It is summer and we are ready to make the most of this 12 weeks! Unfortunately on the very 1st day of summer I lost our camera! My phone did not take great pictures so there aren't a lots of captured memories for the first part of the summer. What a bummer. The camera was finally found (in the front pocket of our soft cooler) on the drive home from our family reunion in CO. I'm currently trying to bum pics off of family and friends from our beginning of summer adventures. We'll see how that goes...
Anyhow, here's what we have thus far:
Beach Trip with the Watsons (Isaac's 1st!):
Dallas Take 1: Hanging out for the weekend and L stays for the week:
Kethy so kindly invited each of my bigs to come and stay for a week this summer. First Lillie for a week and then later in the summer S and G together. Conveniently Grammy also invited the kids to come and stay with them in that same way and on the exact opposite times! Meaning for two weeks this summer all my bigs were either in Dallas with BFF's or hanging with their grandparents at
the exact same time! Now I love having my kids home in the summer. Love, Love, LOVE it! But there are times when it's nice to get a break as well. It was great for them to have fun, great for Isaac to get scheduled naps, and great for Tim and I to get a date every night. There aren't tons of pics... because I wasn't there to take any. But, know that it happened and that it was a blast!
Here we are swimming on the weekend that we dropped L off:
L finally got to try out the mermaid fins
These are a couple of pics that Kethy texted me but it's all I got
YW/YM Beginning of Summer Swim Party:
It's time for the youth's annual "School is over, Summer is here" swim party and it was a total blast as usual. We combined it with a goodbye party for Kamryn Starley who we will miss big time!
L chillin' with Michaela, Katelyn, Sydnee, and Adalie
Hannah and Tessa
Alyssa, Kamryn, Jessica, and Leah
Playing catch with Bro. Nelson
Random fun:
Isaac on the road trip to Dallas
No way! They both got an Instant Winner on an HEB trip!
S and G decided to hold a Lemonade stand. It was a huge hit! Besides lemonade they had donuts and cookies. Tons of neighbors came out to support them and they had a blast.
Samuel Earns His Wolf Badge:
Samuel has been in scouts for a year now and has been having a ton of fun! After a year of hard work and learning new skills he has completed the requirements to earn his Wolf Badge. We are so proud of you Samuel!
Making a pineapple upside down cake for dessert with Josh and Dane
Colorguard
Mom pinning on Samuel's Wolf patch
S pinning mom with the "mom" Wolf pin
Way to go Samuel! You totally rock!
Isaac is 6 months!
What a big boy you are Isaac! You are setting up pretty well now and staying awake more often. You bring so much happiness to all of us!
Happy Father's Day!:
Again. Sorry for the lack of pictures. My phone takes such bad ones that I just really haven't taken that many. But we DID celebrate Father's Day and here is something to prove it! Dad got the morning off from church meetings so here the kids let him sleep in before mauling him with all their presents.
Cub Scout Day Camp:
Samuel did Twilight camp this year and I got to come up and volunteer for a day. It was hot and tiring but also a ton of fun!
Getting ready to take the swim test
(which he didn't get to do until the 2nd to last day there. Every time their group got to the pool lighting would start and they would have to get out before most of them even got in. What a bummer)
Listening to the trail guide before our hike
Playing war games at a cool old building we found on the hike
Sanding wood for his sun dial
The finished product!
Playing Gaga ball
(They also had the adults play and it was so fun to get into the ring and have the kids cheer us on. And I totally made it into the last 2 in the ring!)
So I didn't win, but guess who did?
THIS GUY!!!
Samuel was totally amazing in there! It was awesome when he won. He shot his hands up in the air and ran around the ring yelling while the entire gym erupted with cheering. It was seriously one of the coolest things ever!)
The 4 champions from the 4 rounds that were played
And 75% of them were our boys!
? kid, Josh Conrad, Samuel, and Preston Jackson
The end of a long, hot, fun day
(G and L got to come to and go to the "me too" camp. L felt a little too big to be there and definitely did some complaining but all in all she had a good time)
Samuel Turns 9:
I cannot believe that this boy is already 9 years old! He's already been baptized for an entire year! He is about to enter his second to last year of elementary! He is growing up right before my very eyes and I could not be more proud. He is such an awesome kid who has the kindest heart of anyone that I know and we are so glad that he is part of our family! Happy Birthday Sam Man!
Star Wars books from Auntie Laura
A sports pillow from Auntie Katie,
and his special birthday ice cream sandwich cookie from Grammy
Legos, wide receiver gloves, a hover ball, a coupon book from mom and dad,
and moo-la from Grandma and Grandpa
Books and Half Price Books gift certificate from Grammy and Grandad
Diamond Minecraft sword cupcake cake - Decorated by Samuel himself!
