Summer fun

I have been waiting for one of my siblings or nephews to post something about our fun filled family week so that I could just direct everyone to their blogs...but then I realized that I was the one taking most of the pictures. So I suppose the task falls with me to recount our action packed week.

**Warning: This post may only interest those who were present**

Like we do every summer, the Ashton clan gathers together for a wicked awesome family vacation. As our family continues to grow it becomes harder for us to get together as often as we would like, so we made sure that our rare time together was well spent. We spent the week together in Utah at my parents house and at East Canyon Resort (except for the Socci's who are too cool for school and have a house of their own nearby). The best way to describe our time together is with pictures, so here you go:

I was excited for my nephews to get to see Nathan for the first time and see how they would react to such a small baby. They were both absolutely adorable, always asking if they could hold "baby Nathan".

Jaden and Kaleb were so good at taking care of Nathan. Here you will see Kaleb putting Nathan's burp cloth over Nathan as a blanket because "baby Nathan's cold". Haha...so cute!

Curtis is very popular with the little boys. They love to stand there and let him throw pillows at them. I love how Kaleb prepares to punch the pillows.

Our agenda for the week included going to the open house of the Oquirrh Mountain temple followed by a trip to Raging Waters. (Pictures to hopefully be posted at a later time by someone who had a camera)

The next day we went to some lake that I don't know the name of and rented a ski boat and wave runner. I don't think anyone took any pictures for fear of the camera falling in the lake. Which was probably a good idea seeing as how Julianne, Curtis and I managed to tip over in the wave runner while trying to climb in the boat...what a good start to the day that was! Almost everyone tried water skiing except for my mom who stayed on the beach in the shade with the babies and myself who thought it might not be the best idea just 6 weeks after my C-section. My dad takes the prize for kicking butt on the ski (and I say ski because he at one time used only one!) but he had some stiff competition from the rest of the group. The little boys seemed to enjoy the wave runner (or water motorcycle as they called it), while I mostly enjoyed watching everyone.

We spent some time up at East Canyon playing tennis:

Curtis served the ball so hard that he blew a hole right threw his racket...unfortunately there were no more tennis rackets for him to use so he had to play with a racquetball racket.

Charles had to prove that he was so good that he could play with no hands...which he did!

Nathan just chilled in his car seat out on the grass and watched the action. (Don't know why the picture is sideways...)

Shuffleboard:



Swimming:

and just hanging around the condo:

Holy cow Nathan looks tiny in this picture!

And who could forget the water war back at my parent's house?

Ethan, the little devious genius, managed to find the hose, giving himself a huge advantage

Here everyone is running away from Ethan and the hose. Jaden, however, was the brave soul who managed to sneak up on Ethan and take the hose. If it wasn't for him Ethan might still be holding the hose today...

My favorite part of the water war was when everyone was finished and dried off except for Ethan who remained outside yelling "LET THE WATER WAR BEGAAANNNN!!!"

The slip n slide show down was a close second.

Or making s'mores in the backyard?



We also blessed Nathan on Sunday (August 2nd) in my parent's ward.

Curtis did a wonderful job blessing Nathan...

even though he was screaming the whole time :)

Curtis' mom and Aunt were able to make it up for the blessing.

Curtis and I were able to go out to dinner to celebrate our 2 year anniversary while my mom watched Nathan:

We aren't too good at taking pictures of ourselves...

Finally someone saw our pathetic attempt to photograph ourselves and told us to hand over the camera.

Nathan had his first play date with my old roommates adorable little girl Macie.

Macie poses for the camera while Nathan just puts on his pimpin'-it face

Here Macie looks like she is getting her groove on...paaaaaaaaaaaaaaarty!

Nathan did really well on the plane. He slept most of the time and when he wasn't asleep he was just as happy as could be, which was very kind of him because Curtis left early and I had to brave the return trip with Nathan by myself. Here he is chillin' in the Las Vegas airport.



All in all it was a great time. I can't wait until we all can get together again...whenever that will be!