Cars, bikes and floats!

      Steel Days in American Fork kicked off with the car show and we found a few cars we really liked! This Corvette is only $65,000! I'd buy that in a heartbeat if money was no object.

27 windows in the bus! So cool!

     Another neighbor enjoying Charlie's cool bike.

    This weekend we finally busted out the outdoor movie equipment and watched, "Monster's University" with a few Kmetzsch relatives.

Fun times minus the bugs!

     Charlie found her sleep mask and actually used it.

Silly girl!

    This morning we enjoyed the parade in American Fork and later tonight we hope to enjoy the bouncy houses and fireworks.

All my kids were there minus Mark.

These were Charlie's favorite floats.

      It's been a fun week and a full week with summer weather. I LOVE IT! Now we get to prepare ourselves for our fun in Oregon!

Anniversary and more fun.

    Greg and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary last weekend and decided to splurge on a hotel and dinner up in Salt Lake. The hotel was great and we had a fun view of the valley from our 11th floor room but dinner was a bit 'overpriced' shall we say! Someone gave Greg a gift card to this very nice steakhouse in Salt Lake but it turns out it was really a bill for $176. The food was yummy and the service was exceptional but not worth the prices. Now we know and it was our first real dinner splurge in 24 years so at least we haven't made a habit of over priced meals in the last 24 years.

Yummy dessert, maybe we should have started and stopped with that.

    We did a little site-seeing and shopping.

    I wish you could appreciate how tiny these outfits are, especially the Guns N Roses outfit. It was a no-brainer purchase! I can't wait to see baby Wendel wear these cute clothes!

   On our way home from the hotel we stopped in to visit Mark and Marcus in their cool loft! They have quite the setup.

     We had Charlie take a commemorative photo of our 24 year anniversary.

     We also had fun playing with Belle's puppies this week. They are so adorable!! There's nothing like puppy snuggles!

Lucky kids!

    I've sure been enjoying having my fingernails painted on a regular basis and not worrying about chips or breaks for weeks at a time. This blue color is one of my favorites!

I don't know if this photo was edited but my arms look strange for some reason.

     I also took the four youngest and a couple bonus kids swimming at the Provo Rec. Center this week. It's by far their favorite swimming 'hole'. Everyone was big enough for all the slides, lazy river and general fun.

    And to end the week we get to have Smalls' best friend, Chloe, visit for a few days. She's big and adorable but also terribly naughty, she ate Greg's tinfoil dinner he had prepared for his campout! Obviously it's more Greg's fault for leaving it anywhere she could reach but still upsetting. Thankfully he had enough ingredients to remake his meal so he's not going to starve tonight while he's out camping at Strawberry with the Teachers quorum.

      We're sad to see summer cruising by so quickly but we still have several more activities to enjoy before it's over so here's to the coming week with cousins, car cruise and other fun stuff.

Before, during and after July 4th

     So we've had a fun week! Carter wanted to experience the curler effect, which was hilarious. Unfortunately, we did this Saturday night and he was too embarrassed to wear it curly to church so the curly look was short-lived.

What a goofball.

     I also took the kids swimming this week and we tried the Pleasant Grove pool for the first time and it wasn't as cool as Provo Rec but they can't say I didn't take them swimming, but of course they still want to go to the Provo Rec center soon.

These two were the only ones reluctant to leave.

Charlie's got serious skills plugging her nose at the end of the slide.

     Carter and his buddies had some fun on the diving boards but the lifeguards were pretty whistle-happy and put a bit of a damper on their fun.

     And even the neighbors can't resist trying out Charlie's cool 'ride'.

     Our cute boy McClane got his own set of scriptures and couldn't have been happier. He's been taking them all over the house and yard and showing them to anyone and everyone. I was going to make him wait, (I haven't even bought Brock a set yet) but he kept borrowing scriptures from the library at church so I felt he'd earned a set of his own.

    And our neighbor wanted to add some fun to our Fourth of July morning and hosted a fantastic breakfast in his backyard for several families in the neighborhood. And of course we still had our fun "Sidewalk of Fire" with the neighborhood in the evening but unfortunately the weather put a hiccup in the night and we had to take a serious pause while a major rain/thunderstorm blew through. Thankfully it was only about a 30 minute delay and then the festivities continued and the regular chaos and fun was enjoyed by, almost, everyone.

Charlie loves time with the fun teenagers in the neighborhood.

     The face painting kits I added to the fun this 4th of July were a huge hit and I discovered our neighbor is an amazing artist and was a good sport about taking on the task of painting all the kids faces.

Rain, wind and lightning, oh my!

The candy/toy explosion was a huge hit!

    And Isaac splurged on his own set of PitViper sunglasses, or are they Smalls new sunglasses!?

What a stylin' dog!

      So that's our week and it was fun! Greg and I are looking forward to celebrating 24 years of marriage this weekend. We're headed to Salt Lake for an overnighter and a small break from our reality! Lets hope the kids can survive on their own for 24 hours! (They're not all sad about missing church.)