Great to be Eight!

Eight Great things about Samuel Thomas Rodriguez....

1. He is a GREAT big brother!

2. He is GREAT at soccer. He is right handed, but is left footed.
Cesar is super excited about that! He says all the great soccer players are left footed. :)

3. He is GREAT at making other people laugh and love him.

4. He is GREAT at skiing.

5. He is GREAT at dressing up and pretending.

6. He is GREAT at building with lego's. We found him a big rubbermaid of vintage lego's that he loves and spends hours and hours and hours building things.

7. He is GREAT at playing the Wii. (He wanted to make sure I added this one.) :)

8. He is GREAT by just being himself! I love him more than I ever imagined and I am so proud of the good son that I have been blessed with.

First Day of School 2011

After a VERY long summer, school has started again. Samuel returned to Silver Mesa for second grade of the Dual Immersion Spanish program and Lauren started her first year in the same program. Lauren has been looking forward to going to school all day for about 3 years. It has been a LONG three years!

Cecret Lake 2011

Totally LOVE Cecret Lake! When the Houston Smith's came up this past summer, they requested to do this hike again with us. There was still so much snow. Such a nice hike and so beautiful!

Samuel and Chandler.

Most of the Crew.

She did it without complaining!!!
(she doesn't really like hiking)

My brother Lee and Cesar.

Yellowstone 2011

We had a great time this past summer in Yellowstone. This is the first official Smith Family Reunion and boy was it fun!!! We are already planning the next one...even though it may be years away. :) We had 8 adults and 11 kids in an Island Park cabin. Here is a photo journey of the trip...

The garage was HUGE and had two big swings that the kids all loved!

Grandpa, Jake, Samuel and Preston waiting...waiting...waiting...
it takes time to get us all ready at the same time. :)

What big horns you have.

Overheard...
Preston: I love you Samuel.
Samuel: I love you Preston.
These two went everywhere together and did everything together.

Faithfully waiting for Old Faithful...waiting...waiting...waiting...

Two of a kind.

Overall it was a great trip. I hadn't been to Yellowstone since I was Lauren's age. It was a long way to go, but definitely worth it. I love my brothers and sister and I am so glad that we all get along well enough to spend 5 days together. I especially love that my kids get to know their cousins better.

Vasoline vs Constarch

This is what happens if you put an entire container of Vaseline in your hair. I forgot before pic's, but the cornstarch hair is funny. :) Unfortunately, the shorts and shirt did not survive. It still took days of multiple washes to not look gross. Who left the Vaseline out? And, why was the Vaseline out? All good questions....

Park City

My sweet husband took me on a little over night getaway to
Stein Erikson for my birthday. He has a good friend that works there that got us a really good rate. I LOVED IT!!!! By far, my favorite place to stay in Park City. I hope his friend can work there for forever so I can go again and again and again and again! Also, can I always eat Banana Foster and fresh fruit for breakfast on my birthday? SO GOOD! For those that don't know my fruit thing, I am NOT a banana fan and the fresh fruit part is kind of questionable if I will eat it. Perhaps it was the fresh, homemade vanilla ice cream on the Banana Foster. Could be...I do love ice cream. Maybe I can just start going up every Sunday for brunch. Primary won't mind if I am a little late, will they?

ps thank you Heidi for taking our 3 crazies!

So Big!

Look, Ma...No hands!

How is she so big? One day, she just started riding this little bike. Where is my baby going? She loves to ride around and around on the back patio. Most of the time the handle bars are backwards, but she seems to do fine. But, when she tips over, then the world has ended. I love to see my baby growing up.