Family Time in the Mountains

Jason came to Utah and spent a week with us! 

He flew in late on a Wednesday night. Thursday morning we picked Ranell up at the airport and headed up for a retreat in the mountains with the Balls family. 

It was nice to be together in a beautiful place making great memories. 

It is horrible how I only use my phone now for pictures. It was refreshing not to have phone service so we were phone free, which meant not a lot of pictures. 

We had the best time canoeing in the prettiest place. 

We miss the mountains and often remarked how great it was to be surrounded by them. 

It was fun to go out on the water as a little family for a little while. I got to ride with two really cute boys.

 Everett and Papa

Darren, Jason and Jack

This was one of my favorite memories from the trip. 

Jason, Jack and I were out on the water in our canoe. We saw Ranell and Nolan heading toward us in another canoe. I couldn't tell who were all riding in it until it turned. To my surprise there were three cute kids occupying the middle bench and each of them had a paddle!

Ranell, Tyler, Everett, Jonah and Nolan

Nolan, Corie and Everett out on the water

I finally got to meet the two new babies, Abby and Marshall. I

 loved all the time getting to hold, watch and kiss on those two. 

Abby and Ranell

Papa and Grandma made stomp rockets and rockets for the grand kids. 

It was such a good and fun idea.

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I loved being able to be with Jason and was so glad he could come out. 

Baby Ava's Arrival

On Monday June 24th Ava Mary Allen arrived! 

We were so excited as soon as we got the call we packed up the kids and headed to Provo.

Ava was absolutely perfect! A ton of black hair and the sweetest disposition.

Gazing at the little beauty.

The cousins were so excited to meet her!

Jack, Grace and Cooper looked so big! 

Cooper said that Ava was "So bewtiful!"

Proud Daddy!

We were so happy for Kate! What a woman. She has wanted to be a mom for so long. 

It was so fun to see this brand new family all together and so happy.

She definitely was worth the wait!

Waiting for Ava

Poor Kate was overdue with baby Ava. We were all anxiously waiting that baby girl. 

We tried to kill the time by keeping her occupied but that poor thing was miserable.

The Allen's got a new car! It was all ready for Ava. It was cute to see all the kids in the back seat and the awaiting seat. All the kids adore Aunt Kate. They had to be with her in the car and by her side. Cooper has even  named several animals after her as well. 

Cami came in with this and we laughed at how they were the same size, Kate was still a bit bigger!

We had a surprise family shower to present our gifts to Kate and Griffin. 

I had so much fun shopping for a little girl. I was amazed at all the options!

Resting and obviously watching something really intense. Kate had the most perfect round belly!

See!  They were always by her side.

Once Kate's due date had come and gone and there was not end in sight Mom and I headed over to Provo to distract her.  A lot of help came with this trip. Pat and Seth came down and picked up Jack. He got to go spend some time at Grandma and Papa's. Cami let me and Mom borrow her car and TJ got us a hotel room. All of it was so sweet. 

Kate was so big so barely fit into the booth. She was so far away from her food she had to rest it on her belly!

We headed to the mall so Kate could walk around in the cool. Mom also treated the Mom-To-Be with a pedicure. It was offered to me but I did not partcipate. I still have nerve damage in my feet and am so afraid I will kick whoever is trying to paint and massage my feet! 

Major Score! Thanks Kate!

We spent two night in a hotel. Kate was there the first night and I slept with Mama. It felt like old times and Mom kept reminiscing about the good old days when we would all share a room on vacation at Disney. 

The second day Griffin came and picked up Kate and took her home after dinner.  Mom and I met up with Cami at the gateway to watch The Great Gatsby and to take her for a night in the hotel. I was having so much fun I didn't take any physical pictures but there are so many in my head of that day. Then the next day Pepi flew in! We picked up Jack and met up with Kate, Griffin and TJ and the kids. The party just kept growing and growing anticipating one more member of the party to arrive!

Mom and Dad treated all the grand babies to build a bear. Love their cute little faces!

Last time with pregnant Kate. She got induced the very next day. Hooray!

Tourists at Temple Square

Mom and I took a little outing with Jack one Saturday into Salt Lake to show him Temple Square. Jack was just a little baby the last time we were there. It was fun to show him around and explain things to him about the church and church history. This trip really made a huge impact on me. 

It is such a peaceful place. I was such in awe of the information and history that we discovered.                                

 

Jack was entranced by the Christus. He didn't want to leave it. He leaned over while we were sitting there and said that he felt really good inside. It was a touching moment.

Checking out how the pioneers lived. 

Inside the church history museum they had this awesome Book of Mormon area for kids! Jack loved it, I loved it!

I hadn't played tourist like this at temple square before and I really had so much fun. 

Summer in Utah

I realized I better start documenting our Summer as I have already started to forget things that have happened.  We flew out to Utah on the last day of Kindergarten. It is official Jack is now a first grader! 

We got in to Utah late that night and a very pregnant Kate picked us up at the airport. She took us to Cami's house where were all reunited. It was so great to be together with both my sisters!

Mom came in the next morning and then it truly was a party. 

We spent the next couple of days just being together and watching the cute kids play together. 

They came up with some really creative thing to play, which is always fun to see.

We met Grandma and Papa for lunch one day. 

Just look at that little boy's face. He sure is one happy boy.

I got the kids a sip n slide. We don't have the right type of grass at home to do this very well. 

Jack got brave and jumped off the dock at the lake. 

Grace has been such a great example to get Jack more excited about reading.

It's always fun to roast marshmallows and smores at the Archer's fire pit. Such memories!

This is a common sight. The kids playing with all their stuffed animals.

Putting on a puppet show for us.

The kids and Dolly the dolphin. I joked with Jack that we had to come all the way to Utah so he could finally fulfill his dream of riding a dolphin. 

Cooper making it rain!

The kids with the tepee cool Aunt Cami made. Jack was the lone ranger.

At one point he was put in jail.

This is probably one of my favorite picture from the Summer so far. The kids were playing in their get ups when they heard the ice cream truck. They ran out with their money still in character.  

Even better was the fact we had just got done eating and Jack had spaghetti all over his face.