Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

This past weekend we went to the Opuirrh Temple open house with my family. The kids were super excited to go inside another temple. We have been so lucky this past year to able to take our kids through 2 temples this year. This temple is really pretty and it feels like a really nice home. It's a smaller temple but, will work great for the growing area in the Salt Lake Valley. I really enjoyed the spirit I felt while walking through. The church always does an A+ job when it comes to these open houses.

Jason and Anne were so excited to go inside the temple. Jason favorite part was the the big staircase right when you walk through the temple doors. He also liked the big chandelier. Anne loved all the sparkling lights ( the chandeliers) and sealing room. They both said they want to go back when they are 12 and do baptisms in the temple.

Eliza walked through and temple and would say "pretty" through the whole temple. She was so cute. Last summer Erin and I found these matching dresses for our girls to wear this summer. They both looked so cute and Eliza loves this dress. She calls the dress her flower dress. When she saw Sydney with the same dress on at the temple Eliza ran up to her and hugged her. The pic above is the best picture I could get of 2 one year old girls. Why is it so hard to get them to look at a camera?! They are the best girls!

24th of July

One of the best parts about living in Utah is you get 2 days off in July and 2 nights to do fireworks! We had a good Pioneer holiday and it was filled with many good memories. I forgot my camera which I am kicking myself because there were so many fun moments.

We started the day off by going to the parade in downtown SLC. This has always been a tradition in my family and the kids have a lot of fun. We went down with the Young's and the kids really liked seeing all the horses. After the Parade we headed over to Grandpa and Grandma Young's for lunch and then a random water fight! I was perfectly dressed and dry when Brad threw a water balloon covered in mud on my all white shirt! Ryan then dumped a huge bucket of water down my back. We had a full on fight and in the end Dad got the worst of it getting targeted while he was getting out of the car from work. Poor Dad handled it well and was laughing the whole time.

In the evening we heading over to Tom and Cathy's for dinner. Cathy has a ton of grasshoppers in her backyard and the boys went crazy catching tons of grasshoppers. Jason had a water bottle full of them and it was disgusting. We roasted marshmallows in the fire pit and made smores with Reeses peanut butter cups which are to die for! We did some fireworks in there circle and called it a good holiday! We are lucky to have family close and it was another classic summer day!

Sewing Lessons

While the kids have been taking swim lessons I have been taking sewing lessons. I am really lucky because my teacher is my Mom. A couple of years ago while living in Indiana my sweet friend Sara introduced me to Sewing and taught me the basics. Since then I have been able to do some simple projects but, I really wanted to get into clothing. My Mom is an amazing seamstress and growing up all my dresses and clothes were made by my Mom. It might be hard to imagine because I do not dress fancy but, during school my elementary teacher told me I was the best dressed! So, now I am the mother of 2 girls and I really want to be able to sew for them. Right now the little girl clothes at department stores are cute but, once they leave the little girl section the older girl clothes are not very flattering. I am hoping to get my skills up to par so I can give my girls some selection and more modest choices as they get older. My sister Jill is taking the classes with me and this was our first dress making experience. She made Eliza's dress and I made Anne's. I think they turned out cute and hopefully, through time we can get better and better. Thanks Mom and Jill for joining this adventure with me!

Swimming Lessons

It hasn't been summer until you have taken a couple of swimming lessons! For the past two weeks we have been going to swim lessons and the kids have really enjoyed them. We are not to Olympic status yet but, at least they are putting their faces in the water. I have never enjoyed swimming and really do not feel comfortable in water. Mike on the other hand is a fish and loves to swim and totally feels comfortable in the water. So far all my kids have my no swim gene and swimming is a struggle. This year the kids have made some progress. Jason will now do the front crawl, float and he is working on the back stroke. Anne will now put her head all the way under the water! So, our money was well worth it and hopefully next summer we will improve even more!

Anne floating with her teacher's help. She loved her swim teachers and always wanted her hair to look pretty for her teachers.

Eliza was a trooper through this all. She never cried or got angry about sitting in 100 degree weather to watch Sister and Brother swim. She loved running around and watching them. In a few years she will be in there with them!

Tea Party

Last weekend all the Schwitzer grand-daughters got together for a Tea Party at Grandma's house. Of course no Tea was served but, they had a punch poured in these beautiful Russian tea cups. Anne was in heaven and loved being with her girl cousins. They had lunch and then got to play and hang out with each other. After,Grandma Schwitzer gave each of the grand-daughters their own Russian tea cup. My girls have them on display up high on a shelf and everytime Eliza see's the tea cup she says "drink". It was a fun afternoon for the girls!

