Bear Lake: Part 1

This year, the Higbee Family Reunion was at Bear Lake.
We kicked off the reunion by attending a Juanito Bandito play at Pickleville Playhouse.
The cast did a great job keeping us laughing the entire show.

A quick picture with Juanito himself.

The kids loved the fake mustache Michael bought during intermission.

We headed to the beach the next morning. 

The kids loved playing in the sand and water. They built castles and dug ditches.

We had heard mixed reviews about the water at Bear Lake, but it wasn't as cold as we were expecting.

Sammy loved his first dip in the lake.

Mermaid tails. Reminded me of another picture from two summers ago...my how the time flies.

Sam spent some time napping. Love this picture Shel snapped of my sweeties.

 (from Shel)

Grandma and Grandpa put a lot of time and thought into planning the reunion.

They held a special family home evening to talk about our ancestors and family tree.

Each family (child) was assigned a great grandparent or couple to talk about.

The pirate made his annual appearance to talk about his "greatest treasure"...his family.

The kids did a little scavenger hunt and had to perform little acts in order to get their clues.

They were all pretty cute. Maxwell had to do a somersault for one of his clues. 

No surprise, since I like to call him the somersault king.

(from Shel)

Our family had the opportunity to talk about Great Grandma and Grandpa Higbee.

We did a little skit where Kathryn and Max played Grandma Wilma and Grandpa Roy.

And little blue eyed, blonde haired Sammy played the part of Dale (Dad).

The kids performed perfectly. Loved watching them reenact a few of our favorite stories.

For a job well done, there was a real treasure chest at the end.
The kids all had a ball trying to crack it open.

And finally, the last grandchild broke the treasure chest open. What a fun evening.
It was so special to hear all the stories about our grandparents (and great-grandparents).
I'm pretty sure it was a wonderful night for everyone.

Five on Friday

1. Samuel is walking now. He's a pretty darn cute pint-sized little person walking around. Irresistible too.

2. Kathryn has taken to washing Maxwell's hair for me.

3. We made Popsicle stick fairies again. It's been far too long. I love how creative this girl is.

4. The kids had a lemonade stand one morning while a few families in the neighborhood had yard sales.

5. We celebrated Samuel's 1st birthday last week. It's hard to believe this boy is one already!

10 summer things

1. I just adore this picture of Sam. He had so much fun swinging. I loved watching his little legs kick back and forth and hearing his adorable giggle.

2. Kathryn and Maxwell made a campfire one afternoon and then asked for some marshmallows to roast. How could I resist? I sent Michael this picture and informed him that we needed to go camping asap.

3. An attempted selfie at the snow cone shack. As you can tell, I'm not very good at taking them, but I sure do love this picture anyway.

4. I found Kathryn swinging Samuel the other day. She was going so slowly and carefully and singing him a song. I love that girl, and so does her little brother.

5. We tried to make some plans this past Saturday, but things didn't work out. Instead, we went on a family bike ride to get some ice cream at the creamery. And when we finished, we decided we better eat dinner. So, we biked to our favorite Mexican restaurant (which Michael and I had just eaten at on our date the previous night. It's that good). Then we came home and ran through the sprinklers to cool off. It was a perfect evening. One of my favorite things was watching Samuel push his firetruck around the driveway. 

6. Michael came back from a church activity to find that his truck had been toilet papered. The culprit has yet to be found, but we have a pretty good idea... 

7. Diaper explosion. Need I say more?

8. I think one of my kids favorite activities this summer has been playing Indians. Now they can REALLY play since they have bows, arrows and a tee-pee.The tee-pee is also good for resting in and reading books. I love their imaginations.

9. I was out running errands one day, and made a quick phone call before going into a store. Everyone was being so quiet, especially Samuel. When I went to get him out of the car, I found him eating my mascara wand. He had figured out how open the bottle. I was so upset, that I blamed the older kids for giving it to him. But then, I quickly remembered letting him roam around the car for a few minutes after feeding him. Man alive, he was not happy when I took that away.

10. This was one of my favorite Sundays. After church, Kathryn made a little restaurant outside and served us lunch. Michael made it home from his meetings just in time to eat with us. Then, we put the kids down for a nap, and he read out loud to me. After nap-time, we ate dinner together and then the kids took turns scratching our backs. We had fun taking these family pictures. Kathryn did my hair, and then we played in the backyard for awhile. It was another perfectly beautiful night.

Birthday boy

Maxwell turned three years old last week.

I love this kid to pieces. He is bursting at the seams with personality and sass.

He is so full of life, love, charm, adventure, mischief and humor.

Our family had so much fun celebrating his special day.

Kathryn woke up at the crack of dawn to make Max a card.

It was one of his favorite gifts of the day. So sweet. He carried it around with him most of the day.

We started off by going to breakfast at our favorite restaurant. It's been far too long Norms.

Then we went to a park to play. 

We stayed there as long as we could possibly stand the heat. 

We meaning Michael and me.

Because we are slacker parents, we went to Target after the park to buy Max's birthday presents.

We kept distracting him as we put things in the cart and then we would try to hide them.

We lucked out and he never suspected a thing. 

We picked up some pizza and went to Michael's parents house for lunch and to open gifts.

Afterwards, we went back to our home and got ready to go to the city pool. 

We swam for a few hours and ended the day watching The Lego Movie (gift from Grandma).

A few days later, I threw Max a little birthday party with his friends.

They swam, snacked, had water fights, and played with bubbles until their hearts were perfectly content.

It was pretty much a repeat of his party last year. Why change when you've got a good thing going?!

He got more fun presents from his friends and he loved every single one.

He loved his chocolate cupcakes.

That was the only thing that he requested for his birthday. Actually, he asked for muffins.

I figured this was what he really meant. Love you so much birthday boy.