Father's Day

It was fun spending Father's Day this year with the Halls! It's about time that we were there for a holiday! We had a nice, quiet, relaxing morning. It was so nice! Grandma made us the best pudding, and we just visited most of the morning. It was really great. We got to spend some time with Grandpa, and I'll tell you what. I absolutely SCORED in the in-law department! I have the best 2nd parents! I appreciate them so much! The day of course got much busier later, but that morning I thought a lot about how blessed I am to have such great Fathers, and how blessed I am to have Travis. Just look at him. He loves his kids so much! He loves spending time with them, and takes little moments to show them how much he loves them. They know without a doubt their Daddy loves them!

Here is a perfect example of how he shows his love for me. I was taking pictures of the kids to give him and the Dads for Father's Day. It took me so long to get the kids to cooperate for this! For some reason that day, Alyssa was in a bad mood, and just wouldn't give me a happy face for a picture. Travis could see from the basement window, where he was working, that I was having a hard time and he just came out, played with Lyssa a bit, got her into a good mood, then held her so I could get a smile. He didn't have to do that. I know that he is really busy with work, and for Heaven's sake, it was a present for him. But he saw a need and helped me. He does that all the time. He cleans all the time, he doesn't complain when I'm too tired to cook, he takes the kids so I can get a break. He puts the kids to bed every night. He works so hard for us. He loves the Gospel and is a great example to us. He's my best friend! I would rather spend time with him than anyone else! The bottom line is... he is just perfect for me! I can't imagine my life with anyone but him!



I just remembered a funny thing about Brody that happened at the reunion. One day when I went to pick him up, Isaac was showing me a movie that they had all made. Joshy was telling me what it was about. Brody was a tiger and was wrestling around with Isaac's big stuffed tiger. Joshy said that in the next video Brody (the tiger) and the stuffed tiger were going to mate. I tried not to act too shocked, so I casually asked, "What does mate mean?" Joshy looked at me like I didn't know anything and said, "You know...hug and kiss. Eeeew!" I loved that!

Hall Family Reunion

For us, the reunion began on Thursday, going to Christie and Darrens house. It was fun to see them moved into the new house, and the kids had a blast with the cousins! See how excited Alyssa was?
Travis was really excited to get in the tractor and help move a little dirt around! Travis loves the tractor, and he asked his Dad if he could come work for him if his business didn't work out! Also, that morning I overheard a conversation between Charli and Trey. She asked him where Grandpa was. He told her, "Grandpa has lots of works! He builds houses. Did you know that he can make houses from dirt?" Charli didn't believe him, but Trey told her it was true and that he has seen him do it! Then, we visited Colby and Alicia's family that night and had a great time!

On Friday, we went to Tom and Kristy's for a yummy lunch and then off to camp! The site was amazing, and I loved the fact that President Hinckley had his hand in it! The kids were super excited and spent quite a while figuring out who would sleep in what cabin.

It was the perfect place for a reunion. There was plenty of space to sleep, and lots of wide open space for the kids to run around and play!

That night, Grandpa got the fire going, and the kids were very anxious to "help." Does pyromania run in the family? Just kidding! But the kids sure did like to play in that fire! Then they made an amazing dutch oven dinner for us. Then the kids roasted marshmallows and starbursts!

I loved the "dance party" that the kids had going Friday night. I went in the cabin and the kids had the lights off and were dancing around and making their flashlights shine like strobe lights. Then they would turn the lights back on and see where everyone was. It was hilarious! They were having such a great time. Trey came out a little while later and Travis asked him what they were doing. He said,"We're having a party...and I love it!!" I think all the kids had fun sleeping with each other in the cabins too!

The next morning we had a great breakfast, made some crafts, and then went boating on the lake! It was such a beautiful place, and I think that everyone loved boating and splashing each other!

On Sunday afternoon, Kim and Daniel blessed little Ben. I'm so glad they did that in Utah, so we could witness it! He is such a sweet baby! Then they made dinner for us all and we ate at the park. The park has a playground and a little stream running through it and the kids had so much fun being together and getting wet. It is the coolest thing that all the cousins get along so well, and love each other!

