Top of the Pines

Just thinking about the smell of the Pirates of the Carribbean ride makes me want to go to Disneyland.  Aaaaaand, just thinking about the smell of pine trees, laying in a hammock listening to the wind makes me want to go to Pinetop, AZ.

↓{LOOK! The whole gaggle of us below}↓

Our good friends above ↑↑↑ invited us to go up to Pinetop for Memorial Day weekend.

Until we got banned from going to my grandparents cabin {sniffle sniffle} that use to be our tradition e-ver-y Memorial Day weekend.  So we were excited. 

So fun that they have kids all our kids ages except for Ashlin.  But don't feel sorry for her, she read an entire 500+ page book up there... and thats a dream if you ask me to be somewhere that beautiful doing something that relaxing.  They have an awesome loft the kids all slept up in.  Except we made a bed for Lily and Audrey on the floor in the bedroom with the big bed the Cleggs so kindly let Ashlin sleep in.  The next morning both Lily and Audrey were asleep not on the floor but in bed with Ashlin... I laughed cuz I thought they invaded her big comfortable bed... then I found out Ashlin invited them up cuz she was lonely.  ha ha, so cute.  I didn't get pictures of their beautiful cabin, or our cute mini Memorial Day program out front with flags and Tim's speech, or BINGO night with prizes, or playing cards, or all the heavenly laying around we did, or going out to eat at EL RANCHO with all 15 of us {How do you spell 11 kids at a restaurant? n-o-i-s-y} but it was a great trip (besides that their little guy broke his arm while we were there and we felt so bad about that)... 

BUT I did get pictures of our day at Little Bear Lake with them:

Emma caught a fish...

Logan caught a fish...

Dallin mostly caught lizards...

Little Miss Lily caught a fish...

Alisa showing Amber how to rock the hips when taking her "caught a fish" picture.... ha ha.

The boys also hunted for crawdads...

It was a lovely trip to the mountains.  

*THANK YOU CLEGGS*

Too bad some place that beautiful has to be 3+ hours away... 

{PS- the last weekend of summer we went up to the Pines again and stayed at the Sutherlands cabin in Show Low... it was heavenly also... I read my David Copperfield book, watched the olympics, the kids caught frogs, we went kayaking with the Cleggs at Show Low lake, we listened to the rain, went on walks, made lots of yummy food, went swimming at their Club House... and I didn't get a single picture of any of it.}

--We ♥ Pinetop--

A Big Outing

We decided on May 25th that it was finally time to say good-bye to Sophie's mullet and get her her FIRST HAIRCUT.   Sophie's hair on its own grew long in back, but up front wouldn't grow.  We finally decided to chop some of the length in back so it wasn't so mullet looking... after 2-3 people made comments in church to us like, "whats up with her hair?"  ha ha.  No surprise that she is crying in front of the salon below, I wanted to get a "before" picture... but she was so excited to go in, she didn't want to.

Cutest thing ever is how much all Sophie's older siblings love her.  When I told them we were going to get Sophie's first haircut they were all giddy so excited and laughing and so happy to go on the BIG OUTING for their baby sister.  Dallin was helping the whole time, and Lily was holding her hand.  Everyone at the salon was laughing at the 5 of us surrounding Sophie taking pictures like her hair cut was the cutest thing ever... but it was.  And she was so good.

We couldn't get enough of her cute little face in that big chair.  The kids were all racing over who got to give Sophie her first haircut sucker.  When Ashlin and Emma found out they missed such a big outing they were so sad.

Swimming

In May Sophie took swim lessons again.  Ms. Lorie has taught all my kiddos and they all learned in the first month... except Sophie.  We tried it last summer and I thought she was just too young... hoping this year would be different.  Even though we go to the most beautiful backyard with the nicest teacher... Sophie still cried every day, driving there in the car, and through a lot of the lesson... up until the end when she got a licorice.  ha ha.

And Ms. Lorie is just always happy, wether they cry or not.

Finally a few weeks in to it, Sophie started to cry less...

 and even swam like an alligator on the step...

 .... but she never swam for Ms. Lorie.

HOWEVER, I kept working with her whenever we swam and she would cry and cry if I made her do anything, and she didn't even want to swim with me.  I could tell Bruce was annoyed that I was pushing her to "practice" instead of just letting her have fun on the steps.... but then guess what???  A few weeks later when her and I were at the Regimballe's pool, it finally clicked and she started SWIMMING!  She was so proud of herself.  Then all summer she loved jumping in from the step or the side and swimming to us.  So cute to see her little tushy when she would swim on her tummy to us, and kick and do her big reaches!  HOORAY Sophie is a swimmer now!  And she started just before she turned 3... so technically she was a 2 year old swimmer!!

Me and my good book

Isn't it lame that I haven't been blogging?

But I just had to post this pic I saw that is so me right now.

With every minute of free time I have been reading my 700+ page Charles Dickens book "David Copperfield".  I am going to cry when its over because I love it so much (its my 2nd time reading it).  I might even have to perform a funeral service for the end.  ha ha.

But an update on our life... we sold our house, well its in escrow, and are awaiting the home inspection and appraisal.... fingers crossed everything goes through.  I chose all the interior colors for our new house... for the which I painted sample colors on 20 different dollar store foam boards (ridiculous).

And now I am going to go read again.

But really, I am going to blog again here soon with all kinds of great family pictures and memories.

ha ha. :)