Summer Fun

This summer has been going by so fast for us! I had to put these pics up of Cambria having so much fun with Hannah. They painted all over themselves and she loved it! Thanks Aunt Hannah!

We've done alot of swimming this summer, mostly because we invite ourselves to other people's houses :) Cambria LOVES to swim, and she is so fearless about it. She'll stay under the water, jump off the side, jump off the diving board...it's too funny. We put some googles on her so her eyes didn't hurt so much from constantly having her face under the water.

This is Trey....and we love him! Well, to be fair we love ALL the Rhoades kids. He is so good to take care of "baby Cambria" and make sure she is safe. I love it :)

Here's my awesome friend Haylee with Michael, who by the way does NOT like the water. Although, that may be because his crazy friend Cambria was splashing and jumping and laughing all around him.

Oh see how cute she looks with the googles! and her Cambria cleaveage :)

Trey and Michael enjoying Haylee's AMAZING homeade raspberry ice cream. I haven't had thirds of ice cream in a long time!

So, my amazing mom graduated from the University of Phoenix last week with a Bachelors in Psychology. She has worked SO hard, and long and overcome alot of difficult things to finish this and I couldn't be prouder of her. Although, I've said that for a long time now and she just keeps making me more proud. She is a strong, vibrant, faithful, loving, intelligent, funny and compassionate mother, woman and friend. She wouldn't let us make a big deal about it, so we went up to Mueller Park and had some sandwiches & s'mores. (Real celebretory huh?!) The girls had fun though, and I love being up there...it's so beautiful.

How cute are those two?! They didn't really know what to do with the incredible gooey-goodness of those s'mores.

Hope that everyone is having a good summer too!

Firsts

I've been thinking about some of the firsts in my life since someone who'll remain nameless just got her first kiss. It reminded me of my first kiss. Allow me to walk down memory lane and share my story. Why? Cause it's fun :)
My first kiss was a matter of days after I'd turned 16 (technically I'm not counting the boys in elementary I used to CHASE down and kiss) and my best friend Liz and I were going to EFY together. Anyone who's gone remembers that there are kids ages 14-18 put in groups that you hang out with all week. And at BYU there's like 4 girls to every guy. Anyways, Liz and I get put in this, if I remember correctly, lame-o group with girls we didn't really bond with. The boys were...eh. Except for one. That's right folks...enter Isaac Peace. Blond hair, blue eyes college bound charmer. He was so cute and whenever I saw him I couldn't get a full sentence out.
One day while we were supposed to be in class, Liz and I ditched (a fundamental part of our friendship) and went back to our dorms. When we got back Isaac and his friends were playing basketball and asked if we wanted to play. Knowing how much I suck at basketball & how clumsy I am, we still said yes and it was all down hill from there. We went to classes together, ate meals together, he took me to the banquet where he ate a plastic fork for me (romantic huh!) danced every single dance together and walked home in the rain after the dance. As soon as we got close to our dorms we stopped and he kissed me. Talk about butterflies! It was awesome, that feeling of something new and special and all yours. Oh yeah, except all the boys from our group were watching us from their dorm rooms :) Good stuff.
All that, just to be reminded of the uniqueness of firsts...first kiss, first heartbreak, first love, first child, etc. Cool to think of the good and the bad and how grateful I am for each of them. They've made up part of who I am today.