A as in Alpha.....

B as in Bravo
C as in Charlie
D as in Delta.......

P as in Pneumonia...
Yep, day three in bed and finally can say more than a sentence with out coughing, and day 1.5 on medicine and am so thankful for it.
I didn't go to church on Sunday because Bauer had a fever and was throwing up Saturday night, and by Sunday afternoon I was down and out. Tuesday I went to the doctor, I knew this wasn't just a 'Cold'. I can't remember feeling this way in a long time and can't wait until tomorrow knowing the medication is doing it's job and look forward to doing the things that I don't like doing...it's a good lesson going through the daily grind everyday, cleaning, sweeping, folding...etc and then feeling so horrible you wish it would go away so you could get up, clean, sweep, fold.

I would post a picture but it aint' a pretty sight.....the positive I did take a shower today and brush my teeth:)

SUMMA!

 There is no question it has been a "cool" summer here in Utah. I was watching the news the other day and they said by this time in the summer St. George, UT has had at least 60+ days over 100 degrees and to that day they had only reached 100 16 times. Here is Northern Utah our average temp is usually about 92 degrees and has been in the high 80's. I could get used to this.

It also has been full of thunderstorms and some warm, rainy afternoons.

 Horsing around with the cheese stuff......

 This is our new yard decoration, I can only get away with it for one it was 75% off at Target and that we live in Saratoga Springs.

 We went to the annual Pioneer Commemoration Concert put on by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and guest artists. It was so good and it was fun to take Alivia and her cousin Kyleigh.

Alivia has been very busy lately, she has been still taking guitar this summer and not wanting to practice. She has been staying up late every night, the other night she stayed up until 2:30 and the next day we paid for that dearly. She has a baseball game coming up that her choir gets to sing the national anthem. She is very excited.

She went on a fun activity to Camp Jeremiah Johnson for an activity day afternoon, she was able to shoot with a bow and arrow, make bead necklaces, go to a little store and buy some fun little prizes.

She also has been swimming everyday in the backyard pool, which has been a source of nervousness and  fun for me and the kids. 

Cooper has a serious tan, he has been outside everyday playing and having a great summer, he isn't very excited for school to start and asks me almost everyday when it will be here again...He still asks the craziest questions and still judges a lot of things based on the way they smell....:)

Bauer is still the cautious one, he always wears his swim shirt so he doesn't get sun burned and if he doesn't have one on, he will ask about sunblock and make sure he is careful not to touch it until its dry?

He loves to ride his scooter and we have been trying lately to get him to ride his bike without training wheels but the cautions side of him hasn't helped him much.

Kessler  is still a mamma's boy through and through to the point he won't go to Ben sometimes or will cry and night for me, especially when I am gone. He has liked swimming this year too, but gets cold fast and doesn't last long, he says the funniest things and is such a joy to have around. BTW the mosquito's have been so bad this year, Kessler got a bite on his arm and it swelled up so much and was bright red and hot. He looked like Popeye with a big forearm. 

I have been doing lots of yard work, if there were not so many weeds and morning glory coming out of every nook and cranny in the yard I might have more free time, I also tinted our back windows this year, I should have done that MUCH sooner. We bought some solar/heat blocking tint and put it up, it will do for now. It has made a difference though, so I am glad we did.

I haven't worked that much for the month of July we have had some sickness traveling around these parts, and Bauer, Kessler and myself are the latest victims of this, cough, fever, stomach problems. Bauer threw up at dinner last night and got some on Cooper's arm it was the saddest and funniest thing I had seen in a long time, Cooper our boy that judges everything on the smell about when through the roof last night, when a tiny little drop of it got on him....I WISH I had a video camera, so funny!

I work the next couple nights...boo, I hope the passengers don't mind my hacking cough (I am on antibiotics, and it isn't as bad anymore:) and I also have been packing for our trip up North for the long awaited Family Reunion. This trip will no doubt be the trip I have brought the most stuff ever, even though we will be borrowing blankets, camping chairs and possibly other items for this trip. We even debated driving the whole way......I know .

Ben

Is very busy at work and has been spending lots of time in our garden, we successfully have harvested, peas, onions, potatoes, carrots and made the most delish dinner the other night...a version of tinfoil dinners in the oven with all the fresh ingredients from the garden.

He has gone swimming with the kids a few times and has been busy trying to keep the pool blue and not green.

He has also been spending LOTS of time (more than I prefer) on a game that he is trying to save a world that has been mutated by a radioactive? problem. I do remind him everyday that he is 36, and he just laughs and un-pauses his game:)

July

 Bauer and Cooper have had a summer full of super hero's, they went and saw Green Lantern, Transformers, Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, and are excited for Captain America to come out there latest imagination gig, was they took the black yarn, put it around each other just in case they have to use it like spider man uses his webs? 

Bauer has been into sunglasses lately.

 A mini summer photo shoot, we were out at a park one day and stopped by a familiar place that we had our latest family picture taken at, this time it was a bit warmer and a little too bright.

