fun in the sun...

what do you do when your husband is sans school and work for 2 days in a row?

well, play of course!

thursday evening we met up with Kirk's sister Cara and her husbands family 

for a special night for Zoo Members. (yes, we are members... aka "Zoo Nerds")

it was the perfect way to see the new Rocky Shores exhibit. 

there were hardly any people and it was 10 degrees cooler than it had been earlier that day.

this peacock had a bit of an ego.

cambry... cara's niece.

the kids got their faces painted and the artwork was incredible.

we LOVED the new exhibit.

i think we sat and starred at these bears for an hour.

and then Friday we headed up to Willard Bay

to take out the Stephens boat.

we were so lucky to have

cute Jaime, Chris, and little Lola bean join us.

i adore this cute family!

little Lo had her "turtles" on and didn't waste a minute jumping in the water with me.

she was the BEST sport.

she even braved the tube with her daddy...

and who is THAT sexy beast?

oh, he's mine?

lucky me!

happy summer...

it's been a long time coming, that's for sure,

but summer is here,

and we are well into the beautiful swing of it.

(*disclaimer: don't start thinking "i wish i'd been a teacher" just so you can have 3 months to yourself...

make sure you spend some time in a classroom, by yourself, with 25 kids, for 8 hours, and not having time to pee before you go back to school to get your teaching certificate... you'll thank me)

no, but really, i love my students and miss them,

so much so that i've taken on a tutoring job for 4 of them just so i can 

spend more time with my cute friends.

anyway,

back to summer.

here's what we've been up to as of late...

i had the chance to meet my favorite musician of all time.

i know, many of you are sick of hearing me rant and rave about Dave Barnes,

but people - He is a.may.zing!

I've attached a video below as proof and as a selling point for you to get on iTunes right now and download any of his CDs.

Kirk and I literally fell in love to Dave Barnes music 

and even had one of his songs as our wedding song,

so this moment for us to both meet him was pretty presh!

 okay, last thing i'll say about DB...

his concert was incredible!!!

 and den...

the Cracroft Crew partied it up at Lagoon last week and had the time of our lives. 

after spending 3 hours at Lagoon-a-Beach in the blistering sun,

we may or may not have worn ourselves out before jumping on the rides.

kinda set us up for failure at being able to handle all of the wild rides.

but we still lived it up.

i had to wear my swimsut under my shorts,

and it may or may not have been 100% dry...?

oops!

 takin' off on The Bat...

 gettin' our cool-down on...

 preppin' for the Rocket

 creepy Medusa, creepier Kirk...

 the prizes my studly boyfriend won for me...

 the Speee-i-der...

 you can't tell, but we kinda-sorta got drenched on Rattlesnake Rapids...

 and lastly, Jon and Kirk (and Daddy-O)

braved the freaky Catapult. 

okay,

here's the incredible Davey B...

meet the Stephens family...

a month or so ago,

we headed up to Ogden to take a few family pictures

with Kirk's cute parents and siblings. 

so let me introduce you to some of the greatest people i know...

(well, us obviously...)

Carly and Tim...

Carly is Kirk's sister, and she and her husband Tim live down across the border...

the Salt Lake/Utah County border, that is. 

Jeff, Cara, and their cute little babes...

Cara is Kirk's sister as well and has the cutest kids on the planet.

Little Skylee and Stella are simply the best.

This is cute Lloyd...

Lloyd is Kirk's younger (bigger) brother

who just graduated from High School and moved down to

 Southern Utah University to play football for the T-Birds!

Oh, okay, yeah...

I love my husband and just can't help but post pictures of him

so here are some more of our little family...

This is our cute family as a whole...

And then there are these two people! 

My cute 2nd parents, Julie and Doug...

I couldn't ask for better in-laws!

...so proud to be a Stephens!!

summer has officially begun...

guys, i did it!

i finished yet another year of midget wrangling,

and boy am I proud of myself. 

i know, that was a bold statement,

but i can't help it. 

this was a big year for me: falling in love, planning a wedding, all while still not being a veteran teacher and there were times when i would literally cry out for my mommy and/or wonder if i was going to come out of this school year alive.

but people, i made it!

it's summer!!!!

we filled the last week of school with a lot of this...

my cute 24 surrogate children

and with summer here,

how excited i am to party with my beyond adorable hubby.

we've already had tons of fun, and it's only been a week.

like last week...

we visited the dinos 

(mr. stephens' home away from home)

this summer, we are also:

catching up on our favorite Civil War documentary series

visiting places around SLC like This is the Place Heritage Park and the Zoo

tutoring a few students on reading

watching lots of movies

sleeping in

staying up late

 spending time at the pool

reading lots of books

and... blogging!!! (finally)

(this surprise came just days before the end of the year to encourage the last few days survival - 

have i mentioned he is the best?)

happy summmmmmmmer!