Summer!

Mandy took these super cute photos of the Eliason family:

Trey got his first haircut by Grandma Eliason at 9 months old. Since then Kenny has cut his hair again.

Kim and Austin were in town for a little while and the kids had fun sleeping over at Grandma’s with them and taking them swimming at our community pool. It was Trey’s first time swimming and he loved it!

Josh and Mandy stayed with us for a day in April. It’s always such a blast to hang out with them. The kids have fun playing together too. We took them to FLIPnOUT Extreme, went to our park’s food truck night and we always take them to Cafe Rio.

Somehow Hand Foot Mouth got our boys in April. Beau got it first and he was miserable one night and we had no idea what it was at first. He had it for a week and then Trey caught it and had it for a week. It was rough because we were confined to our house! The boys acted fine other than that first night and Beau was so hyper! I made him wear gloves and socks constantly to try to prevent spreading it and he looked so cute and funny all week.

Jen planned another awesome Amazing Race-this year with even more teams! I helped her plan out a few of things and it was so much fun. She does an incredible job! We were paired up with Eric and Jessica Anderson and we had a blast with them! We should have won! Ha! Really. We were the first team finished before finding the winning trophy and the only team that found the marked car at the mall without any help. Haha, it was a great time and everyone was so much fun to race against.

We went off-roading for Mike’s birthday. The sky was so pretty and it rained us out pretty quick-but we got this pretty picture!

Mother’s Day was great. Saturday night me, Rachel, and Kelli went to dinner with mom. We had such a fun time and stayed at the restaurant for way too long just chit chatting. We missed Kim! Sunday morning the kids brought me flowers, cards, Kayli’s flower present she made me in preschool, and chocolates in bed. Then we went to Kenny’s parents house for breakfast with everyone. One of my favorite parts of Mother’s Day is when the kids sing in Sacrament Meeting and this year Beau got to sing too! We have late church (2:30) so we weren’t able to do Sunday dinner with anyone because that night we went to Zion’s Youth at the Smith Center where Taylor was performing. It was incredible! Kayli got to come this year too. We did Mother’s Day Dinner the next Sunday for my mom and we had everyone over to our house, including Scott and Emily. It was great to have them over!

Kenny and a bunch of guys from the ward ran the Zion Ragnar Trail Race or whatever it is called. They were gone for 3 days. It was a crazy trail, mostly uphill! They had a blast though. They stayed in a cabin and it looked super fun!

While Kenny was gone we went to cousin Olivia’s first birthday party!

Beau had his last soccer game that weekend too. Soccer was interesting. He loved practice and he is really good (he’s so fast!) But he had a hard time playing in the games. He would start and run so fast and play so hard for a few seconds, fall down, cry, and come out of the game and not want to go back in. He played more the last game than he had the whole season but it still wasn’t much. He still says he liked soccer though and he looked so cute in his uniform. I loved watching and being out on the soccer field.

We went to Anderson Dairy with Kayli’s preschool class and it was a lot of fun. The free ice-cream at the end of the tour was their favorite part!

The kids went to work with Kenny on separate days. They loved it! Their favorite part of the day was going to lunch with dad.

Josh and Mandy got to come spend a weekend with is in May too! Mandy came to take our Eliason side family pictures. We had fun partying it up with them (literally, we had a dance party every night while Lexi taught us songs she loves and Kayli showed them new songs we love.) The girls were constantly in princess dresses. We went to Shake Shack, the boys and older kids went off-roading with Chase and Collyns, we went shopping, had a picnic up at Calico Basin to check out the picture location, went swimming and got together with all of Kenny’s family for family pictures. We love having them here and probably won’t see them until August! I’m so glad we’ve kept in such good touch with these friends of ours even though we’ve lived in different cities. We’ve been gone for 5 years already but still see them pretty regularly!

We went to Cowabunga Bay with my family and it was so much fun! I didn’t think Kayli would love it as much as she did but she loved going down the big waterslides with us and every time she came out she’d yell, “that was awesome!” Beau was bummed that he was too short for the water slides but he did like the kiddie area. Trey hated all of it. Haha. It was so enjoyable though and I would love to take Kayli and go again. We only went for a few hours but her and I could have stayed all day!

Kayli graduated from preschool! She had a great year. She has really improved in her writing. She loves to write! She doesn’t love to read as much but I think it’ll come soon. She can sound words out but doesn’t love doing it. She knows all her letters and sounds and numbers and can write them all too. Mrs. Megan was the perfect teacher for Kayli. Kayli started the year out extremely shy and nervous but really came out of her shell by the end of the year. It was fun watching her interact with her classmates at their end-of-the-year party. She loved them all and Mrs. Megan so much! Her graduation was really cute. They performed all of the songs that they had learned throughout the year. They got special books from Mrs. Megan candy leis, and we had a little breakfast too. It’s weird that this phase of her life is over-but she is excited for kindergarten!

