Middle end of July

Middle of July we actually took a little break from traveling and did the usual summer stuff. . . . swim, swim, swim.

Sofie had swim lesson's that have just turned her into a little fish. She has become such a better swimmer this year. Here she is waiting in line to go off the diving board for the first time.

I can't believe she went of with out a little shove.

So Spencer found this little baby bird in our back yard while the kids were playing in the sprinklers. It was soaking wet and couldn't fly so Sofie had so much fun holding it and petting it. I well expected to wake up in the morning and find it in the yard killed over but nope it wasn't anywhere to be found, hopefully it dried off and flew away instead of dead in the neighbors yard.


Luke in his summer swim attire. These little floaties are so hideous but so awesome for swimming!

Cutie!

What he likes even more than swimming is playing in the sand/ mud!

Oh . . .Surprise!

I just had to get a picture of this little chef. Seriously he has an obsession lately with cooking. I was doing some stuff on the computer when I realized the erie silence that accompanies the phrase "What is Luke doing" when I found this happy little rat or should I say ratatouille!

One other thing he loves besides cooking right now is "bootz". Unfortunately his boots are now 2 sizes too small so I found him in his P.J.'s wearing Sofie's boots around just besides himself he was so happy to have "bootz" on.

Well the summer fun staying at home only lasted a few weeks and it has been "on the road again since then." This trip to Utah to see Susie come home from her LDS Mission (1 1/2 yrs in Germany) we hit 200k miles in our Honda!

A building company in Utah has replicated the "Up" house. They got special permission from Disney and it is decorated and everything like the movie! So we took Grandma and checked it out!

Cousin's gone wild! These two girls came up stairs just giggling so hard, they just thought they were so funny thinking this idea up!

And here we are awaiting the arrival of Susie from Germany. . . .

. . . . and waiting. I asked them to make a "I'm sick of waiting face", and apparently Shelley makes the same face when she is sick of waiting as she does when she is on the toilet. . . hahah

Luke got so sick of waiting he laid down on the floor. . . we waited for a long time!

And just as everyone was about to leave for a restroom break she popped through the doors when no one had a camera ready. Isn't that how it always happens?

Here is the welcoming crew, and the sad Sister Swendsen. She was so sad to leave Germany! At least that's what she told us. I am hoping it's not because she didn't want to come home.

When she left we lived a plane ride away. Now we live a 4 hr. drive away. We are excited to get more Susie in our lives.

So we got back in the car and went straight to Crestted Butte Colorado where we met up with some friends from Oklahoma. Spencer went out one morning to check out a mountain bike race going on and found this big surprise. A Bear!

Who's this little stow away?

The dog cracks me up!

While we were there it was announced the night before the race that Lance Armstrong was in town and was going to race!!! We actually saw Lance Armstrong mountain bike race in real life! Seriously was way better than I thought it would be seeing him in real life!

ummm hu. Almost as nice as seeing Spencer in spandex :)

Just kept snapping the camera. It's like I couldn't stop. There were many more I am not even posting! I didn't even know I liked Lance that much!

Oh shoot how did this picture of me getting off my bike get in here? hahahahah. . . I wish

Those legs actually belong to this lady, Rebecca Rousch. Best Female mountain biker in the world (at least she won the world solo cup). She signed my flip flop, even though she was slightly disgusted to do it.

Us and the Phillips. What a fun weekend!

July 4th

The places to see around Colorado just never end. We just can't get enough of all this fun!


We met up with Brandon and Tina in Telluride Colorado for the 4th. Soooo beautiful! We actually went on this hike and it started out all nice and sunny and then on the way down it was like a downpour and we were so unprepared. The little kids were crying and we were sopping wet and just running with whatever kids we could pick up down the mountain. It makes me laugh just remembering it.


Kids fishing at the fishing pond in the telluride park

This waterfall was sooo huge we were so far away from it and could still got wet!

Jayson and Steph also came and so we traded off a boy's ride and then a girls ride. Which is a funny story since Jayson got a flat tire and used the last tube so when the girls were going to go we were warned to get a new tube. I said "I have never had a flat tire and have been biking for 9 year. We aren't that crazy . . . " Well I ended up eating my words and got a flat. Luckily Spencer gave me a patch kit that took way longer than it should have to fix it and then when I got a 2nd flat after that I ended up walking my bike down! Was still fun!

3 Johnson Bro's

Middle end of June

So we met up with our fellow Buckeye friends the Luff's, Lee's and Frandsen's, and had a little reunion at Lake Powell. It was soo fun and for sure too short. It is so nice to have friends that when you are apart for years it's like you never missed a beat when you get back together.

Couldn't resist getting a photo of Luke on the Tube with his hair blowing in the wind hahaha.

This is me and my mad skills trying to jump the wake. .weak, I know I need to work on that.

