Random July

July was fun, a lot of fun. Of course we worked hard on our house, but we were able to play hard as well. Here are some pics of things I want to remember. Here we have Tyler helping Zach with his Sunday clothes. They are best friends. They don't know it yet, but they are. 

 

I try to take the kids to the beach at least once a week. We take a couple of hours and just relax and play there. The kids are water babies so they always look forward to these outings. 

Tyler and Zach pull rocks out of the lake for some reason. 

Then, Zach was invited to a friend's baptism. There was a pinata afterwards! Best. Baptism. Ever. 

Our little family took our boat out only once in July, we'll have to make up for that in the Fall!

A little evening trip to the park... (no one goes to the park during the day- too hot!)

 Then, I had a dermatology appt in St. George that I dragged the kids too. I lured them there with Laser tag and arcade games though, so we all won! 

 Then, my childhood bestie and her hubby came to town and took Josh and I out on their boat. We surfed and ate and did a whole lot of laughing. I love being with her and had a great time double dating with them. Definitely on of the highlights of my summer. 

 Jill laughs, a lot, and at everything. That's one reason we get a long so well. She makes me feel like I'm so darn hilarious, and I am, obviously.

The boys love eating pears off of our pear tree.

 Trampoline+Sprinkler= FUN

Anyway, school will start soon, but we will suck every last bit of summer goodness out of the next week and a half! Long live summer...

Beach Day with Friends

 We love taking friends to the beach and showing them our favorite spots Whitney took her friend and her friend's sister and they had a blast. The boys loved diving and exploring as well as cliff jumping of course. Never gets old...

Jones...Party of 42

Grandma and Grandpa will turn 70 this year and they wanted to do a BIG birthday celebration in Can Cun this year. They flew all 42 of us to Mexico where we had the BEST time. Here are some pictures of all of our FUN! 

We had our passports packed and were ready to go!

Lots of time in airports...

We traveled from Las Vegas with Ben's family. 

One of the first things we did when we got to the resort was go to the ocean. The kids LOVE any body of water, but especially the ocean. 

Then we got some dinner. It took me awhile, as you can see, to determine that this little daiquiri was not "sin alcohol". 

Then we headed back to the beach for some moonlight swimming. I love the ocean at night. 

One thing I loved about our resort was how "jungle-y" it was. So much wildlife and GREEN!

The next morning, we hopped a bus and headed to church. It was pretty slick. We got there super early and took pictures and I even got to help out by playing prelude music, and then they had me stay and play music for the whole meeting! Maybe their normal person didn't show, who knows.

Then, we walked in to Playa del Carmen to look for the rental car place that the Osborne's were using to go to Tulum. We walked, and walked, and walked. Could not find the place. The boys were a little HOT as you can see. 

Luckily we were able to find relief in a KFC while Josh and Ryan went to go find it in a cab. 

Watching The Simpsons in Spanish...

Yay! We got a van!

Here we are in Tulum! Zach was such a nice cousin walking around with cute little Gabby. 

Saw some big Iguanas...

Then there was another night swimming excursion...And digging...

We also had some family pictures done. The colors turned out AMAZING! Here are some shots from that shoot.

Looking for critters to pass the time...

Then off to the beach!

There were some pretty hilarious beach games that we were involved in. I successfully got the ball in the hoop, just sayin'. I don't have documentation of it, but it happened. It was NOT easy!

We had a little family volleyball team that crushed it for about 5 games and then we lost steam. It was a blast, even in the hot sun. It's been WAAAY too long since I've played volleyball. 

Then we went to a Japanese restaurant and were very entertained. The food was GREAT!

The kids even got to get up on stage and dance during one of the Kids Club performances that Lila was in. 

We hit the kids night club almost every night we were there. The kids loved being with their cousins almost 24/7 We just don't see them enough!

I loved relaxing under my umbrella. 

We also hit the pool a lot. The kids were LOVING being in the water all day. 

There were lots of cuoti's, little raccoon looking creatures. They were happy to clean up any food that was dropped. 

We were adventurous and went to a French restaurant one night. Very fancy. 

More clubbin'...

We went to Xel-ha with Chris and his family one day. More jungle and water. It was such a beautiful place! We swam in cenotes, snorkeled, cliff jumped, zip lined and even went down a water slide. It was a super cool place. 

Never ridden a water slide down a lighthouse until now...

Vive Mexico!

Another excursion we did was fishing. We chartered a boat to take us snorkeling and fishing one morning. We were so hopped up on Dramamine, that we were tired, but it was still fun to be out there together on the water. 

A rainstorm even came through. I've never been in a rainstorm on the ocean. It was cool, and very short. 

Catching Barracuda...

Tyler did some fishing with just a line an his hand! He caught this cute little fish and then threw him back. 

A tired boy...

Lunch was AMAZING! Awesome guacamole and hot wings.

Zach seemed to want a picture of him and every cool creature we saw. Here he is with a Pelican. He would even try to touch them so he could have "Creature Powers". (He watches a little too much Wild Kratts.)

He caught a second one!

More pool time...

Zach with some peacocks...

Zach with a turtle...

The Resort cooked up some of our Barracuda! It tasted like Lemon Chicken. It was awesome.

The shooting range with Preston, Tyler, Josh and Whit.

Tyler dove through this tiny floaty! So strange!

We pretty much ate our weight in ice cream and drinks...

Cozy in his room...

Saying "so long" to family...

We had such a memorable and FUN time and I'm so thankful to Mom and Dad for providing this amazing trip for us. While we were there I kept thinking about what a great time I was having. I needed that break. They sure know how to throw a party! Our family is so great and I loved being with them:)