Good Bye Dinah Bowl

Our little hometown bowling alley closed it's doors a few weekends ago.  The boys love to bowl, so we took them, Lucy and two of my nephews for a last go.  I'm not sure why the bowling alley closed, it's been around for as long as I can remember, but I was sad they had to shut their doors.  Every town needs a bowling alley right?  Thanks for the good times Dinah Bowl.

I forgot my good camera,
so all the pics are courtesy of Dave's phone.

Lincoln

Grant

Kyler

Jace

We Have a Winner!

Our dinner conversation:

Dave: What do you guys think we should name new baby sis?

Linc: ....umm, Peach.

Grant: Cafe Rio!

It's a good thing neither one of them will be naming their own children for a long time!

Mr. Betty Crocker

We've done a lot of baking this summer.  I blame it on the pregnancy and my extreme sweet tooth.  The kids love it and love to help.  I've tried to cut back to only baking treats once (sometimes twice) a week.  About a week ago, Lincoln came to me and Dave and told us he'd made up his own cookie recipe and really wanted to make it.  I can't remember now what he called them, something like yummy cookies or the bestest cookies, but now he calls them Lincoln Cookies.  Dave helped him make them and had to sneak in a few key ingredients that were missing from the list (like baking soda and vanilla).  Lincoln's favorite part about making cookies is eating the dough.  He was really excited to taste the dough from the Lincoln cookies, and when he finally did, his eyes got really big and he got a huge smile on his face and said, "this is the best dough ever!".  He didn't like the baked product as much, but I actually thought they turned out pretty good.  I ate them.  But at this point in my pregnancy, I'll eat pretty much anything that resembles a sweet treat.

Preparing to bake and eating the dough.

She had A LOT of dough. 
Daddy is definitely wrapped around her little finger.

He did most of the making process by himself.

The ingredients for Lincoln Cookies:
1. 1 cup of sugar

2. 2 cups of flour

3. 2 eggs

4. 1 butter (he let Daddy add this)

The Carnival's in Town

As part of our annual county fair, a sweet carnival comes into town for a few nights.  And by sweet I mean the trashiest, ghetto, is this even safe, are you kidding me with these prices- kind of sweet.  But my boys LOVE it and get so excited for it every summer.  This year Grammy and Papa decided to take them for Friday Night Slumber Party.  Which I was totally okay with because 1-the more adults to help, the better (I don't really walk anymore...it's more of a waddle and it's very slow) and B-then Papa would be paying the ridiculous prices for the rides :)  I tried to tell him to buy each of the kids unlimited ride bands (we learned our lesson with that the hard way over the past 2 years), but he was sure that they didn't need them and that the tokens he bought would be more than enough.  He had to go buy more tokens.  Twice.  Lucy wanted to ride everything the boys did, but unfortunately the only thing she was big enough to ride was the carousel.  She rode it three times.  The Martinsen boys (my nephews) aren't know for bravery when it comes to things like rides and coasters, but Kyler did great and rode everything Lincoln and Grant did.  Jace rode what he was tall enough to ride.  Treven rode a few, but mostly watched the other boys ride.  He was using the pretense of being "tired" or basically too cool to ride, but we all knew the poor kid was just a wussy pants.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Grammy and Papa for taking the kids and always having FNSP.

Friday Night Slumber Party Crew

Lincoln showing me his Frankenstein Face.  He does this when he's mad (which has been OFTEN this summer), but thankfully this was just for the sake of me capturing it on camera.

Grant showing me his cheese face.  He's such a skinny bean.

This slide was Lincoln's favorite ride. 

This was Kyler's first ride and he did great.

Jace

Grant

Lincoln

Kyler (being silly)

Treven (this is how he spent most of the time)

The boys looking for a handout from Grammy (as usual)

On to the next ride...

The 5 boys rode this one by themselves.  It was pretty funny to watch them attempt to spin it.  I wish I could have heard what they were saying though.  Or maybe I'm glad I couldn't!

Another rare ride moment with all 5 boys.

Kyler, Grammy, Grant, and Lincoln

Jace wasn't tall enough, Treven's a wuss and Papa supervised.

Lucy and the only ride she could do.  You can't really tell by the pictures, but she LOVED it and had a big smile most of the time.

