Summer Fun

Amanda's friend Jennifer is here visiting for a couple of weeks

The Smedley's are here in Arizona for a few weeks and we went to go see them at her brother's house!

Grandma and Grandpa are here visiting... Grandpa took us bowling, please notice who won this game and who got 2 strikes in a row. (J stands for Jessica)
The team

Unfortunately my camera battery died and so I didn't get pictures of the little kids, they all did well though.

I forgot to mention that I also got a new camera for my birthday and that is why I suddenly have lots of pictures to post :)

Girls Camp

My cabin at girls camp, I was one of the LITS, leaders in training

Amanda and I after our hike
Amanda's first snipe hunt, note the toothpaste on her face :)
My friend Lizzy and me
This is what happens when you tease Amanda

Jessica's 17th Birthday

We all went to Claim Jumpers for dinner....yummy!

I got to go shopping with mom for my birthday, here are some of my new clothes. My mom made me do different poses :)


This is my yummy...ice cream cake pie thing. It was reeses peanut butter, my favorite!

I had a great birthday! Thanks to everyone that called or sent me an email, I really appreciate it!

Chicago

A few weeks ago I went to Chicago with the lady I babysit for(Lauren) to help her out while she visited her family. Jackson is 2 and Grace and Lucas are 9 months old. I am absolutely in love with this family!!

The plane ride there wasn't bad at all...they slept most ofthe time!

Grace and I
Lauren and her sister took me to a place like Benihanas where they cook in front of you...this was my first bite of the famous shrimp...they grill it and cover it in egg yolk...I know that sounds nasty but it was seriously the best shrimp I have ever had!
Jackson and I at the pizza place we went to
Lucas loves baby food!
Isn't that a cute picture!! I took it :)

Lauren, her sister Lindsey, Jack and I went to Six Flags! I went on the best ride EVER! Actually we ended up only going on a couple of rides cause we were all tired and it was soooo humid!
At the airport with ALL our stuff...we had 2 carts of luggage and 2 strollers. It was a fun trip! The plane ride home ended up being a disaster because we got on the plane and had to sit there for 2 and a half hours before we took off because of weather problems.

More birthday fun

Having a friend in town meant my birthday extended into the next day.

We made a stop by a local spa and had pedicures before a little shopping.
' What a tourist!' We just had to have a picture by a cactus.
...or two or three.
That's OK, since it was followed by sushi!
Lots of fun. Thanks Ruth for making the trip and to Mark for making room in the schedule!

Surprise!

Ruth & Jared flew to see Angie for her 3_th birthday. What a fun surprise. I couldn't believe it.
I thought I was coming home to take a nap!

Of course, the night wasn't complete without the traditional BJ's Pizzookie.

Jeffrey and Jared

What a surprise!

You can see the joy in his face as Jeffrey welcomes his best buddy from California.

Bookworm-itis: May it last forever!

Brandon has only been out of school for a week, but already he's read the first 5 books in the Pendragon series by JD MacHale-1800+ pages. Today, he said he even liked reading more than TV and that reading made TV seem boring. Hurray! He's finally turned the corner!!!

Amanda's 6th grade graduation

A last goodbye to her teacher, Mrs. Engle.
Posing with Mom & Dad

Can you believe how fast she is growing up?

Middle school, here we come!

Milestones

A Family First

...poor Jessica