Cardboard is NOT my friend

I have decided to have a new allergy. It is to cardboard. This packing stuff is for the birds. Moving is hard. I think I need a bonus (Drew, pay attention to this) when we get all the stuff in boxes! The update is, we have 9 days left & I just realized Mackenzie needs shots for school. So lucky girl, she gets shots on Wednesday. Yeay for the doctors office for fitting us in! I wonder what else I might be forgetting!!!!

River Days at the Tridge

Midland had their River Days celebration the week we were visiting. So we went down to the tridge to sweat half to death & enjoy the fun. There was a little petting zoo that Mackenzie & Kennedy totally loved & then we got some pictures on the tridge. Katie did a school project and made a model of the tridge so it is famous at our house! For those of you who haven't heard of a tridge, it's a 3 way bridge. Brad with the girls.
Grandma with the girls

Kennedy petting a duck.
Kennedy petting a donkey.
Mackenzie and a tiny goat.
Kennedy Bo Peep and her sheep.

A view of the Tridge is behind the girls. You can see how it goes off in 2 directions behind them.

Mackenzie petting the duck.
All of them petting a goat.
Mackenzie petting the cutest bunny!
Mackenzie being licked by a llama. (Say that 10 times fast!)
Katie petting a donkey.

Driving Lessons

The girls did some driving on the scooter thingy that Grandma Behrend has. They had a great time. I think Katie would have driven it home if we had let her. Even Mackenzie drove with the help of her sisters. All I can say is thank heavens they can't legally drive until much later!!!!!!!!!!

Sanford Lake

After our trip to Utah we had to squeeze in a trip to Midland for a week. We did alot in 7 days. We went to beach, saw Kung Fu Panda, visited Grandma Behrend, Katie & Kennedy stayed with Brad & poor Kennedy got a 12 hour flu bug in the middle of it. These are pictures of our trips to Sanford Lake to the beach. Nothing tastes sweeter than watermelon at the beach!
Hannah with watermelon.
Katie with attitude and watermelon.
Cute Kenzie and watermelon.

Digging a moat & lake that they later filled with seaweed.

The girls did their best to rid the lake of it's seaweed. They barely made a dent even after industriously hauling all they could carry up to the beach.
Hannah and a wad of seaweed.
Katie and Mackenzie tossing Mackenzie around in the lake. She of course thought this was fabulous fun! I think she is part fish.

Paw Paw Bridge

Kennedy has been begging me to stop at this little bridge right near our house for about 6 months now & I have always had the excuse that we are too busy. Finally we stopped one night & the girls had a great time exploring & having me take pictures. It was really pretty at twilight & we some pictures of the bridge that I am sure will become "the bridge my Mom would never stop at because she was always too busy"

Happy Feet Camp

I had trouble getting these pictures to upload before our trip to Utah, but Mackenzie was so cute as a penguin for her Happy Feet class that I had to post these too. She actually took the class back in June right after Princess Camp, but things have been a LITTLE hectic around here. Mackenzie showing off her tap moves on the stage.
A close up of the top hat and cane
Her whole class
Mackenzie with her best friend Elissa. They are master posers for the camera!
Kenzie loves her friend Elissa. What will she do without Elissa next year?

Moving News

For those that have not heard through the grapevine, our family will be moving to Utah August 6th. Some of us are going with more enthusiasm than others, but once we are there I am sure we will all settle in just fine. Drew has been getting tired of all the traveling at his job and he wants to be able to spend some more time at home with the family. This is all really positive, as long as he isn't home TOO much!!!!! He will be going into business with his dad who owns an assisted living facility. They are building a 2nd building and he will be managing them. It's a good opportunity for him & as I said before, I am sure the girls and I will get settled in & like it too. School starts August 16th so we will only have a couple of weeks and the girls will be getting to know new people. We did accept an offer on our house, so we were able to make an offer on a short sale in Utah. We like the area & the new house, so wish us luck.

The Smedley Family Reunion

This year Drew's Uncle Roger got everyone in the family condos at Zermatt & we all got to choose a $100 activity to do one day to celebrate Grandma & Grandpa's 100th birthday. They were very into family reunions and so we had a big family reunion. Almost everyone came and it was nice to see family that we hadn't seen in a very long time. This trip to Utah was good for us too because we were able to do some house hunting while we were there. Things have really changed since we lived there 12 years ago so we needed to figure out where we wanted to live. All in all it was a good trip. Mackenzie and Hannah take a time out on a stone bench waiting for the big family picture to be set up. I don't have the big picture to put on the blog, but lets just say it took alot of time and patience to get it all set up!
Three generations on 3 sisters. Drew's cousins Amy, Lori & Emily with Lori's 3 girls Abby, Kate and Ella and my 3 girls. Lots of girls in this family!
Stacie feeling the guilt from pushing Drew off the boat at the lake. He bruised his foot on the motor. Naturally he is milking it for all the sympathy he can get!
Me and Drew. Now nobody can say I never put pics of me on my blog!

Mackenzie when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her. She was so happy!
This is Zermatt Resort. Nothing like motel 6 where they leave the lights on for you!
Birthday presents
Katie and Hannah

Boating & Jet Ski's

Most of the Smedley Clan chose jet skis/ boating for their activity at the family reunion. We all had a blast. It happened to be on Mackenzie's 5th birthday and she had so much fun that day that she fell asleep on the jetski in between Drew & Katie. This is the picture of her sleeping on her sisters back. She slept thru being transferred back onto the boat, loading the boat onto the trailer, getting handed off the boat to her dad & laid on the van seat to sleep some more, and even slept thru being buckled into her car seat! She said it was the best birthday ever!

Kennedy, Mackenzie, Adam and Steve tubing.

Kalynn & Elise on the jet ski
Mindy and Mackenzie jet skiing
Logan and Jamie tubing. Logan thought it was great@!
Stacie and Adam chillin on the boat
Kennedy is our daredevil. Her and Uncle Steve tried to knock each other off the jet skis & loved to go super fast!

Mindy & Hyrum. He was not as impressed with the boat.
Mindy on the jet ski. Me and baby Hyrum.
Mindy & Mackenzie
Steve and Kennedy