4th of JULY!

Mommers, Barton, Rachael, Alexus, Gary and Carma hang out as Dave lights fireworks for the kids.

Carter, Savanah, Eva, Dave, Jax and Vercein look on while Daddy Dave lights Sharkey's car and all the 40+ boxes of used up POPS we threw at each other on fire. A bunch of future Pyro's no doubt about it! (I'm pretty sure Savanah and Carter are picking up more POPS to fuel the fire-- if you look at the sidewalk you can see how many there still were) Jax, Caroline and Eva watch Dave's Sunday Night firework show with some neat 3-D glasses, so fun!

We had only been home from Mexico for three days so our fourth of July was pretty low key. We had a BBQ on Saturday night with my brother Bart's family, My mom and our good friends the Redford's (Gary and Carma). Then on Sunday we went up to our friends the Frost's house to light off and watch the big fireworks. The kids had a great time and it was very relaxing for Dave and I as well. We love our country and are grateful for all the freedoms we enjoy.

Goodbye Mexico and Hello Souvenirs!

Sharkey wearing his shark-tooth necklace Jax picked out.

Eva wearing her mexican dress

Maracas and mayan calendar souvenirs!

Funny kiddos. So happy to be home!

Sharks with the maracas and necklace.

Heading to the Airport one last goodbye to the beach and pretty water.

The night before we left, Jax was a little sunburned on his face but mostly just sad to have to leave.

Big Conch shell Jax found on the beach of our resort, he found lots of shells and got to bring a few home too.

this is the pic we bought I scanned it, but couldn't get it to turn the right way. The iguana was huge and calm. His name was 'Raptor.'

This is a picture that we bought the day we went snorkeling on the catamaran in Maroma. I don't know what was with the creepy monkey-pirate trying to behead me, but the iguana on Jaxson's hat was real and he thought that was pretty awesome.

TULUM

Mom in front of the governmental palace ( this where the chief justices resided)

Back of the Palace

View to the beach we are really wet. In the background you can see two sea turtle nests that that are roped off to protect them from predators.

Jax pointing to an iguana he spotted (you can't really see it but it's in the crack by the orange looking rock above his head

The Wilsons in front of the Templo de Dios (before the rain started) The sculptures and writing are at the top by the three windows if I'm not mistaken.

It rained and Rained and we were soaked to the bone in about 5 minutes

Dave and Jax at a look out point in the ruins

Mom and Jax by some ruins, this was the hospital, the people would come here to be made well by a "healer." ( you can kind of see the Templo de Dios in the back ground- it overlooks the ocean)

The rain and 100% humidity made our camera go all funny so most of the pics from Tulum turned out like this.

We went to visit the ruins at Tulum one afternoon when we thought the weather was cooperating(boy were we wrong!). Half of the time we were in Mexico it was raining terribly. We were there right at the same time as the 'Tropical Storm ALEX' so we got to see some really insane weather. At Tulum we saw a few monkeys and a few hiding Iguanas that Jaxson found with his great hunter eyes ( it was raining pretty hard most of the time we were there so they were all hiding but we're told that when its dry the iguana's are all over the rocks).

Tulum is beautiful old city and has a very calm sweet spirit about the entire city. We didn't hire a guide but we were behind one that was telling his crew about the Nephite people who lived there. We found that fascinating and then a few minutes later we were in front of the "Templo de Dios' (or Temple of God) and the same guide began telling his tour about the writing on the top of the temple- he pointed to the three words and said that it said "holy, holier, holiest' and then below that it said "Holiness to the Lord" I do not know if he was a member of the church or not but we were amazed to hear such things. The people he was telling this too were obviously not members and could have cared less about the significance of what he was telling them-- we on the other hand were spell bound unfortunately the rain started to pour and everyone ran for cover. We lost that tour group so we didn't hear anymore about the ruins but it was still such a fascinating adventure! I would love to go back with a hired guide.

Sunsets and Maid Tipping

Jax found this coconut on the ground after a big thunder storm and we took it to the bar and the cute man made it into a drink for him. Virgin Strawberry daquiri with limes. HE LOVED THIS!

Tipping the maids was fun we left a dollar or two about every other day and they would

make fun little towel creatures and leave extra towels or cold waters. It was fun for jax he loved coming in from lunch to see what the maids had done this time!

more Mexico

Some photographers brought random animals around and I happened to catch these two on my camera too (shhh, probably illegal they sell the photos for like $20 a piece I think-- we did end up buying one of him with a monster Igauna named 'Raptor' on his head)So cute. The birds were so pretty and nice too.

