Arizona

After the mud run, the boys and I flew back to Arizona with my parents for a few days. We hated leaving Matt but it was so fun to be home in the summer and put my parents pool to good use! My cousin Roy and his wife Jessica are living with my parents for the summer while Roy studies for the bar. They have two little girls, Jane just turned three and Grace is almost a year and a half. Crew really enjoyed having a playmate around during our visit. Monday night Matt's parents came out with his sister Buffy's girls, Chloe and Bella. The kids all swam and had some fugsicles for dessert. It was so fun to have them out. Crew and Chloe

Enjoying his blueberry muffin in my parents rocking chair. Crew loves that thing!

Big boy. In this light you can see some of the fuzz on his head!

I really do forget how hot it gets down there in the summer but as long as you are in the pool it feels great! So, we swam a lot! It was a great refresher course for Crew's swimming skills. The first day was ok but by the end he was totally comfortable and a fish again.

This picture is my favorite! If you look closely you can see sheer joy on this kid's face as he jumps off the diving board. He loved doing this and probably jumped off that diving board at least 200 times during our quick visit!

Graham loved the water too

We also swam at our friends the Reeder's pool one day so Crew could do the rock slide. A hit of course! I love this picture because it is so summer to me. Otter Pops by the pool.

I'm not sure if he was dizzy from sliding down the slide, swimming across the pool and then running back around to do it all over again, or maybe just exhausted!

We love our grandma!

Crew and Jane

Grandpa was pretty busy during our stay but we still got to water plants with him in the mornings and show off Crew's swimming skills when he came home for lunch. Crew loves Grandpa!

Not pictured at the Richter's was lots of jumping on the tramp, feeding horses, bike rides and quality family time. Wednesday afternoon the boys and I drove down to Tucson with Matt's mom to his brother Michael's house. It was great to see more cousins! Crew was in heaven. Thursday morning I went to Michael's office to have some dental work done. Four, yes, four hours later (I choose to blame Graham for this) I left his office completely numb; tongue, everything! My jaw was throbbing, lips chapped, and head slightly spinning from the combination of lack of sleep (again thank you Graham) and four hours at the dentist! I really am so lucky that my brother-in-law treats me so well even though I can still kind of feel the aftermath in my jaw! I owe him big time, in a good way :) Anyway, I rushed back from Michael's office and Becky took us to the Tucson airport. Thankfully, both my boys were so good and we flew back home to meet our much miss daddy! It was a quick but fun trip. Thanks to mom and dad for taking us in, Becky for driving us down and playing with all the kids while I was gone, and Michael for saving my teeth! We are so blessed to have such supportive families and we loved seeing all of you!

Camp Pendleton Mud Run

Maren was on the ball and signed us up New Year's Day for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run. This race is a 10K and so much more! We had a men's team and a women's team plus Christian who ran as an independent. Costumes are a big thing for this event, why I am not sure, but our Wonder Woman costumes were a big hit! Christian was the "Wear no pants" guy from the Docker's commercial, and the boys shirts were "Proud to be Awesome" (They were not as willing to get creative but it worked). Notice how nice and clean we all are.

Maren's ward had two more Wonder Woman teams so there were 16 of us all together.

Maren's two sister in laws ran with us plus my friend Jordan from South Pas. Here are Jordan and I. Fierce I know!

We ran 6.2 miles, up a 3 mile monster hill, through rivers, sludged through mud pits, climb over walls, crawled through tunnels, swam a quarter mile, crawled under low ropes in mud pits, and had a total blast! It was so much fun to run this with our team. There were about 5,500 people running that day and we finished 5th out of the women's team, three minutes behind our boys. Pretty tough aren't we!

I love Matt's mud patch on his eye

The whole muddy gang

Jordan and I

Christian's mud goatee is a nice touch to the already hilarious costume

A big thanks to Maren for organizing this and an even bigger thanks to mom and dad for watching all four crazy boys! They even came to cheer us on at the end. We owe you big time! Oh, and a hot shower has never felt so good!

San Diego (before all the mud)

We drove down Friday morning and met my mom, Maren and the boys at the Carlsbad outlets. Then we just went back and hung out at Maren's for the rest of the evening. I thought this was a cute picture of everyone walking. Parker seems like such a big boy here!

Unfortunately, it was freezing in San Diego that day! The boys all bundled up waiting for Grandpa Richter to get there with the yellow suitcase!

Summer Crew. Cute boys

Graham wanted in on the action

Crazy Uncle Christian

Christian and his buddies took their annual trip out to visit a few weeks ago. They never stay long but we got to do a couple fun things together: like build a sand castle at Santa Monica Beach

By the way I just love summer Crew. The freckles really come out and the hair gets super blonde. I know I'm bias but I think he is so stinking cute!Later that night we met up again to go to our little Farmer's Market

My boys both really love their crazy uncle. He really needs to come visit us more often. In fact, you all do!!! (that goes for all friends and family!!!)

Crescent Bay

About a month ago, we went down to Crescent Bay in Laguna with some friends. It was a great day! Crew, Ryder and Lila had so much fun. Here are some great pictures from our day. Lila and Graham hanging out.

All the girlies

Matt helping Ryder boogie board

Exploring the tide pools

The guys had some play time as well doing the human rubberband!

Sweetest guy

Right before we left a huge wave came up and totally soaked everything!

That was our hint that we needed to leave. We were there literally all day and had so much fun. Thanks to Ryder and Lila for providing endless entertainment. It was a great day!