We went to the Discovery Museum with Lindsay, Kelsi, and Grandma. We love that place! Beau’s favorite part is the mechanic station and Kayli loves the grocery store.

Kenny has been playing in a softball league with a bunch of guys from the ward. We have been to a few of the games to watch them play and it’s pretty fun. Kenny’s dad even played one game with them. Kenny takes lots of pictures of the team but we don’t have any of him!

The kids and I headed up to Utah last week. Mom was already up there and so Kelli and I drove up to spend the week. My kids had been begging me to go to Utah and see Grandma and Grandpa Varney so I am so glad it worked out. We stayed from Monday to Sunday so we got to do lots of things and Kenny got lots of work done here. I love spending time with my Grandma and Grandpa and listening to their stories from when they were younger. Kayli also loves to see all of my 20 year old cousins. They are so fun and sweet with her and she has a hard time saying good-bye. I’m sure she’d love living by them! She also loved playing with Charlotte and they were cute little cousin friends. Here is what we did day by day:

Day 1: The road trip went pretty well and we made good time. It was fun chatting with Kelli mostly about school and Master’s Degree. She just started hers! She was so helpful and treated the kids to ice-cream.

Day 2: We went up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. Christina and her baby, Grandma and Grandpa, and Kayryn came too. The kids loved seeing a waterfall and playing in the water! It was Lindsey’s birthday so after that we went and met her and Cindy and went to Sweeto Burrito for lunch. That night we took dinner to the park and had cake for her birthday. Mike and Charlotte came and Kayli and her started playing right away and even planned swimming at the Scera Pool the next day so they could hang out together! Kyle and Kristee came and Scott too. Beau loved racing Scott and Kyle and playing frisbee with them too.

Day 3: We went swimming at the Scera Pool for 4 hours! They had yummy root beer floats. The kids showed Grandma and Grandpa Zootopia and told them about other good movies to watch. That night we went to the River Woods with McKenna so she could show us all the good shops. Beau slept in the stroller thru the entire thing! We got ice-cream cones at the diner and Trey and Kayli rode on the merry-go-round. We didn’t have enough time to shop before everything closed so we went back the next day.

Day 4: We went to River Woods again and played at the toy store and Provo Beach Resort. Then we went to Kneaders for lunch. That night we went to the Orem Summerfest Carnival. The kids loved the rides, especially the Ferris Wheel and we got Waffle Love for dessert.

Day 5: We went up to Heber City. We got fresh shakes and played at the park. Grandpa had heard that the best hamburger is at the Bowling Alley there. He has been searching for a great burger ever since his favorite place closed in Wallsburg so we decided we’d go check it out with him for lunch. The Bowling Alley was really cool because it was built in 1962 and pretty much hasn’t changed at all! The hamburger was delicious too although Grandpa said it wasn’t quite as good as Jose’s that he loved. Haha. That night we went to the Jimmer Fredette fundraiser for the All Together Playground in Orem. It was the most amazing thing! Presley and Mindy spoke at it and Jimmer made 84 out of 100 three pointers. There were so many other inspiring people there and Mindy was even on the news that night. Beau loved racing Presley and her friend (who turns out is Haley’s cousin) in their wheelchairs and they even got to meet Cosmo and Jimmer.

Day 6: We drove out to Springville to shop downtown and then to the Provo City Temple with Kelli and Alex. We walked along downtown Provo and had to stop at the cupcake shop. We at at Chick-Fil-A and then headed home for naps since we’d be up late that night. We went and did the Fun Run before the parade. The kids rode their bikes along the parade route and the proceeds went to the playground for Presley. It rained on us and got cold. We watched the parade and Beau cracked me up the entire time. He was so excited about every float and kept asking Alex about every truck. After that we watched the fireworks show! We had a great vacation but it was fun to get home and see Kenny!

The kids have learned that they like camping out in the living room.

Our yard is pretty much finished! Kenny just has to put in a few more bushes. His dad helped him do a lot of the work with the sprinkler system. We had lots of family and missionaries end even neighbors help with dirt, rocks, and grass. We had some guys lay the pavers and build the fire pit and Kenny finished the fire pit. We’re finally ready to grill and have s’mores out there! I want to hang fun lights and we still need patio furniture but then we are ready to enjoy our (tiny) backyard. I just hope it cools off enough at night so we can actually be out there for a bit. We also got out turtles back from Melissa, who was watching them. She warned us that Mimi might be pregnant. Sure enough, Mimi started digging up our yard and with a little research Kenny learned she really was pregnant. We happened to be out back when she started laying eggs! It was so neat because we wouldn’t have known she had laid them and now we even know where she laid them. She was seriously in tears working so hard. She laid 3 eggs and then stepped on one of them so we could possibly have two baby turtles in September or October (it’s possible neither will hatch though too). It was quite the experience watching her! Kenny built a little turtle home for the turtles. It’s fun to have them back! I don’t have a good picture of the completed fire pit or of the whole backyard.

