Fun times at the Lake!

We've been having much fun going to the lake on Fridays, I keep meaning to post some pictures of our adventures there. Its been so hot and just perfect weather for skiing, tubing and diving and jumping and having a blast. Our friends the Williams have been coming along because they also have Fridays off. The girls love it because our kids are about the same age. And we love it too. Anyone who wants to come along is welcome.

Sierra and Marissa riding in the tube. They were chatting it up so much they didn't even notice rough waters.



Elena is so good at entertaining the little kids. She is taking Mikayla and Maysa for a ride here, they were giggling so much, it was cute.



Heres to the "Queen Brinton", lots of fun times. Dan brought along his new "Incredible droid cell phone", it is incredible I must say, all the things it can do, but I was thinking about chucking it in the lake after a while... .



Dan and Elena are half fish, they both love water even really cold water. Sometimes we'll stop at a cove and Dan will dive under and not come up for almost a minute. I start thinking he must be dead when all the sudden his head pops up. He just wants to touch the bottom... I HATE it when he does that.



Dan performed a wonderful display of water ballet for us all. Michelle has it recorded, so I'll have to get that and post for your enjoyment.... He's really good at it, why, I DONT KNOW!



What can I say, Elena is just a little fish, she is becoming quite a good diver as well.






Michelle took these pictures of Kurt and Dan jumping off the cliff, I stole them from her, but I know she won't mind. It was quite the climb, doesn't look high but it totally was. I was suprised Kurt jumped, he said afterwards to jump was just easier than climbing back down. I would have chickened out, theres no doubt about that.

I'm going to Canada this week for the rest of the summer so looking forward to cooler weather but I'm going to miss the lake! Always a blast.

Happy Father's Day

I have been extremely blessed with wonderful father's and grandpa's in my life. So to honor them today I will post some of my favorite pictures of them.


This is my favorite ever of Dan with the kids.


All pictures with Grandpa Johnny involve either a horse or a tractor!


Grandpa Cordara, what a fun loving person, visited us for a whole month this winter.


Grandpa Darrel didn't like pictures, but he loved playing with the kids.


We don't get to see Grandpa Brinton very much, he is so wonderful and loves to hold babies!


Truly miss Grandpa Zobell, he was the funniest person I've ever known.

Elena's Piano Recital

Welcome! Thankyou for joining us in Elena's final piano recital of the year. Please remain seated for the entire performance. The exit doors will be locked.
ha ha ha

Elena and her teaching playing a duet "What a wonderful World".


Elena and a fellow student playing "Beauty and the Beast".


Elena's teacher Jessica Hart playing a final Tribute for her students.

Hope you enjoyed the show!

The Karate Kid 2010

First, the kids and I watched all 1980's Karate Kid movies last week. Today we went to the opening of 2010 version of Karate Kid. This movie has always been one of my all time favorites. I love Will Smith and I love almost every one of his movies, he is one of my top 5 actors. So I was totally curious about his son doing this movie and what it would be like.
A little disappointed. Will Smith should have waited a few more years to produce this movie for his son, this kid is still a baby. Remember just a few short years ago when Jaden was the toddler in Pursuit of Happyness. Well anyway, when Ralph Macchio did the first Karate kid, he was 23, although he looked 15. So I don't think little Jaden was mature enough for this role, he lacked passion, he just seemed so little. He just didn't have enough heart that was necessary for this role. I think he has potential to be a good actor someday, but he has a ways to go yet. He's definetly inherited his father's charm and charisma. But he still has those huge shoes to fill.
So anyway that being said, the story line was very similar to the first one. The fight scenes and training scenes were excellent. The sound effects were excellent. The scenes with the romance between Jaden and the young girl was a little weird. First of all, they are just babies, I have a ten year old and she still wears cutesy fruffy dresses. So to see this little asian girl wearing slightly immodest clothes and dancing somewhat provocatively for him didn't sit well with me. Also because of Jaden's young age, it was a bit disturbing to witness the living heck beaten out of him a number of times throughout.
The rest of the movie lagged a little. Although I really enjoyed the scenes of old China, the great wall and the forbidden city, that was breathtaking. Jackie Chan, well, he was just alright. Seemed like he lacked passion as well. He just didn't portray the character as well as he could have. But maybe I'm comparing him with Pat Morita and thats not really fair. No one can recreate the magic he portrayed as Mr. Miyagi.
Although it was enjoyable for the full out 2 1/2 hrs (yes is really was that long!) I'm not sure this movie should be have been touched. This is a movie from our childhoods that has lived on for 26 years. Didn't we all grow up attempting the crane kick, yelling wax on, wax off and calling eachother Daniel san. The ending was a tad overkill and unrealstic. No crane kick, but you'll see, its kind of neat. The ending of the original, you want to scream and yell and jump and kick and cry, then you see Mr. Miyagi with the tear rolling down his face and you do cry. They tried very hard to create that kind of ending with this one but unfortunately it was a little overkill. Go see it, or just rent it.

Watch out! Balloon landing!

This was the weirdest thing ever! My children and I were watching this hot air ballon for about 20 minutes this morning, we were going to walk to the school to watch it land. But we didn't have too! It landed right in front of our house. Scared the living daylights out of me because I thought it was going to hit our house or our neighbors house and start a fire. Its too bad I cut the video before he responded. I don't remember much but they surely did mean to land here. I think it was our neighbors going for the ride that wanted to land right at their house.


Okay just look at this in comparison with the houses and trees. Now can you see why I was freaked out, this thing is monstrous!

He said the girls could jump in the basket for a picture, but I said thats okay. Because I was still a little shell shocked and nervous about the whole situation.

Well it is now 8:40 am and they still can't get the balloon off the lamp post. They've been trying for almost two hours.
Glad my boring Saturday became exciting!

Canyon Lake

Canyon lake is a diamond in the rough. We had such a blast exploring it with the boat. We plan on going several more times before I head to Canada at the end of this month.

I don't usually take good pictures so this one was kind of a fluke. Dan just couldn't stop diving off the boat, back dive, front dive, flips. There was beautiful little coves where we could all go swimming. Lots of fun on a 100 degree day.
The water was a little gross here, I guess we didn't care.
The kids really loved the tube ride. So long as Dan behaved himself and didn't throw them out of the wake too much.


Such a beautiful place, highly recommend vacation time here!

Sierra's birthday

I've been meaning to post some pictures from Sierra's fun birthday party. She turned 7 years old! Since its so hot outside we set up 2 slip and slides. The girls loved it. We only managed one bee sting and some scrapes and bruises but no broken bones at least. We invited a whole bunch of kids so I was glad when only half showed up.


Kamryn got stung by a bee and cried for a little bit and made us send for her mom, but she soon forgot and was back sliding and slipping with everybody else.


Elena and Kamryn won the prize for the best toothpick structures.
Sierra created a "spongebob" as her structure. Unfortunately spongebob keeps creeping back into our home, I've kicked him out so many times!

I'm trying to remember why I made them all sit in the pool for a picture. At least one kid got hurt, I know that much.

Sierra was so happy to finally get her brown puppy dog webkinz that she's been asking for for months and months.
Noah is our neighbor and one of Sierra's best friends. He was the only boy but I know he didn't care one bit.
Many cute gifts for Sierra. If you ask her if she liked her birthday party she says: "Good" with a big smile. I love throwing birthday parties for the kids, they deserve to be spoiled rotten at least once a year.