A visit from my sisters

So many pictures, so much fun- where do I start? Well 2 of my little sisters Lisa and Emily (I have 7 sisters only 2 are older than me) came all the way from Tennessee to visit. It was a BLAST. We went to the zoo, had a girls night out, went swimming- A LOT, jogging, coloring, playing at the park, even Spencer and I even got to go on a date. The week just went by too fast.

Lisa had Noah 3 days before I had Luke so we have high hopes of them being best buddies.

Sofie still talks about "your sisters". Or says mom I miss Noah. She LOVED all the attention these guys gave her. Emily colored more here than she had her whole life put together.

One funny little story about Sofie. She is at the stage where she pretends to be older all the time so one day we were at the park and she had been talking up a storm to all the princesses on her Cinderella cell phone Grandma Jaylene had sent her, when she asked Spencer to hold it for a minute while she was playing. Spencer put the phone to his ear and pretended to be talking to the princesses. When Sofie got the phone back she put it to her ear and said "This is Sofie, sorry my dad was borrowing my phone."- Already apologizing to her friends for her embarrassing parents.

Photo booth at the zoo

We watched Spencer do a time trial. He has been a biking fool this month. I am going to have to follow this with a posts of just of his races.

Idaho, Oregon, and Utah

A month has past and I'm finally getting our big summer trip posted. First we started in Idaho where the kids were spoiled rotten by Grandma Jaylene, Kelsi and Evan while Spencer and I got a little get away to Oregon. Then it was on to Utah to see the Swendsen's.

Of coarse a Johnson get together wouldn't be complete without some physical competition. I was impressed with Evan's effort this go around. He took some harsh shot's and pulled some muscles but he stayed in it- not bad for a "Old man" :)

A day at good old Heise Hot Springs. It was soooo cold- especially after coming from Oklahoma's 105 degree humid heat- but still a blast.

I don't know how he did it but Spencer somehow talked Sofie into going down the water slide twice, but you can see it in her face she was terrified.

Our first stop in Oregon was to Nike Town. So this is my dorky self chillin with Lebron James.

Isn't it just beautiful.

It was such a nice break. Thanks Evan and Jaylene.

Final stop- hangn' with the Swendsen's in Utah. We were so lucky to get 9 of the 10 siblings together (my lil' sis Susan is off serving the Lord in Germany).

Look at all the blonde hair and blue eye's. We almost doubled the number of grand kids in one year from 4 to 7.

These pictures just made me laugh, so I had to narrate some of them. My sister Lisa had Noah 4 days before I had Luke and then my sister Kathi has a 2 year old boy Boston, and the three little boys together were a hoot. I totally know Boston is going to give the little ones a run for their money. Every chance he got he was pranking Luke, pouring water on him or whatever was around. Luke loved it though- they are going to be so mischievous I can already tell.

I know Anne, KJ, and Lisa- you all want to kill me right now but since we are all mom's and we never had time to take some "unnatural" (these are definatly more natural mom moments) pictures of us mom's looking great with our hair done and our perfect smiles, these pictures I shot while wrestling with the kids will have to work. These were probably some of my favorite moments of the whole trip. I would always say I am not going to be one of those people that always talk about their kids- then I had kids :)- They consume every moment of your time it's like what else CAN I talk about. Anyways I LOVED IT. I just left feeling so lucky to be a sister to these great mom's. You all teach me a lot. I already miss you!

My sister Kathi had the funnest idea, since we came from all over the U.S. to be here at the same time, and since we never get to be together for the kids birthdays she had one huge UN-birthday party. It was another highlight of the trip- something we will have to do again.

Diva Sofie decorating her cupcake

Liking her candy ring she got to decorate.

Luke was in HEAVEN with his first taste of frosting.



I just love this moment- Boston making Luke laugh.

I can't hardly believe that my little brother is old enough to go on a mission but he is going to Peru in Sept. I was so lucky to be there with everyone when he went to the temple for his first time.

Sofie couldn't get enough of her cousin's or her Aunt Shelley. Shelley- even though she is almost 18 and would normally be out with friends spent so much time doing make-overs, sleepovers, looking at the stars etc. how fun!!!

The perks of a large family. I'm one of the oldest so I still have younger brothers and sisters to rough the kids up and they love every minute of it. Here's my littlest brother Andy putting Luke down the slide. Can you tell by Luke's face that he's a little nervous?

Well there it is in a nutshell, and over in a snap. What fun!

