What time is it? Summertime!!

I hate when I get behind on my blog cause it takes so long to catch up! We've had a very busy, fun filled month of July with lots to share. To keep it a little more simple than my usual "catch ups" I think I'll follow Julie's example of updating in point form. There may be a few things I'll have to elaborate on but we'll see. Here goes:

-had a great week with Adam's dad's family at a family reunion in Utah! Lots of fun, food, cousins and laughs! Love those C's!

Some of the kids with their cousins
Spencer, Joseph, Spencer and Tommy helping Uncle Todd raise the flag on the 4th of July!
Uncle Todd, Papa, Uncle Ryan, Annie, Justin, Lexi, Marin and Katherine heading off on an adventure hike
Garett getting ready to run to the next "base" during the slip and slide kickball game!
Adam and Peter AKA the Cajun brothers! An ongoing tradition for 13 years and running!
Some of the kids playing on the indoor playground!
Brenda, Rachel, Me, Nicole, Brynn, Rainey, Cheri', Jill and Laura
Laura, MarJane and Adam
Adam and I next to the "Babbling Brook"
All the great grandkids!
MarJane, Grandma and Grandpa C!
-Ran in the 4th of July Freedom Run 5K in Provo with Adam and some of his cousins. My time was 27:03 and I placed 12th in my age group of 159 other runners! Woo hoo for me! Adam ran it at 24:36 and placed 15th in his age group of 103 runners. Woo hoo for him!
-did a fun run for the all the kids at the cabin where we were staying for the reunion!
Daniel, Me, Adam, Brenda, Rainey, Todd - after the Freedum Run! Thanks to Wade and Becky for cheering us on and taking pics!
The starting line of the kids Freedom Run
Garett jumping the Babbling Brook during the run. Helpers were Dave, Tom and Uncle Tom
Logan running as fast as he can!
Even Gracie crossed the finsih line!
-made our annual visit to BYU Bookstore with the kids


-attended Katie's Baptism. Katie is the daughter of our best friends from BYU and Adam's mission companion and roommate, Chris and Lisa. It was so fun to see them and share in their special day.
Chris, Lisa and their 5 kids: Ryan, Katie, Emily, Megan and Luke All of us!
No Kids!
Playing with dad before taking him to the airport to go home!
Does anyone know where the closest zoo is?

-learned that peanut butter gets gum out of hair after Annie got a good goop of it in her hair! A bit devastating for her as she thought we'd have to chop all her hair off! (I wish I had taken a picture of it, but I think I was too traumatized to think of it too)
-went to 7 peaks with Julie, her kids, Ryan and Nicole, their kids and my mom! Hadn't been there in years and was pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had!

Nana, Marin, Ben and Logan
Annie, Spencer and Jackson
-drove up to Canada with all my kids, my niece Amber, Julie, her kids and mom! Not a bad drive at all!
-got to the cabin and spent the week relaxing, enjoying the babysitters who my mom arranged to have their with us (one of the girls came last year and this year she brought her cousin---LOVE THEM!!), boating, teaching the kids to waterski (Spencer, Jackson, Tyler and Amber all got up and Natalie and Garett gave it a good try--next year!) hiking, being scared of running into bears on the hiking trail, horseback riding, roasting marshmellow, taking care of Garett, who had strep throat, a high fever and was miserable for a few days (he's so cute when he's sick but unfortunately spread it to Brooklynn, Josh, Natalie and Fraser! Sorry guys!) and having fun with my mom, dad and sisters! (Heather flew up with her kids! Our hubbies couldn't make the trip this year, but TJ, Julie's Hubby ended up coming up on Tuesday!)
The dingy- a long story but the quick version is we got another boat-a party boat- and it's moored out in the lake. If we don't have the Malibu there is no way to get to it, unless we row a dingy. It took forever to find one up in the towns of the rockies, but we did, we blew it up and rowed it to the boat! Yeahhh!!!
A look at the party boat AKA-Big Banana-pre launch!
At long last....the tubes! I think this is Annie, Spencer, Amber, Jackson and Logan