Samuel's Favorites at 9:
Books - Big Nate, Harry Potter. Shows - Lab Rats, Slugterra. Things to Do - play minecraft, football, hang out with William, Matthew, Preston, and Grant and run around the neighborhood, read, legos. Restaurants - Pei Wei, Taco Cabana, Chick Fil A. BFF- Teancu Maxwell, Diego, Preston Jackson
Doolittle Family Reunion:
Pagosa Springs, CO
6/29-7/5
We have been trying to put together a family reunion for years now and we finally did! We have been planning this one for the last year and a half and could not believe that it was finally here! Tim found a great (and SUPER HUGE!) house for all of us to stay in....as in:
Harry & Dianne Doolittle
Jason, Rebecca, Dallin, & Russell Doolittle
Brian Doolittle
Jennifer, Wendell, Christian, Abby, Emma, & Eliza Barnes
and
Tim, Audrey, Lillie, Samuel, Grant, & Isaac Doolittle
It was a whole lot of people! But luckily we had 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, 7,000 square feet, and 10 acres of space to run around on.
It was great to be able to spend a lot of time together out in the mountains. The town of Pagosa Springs was cute and quaint and had lots of fun shopping and restaurants. As you can see, the scenery is gorgeous and we had a wonderful time hiking. But my favorite times were the ones that we spent running around the house playing night games and family olympics, craft time, tie dying with Grandma and Grandpa, relaxing by the fire pit, chatting at night, and visiting on the porch playing some intense games of ladder ball! It was a wonderful time and has given us some beautiful memories!
Happy "Actual" Birthday Samuel!
Samuel's birthday was the day that we were to start our drive to CO so we celebrated the day before. But of course we had to go out for birthday dinner! So here we are at IHOP in Roswell, NM. Lucky boy - he got to go to a hotel for his b-day, plus swim and hang out with Dallin, Russell, Uncle Jason, and Aunt Becca! We met up with them at the hotel in Roswell and caravanned the rest of the way.
Our breathtaking views from our house!
I seriously felt like I was on the set of The Sound of Music.
I had suggested to Becca that we go run up that hill and sing "The Hills Are Alive" song.
It turned out to be another person's property though.
Becca was cool with the adventure but I was too chicken to trespass. Lame, I know!
Family Day Hike and Swim
Is Christian trying to imitate this guy? Because if he is that is totally hilarious!
We love Colorado!
Upon arriving the kids promptly found awesome hiking sticks. I can't remember who found the first one but as kids found them they were all good sports about searching until everyone had one.
Cousin love!
Auntie Audrey with some of the big cousins:
Samuel, Lillie, Abby, Grant, and Emma
This water was so cold it was painful! The kids were braver than the adults were but it still took a lot of challenges from Grandpa to get them to lay down for a few seconds!
Aw, Mr. Grant - you make me so happy!
Girl Cousins
Abby, Grandpa, and Lillie
Craft Time - Ninja Stress Balls
(Flour Filled Balloons)
These were cool, but waaaay harder than the YouTube video made them look!
Grandma, Aunt Becca, Aunt Jen, and Aunt Audrey headed this one
Uncle Jason made us his famous Paella!
Hike Numero 2
The Ft. Worth Doolittle's, and Tim, Grant, Isaac, and I decided that we could not come all the way to the San Juan Mountains of Colorado and only go on one little hike! It was just too gorgeous. So we headed out for a 4th of July morning hike while the others played at home. We were so glad that we did! This was in my top 2 all time favorite hikes. The scenery was so gorgeous most of the time I felt like I was in a calendar.
Grant, contemplating life.
Or possible looking for a good spot to pee.
More Sound of Music-esque scenery
I stood here and looked at this for so long. If I could build a cabin right here and look out my window at this picture for the rest of my life I would be perfectly content.
Here is a mini cave that Grant found. He loved this place and stayed in it as long as we were willing to stand around. He talked about "his cave" for several months after we got back. It was so great to go on this hike with him. I really wished that L and S had come!
Dallin and Grant - Best Cousins Forever
Mom and Seismic relaxing in the shade while the others played in the river.
The water was definitely too cold for us two!
Fathers and Sons having a grand time throwing rocks into the river and building rock towers.
Mr. Ike peeking out from his Koala pouch.
I LOVE this picture!!!
Our view on the way out of the hike
Family Portraits
G-ma, G-pa, and the grandkiddos
Christian, Emma, Russell, Isaac, Abby, Dallin, Eliza, Lillie, Samuel, Grant
The original Doolittles
now add the spouses :)
The whole big fam bam
More Random Fun-
Iker loves his bath!
and he is WAY into his daddy. If Tim is around he wants no one else. And that's a Capital NO ONE!
Lovin' spending time with his sister and Grandad
Lillie stayed at Grammy and Grandad's while the boys took their turn in Dallas with the Hollands. So of course there was a sewing project! The word is that Lillie made 98% of the above pictured outfit all by herself! It is absolutely adorable and I am so proud of her. And I'm so glad that she has such a great time with her Grammy!
