Family Filled Summer

Okay, since I am behind on blogging and I wasn't very good at taking pictures this summer, I am combining all of the family events we had this summer into one super post. Sounds exciting huh? Oh, it will be. 

Carson's sister Emily and her five children spent the whole summer at Carson's parents house and it was a lot of fun to have them close. I didn't have any nieces or nephews before I got married so it is still fun to hear little voices calling me Aunt Sam. We spent most Sunday dinners with them and got together for special events like the Fourth of July. 

 Our nephew Andrew at the Fourth of July festivities. 

Big Carson and nephew little Carson cuddling on a Sunday afternoon.

A few weeks ago all of Carson's siblings and their families got together for the Forrest Flake family reunion. It was such a fun weekend - thanks to Dallan, Bethany, Jess, and Ryan for planning it! Photo credit for this section goes to Dallan (thanks!)

We started the weekend off with a hot dog/smores roast and games at Uncle Lawrence's. I told you this was a popular Flake Family activity. 

Flake Football.

 We went to a tumbling gym and had a blast jumping off all of the trampolines. Even my mother-in-law got in on the action.

The tumbling gym also had a rock climbing wall with a pit at the base so once you climbed to the top you just let yourself fall. I loved climbing up, but letting go was always scary - it was higher than it looked from the bottom!

Of course the boys (men?) took some time out for paintballing. This picture doesn't look white trash at all. Nope.

What summer pool party is complete without a little chicken fighting? Collin and Jess, I have to say that Carson and I won this one. Ha. 

 This little guy - my nephew Oliver - and I bonded big time that weekend. Sometimes it was hard to get him to leave my side, not that I minded at all because he is dang cute. 

Not all of our family fun this summer came from Carson's side. My family came to visit a few times as well. 

My sister Danica spent a weekend with us between EFY and volleyball camp at BYU. She asked me to teach her a skill and to help her make something for her future home (part of her young women personal progress) so I decided to share some of my recent sewing knowledge (the little of it that I have). We started simple and made a pillowcase and then went on to make a simple skirt. I hope Dani had as much fun staying with us as we did having her, even though she had to sleep on the couch all weekend. 

 Working hard. 

Showing off one of her finished products. 

The rest of my family came to visit as well, along with two of my aunts and their families. We tried out the new-ish water park in Draper, bowled at BYU, ate a lot of good food, and of course visited the BYU bookstore. 

Matthew - already a Cougar.

One of my favorite parts about summer is going on trips but since we are poor newlyweds we didn't really get to go anywhere this summer, so it was nice to have people come to us. We loved it. If you didn't come to visit...shame on you! Just kidding. We still love you.