Kenzie's Party

 Here's the best picture I got of Kenzie and 5 of her friends playing at the pool today for Kenzie's birthday party.  It was nice that I didn't have to entertain them.  I sat in the shade and just kept an eye on them.  It was pretty darn hot outside, making it a good day for a swim. 

After swimming for and hour and a half, we came back home and had cupcakes and rainbow sherbet while Kenzers opened her presents.  I forgot to take a picture until the end, so Brynlee had just left, but here's everyone else!  They all claimed they had a fun time, so I'm glad it was a success!

McKenzie's 10th Birthday

 McKenzie has been around for an entire decade now!  She was so excited.  We spent the morning at the aviary, and as soon as we got home, McKenzie was piling her presents onto the coffee table.  (I did love that Parker's special glitter glue note made it front and center in her display.  He wished her a happy birthday several times, which was sweet.)

 The first present she opened was a Lego friends lighthouse from her grandparents.  She had it put together in no time, too!

 Showing off her loot, and holding up her owl necklace from Cameron.  Anything owl related is awesome to McKenzie lately!

 After saying for weeks she wanted to eat at McDonald's for her birthday, Kenzie made a last-minute birthday decision change and chose Chuck-a-Rama instead.  My girl loves a buffet.  She likes to load up on cornbread, fruit, salad, and orange slurpees.  It was 104 degrees today, but she brought her sweater! 

 Many hours later, the kids were ready to sing and have cake.  (Mom and Dad were still not ready for more food!)  Kenzie loves all things cookie dough, so she had a chocolate chip cake with a cookie dough filling.  She claimed it was the best birthday cake ever!

 10 candles in a cake!  Cameron was impressed.  Kenzie has been a fun kid to have around these past 10 years.  Happy Birthday, Kenzers!

Because It's Cute

Here are some darn cute kids before church this morning.  Chris and I both loved Cameron's expression.  We said, "Yep, that's him!" 

On This Day in History...

...our shy, sweet, timid, and calculating Parker went off the diving board!  Sure, he had quite a bit of help, but he was still very proud of himself afterwards. 

First Day of Swim Lessons

Today McKenzie and Parker started swim lessons.  I say this all the time, but I'm not sure how they got so big!  McKenzie is doing well, and practicing learning the butterfly.  Parker is being far braver than ever before, putting his face in the water and even learning to swim for short distances.  Now it feels like summer vacation has begun!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my cute husband!  I loved that in this picture, Cameron is literally looking up to him.  It's quite fitting. 

Work Party

 Here's Cameron, making a run for the bounce houses!  Yesterday the company I work [part-time from home] for held its annual summer party.  Cameron was not happy to eat dinner first.  He pouted until I finally finished my hamburger and let him run free.

 Parker got in line for face painting.  I think it's supposed to be a soccer ball.  Parker was happy, so that's all that matters!

 It was super hot outside, so the snow cones were especially exciting.  Then they held a drawing for several nice gift cards (all $50-$300).  I didn't win, but Parker sat on the edge of his seat hoping for my name to be called, which was cute.

Kenzie going down the big slide!

Cameron was in this bouncy house the whole time.  I tried to get a good picture of the kids jumping, but they move around so fast in there!  When we finally headed to the van, Cameron yelled, "Bye, bouncy house!"

Tiff's Birthday Trip - Big Jud's

 Here's my birthday dinner!! A cheeseburger the size of a dinner plate!  Awesome, isn't it?  

There is a little back story to why this was important to me: I once was asked on a date as part of a large group date.  We headed to Big Jud's, a restaurant out in the middle of nowhere in Archer, ID.  There were several couples on this date, and each couple got this giant hamburger, french fries, and even a waffle cone for dessert.  My date, however, decided to do the "Big Jud 2 Lb. Challenge."  He ate, by himself, a hamburger that was the size of the one above, except with TWO patties, for a total of 2 lbs. of beef.  By so doing, he got his picture on the wall.  I don't know if he thought it would impress me or what, but we did not speak during the date because he was so busy cramming food down his gullet and getting red in the face.  I ordered a tiny cheeseburger for myself, no fries, no waffle cone.  (It was too awkward to get dessert when he was ill and couldn't look at food by the end!)  I was disappointed, since the other couples seemed to be enjoying splitting the meal, and I lamented over this quite a few times to my sweet husband over the years.  He determined we did need to right the wrong, so we ordered the full meal and split it (also Kenzie ate some!  Plus we still had tons of fries left over!).  I was very happy.

