Idaho Trip: Water Parks

I'm going to start off by saying how jealous I am of all the fun water parks Cheryl has minutes from her house. I don't have a single one in my whole stinkin town!!

Ok, rant over :)

The kids loved the free water park we took them to while Phil and Robert golfed.

It was a little cold for their Arizona skins, but still lots of fun.

And the carousel at the end was fun, but not so much for Tyler who was super worried about his loose tooth. He fell pretty hard at the water park and knocked a tooth loose, and was very upset about it all. I wasn't too worried since he's almost ready to start loosing them anyway, but after a few weeks it was all back to normal. Getting delicious snow cones on the way home helped cheer him up.

Then the next night we took the kids to another water park with a lazy river, huge slides and a fun kid area almost exactly like the free park. They were in complete heaven!! We stayed until dark and had a fabulous time together.

Idaho Trip: Fourth of July

We started the day with some shopping (yea!!) and Sonic (we had to reward the reluctant shoppers!).

Had a delicious bar-be-cue back at Cheryl & Robert's

And finished the day off with some fireworks, of course!

It was crazy to be cold waiting for the fireworks to begin! Don't think that's ever happened to us Arizona natives before :)

Idaho Trip: Idaho Falls

Our first tourist stop was the Idaho Falls. The falls are gorgeous, and so is the grassy path surrounding them. It was a beautiful cool evening, and we loved just being outside in the summertime!! I loved that you could see the beautiful temple in the distance!

Cousin Elizabeth loved the waterfalls :)

And my kids were fascinated with the ducks and water, too. Mostly wondering how the ducks don't go over the edge!!

Idaho Trip: Hannah's Blessing

For the Fourth of July weekend, we traveled to Idaho to visit Phil's sister Cheryl and her family, and to be there for her new baby Hannah's blessing.

All of the family (minus me, the photographer) in Cheryl & Robert's beautiful green backyard.

Phil & I, with Suzanna as our photographer

Cheryl & Hannah, looking beautiful!!

We're so glad we got to be there for this fun event and to meet Hannah, of course!!

Superhero Sisters

2011 Girls Camp

Camp Theme: Superhero Sisters

Pre-camp Task: Capes for each girl (didn't they turn out amazing?!? I'm pretty proud!!)

Camp Conditions: Rustic: tents, campfires, port-a-potties, cooking all our own food, and the most FREEZING water to take a shower in. I have never, EVER been so cold in my life. It was painful!!

Camp Experience: I had a fabulous time being there with the girls and other leaders, and thanks to an awesome camp director, things went so smoothly for the week. Our girls got along so well, and there was little to no drama going on. Amazing!!

Thank You's: First, to my superhero mom who drove all the way here to watch my wild kids for the week. Knowing she was there make it easy for me to enjoy the week without worrying. Second, to my husband and kids, not only for living with my craziness beforehand and without me for a week, but for moving houses in a hurry so that we could be done before I left for camp. That was a huge adventure in itself!! And to all the friends and ward members who made that move possible...we were so blessed!

Kingman Kids Day

So there's not much to do in Kingman, and yet our kids were still unimpressed with the KRMC kids day we attended. They got to sit in an ambulance and helicopter, but most importantly....they signed up for soccer! Yep. All four kids. It's going to be a crazy fall :)

A Teenager ?!?

So somehow I became old enough to be the mother of a teenager this past summer :)

Brendon turned 13 and we celebrated with some ice cream cake, dutch oven pizza, and moving!! It's his favorite thing to do for his birthday, so we decided to make it an annual tradition. Uh...not really.

We actually didn't choose to move so much as had to move. We loved the house we rented last year, but not enough to buy it, so when the owners had to foreclose, we had to find a new place to live. It just happened to be around Brendon's birthday again. Poor kid!!

Family Picture for Memorial Day

Here is my whole "Flake" family at the cabin in Payson.

So...I don't know if it's me, my computer, or blogger, but I cannot seem to edit a post after I have posted it, so it will NOT let me add this picture to my Memorial Day post. Well, it lets me add it, but then will not save or publish it. I'm not a frequent blogger :), so is this just a new fun quirk of blogging??

Memorial Day

For the holiday weekend my parents, my brother and his family and our family met at a cabin in Payson, AZ. The cabin was beautiful, and the kids loved exploring it all, and especially throwing airplanes or whatever they could find off the second story :)

We played lots of games, and made a craft or two...

and loved being together despite a few injuries, a lost kid, and some sickness. We were having so much fun I didn't get the camera out much, but I'm glad for a few pictures!!