Summer Vacation 2010 part 1

We are home from our summer vacation!! 26 days of total awesomeness...it's hard to come back to reality! It's taken me a few days to unpack and get things somewhat organized. I took a lot of pictures and I've been so excited to download them.
We started our vacation by driving up to Orem and staying with Aaron's parents for a couple of days. I spent one day shopping with Alisha and Lexie (that was fun!) and then we spent an evening with our friends the McElwee's.


From Orem, we drove up to Idaho Falls for the 4th of July for a family reunion with my mom's sister Linda and her entire family. One thing about the Doggett family is that they know how to HAVE FUN! It was so great spending time with my cousins and having our kids play together.



A and the kids at the falls





Idaho Falls temple

my cousin Jessie and her daughter Samantha

Aidan (Nate and Melissa's little boy)


Nate, Melissa and their cute little munchkins

My uncle Mike (he's on the far left) and his band The Affection Collection perform every year. They were AWESOME! I've got some video of this, I need to put it on here. The fireworks show in IF is the best one I've ever seen!!

On Sunday, we ate some of Linda's good BBQ, took the kids over to the park to play and we watched old home movies of us as kids.


Kadren, Aidan and Paige

some softball


Happy Birthday Jessie!!

The 4th wouldn't be complete without fireworks, right? To my family: I will get that video of Von to you, don't worry! ;) I'm still laughing about that...


enjoying the fireworks

A huge thank you to Mike and Linda and the kids! We had a blast and hope we get to see you guys at Thanksgiving!

Summer vacation part 2 coming soon...

thirty five

Today I turned 35. I remember being little and looking forward to getting older, especially turning 16 so I could drive. Now, I can't believe how fast time goes by. To celebrate my birthday, I did something I've never done before. Dad and I went to the stake center and donated blood to the Red Cross. I look forward to doing it again. I have to say going anywhere with Dad is always an adventure. He asked the sweet little Mormon lady handing out the cookies and juice if she had any vodka...we can't take him anywhere ;)
Looking forward to more fun things and I'm soaking up this awesome weather like you wouldn't believe!

Happy 8th Birthday Paige!

A birthday shout out to Paige! She's so excited to be 8 and she's looking forward to getting baptized on Saturday.

We love you!

San Diego

Better late than never, right? I've been meaning to post some pictures of our trip to San Diego 3 weeks ago. Aaron and John ran in the San Diego half marathon and they both did awesome. Aaron found us a hotel within walking distance of the beach and we spent most of our time there.

H did not want to get wet, can you tell? :)

the kids did this all day, they love it!



just when you think you've seen it all at Mission Beach...the kids loved this! They were screaming, 'Get your camera Mom!'
while the kids are on summer break and getting on each other's nerves, this picture gives me hope. They really do like each other sometimes ;)

free digital kit

I just wanted to pass along a link to this really cute FREE digital kit that I saw on Ali Edwards blog.
Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to our...

Papa Bear
Gramps


and to our Dad and husband

We love you and are so grateful for each one of you!

summer sanity

I love summer, I really do. (Mom almost named me Summer, have I told you that?) Summer for us in AZ can be summed up in one word...swimming. I's such a great way for the kids to get their energy out and it is my summer sanity.
Here are 2 quick pages I did this morning:

Summer is officially here

The kids got out of school last Thursday so summer for us is officially here! I have to admit it's a challenge keeping the kids entertained but I've enjoyed having a break from the craziness.

Braden received the Presidential Fitness Award this year, we're very proud of him. This kid has so much energy...wish I could borrow some of it ;)

Just finished this page. I used a good ol' trusty template to make it quick and easy.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

organizing school memories

For some reason, documenting school stuff is so overwhelming to me! So many pictures and so many papers, I just didn't know where to start. Since the last day of school is approaching, I just wanted to share what I've been working on here and there to make documenting the school years a little less stressful...for me anyway.
These are years K-2nd for Braden. I wanted to keep it simple so there is a 2 page layout for each year. This is a template from Designer Digitals. I just clipped the pictures in, did a little journaling and called it a day. Now that I'm looking at them altogether, I may go back in and change the colors of the 'school memories' to add a little variation. (that's the awesome thing about digital, you can always go back and change it)
I will be using this template set by Cathy Zielski when B starts junior high and for P&H.
We keep 1 folder of art and papers for each kid per year. I'm sentimental so for me that's pretty good. For the bigger art pieces, I take pictures of the artwork or of the kids holding the artwork.
Just passing along some ideas!
Kids grow up way too fast...

May catch up

Just catching up on a few things...I can't believe May is half way over!

Paige received Student of the Month in her class, we are very proud of her!

Mother's Day was so nice. The kids made me go back to bed and brought me in some breakfast. My favorite part of the day was the homemade little cards and crafts they made at school. I look forward to this every year! Braden made me a little photo album in my favorite color. Heston made me a frame with a picture of us in it. Paige made me a little coupon book and also a story book.
This is the inside of the book that Paige made...

My favorite food is salad (and I love mushrooms so she drew those in there too)

The thing that I don't like...

that's sushi

and that's the truth

I help our family by cooking dinner on my sweet pink stove (a pink stove would be fun, wouldn't it?)

This is me (she drew me using my favorite color, I love that)

doing the laundry. That's our couch and it has clothes laying on it. This is a true representation of what our couch looks like most of the time. Laundry...that stuff is going to be the end of me...

This is B, P and I jumping rope. In the evening, we'll go out and do some jump rope. They'll teach me fun jump rope rhymes and then I'll teach them some from when I was younger. I jump the rope until I pee my pants and then we call it a night. The joys of giving birth...

My sweet daughter...she knows me too well ;)

I LOVE BEING A MOM!

Grand Canyon hike

Last weekend was a much needed getaway for me. I went with a group of women (from my former ward, some of them close friends of mine) to the south rim of the Grand Canyon to hike the Bright Angel trail. Honestly, it was one of the most enriching experiences I've ever had.

We left Friday morning for Flagstaff. When we got there, we all went downtown for some shopping, food and entertainment. The city was having a youth festival with all kinds of dancing and music. We stayed at a hotel and drove to the GC the next morning. We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather. The trail was a total of 6 miles and I loved every step of it.

On our journey, I couldn't help but think of analogies a person can come up with while hiking in that canyon. You look down and see how far it is and you begin to question whether you can actually do it. It's possible, with some preparation...you just have to put one step in front of the other. I was also thinking about how life is a lot like this trail we hiked...


It has it's ups and downs, it's rocky in places and flat in others. Also like life, it's important to stop, look around and see how far you've come and really enjoy the scenery. The views there...the pictures just don't do it justice...
We made it! me, Cheryl and Ardie

Kym and I. This whole trip was planned a year ago by her. I'm so grateful to call her my friend.
This was taken before the hike. You can tell because we're all excited and have tons of energy. Some women hiked part of the way and some of us hiked more.

me right before the hike. I brought my new little point and shoot camera so I wouldn't have to haul my big one around. It worked out great.

Thank you to Nuskin, the company I used to work for. That free backpack has served Aaron and I well over the years. ;)