Happy Birthday Boys!

The month of July was pretty much non-stop birthdays in the Davis house. It started with Audrey's on July 1st and continued until July 26th with the boys 3rd birthday. We were lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Davis here to celebrate with the boys. The boys love reading books with Grandma and Grandpa, esp when its about tractors.

Later in the week we took Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Mitch and the boys and met up with Aunt Candis, Uncle Joe, Cousin Alexis and Aunt Becky at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. It is a huge museum full of very cool dinosaurs and all sorts of fun things to do. The boys loved playing on the water tables with Uncle Mitch.

Later that day we enjoyed a great birthday dinner with family, and of course had a delicious cake that Mom baked. Penn had been chomping at the bit to play with the train cake toppers for weeks, but he patiently waited for his birthday which is quite the feat for Penn.

Tractors and Dinosaurs are great and all, but the boys real obsession are trains. Penn and Logan have become fanatical. The most exquisite melt downs I have ever seen have involved trying to pull the boys away from train museums. So we thought it would be a good idea to bring the trains to them. After dinner, a big surprise was waiting for them downstairs. A train table complete with Thomas and Toby trains. The boys were so excited. Even Audrey wanted in on the action. Penn was less enthused about Audrey's participation.

Penn and Logan must have walked about 4 miles around the table that night. When it came to bed time there was no way the trains were leaving the boys sides.

It was a great day, and the boys still love playing with all of the gifts they received. We are very grateful for the boys and the color they bring into our lives. Penn is a very passionate soul with a flair for the dramatic. He can also be very loving and kind. Logan is a total goofball and says some of the funniest things. He is also very good with Audrey and loves to make her laugh.

Well we made it through the terrible two's. Now we just need to make it through the lesser known infuriating three's and we should be home free.... right?

Our Adventures

We've had so many adventures the last bit. This isn't comprehensive but here are the highlights (yep there are a lot of highlights).

The boys got to ride in a parade with Grandpa Gudmundson. They loved the four wheelers and waving the flag.

Grandma and Grandpa Davis came for a visit. It was wonderful to have them here. We visited the Kennecot Mine. What an impressive sight. Those truck tires are huge (over 12 feet in diameter). The trucks that ride on them are gigantic.

The mine was nearly overwhelming. I guess the hole is so large you can see it from space.

While Mitch was visiting we talked him into riding Antelope by Moonlight with us. It's 22 miles, in the dark on the island. There were over 1,200 riders! It was a lot of fun. Mitch was amazing ... he was on a borrowed bike with zero training and was able to keep up really well.

We've been to the zoo with the Bingham's and my sister Candis. It was a great day. The moving dinosaurs were a little much at first but they all warmed up. Audrey really enjoyed the monkeys.

Sitting on the tiger was fun but they were all anxious to get off and actually see one. This is the best it gets when taking pictures of 4 three yr olds.

We've visited Uncle Sean and Aunt Monica. The boys formed the cutest little superhero squad ever! They kept saying things like "To the Rescue" or "Come on Superheros". Logan is Spider man and Gavin is Wolverine.

They loved visiting Uncle Sean at the fire station. They got to sit in the fire truck and look inside the ambulance.

And finally we've spent numerous hours out back playing in the pools. Audrey thinks she is done with the little pool and ready for the big one. The only problem ... She's not, it gets a little rough in there.

We've loved the summer and are sooo grateful it's not over yet. Here's hoping for many more adventures, maybe you should join us!

Girls Camp

Last month, yep I'm a little behind, I had the amazing opportunity to go back to girls camp. This time as a leader. It was great, really great. We have such an amazing group of girls. It was great to participate in numerous inspiring devotionals, a faith fall and testimony meeting around the camp fire. I loved singing camp songs again and even learned how to "Ride that Pony". This blog is mostly to share our roll call we did for the stake. It's not the best quality but you get the idea. What a creative bunch.

A huge thank you to my in laws for staying with the kids while I was gone, it's great having such wonderful family.

Audrey's Birthday

July is just flying by, I've fallen behind and missed some milestones. So here we go. We celebrated Audrey's first birthday with a bang. We went to Logan and enjoyed fireworks, and had a mini adventure that involved a surprise sleep over at Aunt Christine's with a broken water pump in our new car. But don't worry it all ended well and was covered under warranty.

The next day we had a party with some family. We enjoyed food....

Presents....

Balloons, the best gift you can give a one year old. She waved it around and laughed for a full 30 mins.....

and Cake! Aunt Becky made a butterfly cake. It really was amazing and tasted great.Audrey started with just a taste,

I think she thought it was good....

