Oh yeah... we have a blog.

It's almost a joke to try to catch up on all that we've missed documenting on here.  But here's a lame attempt.  Life is changing for our family!  We have loved our time in Tucson for the past 3 years and are incredibly sad to leave.  We have been really happy here and have made some wonderful friends and loved where we lived.  We could not have asked for a better experience to have during residency.  We will be moving to Gilbert, AZ in less than 2 weeks which we are excited for, but it is a little sad that our adventure of living "away", both in Iowa and in Tucson is coming to an end. 

On the 4th of July, we woke up to beautiful weather!  It was overcast and cool (in the 80's), so we decided to take advantage of it.  Parker had a date with his girlfriend, so the rest of us went hiking on a little trail not 5 minutes from our house.

At first, Katie thought she was a big kid and wanted to hike all on her own like the rest of us.  But soon, she realized she is still a baby and wanted to nuzzle into Mom and just enjoy the ride.

Caleb and Amy are such funny friends.  They stuck together (and probably ripped on their parents) the whole time.  They were great hikers. 

Chase is just nuts.  This kind of thing is right up his alley.  He's always game for an adventure and is 100% fearless.  It's scary.

This is everyone at the trailhead.  The desert is actually kind of pretty, right?

The girls

Chase thinks it's expected to flex his muscles in nearly every picture. 

Brothers!

Hmmm.  Chase was trying to take the photo shoot to the next level.  Like I said, he's nuts.

Okay, so last summer we were so lucky to go to Newport Beach 2 separate times with the Freestone family and then with the Jones family.  Well how lucky are we that we got to go AGAIN this year?!  We all stayed in a big beach house right on the beach and had an unbelievably fun time.  We pretty much didn't see Caleb and Amy all week, and they were in heaven being with all their cousins 24/7. 

The week was filled with lots of beach time, plus nightly activities (as seen below)!  These pictures were from the lip-synch night.  We were all pretty much champions. 

Thriller: Cooper, Tyson, Jake, Connor, and Darick

"Happy Working Song": Katie, Kelsey, Kiera, and Coco

Dancing Queen: Julianne, Hallee, Macey, Amy, and Aly

"Go! Go! Go!": Gage, Taylor, Tyler, and Chase

"Hey Porter": Porter, Grandpa, Grandma, Parker, and Caleb

Amy and Hallee... with Chase in the background trying to run away.

Our cutie Katie baby.  She is so delightful.

Chase had the time of his life.  His only complaint I think was that we kept putting sunscreen lotion on him... little whitey.  This year was much better than last year with him.  Now every night when he says his prayers, he says, "Please help we go to beach again and again and again."  He is such a tricky and quick kid that he kept us on our toes, trying to make sure he wasn't escaping.  We'd usually find him down the beach, standing by some girls in bikini's.

Family picture!  Yep... that's about the best it's going to get!

All the Freestone Cousins (minus Parker, who was too cool to be in the picture).  Connor, Macey, Amy, Allison, Hallee, Tyler, Porter, Gage, Taylor, Caleb, Kelsey, Kiera, and Julianne.

You gotta admit, that's pretty cute.  Caleb was such a good big brother.

These two opted to spend much of their time watching Backyardagains.

And one of the highlights of the trip for the kids (and Tyson) was meeting real-life celebrities!  Well, the kids all knew who they were.  A couple of the guys from "Kid History" were also staying on the beach.  They were really nice and funny.  Amy got one of their autographs.  Oh my gosh!!!!!

So that was our beach trip.  Great times and fun memories!

Now... back to life:

Katie has developed a pretty decent scowl.  But we all know she's a softie at heart.

Parker has been doing really well lately, staying healthy and happy.  He is such a dear boy and is pretty much the glue that holds us together.

We attempted to have a backyard campout last month, which was sadly foiled by an attack owl that didn't want us camping in his hunting ground.  It's a long story, but after we got everything set up, we went to take our sleeping bags outside and settle in, but this gigantic owl swooped down and nearly scalped me with it's talons.  And those were some serious talons!  Then it wouldn't go away.  Meanwhile, Natalie is Googling "are owls harmful to humans".  She learned that they indeed are if provoked, such as being charged or having rocks thrown at them... all of which I was doing at that very moment in my attempt to scare it away.  We decided to let the owl win this one, and slept inside.  Camping is over-rated anyway, right?

