Summer Part 2

Summer, we love you! It has been a blast. (Ricardo is always worried the kids play too much and don't work enough, but don't be fooled by all the fun photos, there were plenty of chores mixed in on most days this summer! Work hard, play hard-that's our motto!)

We had Aquatica tickets from preschool so we drove over to Orlando one night, spent time with my parents, and spent the next day at the water park. Only snapped a photo on the way out because our phones were put away all day, but we had so much fun as a family! Highlight was definitely the rapid lazy river.

Plenty of pool dates with friends!

The World Cup was so fun to watch this summer. The kids all got super into it, and they are pumped for their own soccer seasons this fall. We had a Brazilian food night during one of their first games!

Father's Day! Ricardo and the boys set the bar pretty high this year with Mother's Day, but I think our spa day was a close second place to their at home Italian restaurant. My boys think they are future fathers and felt they earned the chance to relax too.

Unfortunately, my two assistants also deserted me!

Movie night with friends! Toy Story 5.

Some friends did an all sports camp at their house, Thomas had a blast!

More friend hangouts for Tommy.

Backstage at Swig

My older 3 took lots of turns cooking this summer, it was fun to see what they chose to make for various meals that I assigned them to do. Thomas definitely cooks the most. If he's hungry and nothing looks good in the fridge, he will find a cookbook and make something, and it's often something pretty complicated! They've also perfected the mug chocolate cake in the microwave and all three make that regularly when they want something sweet.

Fun local water park with friends one day when Russell and Ricardo were at young men's camp!

Our Jacksonville friends came to see us this year and we had fun exploring Fort DeSoto!

Fun times at home with them too!

Ana's sand dollars:

Game night:

Saying our goodbyes for this summer. Always fun to see these guys.

Friends for 10 years!

More pool fun!

We embarked on a lot of house projects this summer, all stemming from trying to get rid of the carpet upstairs that we thought was leading to Caroline's allergies. However, of course that led to painting, and expanding closets, and a few other things. If you give a mouse a cookie...The kids had fun helping where they could.

Ricardo built this beautiful study area for the kids, he did such a great job!

We had a great 4th of July, busy busy day. We started with our annual church breakfast and bike parade.

Ana said it was the best part of the day!

Cute wiffle ball game.

Russell is Mr. Festive, he enjoys taking holidays to the extreme.

Working on his cake. And you can see the beautiful chair molding Ricardo put in this summer too!

Cheering for Canada on the 4th of July, to no avail.

We had these good childhood friends over for lunch and swimming and World Cup watching after the parade. And my parents came too! Then we headed to the movies to see the George Washington movie that came out this summer. It was good and we learned a lot about pre-revolution history!

Came back from the movies and did dessert and swimming and fireworks with more friends. We have an insane amount of fireworks visible from our house, we watched for a LONG time and they kept coming!

Cheering Brazil in their final World Cup game. Cousins came over for a yummy Brazilian meal.

Some people pivoted to makeup when the game started going downhill.

And some people were pretty devastated after.

We met cousins at the Tampa Temple construction visitors center. It was such a cool experience. We heard a lot of amazing stories about miracles that have already happened during the construction process. We can't wait for it to be done!

My BFF Lindsey came with her kids this summer to come stay with us for a week. It was so fun! They came to see us in February too so our kids knew each other and were excited to play again.

Beautiful beach day!

Thomas found all kinds of baby creatures in tide pools that day.

Linds and I go way back with Rita's. The best post-beach stop.

We spent a day at Blizzard Beach. It was so fun.

Ana could go on almost all the rides there and was thrilled.

We stayed at a Disney hotel that night, which was a new experience for my kids since we usually stay with my parents in Orlando. Disney is the best host.

Outdoor movie night.

Breakfast in the morning.

We spent the morning playing at the hotel pool before heading home. Due to all the construction at our house during that time, the girls room was inaccessible so all 6 kids slept in the boys room for that week. Luckily they all fit!

Collecting chicken eggs, always a hit

Caroline was so good with the little girls.

Ready for church!

They got ahold of a phone...

Everyone got hair tinsel, so fun.

We spent a day at the lagoon!

Tailgating for lunch.

We got new chicks before they left so the kids all had fun playing with them!

