2 Birthdays

Bonnie and Gwen both had Birthdays this month. Bonnie turned 8 and Gwen turned 4. We got to have two parties with friends, because we have parties on even years and we got to have parties with families also.

Bonnie with her friends at her swim party. Henry and Michelle let us use their house and pool for the party. Thank you!!

Bonnie with her best friend Tori. Tori's birthday is 2 weeks after Bonnie's so Michelle got them matching outfits for their birthdays.

Bonnie was trying to go through the spanking machine as quickly as she could and Gwen wasn't quite tall enough to enable easy access through the machine.

Gwen going through the spanking machine.

Gwen's friends at her party. They got to run through the sprinkler and play in the kiddie pool.

Gwen's cake, she wanted cupcakes, but the wanted a cool design like a real cake. I'm not a super crafty mom, but I didn't think I did too bad.

Boys Being Boys

So when my sister came to visit she drove down and her husband flew down a couple of days later. He flew from Seattle, where he had been doing a qualifying run for the World Firefighter Challenge. (If you don't know what this is look it up it is pretty cool) Because he had just come from this he had all of his fire gear with him and Ben had to see how hard it really is to where 40 pounds worth of fire gear and run with it on. He lasted on the treadmill at a 5% incline going 7 mph for two minutes. I was pretty impressed.

I don't know if any of you have ever done diet coke and mentos volcanoes, but if you haven't you should try them. Anyhow, Dan and Ben decided to see how well these would work if you put them together in your mouth. It was pretty funny, thankfully they tried this by the kitchen sink.




Our dog thought that Uncle Dan was pretty much the coolest person ever. He especially liked Dan's bald head, any time Dan sat on the floor Chancho would lick his head all over, I think he liked the salty taste. It was really funny, unfortunately I didn't get a picture of this, I'll have to get one from Anne.

A Visit From My Sister

My sister Anne and her family came to visit us for a week and a half. We had so much fun and the time went way to fast. I was not ready for the week to be over. While they were here we enjoyed several fun activities. Besides the joy of just hanging around at home and visiting, which I think is one of the best parts about having visitors, we went to the space center, we went to the splash park, we went swimming a few times at Henry and Michelle's and we went to Tonto Natural Bridge. Overall we had a wonderful time having them here.

This is all of our little aliens at the space center.

Playing at the splash park. We discovered evening is the best time to go because it is still insanely hot, but there are not a lot of people there.

Uncle Dan launching Bonnie into the pool. This was a favorite game.

The start of the hike down to the bottom of Tonto Natural Bridge.

In front of the opening of the bridge. Really pictures cannot do justice to how awesome this really is to see in person.

Hiking through the middle of the bridge to the other side.

Remember When

I've been tagged!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Fourth of July

For the fourth of July we spent the day at home. The kids ran through the sprinklers, we had a BBQ with our friends, Rob and Sharon, and we watched the fireworks at Peoria Sports Complex from the roof of our Patio.

The kids posing in the sprinkler.

I had mowed the lawn earlier in the day. Unfortunately this is not the best condition for sprinkler running. The kids were covered in grass clippings and we had to hose them all off on the patio before they could come inside.

Ben sat on the patio with a cup of ice water and a squirt bottle. The kids would try to sneak up on him, they weren't very successful.

Our dog, Chancho, has a personal feud with the sprinklers. It doesn't matter when they turn on or how many of them are going, he seems to feel it is his personal calling in life to try and rid the world of all sprinklers. He usually ends up shivering on the patio, but this doesn't stop him from going after them the next time they come on.

Summer Fun!!

We have been having a fun and busy summer. My kids have been doing a lot of swimming lessons and they have loved almost every minute of it. There have been a few rough days but for the most part it has been fantastic. Also in June three of our friends, as well as myself, had birthdays; so we had a combined birthday party at our house.

Gwen swimming to her teacher, Obo. Gwen has no fear and quite often in each lesson I can hear her yelling to her teacher, "Let me try first."

Jared going off the diving board. His first session of lessons this summer he refused to go in the deep end, even though he swims just fine. I threatened to throw him off the board to his teacher if he didn't go in the deep end. Now he loves the diving board and does canon balls off it every chance he gets.

Bonnie has become quite a fish and has discovered the talent of being able to go all the way to the bottom of the 13 ft. deep section.

Nathan has been working on his swim strokes this year, and he even took a beginning diving class.

This is Sharon, Rob, Becky and I celebrating our June Birthdays.

Highlights from my trip to Utah

Okay, so I am finally taking a minute to post some more pictures from my trip to Utah. I really had a lot of fun hanging out with my family and visiting with a few friends. I got to meet my sister's fiance, Vivek, who was in town from D.C.

Vivek and Becca at their engagement party

My nephew Michael giving me moose antlers

My friend Katie and I

Also we went hiking, played tennis and spent one really late night letting my sisters and Michelle highlight my hair. I think we got done at about 2:30 in the morning. Probably not the best idea to let them do my hair that late at night. For anyone who knows how Lamoreaux's are after 10:00 at night, it could have been a disaster, but we had a lot of fun and my hair turned out really cute, but I don't know if you can really tell from the pictures.

Michelle and I at a waterfall up Battle Creek Canyon

Sara, Joe, Michelle, Me and Rachel on our way to play tennis


This is a cool video of my brother Joe, we were taking a break from Tennis.

Rachel and Michelle working on my hair, I know I look really confident in my hair stylists