14 Years!

Scott and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary on June 26th! It was the day before we left for girls camp. The house was ripped apart, but Scott took me out to dinner and we brought home ice cream to share. Ice cream cheers for year 14!

Every year I am surprised that another year has passed! We have lived a lot of life and had some hard learning experiences along the way, and I am SO grateful that Scott has been by my side the entire time! He is always there with a good joke, a hug and a new way to fix my problems. I feel so blessed that I get to live my life with him!

Jemma's Eye Doctor Appointment

At Jemma's routine eye exam this year, we discovered that her eyes couldn't "converge". Where our eyes (typically) pull two images together and display them as one, Jemma's eye see 2 different images. For years, we have battled tired eyes, not being able to read for a long time, struggling to look at bright computer screens, etc. We took her to the eye doctor in Kindergarten (because of all the complaints). He couldn't see that she was having problems seeing, but if she was struggling to read--lets get her glasses. So we did.

The glasses really didn't help. We got her glasses for a few years. We finally saw a new eye doctor, and he told her she didn't need glasses. He was convinced she was reading in ill lighting, for too long. He also wondered if her problems were due to seasonal allergies. He suggested cold wash cloths, maybe her eyes were irritated, etc. None of those things really seemed to help.

Finally, this summer, we discovered that her problems were because of her convergence (or inability to converge). We decided to schedule an eye appointment with our pediatric Opthamologist (Yes, we have one of those. Thanks, Quinn!) The soonest appointment we could get was in 3 weeks, and the appointment was in Vineyard, UT. (I didn't realize how far away Vineyard was from us! Phew!) We wanted to get in as soon as possible, so we made the drive.

The other tricky part of the eye exam was that Scott was gone to his seminary meetings in Price. He couldn't miss them, but thankfully, Grandma Bagley, was willing to take the other 7 kids so I could run Jemma up! It was a Jemma/Mom day of fun. (That was filled with me driving 6+ hours, and I am terrible at driving solo!)

Jemma was nervous, but ti went really well. He did a thorough eye exam and he gave her several exercises to practice converging, and we have a follow up appointment in a couple months!

We had to stop at the Red Barn for an ice cream cone on the way home!

Macey's 13th Birthday!

Macey is 13!!! I can't believe that I have a child this old. (I have memories from when I was 13!) The best part about having a summer birthday is having every one home to celebrate! We started off the morning with Mickey, chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast!

 Uncle Kevin and Aunt Blair sent Macey a fun Disney wallet for birthday!

We wanted to go do something fun for Macey's birthday. The movie "Inside Out 2" actually came out on her birthday (and it's about a 13 year old girl experiencing puberty)...it seemed like the perfect movie to go celebrate with!

The boys got sick of sitting in their seats, and they just sat right next to us (with their cups of popcorn!) in the aisle!

We went home and had dinner, cake and ice cream!

Owen didn't like that he didn't get to blow out the candles...

....so we quickly lit them again, and let the boys blow them out!

Park Lunch!

We always enjoy our summer park lunches! Our school district is able to provide lunch for children 0-18 for free. They provide lunch Monday-Thursday at a park by our Elementary school. I'll be honest, there are always things that aren't that great, but this summer's menu was pretty rough. We ate lunch there when we could, but numbers always seemed to be scarce and the food options were a little rough!

The Hogle Zoo!

We knew that this summer would be a slower-vacation summer, so we wanted to get something that would be fun for the kids to do! We decided to get a family zoo membership. Now that the twins are officially 3 years old, we officially get to buy tickets for 10 people...and that adds up quickly! We did the math, and we figured out, if we went to the zoo at least 2 times in a year, we would get more than our money's worth! We made it a priority, and this summer, we went to the zoo twice! I'm sure we will go again before our year is up!

Harper was a baby the last time we went to the zoo, and so our 4 younger kids really didn't know/remember the zoo! They loved being able to see all the animals! We packed in a picnic lunch, rode the carousel and observed all the animals!

The boys thought it was so cool that they could get this close to lions, but it was also a little scary!

The polar bear was SO fun! We stayed and played with him for a long time! He came right up to the glass and got so close to the kids!

Owen was fascinated with measuring himself up against the animals!

The kids all loved the carousel, and the twins insisted on riding the "chicken". We couldn't find a chicken, but Owen quickly found a seat with the peacock!  Not quite a chicken, but at least we are in the same family!

We were going to get each of the kids an ice cream cone at the zoo...and then we discovered that a simple vanilla ice cream cone is $5! Times that number by 10...we couldn't spend $50 on ice cream...but we could drive down the street and get every one $1 frostys. Thanks, Wendys!