Super 16

Here's my boy at age 6.  He loved being in the water in Guam.

And here he is at 16!  He still loves being in the water.

Happy Super 16th birthday to Josh!  

I love that kid.  Isn't he handsome? 

On his birthday he wanted to go to the new cable wakeboard park and work on his awesome moves on the rails and jumps.  He went with his buddy, Gerron, whose birthday it was also.  

What he also wanted for his birthday was to go to the premier of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, with his friends.  Here is a picture of Josh with Caden, Christian, Luke, and Caleb after eating some pizza.  

Two days before his birthday, Josh took the road test and passed with flying colors.  He must have done everything correctly because the guy didn't tell him anything he did wrong.  That is a good start to his driving career.  Let's hope it continues.  A few hours later, we headed to the DMV, and he passed his written test.  Yee Haw!  He was all clear to get that drivers license.  I was a nice mom and let him get it.  I was even a nicer mom when I later let him drive the car by himself.  Here's the picture that documents that very moment.  He didn't want me to take the picture, but he didn't have a choice if he wanted to drive.

Josh has been asking for some time to have his room re-painted.  It has been burnt orange and blue since he was 12.  I have been putting off his request because I knew what a huge pain it would be to paint over those walls and slanted ceiling.  But while he was away at Boise Youth Spectacular (mini EFY) the week before his birthday, Matt and I painted his room a nice neutral grey.  A warm grey that looks nice with the carpet.  I forgot to take a before picture.  Dang it.

Gotta love primer... 2 coats... 2 gallons... many back breaking hours.  Way longer than I thought it would take.

 Yes, I know... I look pregnant in this picture.  I'd like to blame it on the billowy shirt and the drawstring on the shorts.  Ha!

Here's the finished room.  Almost finished.  The color looks brown, but it really is grey.

I still need to hang his new shelf from IKEA and some cool framed pictures of wake boarders that I put together.  I should get a valance for the window, huh.  And a mirror so he can look at his handsome face... or flex his muscles when no one is looking!

He chose to eat at Andrade's mexican restaurant for his birthday dinner.  It was voted 2012 Best Mexican Restaurant in the valley.  

Here's the Strawberry Shortcake Cake that I made him.  It's a Pioneer Woman recipe.  It was so good!

Thanks for being born, Josh!  I sure love having you around!

On the Road Again

Emma and I hit the road to Utah this past weekend to visit Chelsea at BYU.  Matt and Josh went on a high adventure to the White Clouds, so we took off without them.  See my camera in my sunglasses?  It is much harder to take self portraits with my new camera.  Especially while driving.

We arrived at my mom and dad's house in the early afternoon.  My Grandma Fillmore was still there and so were some "old" friends of my parents, the Hyatts.  They were staying for the night.  They left to go visit some other friends and came back late at night.  Brother Hyatt was my Sunday School teacher when I was a senior in high school.

My parents took us to see the Disney Pixar movie "Brave".  It was a fun movie... but not one of their best.  My grandma hated it.  Plugged her ears half the time.  She was even seen with her eyes closed. She said "It was the most violent movie I've ever seen!" and wondered if this is what kids these days are growing up with.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't the MOST violent movie she's ever seen.  It was animated vikings, Grandma:)  But I guess it was loud and had a lot of crashing and yelling and growling.  I love my grandma.  After the movie, we had dinner at Bajio.

Emma had fun even though there weren't any cousins to play with.  She likes Grandma Wright's swing.

Friday morning, after a quick run with "Emma-in-Training", we ate a yummy breakfast and then headed down to Utah County to meet up with my Chelsea.  Can I just say that driving in Utah is crazy! The speed limit is 65 but 75 mph is the norm even with lots of traffic.  And once I got over the "point of the mountain" the speed picked up, and I found myself going 82/83!  That didn't last very long, but the crazy thing is... I wasn't even the fastest one.

It was so good to see Chelsea again.  I loved watching Emma run to meet her big sister and give each other a hug.

