jeSSa dEAr

I have said it before and I will say it again.  We have the greatest friends!  Jessa had a fun birthday dinner that we all dressed up for.  P.s. I love getting to dress up.  We grilled mini pizzas that went along with a yummy menu.  Afterwards we reminisced by watching some pretty embarrassing videos of half of us when we all lived together.  Ah, good times.  I love the pictures of Rafe man with his stash.  He wants to be like Gramps some day.

pOwERfuL PINK

In my Mom's family there are 5 girls and 2 boys.  G-bird is always getting together with her sisters and Mother for fun little trips. During the Summer my Mother, Grandma, and my two Aunts {Carol was on a cruise} came up to visit My Aunt Yevon.  She sadly was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She is one of the most amazing women I know.  Ever since June of 2003, when I moved to Utah County, she has been taking care of me.  Literally.  To this day she still invites me and now my family over for dinner pretty frequently.  I have always felt at home in her home.  When I was single this was huge.  I never felt far from my family even though they were 3 hours away because technically I had family in Orem.  I even once upon a time lived with them for a few months while in the search of an apartment.  Adam absolutely loves the Romneys and we both feel so blessed to get to live so close to them.  One of my goals in life is to be more like my Aunt Von.  She is the kindest lady you will ever meet.  Service is at the top of her list.  I want to open up my home like her and invite different groups of people over for Sunday dinner.   I love that she does that.  It's always hard watching amazingly strong people go through incredibly hard trials.  We know that in the end it will only make her a stronger person, but still... it just sucks that she has to be one of the many women that goes through this particular trial.  Thank goodness for her loving sisters and mom who can put a instant smile on her face.  Just keep on smiling Vonnie!  There is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

tHe WeDdiNG

At the beginning of August Adam's youngest brother Dan got married.  His bride, Ashlyn, was beautiful in her dress!  They got married at the Draper temple {which is a favorite of mine} in the afternoon.  I was able to snap some pictures of them around the temple grounds before they had to head in for the sealing.  I wished I would have taken more pictures through out the day.  I realized when the long day was over I only had one picture with me in it and it was taken on Adam's i-phone and I looked stoned or something from being so tired.  Oh well.  It was nice getting to just sit back and relax. I love the picture I got with Adam and Rafe man.  Their colors were bright orange and green and the families defiantly represented.  My Mother-in-law made all the little girls skirts.  She is pretty amazing like that.  After the sealing they had a luncheon at Moses and Vicki's and then the reception followed there as well.  Poor Rafe's eyes got sunburned so he looked stoned as well.  It was a long day but also a good one.  We just love Ashlyn and think that her and Dan are the perfect match.

sPuDMan #2

This was Adam's second year participating in the Spudman triathlon.  The only thing he didn't love about it the first time was that he had to do it alone.  So this year he talked his oldest brother Steve and his buddy Jordan into training with him and doing it.  He was able to train a little bit better this year because his school load was a little lighter and his job now has way better hours including Saturdays off.  I can't wait until he is all done with school and can really enjoy stuff like this even more.  Jordan is a pilot and just happens to have a plane, so they decided last minute to just fly to Burley the day before.  They had to take out most of the seats on the plane so they could fit their bikes.  It would of been a 3 1/2 hour drive but instead it was a 45 minute trip. Once again I missed out, but my sweet parents took care of them.  They dropped off their truck at the Burley airport so they could do their thing and get around.  They started crazy early in the morning on Saturday July 28th.  Steve was in a different age group so he actually started a few minutes after Adam and Jordan.  They all did awesome!  Steve had the fastest time out of the 3 which I think is pretty impressive for being the oldest. Adam beat his time by 10  minutes from last year.  He finished with a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes.  My Dad took some pictures of them when they all finished and I loved the one of them standing in front of the Sunrise Nursery sign. I got a good laugh from that.    Well done awesome husband of mine!

bRiDE to BE

Before the Densley wedding my Sister-in-law Randee and I threw a bridal shower for Ashlyn.  It was fun getting to throw it with Randee because we have similar taste and both love things to to be lovely.  It was a great turn out!  I think more people showed up than invitations sent out which is always a good thing for showers in my opinion.  The more the merrier.  We had yummy food and enjoyed watching Ashlyn open her gifts.  I am so happy to have another fun sister-in-law added to our awesome family.  It's kinda crazy... I grew up being the only girl with four older brothers, and now I have 10 awesome sister-in-laws who I love and adore.  Yep. I'm pretty luck.

