Ten Reasons I love the Summer!

I love the summertime, especially here! The weather has been beautiful with only one week in the 100s and then rest in the 80s and 90s. Here are the top ten reasons I love the summer (in no particular order):

1. Our enclosed patio is not 30 degrees colder than the rest of the house, so it is usable in the summer. We recently converted this little room into the "Playroom." NO MORE TOYS IN THE LIVING ROOM!!!! Hooray! Kaylin and Zachary love it. Kaylin loves to go out and paint and color at her little table. We bought a rug to put in there too so that it will be a little homier.



2. Going to Lake Tahoe with Friends. Saturday we went with our friends the Iversons to Lake Tahoe, Sand Harbour. It was beautiful. It's the first time I've ever been up at the Lake and I loved it. Zachary chilled in the sand and loved sticking his hand in it and throwing it around. Kaylin played in the freezing water and floated on an alligator raft. All in all it was a fun day except for the fact that Phil's got really sunburned because he didn't think he NEEDED sunscreen. Silly daddy! I told him he couldn't whine to me and that I wouldn't rub aloevera on him. Maybe next time he'll put on sunscreen at the beginning of the day instead of the end.








3. Getting visits from friends. My friend Shirley stopped in on the way to Utah a couple of weeks ago with her 6 kids. We played in the pool, had dinner and watched a movie. They spent the night and then headed to Utah in the morning. We had a blast. On the way back from their trip they stopped in too so that Shirley could take a little siesta and the kids could get out of the car. We had a lot of fun and Kaylin loved having friends over.

4. Getting visits from family. My in-laws came to visit this weekend for Zachary's first birthday (on Tuesday). We had a blast going to the Lodge Buffet and hanging out at night. I think we wore them out because after church this is what our house looked like:


5. ZACHARY'S 1st BIRTHDAY! His birthday is on the 29th, but we celebrated with family this weekend and we'll have a little party in two weeks with friends. I have to say I'm really excited about how his cake turned out.





6. Going to the water park. We got season passes to the local water park and we are loving it. Phil gets off work at 3 pm so we usually go after that. There isn't a big crowd that late in the afternoon. They have a really cool little area for kids with slides and waterfalls. Kaylin loves it.

7. Hanging out by the pool. I think that is pretty self-explanatory. Pool+Sun=Fun!

8. Chillin' with members of our ward. We love all the fun couples we get to hang out with. There are just so many cool people and we have had a blast getting to know everyone from the ward.

9. Gardening. We are finally starting to get some produce from our garden. I haven't tasted any yet, but I'm sure they will be great. I'm salivating just thinking about all that yummy squash and zucchini.

10. Hanging out with our beautiful family. I love my kids and husband and thank the Lord everyday for them. They are really a joy in my life. I'm starting to appreciate the whole "having joy in your posterity." I love being a mom and learning and growing from the whole experience.

More pictures of our 4th of July trip...

Going down memory lane...

My brother is in Brazil right now doing some work with his company and found these pictures of our old house in Sao Paulo. For those who don't know, my dad worked for Ford Motor Company and was transferred to Sao Paulo in 1990. I was only 7 years old. We lived there for 3 1/2 years and I attended Escola Graduada de Sao Paulo (Graded school) for half of 2nd grade til 5th. After Sao Paulo, my dad was called (literally called on the phone) by President Hinckley (then 1st counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) to be a mission president in Northern Brazil (Recife). We lived there for 3 years.

It's strange because when people ask me where I'm from originally I always want to include Brazil because I really did grow up there. I have so many fond memories of the people, my house, playing outside (we hardly watched TV because we didn't understand Portuguese for the longest time), going to school etc. Anyways, here's some pictures of the outside of the house.
This is the front of the house. You can see the driveway and the huge yard. I remember we spent HOURS outside playing hide and seek and dress up. We also always played "Wilderness" and made mud pies and "camped" in the front yard. It was a child's dream yard!




I don't know why the pool is green. These are pictures of our backyard. Behind the pool was a little man-made pond and waterfall. My sisters and I would play dress-ups and be princeses walking through the forest. Those were the days.

And just in case anyone is curious as to what I looked like here are some pictures. (I'm 9 and I'm sure Michelle is going to kill me for posting this picture of her. the other one is of my brother joe)

Goofing off at home

This picture was taken by Kaylin-pretty good, huh?

Chillin' at the Truckee River

Pictures from this weekend...

Utah visits

While we were in Utah, we got to visit Grandma Walker (Phil's grandma), my friend Asialene and family and my friend Jaime and family. We had a lot of fun visiting friends and family before we had to head up to the cabin. Hopefully when we are there next, we can see the rest of the Walker family. I'm sad we missed some of Phil's uncles and aunts. Next trip...

Summer vacation in Oakley

Over the 4th of July week, we spent time with my family in Oakley, Utah (near Park City). My dad built a cabin there and it was great to get together with our entire family minus Joe (in Iraq) and Stephen. Our activities included swimming at the Kamas rec. center, playing baseball in the field, playing a billion games, playing house of fire with prizes, driving the ATVs, doing yard work (the boys got up almost every morning and did a yard work project with dad), going swimming at the Wheelwrights cabin, going to the 4th of July Oakley Rodeo, eating a ton of food, seeing fireworks, playing games with the kids, blowing 10 bottles worth of bubbles, drawing and coloring, puzzles and having a blast. I have to give a shout out to Ann-Marie who was somehow put in charge of coordinating the kids activities. She did an awesome job. She brought little craft activities and the kids had puzzles, coloring, bubbles etc. to keep them occupied. The cabin also had a playroom fully stashed with toys (most of them when we were younger) and a little kitchen. It was so neat. We hardly saw Kaylin this entire trip! She loved seeing the cousins and having activities to do all day. Here are some highlights (unfortunately I didn't take too many pictures because my wonderful brother is going to put together a CD/DVD of all the pictures and video that we took up there. I usually let other people take the pictures, so here's what I have):