Eagar Summer in Review

I recently realized that it's been almost 2 months since I last blogged.  We've done so many fun things this summer and I didn't want to leave anything out so here goes...

We started out the summer by having a swim party at our friends the Pearson's apartment.  They moved to Montana and we were sad to see them go.  Emma had to miss out because she was sick with Strep Throat and eventually passed in onto everybody except Brady and  myself.

Even though he didn't make it to swimming lessons this summer due to other sporting conflicts his swimming abilities greatly increased.  Now if we could only get him to ENJOY the water.  Does anybody else out there have a kid who cries when you say you're going to a waterpark?

We sure love having fires with friends.  The Davis's are some of our favorites and on this night we were celebrating Matt's Birthday.  It was kind of funny that we sat around the campfire eating cake and ICE CREAM. lol

The day after Matt's Birthday it was Carson's turn to celebrate and he turned 1!   We gave him some toys we scored at a yard sale and my kids wrapped them in a big box for him.

He has a pretty strong bond with Emma and this summer has learned her name and calls her  "muh"

Ellie always has to get in on the action.  She really is stuck in the middle these days and has found that transition to be  difficult.  I'm actually getting worried about some behavioral changes she's manifesting.  She was the baby for SOOOOO long!

...modeling a baby toy.

In other big news we got a TRAMPOLINE and had it put together so the kids could jump when they got home on the last day of school.

This tween has been doing a lot of this lately!

My life is so hard!

Mass quantities of popsicles have been consumed and they always taste better  when you eat them on the trampoline.

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Ha! I finally got their big red ball!

Both girls attended Camp Invention (a Science camp) and Brady went to Cub Scout Day Camp.

They had a parent assembly and awards ceremony on the last day.

We had a centering get together to celebrate all the babies Birthdays.  Only 3 of the 7 babies could make it, but they all had a great time in the water!

We had our friends the Hampton's and the Davis's over for cake and ice cream the weekend after Carson turned 1.  It was nice and casual.  We visited in the yard and ate cake while the kids jumped on the trampoline.  Emma didn't employ any of her newly acquired cake decorating techniques, but she still made Carson's cakes (1 for him to smash).

As you can see she literally made him a "smash" cake with a bullseye for his fist. :)

Then, since Carson has the word cars in it she went with a cars theme.

When I say she made the cake, I mean she made it all by herself and even did the dishes.  It was wonderful!

This girl was darned excited about her first ear of corn this year.  We love going to friends houses for bbq's.

This year, Emma was already in Idaho (she flew out with my friend and her daughter), but the rest of us enjoyed the Fairlawn fireworks with our good friends the Worthen's who happened to be in town visiting.  We waited out a rain, thunder,and lightening storm plus a tornado watch but in the end it passed and the fireworks were definitely worth it!

Since he startles at loud noises easily, I thought he might cry but lucky for us it didn't phase him .

We just though it was cute that these laid like this for optimum fireworks viewing.

After going to the airport on our original departure date with 3 fevered children only to find out our flight to Phoenix had been cancelled due to mechanical failure, we tried again 24 laters and finally made it.  The upside was we got some medicine for the hand foot mouth virus our kids contracted plus they upgraded us to 1st class and also gave us 4 free roundtrip tickets to use at a later date. You'd never know by the smiles on their faces, but it was 2am to their bodies.

When you go to Arizona in the summer, you're in the pool at 7am, the water's already warm and you're loving the start to your day!

The boy's a pointer and I think it's so cute.

Slurping down salsa by the spoonful.

We love REAL mexican food so much that we just had to take a picture of the good stuff! In fact looking at it makes me want some right now and I'm not even the least bit hungry.

Carson with his cousin Kimball.  She is 3 weeks older than him. They had a fun time playing together.

Cousin story time with Grandma Eagar.

There's no room left on Grandma's lap!

Just a picture of the rough life (not) that these 2 are leading on a flight from Arizona to Washington.

Of course the 2 of us needed a picture too!  I felt beat up by the end of the flight with this wiggly baby on my lap!

We were finally reunited with Emma and had to ride the luggage cart to our hotel room with Grandpa and Grandma Eccles.  You don't mess with tradition!

The kids thought it was really neat that I was in the town I was born in on my Birthday. My mom made sure the servers knew it was my Birthday and sang to me.  The cupcake they brought me was a lot better than I thought it would be!

We had to feed the ducks at the same park I fed the ducks when I was little.  As you can see  Carson thought it was another swimming pool and was trying to jump in.

On the drive to Idaho, we stopped in Boise for this Boise State fan.  We were able to sort of sneak around to see the blue turf and took multitudes of pictures.  I this one with his Broncos t-shirt on in front of the actual bronco.

One day in Idaho we played Laser tag with the cousins.

It was nice because it was just our group and they let me walk around with Carson and take pictures of everybody.

The Laser tag place had an arcade out front.  We let the kids play a couple of games and Emma hit the jackpot!

I guess sometimes even a 6 year old needs to rest her legs.

The kids seemed just as excited about a sprinkler as they were with the pool.

Leaping races!

We had to make a visit to the frozen yogurt shop with the kids on dollar night.  While we were there we saw a General Authority.  Then during the night I woke up...along with Carson and Emma with the stomach flu.  ugh!

On another day we went with the cousins to the bounce house place and then to McDonald's for lunch.  It was fun because the parents played too.

Apparently it had to be documented that I was playing too.

