dive, dive, dive....

if you recall... last year we redid our pool. 

it went from that....

to this...

we are still ooh-ing & ahh-ing :)

well... the only down side to our redo was that we lost our diving board. it was kinda broken anyway and we had plans on replacing it, but that didn't happen... until this last weekend.

our year without a diving board has finally come to an end. and we couldn't be happier.

austin got the privilege of breaking it in...

zac might have gotten a jump in there too...

yay for summer!

::

also... my friend danielle made the martha stewart 1234 cake recently and we decided to give it a go too. we actually made it last weekend. it didn't turn out well at all. so... we did it again this weekend and instead of making a cake from scratch we just used a boxed cake mix... it turned out much better. it was delicious.

oh balls....

so once upon a time i got a little puppy. well, this puppy has been growing and growing... and the time has finally come that he get fixed aka get neutered aka get his little puppy balls chopped right off. it's been quite the experience. he was pretty sad looking that first day.... and then we put him in the cone of shame... he's pretty dorky looking. i love it. 

summer fun...

so i'm back to babysitting duty now that i have some extra time on my hands. yesterday, kelsey and i went down and picked up the niece. she was talking about "swimming in the water" all morning long.... so we came back up to our house to go swimming, but if you recall from our memorial day bust hayley does not like the pool yet. kelsey was certain that we would get her in today. yeah. that didn't happen. she still loves throwing stuff in... but she will not get in past the first step [the water goes up to about her ankles. lol]. so instead we kinda just tooted around until lunch time. then she went down for a nap and we all went back outside to tan. it was a fun day. 

chowder is pretty good being outside with us... he just lays in the shade and watches all of us. i still think that he would like the water... especially when everyone else is in it and having fun. it's kinda like the hayley situation... if they'd just get in i'm sure they would love it! haha...

kelsey and i also taught hayley the wow thing... you know when make "w's" with your fingers and put it up to your face and say "wow" all types of sarcastically... with your mouth making an "o" ... you know the one? anyway... it was funny. hayley was doing it last night. we are pretty much the coolest aunts ever. 

and here are a few more funny hayley faces... just because she is so stinking cute!

:)

bowling...

today mom, austin, little zac, and kelsey & i went bowling.

we had some good frames [double strikes, high five mom]... 

and we had some bad frames [double nothings, neener neener tino].

we had some super fast balls [me @ 17.8 mph]... 

and some really slow balls [little zac @ 1.1mph]. 

we had some yummy snacks [popcorn, french fries & pretzels]...

and some scary incidents with coke [ahem... little zac].

haha... anyway. it was fun. kelsey won one game [it was also my worst], but we are all very proud of her! mom is still a beast and had the highest combined score [for the three games]. 

and austin's ball matched his shirt. funny. 

and we got a couple videos of our few strikes [thanks to little zac's wicked fun iPhone]. i think everyone got at least one strike. austin even got a couple left-handed.

aloha...

so... once upon a time, nicole got set apart as activities chairman. we had a lot of good times planning a lot of good activities.... and then she got married and i inherited the calling.

my first big activity was a luau. we have some polynesian boys in our ward who put on a show... they sang and danced and were absolutely fantastic! we also have a lady in our home ward who is hawaiin and did the food for us. she made pork and rice and potato salad. we also had fruit and rolls. it was seriously awesome!

i have to admit, i was a little bit nervous... and a little bit stressed, but it turned out amazing... we had tons of food and tons of fun! i think the approximate head count was 250. from what i hear people liked it :)

i was kind of running around during a lot of it... so my awesome zac took pictures for me (that... and it is his calling. haha)... so, here we go...

what a day...

we had the elders over for dinner tonight. austin grilled hamburgers.... they were yummy. but look at what he did to his...

haha... grandpa only took half a bun, so austin took it upon himself to not let the other half go to waste. what a goober he is. lol...

afterwards... he and i were supposed to do the dishes. instead we went outside and dipped out toes in the pool. we got new rafts from costco today, they are wicked sweet. i wanted to see if they were tall enough that i wouldn't get wet... so... i tried it (still in regular clothes)... needless to say, it didn't work. but! they are going to be wicked awesome tanning rafts.

i'm stoked.

we've been trying to get chowder used to the pool and the rafts (he barks every time they are floating in the pool... it's funny). so he floated with us today. chowder makes me smile.