Lagoon Day!

On July 6th this year we went to Lagoon to help Myles (our nephew/cousin) celebrate his birthday! We are Lagoon regulars and love to go on all the rides, but we were even more excited to see Myles and his little sister Sophie go on the rides! They are just old enough to go on the kiddie rides and a few "big kid" ones. Brianne was lucky enough to get this cute stuffed animal...
Her cute Dad was insistent he win her one! So a few dollars and balls later the cheetah was won! He was quickly named Noogal- which is of course Lagoon spelled backwards! So clever that Chan is!!
In the middle of our day we all met in a pavilion for lunch and some yummy cupcakes. We sang Happy Birthday to Myles and he got a few gifts. Transformers were the favorite!
We have so much fun going on rides and being silly and screaming our hearts out, but Gamma Kathy only went on ONE ride with us! It was the new one this year called Bombora. It's a "family" roller coaster and it was really fun!
I caught Brianne and Will getting off the big swing- it's always a fun one!
Little Sophie was LOVING the kiddie rides! I think she could have gone ALL day!
Myles was a great bumper car driver! He was all over the place! You can tell he was having a blast by his big smile! Happy number 4 big buddy!
I can't think of a better summer activity than going here- and the past few years I have gotten pictures in this very same spot!
I think Will's face in this one is priceless! It shows how fun it is! Especially when you get to ride with some of your other OLDER cousins and aunt! So FUN! Thanks Myles for inviting us to your birthday! We love you!

On the 4th of July the kids were a bit excited for the upcoming BBQ and fireworks so I decided to take them bowling. I signed up for the free kids bowling program this summer so I had coupons for all of us (including Dakota- their cousin) so I gathered them all up and off we went! This is not a usual activity and so to say we weren't good is an UNDERSTATEMENT!! We were all pretty horrible! Some of us handled that better then others, but I just kept reminding them and myself that it was for FUN!
I used to bowl in a league with some friends years ago so I was anxious to see how I would do and I wasn't much better than any of the kids! The surprising bowler was definitely Dakota! He was pretty good! For Will and Brianne this was a first time to bowl without bumpers. I insisted they learn to do it without them- they are just too old for those!
It was the perfect thing to do to pass the time and I was surprised to see that it wasn't very busy at all! We played two games and the first game Dakota was the winner with the high score of 96! (yeah- I told you we weren't good!)
The second game I was the winner! Yep, that's my high score of 120! Woo Hoo!! The sad thing is I didn't have scores too much higher than that when I was in the league! Hee hee!
On the way home everyone was happy and we shot some silly pictures in the truck!
I can't imagine life without my fun kids! ALL of them- kid #4 included (AKA- Dakota)! I can't wait for our next round!

Scout Camp

It was Will's first year going to scout camp! He was excited and a bit nervous, but when he found out his cousin Dakota was coming along he felt better! I sent him with a camera but unfortunately he only managed a few pictures and he was in NONE of them! But I really liked these two. This one above is of his fellow tent mates! Pictured from right are Dakota, Chandler and Jaden. It was a good group!
This one was a pretty one! It sure is gorgeous up there in the Wyoming mountains! He was a good 2 1/2 hours from home for a whole week! I was never worried though because his leaders are AWESOME!! I do have a quick story though.... When Carter went his first year to this same camp he managed to cut himself on his finger bad enough that they had to run him to the closest ER, so when the leaders saw Will was going to be going this year they immediately started in on the jokes about not cutting yourself! Over the several months of talking about camp it kept getting brought up. Then Dakota (also a Crismon) signed up and the jokes just got more intense! They insisted on them NOT continuing the "Crismon tradition". So off to camp they went and wouldn't ya know it the first full day up there Will cuts himself on his hand!! He cut it with a chisel in the skin between your thumb and pointer finger! OUCH! But thankfully not bad enough for stitches- just cleaned it up and wrapped it well. That only left one more Crismon to avoid the "tradition". Well two days later he cut himself in the exact same place and same hand as Will with a tree branch! So I guess the tradition lives on......dang it!! But all in all they had a fabulous time! They did everything from archery to rifle shooting to first aid classes (which apparently the Crismon kids need) and enjoyed it all! I'm just glad they came home safe and had fun! Hopefully the tradition won't continue again! Let's HOPE!!

