Andrew and I went to the Taste of Home Cooking School the was held at Logan High school. We got a bag of swag and watched them make 7 or 8 meals that are easy and different. One thing they taught us to make was a taco made with 1/2 lb hamburger with mushrooms for the meat. The mushrooms end up tasting like the hamburger so its a way to cut down on the calorie intake. They also had lots of giveaways and door prizes they gave out. Andrew used his parade yelling skills by lowering his voice (there were only a few men in the audience) so he could get a T-shirt. We so got it! There was a HUGE grand price of a microwave and matching stove set from Darrell’s appliance. They picked this winner at the beginning of the show and would give hits as to who it could some were silly like is a person…haha. They gave it away at the last. Andrew and I hadn’t won anything yet so we joked and dreamed about winning it. The lady was ready to reveal the grand prize winner. She did it in an anticipating manner. “This is a women.” Hey, I’m a women. “Their name starts with a D.” Wait, my name starts with a D. “The winner is Debra P..Debra Pettingill!” I couldn’t believe it, so close! The women that did win was sitting right behind us. I felt I was this close to winning and got it ripped out of my hand. My heart continued to race for a little while after.  Robbed I say!

Austin and Gavin got to go to a birthday party for one of their little friend. I thought it was an awesome idea for the party. There is a pick your own berries place in Smithfield. They had it there. We got baskets that we decorated with stickers

 

 

and went in the field to pick our own and we were allowed to eat some as we picked. After we had strawberry shortcake together and had Addy open her presents. The people over the pick your own berries was just loving the idea of having a b-day party there. They wanted it to be perfect and took lots of pics for their website.

 

 

We also went to Lagoon this year with Diane and Jeff and their kids and Julie. The last time we went to Lagoon Austin tried to drowned by falling out the little boat ride were the water is about 4 feet deep. We conquered that this year. Having Gavin here this time made it so much more fun for Austin. He was another little person that could go with him on all the rides. Gavin is also a bit more daring so because Gavin wanting to try it, made Austin want to try it. Quite the duo.

 

 

We rode lots of rides and had lots of fun. Austin did still try to drowned but at the pool. Good to know the lifeguards there are very attentive and help where needed. Nothing to scary, just under the water a little extra, Just enough to start worrying but then have nothing to worry about.

With so many kids we had to take turns watching the kids. When it was my turn I had 2 strollers and Austin to keep track of and what do I decide to do? oh, take all of them on the train of course. It was interesting to drive 2 strollers at once and keep Austin close enough so he didn’t get lost. Everyone thought I was crazy to even think of doing it! Luckily, my sister and I have the same stroller so they are the same size. When we made it there I put the stroller against building and went to take them out but the strollers were back heavy (with all our stuff on it) so it fell over so I had to maneuver quickly. In the process, I knocked over the stroller next to us which had 3 large drinks in it. so I had to switch and pick up their stuff and figure out where to put the drinks so they didn’t get everything sticky. A train just came in so we waited to see if the owners come off the train. No one claimed it. I decided not to wait for the next train and hoped they knew it wasn’t done on purpose.

After the train, the stroller was still there. In fact, it was still there a few hours later so I don’t know when it was claimed again but man they were trusting. There was a purse in the stroller too! It was a great, fun trip to take and we might go again sooner than we usually would. We’ll see!

Summer- May- Road Trip

It is crazy that so much time has passed and so many things have happened. We have had SO much fun as a family! To start it off I MUST talk about our trip to Arizona. Some of my most favorite people live there and since going there I have even MORE people that I love living there.

This was our first trip going out together for a long extended trip. My sister and brother-in-law wanted to come as well, and we wanted them to come too, but I didn’t want us all going together in different vehicles. That can sometimes be the best times. So luckily, my sister Diane donated her van to the cause and we left her our car to use. I must say that we learned a lot about traveling with kids. Add about 2 hours to your expected travel time. My poor brother  who lives by Price thought we were going to come and see them and hangout but thanks to kids we got there late and weren’t able to enjoy being at their home as we would have liked! Not once but twice! (They were our “halfway” point to sleep.) I still feel bad about that!

We had so much fun at some of the places we stopped along the way to help the kids not get mad and restless.

At a park in Moab

 

The Grand Canyon

It was so exciting and such a relief to pull up to my aunt’s home in Mesa after all that driving. Gavin had this “clock” that seemed to go off at exactly 1 hour or so before we got to the destination and just scream. It took a bit to calm him down and he would always start up again later.

After getting settled and having some good sleep, the next morning we had breakfast and my Aunt asked us what we had planned. My answer? Seeing cousins and going to the railroad train park in Scottsdale. We went upstairs to get ready for the day and by the time we made it back downstairs; my wonderful aunt had the rest of our vacation planned. Seriously, the rest of the week was filled. She had enough suggestions that could keep us around another week or so. Most of the suggestions dealt with water, but honestly we were in Mesa Arizona, that’s what they do.

Our first stop was to my cousin, Courtney’s in-laws home. They were keeping the house warm for them while the in-laws were out on a mission. Awesome house with a gated pool. We came prepared with suits and had our first interaction with water in Mesa. So much fun just chatting and catching up. And see little baby Mia. I CAN’T BELIEVE I didn’t take any pics of her!!! She was the one I got to see the most and I neglected the camera whenever she was around apparently. ugg.

One of my favorite finds in Gilbert, besides my cousins, was this:

 

As many of you know our best friend are Merrill and Corinne. What are the chances of seeing their names as streets that cross each other? Crazy! Sure Corinne’s name was spelled wrong but a little Gimp work by Andrew (free photoshop) and we fixed that and gave it as a half birthday gift to Merrill for his B-day. Perfect! Now Andrew and I are convinced that there has to be a Debra and Andrew somewhere in the world!

Next Cousin was my cousin Meagan. She just had a baby not even 1 week earlier. She was due almost 3 weeks earlier, if I remember right, and that babe just didn’t want to come. The whole point of this trip was to see everyone’s new babies. Courtney’s and Meagan’s. I almost didn’t get to see one of them! It got pretty close there!

The rest of the trip was such a blast and has turned into a blur now but we made it to the train park in Scottsdale. Becky, Trevor’s wonderful wife who was also expecting( I had no idea!), and her 2 children came with us. Anyone who knows Austin, knows that this was a HUGE deal and such a fun time. 

 

We went back to Courtney’s, and I made it back to Meagan one more time before we had to leave and got to see Caroline, Brad’s wife while there. They had such a busy week they weren’t able to make it over to see us. We didn’t stay for the weekend because of a wedding Scott needed to be to in Manti. There were nights of games and lots of water fun. We went on THE shortest hike of my life to the hole in the rock in Phoenix. Seriously, not even a block long, unless you count the walk across the parking lots…

  “Airplane mommy!”

  Scott trying to climb a Palm tree

Trevor’s and Courtney’s families we got to see everyday we were here. It was so awesome to get to know them again! We hadn’t seen Becky and Trevor since before they had kids and their oldest was about 5 or so? I’m guessing I really have no idea how old he is! I knew I loved talking to Becky before but I got to remember exactly why. Trevor was able to talk to Scott in French. (Scott went to France on his mission and it is hard to get him to talk sometimes.) It was cool to see them talk back and forth for a little bit. :)  

Cute kids story. We put them to bed in the same room but in different corners of the room. We came up to this.

Gavin moved his bed over to Austin’s. Ahhhh!

It was a great to see everyone that we could! This was one of our best trips we have ever taken and thank all those that made it that way! We will DEFINEATELY make this trip again!