Dave and Jax boogey boarding in the surf on our resort

OUCH! I sprayed Dave a few times with that aerosol sunscreen but apparently it was really windy when we put it on because I got fried too. (Jax didn't get sunburned at all the entire week because we made him wear the swim shirt all the time. We actually got it on a whim before we left Idaho Falls on the way to Dave's Parents house. Best purchase EVER! Dave and I hid from the sun for a day or two but Jax was totally fine)

On the Phone with the babies :( It was so sad not to have them there. but they had a great week getting super spoiled by the grandparents)

Jax and I at the resort

SNORKELING and PARASAILING

We didn't really have any snorkling by our resort because of the surf so we took a little day trip out on a catamaran boat to snorkel and the boys got to do a little parasailing as well which was lots of fun!
Jax pretending to drive the Catamaran we took snorkeling.

Dave on the Spinnaker (parasail)

Jax on the Spinnaker (he was so brave he jumped in right after the first adult did it and all the adults were worried like maybe he fell in but he just really wanted to get on it!

Jax getting the Snorkeling gear on he was ready to jump in and see some fish!

A really bad self pic of Dave and I on the catamaran.

MEXICO!

Running to the beach for the FIRST time! So Hot waiting to go snorkeling.

Goofy faced just hanging out at our resort

Loving the Beach!

So happy to be here!

Jax and Mommy in the Hammock outside our room in Mexico after arriving (what a long day! Jax loved the Hammock and fell asleep in it almost every night)

Dave waiting to board the plane in Texas.

Jax and Carter on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's House

Eva and Carter in the car on the way to Grandma and Grandpa Wilson's house.

Jaxson Dave and I went to Playa del Car Mexico the last week of June. It was a great vacation and so much fun. Eva and Carter got to spend the week with grandma and grandpa Wilson and Mommer's and Papa Call.

TEXTURE!

I took the kids to Idaho Falls today for Jaxson's Neurologist appointment. Dave stayed home because he had to work-- but when I got home he had completely textured the entire kitchen before he went to work! Hooray! I am so excited. I almost cry everytime I think about it. I am so grateful for a hardworking man who loves us and provides and takes care of us. THANKS DAVE! You're the BEST!

We were supposed to get a paint sprayer from Dave's brother Nick today in I.F. but his other friend who had borrowed it hadn't returned it yet so hopefully he will return it soon and we'll be able to paint this weekend (we may end up renting one because I don't want to wait any longer than that). Painting is the last step and then we will have finished walls in our kitchen for the first time since we moved in nearly 4 years ago!

Another reason I am so excited to have the walls finished is because in early April we got a new dining room table and chairs and we haven't set them up because I wanted the kitchen to be finished first. (The boxes are in the corner of our room ever reminding us of ALL the work we have had to do and daily stubbing our poor toes.) Well now we can finally set it up and eat together as a family again! (I threw out our other table in April because all the chairs had finally broken, so our poor kids have been eating at the bar for months and Dave and I on the couch or floor). Needless to say I a super excited and I think it will be such a blessing to our entire family to have a functional kitchen :) (it will only be finished for a few months and then in the spring we hope to replace the tile floor, countertops and cabinets-- so even though we will be under construction again soon, I'm very grateful to be nearly finished for now!)

Yucky water

Carter was fascinated by all the water in the house (and it was laundry day can ya tell?)

In June we had lots of big storms and even more rain. Near the end of the 10 weeks of rain our poor hundred year old house had had it! We had a flood. It was disgusting. Water all over our nicely finished (nearly finished) basement! Of course it didn't flodd the unfinished empty storage rooms. Just the ones with insulation, drywall and carpet. It was awesome. Okay I was less than thrilled-- but I figured we have insurance right? Wrong! They don't cover any outside water damage. So that was sad. All in all we came out okay, the dry wall and insulation are fine. The carpet unfortunately had to go-- but this may have been a blessing in disguise because the dog had really liked doing her business in that room ( gross I know-- we had to get rid of her because she wouldn't take her business outside). So the good news is now we'll eventually get non-dogged carpet again. (luckily she only did that to that room and she's gone now)