An addition to Father's Day 2011

I almost forgot to add these pictures from Father's Day! The Primary kids made ties for all their Dad's in our Ward! Brianne made a very cute one for Chan! The tough part was tying it though! I had to get a quick couple of pictures with them together so we could remember how fun that was! It was so fun to see all the Dad's with their tie(s) on! There was a couple of Dad's that had 4 kids in Primary so they had 4 ties on! It was so fun! Brianne was so excited to give it to him that she gave it to him early! Once again, it was a great day for an amazing Father/husband! Love you Chan!

New pictures!

I took the kids recently to get their pictures taken and I went to a local place that I have been wanting to try and I am thrilled with how great they turned out!! They are artistic and they completely captured the kids personalities! So I had to share them on the blog!
I love the backgrounds they have here! Very cool! And I think it's funny how they are all standing differently!
Carter is my toughest kid to capture on film and I LOVE this picture of him! It's exactly him- no smile on his mouth- but his eyes are smiling! Don't ya think?! It must be a "Mom" thing!
Then I had them all bring something that spoke of who they are right now and Carter's was his i-pod. It's with him all the time!! His music is a huge part of who he is! It makes him happy!
Loved this shot of Will! And I had him wear one of his MANY hats. He has quite the collection and most are fedoras like this one. And like this outfit- he always matches his hats to his clothes!
This one totally captured his smile/laugh! LOVE IT!!!
I loved this one of Brianne because she looks darling, but also because this chair is her absolute favorite color! And I love that you can see her cute colored toe nails!
This one may be my favorite of all! She recently played softball so I had her bring her mitt, but this picture is TOTALLY HER! You can tell she is smiling behind that mitt!
I also had to include this one of Brianne- she is becoming quite the little lady! Hard to believe for me that my BABY is 9, but I truly couldn't be more proud of my kids! They are not only gorgeous but really great people! Love you guys!!!

End of an era

I took these pictures this week as I helped Chan and his family shut their stores down. I found these signs in the back room of one of their stores and I wanted to share them. These say a lot about who they are and the type of business they run.
I love the mission statement one! SO true! My family always told me how great our customer service was when they were visiting. It's hard to believe it's come to an end.
I took this picture after cleaning the office for the last time. It was empty..... such a strange sight. All the offices were cleaned out and it was not only physically empty but it FELT empty. This past week we went from having 16 stores to 2 in four days. The 2 will run until August 31st and then we are officially done. It's been a physically demanding week on the entire family having to move all the products, fixtures, etc out and over to the warehouse where it all has to be sorted and stored. It's a HUGE job and it started over a month ago, but as of Thursday the majority is done. Thursday was the toughest day though because it was the last day for most our employees. This day was emotionally the toughest. There was a lot of tearful goodbyes. It was also the hardest because it was the day when most of our stores went dark. Chan and I went out to the airport at 5:30 in the morning and didn't get home until 9pm that night. I will admit I held it together until we left the airport for the warehouse and on our way there I cried. But my favorite part of the day was when we all met back up at the warehouse before we left for home. Chan's family broke out a bottle of champagne and poured it in Styrofoam cups (Chan and I had water in ours) and Tom gave a beautiful toast to our wonderful company, our family and the great things to come! It was a wonderful moment and one I won't soon forget. I am so grateful to have been a small part of their company, but even more proud of my husband and his family in seeing what an amazing thing they created. I can't wait to see what comes next! I love you ATG!

Father's Day 2011

I am falling behind a bit on my blogging! But this past Father's Day was awesome! Carter and I were asked to speak in church that day and I think we both did really well. Carter has NO fear about speaking in church- in fact he looks forward to the opportunity! It's awesome! And I did some major preparation on mine so for the first time EVER I wasn't nervous! So it was a good experience! We got Chan some Father's Day cards from us and he bought himself a gift he really wanted- a stove top griddle! Yeah I know it seems funny, but he has wanted one for quite some time! And I have to admit it's pretty cool! Then that evening the family got together and we had some dinner at Brooke and Mark's house. This picture has (from Right) Mark (Brooke's husband), Chan, Grandpa Gilbert (Chan's Mom's Dad), Gerardo (Annie's husband) and Tom (Chan's Dad). I love getting pictures with all the family together! It's kind of rare to have that many generations all under one roof! Pretty cool! And I just have to say how thankful I am to have a great Dad and an AMAZING husband! I am one lucky girl!