Our very own OLYMPICS!

For our family reunion at Spring Haven I was in charge of the Olympics for the kids (I may have gone a bit overboard). I had so much fun planning and getting everything ready.  Since our little reunion was just a week before the London Olympics we thought it would get the kids in the spirit.  I made each of the kids an Olympic T-shirt and had a first place gold medals with their names etched on them.

We had an opening ceremonies parade to open our...

"R Family Olympics 2012."

The Olympians paraded out singing patriotic songs...



And waving the stars and stripes.

We took a "Team Photo" before the games began.  I airbrushed out the names on the t-shirts of all but my kids.  Trust me though, the t-shirts were cute!

Sam's cute shirt had a gold medal on the front and the rings and his name on the back. 

There were so many fun events!

We divided the kids into age groups to make the competition more evenly matched.  The age groups rotated from event to event.  The events were: 40 yard dash, hurdles, shot put, soccer shoot-out, discus, javelin, long jump and bean bag toss.  The adult running each event kept track of the winners in each age group (I prayed that each kid would at least win gold in 1 event... and they all did!)

Each event was marked with cute signs

This picture shows the cute sign for DISCUS and has our cute little 40 yard dashers in the background.

Here is James doing the bean bag toss.



Shot Put

More 40 yard dashers.

Ella dominating the hurdles



We all took a water break in the shade while the kids did the bean bag toss.
I was feeling sick and exhausted (I didn't know my thyroid hated me yet) so I spent most of my time her in the shade.



Ella won GOLD!



James won GOLD too!



What ADORABLE little Olympians!

Our silly happy Olympians.

 I am so thankful everyone was willing to help so much.  I was so exhausted and didn't have the energy to do much but watch.  I didn't even take very many pictures. :(



J-U-L-Y

July is always a month packed with fun activities.  Our families tend to have a lot of little getaways in July... especially my family since my parents have the whole month off for vacation.  We try to pack in a lot with them. 

Bear Lake Continued...

Sam with his Grandpa.

The Girls

The Boys

All the kiddos in their new swim suits from Grandpa and Grandma.  The babies got cute hats.



The BEAR LAKE MONSTER!!!

The newlyweds were the favorite aunt and uncle.

Hey!  I didn't know Bear Lake had nude beaches?

Sweet Ella.

My Dad rented a boat and a water weinee one day... it was awesome!

JULY 4th

This is the only picture I took on the 4th of July... at least it is AWESOME!

JULY Random

Ella and E decided to have a day spa one day and Sam and I got to enjoy it.

We got to enjoy massages, foot rubs, and painted nails.

Ella got her first stitches falling off her bike.  She is not very pain tolerant so I think she traumatized some kids at the ER.  You would have thought she was getting her leg amputated with no pain killer. 
Also... Murphy's law, this of course happened within hours of Dave flying out to Texas.

Looked up on the freeway one evening and saw this.  I about had a heart attack!  Don't worry I wasn't taking pictures while driving.  Dave was behind the wheel.

BEAR LAKE (again)

This time with Dave's Family

 

Sam and cousin N, they love each other.

Notice you can see Sam's foot under the water... he was LOVING being able to "walk" along the bottom of the lake.

Oh I love this handsome boy!

James and Daddy enjoying the kayak.

Sammy loved the sand... a lot.

It is a tradition every year to bury uncle Josh.

James really wanted to be buried.  He was pretty happy!

This boy love his big sister!



SPRING HAVEN 

We had a little reunion with my family (My parents and their progeny) at the end of July.  It was so much fun and there were so many fun activities.  I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have like this summer because I just felt so yucky.  Thank goodness the doctors figured things out in August, but in July I just didn't have the energy to run around an document like I usually do.

My sister in law organized a treasure hunt... here they are reading and following a clue.

They found their prizes!



My mom organized a cupcake war... Ella was the Willy Wonka Award.

 



James won the Bear Lake Monster cupcake award.

The other fun activity we did at Sprin Haven was our very own Olympics!  It deserves its own post though I think.

 

Junio

Or as we say in Ingles... JUNE!

 

We really didn't do much until the end of June because Sammy was so sick and in the hospital.  Thank goodness Sam recovered very quickly and was back to our happy sweet baby in no time.



June always means that it is again time for...

CAMP INVENTION

This was James first year and the kids had a blast!

Ella and my cute little cousin K.

Ella and James made this city out of recycled material.

 

 I love all of the beautiful and bright foliage in June.

 

 

Book Worms Book Club

My super cute neighbor Kate is an amazing party planner.  She always comes up with the cutest and most fun ideas.  This summer she planned a Mommy and me book club for our neighborhood.  For June she planned a Teddy bear picnic.  It was adorable.  There were lots of teddy bears and happy kids.  Kate read a story and the kids played and ate scones and drank yummy berry punch.

 

Ella with her bear listening to the story.

Kate reading the story.

All of the kids had a blast!

 This is Sammy and I at the Teddy Bear Picnic.  I am posting this picture so that you can see me BEAUTIFUL necklace that I won.  I entered a contest on a sweet blog written by a gal named Haley who married the younger brother of one of my dear friends.  I never win anything so I was SUPER STOKED.  Sam seems much less impressed.

 

 

BEAR LAKE

On June 30th we packed up and headed to Bear Lake. 

From the minute we arrived Ella and James were off to play in the lake.  We didn't see much of them until night.

Sam LOVED his first time at the lake...

Even if all his time was spent playing with Mom and Dad by the cabin.

He also played with cousin Cy... he was not impressed with Cy's social skills. 

It would NOT be a Bear Lake trip without roasting marshmallows.

One of my very favorite places to be... ever.

...to be continued in my July post!