Galveston

We went to Galveston, TX, back in August, but my computer has been a little bi-polar so sometimes it works and other times it doesn't.  So I am just now getting my pictures onto my blog.  I'm going to try to play catch up this week so you might get bombarded with posts.

Galveston has become one of our favorite places to vacation here in Texas.  We have made it a tradition to go down at the end of the summer with friends and rent a beach house.  The best part is we don't have to worry about the kids or find things to do.  It's the perfect way to have a relaxing and fun vacation.
Here are some of the fun highlights from our vacation.

It took all 3 men to light the grill, it was funny to watch them all attempt to do it. 

The kids were always having a good time.

The kids were patiently waiting on the balcony to go down to the ocean.

Paytie and Cooper were loading up their boogie boards with things to take down to the beach.

The Beach House in Galveston

The sand looked like poop on her suit, she's going to hate me one day for taking this picture.

This is pretty much what I did the whole weekend.

Ethan spent his day diggin this hole so he could hide inside of it.

All the kids and Dads playing football on the beach.  It was so funny to watch.

Football on the beach

I swear this dolphin and his friends were putting on a show for us.  They stayed out there jumping for quite a while.

Milan and Mark showing us their poses.  What dorks!

This was the other thing I did most of the weekend.

Mark sleeping on the hammock.  He actually fell off it.

Mark sleeping again, he really likes sleep.

The Shumards, one of the fun families we got to go with.

The men were afraid to get too close for a picture, big babies!

The women weren't afraid.

Our family on the beach in Galveston

Me and my little man Ethan

Carson, trying to catch these little eel fish

This is the whole group we went to Galveston with.  We're all so brown.  Wish that was my natural skin color.

Week 1 of our Utah Summer Trip 2011

We love going home to visit Utah, but we don't love the 21 hour drive.  Along the way we saw many of these buildings.  I think they look so cool, so I took a few pictures.  The kids, luckily fall asleep for part of the drive and of course, I have to take pictures.

 My Mother in law has the prettiest flowers outside her house and Payton was admiring them, smelling them, touching them, and picking them. 

Carson and his cousins
Riley, Carson, and Kaden

Easton and Ethan

BOOT CAMP

My Mom loves to do Boot Camp for the grandkids every summer.  She always has a theme day and activities planned accordingly.  This year she did American day and Hawaiian day. 

American Day

For American day, we went to the dump to learn about keeping the areas around us clean and how we can help do our part.  We then went over to the firestation to learn about firesafety.  We went to the cemetary and listened to a veteran tell us about our american heros and how we can be a hero too.  We then went to the park for a picnic lunch, a pinata, and a game of all American baseball.  After lunch we prepared for our festive parade. We finished off the day with an all American dinner of Hot Dogs and then the kids made homemade ice cream.  These are pictures from our American Day activities...

Grandpa telling the kids about his grandfather who was a war hero

Goshen Fire Station

Carson and Ethan helping with the Flag

Paytie and Heidi

Pinata time

Picnic

My Mom, the lady who make boot camp lots of fun for the kids.

My little sis, Annie, who is such a good sport to let me tease her endlessly

Hawaiian Day

Hawaiian day was filled with learning how to hoola dance, maori dancing, limbo, and hoola hooping contest.  Carson can really shake his hips.  For lunch my mom made spaghetti and they had to draw a number that coordinated with a certain kitchen tool with which they had to eat with.  There were things like...spatula, mellon baller, ice cream scoop, lattel, pie spatula, whisk, measuring cup.  The kids loved it.  Here are some of the highlights of Hawaiian Day.

I have been friends with these ladies since we were 3 years old.  They are awesome.
{Susie, Sarah, Kim, Dixie, Keri, and Jami}
It was so fun to spend and evening with them.  We were only missing one friend.

Posting for week 2 of our Utah trip will be coming shortly.