Happy 29th Robby!

I'm almost positive this has been the best birthday my husband has ever had.
First, his brother Dustin flew in for a visit then his mom bought an expensive leather basketball for him (it's an "official NBA" ball and he's been wanting one FOREVER) then I made the most delicious chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese filling inside and chocolate ganache on top and if that wasn't enough somehow he got a brand new motorcycle...I'm still a little confused on how that happened! But, pretty much he was spoiled rotten for his birthday.

My sisters in law always make fun of me for taking pictures of the things I bake so I made sure to capture these yummy babies and post them here...these are for you Beverly and Ttracee, they were delicious!!
















































Here's another reason why my husband was so spoiled on his birthday he had two parties one on his actual birthday and another with family and friends on Sunday. My parents prepared a scrumdidilyumptious BBQ dinner including ribs, lots of salads and Robby's favorite Costco cake. After dinner we put on leather biker gear and met up with the rest of our gang outside for rides on the motorcycles! Oh yeah, we are pretty hard core!!















I found this picture on my camera that someone took I thought it was pretty cool.












































This was so funny. Robby being his funny self cut the basketball out of the cake and pretended to play basketball with it and do all sorts of tricks as if it were a real ball. While Robby was entertaining us my brother in law gives me this look like he's about to do something and before I know it there's cake flying everywhere!

The clean up crew!

Here's the leader of our gang!

Happy Birthday Robby!!

the LOVE-land boys

Before Chuch I took the boys outside and snapped a few pictures of them in their red, white, and blue outfits. I love the way these pictures turned out they are so adorable!

COMPETITION

Since my brother in law Dustin arrived last week there has been a TON of competition at our house. Robby and Dustin have been almost killing each other in competitive battles including who's the strongest, who's better at basketball, which one is the fastest they have even been competing in video games!??

Here they are last Saturday playing badmitten. These guys spent HOURS competing in game after game after game to see which one was better at badmitten. I love my in laws but I think it's a good thing we don't live so close!

Boat Time

Here are a bunch of fun pictures from today! We went to Squalicum Harbor ate fish and chips at Weblockers went on a boat ride around the Islands and played at the park. It was the best!

Sumo Wrestling!

Last night was another night of wrestling here at the crazy Loveland household but this time it was SUMO wrestling! These two boys had me laughing so hard. It was the funniest thing watching Evan try to get up after being knocked over.

Most of the time I can't believe I'm the mother to boys.

I have always felt so strongly that I was going to be the mother to girls. When I was pregnant with each of my boys I swore that they were girls. With Paden I was SO sure he was a girl that when the doctor announced a boy I started crying right there in the room! With Evan I only had girls names picked out and with Kai I was POSITIVE he was a girl that I even told Robby that there was no need to get the ultrasound done I knew what my baby was going to be...a girl!!! I guess my mother instincts are way off...huh!

The funnest thing is that I secretly wanted them all to be boys. I remember when I was pregnant with Kai Robby and I talked nonstop about having a little baby girl. When we were having the ultrasound done and saw little boy parts floating on the screen I got so excited and remember not being able to stop smiling because I wanted a boy so badly. Then in all of my joy I looked over at Robby and he had tears in his eyes because he wanted to have a little girl...it was the sweetest thing ever.

I love my boys but I am ready for lots of pink, tiaras, dresses, tutus and everything else girly so I'm hoping the next time I get pregnant I have the feeling it's a boy.

Celebrating Father's Day!

Strawberry Festival

Today was the annual "strawberry festival" here at our local Boxx Berry Farm. Paden was so excited to go he even remembered going last year and remembered the fun tractor ride. We had a blast today! The weather was beautiful we ate strawberry sundaes, hung out with good friends, played and guess what...Santa Claus even showed up!?? It was a fun Saturday afternoon!

DAY 1: Aunts are the Best

Here are pictures of Aunt Cathy and Aunt Beverly reading my boys some bedtime stories. I love my sister in laws soooo much. I love them even more that they love and show so much love towards my children. As soon as they see them they run up and fight over who gets to hold, hug and kiss them. I know my kids will always feel the love their Aunts have for them and for that I am so grateful for.

Our trip was a blast. I split up the pictures from our trip from Day 1- Day 16, it's not exactly correct but close enough. There's a lot of pictures to look at but not the entire 700 that I actually took!!

DAY 2: Great Grandma and Grandpa's

As soon as we got to Cedar City the first place Robby wanted to stop at were his Grandparents' house. He immediately began helping them out with yard work, he mowed their lawn twice while we were visiting and helped them with other things around the yard. He also saved them almost a thousand dollars by digging up a drain pipe. What a good grandson they have!



