I swear I already posted this, maybe I was hacked.

I don't really think I was hacked.  But I seriously have been questioning my sanity. I swear I had already posted these pictures. If you can help me out, and by chance you remember a post with these pictures, PLEASE TELL ME.  Just for sake of me being able to say to myself, "see you are not imagining things Melissa!"  Maybe this is a sign of early dementia. You know that commercial with the elderly couple, and the wife can't find her keys? And then her husband finds them in the fridge and then he looks at her with compassionate worry? I always see that commercial and think...is there something strange about that?  But I will say this. As a Mom you are not just responsible for remembering where your stuff is, but the entire family full of the best hide and go seekers on the planet. "Mom, where are my goggles?"  Every time that is asked I have to do a 5 second rewind in my head of the last place we went swimming and then a fast forward of where and what we have been doing in the space between then and now.  This happens a billion times during the day for multiple objects.  It's a lot to keep straight.  The worst is when I am almost out of baby wipes and I have to try and remember where I put that last package of them, the one with only 5 wipes left that I just threw somewhere because it only had 5 wipes left.  

These pictures are back from our fantastical 4th of July weekend.  Rey and Mary celebrated their 51st Anniversary and we decided to throw them a surprise party on their anniversary, the 4th of July.  Family came in from out of town, and Greg and Kirsten stayed with us a few days.  We packed the days full of activities and the kids had a ball with each other.  

They got in Wednesday afternoon.  We had a patriotic swim meet that morning.  That was "fun."  Well it was..only there wasn't enough 4th of July prizes to go around so I spent a lot of time listening to my kids argue and whine over whose bubbles were whose and why they didn't get a flower lei like their friend. They were exhausting.

So Greg and Kirsten came later that afternoon and we ordered enough chinese food to feed 50 people even though there was only 10 of us.  

Thursday was July 2nd, my Dad's birthday.  Good thing my Dad doesn't care too much about being fussed over because I was really lame and didn't do anything for him, except invite him to Chloe's city swim meet that night,  

After the swim meet we went to Spinatos, which has the very best pizza we have ever eaten.  And that is no exaggeration.  And the kids surprisingly were all very well behaved and actually ate their food.  Even the babies were good.  

Friday the Driggs, and Rengifo kids came over to go swimming.  Greg, with the help of a raft, showed me a new trick of turning our pool into a wave pool.  It was pretty legitimate.  You can tell if the wave pool is good by if you almost drown, which I almost did.  I swallowed a good 8 ounces of pool water.

After swimming we went to Joe's Italian Ice and met up with Julie.

Saturday was the actual 4th of July and I had 3 parties that day.  There was the ward pancake breakfast. Then there was Fernanda's baby shower.  And then after that was the anniversary party.  

Highlights of this year's pancake breakfast:

*Chloe parking her pink jeep in a parking spot between 2 real SUVs.

*The Bike parade. Wes had his bike decked out, and took that bike parade seriously.  He whizzed by with his flags and streamers flapping with as much patriotic zeal that a 5 year old can muster,  Which is A LOT.  Then there were the girls who brought the Jeep for the bike parade, which speed wise, could not keep up with the bike parade.  They were adorable driving that pink jeep through the church parking lot.  They had decked out the car the day before, they had put some thought into the bike parade.  I tried to convince them to bring their bikes because I thought bringing their pink jeep might look a little presumptuous, but they were so excited to bring the jeep, I didn't have the heart to dash their dreams of a motorcade.

*I sang the National Anthem and played the guitar. Just as I was about to start, a very loud dump truck began dumping in the neighboring cul de sac.  So I stood up front awkwardly waiting for his job to be done. As soon as he drove on I sand the song.  And as soon as I finished, he began dumping again in the cul de sac over.  That dump truck had impeccable timing.  

After the breakfast, Kirsten and I went to Target to buy matching outfits for the kids, because, why not?  

Then I went to Fernanda's baby shower, which I feel guilty, I don't think any of us took a single picture.  The shower turned out well though, and hopefully it was what Fernanda wanted. 

After that I met everyone else over at Kay's house for the surprise party.  I think Rey and Mary showed up earlier than everyone was expecting so no one had arrived yet, but that's okay because Greg and Kirsten got there right before Rey and Mary and they didn't know they were coming in from Utah.  

The party was so fun. We had the amazing food, as always.  Kay had BBQ pork sandwiches and we all brought huge salads.  Kay also made a beautiful cake.  I didn't take any pictures of the party because Saundra was taking pictures. One of these days I need to get copies.  