Harvested some pineapples this summer, we ate this beauty while they were here.

Their flight actually got rescheduled due to bad weather in TX so they got to stay an extra night and we enjoyed these delicious scallops that our friends caught for us!

Making their fancy ramen with Thomas' friend this summer. They've made ramen countless times. They have their recipe down to a science.

Pool party at our friend's house-legos first due to lightning. We're always working around lightning this time of year.

Ricardo and I went to this really cool Yemen-ese restaurant for a date night! We got to sit on the floor in this really cool room and the food was delicious.

We took the kids down to Venice Beach one weekend for shark tooth hunting! Ricardo's first time at the beach this summer too.

Found this amazing hermit crab which we enjoyed watching for awhile.

Piano Recital-they all did great!

She's into sunglasses and hats this summer.

Also everything is her baby.

Russell wanted this photo of his mechanical arm.

Buying chicken feed at Tractor Supply and they really wanted a photo with the tractors to show Ricardo's dad (he owns a tractor 😀)

She had gymnastics camp this summer and has been cartwheeling everywhere ever since.

More pool shenanigans.

We had a fun Pioneer Day activity with friends. We made lots of pioneer crafts and made our own butter to eat with bread and soup for dinner. It was so fun.

Our tried and true candy covered wagons.

These dolls they made were so cute.

The boys made a boy version with legs.

Ended the night with delicious pie that our amazing friend drove an hour to buy from a specialty pie shop. We are spoiled.

Russell is 3D printing all summer, some very important things too!

Ana post makeover from Caroline.

Our first homegrown avocado!

At the end of July we flew to southern Colorado for my family's summer trip. It was so fun to spend time with my parents and sisters and their families. Missed my brother who lives far away in the Netherlands.

We flew into the cute town of Durango and then drove 2 hours to our cabin. Stopped along the way for a pretty hike.

Still trying to collect sticks wherever we go.

How many cousins can you fit in a hot tub?

This river was right behind our cabin and the kids had so much fun playing in there ever day, building dams, making a swimming hole, etc.

We went to the Great Sand Dunes national park, it was so cool! Ricardo sent these photos to his dad and halfway convinced him we were in Egypt.

You can rent sand boards and sand sleds and it was so fun.

My dad got in on the action.

Stopping for sunflowers on the drive.

Fun cousin times. They were spoiled to see each other twice this summer!

Rafting trip day!

Lots of water gun battles between boats-the water was freezing!

A pretty hike that was interrupted by lightning.

Ice cream with cousins

More river adventures

We did a really cool outing where you ride a bike on an old railway. It was awesome! We saw some prairie dogs along the way.

Fun mealtimes at the cabin.

We had a fun cousins talent show one night and all the grandkids sang to my parents.

Russell and his cousin did a skit where they were shoulder angel and devil to Ricardo, trying to convince him to rob or to not rob a bank. The angel wore a BYU hat and the devil U of U. Haha.

Thomas and his cousin did a magic show!

some dancing later in the evening

Board games with Grandma

We parted ways after that and spent 2 more days with Shannon's family before flying home.

We drove to the cute town of Pagosa Springs and enjoyed some natural hot springs there!

Hiking to Chimney Rock!

Absolutely gorgeous up here!

We had dinner in cute Durango Saturday night, while watching the cornhole national championship-highly entertaining! Then Sunday morning went to church and then ventured to Mesa Verde National Park! Ana in her souvenir dress rocking the shades.

Mesa Verde was so cool.

Fun hikes to the ancient cliff dwellings.

Ana even got to join in some of the hiking and climbing.

We stayed at a hotel that was inside the park which was so cool for sunset/stargazing later. Dinner outside was also so beautiful.

Russell hijacking the cute sibling photo.

We drove up to the highest peak in the park for sunset. It was so beautiful.

We flew home early the next morning and then had a little more time before heading back to school. We squeezed in a few more hangouts with friends, birthday parties, and lots of 3D printing for my boys. The girls did a little princess camp put on by their friend's sister. Ana looked forward to it all summer and it did not disappoint!

Ricardo's group opened up a new office last week so we went to go see it, it looks so beautiful!

Caroline and Ana love playing doctor. I got them some kids sized scrubs for a promo video for the dental office so now they can really dress the part.