Olympic Swimmer

Okay, she's not quite an Olympian, but Kali loved her 2 weeks of swim lessons. 

I love the cheesy smile.

Doing the 'Star Fish.'

Doing the 'Superman' through the water.

Her beloved swim teacher, Miss Caitlyn.

July 4th Sillies

Kai's silly face

Maurice and I - silly faces

Not sure what is happening in this photo with the faces.

4th of July babies

Charlie, Oliver, and Griff

It was FREEZING that day, but the kids braved the slip n slide anyway.

Best picture of Kali wiping out.

Singing Happy Birthday to America after we ate half the cake.

Happy to be together.

Watching the fireworks at Tasha's house.

Kai & Dirk each got $500 fines for illegal fireworks.  Oops.

Baby Charlie

My favorite part about 4th of July:

 the fact that Kali yells "Happy Birthday America"

 now every time she hears fireworks go off. 

Cars!

Griff is in love with the Cars movie.

Cars Land opened last month at Disneyland.

Tasha has a Season Pass.

Griff is free because of his age.

Match made in heaven.

He only lasted about 3 hours before he fell asleep but I am pretty sure

 it was the best morning of his life.  He talks about it all the time!

Princess for a Day

My little sugar plum fairy is 4 years old!

For an entire year, she has been talking about last year's princess pool party, and that she wants the exact same thing. So that's what we did.

Princess decor, princess cake, swimming.

New princess gown.

 GREAT Grandpa Petersen

The morning of the party I asked her if she thought Grandpa was going to swim at the party.  She said, "No, my Grandma and Grandpa are too scared to swim in the pool."

Check out Griff's smile. 

He was so happy you would have thought it was his birthday. 



This cake was her dream come true.  She is always talking about Princes and marrying a prince, so to see her picture in the middle of these princes was the best!

Thank you spouse for designing it.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Trek: Been There, Done That.

A few weeks ago Aaron and I braved the pioneer trek with our stake for Youth Conference.  Guess what?  We loved it.  Yep, that's right, can't wait to do it again in 4 years. It was 3 days of sweating, walking, pushing a hand cart, walking, pulling a hand cart, walking, hills, walking, pioneer clothing, beautiful scenery, the best kids we could ask for, and a lot of walking.

Dobson Family Portrait. 

Aaron and I (Pa and Ma) and 13 teenagers.

(Two of our daughters are missing in this pic)

We fell in love with these kids.  It started out as such a random group, with no one really knowing each other.  Within a few hours, we were a close-nit fam. spending all our time together. 

After a full day of walking, we finally made it to our first campsite.  The kids slept under the stars, and Aaron and I slept in a tent.  It was freezing that night!

This is me with all the girls from my home ward.

The next morning, ready for a hard day. 

Since there was so much stopping and resting along the trail, Aaron taught our boys how to make a kick stand, out of a branch, for our hand cart.  That way we could rest it on the stand without setting the whole cart down, shifting everything around.  We were the only family with this nifty tool and Aaron was super proud of it. 

Day 2: We had to cross a "river" like the Pioneers did.  It was more like a large puddle, but the boys carried the girls across anyway.  This is Aaron showing the boys how it's done.  

So tired at our lunch break. 

With no where to sit for 3 days I'm the wilderness, we were happy to have our buckets for chairs.



A rare flat piece of land.  The majority was up hills, and down hills.



Day 2: While we hid under some trees during the noon day sun, we had different workshops for the kids to learn skills.  The workshop Aaron and I were in charge of... teaching the kids to square dance for the big hoe down later that night. Yes!

Showing off our family flag and cart.

The only bench we saw.  I spent a lot of time on it. 

The last morning I gathered all the kids from our home ward for a pic. 

We had the largest group out of all the wards there. 

They're so cute!

Highlights of the experience:

Watching our kids work together and help each other out.

Watching Aaron teach teenagers life lessons.

Realizing that my body is more capable that I thought it was.

Feeling the spirit we had at camp.

Learning about my own pioneer ancestors in preparation for our devotionals.

Watching Aaron fail to keep a dry eye as he gave his devotional.

Making new friends whom we are now double-dating.

Taking a shower when I got home!



Best Pics of the Week!