Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Our Favorite Pictures from Summer 2012
3 1/2 Years Later
2012 Summer: we spent a lot of the time at the beach, at Busch Gardens and a lot of time in our pool. Parker and Zach are both on swim teams and Max plays football. We went down to the RITZ in Sarasota for the 4th of July. It was so much fun. We met the Hunters there. Great fireworks, great hotel, great fun!
Summaries:
Parker: He is now 15. This summer he went to scout camp, EFY, and youth conference which happened to be a week trip up to Palmyra. They road buses for 30 hours with no electronic devices. They went to Niagara Falls, they even did the Lady of the Mist. They went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. They took family names in and did temple work in the Palmyra Temple. The held testimony in the Sacred Grove. Went to all the church sites in Palmyra. And then spent a day in Washington DC, going through all the museums. He had a great time. He also has been training for swim and doing swim team with a private coach whom we love. He also is almost an eagle scout, he just has his project to do. He is a great kid. Super fun, happy, compassionate, and dependable. We are so lucky he is our first and oldest.
Zach: He is 13. Zach went to scout camp this summer also. He is a Life Scout. He is swimmer and is super good at backstroke. He is also on a private swim team and doing great. He just made the 7th grade basketball team too. It has been really fun to be Zach's mom this last year and watch him mature. He has the driest, most hilarious sense of humor. He loves Jim Carey and Ace Ventura as much as I do. Zach is very specific about the things he chooses to buy, which usually makes him the riches one in the house. He'd rather save his money for the exact thing he wants rather than buy the cheap knock off. He takes after his dad in that area:) He is also a great student.
Max: Max is 10. Max is our football star. He is the lightest one on his team, but also one of the tallest and toughest. In his first game the other team's coach yells, " When you've got them on the ground, step on their necks!" And this is when the other team was up 32-0. I thought for sure Max was going to end up hating it and I was preparing myself for the worst. But after the game, I asked him how he liked it and he said, "I Loved It!" Max is a super fun kid. He makes friends everywhere he goes. He teachers always love him and he's very academic. Max is very passionate about everything he does which makes him super fun.
Gabby: She is 7. She is the best big sister we have ever seen. She loves baby Spencer to death and is always taking care of him. They even share a room and when he has nightmares we don't hear about it til the next morning because she always takes care of it. She is very athletic. She loves to do gymnastics, ride her bike, swim, and run. I cannot wait until we can do a race together. She loves to do hair. Since kindergarten, she has been doing her own hair. Whenever I try to do her hair she recognizes that I don't do it exactly like she wants it, so she usually ends up doing it herself. She has decided that she wants to go to hair school during high school. And then she can have a job and put herself through college because she wants to be a nurse. She taught herself how to do a waterfall braid and different braids from watching YouTube videos. She's pretty impressive. And the is definitely a Daddy's girl.
Spencer: He is 3. He is the happiest, craziest, loviest, snuggliest, blondest, loudest child we have ever seen. He is the light of every ones eyes. He can't sit through sacrament, not because of himself, but because everybody else is squeezing, and tickling and making him laugh. They just can't control themselves. We were playing cards the other day, and someone played the 8 of hearts, and Spencer yells out "8". Then we layed out all of the cards and he could tell us their number. We were all impressed. We had no idea he knew his numbers. We are hoping he teaches himself how to read and tie his shoes by himself also.
Destin: He is working as a consultant to pharmaceutical companies. He really likes it. It stretches his brain which he likes. He is elders quorum president AGAIN. It's fine, he's good at it. He has taken the kids fishing a few times since we've moved. He's decided that since everyone else in the family has become good swimmers, that he is going to also. So he's joined up with the boys swim coach and is now doing master swim classes. He has also committed to me that within a few months he will do a sprint triathlon with me. He is an amazing husband and father and the best time of the day is when he comes home from work so we can all be with him:)
Nicole: Me. Well, this has definitely been my year. We have fantastic insurance which I'm afraid will go away with OBAMA care so we decided that it was my turn to have everything fixed in my body that was ruined by five 9+ pound babies. So I had my veins stripped, (OUCH) and I just had my tubes tied and bladder reconstructed. Awesome I know, but I'm hoping to be able to jump on the tramp without having to wear depends. A week before I had my surgery, I completed a triathlon and actually took 3 place in my age group. I was really only hoping to kill it on the bike, but it turned out I did better than I was expecting. The whole family came up for it and now everyone is excited to do another with me. I'm not allowed to do anything for 6 weeks so my body can heal after surgery, but after that, I'm planning starting training for my first half ironman. I figure, FL is the perfect place to train and do these races because it's flat. And honestly, I'm not sure how long we will live here. To move up in Destin's profession he will probably end up in New Jersey (total bummer). I'm so grateful for a prophet who tells us that family should be first, and to not put off having kids. Now that my kids are getting older, more manageable, it is soooo fun to have a big family. I couldn't be happier with my life and where I'm at. Cross my fingers;)
Until another 3 years. Hopefully not!!
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