Calvin is 10!

Here's Cal opening his Jimmer Jersey from Dad and Mom.  Listen to his practical $ sense coming through at the end of the video...funny!

Calvin is such a huge BYU fan!  Notice the Jake Heaps Jersey he's got on already--his B-day gift from Grandpa and Grandma Barrett.  He also got Wipe-out for the Wii from his sisters and money from Grandma and Grandpa Clarke--he already know what games for his Gameboy he's buying!

We invited his buddies to the church to play ball.  We had Alli keeping score and tunes playing--soo fun!  Those boys played for about 3 hours!

Cal and Ethan Little

Teach me how to Jimmer!  

What would we do without this fun guy in our family?  Love you, Cal!

Summer Rocks!

We had a great summer this year.  What did we do?  Well...not much, but we sure had fun!

Lindsay and her buddy Drew at Trafalga on the carousel, giddy-up!

The cool, big boys--Cal, Jackson and Cooper--mini golfing at Trafalga (or is that Hawaii?)

Lindsay and Drew on the "Tidal Wave"--again, Trafalga.

Alli was the only one tall enough to drive the race cars, but it was still fun to be a passenger!

The big boys on the climbing wall.

Alli and Lindsay got soaked in the bumper boats!  Nice way to cool off! 

Lindsay with her sandcastle at the park.

Lindsay on her bike--she just won't do it without her training wheels, and I'm all for not having to run along beside her--for now! 

We had a blast swimming at 7 Peaks, too!  All I need to say is, Thank goodness for the "Pass of all Passes"! Hooray for summer-time! 

Happy Birthday, America!

The first ever fireworks our family has done together.  I guess we normally watch the Stadium of Fire Fireworks or mooch off someone else.  This year our neighborhood did a pretty good job of replicating the Stadium of Fire, and here is our contribution--we were pretty excited!

The 4th of July sort of caught us off guard this year.  I got home from NYC late Saturday night and Monday was the 4th!  We visited with family at Grandpa and Grandma Clarke's Sunday night, so that was a lot of fun and felt holiday-ish.  Then the kids hatched a grand plan to see if they could have a cousin sleep-over and Grandma's...it worked!  Grandma and Grandpa are getting soft!  They were so nice to let all those teenagers sleep over!  (Calvin and Lindsay also got to sleep over with Jada and Reese, who were already sleeping over because they were here on their family vacation from Arkansas.) They all got to go to the Freedom Festival Balloon Launch the next morning.  Fun!

Cute cousin foot shot!

The main attraction was the Darth Vader Balloon complete with Storm Troopers and that scary dude!

Love the balloon launch on the 4th! 

Dum, dum, dum, dum-da-dum, dum-da-dum...can't you just hear the music? 

And then the wind came up...

...and all the balloons came down.

We looked and looked for something 4th of July-ish to do together that afternoon, then we found a car show at the mall and that was really fun.

Lauren's dream car!  This was her favorite.

Cal thought this one was awesome!

Then we went home and had a true 4th of July Dinner--Hot Dogs, Chips, Root Beer!  And we didn't forget the licorice and cracker jacks for the fireworks.  It turned out to be a great impromptu 4th of July.

Saying good-bye

Our trip was almost over, but first we had to see the Mall at Short Hills, a short drive from Ashli's house.  This mall was amazing!  I've never seen soo many high-end stores!  Fun to window shop!

Can I get something at Tiffany's?  We tried on a couple of gorgeous rings and had to do a couple extra gulps when we saw the price tag--$58,000 and $31,000.  Hard to imagine spending that much money on anything I can't live in or drive.

Ash looking tres smashing in a hat at Anthropologie--love that store!

Thanks for a showing us a great time, guys!  We love you!

So sad to say good-bye, but great to come home to my family!  Thanks for letting me go, guys!

Our Chillin' Day at the Jersey Shore

On our way out to the beach.  Ok, sort of blurry, but that was because I was trying to protect the phone through a ziplock bag.  Effective in protection, not so much for a clear shot, duh...

Can you see the Manhattan Skyline in the horizon?

Here's a zoomed in pic--cool to be on the beach but see the city, huh? 

Ethan and Anna body surfing--or were they looking for crabs?  We had a couple big old, dead crabs wash in a few times on us and totally freak us out!

Grandma and Kate.  Grandma was a good sport.  I think she got soaked a couple of times--and that water was COLD!

Baby Jane.  She wanted to be by the water! 

There's a great one of Kate.  She spent a lot of time collecting shells and sand for her castle. 

A pretty cool place! I never pictured the Jersey Shore to be so nice. 

Day 3--The Girls Hit Manhattan!

Ok, back up a little...

Mom and I, soo ready to head off on the train into NYC, trying not to embarrass Ashli too much! 

Here we are in Penn Station!  Ready for the city!

Ashli was our fearless guide.  So  fun to get the tour from someone who loves NYC as much as she does!

Just had to take a pic of the streets!  Lovin' it. 

The Statue of Liberty is smaller than I thought...

The Empire State Building, we were careful to watch for traffic as we crossed the street--didn't want to get hit by a car and be crippled for life. (Do you like my "Affair to Remember" reference?)

Cool to be here with you, Ash!

This picture cracks me up--nobody dares look at her...  What I love most though, is that Jeff took a similar picture on his mission--20 years ago in Taiwan.

Hopping into a taxi to see Ground Zero.  We're getting the full experience, baby!

After Ground Zero, we headed out to a ferry ride past the Statue of Liberty--the real one this time!  Awesome! 

We were probably a little over-zealous, trying to get too many things in one day.  We took a subway from the ferry, then hopped onto the express and out onto the street where we had to run/walk several blocks to get to Wicked in time!  We were a little late, but loved the show!  Soo much fun! 

Since we were hungry by then...we went to Uncle Nick's and had...

...Flaming Cheese (I didn't get my phone out in time to get the cheese actually flamming, but you get the idea, imagine flames--wooo-hoo!)  Yummo!

Some of our waiters. 

Ash and I in Times square!  Can't believe I was there!

We tried to stay out of trouble....aren't these guys the typical NYPD?

The Hershey Store in Times Square.
Now that's the size we need to see in our stores!  Just the smell of that place!  Me like-y!

Times Square--sweet!  If I remember correctly, right about now we were looking for a Cold Stone Ice-cream store.

Riding the subway--it looks like I'm having a hard time containing the excitement--I know, I am!  I had such a great time!  Thanks, ladies!