p.s. can you tell what her colors were?

rEuNiOn #1

In July we went to the Smith reunion up at Heise just past Idaho Falls.  We camped there for two fun nights and enjoyed some good food, good fun and good people.  They had the greatest swimming pools and slide.  They guys went golfing in the morning while the girls and kids went for a bike ride.  After that we played at the pool pretty much all day long.  It was great!  I loved capturing some of the gangs faces as they got to the bottom of the slide.   Rafe loves the water and did great being out all day.  A favorite was watching all the guys do some crazy dives off the diving board.  We missed my oldest brother Cam and his family {Beau was able to come join the fun} but hopefully next year we will have all of us.  The last picture is all the grandchildren minus Bailey and Brody.  Bubba and Suz did a great job planning our first Smith reunion.  They passed the duties onto Dust and Dae for next year.  Can't wait to see what they come up with.

LAnD of tHe FrEE

The 4th is my favorite holiday.  It even beats Christmas on my list.  This year we stayed home since it was in the middle of the week.  Adam got up bright and early that morning and went and ran the 10k.  He is the bomb.  I'm not going to lie.  I kinda cried a little bit when he got home and I realized I didn't have a fun  red, white, and blue breakfast planned. Yeah. I'm silly like that.  We got ready and went to the Provo parade.  In the 8 years that I have lived in this area this was my first time going.  Oh boy! There were a ton of people.  We walked all over trying to reach my Aunt Von and her family to sit with.  She is another die hard 4th of July lover as well.  On our walk over I spotted a kid that had camped out the night before for a spot on the sidewalk.  He was in his sleeping bag... asleep... as the parade was going by. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?  I got a good laugh over that.  My cousin Andy was laughing at the parade and how he thought it was pretty lame.  Apparently he has never seen the Rupert parade.  I thought it was great!  The rest of the day we hung with our friends Jordan and T.  In the evening we met up with Adam's brother Dan and his {at the time} fiance.  We got a pizza and watched the fireworks.  Rafe loved it.  He loves to party.  I don't think he feel asleep until like 11.  It was a very chill and relaxed holdiay.

LovELy coUPLe

This post should wrap up our June.  Adam's cousin Hayes got married to the nicest girl alive.  We just love them together.  Adam would probably say his Aunt Annette and her family are some of his favorite people.  He did the most with these cousins growing up.  We loved getting to join in all the wedding festivities.  I'm a pretty big fan of weddings and Hayes and Calli's was quite magical.  She has great taste and is very creative.  We are super happy to have her as part of our extended family.

fAtHERs dAY

I came across these pictures and I thought they were too cute not to post.  It was fun getting to celebrate Father's Day and a Mother''s Day this year.  This was Adam's day.  I got him a new tie, but not the one pictured.  He gave Rafe one of his old ties as a chew toy. Yeah. We pretty much give him anything that makes him smile. Yes. We will probably pay for that later on. This is one happy Father.

Los

It's fun having all of Adam's family close by.  At the beginning of the Summer all the girls took advantage of just that and got together for dinner at Los Hermanos.  It's a yummy Mexican restaurant that has the best horchata out there.  I love girls nights.  I'm so thankful for a husband that is willing to watch the little guy while I take a few hours off every so often.  This was a fun night.

P.s. which of Adam's sister's do you think looks the most like him?  Just curious!
{top left to right - his fun Mother Vicki, youngest sister Melissa, yours truly, bottom left to right - Jessica, Emily, oldest sister Tiffany, and Randee another awesome sista-in-law}

cOusinS

At the begining of June my cousin Cody got married to a cute girl.  Their wedding was up in Idaho Falls so Adam and I went and stayed with my brother Gareth and his family in their beautiful new house for the weekend. Oh my, it's amazing! I dream of having a kitchen like theirs some day. It's always fun catching up and hanging with fam.  Cody's wedding was so lovely and I was happy to see some cousins that I hadn't seen in a long time.  Cody and Andrea {she's the cutie in the white with curly hair} were the only cousins we had that lived in Rupert, so we all have fun memories of them.  My memories mostly consist of  getting babysat by Andy and being scared of their huge dog Goose. Anywho, I love the pic with my Dad and his 2 brothers.  There is always a lot of laughter when the Smiths get together. Love it!