Hello July

 Our days consist of playing, swimming, playing, swimming...an occasional chore or two.

Dirty faces, Popsicles, ice cream sandwiches, flip flops, friends and family.

 Sparklers are my favorite number. Blurry pictures because of the slow shutter speed (and me holding it and not putting it on a tripod)

25 days until our family reunion, we are so excited:)

June

 We have had a good month of June, we had a great Fathers day, the kids made Ben some cards and we made him a special dinner, and the kids gave him a foot massage:)

He has still been working hard, long days and is getting antsy to go fishing. He set up a pool in the back yard, it is 52 inches deep and 18 feet in diameter. The kids LOVE it, and that is an understatement. We filled it up with the secondary water and it was really cold for a few days, below 70 degrees anyway. We went and bought a solar blanket and that has helped heat it up to 82 degrees and on a 96 degree day, that feels pretty good.

I needed to do something with Alivia's dresser it was in bad way and so with some advice from my sweet neighbor, I painted and glazed it and think it turned out ok for the first one.

I need to do this to our kitchen table and then to our dresser in the family room. Lots of projects out there to keep my summer occupied.

I also have been doing quite of bit of gardening with the flower beds and Ben has spending lots of time out in the garden. We have lots of veggie's growing and doing well.

Kessler is completely potty trained, not more pull ups or anything and will walk in the bathroom and go all by himself. I still think about the diaper days as fast as they came on, it seems they left just as fast. 8 years of diapers is a long time, obviously I didn't think about it much while I was in the midst of it, they grow up so fast....

Above is Kessler's first self portrait and I mean drawing on himself and was very proud of it. 

Vancouver Weekend

 Ben had 3 days off so we packed up the family for a mini vacay. We flew from SLC to Seattle and then drove up to Vancouver. We took the last flight out from Salt Lake to Seattle so we didn't even get to Vancouver until 330am. 

Cooper always has spiderman on the brain even when he is dressed like Peter Parker:)

The next morning we decided to go drive around and see some sights, we stopped by a Zellers...soon to be Target and bought some Canucks hockey gear. 

We then drove down to Rogers Arena, the complex that was hosting the Stanley Cup finals we knew we wanted to get there early because how crazy it was going to get and it was getting crazy.

After our visit to Rogers arena, and talked to some scalpers and ticket prices. (the best we found was row 1 right behind the goalie for 1500.00)  I thought that was a good deal, but yeah 1500.00 is some serious business.

We headed toward the water and had a great time we played in the water looked for starfish, found lots of little crabs under the rocks. It was a really fun afternoon exploring, climbing, running and playing.

Ben couldn't decided if this one was alive or dead?

There were starfish everywhere like this. Most of them were so big you couldn't detach them from the side of the rock.

It is hard to see but there are lots of little crabs running around.

This place was packed.

The one thing that Ben wanted to do besides go to a hockey game was take the ferry across to Victoria. The kids were freaking out with excitement that we were going to drive our car onto a boat. We got there just in time for the 11am departure and enjoyed the sites and all the new things we have never seen on a ferry boat. The kids played at the play area, they looked for whales and only spotted sea otters. 

They went with Ben to the cafeteria and got a snack and a drink.

It was a beautiful day, they weather was nice a little cool. 

This is an other ferry coming from somewhere on Vancouver Island.

I could not get over how still the water was inside this passage.

We went and saw the Capitol of British Columbia.

I loved these trees, they were so amazing.

We walked and walked around, looked at some amazing yachts, ships and walked through the street vendors. Livi got a dream catcher she has wanted one for a really long time and was happy to use her little purse with her Canadian change and buy it. 

Kessler was done. 

Ben also wanted to go find his old house that he lived in when he was in grade 7. (7th grade for the rest of you)

Well this wasn't as easy as it could have been and his memory or lack there of. We originally started looking for a street that started with a W. I kept telling him, call Gina, she will know....so he thought wasatch, wakara, and so on, and finally we got the GPS to work and found the street and found the house.

Ben also saw the park he used to walk to, the bridge he used to fish off of. It was really fun for him.

We also took a drive to a popular park. It was an amazing park, I took take pictures there all day long.

There were peacocks everywhere and most of them were doing there peacock sound, at one point Kessler was plugging his ears, because he was nervous with all the noise.

The peacock below was trying to impress a little lady and was doing this amazing dance and shuffling around and shuffling his feathers. It was AMAZING!!

Just a side not with some of the photos, I only brought one lens with me, that is not very wide, so some of the pics do not do justice to the amazing scenery......for example this tree. (and Ben's old house above)

This was probably one of the oldest tree's I have seen in a long time. It was big, amazing and beautiful.

We were trying to decide what ferry to take back, we decided to take one back at sunset and I am so glad we did, we have some amazing pictures from it......

We had so much fun, can't wait to go back for a family reunion in July!!!