Vacation at Sand Point

Beautiful Lake Pend Oreille

We had such a fun fourth of July vacation! My parents have a house on lake Pend Oreille (pon duh ray) in Sand Point, Idaho, which is near Coeur d' Alene. Love those french words. Jeez. Anyway, we got there late Tuesday night after a lovely seven hour drive and went strait to bed! The next morning was quite the event- the Sand Point Independence Day Parade! Normally, sure, it's exciting. But this year, oh yes, my whole family was IN the parade representing our friends at Hey Cupcake!, a little shop in town. Tyler was SOOOO funny, with his drum major baton! Unfortunately, by the time I took pictures, his band leader hat came off because he got too hot. He was a hit none the less. My sister and cousins all rode in the truck and even my mom marched behind the banner. It was a sight to be seen. Max slept through most of the parade, then woke up to play with Grandpa. We don't know why, but Max thinks he is the funniest person alive. Max laughs and laughs at him, then one of us will do the exact same thing, and he just smiles. It must be the name thing (Max is named after him). We have so much fun playing in the lake! Our new thing is surfing behind the boat, which is similar to wake boarding, but you get right behind the boat and throw in the rope and just surf the wake! It's more fun than wake boarding because your feet aren't strapped in, so you don't face plant- a big plus for me! Danny is sooo good at it, he throws the rope in and stays up forever! I, on the other hand, try to throw the rope in and I sink pretty much immediately. Oh well, I have fun as long as I have the rope.

Um, we are dorks and love to take weird pictures jumping into the lake. But it's so fun! I prefer playing in the water to laying out any day as long as Mackenzie is around. She keeps me on my toes! I would like to note that I can still do a back flip off the dock into the water. I haven't lost all my skills!

the cousins

Me and Danny

Me and Kenz

Best Buds: Kenz and Tessa

I still got it!

Chad found this canoe floating in the middle of the lake and towed it in with the jet ski. We had so much fun with it! Clearly, we go far beyond traditional paddling.
Maddie and Danny, rowing like pros.

Uh, where is the boat?

Abandon Ship!

My second favorite beach activity: magazines. I can't help myself! I am a total addict.

Nana and Grandpa playing with Max.
Max laughing at my dad again!

Max and Great Grandpa Rands in their matching hats.

My cousin Rachel and her cute husband Chad. She is due Feb. 6th and I couldn't be more excited for them! I hope they have a boy so he can be buddies with Max.

My Beatiful Sister Mackenzie and her Friends

I thought it would be fun to take some shots of my darling sister and her friends while we were in Sand Point. We went to this old school building in town and had so much fun. Aren't they GORGEOUS girls?!

Mackenzie- uh, can you tell we're sisters?

I can't believe this is the same little girl whose hair I used to braid. She is so beautiful. The part that kills me is the only makeup she's wearing is mascara. So unfair. She has the best laugh. This is so her.

Muted colors. Kinda cool effect.

Kaley: Could this girl be any more insanely beautiful and exotic looking?! Back off boys: she's only 13!!! Did I mention she's like 5'10? So unfair.

Tessa and Mackenzie have been best friends since they were three. She lives in Utah now, but that doesn't keep these two apart! They call and text each other like everyday. It has been so fun to see them change from watching Barney together (seriously, Tessa had a birthday party and Barney CAME. They could hardly handle themselves.) to starting their freshman year! I can't believe it.

I love this girl! So tall and gorgeous.

what a goober

I took these pictures yesterday for Danny's mom's book. They were so funny I had to share!

carousel

This week when Mandy was in town, we took the kids to the Rexburg water park and carousel. We had so much fun! Ashlee was the only one who would really play in the water, and I had to hold her most of the time. We had a blast running through the water just the two of us though! Sadly I don't have any pictures of that, but I do have some of the carousel!

This is Cody's favorite thing, and the other kids had a blast too. They had to wait what seemed like forever for their turn and they just sat and stared at the horses going around and around. Ashlee held everyones dollar for them. When we finally got on the little horses, they had so much fun! J.J. kept making horsey sounds (which is seriously the funniest thing EVER) and they looked so cute riding in their swim suits.

However, the ride turned out to be extrememly long, and even though the kids were having fun, Mandy and I felt pretty sick. I think it will be a while before I try that again!

Good Mail

Max wearing his surprise!

Good Mail!!

Brittany and I have decided to follow suit from some other bloggers we know and start Good Mail! It is so fun. Basically, people just send each other little things- cards, little gifts, random stuff that you love. Because 90% of the time, all you get is bills and junk mail. It's a fun way to switch it up a little! Here is what Britt just sent me: two super cute baby gap onesies for max (I'm obsessed with baby gap), a bottle of sand from San Clemente (waa. I miss California!), and some baby massage directions. How exciting! It totally made my day. Thanks Brittany! I look forward to returning the gesture. =)

Max is 5 months old!