It was lunch time so we headed towards the mall to find something yummy.  PF Changs was calling... at least for me and Chelsea.  Emma was not very happy about that choice.  She actually stayed on the pouty side for the rest of the afternoon.  Silly girl.  Get over it.  That's a fake smile in the picture.

While at University Mall, we went shopping.  I bought a white layering tank at ModBod.  I wanted to try one of theirs... I love the fabric, and I chose one with wider straps for better coverage.  Across from that is MikaRose... modest dress heaven!  I wish we had something like that in Boise, but I've seen them online, so now I must remember to order from there.  I bought the "Emma" dress.  So cute and comfy.  But the name is what caught my eye first.

I almost bought this.  I still might.

Back at Heritage Halls on the 4th floor bay window...

I got to meet all of her roommates.  I forgot to get a picture of Kimball before she left on a weekend trip to Zions Ntl Park with some other friends.  But here are Ashley, Lauren, Jessica, and Meredith with the Chelster.

We walked in the rain to the BYU Creamery on 9th Street.  That is where Chels gets most of her groceries, so I wanted to check out what they had.  A bit expensive, but it has just about all one would need.  Especially ice cream... which we devoured before venturing back out in the rain.

It was evening time... time for the social life to begin.  So I, the mom, and Emma, the baby sister, needed to depart so that the college girl could have some real fun.  We drove through a summer storm up to my sister Heather's house.  We took her to dinner and had a nice chat with her.  I promised Emma that she could pick where we ate dinner since she was "forced" to eat chinese for lunch.  She chose IHOP.  That wouldn't have been even near the top of my list, but that is where we went.  And that is where all of the old people in Midvale/Sandy went on that Friday night.  Ha Ha!

Darn it!  I forgot to get my camera out and take a pic of my sweet sister.  Next time:)

We stayed the night at my big brother's house in Herriman.  I slept soundly in his media room in the basement.  Nice and dark.  Thanks Kimi and Erik and kids!  (sorry, Erik, I caught you blinking)

Saturday morning we went back to Provo.  We picked up Chelsea, and we went to this place.  See my cute girls walking happily together?  And look at those mountains!  I NEED them in my daily life!

The Shops at Riverwoods.  A pretty, outdoor shopping plaza.  Zions Mercantile was fun to walk through.  I could have bought several paintings and a bronze statue.  We also discovered Apricot Lane Boutique.  Chels got a super cute top and Emma bought an adorable little hat.  I got some yellow and orange earrings.  We found out that they just opened one in Boise.  Awesome.  But what I was most excited to walk through was Blickenstaff's, a toy store that I've read about on the nieniedialogues.

We enjoyed lunch at Marley's Gourmet Sliders.  Oh my yumminess.  Shoestring fries with a spicy fry sauce.  Crispy-edged cheeseburger that tasted oh so good.  Just the right size for me.  I would like one again tomorrow, please.  Unfortunately, they serve Pepsi products.  That's the only downer.

Check out how Emma's kid meal came packaged.  So cool.

And look what we found outside of Marley's.  Zoltar... from the Tom Hanks movie "Big".  The girls got a kick out of getting their fortune.

After a couple of wonderful hours, it was time to give my girl a kiss and a hug and leave her to do her thang!  It was fun to see her after being apart for a month.

Heading north, Emma and I made a quick stop at IKEA to get a couple of things.  Love that store!

This was Emma on our long drive home together.  She got that big ol' jawbreaker at Blickenstaff's.  She licked it practically the whole way home.  Oh, and that is her cute hat she bought.  She added the flower onto it to add some more flair.

I'll be hitting that road again really soon to bring Chelsea home for a quick break before fall semester starts.  Should be another great adventure.  Gotta remember to play the "Similar" game and do "Speeches" again with my kids.  (got that idea from 71Toes!)  It was so fun to do with Emma.

