the extended vacation

My cute niece graduated in May and a sweet dear high school friend got married just days apart so we though why not go on a quick little vacation to start the summer off right and support the two special days. It eneded up being A LOT loooonger than we had planned, but it was still a lot of fun.

I got to take Summers graduation pictures and put together this little announcement for her. She is well known in her high school as Summer the Amazing McDermott, and they even announced it that way at graduation. She is just that AMAZING!!! I am in awe of her and her beauty and the very kind super friendly personality she has.

It's always so much fun when all of my sisters and I get together. It's also very rare, with so many of us scattered all over the country, but we all made it. Even Kathy from Alaska. I love my sisters very much, they are my best friends and just so much fun to be with. We decided to make a super saturday type day of it. My sister Carrie taught us how to make cute bead watches. She was very generous with all of her supplies and we all ended up with a couple of very cute bands. Thanks Carrie.

I taught some techniques for making cards and we all created a TON of cards. It was so much fun and the cards all turned out darling.

We of course had pedi and mani-cures.

Christy showed how to make her to die for salsa. Mmm...it was soooo good.

Even little {B} could not get enough of it, Yum-I'm so craving it righ now!

(thanks Christy for putting it all together, it was AWESOME!)

We were able to go spend time with our very best friends. Amy and I were able to go to a really REALLY cool store called The Wood Connection. Seriously it was sooooo much fun. I can not wait to make all my projects from the wood I bought there. Wish we would have had time to make them together, but thank goodness for our scrapblog, where we can post them when they are done. She already did her 4th of July star click here to check it out.

We were very excited to get to be able to make it to Grandma Moody's Birthday celebration. {K} decorated the gift bag for her. It was darling. It had a pic. of him with his grandma and a b-day cake with a banner hanging in the background (very detailed) then it said you + me = Birthday fun! Seriously so cute, wish I still had it. :) We made her some of our famous oreo truffles to enjoy. It seemed to be a hit, she emailed me for the recipe. I've never been able to make them for her because they don't mail well so I was excited to finally have her try them.

playing with the cute little cousins.

then of course it's not a true family Sunday evening without the board games

this WAS supposed to be a real quick trip, but on our way to back to St. George the ac went out in our car. When we took it to the mechanic we found out that the engine block was cracked and they had to special order it and it took FOREVER to come. Although it was expensive and a bit stressful I was very glad to be with famiy and not stranded in some tiny little town off the freeway. My sweet sisters let me join them at work. They own a house cleaning buisness. It was hard work, but I appreciate the extra cash and have never had that much fun cleaning. They are a lot of fun and the company even paid for lunches. It was great.

we got to do lots of swimming

and enjoyed super yummy food

we also got to celebrate Summers birthday. Emily thought the candle looked yummy and took a BIG bite out of it. ha ha.

I'm glad we were able to go and see a lot of family. We had a great time even if it did cost us a lot of money. It makes me glad that we have an emergency car fund, but it's always a little depressing to actually use it. :) The boys missed the first two weeks of swim team and {B} swim lessons, but it was all worth it. It's nice to be home though and now we are ready to get into the swing of things with our summer schedule and activities.