Thursday, August 28, 2008

Monsoon Season Is Here!!!!

August in Arizona has always been known as Monsoon season. We get most of our rain the entire year in one month. This year has been crazy, and I've never seen Monsoon season this bad! The other day the wind and rain was so hard that it looked like a mild hurricane. After the storm was over there were trees uprooted everywhere. Then tonight we had another storm pass through. This one didn't have wind like the last one, but it was the craziest lightning storm I have ever seen. This video doesn't even do it justice. It looked like someone had a strobe light outside, lighting up the whole sky when it flickered! :)

Sunday, August 3, 2008

BUSY, BUSY, July!!!!!

As I stated before, July FLEW by because we were so busy all month! With that said, I apologize to everyone for barely posting anything this month. But I figured that I would make it all up in one big blog! So.....here goes!

July started out with a proud parent moment....Yes, my baby graduated from Puppy Training School! We named our baby Mayhem for a reason, he was out of control! So I looked into taking him to a couple of training classes. I didn't think they would work as well as they did, but it is amazing! He is the best dog now and knows lots of new tricks! He's growing up so fast!

Later in the month...July 14th to be exact, Mike and Caleb celebrated their 26th birthday. (See blog below!) Happy Birthday Boys! :)

After Mike and Caleb's birthday, we were busy preparing for our week and a half trip to Idaho! I was SOOOOO excited I couldn't wait! We were going to be having a family reunion for both sides of my family. So there was a lot to do! We went and bought our first family tent, sleeping bags, lantern, and pads to sleep on. We love camping, so we were really excited to finally have camping gear! :)

On Wednesday, the 23rd, Mike, Mayhem and I started our vacation. It started with a 14 and 1/2 hour drive to Idaho. Mike was not too thrilled about having to drive, but with all of our camping stuff, and our little baby, Mayhem, we really didn't have a choice. I was really nervous that Mayhem would have a hard time being in the car that long, BUT he was VERY good! We left the house at 5:30 am Arizona time, and pulled into my dad's driveway at 10:00pm Idaho time. It was a VERY long day!

Thursday was the first day of the Gutierrez Family Reunion. We had to wake up early so that we could get up to the camp-site in time. However, we were not woken up by our alarm clocks! We received a text from Caleb! Christopher Dashel Peters was born on Thursday morning, making Mike and I an Uncle and Aunt for the second time! We haven't met him in person yet, but he is a beautiful baby in his pictures! CONGRATULATIONS, Caleb and Marti!

After getting the exciting news, we were finally off to the reunion. We had a blast! I LOVE spending time with my family! We sat around the campfire, played games, made boats to float down the river (which never happened), golfed, visited Mesa Falls, floated Warm River, had a program, which WE won, and took LOTS of pictures. There are so many pictures that I had to make a slide show! So feel free to watch the slide show in the blog below! :)

After leaving the Gutierrez Reunion, we headed directly to the Sommer Reunion. This was a little bit more domestic and we actually were in our family cabin in Island Park. We got there a little late so I wasn't able to get any pictures there, which I am now regretting! :( Mike, Ammon, Ty and my cousin Miguel decided to jump in Henry's Lake that night! Then we sat around and played games until it was time to go to bed. It was fun being able to see my Dad's side of the family too!

After the reunions passed, we were able to sit and relax the rest of the week at my dad's house. I think its the perfect vacation because we don't have an itinerary and we CAN actually relax! We visited with family, went to a couple of movies and then went shoot guns with my dad on his birthday, August 1st! Happy Birthday, Dad! Shooting guns is one of my dad's favorite things and now I think its one of Mike's favorite things too! (They always say "You marry someone like your parent!") Mike actually picked up on it really quick and had a really good aim! Then once the event was over, Mike was soon planning his next big purchase....a GUN! He will also be joining my dad and brother next year during hunting season!


Finally our trip was ending but we had one last thing to do! We were heading to Utah for the day to visit some of my best friends and their husbands. We spent Saturday with Sadie and Nathan Schanz and Shalee and Chet Blasucci! It started at the local swimming pool and then ended at Sadie and Nathan's for a BBQ and games. I love seeing them and I wish I could see them more! Plus, all of our husbands get along well so we have a lot of fun! Every time I see them though, we swear that we are going to take pictures. And every time we forget.....this time was no different! We end up having so much fun that we completely forget to bust the camera's out! Again, another regret!!!! :(

Then today, 3rd, Mike and I started our drive back home. We arrived safely home and are preparing to go back to work tomorrow. :( Why is it that vacations have to go by way too fast? At least we are going back fully rested! :)

The Reunion!

We took SOOO many pictures at the reunion, that I had to create a slideshow! Enjoy!

Happy BELATED Birthday to Mike & Caleb!

First things first.....I need to apologize to my husband and brother-in-law for getting this up SOOOOO late! This month has been EXTREMELY busy and I didn't get around to posting this up! (Again, Sorry!)

As many of you know, my husband is a twin....not identical. On July 14th Mike and Caleb celebrated their 26th birthday! We went to Mike's parents and had a really nice dinner and then had cake. It was really fun. But the very best part of Mike's birthday is that for a couple more months he only sounds ONE year younger than me! :) That is until October rolls around, then I go back to being the cradle robber!

Happy Belated Birthday, Mike and Caleb! :)