Happiest Place On Earth!

Every summer for the past 11 years, my family has vacationed at what the Castleton's consider to be the happiest place on earth, Lake Shasta(except for Linda). It's a gorgeous lake in Northern California with tons of trees, clean water, and almost always perfect weather(except for this year with all the fires and super low water). We go with 4 other families from our home Stake and live on houseboats for a week having the time of our lives wakeboarding, floating, cliff jumping, playing games, watching movies, eating good food, not sleeping, and on and on... We even have our own testimony meeting on the one Sunday we are there, which is my favorite Sacrament meeting of the year. This year Ben couldn't come and this was my first time traveling with two kids, so my sister Debbie met me in Vegas to help with the rest of the trip(can you say 'lifesaver'). The whole week was really hard without Ben and even though I'll never do it again, it was still totally worth it. Thanks Grammy & Poppy. Can't wait until next year!

Katelyn has always LOVED the boat rides...

but Samuel couldn't quite decide how he felt about it

Katelyn's new best Shasta buddy, Caitlin Redford

Grammy & Katelyn floating

Samuel & Aunt Stacey

My little flag girl

Katelyn driving the boat, in circles

'till next year...

Samuel had a major milestone while we were at Shasta. For the 10 minutes I was outside for, Poppy and his Uncle Gavin witnessed him roll over for the first time. I know it's not very exciting to most of you, but we are your typical annoyingly proud parents who want to share every little moment of our child's life. Enjoy!

Dallas

Last night we got back from our trip to Dallas where we visited Ben's sister Julie & family. Dave and Gillian were also there and invited us to come hang out with them at their hotel. We were able to go swimming a lot, play at the rec center, watch movies, eat GOOD food, and just have fun with family. This was Samuel's first time swimming and he seems to love the water just like his daddy. We also had the opportunity to tour Dave and Gil's beautiful new home. Unfortunately, as you can see, the only time I took out the camera was down at the pool.


Just Chillin'

Aunt Julie got him to float flat on his back


Poor Uncle Dave!

Aunt Mary

This past week my baby sister Mary came to visit Midland and meet Samuel for the first time. She was a huge help with the kids and even organized my pantry, but we did have some fun!

Me and Mary about 20 years ago


I took her to Susie's South Forty where we sampled some yummy chocolates and she found a section of Dr. Pepper flavored jerky, cake mix, syrup, etc. Mary bought some to take home to my mom who is the Dr. Pepper Queen.

Then she toured President George W.'s childhood home. That's right folks, the one and only right here in Midland. I know you all are jealous!

Then we went to the Petroleum Museum where we could have learned about the process of creating, trapping, and finding oil (exciting, I know!) but with two cranky kids we just took pictures out front instead. That night I took Mary to our Drive-In because she had NEVER been to a drive-in in her life, isn't that sad!

She played with the kids all week. We even made cookies and had a movie night with my niece's Lauren and Aubrey who were staying the weekend with us.

She says that overall Midland isn't as bad as my dad made it seem, and she would love to explore Texas more. We had a great week, I ended up seeing more of Midland than I ever have, and I did not want her to leave. We love you Aunt Mary!

Not My Baby!

Last week we decided it was time for Samuel's first haircut. Ben really wanted to give him a mohawk for Shasta, but since he can't go he did it for the 4th of July instead. The second Ben put those clippers to Samuel's head I changed my mind, but it was too late. And now my little Chubster is bald. The coolest thing about him is now gone. While I still think he's absolutely adorable, as any parent would, I am having a hard time getting used to this new baby I have in my house. He looks like a completely different baby, but I guess after a week it's finally starting to grow on me.

Before

After


In Between

Like Father, Like Son

Lot of hair for a 3-month old!

Cousins Claire & Aubrey

4th of July!

On 4th of July morning we decided to give Samuel a mohawk, but first we wanted to get more pictures of just him in his blessing outfit (compliments of grammy) since we didn't have any.


My poor baby!

That evening we went to the local minor league baseball game with Dave & Gil and the Russels x2. It was a super long game, but we had a lot of fun and watched a cool fireworks show.


Aunt Gillian

Happy Anniversary!

On Saturday, June 28 we celebrated our 6th Wedding Anniversary. As most of you know we have been through A LOT in the past six years, but it has all been worth it. The day started off by Katelyn bringing me some beautiful yellow roses, my favorite, which she picked out all by herself. Then while Ben did some yard work, I taught Katelyn how to ride her new bike. After that we treated ourselves to lunch at Chili's, some movies at Hollywood Video, and an ice cream cone at Carvel's. It was a perfectly simple day. Happy Anniversary to us!

Ben and I both seem to agree that we had the most beautiful wedding. I could not stop giggling the whole day. We had so much fun at our reception that we did not want to leave. In fact, we were almost the last ones to leave!

My big girl, who started potty training last week. Hooray!


This was our best attempt at taking a family picture with the timer