I can't believe my little guy is five months old today! A few weeks ago we took him to the doctor and he weighed 14 lbs. 6 oz. and was 25 inches long. He was in the 50th percentile for height and 25th percentile for his weight- which surprised me because I thought he was chunkier than that!He is getting so big and developing such a little personality. He smiles all the time now and laughs if you're lucky. It is the cutest thing ever to hear him laugh! He really loves his Nana and Aunt Mackenzie- they were in town last weekend and they were totally getting him going. He really is the happiest baby I know. He is so easy to entertain and take around during the day. I feel so lucky. He loves to stand up and just looks at you with those big blue eyes and his mouth open like it's the funnest thing he's ever done. He always drools on you when he stands up too- he has turned into quite the drooler.

Max has really started to enjoy bath time. He gets excited and flails his legs and arches his back to splash, which often seems to surprise him! He also turns his face toward the water a lot. Sometimes I wonder if he's trying to drink it.

We also started feeding him rice cereal, which he loves! Unfortunately, I just can't seem to get it to his mouth fast enough. He whines between most bites, unless I go at turbo speed. Then he just slurps it off the spoon and loves every minute of it. Last night we threw a little squished banana in the mix and he thought that was really swell. Although it did make for some rather interesting poop this morning!

My angel baby did have a major glitch in his streak of good behavior recently. On Tuesday the two of us were driving home from Layton (Danny had to drive separately) and Max screamed the whole way! It took us SIX hours to get to Rexburg, when it normally takes about three. I thought I was going to die! Plus, Danny and I left and different times and his phone died. Danny's dad had to call him on the On Star car phone to let him know what was going on! It was terrible. The funny part was after he had been screaming bloody murder (which as many of you know, is VERY loud from Max), I pulled over to calm him down. As soon as I climbed into the back seat next to him, he looked at me and gave me the biggest grin ever. I couldn't stay mad at him after that! What a stinker.

home sweet home!

Hooray! We finally have a house. We are expected to close July 16th! It is such a cute little house- I think it will be great once we put our own touch on it. It isn't quite so fab as the first house we made an offer on, but I think it will be a much better house for us- you know, smaller, CHEAPER. Ha ha! We are thrilled.

I couldn't resist...

I had to add this one. I'll admit, I am a sucker for newborn yawns!
I saw Tyson again today. Cody isn't sure he wants anything to do with him, but I think he is starting to warm up to him a little bit. He is very interested in his "li rash" and his owie belly button- he always wants to take a peek at it. He is such an alert newborn! And so strong too. He holds up his head so well! It's weird- he is so small compared to Max now, but he still seems big to me. I think all babies will after spending so much time in the NICU with 3 and 4 pound babies where Max was the huge one at 5 pounds!

HIS name is Tyson

Today I got to meet my new nephew Tyson Dee Mitchell, who is most certainly not a girl. What a cutie! He seemed so little compared to Max. He felt like a feather! The crazy thing is that Tyson is three pounds heavier than Max was when he was born. In different pictures I think he reminds me of different people. His baby pictures are a lot like Cody's, but every now and then I see a resemblance to Missy's little girl Saige. Here are a few fun pictures from today. Sorry this is such a long post, but we have lots of out of town relatives that don't get to meet the little guy for a while! Enjoy!

Baby Sadie is... a boy?!

I could just die. Today my sister in law Leslie went in to the hospital to be induced and fully expected to deliver a beautiful baby girl. After a NATURAL delivery (yikes!), much to everyone's surprise, out popped an 8 pound 10 ounce beautiful baby BOY! Apparently, her husband Steve yelled' "she's got balls!" I still don't think it has fully registered in Leslie's mind that she has two boys yet. When I talked to her this afternoon, she said it hadn't sunk in yet. I'm not going to lie, if it were me, I would be ticked! I can't imagine having everything all ready- a pink bed, a bunch of pink clothes and cute dresses, the works- and then having to return it all! I would die. It would be pretty stressful! At least she already has one boy so she has stuff for him. =) We will love him all the same though! I can't wait to meet him (we are still in SLC) tomorrow and get the whole scoop. Congrats Les on your brand new baby girl. I mean boy! Here are some pictures of the lovely pink Paris themed baby shower I threw for her last month! HAHA!

"Ooh la la! Leslie is having a girl!" (the first line) the "baby sioree" was held at "Le Chateau Kettle" after the marathon. You can't really tell, but it's brown and white paper and the words are printed on pink velum. and all tied together with the scalloped brown paper and ribbon. I'm not going to lie. when I tied the last one, it was a very proud moment.
Since we were having a Paris party, we had baby Paris Fashion week and decorated onesies.

The onesies I made: "Cute as a 'button'" and pink ruffle butt. They were so cute- I can't believe we have no baby to wear them!
The favors- I made chocolate dipped pretzels with pink white chocoate drizzled over the top.
Me and Leslie wearing pink of course. I still can't believe it. What luck!