The little girls who could have spent all day in the lake playing princess, queens, witches whatever little thing crossed their cute little mind. It was so fun to see them all together years later!

From left to right Avery Luff, Sofie, Hannah Lee and Peyton Frandsen.

The big girls and the little boys- Charlie and Luke. Oh man just looking at this picture makes me so grateful for such good friends and examples in my life.

. . . .and the crazy boys. This trip we could say boy's will be boy's. Boy's sore from trying to wake board like they are still in their early 20's, cliff jumping, burning gasoline in an attempt to scare off fire ants. Something never change.

This is Spencer doing a back flip. It's a lot cooler on video than in a picture!

So our friends the Luff's stopped by Grand Junction after Lake Powell and some how I didn't even get a picture of us all together but we went on a couple of hikes and managed to get a couple shots of the Johnson crew. This is at a waterfall in Ouray, Colorado.

This is at the monument which is like 15 min from our house. We actually saw a rattle snake on this trail!

One little birthday present I forgot to mention- tickets to Country Jam 2011. 3 big singers Sawyer Brown, Rodney Atkins and Best of all Alan Jackson. yeeehaaaw!

End of May early June. . .

Well the month of June started out with the Swendsen clan getting together. Everyone was there except Spencer, Jim (Annie's husband) and the two missionaries, Susie and Eric. So Mom had a photographer come and take a photo of the moment!


Here is 8 of the 10 kids. Good lookin clan if I must say so myself.. . . but where are the kids everyone is so grown up!


This is more like it! And the memories of borrowing clothes without asking, the bossing around, the laughs and the cries. . . .

The almost whole clan!

Grandma had sent Sofie catapillars that turned into butterflies so we broght them to Utah with us and let them go into Grandma's flowers! (Minus the 1 that didn't make it out of the cacoon and the one that didn't make it alive to Grandma's- oops)

Who are these monkey's- All the girl cousin's

The big even that brought us all together. My littlest sister Shelley grad-gee-ated high school!

Oh this little turtle doesn't fit in his shell.

Fianlly punished for their crimes. . . too much candy, being mean to their siblings the list goes on.

Sofie getting a pony ride with her cousin's at Thanksgiving point. Sofie said her horse's name was "Banilla"

I am probably the only person that was excited to turn 30. I mean when you look like you aren't even 20 and you tell people you are 30 it's amusing. I wish I looked more like my age, so I could stop getting crusty looks at the grocery store like I am a high school knock up but oh well Whatcha going to do?

I know what you are saying "What? Why does she have a picture of her and Spencer in bath robes in a hotel room". Well I just had to document the funnest birthday ever! Spencer really out did himself this year. Friday, the day before my birthday, he came home early and I was really tired so I asked if he could watch the kids while I took a little nap. When I woke up my little sister Emily was at our house- which I had no idea about and was suprised since she lives 4 hrs away in Utah. Then Spencer said. "Ok Emily is here to watch the kids, get in the car and lets go." Surprise he had planned this little weekend getaway to this quaint little town in Colorado called Ouray which is know for it's natural hot springs. So this little hotel was built on top of a place they call the "Cave" which is a natural hotsprings in a cave. It was sooo hot I couldn't even get in. Spencer got in for a second and his skin was a lobster color. Well, then they had a nice swim pool/ hot springs outside which was georgeous becuase it is right in a bowl of mountains with waterfalls all over! The robes were provided by the hotel and was what you were to sport around in- I think I needed a kids size though! Anyways we were lounging out in the pool when a lady came and snuck me away for a massage- one more little suprise Spencer had arranged. It was like the perfect little vacation!

The next day we went on a few hikes to some waterfalls. It was the perfect time to go since all the snow was melting and the waterfalls were so big.

So we went to the Grand Junction farmers market and I had decided that I would give sofie $5 and tell her that was all she got for the night so she could by food, candy toy's whatever but it had to be $5 or less and once it was gone there was no more! So she decided that she was going to spend her money on face painting and just to give you an idea of how set this little girl gets on things. She stood in line for almost 2 hrs to get this done. I tried finding other things to change her mind, cotton candy, jewlery but no she had to get her face painted. What even made it worse was that as soon as we were done it was like 9:00 pm way past her bed time so I normally would have went home and washed it right off but I let her sleep with just trying to feel like we got our time and money's worth.

