with cooking outside, 
eating smores, kids playing in the tree house, walking down to the candy store, and cousins getting to play together for three full days!!!For our anniversary I surprised Tyson with a 4 day trip to Chicago. I had him convinced that we were going over night to Sedona. So on Thursday he came home from the gym and I had everything all packed and ready to go. He was really and truly confused because his calendar was full of appointments for that day. I had to explain that they were all pretend, and that I had set everything up!! We had a great time.
We happened to be there during the "Taste of Chicago" which we thought was extremely overrated. It is where a lot of restaurants set up booths down by the lake and you can buy tickets and taste their menus to see if you like their food. We ended up spending 24 dollars and walked away from there hungry. 
Friday night our good friends Kenneth and Shelley Lawlor met us at our hotel. This was another BIG surprise for Tyson. They live in Missouri so we don't get to see them very often so I thought it would be so fun to spend a few days with them. They knocked on our hotel room door and I let them in, Kenneth walked in and said "hey dude, whats up?" and Tyson just stared at Kenneth, it just didn't register for such a long time what was going on.The highlights of our trip were : the water tower,
visited the american girl store, ate chicago pizza, and Garretts Gourmet Popcorn (yum!), 
ate Ghiradelli hot fudge sundaes, visited the Science and Industry Museum, our room had a view of the Chicago River (so cool), rode the Elevated train, 
ate at Potbellies subs~ twice (this was my favorite thing we ate the whole time)!!! and visited Navy Pier.
We were sad to leave the Lawlors as they are going to be living in Missouri for a few more years. We hope to see them soon.
In July Connor turned TWELVE!!!!!! He is a priesthood holder and everything!!!!! (I am blue).
We celebrated his morning with pancakes, strawberries and whip cream.
I took him and a friend to lunch at Pei Wei, where we met my sister Colette who shares the same birthday as he does. He is a wonderful kid, here are twelve fun things he did this year:1. Played his last year of soccer (so he says).
2. He traveled to Rocky Point and loves to bargain with the mexican people selling things on the beach.
3. For Christmas he got a cell phone (his parents are CRAZY)
4. He watched, shouted, hollared and was disappointed when the cardinals lost the Super Bowl. (he still feels they were cheated out of winning.)
5. Traveled to Florida for our family vacation
6. Played flag football and his team came in second at the tournament
7. Has been talking about playing tackle football for the whole year (yikes!)
8. got to pet an alligator
9. started babysitting for his siblings (yea!)
10. ran in his first race
11. ran in a race with his Grandma and his Mom
12. Got a RC car, and loves racing it with his dad and his uncles
We spent the 4th of July in Greer with the Cook's. Greer is beautiful and so relaxing. 
We took a really long walk to the candy store and Gage and Ava just couldn't make it, they both fell asleep just before we got there. We drove into town for the parade, but had to drive home before the fireworks so we could be back for church in the morning.We celebrated my birthday with going to dinner with the Fosters. I always appreciate these two food guys letting me choose where I want to eat one day a year~thanks guys!!
I had to put this picture on because this is what Tyson and Lance talked about the whole time at dinner. Now, don't get me wrong its all good, it had been a long time since I had seen Marcee so it gave me a chance to catch up with her.
