random summer lovin

Since summer has literally just ZIPPED on by, 

how bout a mixed-n-random post of highlights?!

I suppose I'll wrap up some random pics of Utah summer lovin- 

then share a bit of the fun we're having in Virginny.

UTAH

This did not nearly fill my need for Utah summers- but my land. 

I'll take what I can get!!

mmmmm Yes. 

Just soaking in the goodness of finally being together as a family- including Tom of course! 

Dad was telling the funniest stories at this point. That is one hilarious dude.

 We took full advantage of the pool! 

Kiddos would just be swimming to you, asking to be thrown, or latching on to ya left and right! 

Excuse my game face as I do "motor boat, motor boat, goes so fast" with the girlies.

Who knows how many of those were done. 

Another funny game I played with the older girls was me slowly lifting them out of the water as they did a pose like a sculpture- hilarious and adorable

HONESTLY THOUGH?! 

That Gideon...dreamy little man

 The day after my parents got home, Gracie finally got baptized! 

She is the flippin cutest and wanted to wait till they were home and could be at her baptism. 

She turned 8 in April and had been counting down the days till she could finally get baptized. 

The night before, she was getting all her little siblings ready to leave for the night and kept saying "we have to go home and go to bed cause tomorrow is the big day!" She is unreal. 

Their primary president had us all write a little note to Gracie that day. 

Loved this gem from her cousin Claire. 

There is nothing better in the entire world than this feeling right here. Fact.

Found this cute little drawing/note by Ali Tinkerbell. hah! 

She's the best and she knows it! Guess I am too ;)

Virginia

This summer honestly flew by! Kody did such a good job with the sales program for his brothers pest-control company! Door-to-door sales...That....is just the worst thing. Hah! Poor Kode for having to go out there every day and work as long and hard as he does/did. He's just the best. 

Praise everything too- I worked in the office every other day. Talk about ideal. Same hours as Kode (but comfortable and inside hah), every other day is juuuuust right, plus I love knowin what's goin on with the guys, sales, and just all that jazz. win-win-win.

 At the beginning of the summer, my friend Gretchen came out to DC for work and we met up at a Nats game! Check out these seats huh?! Always a good time with Gretch

 A lot of my days off were spent at Kody's (and my) brother and sister-in-law's home. 

They are literally the best. I could sit and visit with Jess all the days. Their kids are so stinkin fun too! We just move from activity to sport to art project to game. Greatest. 

Here is Johnny doing a "summer-backflip" ...much cooler than a somersault

Us girls had a relaxin girls day out. 

Gracie was in heaven with the giant Panda on her seat- happens to be her favorite animal! 

 We found this awesome lookin lizard in the backyard! 

The kiddos wanted pics with him. hah It was tiny

 One time we ventured out and went to the Zoo in DC. There is the cutest smallest monkey on that vine above cute Kode. We stared at that thing foreves.

 The sales guys were havin a little guys night...So my friend Lauren and I went to see Spider-man.... and had the theater to ourselves! bonus!

Good ol Canada day! I love to celebrate any holiday... Made us wear red and white to work. 

There are a few Canadians in the group, so all the guys sang the National Anthem before goin off to the doors! hah 

We also went into DC and checked out a few of the museums. I was terrible at taking pics or being exciting....but this is the extent of my forcing us to document. Also of me forcing us to be funny.

Celebrating awesome Johnny's 3rd (he keeps saying 5th) birthday. Obviously he loves Ninja Turtles. Specifically Donatello! Jess and I made those cupcakes. I could eat this boy up.

We went to a Nats game with Kyles family (minus Jess and baby Viv) and some of the sales guys. I thought i'd be nice and let the brothers sit by each other and I got to sit by the kiddos! Perfect. It was so fun chatting with Grace and watchin them all soak in the fun! About half way through Grace turned to me "do you sometimes get a little bored at these?" haha... It was gettin long for that girl. Also after a while of being there, I pointed out the pitcher throwin the ball to Johnny- I don't think he had seen/noticed until then! hilarious. Noah is an amazing athlete already and he knows way more than I do about every sport. It's incredible.

Well those are all the documented moments for us! It has been such a fun summer! We cannot even believe it's already over! We are going to Outer Banks with Kyle's fam (we can't even think about leaving them..that's gonna be rough), Kody's parents and younger brother are also coming out to join us! We are so so so excited. 

Summer 2014- huge success. 

Perfect gong-show trip

I don't know why this is... But us Irion's often have bad luck with Lake Powell and boating in general. Honestly- we have a joke that whenever we are going to the lake, we yell out the car window to Mother Nature/God/anyone really, "we're goin to Ikea!!" to try and fool them. True story.

We happened to have the house boat the week after mom and dad came home from their mission. We just couldn't miss that opportunity to go to the best place on earth, so decided to go for it. We were just SO excited- and only slightly nervous because there would be so many of us, and we wanted mom and dad to be able to get some R&R post mish- which is near impossible at Powell- especially because of our luck with boats and such. But "dad's angry place" it is! 

We divided up who would be in charge of dinners each night, what treats to bring, BYOB(breakfast- hah) went to Costco and had about 4 or 5 carts full of happiness, got the beach toys and blow-up water toys ready, cleaned and prepared the boat, etc.

 We. Were. Ready!

