S'mores!

After Robert's house, we headed to my mom's in Lapoint, Utah.  I love visiting my Mom for a lot of reasons, but one of the big reasons is the great weather and getting a break from the Mesa heat.  One of the grandkids favorite things to do while we are there is to light a fire in her firepit at night.  And who doesn't love a great s'more!

 

Manti Temple

After Bullhead City for the weekend, we headed to Mt Pleasant, Utah, for a couple days to visit my brother and his family.  We did a little sight seeing and tried to get some pictures of the girls in front of the Manti Temple.  Kensley and Pyper were not cooperating and fighting so I decided to have them face the temple for this shot.  It turned out cute, but as you can see, Pyper is trying to push Kensley away!

We also made a stop at a local cemetary to see Orson Hyde's gravesite.

Cousins

Not the best picture in the world, but this is all the Beals' cousins together at the same time!

Happy Birthday Kensley!

Kensley turned five on July 22nd!  We drove to Bullhead City for Stephen's sister's house for the weekend.  Her son turned 12 and was getting the Priesthood.  We decided to have Kensley's birthday party there so she could celebrate with some of her cousins.  Her cousin, Josie, helped her get ready for the party by doing her hair.

Instead of cake, I mader her some cupcakes and decorated them to look like clown faces.

Whenever I went to take a picture of Kensley, she would strike this pose...I have no idea where she got it from.

She asked for bean & cheese burritos for her big birthday bash.  So, I decided to have tostadas for the grown ups with all the fixings....and another picture of Kensley striking a pose!

Happy Birthday to my five-year old!

Kensley opening her presents...

Kensley was very excited about all her presents.  She asked for a pink pogo stick and I won't mention what happened when she opened it and discovered it was green!  Let's just say she learned a life lesson that day!  Hopefully it stuck.

Swimming Lessons

The dreaded swimming lesson season has arrived!  Kensley hates swimming lessons and after last year I had given up.  It was a nightmare to say the least.  I finally talked myself into another round of them for this summer.  Kensley cried for the first 3 days and then after that she did okay.  She still hates going under water and freaks whenever someone tries to get her to.  Stephen took her to most of the lessons, but now that he is the new Young Men's President, I had to take her on the night of mutual.  She was so excited to have me there and spent most of the time showing off for me.

The boy teaching her class was really good about making it fun and played games with them the whole time.  After the class, he told me she was his favorite, he even said this in front of the other mom's!  Hopefully they weren't paying attention!  He did say that the first 3 days weren't good, but after that she was a lot of fun.  Whew!  Glad that is over.  Now I have another year to work myself up for it again.  Some day she will learn to swim.

Organ Stop Pizza

When we got home from camping and were nice and clean, we headed to Organ Stop Pizza to meet up with some friends for dinner.  I had only been once before, but it is always a fun place to go!

Kensley's cousin, Emily, was able to come home with us after camping and spend a week with us.

Pyper enjoying the bubbles coming from the ceiling.

Heading home...

Camping in Sedona

We made a camping trip in Sedona with two of Stephen's sisters.  We arrived first and started setting up camp.  Kensley and Pyper were great helpers and Daddy couldn't have done it without them!

We had two sites right next to each other and we had a pretty good set up if I do say so myself!

We spent the most of the trip yelling out "Where's Pyper?" and "where's Stacee?"  It got really old!  Pyper loved wandering around the campground and exploring her surroundings.

Stephen brought a hammock and it was a big hit.  All the kids were fighting over who got to lay in it next.

Stephen put Pyper in it by herself and it didn't seem like she was enjoying it much!

Stacee and Pyper are at that age where they fight more than anything else.  I had to document them playing together because it was so rare to see them getting along. :o)

We had a good time camping and it was nice to be in a little cooler weather.  We ended up in a campground with no showers, so I was pretty grungy, or a lot grungy, by the end of the trip and very ready for a shower.  I didn't get any pictures to document it, but we also spent one day at Slide Rock and that was SO MUCH FUN!  The water was cold and it was raining, but once I jumped in, I got used to the water and had so much fun sliding down the rocks in the water.  I am so glad we went and hope to do it again someday when it isn't raining!

Fourth of July

Our Fourth of July started out in the morning at the pool. Don't they look so cute in their matching swimsuits?! :o)

Later that night, we dressed up in our patriotic outfits and headed out for some fireworks.

The fireworks ended up kind of lame, in my opinion.  We went too late to get a good spot and ended up in the dirt watching from a distance.

Let Freedom Ring!

On Saturday night, we decided to head to downtown Mesa for the 4th of July celebration and fireworks.  Kensley has been completely obsessed with Pippi Longstocking of late and wanted me to braid her hair like hers.  I was excited to give it a try, but also knew I had no intentions of making the braids stick out like Pippi and hoped Kensley would not be too disappointed with the outcome.  I am not that great with braiding and hair so I was thrilled with the results and Kensley stood still and patient throughtout the whole process.  She was a little sad that her braids didn't stick out, but got over it pretty quickly.  I had to get pictures from every angle to capture her cuteness. :o)

When we loaded in the car, the temperature was still about 107 degrees outside even though the sun was going down.  So, we made sure to pack lots of liquids to stay hydrated and as cool as possible.  Kensley was happy to tote Stephen's camelback on her back and had it in her mouth most of the night.

Last year they had these birds that you could pet and hold, but Kensley wouldn't go near them!  She is kind of a scaredy cat, but she was excited to pet them this year.

At one point, I decided it was time for a cool treat.  I was hot!  We spotted a little ice cream shop off the beaten path and decided to give it a shot.  They had otter pops for .25 so we got Pyper her very first otter pop and she ate the whole thing!

We kept Pyper in the stroller most of the night because she is a huge flight risk.  The second you put her down, she will take off running and doesn't even care what direction she is going.  When the fireworks were about to start, she was freaking out so we decided to let her out and she was excited!

Stephen put Pyper on his shoulders and she HATED it!  I was taking a picture of it while they were singing the National Anthem and right when I did some fireworks went off and I caught this great expression on Stephen's face!

Kensley thought the fireworks were way too loud!  So, I gave her some earplugs and that made her much happier throughout the night.

Pyper didn't even flinch or bat at eye when the fireworks started.  She spent most of the night in this position:

So, I mentioned earlier my fear of dehydration because of the extreme heat.  The heat was awful, too!  I think the high on Saturday was supposed to be 116 degrees!  Yuck!  Anyway, we packed lots of drinks like I said.  We gave Pyper a sippy cup with cold water and ice cubes that we kept filling up and also brought a bottle of milk packed in ice since the festivities would take us out after her bedtime.  Kensley was also constantly drinking from Stephen's camelback.  We were there for about 2 hours and during that time Kensley had to use the gross, discusting port-a-potties THREE times!  That is a big deal for anyone who knows anything about Kensley.  She usually holds it all night when port-a-potties are involved.  When she was using it, she said, "That wasn't scary at all....I was really brave!"  She was especially excited to use the hand sanitizer they had sitting outside of them, which by the way was hot liquid from the heat!  During the fireworks, I realized that Pyper's diaper was really wet and commented on it since I had changed her before we left.  Not two minutes after I said that, I felt warm liquid and realized she had pee'd again and it was leaking all over.  Gross!  When we got to the car, we stripped off her clothes and changed her diaper and drove home like this:

So, dehydrated, my kids definitely weren't!  When we got home, we had to change her diaper again before putting her to bed!

Kensley was also very ready for bed.

All in all, we had a good time and plan to participate in more fireworks celebrations on Monday, when it is the real 4th of July.  This is one of my favorite holidays and I LOVE fireworks....the louder the better! :o)