Balls Family Reunion

We came home from Pocatello and headed up to my parents cabin for a 4th of July reunion.  We stopped in Park City to ride our bikes to  the parade.  Lots of people, quite the event.  Darren had ridden his bike from our house up over the mountains to Park City so when we arrived at the cabin he was ready to get wet and cold. He wanted to soak those muscles in some cold water.  Tyler thought he would join him.  It took a little convincing to get Tyler to actually get ALL wet!

We are defiantly all an Apple family.  Without even planning it was all had our phones lined up on the counter.  I had to grab mine to a take a picture or there would have been 6.  BROTHER!

We went for a bike ride.  We played in the sand box.  Abby J brought me some flowers one time.  We sat in the rocking bench out front.  That bench has so many good memories for me.  Sitting and visiting.  Relaxing.  Watching people pull in.  Seeing cousins visiting on it.  I love that bench! The kids loved Aunt Nellie so much.  She is the party in the house!  You know we played way to much when even Tyler crashed and took a good nap in the sunshine.  Always good food to eat.  And church was delightful in Oakley. Darren took Nolan and I on a ride to Park City one morning.  Great mountain biking.

We celebrated Darrens 37th birthday.  Red Velvet cupcakes with blueberries on them.  The following week he spent his actual birthday riding a bike race named the CRUSHER.  He actually got sick because of what he ate the night before the race and couldn't eat at all.  So mile 25 into the 70 mile race he had to drop out.  Someone had to take him back to the start line because he wasn't going to make it.  Its hard when you train and cant complete what you had worked for.

Grandma and Grandpa brought up a fun craft.  The kids had a fun time decorating the "mitts" made out of milk jugs.  Lots of fun catch.

We had dutch oven, smores and campfire singing.  Aunt Nellie is so talented with music.  Ella missed Nellie so much she came home and practiced her guitar...If I were a chicken, I'd be a shaky chicken.....

These two little cousins are 2 weeks apart.  I am so glad they have each other to play with.  

Grandpa Seths Birthday

The last weekend in May we headed up to Logan for Grandpa Seth's Birthday.  We went to the temple early. Then Darren took off to enjoy a nice bike ride.  He found a little helper to help him fix Grandmas bike so she can get out and ride.  

Our present to Grandpa was to help do some yard work.  Weeding, trimming, even a little planting and Tyler finished it off by mowing the lawn.  

Happy Birthday Grandpa.  The cinnamon rolls from Great Harvest Bread were my kind of cake!

Minnesota and Boston

Darren and I got to go to Boston this year with his yearly conference.  So being the resourceful person I am... I found a flight with a lay over in Minnesota so we could stop and spend 2 days with Darrens little sister, and only sister, Ranell... or Aunt Nellie to my kids.  As typical vacation go with Darren and I we get plenty of exercising in.  Our first few hours there we walked around Minneapolis.  Down town area.  Ranell had some music clients she met with so we walked.  But we did get to see her in her element.  It was super fun.  She is a great music therapist.  We saw the Guthrie Theater.  We went to the Mall of America.  Pretty big place.  I was glad I dont like shopping. We had good food.

The next day we rode bikes around several lakes by her house.  lots of fun.  We ended up doing over 20 miles.  Because... because I am married to Darren and we do that kind of stuff for fun on cute little green bikes you rent on the side of the road!  We biked to a waterfall and I ate fish tacos.  I love food so much and it was really hard to force myself to eat something.... every single bite was not great!

Then we left and flew to Boston.  We walked a lot.  The subway is kind of dirty and since we dont mind the exercise we walked ALOT!   like more than ALOT... like a LOT AND A TON!  which was probably good because Savage feeds you well and I ate my share.  And really no mater how big or how nice a hotel is, when 800 Savage employes come to that hotel there are going to be long lines for the elevator.  I was glad we were on the 7th floor and no higher.  (In New York 5 years earlier we were on the 12th floor and we did that up and down lots of times! 

Finishing up May

We can start with Abby because she kind of rules our life.  14 months old and has lots of teeth, including her molars.  She loves several things.  All the booster seats at Grandmas.  LOVES suckers...great bribery to keep her happy and quiet.  She still loves naps.  And she can sign Bath Bath Bath... and loves them!

My college roommate, Joni or Jones,  came to visit from the south.  It is so nice to be able to chat and visit and have it feel like its been no time at all since you were apart.  

Ella loves to have her nails done.  and so for a late birthday present and for her friend Eliana's birthday I took them to get their nails done.  It was so much fun!

Tyler is pretty great.  He still loves to play the paino.  He has excelled so much in the last 11 months of lessons.  Abby wants to be with him all the time.  He is a great student.  His Spanish is really good.  I am so proud of him.   

And then theirs our house.  We LOVE it!  We had family home evening out side on night.  It was one of the first times we had been able to sit and enjoy ourselves since we moved in.  With a Dad that worked like crazy for 4 months we are thrilled May is over.

Our neighbors have horses that we love.  I took the picture of the rainbow the other day after it had stopped raining.  beautiful!

The kitchen is kind of the central place in our lives.  We are always in our right around it.  The kids love to peek over the top.  Abby is always on the stool getting into something.  We had a family dinner here and we all had room (we had cake pops for dessert. YUM!)  We babysat Angs kitty for her for a few days.  Abby's first word was dog because of Angs dog, and she quickly learned kitty too!

We have great neighbors who are so fun to play with.

But the best news was that school was finishing up.  No more driving to Sandy all the time.  No more waking up Abby from naps.  We went to Scheels and rode the ferris wheel to celebrate!