Baptism Dress Photo Shoot

 My amazing friend took these of Ella in her dress, love them, love her!

{Ellas' Baptism}

 It's a surreal experience when your oldest child gets baptized. It seemed there was no way she was old enough yet. We had a combined baptism with Ella and her cousin Brynlee. What a cool experience this was to have all of her family there with her that day, except Papa, and Ryan and Kiley and family.

 Above:My sister Jenna, my mom, Me, and the girls Brynlee and Ella.

 Below: Grandpa and Grandma Thompson

We had the baptism at 4pm, so right afterwards we had a dinner for everyone. Scott made his divine pulled pork, and we had many sides, plus a cake honoring the special girls.

Nana spoiled them with gifts. We gave Ella her own set of scriptures.

 Here's my whole family (missing Fred)

I wish we got some more pictures of everyone else who showed up, especially a group one of the Thompson side. Steven and Kassie and their 3 girls were there, and Robbie's sister Sue & Mike were there. We also had some dear friends show: Danielle Olsen and kids, and Stephanie Christensen and Sage.  Charlie also had a bunch of his family travel to Boise for the occasion. Such a wonderful day!

{Ella is 8}

 Ella turned 8 during our family reunion in Park City.  She was so lucky to get to have a party with all her cousins she doesn't get to see much.  She picked out an oreo cake from the bakery, so good.

 Party time!

 She was so spoiled by her aunts, uncles, cousins and Nana! Thanks everyone for making her feel special!

Boating & Camping

 Scott's parents bought a new boat this summer, and we enjoyed a day/evening out on Cascade Lake.

 Swimming in it felt so refreshing!

 Scott is in scouts in the ward, and was in charge of High Adventure. He also took the opportunity to take the kids camping and fishing MANY times this summer, and is not done yet.

Summer Baseball

 My kids and I love baseball, Star does it during the summer.  And we were gone 2 out of the 6 games, and and I was sick most of the summer (pregnant) and so I only made it to 2 games myself to watch. So, I didn't get to take as many pictures as I'd like of them playing. But Ella LOVES baseball, more than Cole. I think she gets it from me. I love baseball. Scott and I played in a co-ed adult team again this year. We were undefeated last year, but not the case this year.  It was the same team, but everyone's schedules of traveling weren't great so most of our team most games were made of subs... so we made it in 6th place to the tournament, losing to a team that bad talked us the entire time and the one time we had a 5 min. torrential rainstorm, we were in the outfield, and the other team scored too many for us to ever catch up.

But Ella LOVES baseball. At her age, it's still coach pitch, so she stood right behind the coach, when the person up to bat hit the ball, she always caught it and threw it to 1st base getting him out. It was the best thing to watch! She was great!

 Cole had a great team as well. He just didn't love it as much as his sister. He's getting better at hitting, and still needs work on catching! Love him and his positive attitude during the games.

{California Adventure: Day 3}

Day 3 at Disneyland we spent the day at California Adventure. The first time for every single one of us.
While Craig & Robbie took Ella and Cole on Soaring over California ride, we took Brock to get a sword since Cole got one at Disneyland. He was stoked!! Then Scott and I were able to take the older kids, such a fun ride. Then we took all the kids to the Nick Jr. Show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The kids absolutely loved seeing Sophia the First and Jake and the Never-land Pirates. Brock danced in the back the entire show.

Then we went to Aladdin Play. We got 3rd row seats since we were near the front of the line, we all loved this. Such an amazing theatrical experience. There were elephants coming in from all corners of the theater, magical carpet rides flying over our heads, and more.

In a Bug's Life we took the kids on a few kiddy rides.

 We did the premium character dinning with our Disneyland package, and chose to eat at Ariel's Grotto. A pretty cool experience. Amazing food, and the kids got to get signatures from most every princess. Not sure if it was worth the $150, but I'm glad we went.

 Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Tiana

 The food.... very fancy, delicious. Even the kid's hot dog was an octopus! The desserts were delish!

 We ran into the army guys from Toy Story. They did this little routine for the kids, Cole thoroughly enjoyed it.

 We also ran into a street show in the middle of Cars Land. I think this was my favorite place. Looked EXACTLY like the movie Cars. And the Racing Cars ride in Radiator Springs was so fun, probably my favorite ride, even Cole who was scared to ride it, LOVED it.

 Craig, Scott and I went on the Tower of Terror.... and I regretted it later since I got SO sick. But they loved it.

 At night I watched Brock while everyone else went on Grizzly Rapids, then I went on there with them all while the grandparents watched Brock and got in line for the World of Color show. It was a fun ride, but I got soaking wet. Good thing I always brought sweatshirts for nighttime. We also took our kids to the scouting area right next to the grizzly rapids ride. There was zero line and the kids got to do these mini zip lines, so fun for them!

 The World of Color is AMAZING, so much more incredible than Fantasmic at Disneyland. The fire bursts make you hot, even from 500 feet back, the bubbles that come out from all the light poles, the music and the show is unreal. Such a fun experience to share with our family.

{Disneyland: Day 2}

Day 2 of Disneyland was just as amazing. We made sure to get there early to meet the characters!

 We did a couple kid rides in the morning until we met up with Scott's parents. We met at Mickey's Magical Map show, so fun for the kids to watch all the disney characters come to life.

 Then we went to Tomorrowland where Cole was dying to meet Ironman, Thor, Captain America and other super heroes.  Cole and Ella did this interactive ride where he turned into Ironman, so cool for them.

 Then we waited in line for Thor.... the biggest attraction there, and such a long line.

 But it was an incredible experience. They put us into this chamber where we read the history of Thor and his people, and then we were taken down in an elevator, a small group at a time. And they open the doors and all this smoke and then the lights turn on and Thor is standing there at the top of his throne.  He gives his little speech and asks someone from the audience to come help him lift his hammer. I was surprised when Cole didn't go and Ella went.

One thing I am so happy I bought in advance were these individual battery-operated fans that kept the kids cool during the lines. Especially while Brock slept, I made sure his fan was hitting him in the face. Oh, and a sit-n-stand stroller, worked great to fit all 3 kids in there, if I really needed to (at night when they were all tired).

 Cole tried with all his might to pull the sword out of the stone... but no luck!

 Oh, and we were constantly eating.... we snacked and snacked all day. I bought tons of individualized snack packs from Costco before the trip and every morning I packed their individual mickey mouse backpacks full of their own snacks and water bottles for the day, including cotton candy. We bought plenty of food there too, my favorite probably these huge turkey legs you can get for $10, enough to feed 2 adults for one meal. So tender and juicy. Everyone told us we HAD to get the corn-dogs... they were ok, just like the ones at the fair.

 We did a ton of kiddy rides this day, including the train ride, Peter Pan, Mr. Toad's wild ride, The boat ride... all of the ones in Fantasy Land.  We also took the ferry over to Mark Twain's island and let the kids explore some.

 Every night we watched Fantasmic, the water show over the water. The 2nd night I wanted to ride Splash Mountain, while Scott's parents were with the kids during the night show. It was late and I didn't want to be cold and wet walking home, so I'm the shiny one in the poncho. So much fun, not as scary as I remember it as a kid. With a TON of convincing we got his parents to go right after us. They loved it, and stayed longer than us that night, due to their energy of conquering Splash Mountain.