 To finish the meal, we all had the ice cream I missed out on the first time.  We should have just gotten goofy Cameron a cone.  Although he likes the ice cream, he can't wait to get to the cone, so he eats from the side and bottom first!  It makes such a mess!

I even got the birthday cake flavor!  Happy Birthday to me!! 

Tiff's Birthday Trip - Zoo, Picnic, & Pool

Here's how the boys were sleeping when I woke up on Tuesday (my birthday!).   I thought it was cute.

 Kenzie was happy this hotel room had a sofa for her to sleep on.  She claimed she slept like a log.  Here they were having their breakfast and watching some cartoons before we headed off to the Idaho Falls Zoo.

 Kenzie & Parker on the lion statue.

 Seeing the red pandas!  I loved how this one was lounging on the branch with his legs dangling.  Red pandas are fun.  The kids were very excited to see them.

 After the zoo, we had a little picnic near the falls and then walked around to admire them a bit.  That's the Idaho Falls Temple in the background.  I had been here once before with my roommates, but it was the middle of winter so it was a slightly different experience!

 

Back at the hotel, we watched cartoons while waiting for the pool to open.   The chlorine levels were off, so they wouldn't let anyone in until the engineer said it was okay.  We waited eagerly for the phone call from the front desk...

 

...and it finally came!  The kids were so excited.  The water was nice and warm, and we had the place to ourselves.  To make up for not swimming the night before, we stayed in the pool for a long time!

Here's just a little video to show them having fun - Kenzie doing her cannonballs, Parker swimming about in his swim ring, and Cameron being fearless jumping in!  After this we dried off and went to dinner, which I will post about tomorrow!  All in all, a really fun birthday!

Tiff's Birthday Trip - Revisiting Rexburg

 Monday we piled in the car and headed to Rexburg, Idaho, where I lived when I went to BYU-Idaho my freshman year.  It was a fun little jaunt.  The kids are always up for a new adventure, and they cheered for the, "Welcome to Idaho," sign as if we'd entered an exciting foreign land!

 One of the many, many things that had changed since 2002 was that there's now a temple across the street from campus. 

 The kids were happy to walk around and stretch their legs after being cooped up in the van for so long.

 We walked around campus for a little bit.  A lot was different (including this covered sky bridge that now connects the library to the student center.  It would have been nice on snowy days!).  I also got a kick out of Cameron's expression here - he was upset we weren't opening his Chips Ahoy package since we were entering the library!

 I think rocks are pretty boring, so I never ventured down to the Geology Museum when I went here.  However, Kenzie was thrilled.  It was a very small area, but she still enjoyed looking at everything for awhile.

 In the evening, we couldn't go swimming because the hotel's pool was closed for maintenance, so we instead went to Mill Hollow for frozen yogurt.  It was one of the few places I went a couple of times (without a car or money, my options were pretty limited!) with my roommates for frozen yogurt.  It was still pretty tasty!  I never would have pictured coming back with my family someday.  It did make me feel pretty old, too!

We watched a movie back in our hotel room, and Cameron couldn't stay awake for it!  It was a busy day for the little guy!

Mother Daughter Activity Night

Friday was the Activity Days mother/daughter dinner, and each girl got up to talk about service they had done.  Kenzie mentioned the time they had a lemonade stand and donated their earnings to Primary Children's Hospital.

Kenzie and her friend Kaya eating their tacos like the goofballs they are!

 

 Each age group did a little dance, too.  Kenzie's in the back in the pink shirt.  It was a cute evening.  I'm glad Kenzie has such a big group of girls her age in the neighborhood.