More Pictures From Don's Phone

 we have so many pictures in front of swimming pools, it's impossible to keep them all straight. I *think this is the meet at Mclincock.  The lane divider was not working and we all spent a lot of time waiting around.  Here's Macie waiting.  But I think that might have been the first meet that she saw all four strokes.

 She loves getting ribbons.  I have no idea what to do with all of their ribbons. I've thought I should make some sort of cool wall art with all of them. Like I could take all them and make like a peacock! But then I remember I am horrible at crafts. And art.

 My delightful Oscee boy.

 This was the night she got 2 pink ribbons. She was so excited because they were pink.  They were 7th place...but they were pink!

 This is from our lake trip with the Martz's.  I was a gimp and could hardly walk, let alone wake board (*try to that is, I haven't successfully gotten up yet, so it seems dishonest to say I wake board. I water board, ie my face smacks into water)  About every 6 months I stub my pinkie toe into the corner of a wall and can't walk for a few days.  You would think I would learn, and wear shoes around the house.

 Oscar fell asleep.  He didn't even mind wearing a life vest.  I think he laughed when I put him in it.  He is a very good natured little boy.

 I did manage to get on the raft once and go for a ride with the girls.  That was a lot of fun.

 I love this picture of Macie getting ready to swim.

 These are from the 4th of July swim meet,

 These are the matching outfits we bought the kids.  such cuties.

 Not sure what happened to Oscar here!

 Pool party at Kay's house.

 Our friends the Goldthorpes are moving, and they had a going away party.  Captain America came.  I'm pretty sure my girls have no clue who Captain America is, but they wanted a picture with him anyway.

 More pictures from Kay's house.

 Chloe getting ready for her race, she is in the pink cap.

 Macie hanging out with Dad at a city meet.  I tried to go, but keeping Oscar from drowning and myself from heat stroke I tapped out after one race.  Luckily Dad convinced Macie to stay and hang out with him so he wasn't too lonely.  I think this is the swim meet she was disqualified, and Macie offered Chloe to give her one of her medals.

 Another swim meet...this was one of there very last ones of the season.

 Jake got home from his mission July 22nd. We met him at the airport.  His little brother died about 5 months into his mission, and he had many miracles happen on his mission after his brother died.

 Awards ceremony for Dobson Dolphins.

 Macie finally passed Bronze 2 at Swim kids.  You can tell she was pretty happy to get another "shiny medal."

 More pictures of the airport.  Look at Chloe and Oscar in the back.

 Macie up at front getting her "Delightful Dobson Dolphin" award.

 That's Coach Evan up front. She loved Evan. He was so nice to her and all the kids.

 Macie with the 1st year swimmers.

 Chloe with the 3rd year swimmers.

Dancing after the awards ceremony.

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.