Really Good .....

"This is not fun I'm dirty and I can't get it off!" I had to scrub the wall and pantry door because she was waving her hands all around trying to get it off, cake was flying everywhere. It was very funny.

Now that Audrey is more then just a cute lump and mobile her brothers love playing with her. The are generally very sweet and gentle with her. This is the three of them playing follow the leader in the backyard.

Audrey has been a true delight and a wonderful addition to our family. She smiles easily and is learning new things so quickly. She loves to be in the middle of the fun and adores her brothers. She laughs with (or at) them every day. She is the curtest little girl ever even without a ton of hair and only 2 teeth. She can be a diva, but even that is cute. She loves to snuggle her puppy before bed and enjoys eating rice, lots of rice. Happy Birthday Audrey!

Kind of a Big Weekend

Last weekend was kind of a big one for us. It started with a trip to the pool with friends. It was a ton of fun and the only one who got sunburned was me! That's a small victory given how fair my kids are.

Audrey started crawling and her first two teeth came in. She's much happier and the boys are on high alert trying to keep their toys away from her.

Then off to Idaho Falls. Uncle Sean and Aunt Monica watched the kids for a day. The boys got a chance to ride "big boy bikes" and loved it. They were naturals. I guess Logan kept saying "I'm riding a bike just like Mama!"

Spencer and I continued to Jackson Hole WY for another half marathon! Spencer has stayed true to his declaration after the last half, "I will never run more then 6 steps again". So he was my support crew. He did a great job, his pep talk involved playing "Eye of a Tiger" and went something like this "Just don't embarrass me." The motivation....
Jackson Hole was a great half. It was the perfect temp, the views were great and there were only 250 runners. The best news, I got a good nights rest and shaved just over 15 mins off my time! Kearsten and I beat more then half the pack. We were so proud of ourselves, we consistently passed people up to the finish line. We averaged 10 min miles the whole way.
I think I'll give my knees a rest and ride my bike for a little while, but I had a great time and it was almost enjoyable with sleep.

City Deals

My sister recently introduced me to CityDeals.com. It rocks. If you don't know about it, they offer significant discounts on products and services. We recently purchased a deal for a family pic at a professional studio things went so well I wanted to share.
The deal was normally $200 but we paid a little less then $50. For that we received:
1 Hour photo shoot with a professional photographer
4 free sheets and a 11x17
3 head swaps
Blemish touch up
CD with 3 free poses including the copyrights

With 3 kids two and younger, gone are the days of having a friend snap a shot at a nice location. Getting three kids to sit still and look at the camera and smile is nearly impossible. We thought with head swaps we could get a pic with everyone looking at the camera and hopefully with pleasant faces (I didn't even dare hope for smiles).

The photographer was way silly and my kids loved it. She only took pictures for half an hour but the kids patience was running short so that worked for us. My only regret is I didn't have her take any of just the kids. I was too worried about getting a good family pic. We went back the next day and selected the pics we wanted, made a few upgrades and requested some head swaps. The pictures were ready in a week! Here are our favorites.
If you want to check out CityDeals just click here. We've loved it!

THE Iron Horse

The Family Davis had another amazing adventure in Durango this weekend. Thanks to Uncle Mitch Spencer rode in his first Iron Horse. Nearly 2,500 riders race the Silverton Train over a few mountain passes. The race is only 50 miles but 30 of those miles are straight up hill. One of the things I love about Spence is when he gets into something he does his best to understand it, and his bike is no different. Before the race he switched all his cables, tuned the gears and replaced both wheels. He rode with the Fort Lewis College centennial team so he wore a special jersey and started in the front. We made signs to cheer him on, but the boys were only interested for about 3 secs. We rode up a few miles to cheer him on before it go too steep and they shut the road down. He had to climb over two 11,000 foot peaks! The tallest we have around here is 8,000 so he couldn't even train for it. Spencer is really amazing, not only did he make it but he's such a gentleman he helped some random lady over the last peak. As he approached her he could hear that she was sobbing, literally crying as she pedaled. I guess she was spent and worried the sweeper car was going to catch her before she could get over the last peak and the head wind was just about to do her in. So Spencer talked to her, calmed her down and let her draft off of him. So he pulled her over the top before leaving her on the last decent. What an amazing guy! We are so proud of him!! Way to go Spencer.

During the rest of the weekend Mitch showed us a great time in Durango, we watched the llama movie 5 times and attended more races. It was a great weekend and the boys can't wait to see Uncle Mitch again. Audrey thought the criterium was amazing and laughed the whole time. She won all the spectators around us over and had her own fan base.