What Are You Doing This Summer?

Here's a little photo diary of what we're doing so far. Can I just say that I LOVE summer!!!

Playing and reading books in our indoor tent and tunnel. My favorite is when Mike climbs in there with Jack and reads stories to him. So cute.


Digging in the garden. This was the garden pre-planting. It looks much better now and much to my surprise our vegetables are actually growing! (Note: Aunt Lindsey sitting on the stairs in the background).


Helping Dad wash the car.





Mackin' on the hunnies from the ward.


And, playing our hearts out at Seven Peaks Water Park. I always forget to take our camera to the park, so this is the view from our back balcony. Can you see the slides in the distance?

Board or DIE!

For those of you that don't know, Mike and I are quite enthusiastic about the sport of wake boarding. I grew up water skiing (you know, before wake boarding was invented), and as soon as the wake board become popular we picked up on that. Mike's family is pretty die hard about it. They have the boat, the boards, the rope, the gear...everything you could possibly want to become a stellar wake boarder.

As you can imagine, since joining the Smith family, my love for the sport has only intensified. When we wake board with Mike's family I use his Mom's board (yes, she has her own board and she uses it well). But whenever we go with other people I just have to use whatever board is available. This is not really a bad thing, but every time you try a new board you have to adjust to that board because every board is designed differently. Since Mike and I don't really get to wake board with his family anymore I just use whatever board I can and it makes me feel a bit like a beginner every time we go because I spend time adjusting to the board.

Blah, blah blah...the point is that Mike decided (with some encouragement on my part) that it was time I had my own board. So, for a belated Mother's day gift this beautiful new board showed up on my doorstep last week. I just couldn't wait to try it on. Thanks hunny...board or die.


This is me doing a grab, in case you were wondering.

Good Story...

This was just too good of a story, I had to share it with all of you.

So, I teach a kickboxing class at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday and Friday mornings. There are a couple of pregnant girls that take the class and they are both due next week. One of the girls, Lanie, shared with us on Wednesday that she is dilated to a 3 and her doctor said she could go anytime. Those of us that have been pregnant know that's not necessarily true. Some women stay dilated to a 3 for weeks!

Anyway, Lanie showed up for class this morning and she and I were chatting before class about how she's not at all ready to go into labor. She hasn't packed a bag or really done any preparation (not that you need to, in my opinion). You see Lanie is just fine staying pregnant a little longer (crazy, I know). She would like to work a little longer so she can earn a little more money before she and her husband move in August for law school. Plus, she's been feeling really great. He jokes that the baby isn't bothering her all that much when it's inside of her. She still gets to sleep most of the night and she's cool with that.

Well, we were about 10 minutes into class when Lanie left. She didn't take all of her stuff so I thought maybe she just needed to go to the bathroom. She came back just a few minutes later and she walked towards her stuff (which was up in the front of the room) and she tells me on her way by, "MY WATER JUST BROKE!" Sure enough, poor Lanie looked like she had wet her pants. Thankfully she was wearing black. So, here we are in the middle of class and we all just couldn't help but cheer and shout for Ms. Lanie who will be having a baby today! I just couldn't get over how cool it was that her water broke while doing Turbokick. Especially since I had just made a comment before class about "what better way to go into labor than while doing Turbokick?"

It was classic. Congrats to my girl Lanie. No more sleeping through the night for you.

Baby Shower

I had the privilege of co-hosting a baby shower for my good friend Erin yesterday. Erin and her husband, Ben, were able to adopt a beautiful baby girl last month and we were so excited to be able to have a baby shower for her. It was also great to get together with some of my most favorite girls in the world! We did, however, very much miss Tara and Angela. Oh, and I realized that I didn't get a picture with Jaime and Cho. What was I thinking!

I have never been close to someone that has adopted, or been adopted but I've gained such a strong belief in the entire process. Ben and Erin have wanted kids for quite some time now and I'm so happy for them that the 19 year old girl who gave birth to the child realized that she couldn't have provided that baby with the things she needed. Now Ben and Erin have the chance love and care for sweet baby Hanna and I am so happy for them.

Melissa, Erin, Baby Hanna, and Me


Melissa and Hanna


Me and Hanna