We saw Beauty and the Beast with Kenny’s family up at Spring Mountain Ranch. It is such a good time up there. We ate dinner there and the weather was so perfect. We had really good seats and cuddled up under blankets. Beau sat on my lap for most of the show and then Kayli sat with me for the end of the show. That was my favorite part of the whole show-snuggling with my kids! The show was awesome and the kids were in awe the entire time!

We just got together with Heather, Alise, and Jill and their kids since Jill is in town. It was great to catch up. Jill and Heather had babies last month and we all had babies within 10 months of each other. It’s crazy to think that between us there are 14 kids! We loved reminiscing about all the fun things we’ve done and how it’s already been 10 years since the first got married. We missed Casey! She also just had her third baby so that’d be 17 kids between the 5 of us good high school friends. Beau loved playing with the big boys and doing the slip ‘n slide.

Trey is 11 months! He isn’t walking yet but walks along the couch and things. He is super fast at crawling and getting up the stairs. He loves mommy and if I am holding Beau or Kayli he has started coming over and getting so mad at them and pushing them away. He has never taken a bottle so we are trying to get him used to a sippy cup and milk so that I can be done feeding him soon! He eats solid foods like a champ though! He is 20 pounds. He takes good naps and sleeps great at night too. He is super busy and hates to just sit in your lap. He is starting to understand us, especially when we say, “no”. He is starting to be a little more playful and says “oh”, “mama”, and “dada” but doesn’t use mama or dad to mean us-he just can say the words. He has lots of baby friends and cousins his age so anywhere we go he pretty much has a buddy to crawl around with. Soon they’ll all be walking around together!

We’re pretty obsessed with Beau. 3 has been such a fun age and he is a pretty good, funny boy! He is well-liked and is daring, smart, and loving. He loves his Sunbeam teachers, our friends, Ed and Ashley and he always comes home with the cutest things he makes in class. He is also reverent in Primary and likes to participate. He has given the scripture in primary and was fearless up there. He is very into math and numbers. He loves to count to 100 and on and likes to add simple numbers. He’s always counting in his head and reading the numbers he sees on street signs. He loves it all! He has also recently been into letters and learning how to write them. I think he’s ready and excited to start preschool in August! He has lots of friends and is wild and funny with them. He loves the boys his age like Carter, Benny and cousin Owen but he also loves the boys a few years older than him and keeps right up with them like Parker, Quinn, Kyan, Ryan, Cole, and cousin Adam and he always asks about his friends and when we will see them. He loves to run and have races and loves learning new tricks on his bike that daddy teaches him. He can go off of jumps and do other crazy things. He likes to play Home Depot with Kayli and recently they spend all day acting out Beauty and the Beast and he is usually Felipe. Ha. He is very curios and loves to learn.

We’ve recently felt like Kayli just isn’t a little girl anymore. She just seems so old and she shops in the girls section now and not the toddler section so that’s sad! She loves to shop and buy clothes but then usually hates them within the week and says she has no clothes so it’s usually pretty dramatic over here when it’s time to get dressed. She loves playing with her girlfriends and going to volleyball. She is learning to play the piano and has picked it up so quickly so she’s trying to teach Beau. Ha. She’s excited to go to Bozarth for kindergarten but she’s glad it’s still 2 months away too. She is praying she’s in Madi’s class (me too). She is thinking she might want to take an acting class. She likes to write and is always coming up with creative things to play. She loves having babysitters. She has gone to the gym with me once and loved it! Once I get back to it I’m sure she’ll come more! One day she wanted to change the batteries for Trey’s toy to work. I probably told her to wait for dad to get home but all of a sudden she had gotten the right screwdriver, opened it up and changed the batteries correctly and got it to work! We were pretty impressed.

We love these kiddos!

We have played a lot of soccer lately. We’ve played at an elementary school where we are able to lock the kids in and they ride bikes on the black top and play on the playground while the adults play. We’ve had so much fun! Especially when the girls almost beat the guys. We’ve also been swimming lots and love having a neighborhood pool this year! Kenny does lots of off-roading and movies and I play lots of volleyball and go out for girls nights. We have the best ward and friends. We are excited for some more summer vacations this year!