The Summer Whirlwind is OVER!

I finally got on this blog to try to remember when the last time I posted anything was - I can't believe it's been a month and a half! We have been out of town more than in for the last 6 weeks! Of course - I didn't take many pictures! A brief summary of the many places we've been are:

July 5-12: We spent time with Julie's family at my mom's house. We had the best time with Mallory and little Beth! Julie's birthday was on the 8th - so we celebrated by going kayaking in Lake Natoma. We had a ball - Ryan and Allison fell in love with it. They were able to take one of the kayaks out by themselves and paddle around and even managed to get back to shore on their own!
July 14-18: Camping trip at Lake Tahoe. This was by far our best camping trip ever! We explored many parts of the Lake that we had never seen before. We found an awesome little hike that led to a small waterfall. We had a great time swimming in the small pools at the bottom. Another highlight was the bear that joined us in our campsite one morning! Yes, that's right, a bear! Thankfully we were all in the tent when it came into our site, so we were safe - but it was very confused and kept climbing up trees instead of running away when Shawn tried to scare it!
The flip flop picture is a funny story that must be shared! We went river rafting in the Truckee River on our Lake Tahoe trip. I was wearing the flip flop on the left - actually I was wearing the matching one on my right foot too! I stepped out of the boat when we stopped on the shore and lost my flip flop in the mud! The water was only about 18 inches deep and I knew exactly where I had stepped. I told Shawn I was not leaving with out my shoe so he needed to find it! He proceeded to fish around with his hand in the water looking for my shoe. HeI says excitedly "I found it!" and up comes the nasty blue one! We couldn't believe the coincidence that he would pull up someone else's lost shoe in such a small area that he was searching. Before he gave up looking for MY shoe, he managed to pull up 2 more that weren't mine!!! He gave up after he pulled the brown one that looked new and sort of matched mine! And to make things funnier - they were all my size and were all right foots - which is the one I lost!

July 20-22: Back to Mom's and a trip to Six Flag's! Great fun as always!

July 23-29: I took the kids (my mom came with) to Utah to visit my brothers and sister. We had an awesome BBQ with Dave, Jim, and Diane's families, complete with fireworks! We went to the Olympic Village in Park City. We watched guys practice ski jumping into pools of water. We also did the Alpine Slide and a zip line! It was a day of thrills! Josh loved climbing in the bobsleds in the lobby area! My kids had such a great time with their cousins. Ryan especially loved hanging out with his teenage cousins! Shawn joined us on the 27th and drove home with us.
August 1-2: Back to Mom's! This time Susie's family was there! We met them at Sutter's Mill-where Gold was discovered. We spent a little time enjoying the history there and the museum, but the real highlight was playing in the river! There were several huge rocks the kids would jump off and Ryan even swam across the river. He had serious peer pressure watching his older cousins do it! Then we spent the next day swimming at mom's. Susie's son Matt taught Ryan how to do a back dive!
August 4: SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION!!! Ryan and Allison started 4th and 1st grades. We have year round school - so we start much earlier than most.

August 8-9: Back to Mom's! Jim's family came and of course we couldn't resist going over to visit! Ryan and Presley and Allison and Kady have the best time together! When we had to leave, Ryan was very depressed!

We are finally home and should be for a while! Soccer season has started and Ryan had a great game today. Unfortunately, his team isn't quite up to his intensity - so that means he basically runs the show! He scored the teams only 3 goals today! He is quite the athlete - he always gives 110%.