Wow, can you believe I am finally updating my blog? i know, it's a miracle. This summer has been busy busy busy. I thought about blogging many times, but got to clean and organize instead.
This pretty sums up our family daily routine. In fact, my house has never been cleaner! WE have a routine of "HURRY make the beds, kitchen duty, bathroom duty, dusting, sweeping, picking up. and my favorite chore of all....vaccuming! I actually enjoy this chore and look forward to using my faithful and trusty oreck daily. I have liked having a spic and span house ready to show at any moment, but I feel like all I do is clean! I am ready for our house to sell! Wish us luck!
Here is a sneak peak of the Beauty we have purchased. We are very excited about the space we will get to enjoy and so many fun projects planned! More on the nitty gritty details of our new home soon.
Everyone's favorite feature is the backyard swimming pool!! woo hooo!!! so when is the big move might you ask??? We get to move into our new home in September. When we bought the home in June, We are leasing it back to the previous owner for 2 months while they prepare to move. It has been very difficult to be patient, but we are hanging in there. We are finally down to just a couple weeks away!!! We can't wait to have pool parties at the Zito's!!!!
Let me rewind way back to JUNE when we went on our annual
ZITO FAMILY ROADTRIP
to Wyoming and Montana to visit our Zito family :)
OH YEAH!!! Road trip 2011 here we come! 3000 miles round trip.... no big whoop :)
We made it safely to Granny & Pappy Zito's home in Greybull, WY. We enjoyed going to church on Father's Day Sunday with Granny. Her ward has the most beautiful ward choir I think I have ever heard. It was small in numbers compared to wards in Mesa but their sound was amazing! I was so impressed. The best part was feeling the Spirit testify of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it to be true and I go to church each week because I know it is true, I love my Savior Jesus Christ and it helps me live better each day.
The kiddos playing in Granny's LUSH green back yard!
This hard working mama should be so proud of her beautiful and well maintained yard!
Hanging out at Granny & Pappy's!
The kids favorite part of our visit is playing and cuddling with the kittens. Granny always has kittens to play with! They were in heaven, while I kept my distance...aaaaachoooo! Unfortunately, I am allergic to these 4 legged felines.
The other best part of visiting Granny & Pappy's Funneefarm is getting to see our cousins... Blake & Brandon are pals :)
We only stayed in WY for a day. We traveled up to Billings, MT for the Zito family reunion.
The kids were sad to say good bye to the kitten at Granny's house.
But no fear, there are more kittens to cuddle, toys to play with and cousins to run and explore with at Uncle Nate's house in Billings!
Aunt Merilee does all the girls hair and we are all rounded up to start the festivities of "Cousin Camp 2011" Granny a.k.a.. Laura Lee, Leonard's mother is one creative and super fun GRANNY!!! She organized the entire cousin's camp for the kids and we all enjoyed helping it go off without a hitch.
It's tradition to kick off Cousin's Camp with a TREASURE HUNT
clues are read and treasures are found! It is fun to watch the kids go crazy searching for the clues and treasures! This clue ended up at Pappy's travel trailer! I love his smile! What a wonderful, caring man our Pappy is! We love him so much! :)
Are you getting a clue to what our Cousin's Camp theme is this year???
YEEEE - HAWWWW!
Ewww! Montana had been getting more rain than they could handle. The ground is soft and squishy. Carly lost her flip flop in the mud. Good thing I came to her rescue!
More clues and Giddy up cowboys and gals we are gonna have a rootin tootin good time this year!
Uncle Nate's business is Asphalt Maintence and Seal coating...hence all the road signs. I was surprised how HUGE these signs are when you get up close! HOLY ROAD SIGN batman! :) Wow, I have one cute daughter too! :)
Like I mentioned before... They each got gold nuggets. Every time the kids participated in an activity, or was seen giving service and being nice they could earn gold nuggets which then could be spent at UNCLE NATHAN's TRADING POST! If kids were not being nice, we could take nuggets away! It worked like a charm and the kids were all pretty nicer than ever. BRIBERY is AWESOME!!! :)
Some of the activites were coloring bandanas
Face Painting... Uncle Steve was such a good sport and was the canvas for all the kids to paint on! I think it was a pretty good look for him :)
The girls did pedicures and my toes looked pretty cute :)
We also enjoyed a competitive obstacle course.
