I am exhausted....

We are finally at the end of our summer vacation. I know school doesn't start until August 25Th but as of August 1st I turn Preston and Hannah over to their dad for three weeks. It will be hard for me, however I am totally exhausted from our extremely busy summer. My kids have NEVER used the words "I'm bored" which I am grateful for. But I think we are all tired and want to spend some time inside watching movies or outside lounging by our pool. This summer as gone so fast. I am a little sad that it is over. It so much fun spending this carefree time with my kids. I feel like its gone by so fast and we have done so much without even trying. Our vacations have been so much fun. We have spent a lot of time at the movies, water slides, boating and camping. I am ready for school to start though. For the kids and me. I am excited to go back. I am up for all the new challenges. Chloe gets to go to the University of Utah day care the 2 days I am on campus. I am excited for her to start that as well. It will be good for her to make some friends and be away from me a little bit. Well Dan and I are going away for a short weekend get away to Cedar City but other than that I am home for the rest of the summer for some much deserved R&R!!

Yellowstone 2008

Yellowstone 2008

And we are back from another vacation. I am so worn out but so glad that we went to Yellowstone again this year. We go every year at least twice. Once in the summer and once in the winter for snowmobiling. Dan went to High School there and he has family that live right in West Yellowstone. We took my family this year. Well half of us went this year. I booked our camp spot 2 months ago and it was so much fun. If there is one place I would move to it would be West Yellowstone. It is so beautiful there it is almost unreal. The sight of nature just leave me in wonder. There is so much to see here and it can be the most relaxing peaceful place to be. We even loved being in the small town of West just shopping and eating in there quaint little restaurant. Although the temperature there is hot in the day and very cold at night. I love to tent camp....call me crazy but I do. So even though we had two big trailer along the trip I wanted to sleep in the tent. Well the first night at the camp ground we settled in for the night and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. It was 40 and then the sprinklers kicked on at 2 in the morning soaking out tent. Luckily I had pulled Chloe into bed with us or the sprinkler would have soaked her in her portable crib. And Preston and Hannah were snug in one of the trailers. So the next night Dan and I stayed at Uncle Joe and Aunt Donna's house five miles down the street. I love to camp but when Chloe doesn't sleep all night because she is cold then that's when I will give in and stay else where. SO besides that and the swarms of mosquitoes it was so much fun....enjoy the slide show and I am going to go relax....our summer vacations are over for the year :(!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Chloe!

Sunday was Chloe's 2nd birthday. The whole family came over for a luau and swimming. I can't believe she is 2 already.

Kener Grand kids in the park 2008

LOOK HOW MUCH THE KIDS HAVE GROWN!!

Yes this is every single Kener grand kid so far in our family. My mom likes to get them together every summer in this same spot at the park across the street from her house to take a yearly picture. We are running out of room in this spot in the trees as we add to the clan every year. One of these pictures ends up being her Christmas card. We started doing this when Hannah was three and now she is nine. One of these days I am going to track down every single picture like these and put them together and compare how much our kids have changed. I can't believe Mekenzie is going to be 18 this year!!!

Utah Lake

Oh my gosh not another slide show!! I still have so many more pictures I have not posted yet. We spent Sunday out on Utah Lake. It was so much fun. The weather was perfect and there were not very many boats on the lake that day. The kids spent all day tubing on both of the tubes we took out. They laughed and crashed and had so much fun. Its very rare when we go a whole day that no one fights about something. I packed a cooler dinner and we ate on the boat. I am so glad we decided not to sell the boat. The people that were out there on the lake with us had these humongous SUV and their boats were even bigger than that. Our 91 jeep broke down as we were launching the boat.....then the boat wouldn't start as we were launching it. It was kinda funny for a minute.....I kept saying well at least our boat and jeep are paid for. We got them going and had a blast. What a great way to spend a Sunday!!

Gardner Village 2008

We take the kids to Gardner Village every year to do their pictures. I love it there because the settings are so beautiful and we were the only ones there on Sunday so we had the whole place to ourselves. Its so much better then going to a studio because I get them in their natural poses.

Shout out to Davis Vision

This is my shout out to Davis Vision in South Jordan....and I want to give them some good advertising with all the awesome people who read out blog!!! I had Lasik done yesterday at Davis Vision. It took me over a month to choose a place to trust my eyes to. Dr Davis and his staff had me instantly when I talked to Robin on the phone. All she had to do is call me sweety and I knew I was going to get personal attention. They also found that I had one in five symptoms of a eye disease that may mean I would have problems with a certain type of lasik. None of the other places saw this...and I went to a lot of places. The surgery was painless and today I can see 20/20!!! What a miracle the best thing I ever did. If you are thinking of getting this done you need to go see Davis Vision. It is the best place to trust your eyes to.....so THANK YOU DR DAVIS AND YOUR WONDERFUL STAFF.....I AM SOOO HAPPY TO BE CONTACT/GLASSES FREE!!!!

Lake Mcconaughy, Nebraska

Lake Mcconaughy, Nebraska

We just returned from another family reunion at Lake Mcconaughy, NE. All of Dan's family from all over the US travels by car and some by plane this year and we all camp at the lake. It is a beautiful lake with the softest sand ever. We left the morning of the fourth and drove 10 hours until we finally arrived right before dinner time. I love camping, but this is quite a drive for three days of camping. Not to mention sand in EVERYTHING! The sand is beautiful as long as you don't mind eating it, sleeping in it, and finding it in every crack and crevice.

We played volleyball, Norwegian golf, and rented a boat and went tubing. Hannah and her cousin Kelsie(who tagged along because Preston stayed home this time)loved catching the toads that ranged from the size of a penny to the size of a baseball. Hannah even thought it to be funny to throw one in my lap while I was eating lunch one day.

All of Dan's sibling made it this year which was really fun and funny to see them interact and give parenting advise even though a few of them have never embarked on the adventure of parenting. But all in all it was a good time. As soon as these dang bug bites go away and the sand is washed out of everything, I will be able to go back and look at the pictures and begin to plan for next year. I will make sure to bring ear plugs for the train that travels 10 feet(not really:)) away from our camp site and lays on its horn every ten minutes, especially at night. I will remember the sleeping pills I am going to bring if the ear plugs fail me.

It was good to be home last night. We brought Dan's sister, Natalie and her twins, Monica and Efstathia home with us so they could spend some time in Utah. When we go out of state as much as we do it makes me grateful to live in Utah.

Chloe and Daddy on the tramp!

I just had to post this one of Dan and Chloe when they were on the tramp the other night. Chloe's hair was flying all over the place........