Baking with Daddy
Lillie has been saving her $ all year. She wants an Ipod touch for her birthday. Tim and I made a deal with her that if she saved up enough for half of it then we would pay for the other half and insurance on it for her birthday present. This served two purposes: 1) we are just not the kind of parents that spend that much money on kid birthday presents, and 2) since this was going to be such a nice electronic device we thought that she might have a better understanding of how to care for it if she had an actual idea of it's value. Here she is with all her cash-ola... $103!
Summer Day Camp - San Antonio Academy
In trying to keep the kids active and involved this summer we signed them up for a day camp. They each got to pick something they really wanted to learn about. It was such a great time!
On the steps leading up to Samuel's class
Lillie with her teacher at the Clay and Glass Bead Art Class
-She made all sorts of cool animals out of...you guessed it....clay and glass beads!
They were some truly beautiful creations!
Grant with his teacher at the Young Zoologists Class
-They learned about different animals every day, and even got to .
take a field trip to the SA Zoo on the last day!
We couldn't get a picture with Samuel's teachers but here he is in front of his building where his Lego Robot class was held. -He got to spend several hours a day building robots out of Legos and then programming them to do cool things. It was pretty sweet and right up this kids alley.
Isaac at 7 Months-
Swimming - A favorite Doolittle Pastime:
Our great friends the Hurts came back from Wyoming to visit all of their SA friends and we were so glad to see them again! So of course we had to spend a day at our old haunt the Great Northwest neighborhood pool. It wasn't quite the same as always and we were definitely missing the Michelle Easton clan, Hollands, and Petersons, but it was great to get together nonetheless.
Here we have representation from the Larry's, Hoopers, Doolittle's, Hurt's, and Becky Easton's kids.
Here's Lillie swimming with some of her besties, Ava, Holley, Sterling, and Hayley
who she got to hang out with a few times over the summer.
Photo Bomb by Grant!
Such a beautiful baby! And so calm and patient as he puts up with all of our summertime activities.
Lillie Turns 11:
This girl is definitely, positively, absolutely, officially a tween. I can't believe she's going to middle school. I can't believe that this is her last year in Primary! The time flies much too quickly I tell you! I enjoy every moment I have with this precious girl. She is a beautiful daughter and such a great sister to her brothers. She brings joy and love, and lots of helpfulness to our home. Happy Birthday Lil'star!
Enjoying Birthday Crepes for Breakfast
Thank you for the books and Half Price gift card Grammy and Grandad!
Lillie and her hard earned Ipod Touch.
Isn't she gorgeous!
Birthday lunch at Pei Wei
Chocolate Covered Rice Krispy Cake
Activity Days was held the night of Lillie's birthday and since she loves activity days and certainly does not want to miss it her birthday was not going to get into the way! The Mia Maids had planned to host activity days for this night so we made it a birthday party for everyone! Meaning, that if you had celebrated your birthday in the last 365 days then this party was to celebrate you! We had birthday party games and everyone decorated their own cupcake and we all sang a big happy birthday song to us. It was a great time!
Playing games in the street. Of course. Why wouldn't you want to play games in the street?
It seems perfectly logical to me!
Cupcake decorating
Katelyn, Riley, Emma, Lillie, Ella, Camarie, Hannah
Vega, Hayley, Savvy, Erika, Mary
The boys got to get in on the fun too:
Dane, Samuel, Grant, and Parker
Emma was so nice to bring Lillie a birthday present!
Lillie's favorites at 11:
Books: The Giver Series, Harry Potter (audio book), Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, Shows: Girl Meets World, Lab Rats, Once Upon A Time, Things to Do: craft, sew, read, journal - especially list making, play games with her brothers, play outside with neighborhood kids, organize, pinterest Restaurants: Pei Wei, Grimaldi's, Jimmy John's BFF's: Kenya, Ava, Hayley Blan, Hannah Conrad
The Alaska Boys Trip
For the past year Tim has been planning an Alaska trip with some of his good guy friends. They were there for 10 days and explored Anchorage, Soldovia, Homer, and Soldotna. The views were breathtaking! They got in some great fishing, camping, and glacier hiking, and they even met one of his favorite reality TV stars! We missed him so much but I was so happy to know that he was having such a great time. I love you Tim!
Holy Salmon hook. You do not want to get caught with one of these!
Bears. Oh my!
That's A LOT of fishermen
Moose
While eating breakfast at a small diner in Homer one morning Tim stumbled upon one of his favorite reality TV stars: Otto Kilcher from Alaska Wild Frontier! You imagine spotting celebrities if you vacation in LA or NYC, but not necessarily Alaska. They couldn't have been more surprised and excited! Otto sat and chatted with them and when they said that they loved his show he started singing the theme song!