Taking the princess home for the night.  She doesn't get to actually spend the night yet.  But before we left, Dave took a few pics of his girls.  This is "poo poo face".

This should probably be "super cheese", but it's actually just our normal smiles.

 ***OH! The next day we had a conversation with Lincoln in the car about how he wanted to live at the carnival and go where it went.  I told him there really are people like that and they're called carnies.  He the proclaimed when he grows up he's going to be a carnie.  I laughed.  Dave gave me the "stop encouraging him" face.

Month of July

WARNING: a LOT of random pictures

We took the boys to watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat at the Outlaw Trail Theater.  This was the first year, since we moved to Vernal, that Dave has not been apart of the production.  He missed it a lot, but got to have a little spotlight time during the preshow.  He volunteered for a trivia game and got to spend a few minutes on stage.

The boys liked the show and were excited to meet Joseph afterwards.

Lucy's 4th of July hair-do

Grandpa, and helpers, did homemade ice-cream for our 4th of July dessert.  This little girl loved it and would eat out of every unattended bowl.

Awesome family picture at the county 4th of July fireworks.

Lucy was acting like she was ready to potty train.  So while Dave was gone, see pics below, I attempted to potty train her.  After 5 days (4 of them unsuccessful), I gave up.  She might have been almost ready, but I certainly wasn't.  Sorry Sis. 

I love her squishy bum.

Dave had the opportunity to spend 4 days in Alaska fishing with the men.  My Dad took his 3 brothers, one sister-in-law, both son-in-laws, and one grandson on this grand adventure.  Dave doesn't usually like to fish, but he LOVES doing it Alaska style.  He had a great time and they brought home lots of fish!

On one of the days, Dave caught the 2nd biggest silver salmon of the season.  His name is on the board of fame and everything.  Not too bad considering he's pretty much the only one out of the 8 that went that doesn't actually fish often :)

I attempted to keep the kids, and myself, sane while Daddy was gone.  Grammy took us to the zoo one of the days.  We had a big group and were blessed to have overcast skies most of the time while we were there.  The boys liked it, but lost interest after about an hour.  Lucy was tired and was having a hard time falling asleep in the stroller.  We got a lot of this face.



Grammy attempting to pull the two big boys around in a wagon.  Why the two heaviest got into the same wagon, I'm not sure?  I do know that my Mom definitely got a great arm workout that day!



L-R: Issac, Steph, Mom, Gma, Olivia, Grunt, Linc, Jace, Kyler, Hannah, Scott, Lucy, McKayla, Amy, Brinlee, Guy, and Me.  Gpa was taking the pic so he didn't make it in :(

Top: Kyler
Bottom: Grant, Lincoln and Jace.



We were all VERY excited to have our Daddy home.  Pretty sure the kids didn't leave his side for a full 24 hours :)  He got lots and lots of attention and love.

Boys playing at The Little Red Barn.  It's a set up that the county fair does every year and my boys love it.  It's one of the highlights of the summer every year for them.

Lucy got to participate for the first time this year.  She didn't really know what to think though. 

Carnival time!  I'll do an entire post of this night.

I made it to 30 weeks!  This pregnancy has been the hardest for me.  I've decided I'm too old to be pregnant :)  Thankfully, baby sister seems to be doing great and is VERY active!

Drive-in movie with the boys.
Tried once with Lucy and it wasn't a good idea. 
Second time we went we took just the boys and had a great time.

Lots of backyard time.  Sometimes dressed, sometimes in swim suites, most the time in undies.

Lincoln has been playing golf 1-2 times a week with Treven and Kyler and Coach McCurdy.  He enjoys it, but I think he's still a year or two too young to really want to get after it.  Grandpa is hoping to have some golf buddies, and I'm hoping that once Linc gets a little older, he'll really start to enjoy it.

LOTS of naps this summer at our house.  I usually let the boys sleep in my bed with me.  Grant on my right.

Lincoln on my left.

Girlfriend takes at least one nap a day in her crib, but on the days I can't get her down for a second nap, she just sleeps where she can.  She's great about sleeping her in car seat.

Lucy's been sick twice this month!  This first time wasn't so bad and didn't last too long...

This second time has been terrible and she's had an awful cough for 4 days now.  Lots of snuggle time from Mommy and lots of cartoons and relaxing.

The boys watching an awesome lightening storm with Daddy.