Bear Lake

We had the fun opportunity to spend a couple of nights in Bear Lake this week. We all had a great time. Dawson and Cara had a dirtiest kid contest. We decided they both deserved top awards.

Caleb and Isaac call this fun. It may look like a fight to the rest of us, but they can not get enough wrestling. They are 110% boy!

We spent both mornings at the beach. Ethan and Cara found great joy in destroying Caleb's sand castle.
The kids loved the water, especially Cara. She would run in sit down, gasp for air, splash a few times, and run back out. She was so fun to watch.

Cara Loves to "Help"

Cara is my little helper. This was her third outfit in one day. I set her up to the bar to eat, and the next thing I knew she was sitting in the sink with the water on. What a girl.

Anniversary Trip

Josh and I had a wonderful fifth anniversary trip this weekend. We had been planning on going to Park City for the weekend, but a couple of weeks ago Josh got lucky at an NAI golf event and won a $500 gift certificate for the Blue Boar Inn in Midway. (It was a random drawing. It was not at all based on his golfing skills.) We were able to blow the entire $500 by staying at this very classy inn, enjoying some incredible fine dining, taking scooter rides around Midway and the nearby mountains, and we topped it off by taking a helicopter tour. We had a wonderful time. We feel so fortunate to be celebrating five wonderful years together! Thanks to our parents for taking the kids!

Update

With all of the pictures on the blog I thought I better also add a family update for those who are interested in knowing more. We are all doing very well. Josh is really getting into his new career doing commercial real estate with NAI. The transition has been a little rocky, but we are defiantly on the upswing. He loves what he is doing, and we feel so good about the change. Luckily we have had Investment Lending, which I very much enjoy, that has held us over while he was making the switch. I have also been working (at least a few hours a week) on my book. I figure it should be done sometime in this decade at the rate I am going. If you didn€™t know, I am working on a book for LDS women that will help to smooth the transition into motherhood. If anyone has suggestions or stories that might be helpful I would love to speak with you about them. Please let me know.

We have some exciting upcoming events. This weekend we will celebrate our fifth anniversary. A couple of weeks ago I was speaking at EFY and part of my bio was that I had been married for five years and I have two kids. I couldn't believe it! It felt like yesterday I was a counselor wondering if I would ever get married. Time sure does fly! We are looking forward to our big trip to France and Italy in September. Josh and I are clueless about what to do or see so if you have any insight we are certainly taking suggestions. All we have planned is that we fly into Paris and twelve days later we fly out of Rome. My mom is taking our kids (bless her heart!!) so it will be a celebration of our anniversary and both of our 30th birthdays this year.

The kids are just growing like crazy. We will be tied down for a while in August as they are both having surgery on the 13th. They are both getting tubes in their ears and their adenoids out, and Caleb is getting his tonsils out too. It should be interesting! But I am looking forward to having kids that don€™t always have ear infections, although they are both such a joy (most of the time) that you would hardly know.

Caleb continues to be obsessed with playing ball, any kind of ball. He was just introduced to golf this last week. Now he wants to go to the €œgolf-ball court€, the €œgolf-ball field€ or the €œgreen park€, of course he means the putting green, every day. He hasn€™t quite got the lingo down, but he is getting the sport. You name a sport that has a ball, and he can play it!

Cara went from crawling to running. She is such a busy girl. I don€™t remember Caleb being into things like she is, and he certainly wasn€™t as brave. We have a rock wall in our back yard that consists of about six big boulders at it highest spot. If I let her into the backyard alone or if I turn my back on her guaranteed she will be scaling the rock wall. For some reason she loves to climb down it. It gives me a heart attack, but she feels like she has got it all under control. She is fearless.

Having Fun!

We are having a great summer.

Our dear friends, the Low's, got a boat. We are really glad! We have tried to take as much advantage of that as possible.


This is our nanny Robyn. She is with the kids 10-15 hours a week so that I can work. They have a blast with her.



This was the first and last time Cara got to take a sink bath with her cousen Ethan. (Josh's sister, April's, boy.) They loved splashing. Needless to say my kitchen got a good wipedown after the bath.


Caleb and his best friend Isaac are just trying to "hang-loose" this summer.

First Hair Cut

I am proud of myself for giving Cara her first hair cut. It turned out so cute. Here she is checking it out.

Cody is Married

Cody got married to Stephanie on May 5th in the Bountiful Temple. This is the whole fam.


Cathie and Keith even made the trip out with their three little ones for the wedding.


Poor Steph now has to deal with the Owen girls!