A trip to Idaho wouldn't be complete without a visit to Gerties (the local pizza place).  This little girl ate like 3 pieces of dessert pizza and thought she had it pretty good.

Uncle Todd trying to grab Carson with the picker up apparatus thingie my Dad  used after he had back surgery.  Sorry about the improper grammar use.

All the girls cousins put on an their annual dance show.  These 2 had some pretty good head swinging action and this great picture was captured!

A little shooting time was fun too.

Holy Cow!

We enjoyed smores...with Reese pb cups instead of just plain hershey's. (well exept Emma).  It was really tasty.

The boy cousins playing video games together.

We had a cousin photo shoot and this is one of my favorite pictures.

Ellie giving Carson his binky back.

We drove from Idaho to Oregon and spent the night at an AMAZING resort ranch and had our very own house.  I snapped a couple of pictures to show Matt since he wasn't with us, but somehow forgot to take a picture of the very best part...the view of out the window of 3 stunning mountain peaks! It was gorgeous!

To show off our redneck side, I let my kids bathe in the hot tub one night.  It was late and we had an early morning flight so I literally sent them into the hot tub in their underwear.  I figured since it was our own private hot tub it's all good right?! :)

This time we had Emma with us and we flew from Oregon back to Arizona.  It was great because there was even an extra seat for the busybody baby.

And he FELL asleep! Holy Miracle!

On one of the evenings we were in Arizona we drove out to the Gilbert Temple.  It will be dedicated next year and it was neat to see the progress.

And of course each time we go to Arizona we cram in as much Mexican food as possible! This day was extra fun because we went to Uncle Clay's restaurant!

So the girls and I discovered a new store on this trip and it's called Charming Charlie's.  It was so much fun and affordable too.  Even Carson was a good sport and smiled during his modeling session.

Check out these 2 little cousins making their purchases.  I love how they're standing on this bar in order to see over the counter.  They all stuck to a budget and were thrilled with their purchases.

After shopping with the girls it was onto Chuck E Cheese for Brady since his friend gave him a giftcard.   He REALLY did win the jackpot of 250 tickets!

For family home evening we had the special opportunity to visit Grandpa Eagar's grave and see his headstone for the first time.  The kids very carefully cleaned the stone and picked the weeds while Carson ran through the cemetery grabbing all the flags and flowers. :)

It was really neat albeit a little creepy to see my husband's name on the headstone.

The little flag stealer.  I only hope we got everything back in it's proper place.

So Matt decided to track the time we were gone by growing some facial hair.  It was fun to  see a new him, but he shaved it soon after we got back.  On a sidenote, the redeye flight with the kids went very smoothly and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if needed.

After being home for 4 days, we left the kids with a sitter and I went to Atlanta with Matt on a business trip.  We decided to drive since we'd never seen the smoky mountains before.  It was a gorgeous drive and we had a fabulous trip. The time away was so nice and rejuvinating.  I lived it up like an Atlanta tourist during the days while Matt was in meetings and then we went out on the town every night.

The. BEST. SOUTHERN. FOOD. EVER.  THE. END.

Inside the foyer of the CNN building.  The tour was very enjoyable!

I even toured the World of Coca-Cola and this is the vault where the secret formula is stored. :)

This was the highlight of the tour.

I was on a sugar high after this room. lol

You can sample as much as you want from all over the world.  The soda was divided by continents and I tried more flavors than you can even imagine.  One of my favorite sodas was from Japan and it had carrots, cherries, and lychee (a tropical fruit) in it.

I took some of these pictures just for my kids!

We went to an up and coming trendy restaurant one night and enjoyed the popcorn sundae for dessert.  It  didn't disappoint.

I toured the Swan House at the Atlanta History Center.

On another evening Matt drove 20 miles round trip in gridlock traffic all because our girls asked us too.

So we took lots of pictures for them and since we were there we bought them souvenirs.

The things we do for dolls.

On the way back to the hotel we found the Temple and took a walk around the grounds where we fell in love with the scent of the flower (see below).  We think it's a magnolia blossom though we aren't quite sure...but whatever it was smelled heavenly!

On my last full day in Atlanta I went to the Georgia Aquarium.  It's the largest in the world and was simply amazing! It really was incredible.  They even have a broadway show starring dolphins.  It was breathtakingly beautiful!

Oympic Park was a real treat with the dancing fountains (in the shape of the Olympic rings).  They were choreographed to music and it was just extra fun to be there during the actual Olympics.

It was really convenient to ride the MARTA everywhere I wanted to go.

I went to the famous Varsity restaurant and told them to bring me everything they're known for.  I ended up eat a chili cheese dog w/pimiento cheese and coleslaw on it,  onion rings, a frosted orange (basically a homemade creamsicle drink), and a homemade peach fry pie.  I'm pretty sure I didn't consume one single nutrititional anything, but boy did it taste yummy!

I can smell it now.

Then on that night (our last night) we drove to Stone Mountain.  It was a really neat place and they had a free laser light show to music once it got dark.  It was a perfect evening to lay on a blanket and enjoy it together.

The next day we slept in to avoid traffic and then drove home getting into an accident in Lexington, Kentucky.  We are so grateful that neither one of us were hurt.  The rental car took it all for us.  Seriously though what a blessing of protection that was given to us.  It was definitely a wake-up call.  We're happy to be home now and are cramming in lots of last minute summer fun before school starts next week.