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! :)

Happy 4th of July!!!!!

The Fourth of July was spent in Tucson, AZ this year. Mike and I drove down Friday morning and spent the entire weekend there. It was so much fun. We played in the pool all day on Friday and had a barbecue with the family. We were missing a couple of people though.....Robert, Grant, Stephanie and their kids, Ashley & Cameron, Kimball, Ammon, and Dustin (whose on a mission). But when you have a family this big, its almost impossible to get everyone together at the same place! :)

That night we went to go watch the fire works, but we were disappointed to find out that they went off earlier than what we thought. So we played with Sparkler instead. It always seems to amaze me that no matter how old I get, I still love SPARKLERS! :)

The next day we decided to go to the Desert Museum. I was told that it was like the zoo but with desert animals. Hmmmmm....I should have caught on right then that it was going to be outside. I'm not such a bright one at times and thought that we would be spending times indoors. WAS I WRONG!!! We ended up walking through the desert in over 100 degree weather looking at animals that I would rather be running away from! (Snakes, Lizzards, Scorpions, ect.) Although it was extremely hot, and we were sweating to death, we still had a lot of fun with each other.

I was so happy that we were able to go to Tucson for the 4th of July weekend. I hadn't seen Melissa and the girls since our wedding! And now there was a new addition....Little Mathias! He's the cutest thing! And Mike and him had a little bonding time! :)It was a perfect weekend.

Paige made a BEAUTIFUL bride!!!!

Its official....Paige Eubanks is now Paige Adams! I was so excited that I was able to go to Utah to see Paige get married. She was so pretty and everything looked so good. The wedding had Paige written all over it! Yes, the wedding was somewhat traditional but had Paige's touch of originality. They were no "I do's" just a loud "YES" when they were asked if they take each other as man and wife. Everything was perfect!

Durango, Colorado

Lately, Mike and I were just wanting to take a little trip and get away. That finally happened on Memorial Weekend. We went to see our friend's Chris and Elizabeth in Durago, Colorado.

I have never been to Durango and I LOVED it! It was so beautiful there. The first day that we were there we went into the town and walked around. It is very touristy and had a lot of different shops around. Mike was in heaven because that weekend they had a biking race. So he was able to sit and watch all the bikers do their thing. (I'm pretty sure he wished he had brought his bike so he could get in on the action!)That night we went to dinner and had the two best things ever....Sushi and Coldstone! :)
















The second day we were there, we decided to take a little nature hike. Chris first took us to a spot where people do a lot of rock climbing. Chris showed off his skills of rock climbing that he is perfecting, and Mike and I climbed a small rock just so we could see the view.


The second place we went to was a trail that we hiked for about an hour. Again, there were rocks everywhere to climb, and this time Mike thought that he would try climbing a bigger rock than the first one we climbed together!

I made Chris take the pictures because I didn't want to watch Mike climb up the rock....just in case he fell, I didn't want to have to witness that! :) However, the biggest milestone of the hike....Yes, even bigger than Mike's rock climbing!....was that this was Lil' Mayhem's first outdoor hike. He was in puppy heaven!

All in all we had a great time! We had a bit of a weather shock....70 degrees is cold for us when we are coming from 100 degrees! But other than that, it was the perfect weekend get-away!

"Calling it the Cadillac Ranch"

After hanging out at Dave and Busters for Rhonda's going-away party, we all headed to a little place call Cadillac Ranch. It took A LOT of begging, but I finally persuaded Mike to ride the mechanical bull! All I can say about it is....Mike would make a really good rodeo cowboy! :) He was able to stay on the bull for a really long time and finally got THROWN off! It was hilarious, but I don't think Mike thought it was too funny the next day. He had 3 BIG strawberry bruises on his knee from squeezing the bull with his legs! NOTE TO SELF......NEVER ride a mechanical bull while wearing shorts!!!! :)