Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Emerald Isle

We were so lucky to end the summer with a bang.
Summer sales is so so tough and just not very fun at all... so we were looking forward to this little trip and boy did it not disappoint! 
We decided to go big and rent a beach house in Emerald Isle for a whole week with
Kyle, Jess and their adorable kiddos, AND a bonus of Kody's parents and youngest brother, Kaden coming out to join us. It was so so dreamy.
For real, when we first got to the beach house, Jess and I couldn't hide our smiles!
It was amazing and we couldn't hold in our excitement.
 Who would though? I mean really. 

The whole week was fun but relaxing. Just waking up and heading straight to the beach, swimming, eating, rinse and repeat until games, eating Kadens cookies and bedtime.
We did venture out to an aquarium one day- which I absolutely loved. I don't know what it is about aquariums that I just can't get enough of.
I just can't say it enough- it was the ideal vacation and we never wanted to leave.
Kody got a gopro just before this trip and made this amazing video I also can't get enough of.
enjoy!

Friday, August 15, 2014

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. 

Friday, August 8, 2014

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.