Mom's Trip 2010

Todd's little brother Kevin is the last one in the family to reproduce.  When we found out that he and his wife Laura were expecting, all the sister-in-laws starting planning a surprise trip back east!  It seems like we'd been planning and thinking about this trip for forever!  The weekend finally came....and it didn't disappoint!~

We flew into Baltimore and spend our first day touring our Nations capital in the cool rain.
We got to go hit all the sites.  Washington really is an amazing place. 

(Laurie, Stacy, Me, Lindsay, Janet)

The last and only other time that I've been to DC, was for Kevin's wedding and we had all the kids with us.  We dragged them all around the National Mall but this experience was a bit different.  No kids whining, no potty stops every 15 seconds, and no big crowds. 

Thanks to the raining day, we even got tickets this time to go up top of the Washington Monument.  Amazing views.

The real reason for the trip was to surprise Laura for her baby shower.  With a lot of help from her hubby we pulled off a huge surprise! 

(Lindsay, Me and Stacy)

(Lindsay and Laurie)

Us Smith girls have never taken an all mom trip before.  We did some major bonding, a ton of laughing, great site seeing and of coarse some shopping!

Kevin and Laura live in Annapolis, MD.  Home of the Navy campus, beautiful sail boats, gorgeous views, amazing crepes and a fun town feel.  We toured the Navy campus which by itself is an amazing place!

Couldn't you just die for this view in your back window?  My view at home is of Panda Express and a gas station, I think I'd rather see this view everyday hands down!!

This is memorial hall on the Navy campus.  I had a bit of a moment in here.  The photos on the wall, the stories of heroes, the feeling in that room was a strong spiritual moment.  As I read and saw everything that this hall had to offer, my mind went back to my son who is now a teenager.  In the not to near future he will be making some major life decision's that may lead him down the path to Navy.  I'm just praying for BYU and and mission but I'll love and support him either way!  War.....Mission..... hmmmm.  I loved this plaque behind me "Don't give up the ship"  that saying is profound! 

Our trip was an amazing get away!  I feel so much closer to all my sister~in~laws!  Together we sure can have a ball!! Thank you all for an amazing trip, and mostly thank you Kev and Laura for giving us a great reason to come!!

Helmets, Pads and Cleats

Fall is finally in the air and Saturdays at our house are
spent on the field(s) and court.

Shayne finally convinced me to let him play some "real" football.  No more flag.

I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to stay put on the sidelines if he happened to take a hard hit... but as I've now learned... he is plenty big to take the hits and really good at giving the hits!   

Emily starting playing soccer and loves every kick!  She scored her first goal on Saturday and she was all smiles!!  Our Emily has some serious soccer skills!

Megan is playing volleyball, finally a kid that loves a sport that I love to play!  Lucky girl gets her mom to be her coach, some days she doesn't feel so lucky I'm sure!  I've got to get a picture of her in action, she's really great! So until then, she is sure growing up fast!

Ashley is waiting for softball to come around!  She can handle that a bat like no other!  Action pictures of her coming soon too!  Until then, she wins the prize for super supportive sister!

The back to school blues

Today was the start of a new school year!

The endless school supplies were bought, the backpacks were packed and the ever important first day of school outfit were layed out ready to go. Excitement and fear were in the air. We had a little laughing and a lot of nervous crying, but what girl doesn't do that right?
  This is a big year for us!

Shayne is now big man on campus.. 8th grade!

Megan is big gal on her campus... 6th grade!

 

Ashley is headin to 4th grade!

and Emily is heading to the doctor! 

Our poor little girl has strep. 

What a way to start off 2nd grade!

I'm hoping and praying that this is NOT a sign of things to come!!

After school report:  Everyone (minus Emily) had a great day!  I love when that happens!!

Roadtrip

Every two years the Smith family has a big fat reunion. Every comes to a designated spot... this year Yellowstone!

We even "rented" another boy to tag along for Shayne's sake. 15 girls and 3 boys can sometimes be a bit much for a kid ya know!

We played in many rivers. We even tubed down a clean, non glass filled, non drunken river!  You can't find that in Phoenix!  The best was when we broke out the air mattresses and tubed down on those babies!  The kids thought that was the best!!

Aunt Laura is adding to the girls in the family with a new baby in November.  So the little girls had a surprise baby shower for her one night.  They had each come with a little "offering" for the newest little cousin.  Such a fun night!
 