The pool was filled to capacity.  Mostly the men took turns proving their strength by climbing the rope swing.  Paloma tried too, and got pretty far. And then Chloe tried, which she did pretty well too.  George showed us how to go down a raft on the slide with several people stacked on top, and that was a hit.

The evening ended with our own fireworks show.

It was a perfect day.  It really was.  The best 4th of July I've ever had.  Well Top 5.  

And then the next day was Sunday, and Greg and Kirsten left back to Utah. we were sad to see them go.  But we will see them in about a month and are looking forward to that.

And Sunday we slept. and slept. and slept.  Except for Don. Who never gets to sleep. Poor guy.

 Chloe parked her jeep legally.

 This is at Joe's.  Lyla always has the best Elsa dresses and every time we see her, she has something cooler than the last. So she had this dress, and the girls begged for their own. So I went to Costco and luckily they were still there.  Unfortunately they only go up to size 6.  Poor Chloe.  I object. 8 year olds can still like princesses!

 This was at the swim meet on my Dad's birthday.  They are a happy pair.

 I love Troy getting in on the picture.

 And Chloe trying to make her size 6 dress longer.

 The boys longingly watching the girls swim.

 Oscar really improved with his walking while Troy was here.  They became good baby buddies.

 Oscar looks so pensive here,

 Driving his car.  Don wanted to get rid of that toy a couple years ago. I am glad I said no because Oscar likes driving it.

 We went to the Natural Histoy Museum with Mo and Danny.  The kids made towers out of blocks.  They entertained themselves for an hour building the towers.

 Story time.

 Green screen pictures,

 This is my favorite.

 Ms. Coxon sent this to me.  This was near the beginning of 2nd Grade. Oh duh...it was the 2nd day in 2nd Grade. Just noticed that.

 Oscar being adorable at a swim meat in Grandpa's arms.  ps. The "cooling towel" we paid 15 bucks for around his shoulders, works like crap.

 This is the "boat" Macie made for Dad on Father's Day.  Dad would like a boat, that's true.

Chloe made this in primary.  I like the picture she drew of Don and me.  Although I don't own a sleeveless blue dress.

Other Summer Happenings

 We love going to the Dinosaur Museum with the Slacks.  No, they are not in any of the pictures, But they are our museum buddies.  My girls love playing with their girls. And the dinosaur museum is nice and cold and dark which is awesome on a hot summer day.

 The girls "surprised" me one day with their outfits.  They were trying to make me laugh, and also I think stalling from their chores, which by the way...chores are a daily battle around here, they drive me insane.  I am sure this has been a problem from mothers since the beginning of time, but seriously.  Why is it so hard to get kids to help out around the house?  Anyway, my favorite thing about their outfits is the tape on their foreheads.  I *might be really weird and sometimes put tape on my forehead to smooth away the wrinkles on my forehead.  I probably shouldn't admit to that in public. But it's true.  I got the idea off of some yahoo article most likely, and have found it to be somewhat effective.  At least for 2 minutes my forehead looks like I got botox.

 Here we are at Dairy Queen after a swim meet, for the swim team DQ night.  If you zoom in on the pictures, you will see why I try the tape trick on my forehead. ; )

Phoenix Children's Museum

 Last week we spent the night over at Rachelle's house in Prescott. I got to see Rachelle's new baby and we had fun getting out of the heat and playing with out friends.  Rachelle and I even stayed up watching a movie, and neither of us fell asleep which is somewhat of a miracle.    Then a couple days later she came down to Phoenix and we got together at the Phoenix Children's museum.  Chloe rode Oscar around on these mini bikes.  He's pretty chill about being the girl's real life doll.  I think he likes all the attention so it is a win-win situation. Of course we didn't manage to get any pictures of us all together, but they were there, and we did have a fun time.

And just like that...it was over.

