more swimming

heather smith and amy demordaunt, this post is for YOU!  :)

we met the Wilkinsons!

and they are so nice!

we love them!
we got to go swim at their house today.

she is Brenner's primary teacher and it was so awesome to meet them
at church on Sunday and realize who they are and the connection with you 

after your emails and FB messages, and all of a sudden there they were!   

so awesome.  it instantly made us feel more at home.

i can tell already she is going to be one of my heroes.

anyhow, they have a beautiful pool and the kids had a blast.

 so fun to find friends of friends!

Amy and Heather, i wish i would have gotten a picture of Becky and me waving to you!!  :)

swimming

Dave's sister, Debbie and her family, live about 15 minutes from us.

they invited us over to swim the other day.

they have the most amazing yard ever!

with a pool!  

heaven.

cutest little bug.

cousin Anna was THE best taking Malia all over the pool.

i'm pretty sure it was her best day on earth.

love this one.

loved watching all the jumping and diving.

malia's goggles were cracking me up.

playing Gladiator!

JUMP!!

a typical Brenner face.

my favorite picture of the day.

pretty much our funnest day ever.

cousins, cookies, swimming.

it couldn't get much better.

thanks Debbie!!

OKC Zoo

yesterday was FREE day at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

this is the #3 zoo in the nation. (#1 san diego, #2 bronx - which we love)

so we went.  it was super hot.  and super crowded.

but the kids were champs and only whined 3/4 of the time.  

they really were troopers because we were dripping sweat and humid-sticky

and did a LOT of walking.  but the older ones really stepped it up

and carried the younger ones part of the time. such good kids.

we loved seeing the fuzzy elephants

and watching their show, standing on little stools and doing tricks.
especially the baby elephant, malee.  so cute.
and elephants really are hairy. who knew?

we loved the zebras, the gorillas,
the opaki (which we've never seen before, pictured above in bottom right corner)
and stopping to cool off in the misters that lightly sprayed out water.

but the very best part of the day was fEediNg tHe GiRaFfeS !!

their tongues are so long!  hilarious.

they reached out to take each branch.  so super funny!

after the zoo we headed to the big movie theater next door to watch "Turbo."

because it was cool and we could sit down.

and eat ice cream and popcorn.

it was a cute movie that my boys really loved.

and i loved watching mia eating her ice cream in the dark

and listening to her tell me what was happening on the screen.

and filling up popcorn in cups and passing them down the row to each of my kids.

a fun day.

slip and slide

It was pretty rainy this past weekend, so the other day when the sun peeked through

was the perfect moment to get out the slip and slide in the backyard.

The girls tried it first. 

Then the boys came home.

Then a few neighbors joined in. 

Malia was so funny trying to spray everyone. Little cutie.

then Dave got home from work and told me how expensive the water is

so this was our first and last day to play on the slip and slide.

sunday night walk

on sunday night we went on a walk.

the kids wanted to ride bikes or rollerblade.

but it's always so crazy when we do that.

i wanted calm.

i wanted to walk and talk.

the kids complained but it turned out to be one of the nicest nights ever.

we loved it.  the kids want to do it again.

we walked around the lake in our subdivision.

the ducks followed us all the way around the lake.

they were so funny. one kept quacking like it was laughing.

it was such a peaceful evening.
walking and talking.

there is also a playground near the lake.

playgrounds remind us of our time in NYC.
such great fun.  we love playgrounds.

we have been craving family time like this

after having Dave in school the last two years.

it is what our hearts need.
so thankful for family time.

Pops

route 66 goes right through edmond.

we took a little drive down route 66 (just for kicks)

and stopped at pops.

so fun!

500 different flavors of pop.

peanut butter and jelly... pumpkin pie... chocolate mud... gram's cracker... 

as well as the ones like zombie brain and dog drool...

My green apple soda was best. 

Bug barf was a close second.

Freaky Dog was worst.  

made me laugh.

potty trained

mia is such a sweetheart.

she decided a few days ago that she was ready to be potty trained.

she had 2 accidents that day while she was getting the hang of it,

but none since because she loves her princess "uh-wear."

(she combines the syllables of longer words so underwear is uh-wear.  

oklahoma is o-homa.  now we all find ourselves calling them that.)

she totally potty trained herself.  how lucky am i?

she is such a dream.

Moving to Oklahoma

We left bright and early on July 5.  It was sad saying goodbye to Dave's mom and dad.  We are thankful for all they have done for us.  We drove two days through Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma.  Dave drove the Uhaul, I drove the Sequoia, and my parents followed in the Tundra.  The kids rotated between the three cars.  It actually went pretty smooth!  20 hours later we made it to Oklahoma on Saturday, July 6.  Debbie, Bill, Michael, Cheryl, Anna and Mark met us at our new house to unload and the unpacking began.  

Unpacking took a whole week. My parents were so much help cleaning and unpacking.  And Debbie was so kind taking the kids to movies and letting them swim at her house.  It helped so much!  On Friday my parents flew back to Idaho.  We took a few pictures outside our front door before we took them to the airport.  We were sad to see them go!  

The neighbors have been so kind, we have eaten so many plates of cookies!  There are a lot of kids on our street, not as many as in our old neighborhood which we are really missing, but it seems like a really nice place so far.  It is hot and humid, we LOVE having air conditioning! And I am loving Hobby Lobby and Super Target and all the fun shopping that is right around the corner.  

4th of july

we cleaned, loaded the uhaul, and moved out of our house on July 3.
we stayed with Dave's parents and went to the
Salem ward breakfast the next morning.  so fun!
then we headed to the Rexburg parade especially to cheer for Kyler
who was playing his saxophone in the Madison Summer Band.  hooray Kyler!
during the parade the kids got a TON of candy,
icees, balloons, t-shirts.  it was so fun for them.
we were at the beginning of the parade route and the people on the floats
were throwing so much stuff, that by the time the end of the parade came
the kids were leaving the candy on the ground.
crazy!  that's how MUCH they got!
i would say more than halloween.


love the tractors and temples.
we didn't see any of those in NYC parades!  ha!


after the parade we had a fun BBQ at Dave's parents' house.
i always love going there.  it is such a good place to be.

then we went to my parent's house for some fireworks.

it was such a nice 4th of July.

we really, really enjoyed being able to celebrate with both of our families.

we went to bed ready to get up the next morning
and move to Oklahoma!

visiting Grandma-Great

we were able to visit my Grandma in the nursing home

to celebrate her birthday.

she turned 92.

she was so happy to see the kids.  

i loved seeing her eyes light up as they did this little talent show for her.

loved this picture of my malia and her great grandma.

90 years age difference.

92 and 2.

i Jump

I-Jump is one of the funnest things we have ever done.
the kids looooved it.
they jumped for two straight hours.  they were so hot and sweaty.
i loved their pink cheeks.

they were so funny to watch.  they didn't stop!

seriously so fun!  when can we go back???

huntsman's fireworks in driggs

we love the Hunstman Springs 4th of July Firework show.
we LOVEd living there for 7 years and somedays really long for that time in our life.
so fun to drive back and see the beautiful Tetons
and have fun with cousins.

pyramid attempts...
so funny.

the prefirework show featured the Beach Boys.
during the fireworks Lee Greenwood came out singing "I'm Proud to Be an American."
  It was amazing!  Loved it.  Fun, fun night.

so thankful to be an American!