Most of the grand kids at Mesa Falls.

Great Grandma Grace even joined us for this reunion!  We had a great time getting to know her better and her knowing our kids better.  She is a true trooper!  For being 80 something she went everywhere with us!

Yes, Shayne is taller than me...

The stinky mud pots.  Emily's face says it all!

We were in the typical bison traffic jam..

The red beauty is Kevin and Laura's car.  We were right behind them.  This bison wasn't so fond of Kevin's red car!  He snorted and growled at the car for a good 15 minutes or so!  We all wanted to have an up close view of a bison... I guess we got our wish, multiple times!

In one of our bison jams, Shayne spotted some bison fur on a near by tree.  Lucky for us, he got out and grab some for a souvenir.

Old Faithful didn't disappoint.  Funny, I thought it shot up higher when I was a kid!  The wind was blowing so hard that the blast was more of a sideways blast instead of the straight up in the air kind of blast.

We made all the Utah stops..

This stop about gave a few dad's a heart attack!

BYU Idaho..

got to love the free magazines!

We had the BEST time!!

A boys dream come true

Shayne marked off one of his dreams this year as he got to attend a football camp at BYU that was lead by former BYU players.  Since we were heading to a reunion anyway, we decided to leave a day early and let Shayne ooohhh and awwww at some of his football hero's!

Getting a pep talk from Max Hall.

Shayne and Dennis Pitta.  Dennis was Shayne's coach all day!  His team played against Johnny Harlings team and Shayne made an incredible diving catch.  He got high-fived and patted on the booty after his catch, isn't that the right of passage in the football world?

Max Hall and Shayne
He had the time of his life!  He got great tips and hints and some new found confidence that will last him a lifetime!

11

Eleven short years ago, a little tiny girl entered into our family...

and just look at her now!!

Growing up with all brothers I never thought I'd have a little girl of my own.  Megan is like the sister I never had.  She loves to go anywhere and everywhere with me!  She is my shopping buddy, my best helper and loves so many of the same things that I love!

She's a smarty pants that excels at school, and loves to read. 

She's as witty as they come and the one liners she comes up with on the fly makes us smile.

She is an artist and a musician.

She loves to cook and bake and is learning how to sew.

She makes a mean batch of brownies and she creates some dang good stuff.

She's our responsible mind of reason and a great peacemaker.

She loves to play basketball and volleyball and is learning to hold her own in the wrestling department with her bother and sisters.

Happy Birthday to our one and only

Mag-mo

Megs

Maggy-pie

MJ

and

Megan

We love you!!

 

This little girl of mine

is SEVEN!!

Its been a long standing tradition in our home that the week approaching any birthday is "birthday week".  That week the birthday child get to pick all their favorite meals.   Emily, lets say, has some very good taste buds! 

On the menu this last week:

loaded baked potato soup

Mongolian shrimp and scallops over rice

jambalaya

ranch burgers

citrus pork chops

ultimate nachos

We love Emily's birthday week!  We eat SO well!

Emi loves the camera

She loves to make us laugh

She almost always has a smile on her face

She loves adventure, getting dirty and all things scary

We've had 7 years with a funny little girl that comes up with one-liners like no other!

We love you Emily!!

Happy Birthday

spon·ta·ne·ous

One thing that I love about Todd is that he is spontaneous.  I tend to be more of the planner type but not him.  He'd rather wake up and decide to go somewhere and off we'd go.  Last weekend we had a bit of a spontaneous trip to our favorite place, Magic Mountain.  We got season passes for the park for Christmas so we love to go anytime we're able.  I always thought that the park was geared toward older kids.  That is partly true, unless you have a bunch of daredevils for children!  Check out this ride.  The X2.  Emily's favorite ride in all the park!  Emily is only 6!  You can only see her little toes sitting next to Todd! 

I love this kind of thrill rides and I'm so glad our kids do too!

I'm not sure what got into our kids but we were all thrill rides all day long!  No more waiting in lines for baby rides!  Love it!







And in other exciting news... Megan got contacts! This trip was her first time without glasses and it sure made going on all the free falling-face-first-death defying-loop turning rides so much easier!  And of coarse, NO trip to Cali would be complete without a stop at the beach.

Someday, somehow we will have a beach house!  I could sit and watch the waves forever!  It seems like no matter what is happening in life, the beach is always a place to go and get some perspective on life. The analogies are endless.  All I can say is I'm thankful for spontaneous living!