Family of 3 on the 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July this year as a family of three.  It was a bit weird.  Josh is at Cross Country Camp in Sun Valley, and Chelsea is at BYU.  Emma is the only child at home for the week.

We planned to do our annual Boise bike ride with our friends, the Hammer and Bell families.  This year, we decided to get dinner at Westside Drive-In.  You gotta go to Westside when you come to Boise.  It's been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  We mostly go to Westside for their fantastic shakes.  We have tried many combinations, and one of our all time favorites is the peanut butter chocolate shake.  Mmmmm.

We took our food to Veteran's Memorial Park and had a picnic.

Look how much this little kiddo, Kohen, has grown since the last 4th of July!

Emma and I had classic corn dogs and the yummy Westside tots.

Matt felt the need to be more adventurous and try one of their specials of the day... The Red, White, and Bleu Burger.  It wasn't so good.  The bleu cheese crumbles and the buffalo sauce was not a good idea.  Sorry Chef Lou.

We began our awesome bike ride and rode 7 miles to Powell's Sweet Shoppe.  Guess what I got again?  Black licorice, you betcha!  Emma filled a giant tube full of different flavored sugars... like a Pixie Stick.

Onto Anne Morrison Park we went, where the big July 4th celebration was about to take place.  We rode the 5 miles there and found us a nice, grassy spot (right by the bridge for a quick exit) among the thousands of people that were beginning to gather there.

The kids played games together, ate their candy, and even had a magician come over and perform for them.

Oh, yeah.  And Joel and Natalie made out on the blanket next to us.  Ha Ha!  Just Kidding!

I especially enjoyed watching Kohen run around on his tether/leash/bungee cord whatever.  He didn't cry or complain.  He would run out as far as it would take him and then bounce back a little.  Too funny and entertaining.  The neighboring people got a kick out of that cutie pa-tootie!

This outing was not only fun because we were with friends, riding bikes, eating junk food and watching fireworks, but it was also full of obstacles!

1- Chloe, due to wearing flip flops, split her toe nails... two different times!  A bit of a bloody mess.

2- Joel's bike tube popped after leaving Powell's and he and Natalie wound up  slowly making their way to the fireworks.  Matt rode all the way back to the Suburban to get the extra inner tube and pump.

3-Then Joel, as he was pumping air into the NEW tube, popped that one, too!  Scared everyone around us!  He left before the fireworks were over to push his bike back to the car.

4- Some weirdo biker asked to follow Joel along the greenbelt because Joel had on a light.  The guy rode way too closely for Joel to feel comfortable, and then the guy wound up following him off the greenbelt all the way to Veteran's parking lot.  Joel wasn't too sure of what this guy's intentions were.  Freaky.

5- After quickly as possible getting across the bridge to the other side of the river, the rest of us began navigating through the hoards of walkers and bikers.  We slowly rode along in a line with our headlamps on.  Kris had to slam on her brakes to avoid hitting someone... but she used her front brakes and found herself on the ground a little scraped up and shaken up.  Upon standing, she began to feel light-headed and nauseated.  If you know sweet Kris, you know that this isn't uncommon.  She just needed a little time to recover.  As she layed there on the side of the path in the grass, people were gauking and asking if everything was ok.  Meanwhile, her six year old son Daxton was crying (more like wailing) his little eyes out thinking his mom was about to die.  Her husband, Shane, didn't know that this was happening since he was up ahead and continued to ride on.  Natalie, Chloe, and Daxton stayed behind with Kris (now laying on a bench) while Hailey, Emma, Matt and I rode on to get the cars.

6- As the four of us were riding, Matt sees the base of a tree, off to the side of the greenbelt, on fire.  Smoldering is a better word.  There might have been some flame, but Matt had already poured the rest of his water out of his camelback on it by the time I got there.  Then we poured mine on it.  It looked like it would be ok, so we left it because we were in a bit of a hurry to get back to help poor Kris!

So there you have it.  Our 4th of July in a nut shell (what the heck does that really mean?... in a nut shell?)