Max and his Triathlon

Today is Max's 8th birthday.  Happy Birthday buddy!  We are having his friends party this saturday so I will do his birthday post after that.  He is super excited to be turning 8!  This last weekend, he did a kid's triathlon.  Caden was planning on doing it too but three days before, he cut his foot and had get it glued in the ER.  So it was Max's time to shine.  Nick was able to go along with him and they had a great time. 

Max was in the 7-10 year old group and he got 4th place overall.  He got a medal and was filmed by the little local news crew.  He was so proud and says he can't wait until he can do the next one.

It was a 75 meter swim, 2 mile bike ride and a 1/2 mile run.  Good Job Max!!!

Warming up

Looking at the prizes

Getting ready

His swim

Bike

The run

Getting his medal

Happy Birthday Max. we are so proud!

Jake's 5th B-day party

Today we celebrated Jake's 5th birthday.  He has been looking forward to it for so long.  How do kids grow up so fast?  He chose to have a dinosaur party and lucky for him, I hadn't done one of those yet with the older boys. It was a new and exciting party to plan.   It was fun to have him give me ideas of things to do and help decorate the cake.  He wanted a volcano cake with dinosaurs around it.  He helped me decorate it from the beginning to end.  He was so excited about the lava.  I loved spending that time with him, just the two of us.  It was one of those moments where I was reminded how much I love my job as a mom.  He can be quite the little stinker,  but deep down, he is so sweet and I'm so glad I'm one of the few he will show that side to.  

Happy Brirthday Jake!!! We love you!

Spencer and Tanner's "Spain" birthday party

Since the babies were born here and our friends that saw them grow up during their first year wanted to help celebrate, we had another party for them.   We went with a Spanish theme since we already had their "American" party.  Yes, the Spanish bull on the cake is anatomically correct.  The babies were so tired so we hurried with the celebration part and put them to bed.  We had a great time with our friends and food.  Feliz Cumpleaños!!!

Tired babies

singing with their friends Jennifer and Morgan

Some of the group.  All of the kids were playing outside.

Lucia gave them some new cars

Our cute friend Valeria

Good Job Nick!!

We are so proud of Nick for his hard work as a dentist in the US Navy.  He's really done a great job in all of the clinics he's worked in.  In Japan and here in Spain.  He's constantly being commended for his work an dedication in the command.  It's a big to deal to put on rank in the military. It doesn't happen often so when it does, it's a great thing.  This week Nick put on rank and became a Luitenant Commander in the US  Navy.  He's only been in the military for four years and so this came earlier than usual.  We are super proud of him and appreciate his hard work.  He's a great example to our boys.  I know they are proud he is their dad.  Good Job, Nick.  We love you!

Repeating the oath after Captain Turner

Changing his shoulder boards from Luitenant to Luitenant Commander on his uniform

Isn't he so handsome in his uniform???

Back in Spain

It's three in the morning in Spain and four out of seven of us are awake.  We are still on Utah time.  We had the best trip ever visiting our families.  It was pure torture flying with all of us to and from, but the time we spent with family and the memories we made were totally worth it.  We also got to see some of our friends too that we've made along the years.  We wish we could have seen more but some schedules didn't permit.  Definitely next time.  More pictures of our trip to come but I had to post the babies turning one.  It was so great being able to celebrate their birthdays with our family the day before we came home.

As you will see in the pictures, Tanner does NOT like getting his fingers dirty in the cake but Spencer LOVED it.

Nick's dad runs an awesome recreation center. So he was so great and reserved the indoor splash pool just for our party.  The kids had so much fun.  It was a great time until we had to say goodbye to family. We already miss everyone!

cRaZy for the WORLD CUP!

It is so fun being in Spain right now.   The Spanish are so excited about going all the way to the finals.  EVERYONE has their flags out on their houses, cars, bikes. etc.  It is such a cool way to experience the culture of Spain.  We had Javi, Beatriz, and Lucia over with some of our other friends the Taylors to watch the semi-finals last night.  You can see in the pictures the excitement about the win.

After the game everyone was running around outside, lighting firecrackers, and honking their horns.  The kids thought they were so cool to stay up so late and run around in the dark.  Good times.