Cute conversations

Well I finally got our blog posts from 2010 made into a book and I just have had all these cute conversations I've heard from Sofie that I want recorded. I'm only sad that I didn't put them on the blog sooner because I think I forgot some and I wanted them in our book!
Anyways 2 of Sofie's bestest friends stayed the night when there were driving from Okie to Pokie haha. Anyways June and Winnie came for a sleepover and Sofie was so excited and just besides herself with all the things she had to catch June and Winne up on since it had been 6+ mo. since we saw them last. So they had settled down for the night and I was in her room putting a few last things away when I heard Sofie giving the latest list of her new friends she made here in Colorado she said "So first there is Teegan and she is so LOVABLE and just so fun you would love her. Then there is Courtney she is ADORABLE and just cute she is the best. . . ." I know there are a few adjectives I am missing due to the time laps but I just cracked up. Only 4 and having such girl talk, I guess it's just something we are born with.
Then there is this "dirty" story but I just have to put it so it is can still bring laughs through the years. So yes I still wipe Sofie's bum when she goes #2. I have tried to get her to do it but she just doesn't want to give up the intimate time together. . . I guess. Anyways one day she had done her business and yells "Mom I need you to wipe I'm done and I went number 2". So I go in and wrap the paper around my hand and as she is totally bent over the toilet with me going in for the gig she suddenly says "Surprise, it's diarrhea!" I was like "Ohh what a fun surprise. . . " Well what can i say she loves to surprise me for better or worse! She has this infatuation with diarrhea lately I don't know why but she gives me updates on the deed by saying things like "I think I have diarrhea because I didn't have to go. . and then she makes this strenuous face and a pushing sound." Or she tells me what kind of poop Luke is going to have. . . "Mom I think Luke doesn't have diarrhea because he went and then does the strenuous face and sound thing"
So Sofie is our little miss priss so it just makes me nervous for what is going to come out of Luke's mouth when he talks!!!!
Here is another little addition to funny things my kids say. So I had a ton of errands to run yesterday and it included a trip to the mall. I pile all my errands up until I have to do them because Sofie will drive me crazy asking me for any little thing with a princess. I also had to get birthday gifts for kids so I HAD to go to the toy isle so I knew it was going to be inevitable that she ask me for stuff. So I tried to come up with a positive solution for a negative problem and before we even went into the store I tole her if she didn't ask for anything I would get her an ice cream. Well I let the first like 5 attempts slide by when I finally thought it's time I stick to my word and I put my foot down and said OK you have been asking me for stuff so no ice cream. Well then came the tears and the begging. . ."Please I will not ask anymore. I want a second chance. I won't do it anymore. . . . " but I remember someone telling me once to let your kids fail early in life or they will have a hard time later in life. So I thought no I have to stick to my guns here. Well when Sofie figured her begging and crying wasn't going to work she said "Fine, but when I get older I am not going to come home and visit you." I couldn't believe she was threatening me like that- she isn't even 5yrs old yet!!! I said that's mean to say and she told me it was mean for me to not give her ice cream. Well I hope it was just anger in the moment because I would hate for her to never come home because of a small ice cream incidence :) kids!

Mexico

So happy belated graduation, happy anniversary just happy days to us. In May we treated ourselves to a Little Vacation in Playa Del Carmen Mexico. We met some good Friends the Lee's there and just had a BLAST! It was our first time in an all inclusive resort and I have to say that made it sooo much fun. There was soo much to do just at the resort kayaking, catamaran, wind surfing, volleyball, dancing, all sorts of contests etc. Plus it was a really small resort so it was fun getting to know the workers.

So Day 1 was actually mother's day and I am sad Spencer is closing his eye's but isn't that how it goes- like so hard to get a picture where you both are looking ok. Anyways such a good mother's day considering I got a full body massage on the beach- aghh that was nice.

Spencer did multiple wind surfing lessons and was getting pretty good. I tried it and it was a lot harder than it looks.

Spencer was a sucker and got peer pressured into multiple contests. Here he is in the swim contest. He made it past the first round and beat the German by a hair but he was no match for the others. I think the funniest contest he did was the belly flop contest.

The beach at our resort- doesn't it just look like it's from a postcard!

Us and the Lee's at Senior Frogs'

Aghh this is the life isn't it. No kids demanding my attention. No laundry calling my name just pure relaxation!

So we did this WAY fun excursion at this newly developed tourist trap called Explor. It was so fun! We did 14 zip lines- some where we went in the water, we floated in cenotes (underwater caves with stalactites and stalagmites and crystal clear water), we rafted, we drove amphibious vehicles it was just fun!

Amphibious vehicles

Us and the Lee's once again

Another little adventure we went on was to this beautiful little cove where we snorkeled and floated this river that went into this cove. We also did a little cliff jumping.

Spencer looking his best in front of Tulum an ancient Mayan ruin that was right by the Ocean that was more of a port city where people came in from Europe or wherever to trade with the Mayans who mostly lived in another part Mexico so the Mayans would have to meet here to trade and then carry whatever they would trade for back into their towns which were miles away and hotter than hot!

Another lovely couples shot.

We saw these little critter's all over the place down there.

I know you were look for a swim suit shot so here you go. . .

Here is our little fish in the tub with the snorkels' we brought back.