Bear Lake

This year, our family decided it was THE year of the..... tent! We went camping with mine and Travis's family and usually we are able to use campers while we are there, but this year, we decided we were old enough to sleep in a TENT!! Scary? Initially, yes. But, after we got it all assembled (with only minimal help) we got our air mattresses and playpen set up and sleeping bags rolled out and we were ready for our first tent experience. And it was fine. Not lovely. Not spectacular. But fine. The kids slept well. No bears attacked. We were all OK. The kids LOVED it!! As we all were laying in our tents on that first night, Gray leaned over and whispered "this is our first time in a tent, mom". They were all so excited. While we were camping in our tent.... we all caught some sort of bug and the 2 youngest Kendalls spent time puking in our tent. All night long. Great. The rest of the kids puked all the way home. Travis and I spent our first 2 days home, puking. Lovely.

We were able to make smores- , my mom had some super cool marshmallow sticks and GIANT marshmallows!! It was a huge hit.

We loved being with our families at Bear Lake. It was such a blast. Thankfully, my younger sister Marie, brought a camera, as I forgot mine. So, thanks to her we have some documentation of the time we spent there. We were able to bring our boat with us to Utah and so we spent as much time as we could on the lake.... but it was FREEZING and choppy-

My younger brother, Ned, brought up his family. His kids have not been on boats before, so we were excited to get them out on the lake. We put my Cami on with Ned and his 2 young daughters on the tube, determined to go slowly so that Neds 2 young girls would have a fun experience. It started out ok... with Travis taking it nice and slow..... but maybe a little too slowly, and the front of the tube started to plow under and everyone fell off the tube. That was it! His girls were screaming and scared all to pieces. Thankfully they were all ok, just wet- but really shook up.

We love our families and it is trips like these that create memories for life. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family. We are looking forward to camping with them AGAIN in a few weeks!!

Our Cousins

This Summer we have found ourselves spending a lot of time in Utah (so far, half of our summer has been in Utah). This is a lot of fun for us. We love to see and play with our cousins. During one of our trips to Utah, we asked 2 of our cousins to drive home with us and we would return them on our next trip out to Utah (we would have asked all of our cousins, but we can only fit 2 extra kids in our vehicle, so we are limited to only two). So, Taylor (Tay-Tay to my kids) and Myles came back to California with us. We had a wonderful 2 weeks with them. It was so much fun for Grayson to have another boy in the house. All the kids looked up to TayTay and I loved the extra help she was.She is so sweet and loving. I loved dressing them all alike and toting them around town!! Six well behaved, happy kids is a joy! People would stop and gawk at Costco or the movies. Everyone stopped to ask me, "Are they all yours!!!", and I could only reply- "I WISH!". We had so much fun and hope to be able to do it again. Thanks so much for coming, Myles and TayTay!! We love you sooooooo much!!

100 laps

Last week, the kids had a blast having their cousins here. We played in the pool every day, all day long. On one day, the kids decided that they were going to swim 100 laps across the pool. I thought that it was a good goal, but really did not believe that they would be able to do it!!! They were persistent. They started around 9:30 am, and by lunch they were up to 42. They were taking breaks in between every few laps but they kept going. By 3:00 they were up to 86 laps. They kept working on their goal, and that night by 5:30... they had done it!! 100 laps. I was proud of them for picking a goal and sticking to it. Great job, kids!!!! (and by the way, they slept really well that night!! )

4th of July

We had such a fun 4th of July this year. Travis's business hosted the "Friday Night at the Lake" on July 2nd. Every Friday during the summer, the community that we live in has a band come and play at our club house, on the lake. It is a fun evening and usually has a big turn out. This year we had a pie eating contest between the Dr.'s (Jake and Travis and now partners and hosted this event together)-Travis did not win.... I am making him practice more for next years event, water ballon toss, balloons, lots of free prizes given away by raffle (i-tunes, old navy and free shirts), and a ton of yummy food and good music. It was a fun environment. The kids all had a great time, the adults had a good time, too. We love living in this fun, close-knit community.

For the 4th of July we had some friends over for a barbecue, it was a lot of fun. No fireworks for us, they are illegal where we live- too dry!!! We miss living in Utah for that reason. We miss the fireworks.

I am thankful to live in this country. I am very grateful to those who serve in the armed forces. It is hard for me to imagine how difficult it would be to leave my family, hoping to come home, but not knowing.... and how badly I would miss my family. I am thankful to those who do sacrifice- "who more than self their country love"...

Happy 4th of July, everyone!!