Happy 4th of July!

Every year we spend the 4th with all of the Stacy family and this year was a such a BLAST! Mom and Dad Stacy got a house for all of us in South Lake Tahoe where we stayed for 3 nights and it was awesome! A HUGE THANKS to Mom and Dad Stacy for the house! Seriously, it was so much fun! It was so great to see Brittany, Jeff and Paislee who drove out from Utah and so fun to have ALL the cousins there together! The kids had a blast and we definitely kept busy for the 3-4 days we were there! It was so great to be all together in the same house! We were either eating (which we did a lot of), hot tubbing, going for LONG walks, bike riding, running the trails behind the house, playing the Wii (especially Just Dance 2), just chilling, shooting pool, eating some more, going for more walks and bike rides, eating yummy ice cream that seemed to be endlessly coming from the freezer (thanks Gma and Gpa!), kayaking and playing in the sand on Pope Beach, seeing the BEST fireworks show and seriously just enjoying the amazingly beautiful Lake Tahoe!! Who could ask for more?!! It was so great! And it made me realize how grateful I am to live in such an amazingly beautiful part of our country with such an awesome family!! I am truly blessed!!

The men "chill-axin"

Madelyn loved playing with sweet Paislee.

The make-shift "carrier" that Mark put together since we forgot our Bjorn. haha! Lilly didn't seem to mind :)

Doing fun crafts that Auntie Sheila brought! She's the best!

Just being cute.

Going for a walk, a very LONG walk.

Grandma took off on Zach's bike because he didn't want to ride it anymore. haha!

Lilly getting some Uncle Jeremy time :)

Frosting sugar cookies with Grandma. Seriously, this is Kali and Madelyn's favorite thing to do with Grandma!

We love Uncle Jeremy!

The Life of the Party! We love you Grandma and Grandpa!

Just Dance Wii!! So fun!

Fun at Pope Beach! We spent most of the day on the 4th here! We headed home for BBQ for dinner and then some went back to another beach later that night for the fireworks.

Cutie pies Hailey and Paislee. I LOVE how dirty Paislee is! haha!!

Our last day before heading home we took the kids on a fun bike ride. This was Lilly's first time to sit in the trailer with Madelyn and she seemed to really like it. It was so cute!

We then drove over to Fallen Leaf Lake to see the amazing waterfalls, wear the kids out a little more and snap a few more pics with the cousins!

Cousins!

Finally, we headed over to Mcd's to grab some lunch and wear the kids out some more before the long drive back home. They even scored another ice cream from grandma! I think that was like their third one for the day! Haha!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for EVERYTHING!! We love you so much!!!

"swim soup" and "gobbles"

I wish I was better at remembering to write funny things down that my kids say...especially when they are 3 years old. I'm pretty sure this is one of the funniest ages for most kids as their vocabulary is taking off ... although I don't remember much at all of what Kali and Zach said at this age. SO here I am writing down my favorite words Madelyn is saying so I don't forget. Madelyn is a talker and will talk to anyone that will listen and make friends with anyone that will pay attention to her or NOT pay attention to her. haha! She is pretty easy to love :)...Even when she is looking for her "swim soup" to go swimming or needs help putting on her "gobbles". I seriously don't even correct her when she says the words because it is so stinkin cute coming out of her mouth with her little lisp. I can always count on Madelyn to make me smile!!

Swim Lessons

We decided to try some semi-private swim lessons with Ms. Janna and Miss Kate this year and I am so glad we did! The kids did AMAZING and Zach and Kali are now officially swimmers! I look forward to maybe putting them on the swim team next summer! This was Madelyn's first time in lessons and we had some breakthroughs with her as well. She did awesome and is loving going to the pool all the time and practicing what she's learned. The kids had a blast with the Shouse girls in their lessons and I enjoyed the time hanging out with my lady friends during the lessons. Thanks so much to Janna and Kate for working with my kids and for doing such an amazing job with them!! They loved having you as their teachers!!

Kali and Avery

Zach and Hailey

Madelyn and Ms. Janna

Madelyn and her best bud Taya

Madelyn and Miss Kate

A few videos for your enjoyment!! We are so proud of you Zach, Kali, and Madelyn!!

River Rafting FUN!

We had to do one last big fun adventure with Kristin and Neal before they moved. In all the 5 years they have lived here in California with us we have never taken them river rafting down the American River with Mark as our river guide. So we talked them into it, arranged babysitters for the kids, got a few extra friends to come with us and we were off for an adventure! Neal's mom Rodna, Kevin Anderson and daughter Caitlin and dear friend Kate all joined us for the fun and boy was it one CRAZY ride down that river!! The mountains had so much snow this year that the runoff into the rivers and lakes is amazing and Mark said he has never seen the river as high as it was and running as fast as it was. I got a little scared at that point and even more scared as we hit our first major rapids and nearly folded in half. Thank goodness no one fell out and our boat never capsized...I consider us pretty lucky. All-in-all it was quite a thrilling adventure and I'm pretty sure everyone ended up having a great time! It was super fun having Kristin and Neal and our fun friends join us for the crazy adventure ride down the river!!

Caitlin and Kate- These girls are a blast!!

The girls. Before we put in.

After the crazy rapids at the end of the river... it slows way down until the lake and we pretty much just relax and enjoy the sunshine and row ourselves in at this point! My favorite part :)

Our HOT river guide :)...oh wait that's my husband!

sisters :)

Rodna and Neal

Kevin and Caitlin

Love this girl!! Thanks Kate and Caitlin for coming and making our trip so much fun!! (yes Kate does have a swimsuit on)

Baseball 2011

Zach had a really fun season this year in baseball. This year it was machine pitched games and Mark even stepped in and assistant coached with coach Tony (we've known Tony since we moved to Lincoln 9 years ago). Zach had a great time playing with his friends Jake(Tony's son), Aiden and Ryan. The season ended up being a little longer then planned because of a lot of extra rain that usually doesn't happen this time of year but it was still fun. Zach really had fun and loves playing baseball. He's such a cute little ball player with an awesome left-handed swing. (You'll have to check out the video at the bottom)

Zach is #15 :) haha.

The girls loved playing with Alex (coach Tony's daughter) at almost every game. She was the best! Definitely made going to the games with 4 kids so much easier for me!