Kansas City

We took a trip to Kansas City to visit our super good friends the Frandsen's. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

They were due to have a baby on the 4th of July, so I had so much fun putting together a shower for her while we were there. One of our other really good friends from dental school, Melanie, flew in for the big event. We had so much fun and late night chats, I think we must have worn Michelle out because she ended up going into labor a month early- the day that we left. Sorry Michelle!

So I had so much fun looking online and getting ideas for this shower I just have to document the event. First here is the guest of honor and the 2 host's. Isn't Michelle's TINY belly adorable- she was 2 days away from having little Peyton.

The theme was sugar and spice- emphasis on the sugar-something Michelle and I have a strong affinity for. These were the invites.

The "Candy Bar". A friend brought a cake and it went in that empty spot.

Yummy cheesecake pops.

This picture is dark but I tried to stick with a brown and pink theme so I had these 5 candy jars with brown and pink candy.

Treat Bag for all the guests.

This is where the "Spice" fits in. We "spiced" up baby Peyton's wardrobe by making hair bows and bracelets.

I think it turned out pretty cute but looking at the pictures I think "that was it- what took me so long?" It was so fun anyways- thanks for letting me do it Michelle.

Colorado

We just HAD to take another trip to Colorado to visit Brandon and Tina. We just get so spoiled when we are there and we never want to leave. It's so beautiful there.


We drove to the top of Pike's peak and the elevation change is so drastic we were all dressed for warm weather when we got to the top it was freezing so we ran to the edge grabbed a picture and then headed out.

One of the many beautiful scenic vistas on the drive to pike's peak

We tried to dare our Nephew to get into the almost frozen over lake, he thought about it for like 1 second.

Sofie couldn't get enough of her cousins.

Look at the beautiful mountains in the back.

I bet that hurt coming out :)

Notice Spencer's fresh mountain biking wound- always pushing the limits and leaving me a nervous wreck.

Notice Sofie covering her face the fire was so hot you could barley roast a mallow- but such a fun idea.

One last action shot- Sofie on the slip and slide.

I have 2 more post's coming of our Kansas City trip and our Northwest trip and I have Luke pulling at my legs crying and it's time to make dinner- always planning on getting more done than I accomplish so I will just put

To be continued . . . . .

Gymnastics, Kylie and Camping

Well another year of gymnastics have come to an end. Sofie just LOVES gymnastics. I had her in dance and gymnastics and due to a tight student budget made her choose which one to continue and she didn't miss a beat in saying gymnastics. (I was hoping for dance she just makes the cutest little dancer)

Working on a back flip


Her version of a cartwheel-
For the general viewers this might seem so boring and nonsense but it's so fun as her mom to watch her every week and then see her learn- even the little things.



I just had to throw this picture in there- our family home evening for the night. Since Mom just called me today and told me that she was taking the kids to school in a snow storm- Just in case anyone is wanting to come and visit.

Isn't he just sooo cute.

So I am sad this is the only photo I took on my camera of my super cute sister-in-law Kylie who came to visit. Seriously had a BLAST with her here. It's been a month and Sofie hasn't stopped telling me "Remember mom, when Kylie was here". It's sometimes hard when there are a combined total of 16 siblings to get quality time with not only them but their spouses and kids so I just feel sooo lucky that Kylie took the time to come and visit. I probably talked her ear off. I don't think there was a second of silence the whole time she was here. I LOVED it!!! She is sooo fun and easy to talk to- such a great person. Every morning as soon as Kylie would get up Sofie was waiting outside the door to greet her. The time just went bye too quickly.

So as I was logging on to the Internet the home MSN page had the Forbes 5 most healthy and 5 most "sluggish" or unhealthy cities listed and guess what was the #1 most "sluggish" city. . . . right here in Oklahoma city. So we are doing our part as a family to change that and we went camping. Here is a picture of our fabulous camp site.

Spencer off-roading with our Honda. The park police (seriously there was a police station at the entrance of the park) come around to check the sites and we heard one yell "How the heck did they get that car over there. I have never seen a car over there". Spencer was pretty proud of that one.

Camping in style. Notice Sofie's "sunglasses". They are actually the 3D glasses from when we went to how to train your dragon, but now they have become her "sunglasses".

Our cute little hiker. Sofie LOVED camping she did not want to leave.

Luke wore himself out on his first camping excursion.

Turner falls- beautiful.

There was this fun little stream by our campsite.