 Swim team is already done for the summer. I cannot believe how fast it went.  We thoroughly enjoyed watching our girls compete in their weekly swim meets.  They both made huge improvements.  Don could tell you exactly how many seconds they shaved off, and I know he has told me, but I can't remember what I was doing 5 minutes ago, so.... Macie's very first race we had to coax/beg/coerce her into the pool.  And that backstroke will long live in my memory as one of the coolest things I have ever seen her do.  To see your kids do something that you know they are scared of, and to do it with grace and style...best thing ever.  We could only convince her to do one race the very first swim meat, but by the next swim meet she was willing to try 2...then the next meet 3,,,and for the last few, she did all 4 strokes.  And she had the time of her life.  As she swam, we were able to get close enough to cheer so she could really hear us, and her smile was priceless.  Her backstroke, she had a permanent smile. And the breast stroke, every time she would come up for air, her face was beaming.  She loved hearing us cheer her on.  And she loved being a part of the team and playing with all the other kids.  Chloe is so good to her and makes sure she is always included.  Macie was the youngest swimmer on her team.  We were also so proud of Chloe.  She made huge improvements also.  At her last swim meat, she placed 4th on the IM and in backstroke, and she won her very first medals. She has a lot of ribbons, but these were her fist medals.  She was really excited.  At one of the city meets, she was disqualified from the IM for swimming the wrong stroke, and she barely missed qualifying with her backstroke.  This was the city meet that would produce the kids who would get to compete at I don't know, the multi city meet?? (I know basically nothing).  Anyway, Chloe was so bummed that she failed to qualify because it would be her first chance to win a medal, and Don told me during the drive home, Macie tried to comfort her by telling Chloe, "Chloe, you can have my medal...."  Don and I are so proud of the girls. They are good girls.  The highlight of our summer has spending time together as a family at their swim meets.

 And this is little Oscar looking longingly into the pool.  He loves the water too, I am hoping that means his swim lessons go a little better his year as we took him out at the beginning of the summer because he hated them,

 Last week Oscar really improved on his basketball skills. He can now put the ball in the basket.  He would make a basket, we would all cheer, and then he would walk over and give me a big hug.  He did this over, and over, and over again.  Did it fill me joy that he picked me to hug after every basket? Um, yes of course it did.  I like being the favorite around here.  Dad will probably trump me eventually when Oscar figures out I am terrible at all sports, but until then, I will enjoy the perks of being the number one woman in his life.

 Here are some pictures at the end of the season award ceremony for the Dobson Dolphins.  The girls had a great time.  They had a slide show at the end, and Chloe told me she was laughing so hard at the pictures that she peed her pants.

 They have been looking forward to getting their trophies for a long time. I asked Macie what she was going to do with the trophy and she told me, "Play with it."

 Chloe got a pin for swimming 1/2 mile during the stroke-a-thon.

Macie also received the "Delightful Dobson Dolphin" award for her age group.  Basically it was the good sportsmanship award.  She was so excited to hear her name called and so cute walking up to the front to get her certificate.  She loved, loved, loved her coaches and always wanted to say goodbye to them after every swim meet.  And I love the way she says "coaches." Her voice is just the best.

A couple other Macie moments.  I was desperate for her to go to sleep one night, so I gave her my phone and put it on the lullaby radio station.  She ended up in my room halfway through the night.  And in the morning she told me that "lullabies don't help me go to sleep."  I guess they had woken her up.  It is not that funny when I write it down, but the way she said it was really funny to me. It was like ...Mom that was a dumb idea...why would you think lullabies would help me sleep?  

At one of the swim meets, Macie said to me, "Mom-why do they keep saying....Boogeeeeeeers..." It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about. But then I realized she was talking about how they say at the beginning of the race, "Swimmeeeeeeers, take your mark." She thought they were saying boogers.

Oscar Turns 1

Oscar is now a year old (sniff sniff).  That whizzed by fast.  He is now walking.  He took his first steps probably about a month ago, but it took him a few weeks to switch over to upright.  He is still getting used to it, but he is doing pretty well.  The first steps he took were from one arm chair to the other.  He practiced that for awhile.  Then his cousin Troy came to visit last week, and that really motivated him.  I noticed a huge difference within hours of troy being here. He became much more determined and interested in walking. Now he almost exclusively wobbles around like a drunk man with his bottle.

Oscar had a pretty laid back birthday. He didn't seem to mind. But Chloe was ticked.  She wanted it to be mind blowingly awesome. But after a weekend of 4th of July partying, I was pretty much partied out.  He did get to go swimming in the morning while the girls were at their lessons.  And also, we participated in a promotional  photo shoot for Joe's Italian Ice, where he was stuffed full of ice cream and italian ice.  I can't wait to see those pictures. 

After that Chloe and Don went to a swim meet, and I ran to the store to buy a much too expensive cake.  The Martz's and Sutherland kids came over and we had cake and ice cream sandwiches. Oscar received a basketball hoop, a gift Don has been planning for months, ever since he found out Troy has one and loves to make hoops with his all day long.  Oscar isn't that into yet.  I hope he decides he likes it because it is huge and ugly.

We love Oscee.  He's a dreamboat.