Redwood trip

Here are a few pictures from our Redwood trip in August. I made this collage and never posted it. We had such a great time Everyones favorite part was the beach. If wasn't super warm but that didn't matter the kids loved playing in the water. The trees were amazing but most of all it was fun spending time as a family.

Lagoon Day 2

Day 2 was even better. The sun was shining and we had the whole day. I tried WICKED and loved it but Colossus right after made me nauseated. We went to Lagoon a Beach, played at the campground and rode many more ride. As you see in a few pictures it wore some us right out. What a great trip to spend with the kids. It was most fun just watching them laugh and smile. We have a great kids and love to be with them!!!

Camping at Lagoon

We woke up Thursday (July 2nd) with no specific plans but work in the yard, and clean the house. Darren had this day off cause ne normally has friday's off and it was considered a holiday. So we asked the kids what they wanted to do. Kylee suggested Lagoon. We responded with the usual "I don't think so!" And then Darren said why don't we! We could take the trailer and stay the night and do the bounce back and make it a camping trip. If you know us we usually don't pass up a good camping trip. So at the last minute we loaded up and were on our way. Can you tell by these pictures what happened on Thurdsday? The second we walked into the park it stared to rain. It drizzed all day long. We were soaked but look at those smiles. It was a blast. The evening turned out perfect with no rain and lots of fun riding.

4th of July Party

What a fun 4th of July party we had! The Thayn Family came over and we decorated t-shirts for the 4th. They all turned out so cute. Heather cut out a bunch of stars and sayings and we set them on the t-shirt and lightly sprayed them with spray paint. We must have forgot to tell Hannah about the lightly spraying part. Everyone was so creative and they were all awesome. We missed Todd's girls and not pictured are Kristie boys but they were there.-

Spalding Reunion

Every year my mom's cousins have a family reunion. Usually some of my family attend. This year it was at Crystal Hot Springs in Honeyville, Ut. So we decided to attend. We heard it was alot of fun there. We had a great time with my mom and dad, Trent, Lori, and Scott's families. Here are a few highlights.

Crystal Hot springs has a pool that is around 95 degrees. So much of the time was spent sitting on the edge. Kaleb was a dare devil. He loved going down the slide. Sorry you have to see those white legs and chest twice, I can't figure out how to erase the picture.

Playing in the sand is where my boys spent 80% of their time. Their cousins also joined them.

Happy Happy BIrthday Cakes

In May we celebrate Kylee and Kalebs birthdays. Some years I go all out on birthday cakes and other years not so much. This year was not so much. Kaleb got an expensive Walmart cake that wasn't very good and now that Kylee is 12 she got the more mature cake of strawberry shortcake.(That was yummy.) As I love creative blogs I am going to share with you the many years of birthday cakes. I guess I missed a few cause I couldn't find a picture of the barbie cake and I don't remember what else. But lets start off with the cakes of all the first years.

So the farm was my most favorite cake yet it was the most time consuming. Here are a few more close ups to see the details. I made up the barn and then copied the cupcakes from the cutest Wilton magazine.

Here are the various cakes I have done over the years. Some have been fun and others not so much. Enjoy and maybe these will spark and idea for your childs birthday!

So these are the mess of birthday cakes over the years. Some were fun to make but not always.

Yummy Cake

Since I am on a roll with getting my pictures to download I am doing it all at once. Some of my favorite blogs are those that have creative ideas or yummy recipes. So I thought I would share my latest creation. I had to make a cake for enrichment so I wanted something different. I have heard of a coconut cream cake before so I found a recipe for it on my favorite recipe website Allrecipes.com. Try it, it's yummy. In fact there wasn't enough to share after enrichment with my mom(since she loves coconut). So, I had to make another one for my birthday cake! Everyone loved it! So here is the recipe:

Coconut Cream Cake

Bake a white cake as directed, but add a 1 tsp. of coconut extract(I could not find this so I omitted that)

Mix 1 can of sweetend condensed milk with one 14 oz. can of cream of coconut(found in the drink mix isle or the asian section of the grocery store.)

Take the cake out of the oven when baked and poke holes all over the cake, when cake is still warm, pour the previous mixture over the cake and then refridgerate several hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, whip 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and spread over cake. Top with coconut.