This other little boy in the pictures is my nephew Christian.

DAY 3: Fun at Uncle Jimmy's

DAY 4: Another fun Park

We drove to St. George 5 times while we were there because they have the funnest parks ever. I LOVE St. George and could definitely see myself living there one day. While we were there we also did some shopping at the Outlet Mall, ate at some yummy restaurants including Cafe Rio and ate delicious cupcakes (thanks Tiffany). St. George I miss you already!

DAY 5: A drive and a hike up to the "C"

Robby spent his teenage years here in Cedar City and one of the places he couldn't wait to take us was up the canyon to where the letter "C" is written on the mountain. I have a feeling this is where people come to make out at. Should I be concerned Robby knew exactly how to get there??!

DAY 6: The best park ever!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this place. If I lived in St George I would spend my days here at this water park, it is the best!


























































































































































































Here is the only girl cousin out of 11 boys!

DAY 7: Cousin Carson's bday party!

DAY 9: Zion National Park

This may very well have been my favorite day of our entire trip. Zion National Park has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the country. Robby and I each wore one of these hiking back packs, they were so comfortable that we ran with them on down the entire mountain. It was pretty funny seeing the expressions on the peoples faces as we were passing them by!

DAY 10: Las Vegas

We decided to take the three hour drive down from Cedar City to Las Vegas and visit a few important places. The first place we went to was his sister Cathy's house where we ate dinner and watched the Lakers game. By the way the NBA Finals games were on the entire time we were visiting so we were able to watch all the games and see the Lakers beat the Magic...GO Lakers!!! The next morning we went to another really beautiful park and than over to the Las Vegas Temple where Robby and I were sealed. After walking around teh temple grounds we ate lunch at Macayos a family favorite restaurant (it's probably some of the worst Mexican food I've ever had).
I wasn't able to get any really good pictures of us at the Temple because I forgot to charge my battery before we left...ugh!

DAY 12: More fun at Uncle Jimmy's

Paden took these silly pictures of Robby and I!

DAY 13: 10k

This was so much fun and I loved being able to do this with my sister in law Beverly. When we first got to Cedar City we had two weeks before our race so I ran almost every day. The first time I ran I ran 5 miles and I thought there was no way I was going to finish. It was hot and the altitude was almost 6,ooo feet above sea level, here in Bellingham I think we are at sea level so it made it much harder to run. The second day I ran, the smell of manure from all of the farms around was pretty deadly and the I ended up getting stuck and had to wait for hundreds of sheep to cross the road in front of me it was pretty hilarious!

The race was easier than I thought it would be. I was almost positive that Beverly would beat me because she has a faster pace than I do and I was right. When the gun went off she took off and left me in the dust! Luckily though the one thing I have always done while running is to speed up the last half mile of my run so when I did this I passed her up and beat her to the finish line!!! I was really happy with my time. I normally run a 10 minute mile but I ended up running an 8:45 min. mile! I also got 7th place in my age group.

I had so much fun that I have found a half marathon that I want to run, it's in Las Vegas on December 6th if anyone is interested!

DAY 14: Triathlon

Watching Robby compete in the triathlon was one of the best things ever I was so proud of him. The race was really cool all of us that came to watch stayed in the exact place and watched the racers take off and come back from each of the events in the same spot... the swim the bike and the run.

The race was also at a place called Sand Hollow it was at such a beautiful location. The important thing is that Robby beat his brother Jim and brother in law Chris! Robby's other brother Dustin who is in the Army has promised all of us that he will beat everyone next year so I guess we will just have to see!

Oh yeah...that's mean Uncle Jimmy!

Here comes Robby to the finish line!

This was the funnest thing to watch! When Uncle Jimmy was finishing up the race and running to the finish line all of the cousins started running with him. The announcer even said, "here comes James Loveland with his entire family" it was so cute!

Paden kept saying that he beat everyone including Uncle Jimmy!

DAY 15: Temple Square

DAY 16: On our way home!

Here we are driving home after over 2 weeks of being on vacation. This smile didn't last long. For dinner last Monday on our drive home we stopped at a Mexican restaurant and then we spent the night at a hotel. At about midnight I woke up throwing up, having diarrhea, passing out and having severe cramps, body aches, hot flashes and shivers.

Muchos gracias to the Mexican restaurant for giving both Robby and I food poisoning. It was good to be home after that!