4th of July in Laramie

At the very last minute we realized that the 4th of July weekend was going to be the only weekend to get to Laramie for quite a while.  Our August was pretty open, but that is baseball month in the Hoopes household so we knew Grandma and Grandpa would be gone a lot.  

First we were excited to have my brother and part of his family with us!  I feel like we really failed in the hosting department with them since we left them after a day, but it was fun to bbq with them and relax for a night and a morning.

Then on the 4th of July we left....and this is how we travel!!  :)

We got to Laramie in time for dinner and to watch the fireworks from Grandma and Grandpa's front porch.  We weren't real close to the fireworks but with it being their first summer in their new house we just wanted to see what it was like from their porch.  It was so fun and relaxing and just steps away from bedtime, instead of having to drive back from town!

Of course the kids came up with a play.

And we did some geocaching (are you seeing a pattern this summer??)  :)

While in Laramie we also went to the kids' rodeo and took the kids on campus to walk around a little bit....and...

geocache yet again!!

This one was kinda fun though...it's a webcam cache...you get online and find where the camera takes your picture....so here we are before we realized we were on camera.

Then us trying to get set up for our shot!

Then us in the form of a W on the lawn of Prexy's Pasture!!  If you click HERE you can see us in the gallery on July 5th!  :)  It started to thunder and rain as we were laying there which was awesome!  Luckily Grandma was with the sleeping baby in the van!  This was pretty fun!  Something random that I hope the kids will remember doing.

While in Laramie we also took the kids to see Monster's University!  Fun fun show!

The weather was beautiful and we realized we had never ever taken our kids to Vedauwoo!  Our Smith cousins live in Cheyenne so we called them last minute to see if they wanted to meet up with us and do a little hiking...and of course we would introduce them to geocaching.

These kids had such a blast together and were such troopers on the hike!  We LOVE our Smith cousins!  We sure miss them and love anytime that we can get together!

On our way back home we stopped by Ames Monument and the Lincoln Monument visitors center for more caching and because I haven't stopped by these places since I was a kid! 

We were super excited to find a travel bug in this cache box!  It's been out about a year and the owners are hoping it will continue to travel for another year or so and end up in New York! 

We LOVE Wyoming!  Here Kaylee is pointing to where both sets of Grandparents live!  What a perfect getaway!  Just what our family needed!  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for putting up with us!  I am SO sorry that the only picture I have with you guys is so dark!  Next time!  :)

The Rest of June

So how in the world do I piece together the rest of June!  70 + pictures and I just really can't decide if I do it all in one post or separate it.  Matt says, one big post with pictures!  All righty then!  One post...I'll just label all of this random stuff!  Fun stuff!  Friends, family, park-hopping, Round Up week!  Ready or not, here it comes!

First thing's first!  It's the beginning of summer!  We need a plan so these cute girls don't sit around like this all summer long!  :)

Let's put them to work!!
In the yard...

and in the kitchen...

or making money...who knew what a huge hit a fondue stand in the middle of summer would be!

So, I know I shouldn't take pictures in church...in fact, I hardly ever even bring my phone to church, but if you look close you can see both Thomas and Kierra completely wiped out!  1:00 church is a killer sometimes, especially when they play so hard the rest of the week!  :)

 And they do play hard!  Thomas and Kierra seemed to stick around the house a lot while the other kids were all over the place. 

We also had a sweet friend who had to move away but was able to come back and visit!

The summer started out with a couple of close friends being in the hospital for extended periods of time.  They were missed and worried about so much!

But everyone was back to their climbing and playfulness in no time!

These boys play pretty good together....

But sometimes the girls still get a hold of Thomas...

 They taught him how to ride his bike though!!  We are 5 for 5 with 1 to go at taking training wheels off at 3 years old!

We spent a TON of times outdoors.

Our backyard is our own little forest.  Matt loves to BBQ back there and the girls did a lot of smores right at the beginning of the summer!

We went on random bike rides which led to a little geocaching of course!  There are a few right close to the parks where we play.

We were able to attend a couple of "Arts in the Park" programs...sitting with good friends, watching good friends perform!

We did some park hopping with friends!  With water restrictions in our city we didn't have our own pool up at all this summer.  We frequented the splash pads, the legacy center and the outdoor pool a ton to try to keep cool!

We had one of the best ward parties ever!  So fun and relaxing!  The families in our neighborhood are the best ever!  We could've stayed all day just hanging out!  I really wish I had taken more pictures that day.  The adults vs. youth kickball game was a riot as was water balloon volleyball!  There was something for everybody!  It was a blast!

We had a girls night out at the Miss Utah competition with some fun friends!

And the end of June brings us to ROUND UP WEEK!!  Such a fun week with friends!

Full of parades!

And loud, obnoxious moms that are really excited to see their kids in the parade!  Oh wait...just one loud obnoxious mom...yes...that would be me...but my loud mouth is the closest one to the camera so give me a break!  :)

Here is the video of Tay and Em in the parade!!  http://youtu.be/ba1yl-Eexsk

We do have the famous Pass of All Passes.  Every once in a while Matt will just pack up the kids to get wet in the boats at Trafalga.  That definitely is one benefit of the pass....we don't feel like we have to stay all day...we'll go for a game of laser tag or golf and then leave. 

I had to say farewell to a legend...my old high school graduation gift!  Complete with a double deck tape player.  :(  So sad to see it pass on.

But we had fun making other graduation gifts!  One of our favorite 2013 graduates is a HUGE Utah fan.  We have forgiven her for it and we even aloud this fabric to be in our house for  a little while!

I can't believe it!  That was just June!  I didn't realize we did so much!  It's nice to have my phone on me to just capture little moments here and there, but all of the randomness sure makes it hard to blog about.  I imagine though that this post will be fun to read in a book years from now.  We had fun!  We were busy!  And we made memories!  I LOVE these kids!  It's fun to run around town and do things with them!  It's crazy hard to pack them all up sometimes, but they are all so helpful and willing...especially if it's to go do something fun!  Love those smile!!  :)