SUMMER BREAK

Rich just finished his second semester and had a week off before the next semester starts. We both have been counting down the days for this break! This is the longest time we've spent together in our entire marriage. During the week we planned some fun things to do together with the kids. This is how our week went...

• Monday - went to the aquatic center with the kids. Our kids favorite thing to do is swim. Brooklyn went down the waterslide and almost drowd, the lifeguard jumped in and grabbed her. Other then that, it was a fun day. Oh, and I got fried, I put sunscreen on everyone but me. So that was a great way to start the first day of our vacation off with a bad sunburn.

• Tuesday - was probably our favorite day. Me and the kids went to the zoo, aquarium and the botanic gardens the week before and loved it so much we wanted to take Rich there. We got to watch the shark's and the sting rays getting fed, and later that afternoon we saw the Polar Bears eat. But our favorite part of the day was having a picnic at the gardens. Mainly because we got to eat lunch on grass! We really miss our yard at our old house, I never thought I would miss grass so much but I do.
• Wednesday - we were a little tired of being in the sun, so we stayed home that day. Sometimes it's just nice to stay home and not do anything. Later that evening my friend Gretchen offered to take our kids so Rich and I could go on a date. Rich took me for a ride on the motorcycle and we ended our date by getting a smoothie at Keeva Juice.
  
• Thursday - we went bowling. We've never taken the kids bowling before. I bowled a whopping 76, and that's with the bumper railings they put up for little kids.
  
• Friday - we hiked up to the Petroglyph's. This is where the Pubeloan people and other Native American groups have lived for thousands of years. These people carved images on rocks. It was pretty neat to see these images and symbols and guess what they meant to these people who lived there a long time ago. We also hiked up to a old volcano that wasn't to far from the Petroglyph's. Brooklyn was pretty proud of herself for climbing a volcano she was ahead of us the whole time, Blake walked the whole way and fell a couple of times but he's a tuff kid and kept on walking. Weston was less then thrilled to be hiking up to a volcano. He was hot and tired and kept asking for food every 20 minutes.
  
• Saturday - we drove to Dolores, Colorado to see my cousin Garrett who was coming home from his mission that day. We only live about 4 and half hours from my Unlce's house, so I"m glad we were able to go. My grandpa and grandma Evans were there and they got to see Samantha for the first time. My parents also made the drive from California. My Uncle Paul and Aunt Kelly live in a really pretty area. They live right up against the mountains, it's so green and pretty. They have a couple of fishing ponds right on their property too, I love where they live.
  
• Sunday- my cousin gave his homecoming talk at church. It really is amazing to see what a mission can do to a young man. I don't think I've ever sat through a meeting like this one, the spirit was so strong. I'm grateful that I was able to be there and hear Garrett speak about his love for the gospel.
  
• After church we had to head home because Rich got a email earlier that morning that he had some reading assignments he had to do before Monday's class. Our vacation was over, it came and went so fast.
  
• Today, life is back to normal. Nothing really exciting happened today, but it was a good day. Blake is in the process of getting potty trained, I followed him around all day to try to catch an accident before it happened. Late this afternoon it rained really hard, the kids put their rain jackets on and got the umbrella out and played in the puddles. Watching them play in the rain was probably the highlight of my day.

Train ride at the zoo that takes you to the different parks.

Botanic gardens

My big baby and my little baby

It takes a steady hand to paint these little toes:)

All smiles

The kids liked watching the lady clean the tank and feed the fish.

Butterfly garden

They have a Thomas the Train set that rides through the gardens, Weston could watch this train go all day.

Eating lunch...

This ape looked so bored, he just sat there with his head resting on his fist. It made me wonder what he was thinking about.

Brooklyn put her arms up like this every time she rolled the ball down. It was pretty cute.

We had literally been walking for 20 minutes and all 3 kids wanted to stop and eat their pudding.

I don't usually hike with an umbrella, I felt awkward carrying it. But it kept the sun off of Samantha.

One of the rock carvings we saw...

Samantha and her 2nd cousin Evan. They are 3 weeks apart in age.

My grandpa Evans

and my Grandma Evans