Here's Tim visiting the outskirts of the Kilcher homestead after then ran into Otto:
Hiking the glacier
The kids in their Alaska duds brought back by dad.
Mom and Isaac in Idaho
(Auntie Allison's BYU-I graduation plus, Isaac's 1st plane trip!)
Isaac traveled beautifully!
He had a hard time with takeoff and landing but slept and played wonderfully the rest of the flights.
Chillin' at commencement
More chillin' - just with Auntie Laura this time
We are so proud of you Allison!
Brenden and Allison with K & K McKamey
We stayed with some friends of Brenden's parents and just
had to capture some pictures in the beautiful scenery of their backyard...
Little Ike enjoying some quality time with Grandad
Oh Costa Vida - how I have missed you!
Relaxing and Allison and Brenden's apartment
Auntie Katie takes the best selfie's with her nephews!
Isaac and I drove by mine and Tim's 1st ever home:
The Wretched Lexington!!!!
Bleh - this was the stinkiest little hole!
Thank goodness for this stroller. Not only did it save my arms as we strolled through terminal after terminal in Phoenix, but it kept Isaac entertained while we waited :)
More Random Fun:
The kids challenged each other to stand in ice water as long as they could.
Samuel was the definite winner!
YW Camp Prep / Goodbye Erika, Meredith, and Sister Pearce Party:
Making camp bags
Cassie, Katelyn, Hannah, & Bri
Samuel & Meredith with Sis. Mellen in the back
(S is going to miss Meredith!)
Way to go on the driver's permit Katelyn!
w/ Lillie, Myriam, Katelyn, & Bree
Sonterra YW's
Plus silly faces!
We will miss you so much Meredith, Erika, & Connie!
School clothes shopping with S and G - took about 20 minutes - Ah, so easy!
Happy Birthday Grammy!
L made Grammy a personalized Coca Cola picture where she melted a Coke bottle in a kiln and then hand painted the Coco-Cola symbol back on the mounted it in a shadow box. I love that crafty girl!
Thanks for the b-day earrings Auntie Katie!
Pediatrician Birthday Bash!
The kiddos pediatrician Dr. Adetona puts on a birthday bash each August. This was our first attendance and we had a ton of fun! The kids made an immediate beeline for the dunking booth - which was awesome since it was so stinkin' hot outside!
Here's G:
Mom and Ike resting in the shade
Here's S:
Here's L
S on the rock wall
G never gets tired of face painting!
L and Hayley do makeovers! Aaaaagh!!!!
Isaac really enjoys yogurt. Well, he really enjoys painting with yogurt.
These boys love to play together!
Boating with Friends:
Tim's friend Greg from work invited us to go out on the lake one day. Besides the fact that halfway in I got seasick it was a totally fun day!
Isaac did not love the life vest at first but like the trooper that he is he quickly got used to it.
Mr. Cool
...and the summer continues...
Grammy and Isaac relaxing in G & G's backyard
Samuel prepping for a cavity filling. This sweet little girl wandered in to visit him :)
Story time
Isaac takes everything out of the bottom cabinets 2+ times a day...
"You're welcome mom!"
Little Ike loves to look outside - especially if his big sibs are out there
A lovely lazy craft day at home. This was watercolor salt art.
Beach Trip Take 2 & Happy 12th Anniversary Tim and Audrey:
We love the beach so much and try to fit in a trip at the beginning and end of the summer. This time we wanted to spread the beach fun around and invited some friends from Sonterra ward and The Ft. Worth Doolittle's. We had a great day with them, the Conrad's, the Crocketts, and the Mellens. Thanks for coming guys!
Hannah and Lillie with a sand crab they found
Isaac is like: "so we're here again huh?"
He did pretty well and slept in my arms some but the beach definitely isn't a favorite of his yet.
Grant and Kinsey relaxing in the waves
Samuel gettin' his boogie board on!
Boogie boarding with Jeffrey, Josh, Samuel, and Grant
Mr. I. with Uncle Jason
Happy Anniversary to us!
It has been a quick and amazing 12 years and I look forward to eternity with my wonderful husband!
...and the summer is winding down....
it has been a packed and wonderful summer! I love this time that I have with the kids every year. 12 weeks of no school, no homework, and doing whatever we want. We are so blessed to be able to have each other! As we come into the final weeks and things are winding down everyone is getting anxious for school to start again.
It's so hot who even needs clothes anymore?!
Isaac and William
And who will this kids 4th grade teacher be????
Drum roll please......
He got Mrs. D.! He got Mrs. D.! And his best friend Teancum is in his class too!
This was what he was hoping and praying for all summer and S could not be any happier!
Jenga Cities:
Back to School Target scavenger hunt for combined YW
Mom and G have a date to Orange Leaf
YUM!
Isaac at 8 months:
We love summer!
