chowder wearing glasses.

i completely love my dog... especially when he puts up with my silliness just long enough to take a nerdy picture of him wearing glasses. oh how i love a chowder.

ps... i couldn't decide which one i liked more, so you get both. you're welcome.

june bug.

i am positive that if the devil has a favorite bug it is the june bug. they are the nastiest, stupidest little bugs. very little makes me happier than a june bug on it's back frantically swinging it's little legs around trying to flip over. yep. tell the devil i say "hey" when you get back to where you're from, little june bug.

30 years.

the parentals celebrated their 30th anniversary on july 30. we are pretty excited for them. it's a pretty huge thing these days. well... we, the children, made them a book of 30 reasons why we love them. and  i have to admit... it was pretty fantastic. we sure do love them.

my dad gave my mom a pearl ring [us girls might have picked it out]. btdubs, the 30th anniversary is the "pearl anniversary"...

and mom gave dad personalized and pearlized m&m's... with their little faces on them and everything! they were fantastic...

funny thing is, that's all they thought they were getting, BUT! us kids had started planning a surprise party for them a couple of months ahead. dad actually knew about it... but mom sure didn't. [a little bit of background info on our family. we don't do surprises and we don't really do secrets... in fact, i can't remember why we even decided on a surprise party. we like to talk to each other. and we are really good at it. so i'm still pretty shocked that we actually kept it a surprise!]

we sent out invitations... see how adorable they were?

and then changed the date, so we sent out another on... still just as cute. 

skip ahead to the day of... i was freaking out. aunt nancy was coming into town and mom wasn't wanting to leave the house. we had to work fast with nancy to get her out of the house.... then she didn't want to put makeup on. we finally convinced her to put mascara on... good thing too or else she wouldn't have been happy with us. they finally left the house so I could start decorating... Austin did an ice and dr. p run. it was much needed. 

kelsey came in a day early from utah and austin and the sanders came up and we were working feverishly to get everything ready in 3 hours. amazingly enough, everything came together just how i envisioned it. 

the guests showed up, then the parent's showed up... and mom was super duper surprised. we definitely won. the night continued with lots of laughs, stories, and yummy yummy food [and fabulous decorations].

the toast...

thank you to all those who made our parent's surprise party a success. we sincerely appreciate your love and friendship. 

and to mama and daddy... you truly are the perfect example of a happy couple, proud parents, and an eternal marriage. 

we love you!!

summer birthdays...

in our family, we have 3 birthday's within 1 month... mine included... which, btdubs, was awesome this year. i got to go to dinner and a movie with my bestie bests on my birthday, pizza with the besties on saturday, sunday dinner [and presents] with my besties and fam on sunday, and then a baseball game with the besties and family on monday. it was a bit of a palooza. and it was fantastic.

anyway. getting back to the moral of this story...

apparently we are all getting old and need help blowing out our birthday candles... and who comes to the rescue? our lovely miss hayley! i don't think i could have blown out all 25 of my candles this year without her help... thanks, jellybean!

..........

and just for fun... thanks y'all for a great birthday :)

eyebrows...

i love saturdays.

and i love chowder with eyebrows. 

and i can't stop laughing.

:)

pool time fun...

have i ever told you how much i love summers in arizona? well... i do. so many people complain about them, but i tell ya... nothing beats a june day spent in the pool. i wish i could spend more days like today... but unfortunately i am a grown up now... working a full time job and junk. it just makes me appreciate pool days all the more. 

hayley even started swimming today... which is a legit first. she was in a little floatie, but she was kicking and kicking her legs! she started out on the lagoon, but quickly figured out that she could go to the deep end... she did so so good! we are all excited to have her actually swimming with us and not just playing on the step. 

i can't figure out how to post a video on here... 

so instead you get a post-swimming pic of hayley & papa.

also... we i thoroughly enjoy putting chowder in the pool. he probably doesn't really like it in the moment, but it's got to help cool him down in these hot summer days right? and it makes me laugh. so it happens. 

dad & austin got flippers and snorkel masks a couple months ago (they are getting ready to go on a big scuba trip) and we love playing with them in the pool. and hayley loves playing with the flippers and masks too! 

good heavens, i love this girl! 

we ended our pool day with otter pops. classic! ps... today was hayley's first otter pop! what a good day for her! hahaha...

it's summer!

if you recall from last year around this time... hayley kept talking about how excited she was to go in the big pool, but she never actually got in [see here]. this year.... it was pretty hot outside, the pool was warming up, and hayley was jumping up and down by the pool saying, "it's summer! it's summer!" apparently adrian had been telling her that she could go swimming when it was summer. well... she did pretty good in the big pool, but she loved the little kiddy pool that my dad picked up. he also got a new slide. check it out. this little girl loved the set up :)

papa & austin also brought home some seashells for her from mexico...

she kept getting a wedgie. it was making me laugh...

one of her many trips atop the slide...

she slipped on this one... and i just so happened to catch it. 

i seriously start lol'ing every time i look at it... :)