Arlena and Randi

This summer some of my good friends that happen to be Kare's friends too, came to visit while the Merrills were here.  Arlena, who was Kare's roommate at BYU and also one of Jaden's babysitters when he was like one or two, came to visit from Texas.  She flew to visit Kare in Arizona, and then the 2 preggers drove Kaylee and Nathan up to Utah to visit.  Those poor girls and their 2-day drive packed with morning-sickness joy. So fun!

My other friend Randi, her husband Brent and the fam also came for a quick visit at that time.  Randi lives in Sierra Vista with Kare, and was stalking me long before we became friends.  It was creepy, but it all turned out for the best.  :)

My kids finally got to meet Randi's 2 cute girls, Brenna and Harlow. They know them from Randi's blog.  I guess you could say Bradley and Brenna met online.  And they hit it off well when they finally met face to face.

I love this chub!

Strike a Pose

Have you met my daughter? She is pure entertainment.  When she is in the right mood, and you tell her to "Strike a pose!" she will bust out into some ridiculous position and then freeze. And when she hears the camera click, she moves on to her next pose.  It's hilarious.  One of my favorite things about her.

Even Aunt Alli can't resist joining in. :)

Work Party at the Zoo

This year for Charles' "End of the Fiscal Year" work party, they put on a family day to the zoo.  Which was nice because it made us realize what terrible parents we are.  We had never taken Brynnlee or Bradley to the zoo.  I know!  Jaden couldn't make it... but I can't remember why.

I'm not sure if the kids were more excited about seeing the LEGO animals, or the real animals.  It's kind of hard to tell because the heat was so miserable.

The giraffes are my favorite.

I love how close we can get.  But not close enough for Brynnlee to start freaking out.

Brynn's favorite animal was the baby cats.  She would point at them and then say who-knows-what, in Brynnlee-jibberish, but in a higher pitch.  It was cute.

At noon we met up with Charles' staff for lunch.  We stayed and mingled until the kids let us know it was time to go.

Dino

Aw the Dinosaur Museum.  One of my favorite places to go.  I love to bring my kids to places where they can look but not touch.  It brings such joy to my soul.  And it's so fun to walk around for hours chasing a 2 year old who just wants to get into trouble or leave.  I can't wait to go back.

Sarcastic? Me? Never.

This was my favorite part.  I'm not sure what this all had to do with dinosaurs... but there was a table set up for a Harry Potter quiz with buzzers and everything. Made me want to go home and read the books.  Made me want my KIDS to read the books.  But they just can't seem to get past Voldemort in Book 1.  He's too scary.  Really? You'll watch Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings, and all the Avenger movies, but Voldemort is your limit? Come on! Someday...

Grandma the Strong

Back in June, when Charles and I were away at a wedding, the kids were staying with my mom and dad.  My dad sent me this series of pictures to my phone.  Seriously, how is she so strong? I'm pretty sure I cannot pick up Jaden like this.

Run Grandma, Run!

Love it.  Nice work Mom.  And great capture, Dad!

Raindrops on Roses

 This summer we have had a ton of rain storms, thunder/lightning storms and sand storms.

The kids are terrified of the lightning and thunder storms.  During the day they are usually okay, but if the storms happen when they are trying to fall asleep, there are a lot of tears.  They come running into my room, and poor Brynnlee who is stuck in her crib is left by herself yelling and whimpering, "Mommy! Mommy! Wiiiiiiind! The wiiiiiiiind!"

One night (the night that both of these pictures were taken) I had just put the kids to bed when the thunder and lightning started up.  It was loud.  And I mean LOUD.  I knew the kids would be freaking out soon, so I just gathered them all up and brought them to my bed with me.  Charles was at a church meeting and he actually saw one of the bolts of lightning touch down in the parking lot not even 100 yards away from him as he was walking to his car.

So it was just me and the kids cuddled up in the bed.  After a huge crash of thunder the kids all screamed and hid under the blanket... I couldn't help myself.  I belted out in my best Julie Andrews voice, "Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens..." After an amazing verse or two, I looked at the kids and they were just staring at me like I was an alien.

Note to self:  Show the kids The Sound of Music.

Since they didn't appreciate my singing, I turned to Netflix on the iPad to distract them from the storm.  Charles came home minutes later and joined us in the bed for an episode of Justin Time.

Another note to self: A King size bed would be fantastic.

During the rainstorms in the day, the kids had a blast running out and getting soaked.  At the beginning they weren't so sure, but by the end they were rolling around in the puddles.

Did I mention the kids are terrified of tornados?  TERRIFIED.  This is why:

One night we were sitting at the table eating dinner, and all of a sudden we heard screaming outside.  We knew it was windy, but the scream was not a familiar sound.  Charles and I looked at each other, confused, and then he peered out the front door window.  Then very calmly he told everyone to go down in the basement for a little while.

I could tell by his sudden but calm demeanor that it was bad, and I had to see. When I looked out the window, all I could see was dark brown.  No sky, no grass, not even the pillars right outside my door. It was all dark. I stifled a scream and started grabbing kids and pulling them down the stairs.  Yeah... I was real suave. When we got in the basement we waited a minute or two.  I was expecting to hear windows shattering at this point. Then the screaming stopped.

We went back to the main floor and looked outside.  It was clear as day.  Everything that was on our porch was now in our neighbor's yard.  Our neighbor's rocking chair had blown off their porch and slammed into their fence making a huge hole.  There were trash cans all over the street and up our front lawn, almost to our house. They had travelled quite a distance from their homes.  Some houses lost some of their siding, and a few trees had broken in half. It was crazy that all of that could happen in just a few minutes. Some people called it a mini tornado.  Some people called it a sandstorm.

Whatever it was... it has caused many... many... many... sleepless nights.  The kids crawl into bed with Charles almost every night and claim that they are having nightmares about tornados.  Charles likes to put on an act that he doesn't like to be woken  up every night.  But in reality-- he loves the chance he gets to cuddle with the kids.