I do not have any pictures but, the Schwitzer boys and some girls went on a camp out to Topaz Mountain. Jason and Mike had a great time looking for Topaz and brought home some cool treasures! Mike told me that while they were around a camp fire Grandpa Schwitzer ask the kids that were there if they planned on serving a mission some day. Jason was sitting in the back and he clicked on his flashlight, raised his hand, and shined the flashlight on his hand so Grandpa could see. He is such a good boy and has made some good memories this year camping with his Dad.

4th of July at Bear Lake

We spent the 4th of July weekend up at Bear Lake. We are so lucky to have a wonderful place to stay thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Schwitzer. We love going up to Bear Lake every year and staying up at their home. This year we had the whole Schwitzer family which is 28 people in one home. We had such a good time and our kids have still not stopped talking about all the fun they had with their cousins. Sarah had the kids make these cute 4th of July shirts and it was fun to have all the grand-kids matching. In the picture above a few of the grand-kids are missing because they had fallen asleep. All the kids were exhausted after each day and there was always one child knocked out on the couch.

Our first day on the beach was a lot of fun. The kids would just play and play in the sand. There was always some sort of sand castle or village being constructed at all times. Anne is lucky to have 2 close cousins Evelyn and Kate and they had a blast playing on the wave runners or on the beach.

Jason hanging with Grace and Alex. They were making some sort of lake for one of their castles.

Anne was our brave child and would go out on the wave runners. Jason is still a little afraid and had no desire to go out. Mike said that one time he took her out and he started to go little faster than usual. He heard her scream and thought she was scared but, she was screaming and laughing because she was having so much fun.

Jason felt a little better staying closer to shore. All that know Jason know that he is Mr. Safety. He is always concerned that one of his sisters will get hurt or himself. So, he preferred rowing this boat along the shore and he had a great time! He did row out with Mike in a bigger boat out to a dock and jump off the dock into the water! He was really proud of himself.

Eliza loved, loved this duck. She always had to have this duck around her waist and she would walk around saying "duck". She enjoyed playing in the sand and throwing it in her hair. I will be trying to get sand out from her hair for weeks but, it was all worth it. She loved just being outside and playing.

This was the best picture I could get of my kids on the 4th of July. On the 4th we hung out at the house in the morning and the kids played basketball and games. In the afternoon we headed back down to the beach for more fun. That night they would not allow fireworks on the beach so we had a good time with sparklers. Other people however did do fireworks and it was really pretty to watch fireworks out by the lake. We had such a great time and look forward to next time we can head up to Bear Lake.

Eliza and her leash

This past week Eliza has been crazy about her little bear leash. We bought it when we went to Disneyland and back in February she wanted nothing to do with it. She loves her leash now and wears it everyday all day. I have to put it on in the morning and then she likes me to hold on to the leash and she follows me around the house. I feel bad but, she loves it and whines it I don't pull her around like a dog. It's really cute and hopefully it doesn't last too long.

The other night my Mom let Eliza take their dog Maggie for a walk. She was in heaven and lets just say that Maggie took Eliza for a walk. She had a very serious face as she walked the dog and when she wanted Maggie to go a different direction she would yell "Maggie" in a loud voice. We just sat and watched her walk the dog around the park. Eliza is just at a really fun age and she is learning so fast and talking so much better.

Grandpa Young's 66th

I have decided that having a summer birthday is the best. My Dad's birthday falls a couple of days before the 4th of July and we always end up doing something fun outside for his birthday. We had dinner and cake and ice cream at Mom and Dad's and then headed over to Anzak park to hang out. The kids had so much fun walking down to the park and then playing. The tire swing was the hit of the night! We love you Grandpa Young and hope this year is a good one.

Auntie Jill and Anne. Anne is loving her Auntie and everything Jill does is the coolest. The other day she ask me ," Mom do you run or walk for exercise? " I said that I walked in the morning with some friends. She then said, " Well, Auntie Jill runs and she runs fast! She doesn't walk like you." She then went on to say that Auntie Jill is also the best cook. I have a lot to live up to!

Eliza and Mike enjoying swinging.

Jason and Allen also loving the tire swing. We could have played on that swing all night!