*First up... Jake graduated from his AEGD program August 6th. Woo hoo!! Rick and Sherry came to Vegas for the graduation and Jake took off with Rick and Daniel the day after to go hike Mt. Whitney. Ill have to do a Mt. Whitney post some other time. They had quite the adventure! Since we were out of our house, the first week of August was spent at Aliante Station hotel/casino. Staying at the hotel with two kids for a week wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We did lots of swimming/DS playing/movie watching. There were some tasty restaurants and an IMAX/movie theater downstairs. No complaining here when I don't have to cook!
So, back to graduation... it was nice. Jake's commander talked about the strengths of each AEGD resident and gave them advice. He told Jake to look to his dad for an example. Everyone seems to know Rick in the AF dental world! This was time to say goodbye to the other AEGD residents. We're going to miss the other them and their families!
*Luke and Sherry got into some serious Mario Kart at the hotel. It was funny watching them play!
We had a great time with mom and dad Smith! Sherry and I followed each other down to Arizona after the guys took off for their trip.
*Before we left Vegas Jake and Luke went to see Lance Burton. Both were pretty impressed with his magic :)
*While in Arizona Luke got to watch David, Daniel, Todd, and Dak fly their remote-controlled planes and LOVED it. He keeps asking me if he can get one. Here's Luke and Davy:
*Shauna gave Jake and I massages. So great! Davy is one lucky boy to have a massage therapist in the house!
*I got to do a lot of studying and finished a paper I had been dreading for a long time!! Thanks mom for watching the kids for me so much!
*The kids got to run around like crazy with the cousins! We had a lot of dinners with Melanie, Joe and kids, and Ben and Hailey and their kids. Here's Kate and Ella being funny with their ice cream.
*Glad we got to soak up the sun for a month before heading over here to the UK! Waking up to 100 degrees meant we did lots of swimming too.
*The kids couldn't get enough otter pops!
*Swimming!! We swam almost every day.
*Dak and baby Amy! That cute little girl loves the water too!
*Mom, Luke, and Dak had some cannon ball contests. Luke is super proud of himself that he's got his cannon balls DOWN. haha. :)
*The cutie twins and cousins in Rick and Sherry's pool!
*Uncles were trying to fling the kids up as high as they could. The freeze frame shots of them in the air were too funny not to post!
*Went to Melanie and Joe's house one day to dip all sorts of goodies in chocolate at Collin's chocolate party!
*Got my Vegas edition of blog book in the mail!!
*Drove over to Organ Stop Pizza one night with the Gift side of the fam!
*Mom and Dad took us jet-skiing one weekend. I love it and hadn't been for a while. Thanks dad! I let Luke drive us around for a minute and he tipped us. Good times! Ella wasn't a fan at first but by the end was enjoying it. Actually, she fell asleep at the very end of our ride. Our kids can fall asleep anywhere except for their beds. Go figure. Canyon lake is so pretty. I was too sissy to carry my camera much around the water, so these are pretty much all the pics I got.
*We got to meet baby Abby!! Another Smith cutie pie and a snuggle bug! Seriously super snugly baby. It was fun holding her! We found out Davy and Shauna are expecting next spring... fun news!
*Todd and Luke got the old KNEX set out and went to town!
*Mom took us to the Commemorative Air Force Museum in Mesa. Luke was in heaven. Even got to sit in a cockpit. He scored some cool toy planes too!
*Ben, Hailey, and kids stayed at Rick and Sherry's house while we were there too. Great to see them before they headed off to Manhattan! Mel and I gathered up the kids one night before dinner to get a picture.
We got to hang out with Abby and Chris one weekend too, but I must not have gotten any pictures. It was fun hanging out at IKEA with you guys!
We missed Jake for a total of about three weeks since he went on the hiking trip and then had to work in Vegas for 2 weeks after that while the kids and I were in Arizona. He was able to drive down and hang out with everyone before we took off to CA.
So, there's August in a nutshell. Good times living out of suitcases, and lots of fun with family in the Arizona heat!
1 comment:
What a great way to end the summer here. All the kids are so big now. It's so fun when they get together and play.
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