Birthday!

15!?!  Really?  Clint, weren't you just barely like, 7?  And now you're in high school.  We are proud of you for earning your Eagle this year, surviving your high adventure backpacking trip with a good attitude, reading your scriptures every day, always mowing the lawn and being helpful around the house, hanging out at the movies with your mom, keeping us laughing, and being the genuinely nice, pleasant, funny kid that you are!  We love you and we're happy to be your family!!  We celebrated this year with dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe, yum!  Grandpa Mike and Grandma Pauline came:

Dad and Kori were there with their matching outfits:

We enjoyed some Firefighter Rick and lots of other pizza pie goodness!

Then it was back home for presents, cheesecake, and more silly mom-has-the-camera-in-her-hand pictures:

"Heavy Heavy Hang Over Thy Poor Head..."

I wish I could say that I made this stunning cheesecake!  It was yummy, at least that's what they tell me.  Wes and I are doing a health challenge and we can only have sugar one day a week.  Maybe there will be a piece of cheesecake left for me on my free day!  Maybe?

We ended the night with Clint building Legos.  Come to think of it, that's the way most of Clint's birthdays have ended, and that will probably continue with this kid since he's going to be a Lego engineer someday!  London also celebrated Clint's birthday in a big way, since it was the opening of the Summer Olympics!  We watched the opening ceremony until late into the night.  It was a very fun day!  And PS guess what Clint?  It's my birthday next!!

Holiday Boating With Karlton

That's their "celebrity" name, Karlee and Colton = Karlton!  Wes and I took them out for a quick morning of 4th of July boating before the lake got too crowded.  And boy was it crowded by the time we left just before noon!  Colton showed us some wake boarding skills first:

My batteries were dying and I was having a hard time catching the air pics.  This is as close as I got!  Sorry Colton!

Is that the genetic "tongue" concentration?

Then it was time for Karlee to practice her slalom skills.  We decided to try something new to help her.  We got her and Colton both out there, Colton on 2 skis so he could help steady Karlee.  I think it helped a little.  Karlee actually stayed up for a couple of minutes!!

She pulled up, no problem!

Look at that face!

She's doing it!  Wahoo!!

We threw out another ski to see if Karlee could drop one.

She gave it a good try!

Look at the guns on these two.  Seriously.  That is a fit and fab couple.

Team building exercises?

I love how he's giving her advice out there.

Aw, dang.  But it's a good crash photo!

Karlee had never tried knee boarding before, and she loved it!  She's a natural!  She even landed a 180, holy cow , we were impressed!

Are you sure you've never done this before?

Here she is attempting the 180!

Love that smile!

She had the 180 right after this.  She couldn't hold on for the full 360 though, darn.  What fun!  Thanks guys for a great holiday!!

Baby, You're A Firework!

Some favorites of the photos Kori took last night at our BBQ & Fireworks Extravaganza!

These little "strobe lights" are the worst, especially when Dave puts three in a row right in front of us!

Russell is mesmerized!

The whole gang.  Kori took this because Lyle said "take a picture of the whole cul-de-sac, no, no, like this, no, go stand down there, do I have to tell you how to take a picture?"

"Ooh, aah!"

Jeff is always pretty proud of his cache of fireworks.

Yep, that's TJ!

This one looks like it's shooting off in every direction!

We should have gotten a picture of the aftermath.  What a mess!

But it sure was fun!

Another mesmerized look.  Don't stare at those ones, Nathan, you'll burn your eyes out!

Sparklers!

K & K were taking pictures of Kori as well.

"Expelliarmus!"

Kenna is pretty serious about her sparklers.

I love this one, what cuties!  Happy 4th of July, everyone!!