Caleb is 10.

Lazy Sunday evening in front of the house.

Yeah we're white trash.  In Katie's defense, she's not in JUST a diaper... she has panties over them!

Texting and walking takes talent.  She's a multi-tasker.

Chase graduated from preschool... the first time.  He still has 2 years of it.  He went to preschool at Marana High School the last quarter of school in a great little class taught by the high school students. Chase loved it.  We kind of don't want to know what actually went on there, becasue it was probably a lot of "No Chase!" or "Get down, Chase!" or "Stop touching her, Chase!".  He's a pretty cute little cuss though.

Loving on Parker... he's so tolerant.

Chase and Katie showing some thigh while watching a show.

Sprink Break = Utah Trip!

We are so happy we got to go to Utah and visit Jake's parents.  We were a little nervous for the drive, but after the throw ups, winter blizzards, seizures, wet car seats, and just general melt downs, we made it!  Well we did have a little help from Angry Birds, Elmo, The Backyardigans, Wendy and her chicken nuggets, and the on call doctor (Thank you Dr. Pepper!).  And a lot of baby wipes!

 This might be my favorite picture from our trip.  It pretty much sums it up.  Grandma and Grandpa Jones were so patient with us and all the baggage that we bring.  Everytime we went anywhere, it would take 10 minutes just to get in or out of the car.  And I don't know how Grandma captured this one of Chase.  He was seriously all over the place.

So we started out our trip with a visit to The Treehouse Museum.  Doesn't Caleb look like a natural farmer?  He told me "it wasn't even hard".  Maybe a real cow might be a little harder. Just sayin'.

 Parker got a brand new push chair before the trip!  We were so excited to use it.  He wasn't that impressed.  Dang.

 Do you ever put your kids in an outfit and then realize it is too small, but you are too lazy to change them?  She's still cute right?

This picture was taken right after Chase made some kid cry.  Sorry kid, I know how you feel.

 I almost got the eye roll on this one.  What is up with the "tween" thing?

 We also got to go to the Air Force Base where Jake's dad works as a civilian dentist.  It had this really cool airplane museum and tons of aircraft carrier type stuff.  I would have taken more pictures of them, but I ran out of film in my digital camera.

Pretty Waterfall

 Daughters of the Utah Pioneer Museum is a must!  Let's just say, wreaths and jewlery made of human hair, and a two-headed sheep.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures until we were leaving.  Isn't this one cute?  Love the stash dad!

On top of the Conference Center

Inside the Conference center.  Do you like Parker's chair?  It's electric!  Boogy Woogy Woogy.

Jake's Parents were such gracious hosts.  They even acted like our kids were cute when they were running around their house screaming.

I love to see the temple!

This was pretty much Chase the entire trip.  Someone always had to have one hand on him at all times.  He was everywhere.  He even ran right into David Archuleta on Temple Square!  Jake was so sad we didn't get a picture.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Katie taking pictures.

So Jake's brother Chris lives in Salt Lake with his wife Beth and daughter Sophia.  They are just cool people.  Everything they do just seems classy to me. 

They have passed this trait down to Sophia.  She is such a cute little girl and I couldn't help wanting her to like me.  I kept trying to make it known that Amy was my daughter, since she seemed pretty taken to "that big girl".

Chris and Beth took us to a bird zoo.  It totally reminded us of Des Moines and decided we could live in Salt Lake.  Maybe cause we are bird nerds.

Amy decided to bring her bird legs with her to the bird zoo.

One highlight for me was getting to spend a few hours with my cousin Nancy!  I love this girl.  She is so great and I just admire her a ton!  We had so much fun just talking and laughing.  A long time ago, we were roomates at BYU.  So she pretty much has good dirt on me and doesn't hold it against me.

Another highlight was having lunch with Jake's mission President and his wife.  President and Sister Taylor also invited one of Jake's favorite mission companions, Elder Gibbs.  I know he has a real first name, but I can't remember it.  It was fun to listen to their stories and hear Jake laugh really hard. 

And then it was time to go.

It was a great trip and we can't wait to go back! 

Thanks mom and dad! 

We love you!