I am so happy that summer is here and vacations are lining up! My sweet sister Alyson graduated from nursing school last week, so our family traveled down to Arizona for her graduation. I must state that I am quite impressed with all that she has done the past couple years. She has gone through a lot and done a wonderful job.

All the kids fell asleep while playing Risk, I thought Gavin's sleeping arrangement was the best.

For Mother's Day we gave all the mom's the day off. So my brother Steven, his kids, Aly and I made a delicious dinner. Eliza loved helping with the brownies, mainly the cleanup.

Aly and my sister-in-law Kristy did a triathlon on Saturday and both did a great job. It was really fun to watch them transition from swimming to biking to running. They made me realize that it is time to get back into exercising. Doug and I both have not run at all since our half marathon. We will be changing that soon though.

Before getting to Mesa I stopped by my sister Shannon's house in Eager, AZ. She lives 30 min. away from my Grandpa Hall and it was so nice to visit with her and my grandpa. Her son Kade is such a boy and we caught him playing in the mud one day. He was so pleased with himself, until Shannon stripped him down and hosed him off.

Of course, we had to stop by the famous El Camino in St. Johns, AZ. St. Johns is a small town and just about every time I have gone to visit my grandpa we have stopped by to eat at this Mexican restaurant. My Aunt Laura also lives there and it was so nice to visit with her.

Here are some pictures from our first Sommers girls retreat. Doug's mom, sister Brooke, sister-in-law Becca, and I all went down to St. George for the weekend. We hiked in Zion's, went shopping, ate delicious food, and watched the iron man competition. The iron man triathlon was amazing to see. What a motivation and inspiration these people were.

As many of you may know, my dear husband does in fact like Pokemon. You may wonder why...I have asked myself the same question. But he does enjoy it quite a lot. A few weeks ago he had a Pokemon party at our house, so I decided to support his cause with poke-cake. I am taking a cake decorating class in June, so this was my first attempt without proper schooling. Bow sure wanted a bite of it, but he didn't get it.

Well that's about all the excitement going on in our lives. Our next bit of excitement is some home remodeling. So look forward to pictures of the newly improved house. We are getting new doors, windows, floors, and of course painting. Oh the fun that lies ahead!