Another morning we made bracelets and learned to make those cool braided key ring charms a.k.a scoobies. good times :)
Check it out!!!! Aren't these the COOLEST Cousin Camp T-Shirts ever! Here we have Buck-eye's Blake.
Beware of "Kissin' Kaitlyn"
Don't even mess with "Calico Carly" :)
Here is the rest of the Gang in their shirts!
We are missing a few little cousins! They are showing off their hard earned GOLD NUGGETS!
Gold Nuggets.... PRICELESS!!!!
Couldn't have family reunion without getting a NEW FAMILY PICTURE!!! Everyone is here! I love it and can't wait to order a big pic for my wall! I am loving our bright summery colors :) I'd say that is one bunch of good looking folks :)
Granny & Pappy Zito and all their Grandkids! Pretty impressive!
The Leonard Zito Family!
After family pictures we all went to play at Billing's Indoor water park... THE REEF!!!
We swam and splashed around for a few hours! Definatley a high light of the reunion :)
Before we leave back to Granny & Pappy's home in WY... Kaitlyn gets some more snuggle time with the kittens at Nate & Ambers. Awwww, so cute!
After the family reunion, we drove back to WY so Leonard could help his mama with setting up her new iMac. While we are here, it just wouldn't be a proper visit without a couple thousand yard shots with dad's Barrett 50 caliber.
Leonard & John... Father & Son... Country Boys & Mountain Men through & through.
One last pic of our dear Granny & Pappy Zito before we hit the road. We love you! Thanks for all the great memories! We can't wait to see you again next year! mmmmuaaahhh! We had a Rip Roaring good time!~ Yee Haw!
~ SWIM TEAM 2011 ~
Carly & Kaitlyn were so excited to be on the City's Summer Swim Team. They swam hard, practiced long and earned lots of ribbons. The favorite ones to earn are these BLUE ones!
Kaitlyn met some new swim team friends this year! They killed every relay race all season.. Earning 1st at every race! It was fun to watch!
Leonard was their personal race artist... Their back art was quite the hit. Our girls were the coolest ones at the pool. They got to swim with Skyline this year and their mascot was the Orca's if you couldn't tell!
Carly showing off her guns! Go carly go!
Kaitlyn made it all the way to the Championship Swim Meet and she did amazing!
Carly was on deck as the 2nd alternate at the championship meet and it was a bummer for her that all the girls showed up to race so she didn't get to race that final meet, but she was a great cheerleader and support to her friends and big sis Kaitlyn. Carly had a great Swim season. We are so proud of her! The older you get the harder the competition can be. She worked hard and did so well! She earned lots of ribbons and we can't wait until next years swim team!
Katilyn had an AWESOME swim season. She ended up coming in 2nd place in the City of Mesa's Championship swim meet in Freestyle and backstroke. It was such an exciting race and one we are so happy to have on video! Kaitlyn shaved seconds off her time and climbed from 7th place in freestlye up to second place overall! She also climbed from 5th place in back stroke to 2nd overall! We were overjoyed! She was just as excited!
Way to go Kaitlyn! You are meant to be in the water! you are graceful and you just got it girl! It was a great swim season and we can't wait for next summer! Woo hoo! It was worth all the sweat and heat to see you and Carly swim your little hearts out! Way to GO!!!!!
We also celebrate the 4th of July!!!! We swam at my folks pool and BBQ-ed and attempted to watch fireworks, but a dusty monsoon storm swooped in and all the shows in the valley were cancelled. So we went back to Grandma's house and watched the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on TV and in HD might I add! It was nice and cool and very relaxing hanging out on their leather couches!
Also this summer, we had a day of fun hanging out with our 2 cutest cousins ever... Van & Rook! Couldn't you just eat up those cheeks? oh we did! and we LOVED every minute of it :)
We stayed cool watching lots of movies & played hard until we crashed out! ahhh Blakey boy is so cute!
To keep the girls minds sharp, we came up with our own SUMMER READING PROGRAM.
Kaitlyn had to read 5 chapter books & Carly 3 chapter books and write a one page book report to earn a trip to.....
Golfland Sunplash Water Park. They accomplished their goals, be it right down to the wire and earned themselves a trip. It was our family's Last Hurrah to a crazy hard working summer break! We had so much fun together. Blake even got to come! He was in heaven. I did not take one picture but you can picture us having a blast~
So there you have it, our summer break in another LOOOOONG Mega Post. Now it is back to work. I have a house to sell and keep nice and tidy. It's time to get some boxes and get packing! Adventures await! :)
