Jackson's 1st Scout Camp...

Jackson qualified to attend the Deacon's Scout Camp up at Bear Lake because his birthday was shortly after the trip. James is serving as a Deacon's quorum advisor right now, so it was a relief to know that James could keep an extra eye on Jackson this year. They have a great group of boys who all got along really well. Of course, Jackson had the time of his life and had many tales to tell...hopefully recorded in his journal. He got to do kayaking, repelling, make a robot, etc. 

Paul was up with Poppy for a lot of the week, and Alanna was really missing her brothers. She couldn't wait for Jackson to come home, and she gave him quite a warm reception when he got home. It didn't matter that he was covered in camp filth, she jumped up into his arms in her monkey fashion an wouldn't let go! It melted my heart to see this and know that even though they fight a lot, deep down there is a deep bond of sibling love that will glue them together for eternity!

Father's Day 2016...

For Father's Day, we decided to give James and Poppy a cute picture of the kids, resulting in this fun photo shoot we did. None of the pictures is perfect, but we definitely captured some special moments in time that perfectly demonstrate each of their personality's! 

Summer nights...

James and I took dinner to Daybreak one night and walked around the lake for a couple of hours. Not intentionally did we walk around for 2 hours...James took us on an adventure. In other words, he got us so turned around we couldn't find our car. This spot is supposedly the most photographed spot in Utah...on this pier. Unfortunately, our selfies are no beautiful, but they are very James!

After our walk around the lake, James got it in his head that he'd like to have a lake house at Daybreak?! Mr. I hate to be close to my neighbors wants to move to Daybreak?! It's not happening, but the next day he did want to take the kids there to check it out. 

Valerie's Pictures...

Andrew and Alex came to town for a weekend visiting from AZ and escaping the 120 degree heat!

We decorated sugar cookies with my airbrush kit since we had a few artists in the house. Andrew showed us what he'd look like with a mouth full of gold teeth. Yuck!

The boys had fun jamming with Andrew as he showed them a really old fancy guitar that belonged to Papa Perkins

Bob and Valerie Christiansen were also visiting, and Valerie generously offered to take our family photos. It's been a few years and there were some grand kids to document! They turned out beautifully, and it was especially nice to have Great-Gran included also!

L-3 StarWars Party!

James had REALLY talked up his Star Wars themed company party. He even invited all extended family memebers to check it out! We were joined by Luke and Andrea and Co., Chris and Co., and Andrew and Kenna! It was really fun to have the family along because James was pretty disappointed in the event. We would have been bored without the good company. At least we got some really cool shots of the cousins together! At the end of the day when we were leaving, the kids all decided to pile into a golf cart. It''s still unclear what exactly happened, but Alanna pushed the gas pedal and they started taking off in the street! James's career flashed before his eyes and he ran after it before they got too far. Tricky punk kids!

When did this happen???

Michelle and I decided to convince our boys to simulate their first day of Kindergarten pictures as a point of reference to compare to the last day of 6th grade. Bittersweet! At some point Chase became a head taller than Jackson!