Summer of fun!

We had so much fun this summer traveling all around and visiting as many people as possible. We drove from AZ, then spent the weekend in Sam Diego, which was amazing and now I want a dream home on Coronado Island! Then we hit the road, and spent the night at a terrible and expensive motel 6 near Santa Barbara, CA. We continued driving along the beautiful coast of California loving the view of highway 1 and made it to San Francisco where we stayed with some old friends, the Hartel's who were in our ward in Provo. It was so fun to spontaneously visit them:) Then continuing along the coast it quickly got cloudy and the roads got progressively windey and it was slow going. We were making horrible time and decided we'd had enough if the coast and headed inland, bailing on our plans to go to the Redwoods :( We got a hotel for the night, got our brakes fixed (riding the breaks too much on those roads), and started getting exited again to get to Washington! What's a road trip with out some opposition right? The next day we made it to Oregon! We got to visit my old college roommate, Melody, and her family near Bend, Oregon. So fun! Then we stopped for a surprise quick visit in Richland, WA to my husbands family on or way to Spokane! And finally we made it!! We spent a week with my family in Spokane, and over a week with Robert's family in Richland, WA. What an amazing fun-filled summer!!! Here are some of the highlights:


Loving the beach in California!

Grama giving the boys a ride/bath behind the lawnmower. Too funny.

Riding the carousel in Riverfront park, Spokane.

These cousins had more fun than anyone!

Brady loved the Beach! (CA)

Playing horseshoes at my parents house.

Riverfront park

Riverfront park;)

Canoeing down the little Spokane River, so beautiful!! We've always wanted to do this together!

Playing superheros in Hastings:) Brady and Dylan.

Brady and Dylan climbing the trees together.

Riverfront park, Brady going down the big red wagon slide!

I got my fill of Crossfit with Marjorie Fox and Bri Thorpe in Spokane, so fun to see these girls!!

Family pic on our Canoe trip:)

I went golfing for the first time ever. I know right? My husband goes all the time, and I've never been! Fun day with Robert, Chris, and Ryan:)
More pics to come from Richland!:)

Brady's Joy School Graduation

That's right, Brady graduated from Joy school in his swim suit (he's a Potter)! Well it was a pool party/picnic so we showed up in our swim suits! We were the only ones who actually wore our swim suits for the graduation. Oh well! We were ready to hop in the pool!:)

 Getting ready for the 'ceremony' (Brady is on the right):

Brady, Jaren, Taylor, Lance, and Benjamin in the back row:

 Brady's special moment where they read his list of favorites. Here it is:
Favorite color: Golden
Best friend: Catcher
Favorite Sport: Golf
Favorite Movie: Scooby Doo
Favorite Song: I am a Child of God
Favorite Game: Monopoly
Favorite Food: Bacon
Favorite book: the singing book from Family night
Favorite drink: Root Beer
Favorite Holiday: Halloween (again...he's a Potter)
What he want's to be when he grows up: a Race Car Driver
What he brings to bed with him: Kipper the singing dog, and his Goon (thanks Grama Marilyn!)

 "Walking", and shaking Charlene's hand to receive his diploma:

 Getting his 'diploma':

 The Joy School Gruaduates!! David, Benjamin, Jaren, Lance, Taylor, and Brady:

Say, "Graduation!"...."GRADUATION!!!"

 We were so glad Brady was able to do joy school this year. He learned so much and best of all his writing skills really took off. When he started he would only scribble, and never really liked to color. Now he can write most of the letters and numbers, his name and has much more confidence in his writing and coloring! Plus he has some new great friends! And a plus for mom, I got 2 1/2 hours to myself twice a week! (HEAVEN!) Besides the days I had to teach, which really wasn't that bad and the time seemed to fly by on the days I'd teach. I recommend Joy school for anyone wanting to do something with their 3-4 year old before they go to official pre-school or Kindergarten. It was a great experience for us and best of all...FREE:) Some of the mom's already had the curriculum books and so we just shared:) It was great. But the books would be a great investment, I wouldn't mind having it to keep for my other kids! Thanks to Shauni, Lisa, Charlene, Lexy, and Corrine for letting us join Joy School 1/2 way through the year and for putting up with Brady and being patient with him:) I sure appreciated all your hard work and time you put into Joy school! I think Brady will really miss it!

Montour Reunion

We had the most wonderful little reunion in Arizona with our Dad's sisters Charlene and Kathlene and friend Darlene. Phillip's family was down for a visit and Charlene and Kathlene now live in AZ as well as us, so we all got together! We had a wonderful visit with tears, presents, pictures, lunch, swimming, stories, history, and babies! This week was my first time meeting my new niece Lola Fern (Fern after our Dad's mother). And Phillip's first time seeing Charlene in 20 years! I haven't seen Charlene in 10 years! We really wished the rest of the family could've come, but it was fairly last minute that we planned this get together. For most of our lives we have lived on opposite sides of the country and have seen each other only on rare occasion. So this was such a long awaited reunion and extra special to all be together. 

Charlene and Lola:

 Kathlene and Catcher:

 Kathlene, Catcher, Darlene, and Lola....babies!!!:

 Kathlene was so good to give Brady attention as the adults tried to talk and catch up. Here she is with Catcher and Brady:

 Phillip, Charlene, Lydia, Lola, Megan, Catcher, Kathlene and Brady

 And the silly faces:):

 Phillip, Kathlene, Charlene, and Me (I think Lola looks like Kathlene and Catcher looks like Charlene:))

Thank you to everyone for making the trip to Glendale, AZ so we could reunite!!! Montour LOVE!!!

Happy New Year!

What wonderful Holidays we had! I hope yours were as Merry and Bright as ours. Here is our Christmas Card:

We made Gingerbread houses! Here is Brady proudly standing by his:

 Me by my SWEET Gingerbread house:

 Brady and Catcher on Christmas Eve in their new matching jammies:)

 The day after Christmas we went to the Children's museum for free:) 

And Robert visited his family in Washington for a few days and for the New Year. Their tradition is going to the Spokane/TriCities hockey game on New Years Eve. I guess he wasn't cold enough already being in Washington (cold!) and at a hockey game, he also wanted a snowcone! His awesome nephew and niece, Justin & Joy:

I won't bore you with Christmas day videos, we filmed almost all day. Brady got a new Hot Wheels race track which he loves! and some other fun things. Robert returned the gifts I got him (I should learn by now). And he got me a nice set of new white dishes:) I guess I'll still have to save up for that Vitamix I wanted:) We missed Robert on New Years Eve, but Brady, Catcher and I celebrated with some Little Caesars and noise makers at 6 pm:) They were so cute!! I put them to bed at their normal bedtime, and then had some mommy time till 3am, WHAT?! Seriously I don't know why?! Why didn't I go to bed at 11pm or something? I talked to Robert on the phone at midnight his time, then he called me an hour later at my midnight...then I stayed up writing my new years resolutions and making a vision board for 2013! Robert got about 2 hours of sleep, woke up bright and early and flew home on New Years day, and needless to say, we have spent the last few days catching up on sleep. Sheesh. But we are happy to be together again, and enjoying the rest of Robert's Christmas break from school. 

I hope you all had a fun and safe new years! What are your New Years Resolutions?