Knott's Berry Farm again

We took the kids to Knotts Berry Farm again.  This time we felt like old pros.  We knew where everything was.

 Taylor loves to take pictures with the characters and Hayden likes to tell them that she loves them.  It is adorable!  Hayden also shouts, "Tinker Bell I love you!" every time she watches a Disney movie.  Love this girl :)

 The boys ran over to the Ghost town roller coater and we went to Camp Snoopy.

 We went exploring in the Old Ghost town and found this crazy cemetery.

 This was my favorite headstone.  There was also a grave that you stand on and you can feel a beating heart with your feet. Super fun freaking the kids out!

 We also went up and spent a lot of time in the new section called the Boardwalk.

 They have 3 new rides which are family oriented.  Lucky me I got to go on this spinning thing :)

 Then we caught the Snoopy unleashed ice show.  I highly recommend it.  Having been to several Disney on Ice shows I was very impressed with Knotts's ice show.

 They started off with a marching band, then went on to painting performers.

 This was the only moment Ryan was calm.  She was quite a pill this trip.

 Then they went on to a baking completion called "Heck's Kitchen", so funny!! and then they had their own take on Iron chef.

 There was a girl who flew on silks and a girl to preformed on a ring high above the stage.  Really awesome!

 We of course hit the Wild West Stunt show but didn't make Ryan sit in the splash zone this time.  Me and Taylor did however and loved cooling down.

 The park opened at 10am and closed at 10pm and we were there every minute. 

 At dark they turn Camp Snoopy into "Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular."  They light everything up and have fun music playing.  They also have strobe lights and all these fun lighted designs on the ground.

 The kids were crazy about all the fun after dark.

 We ended the night in Camp Snoopy riding all the fun rides there.

The funniest part was right at 10pm they cut the music and turn off all of the fun lighting.  Get out and go home, the party is over! 
On to Day 2...

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!

Jason had to work all day and I wasn't really into the 4th this year but I had to step it up for the kids.  They love every holiday and I like to make them special so off we went to the store so we could make a flag cake.  Taylor met Jason at the door when he got home and shouted, "There's an American flag in our fridge!"  They get so excited :)

 The kids played on the water slide for a while and then passed out on the couch for long naps.

 We made pigs in a blanket and potato salad.  We also had chips and soda.  The kids were in heaven!

 Gotta love all the stars and stripes clothing.

 Tyson and Taylor were really into lighting the fireworks themselves this year.  With Dad's help of course!

 Sparklers are always fun.

 Hayden did one sparkler and hated the fireworks.  She kept saying, "I go home now".  Which was so funny because we were in our own driveway :)

Our neighborhood was very active with illegal fireworks and we had a great show watching them and then lighting our own on the ground :)   Happy 4th of July!!!!

Book of Mormon Challenge

In March at our stake conference our Stake President challenged the stake to read the Book of Mormon by July 1st.  I'm not a big fan of these challenges and I don't even attend Stake Conference as a rule, but for some reason I jumped on this one. We kept a fun bubble tracker that the kids filled out daily.  We were suppose to read 2 chapters a day.  At the end we were reading 12 a day to catch up but we made it!  I would have the phone playing the Book of Mormon while we ate breakfast every morning.  They were a captive audience and it was quiet while they were eating.

 One thing our family loves to do is go down the street to old Bob's Market and get Thrifty ice cream.  In the middle of the Book of Mormon challenge I told the kids that if we can get thru it we will go and get triple scoops of ice cream at Bob's.  It gave us the motivation to carry on :)

 One problem was three scoops of ice cream is a lot to pack away in one sitting.  And it is July, yesterday it was still over 100 degrees after midnight.  This is Hayden with only one scoop.

 Those cones were melting like crazy, it was a huge mess but still fun.

For my three scoops I got Rocky Road, Chocolate Malted Crunch, and Brownie Madness, crazy chocolate overload but I totally earned it.  It was rough going a lot of the time.  I won't lie, there were meltdowns, tears, and even some swearing but we did it!  Next I have a plan to have the kids draw the stories from the Book of Mormon and read a bit more slowly.  We'll see how it goes :)

Forgotten pictures

Jason finally figured out how to get my photos out of my phone so here are some forgotten photos that can now be shared :)

Good thing I didn't have to buy anything big this day, gotta love the shopping carts at Home Depot.

After Christmas Tyson was really gung ho about roller blading but was still unsteady until he figured out a great way to skate and not fall down.

 Skate and push the baby at the same time!

Ryan loved it and it kept them both busy for a while :) 

Swimming

We just finished a round of swim lessons at Silver Mesa Rec Center. 

 This year I had Taylor and Hayden in the same class.  Taylor was a little more advanced than the rest of the class but she loved being the teacher's helper and demonstrating what they were going to do next for the littler kids.

 Tyson was in with the big kids.  He thinks he is a good swimmer but he constantly goes back to doggie paddling.

 Ryan would last about 10 minutes sitting with me before she would want to be exploring everywhere.

 One day after swim we went to Wet n Wild.  It was still packed but me and the girls discovered the wave pool and had a blast in there while Tyson and Jason stood in line for rides.

We also took a few friends and met some friends at the Hollywood pool.  Tyson is still talking about their mini lazy river and wants to go back.

This was our last day of swim lessons for this session.  We have another session that starts in a few weeks.

 I kept trying to get a picture of Tyson going down the big slide but he was way too fast for me :)

 The girls loved being able to play on their last day.

 Ryan was a champ and didn't fuss to much about being drug to the pool every morning.

 All these fun swimming adventures are getting the kids so tan.  Yeah for kids who tan!!

Don't you just love summer?!?