Fun at the Lake!

Every winter Ben and I seriously wonder why we live in Spokane. The winters are loooooong and ugly! But then the summers arrive, and they may only last a mere two months (at best!) but those two months are glorious!!!  Our good friends, the Schlerfs, like my second family growing up, just built a house on lake C'da. We FINALLY got out there to have a fun lake day with our friends!

I was stuck on the dock (of course) with the babe and a healing surgery wound so I wasn't able to help in the water, but I was able to snap some beautiful pictures!

I love that Meg lives in Spokane still, and I love that we have been good friends since we were 12 years old and that we are still good friends! She is beautiful on the inside and out and I'm lucky to call her my friend!

The neighbors have this awesome water trampoline. You can bet my kids were all over that! :)

Tucker and Owen being silly! These two are like two peas in a pod, and I love it! BFF's!

After getting a little too hot down on the dock, Jackson and I headed up to the shade to relax. It's a pretty rough life! :)

Now to convince my dad that he needs a house on the lake! :)

Post-Surgery...

Well, I was getting pretty sick of wearing this accessory by the end of the summer:

Between having Jackson, going to the ER and then going back in for my surgery, I had a lot of hospital bands to cut off this summer! Before this summer, I had only ever been to the hospital to deliver babies! 

But my surgery went well, and any excuse to have grandma come up to visit is totally worth it! :) Maybe I'll do it again to get her to come up! :)

Your mother will be the only person who loves your kids as much as you do, and I'm lucky mine loves on my kids so much! She takes such good care of my kids!

The surgery went so well, that just a few days after I was up and about back to the normal routine. I went in Friday morning really early, was home Friday afternoon and stayed in bed all weekend, but by Monday was feeling up to at least getting out of the house. Nothing major, and of course, my mom had to help me a lot. I couldn't hold Jackson very well or for very long because the incisions were in my belly and that is where you hold a baby and so I couldn't do that. But everything now is totally back to normal!

We took the kids to Jump & bounce:

Kelli & her kids came up to visit and help with post-surgery. We went out on a walk around the neighborhood. Evening walks are the best!

Papa & I took the older kids to a movie while my mom and Kelli shopped around with the babies:

Then we met up with them at Red Robin after:

Then on to the new kids science center, Mobius:

These kids are so lucky! They don't know how good they have it! :)

I'm so lucky, too! I feel great! My mom comes in town to help and she is like the kind of helper that will wake up with my kids at night helper! It is amazing, and I know that not every new mom is so lucky! Thanks for being so good to us!

Branch fun!!

We also had lots of fun with our branch this summer. Those hispanics really know how to party! :) We have loved being in the Spanish Branch for the past year and a half! We have made some great friends, and have had some great experiences. Just recently they announced that the branch will be splitting, and they will be forming a Valley Spanish Branch! It is perfect for us, because we always said that the only thing that we really don't like about being in the Spanish Branch is that the church is so far away, and along with that, all of our meetings, activities and all things like that are 30-40 minutes away after you factor in picking up people who don't have cars, etc... Anyway, the Valley branch will be formed sometime at the end of this year. They initially told us November, but it looks like that might be pushed back a bit. We haven't been told yet. So, the 5 families of us in the Valley and the 3 single men will be part of a dependent branch in the Spokane East Stake (YAY!) meaning, that we will have separate Sacrament Meeting, and adult classes, but combined YM/YW and Primary. We are so excited to be a part of this and help expand the Hispanic Church growth here in Spokane.  Our branch just went up from 4 missionaries to 8 missionaries in the past  few weeks. And I think that they are really trying to push the growth in the Spanish branches. I am really going to miss all of our friends that will be staying in the Indiana Branch, I try not to think about that, because we have met some wonderful people whom we LOVE!

Anyway, me and the three other women I work with in Primary were all talking one day, and my friend Lacey invited us over to their house to go swimming. After figuring out the details, (because all of us literally live on opposite sides of the city. Me in the Valley, Lacey up north, Cheryl on the South hill and Angela on the Air Force Base) we realized that a swim date with all of our kids meant that ALMOST the whole primary would be there. There would only be 3 kids missing. So, we decided to call them primary activities and invited the other kids and had a blast! :)

Here is Taylor and her friend Karina, she is so awesome!

The Lopez's also have this awesome slip and slide that they built on the side of their property. They got a huge remnant piece of carpet, and an industrial sized tarp and put the hose at the top, and the kids had a blast. She says they have to replace the tarp every summer, but it's not that bad! :) So fun! I was so jealous! This summer was a sucky swim summer for me. I was only able to get in the pool for like a week. Between having Jackson and having to wait the 6 weeks then a week later having my gallbladder removed, and having to stay out of the water for another 2 -3 weeks, I got in the pool maybe 2 times this summer!

Tucker & Ammon:

Tucker & Josephine:

This little guy got to lounge on a love sac all afternoon in the shade!

Grandma got to come with us one of the days we went up there, and of course, hogged all the time with Jackson! :)

After swimming, they even got to go on a 4 wheel ride. Keyton got to come with us one time too, when he was here visiting! The Lopez's have like a party property, so many fun things to do!

One time we did a water balloon toss off of their balcony...

Karina turned 12 this summer, so we had a party at splash down. Splash down is the perfect size for my kids right now.  Tucker loved going on all of the big slides and Taylor enjoyed the smaller slides. I kept on meaning to take them again this summer, but we never made it back.

Karina & Josephine: They were mine and Tucker's slide partners:

Also, while we were at Splash down, this little man decided to smile, really for the first time really good! It was too cute! :) He got to hang out in the shade all day with which ever adult would hold him!

By far the best branch activities of the summer were the branch BBQ's. Some delicious Carne Asada, yes please!

We planned some fun activities for the kids, a gunny sack race:

Taylor and her boyfriend, Ammon:

Some good ol' fashioned foot races:

Tug-o-War:

And we made homemade butter! It was so fun and easy. Basically just shake up baby food jars filled with cream and salt (I think) :) But I was shocked that it really worked! We really made butter! It was amazing!

Ben and his girlfriend, Hermana Graciella:

Oh yes, she did! And she was proud of it!

Some fun FHE's with the Reyes family and the missionaries! Sonia taught us how to make homemade tortillas and they were delicious!

Sonia's oldest son, Johnny got baptized. He asked Ben to baptize him and it was a really neat experience! I have grown to love this family so much! Now to just get Alejandro (Sonia's husband) to take the discussions, and the whole family would be able to be sealed. Sonia just also went through the temple for the first time this summer! It's awesome seeing the growth and change that this family has gone through!

Another birthday party was had. This time it was my friend, Veronica's, little boy Lucca. He turned one. And you know when it's your first, you actually go through the trouble to make a first birthday party something special! :) I visit teach Veronica and am so lucky to have gotten to know her better! I'm glad that at least most of these great friends of mine will be coming to the Valley Branch with us!

Complete with a bounce house and all! Here is Jazmin:

Taylor & Luna:

Tucker mid-flip:

We love being a part of this branch!