DRIVING THE BOAT

Logan and Granddad
Garett (Granddad is sitting with him)
Annie- by herself with Granddad close by
Spencer- where's granddad? Sitting with Nana! Spencer is flying SOLO! (Granddad was actually sitting right across from Spence, a quick move and he's there if he needed help! Shhhh, don't tell Uncle Ian! :-)
The boys heading out to Golf. A very momentous occasion!
Girls day out! Ju and Nanny
Heather and Brookie
Me and Annie
Nana and Amber
Brigitte, one of our babysitters, took the little boys on a walk while we were having girl time
Our adventurous attempt to hike to the Hoo Doos. Turns out we took the wrong trail and never did find them, but we found lots of bear poop, and a beautiful view. Granddad shared with us later how nervous he was that we would turn a corner and end up nose to nose with a bear. You'll see the solution he came up with in a picture below!
This sign about the Hoo Doos talks about the wild life that lives there and yep, bears, Grizzly Bears, are listed.
Logan taking a potty break on the side of the trail. Cute Cute Cute!
Hiking a long the already made trail.
Julie, TJ, Natalie and Jackson (Brady and Reece stayed with the Sitters at the cabin)
Spencer, Logan, Me and Annie (Garett was sick this day and stayed with the sitters)
Heather and Tyler (Again, Brooks and Josh stayed with the sitters-thank goodness for Avery and Brigitte!)
The Patriarch and Matriarch of this operation!
Those tuff kids! See the horn type thing Spencer has? It's an air horn that Granddad brought for the hike to blast off every few minutes along the trail to let the bears know we were coming! The kids had a blast with it, literally, and took turns blaring it! Great solution dad, we didn't see any bears, much to Spencer's disappointment!
Mom and Dad and the Girls
Logan's little legs "couldn't walk" so Uncle TJ and Granddad offered to give him a shoulder ride. TJ took the first shift and when we got to the end of the trail and Logan got off, he couldn't walk cause his legs had fallen asleep. When granddad offered the shoulder ride for the hike back to the car Logan said "But my legs might get dead again!". Granddad promised to take breaks along the trail and let Logan walk so his legs wouldn't "get dead". It was soooooo cute!
One of the breaks!
Auntie of the year (that would be me) took all the kids on a trail ride at Fairmont. Though I love horses, I was a bit grumpy about being nominated to take the kids on the ride. Usually trail ride horses are half broke, wild animals that bite eachothers butts and kick eachother in the face. Not my idea of a fun ride. Thankfully the horses turned out to be great and despite the outragous cost of the hour and a half ride, we had a great time!
All my waterskiing students. Amber, Jack, Spencer and Tyler all got up....sort of! G and Nanny gave it a try and almost made it! Great job guys! -notice my lovely "Cabin hair"! TERRIBLE!
Mom and Me and my cabin hair! Eeeeek!
Natalie and Garett each begged and begged and finally got me to go in the tube. FYI-I don't love the tube, I don't even like the tube, except when other people are in it. I think the reason I don't love it is because once, when I was a teenager, my cousin Meredith and I were tubing and got dumped by my cousin Christopher, so bad that it freaked me out! From then on, I don't tube!
The Birthday girl! This is a classic Reecey look! She is so funny and she and I love eachother especially! Her birthday was the week we were at the Cabin! Happy Birthday sweet little baby girl!
Julie brought her boys out for our last day/night at the cabin! It was sooooo fun to see her and watch all the kids play. They had a blast!
Dad chopping wood for the fire!
Harris, such a cute kid!
Dad telling a campfire story
Mom and Heather at the campfire!
Crazy cousins. Look at the mirky hot tub water, wanna get in? Logan, Heath, G and Brookers
Natalie's fashion statement
Here comdes trouble! Brady, Heath, Josh and Logan
Cousins: Spencer, tyler, Jack, Euan, Annie and Amber
Great Fire
MMMMMM S'mores
We all Love
Yummy
Smores!
Oooey gooey! Yum!
The Cabin! (Sigh)
All the kids around the firepit!
-chipped my veneer and had to go into Calgary so my dad could fix it.
When we got back to Calgary, Amber found one of mom's wigs from when she was going through Chemo. She put it on and looked so much like mom that julie and I dressed her in mom's clothes, put make up on her and surprised mom with the finished look! It was HILARIOUS! We all laughed our heads off!
She looks soooo grown up!
Nana and Nana 2??
-made up a scavenger hunt with my sisters and TJ for my dad. Turns out that all three of us stink at giving him Father's Day Gifts. To make up for it, we surprised him with a funny scavenger hunt. It included a rhyming poem to help him find his treasures. The treasures were golf balls, peanut m and m's and a new golf ball display case since the one he has is full! He was quite surprised by it all!
Dad and his treasures!
-drove home to in 2 days. Day 1 we caravanned with Julie and TJ. Day 2 we split off from them and drove the rest of the way by ourselves, just me and the kids! Thankfully my kids are AWESOME travellers. After lunch I told them it was time to turn off the movie and have naps. All four of them said okay, leaned their heads on their pillows and were out cold in seconds! I in turn, had a wonderful drive listening to my ipod and all of my Tim McGraw songs! --love him!
Hugs goodbye after 2 fun weeks together!
Sad faces saying goodbye!
-We had a happy family reunion with Adam when we got home! We'd been apart for 2 whole weeks--too long in my book!
-two days after getting home Aunt Lori, Amy and baby Drew came to visit for the week!
-went to Garden of the Gods with Lori, Amy and all the kids! Very cool!
Amy, Drew and the kids!
Amy and cute little Drew!
BEAUTIFUL is all that needs to be said!
Wow, are my kids ever strong?
Lori, Amy and Drew!
Aunt Lori and the kids! She has always been such a Great great-aunt! From the time they were babies she's always treated them with such love! We just LOVE our Aunt Lori!
The rock shere Spencer's hand is resting on looks like a lizard face! It was really cool!
My Handsome boys!
-went to see Mamma Mia for my friend Tanya's 40th birthday!
Happy 40th Tanya!
And of course, what's a birthday without a "Hobo" wallet!
-said goodbye to Lori, Amy and Drew, golfed with Adam and then went to see Batman! Very good but I was a bit disappointed. (I realize I'm probably the only person in the world who was disappointed by it but I was. I won't say why because I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't seen it yet)

So, I think that about sums up the past month! Imagine if I'd done full explanations of every little thing! Whoa that would have taken me a year! Anyway, it's been busy but tons of fun. Now that our company is gone I'm trying to get back into a regular routine. I called Adam at work the other day and told him I want to go back on Vacation. He asked why and I told him because I don't like having responsibilities. When I'm on vacation, I don't have to pay any bills, make any phone calls, clean any bathrooms, or go to any meetings. It's so nice! As soon as I get home, I'm bombarded with all the things I have to do....I guess that's life though! As Adam says "If everyday was a vacation, it wouldn't make it a vacation"....sometimes, I disagree :-)