After we ate we ended the reunion with a little Hall Family talent show. I loved it when the little girls danced for us! Joshy played a great song for us, Lucy and Jenna's talent was throwing water up and then catching it in another cup, Brody and Joshy made Lucky fetch, and the older boys climbed a tree!

Here was a rare photo of some of the older boys together! It was a great reunion! I love our family!

I'm so stupid!

This week Travis came upstairs and asked me if he could shoot me in the butt (Oops! I mean bum) with the air soft gun. I told him no because it would hurt. He said, "I shot Wade in the bum and he said it didn't even hurt." So, like an idiot I said OK. Well, of course it hurt! I think Wade must have been wearing steel underwear because it really stung. But the funny thing is that he came up the next day to report that Wade let him shoot him in the bum again but this time with the air soft rifle, that is more powerful! I don't know who's the bigger idiot- me or Wade! Just kidding, but it is kind of funny because we got those 2 air soft guns for TJ's birthday last year, and Travis loves them way more than TJ does. Infact, he's in the other room as we speak just shooting at the wall. And sometimes I'll see him dash out the basement door to shoot the rabbits that are in our yard. (Just so you know, those guns don't penetrate the skin or anything, they just sting! So he really isn't harming the bunnies, just scaring them.) Travis has one of those guns in his hands all the time lately! I guess there are some things that you never get too old for! Oh, and Travis has a really good idea for scaring snakes, he pours gasoline on them which he says is the worst punishment because you can never get rid of the smell (until they shed their skin) and that way the snake will go home and tell his buddies not to go in our yard. And the funny thing is, we hardly ever have snakes in our yard. Our neighbors all around us get them, but not us. I guess they don't know Travis' secret!
**Here's a little disclaimer- if any kids read this, just know, you should NEVER shoot at someone even if they say it's OK! That's probably why Travis likes the guns more than TJ. TJ never gets a chance to play with them! He doesn't know how much fun they are! (Also, he has to have Travis standing next to him when he shoots.)

Last day of School!

Yee-haw! School's out! Yeah! I have been looking forward to this all month! The kids had a great day and really fun parties! They both had their parties outside. Brody got to have pizza, sign autograph books, and play games. They played this relay game where you had to put on water wings, an innertube, a hat, and goggles and then run around a tree and back to your team. It was really cute! It was fun watching him interact with his friends. I know he will really miss them over the summer. Hopefully, he won't die of boredom without his friends! TJ's party was also fun and quite relaxed. They reserved the park across the street from the school and ate lunch, signed t-shirts, played kickball and had popsicles. TJ and a couple of his friends opted not to play kickball, but sat and watched, and let me visit with them. I couldn't believe it! It was really fun being able to talk with them about videogames, music, guitar hero, sports, and their plans for the summer. I can't believe how the time has flown! It seems like I just brought TJ home from the hospital (after being born) just yesterday! Then he went to a friend's house for the afternoon and the rest of us went to my mom's for a swim. They swam for hours and Alyssa had a blast pouring water into buckets from the little wading pool. Yeah summer!

Memorial Day

Well Memorial Day was really fun this year. When I was a kid, my grandparents had this tradition of going up to the canyon and cooking breakfast on Memorial Day. I loved doing that! But when my grandparents went on their mission, moved to Utah, and then of course passed away, we stopped going. Well, my Uncle has decided to bring the tradition back and last year we started doing it again. We had a blast, and it is amazing how long it has been that I have seen some of my cousins, aunts, and uncles who live here. Anyway, we ate, talked, and the kids and men threw a football around. Charli, Lyssa and Lauren, my sister's kid who is 2 months older than Charli, kept standing on top of the picnic tables and singing at the top of their lungs. It was very cute! Then, later, we went over to my parents and the kids swam, hot tubbed, and had a great time. It was really cold and kind of rainy that day, but the kids swam anyway! They didn't seem to mind a bit. I love holidays! Travis worked really hard on the Saturday before putting the garden in and planting some plants and flowers. We are going to try growing the tomatoes upside down this year, as per Darren's suggestion, so I am excited about that! We'll see if we can get as great of a yield as Darren has gotten! I'm really excited about summer!