The End of June

1. Jon and I Celebrated our 9th anniversary at some podunk drive through burger joint, which wasn't very good, and then had great laughs about all of our anniversaries. Our life rocks!
2. Father's Day presents..any guess what Jon's favorite thing is?
3. Marcella making us enchiladas for dinner. yum.
4. This is little Claire, after we caught her in the downstairs bathroom, going to town with a blue sharpie. It was everywhere, the floor had about a million circles, her legs and arms were covered. We decided to try this stuff that I had gotten (9 years ago) to help clean my wedding dress. Everything just wiped right up, it was such a relief. I swear I had just put her in her pj's and she was only gone for a minute!
5. This was after we went upstairs to go to bed and say prayers, and Claire decided to show us another surprise. She totally lifted up her shirt and said "uh-oh, no, no Claire."
6. Claire praying for forgiveness. ;)
7. Something went wrong with our computer and someone in our house was a little excited to get this package in the mail.
8. Soaked in another day of fun at the beach.
9. Claire and I sporting our sweet  hats.
10. Reading at the beach, couldn't think of anything better.
11. Happy 4th of July.
12. Not sure if either girl liked the big fireworks. Claire just buried her head into Jon's chest while he covered her ears and Marcella looked like this about the whole time. Still had loads of fun.

Kristin

1. Summer Nights and sidewalk chalk. I wish you could have seen it, the whole driveway was a work of art, an hour later, if that, huge thunder and a down pour. So sad.
2. This is what Jon did most of the summer, cooked fabulous breakfasts, lunches and dinners, oh why did school have to start again?
3. Kristin, need I say more. The girls were so happy to have her come. Claire still when she sees someone with her hair will smile and yell Kristin!
4. Fair Oaks Farm, how high can you jump?
5. Impromptu trip to the beach. Best idea ever. The sand was amazing, and even though we had to go to a few stores for clothes, swimsuits and overnight stuff we had a blast.
6. Being buried in the sand. Claire kept saying, nite nite.
7. ohhh, family picture
8. Did I mention we went to the beach 2 days in a row? yep sure did.
9. I think Marcella had the most fun. She is now old enough to enjoy the water and the beach. Plus having Daddy and Kristin to tag along with makes for a great day.
10. Kristin, please come back. We miss you.
11. Because of Kristin I have photos like this one, that just screams SUMMER! Thank you for taking so many pictures. I love them all.
12. Bonus we got lots of fun candid family pic as well. Kristin, you are the BEST!

Triathlon in June

1. I saw at the YMCA that they were having a triathlon for kids I knew Marcella would love it. We signed her up and when we came home she had to do a trial run around our park. It was pretty cute. This is right before she went down to the pool to do her 50 meter swim.
2.We were surprised to see some friends from the ward competing as well.
3. Marcella's Biggest cheer leader. I will try to upload a video, it was awesome.
4. On your Mark. Get Set.
5. Go.
6. This is what happens when you take a long time getting into the pool.... splashed in the face a ton.
7.Hoping out and getting ready for the 1/2 mile bike race. (I didn't get any pictures as I had to run and get Claire in the car and drive to the place where they were going to end the bike and start the run.
8. Catching air... during her 1/4 mile run.
9. Almost to the finish line and still smiling.
10. Finished.
11. The real reason for wanting to do it. "So I get a medal at the end? Yes I totally want to do it." :)
12. Way to go Marcella. We are so happy you are willing to try things that are hard. You are the best!

12x12 May and 1st part of June

1.Summer has officially begun. Claire decided it would be more fun having your towels in the swimming pool with you, and really who needs a swim suit?
2. I can now say I have ran a half marathon. Go figure it had to be the HOTTEST and Humidiest (is that a word?) day on the planet. Good thing I had Heather (speedy) and Cyndi (amazing mentor) you gals are the best!
3.Our supporters.
4. Grandma Katherine, Grandpa Wallin and uncle Greg came to visit. (they actually came before I ran, but really who is keeping track of the order of events?)
5. We headed down to Kentucky for a couple days. had a great time exploring and just being with the fam. We had a lot of fun walking around and getting lots of exercise.;)
6.They beat Greg through the Cheese maze at Fair Oaks Farm, you think they were a little excited?!
7. Who would have guessed that on that trip the whole family would end up jumping on a giant bubble. Mom and Dad I am impressed!
8. Took a little hike through the Clegg gardens. It is a neat place and I often wonder why I don't go with the girls more often.
9. I don't think my fridge has ever been so full. :)
10.Somewhere in the midst of everything Claire got switched into a bed. As you can tell she still would fall off. I was scared to give up the crib, but she was so good with just staying on it when I put her there. Now... not so much. Now after we tuck her in she takes her pillow and blanket and falls asleep right in front of her door.
11. it was one of those nights where I thought oh ya I need to put Marcella to bed, it is 10! When i went to find her this is what I found. She told me she got us some snacks for when we do our reading. It is a little hard to see, but there is a piece of broccoli, a mushroom, a chocolate turtle, a peeled carrot and 2 pretzels. What a sweetheart.
12.I love walking into rooms and seeing things like this. It helps me wish I could slow down time.

Copy Cat

Yes. I will admit I am copying you, but hey I was thinking about how to document the summer and I thought, man she is a genius (you know who you are) and it will be a perfect way to display our summer without all the boring dialouge. Let's face it you all just want to see the pictures. Am I right? So here goes. 12x12 of our garden this year. (Click on picture to see a bigger view.)

1. Our backyard is massive and bare. So we started to the right of the porch and worked our way around. Killing lots of not so luscious grass until we could do this...
2. Built 2, 12' x 4' boxes and 2, 4'x4' boxes then had fun filling and mixing the dirt
3. Ta da. Doesn't it look lovely?
4. We grew all of the tomatoes and peppers from seed . some Cinderella pumpkins and squash
5. Marcella had a box for all her flowers she started from seed this past winter.
6. the flower garden begins. If I only knew how crowded it would get. I think my petunias grew at least a foot or so and decided to take over the whole flower bed. 
7. Our Cinderella pumpkins, yellow Zucchini and butternut squash.
8. We planted a Japanese long Cucumber (A-Maz-ing! only the yummiest cucumber I have ever eaten.)
9. Then we went to Utah for a month and left our poor garden to fend for itself. When we got back we had a friend... I mean rascal living with our tomatoes. (which by the way they do eat, even though we were told they don't like them.
10. I can't imagine how many tomatoes we would have gotten if we would have stayed home. I was amazed at how much we got and are still getting.
11. Yellow tomato. (Sorry can't remember the name) This are so super yummy, and the best is they escaped the few pickers that came to grab some tomatoes while we were gone, because they thought they weren't ripe yet. Didn't mind a bit, because they are delicious.
12. Costo Luto Genovese. This tomato has amazing flavor, that made our no-cook sauce and pasta un perfecto!
And in a nutshell, there is our garden this year. Ciao!