I was in the "cool-kids-club-car" with Rob, Angie, Russ, Ellen and Ashlyn. We had a blast rocking out to music and playing that heads up game where we guessed the tune. So freakin funny. 

Instead of trying to remember the play-by-play of the week...I'll just list the problems we had.

Owen's car overheating right before getting to the lake

Ski boat put-putting at 10 mph max first night in

Fresh water pump stopped working for a bit- thank goodness we've got engineers with us ;)

Shattered glass table top

Ski boat totally not working until the last night

Big storm that beached/parallel parked the houseboat

yikes-a-bee

Needless to say- we just played games and swam the entire time. At one point Emily said "this is the perfect vacation!" we all laughed cause we were stranded with no ski-boat...but couldn't agree more. 

I will say though- it was so fun when we had the boat up and running. 

Realizing what we were missin that's for sure. 

I guess i'll just dump photos here now. mmmmmm Powell...I love you

 The bobsked- So cute. always. 

 Lily- just havin the time of her life on the beach by herself. hah!

 This floatie got loose and drifted away- Cute Bree swam over there and swam it back and wouldn't let anyone help her. Took foreves. 

 Isnt this guy adorable?! I was just as excited as the kiddos.

 Heaven on earth

 Floating and jumping off the back is the BEST! We were all taking turns trying to land in this little floaty. Nailed it.

 Lily just joined in on the work-out sesh without a word. Cutest thing in the world

 My best friend is my sister in law..beat that

 You can kinda see Russ and Ellen swimming the boat into the docks to get it fixed. Hilarious.

 THIS GIRL! Ashlyn got up on the wakeboard for the first time this trip... I will NEVER forget that cutest smile when she got up! The whole boat was up on their feet cheering, laughing...and katie and I were crying. haha Adorable. Love that girl so so much.

 I'm just a cruiser really.. Love to just splash the wake and glide around out there. 

But really I just love watching my brothers. They are so happy out there!

 Russ totally nailed it. I thought there was no way when I saw his upper body under the water. So athletic

 Rob- So glad he could board and his knee held up

Sorry you didn't get much rest mom and dad...But this trip was juuuust right!

Lake Powell is just heaven. Especially with this gang. 

Welcome home y'all!

FINALLY! I have my parents again! Those were 3 loooong years. 

Thank goodness I was serving right along with them for 1 of those :) 

Ohhh I had just been imagining this day for so long- I knew it would be dreamy no matter what! Even though I was out in Virginia, I would be calling sisters and trying to see if they needed help at least planning things to make the day great- orange Tennessee t-shirts, to yellow ribbons down the street. 

 These cute rocking chairs are from members in Tennessee that snuck 

them in the moving van for my parents! Cuties.

I was going to fly in the morning of the 4th of July- which was when my parents were trying to pull in from their long drive. Well - we all should know that if that Rich Irion can get something done sooner than planned/expected..you bet your sweet bottom he will! The fam tried to keep it a secret and surprise me that they'd pull in the night before- but failed miserably (thank goodness). I was absolutely in shock and admittedly sad because I wasn't going to be there for "the big moment" that I had been picturing and getting so excited about and even tried planning and doing what I could to make it in time! BUT it still was such a great moment and my sibs were troopers to facetime me and let me see the action. 

We had some struggles with peoples phones close to dying, poor connection, switching to other phones and so on... Such a struggle.. But still so worth it to see those faces!

the struggle...it was real.

Just please ignore my crying face....but How cute is that mom of mine?! Showing me my Tennessee Tshirt she got! Funny story is that my sister and I were trying to be cute and design shirts for all of us...but luckily found out a few days later that mom had been gathering shirts for a while now and was trying to surprise us! (guess our fam just really struggles with surprises. hah) Her shirts were MUCH cuter than ours though!

Pretty sure grandkids is the only reason why they are happy to be home. I know my place. hah

After an early morning for me, I made it to Utah where mom and dad were there to welcome ME home! Role reversal. hah. So I held up this canvas thing I made for them and yelled "welcome home!" so they remembered how this is really supposed to go. 

We made a quick stop to see my cute grandma Irion who had just recently had hip surgery. 

Ahhh love that tiny lady. 

Duncan just made himself right comfortable and plopped himself on the bed- so grandma started ticklin his toes and doing "this little piggy" 

She is just the best. She's sure glad to have her boy home.

 Then it was off to our traditional 4th of July up in Midway! I was so excited for this cause I knew there would be jumping, clapping, crying and cute family members loving being together!! We showed up RIGHT as they were about to start the bike parade. haha oops. Sorry kiddos!

 The reunions I couldnt wait to see- Grandfather, and her sister Brenda who also just got home from their presiding a mission! 

You really can't beat the Nelson fam. Can't get better than this. FINALLY all together!

 ....Or the Irions. Of course. (just missin my Kody!)

Needless to say, we TOOK OVER with those orange shirts!

I finally got to meet my newest nephew Gideon! Ohhhh He's one dangerous little bug. I'm still swooning over that little nugget. 

Got to visit with my faves- Rachel and Allie. They will always be my best friends. 

 I just LOVE spending the 4th in Midway! 

One of my favorite family traditions! (I think I say that with every tradition..)

Here is (almost) all 144 of us there! Couldn't love this family more

LOVE when the family is all together! LOVE having mom and dad home!!