One of the many trips this summer - July 4th

Warren and I love to go to the temple for the 4th of July. The girls get to play with their cousins and enjoy being with Grandma.


Pat, Lori, and I went to an outdoor concert and this was a highlight of my trip. I love patriotic songs and the orchestra played beautiful. There is something about sitting outside and listening to "America the Beautiful."

We spent alot of time on Grandma's boat. Josh is always fun to have on the boat and the girls love their older cousin. He puts up with a lot and the girls loving being with him.

Uncle Steve is so busy going to dental school in California, so when he is in town we try and do alot with him. The surf board is new this year and Uncle Steve loved it.

Each one of the girls had a turn riding on the surf board with Dad. Kaylee loved it...

Taylor screamed at first, but then got used to it...

Nicole was a good sport. She didn't want to go, but she did and put on a happy face.

All of Warren's girls watching him show off.

Kaylee loves to sing while she is tubing. It is one of the funniest things to watch. Her favorite songs are "Telephone" and "Hey, Soul Sister."


Kaylee is a pro on 2 skiis. We tried numerous times this summer to get her up on one ski and Kaylee got sooooo close.


We love waterskiing with the Barton Family when we come to town. They have 3 boys and we have 3 girls. They get along wonderfully and have such a good time together.

I love this action shot!! Taylor looks scared out of her mind.

Kohler, Kaylee and Nicole

Our delicious American Flag. YUMMY!!

Taylor loves chocolate!!

For our family home evening on the 4th of July, the grandkids put on a parade.

Here are some of the Johnson grandkids - Nicole, Kaylee, Baylor, Josh (such a good sport), Easton, Jake, Oaklye, Taylor, and Allie.

FIREWORKS!!

Taylor love the snaps and she got alittle too excited. Poor thing burned her hand and was pretty distraught.

My BEAUTIFUL girls. Love them in their red, white, and blue.

Beautiful Aunt Lori with her little Aspen.

I can't believe she fell asleep in the middle of fireworks. She was EXHAUSTED!!

Kaylee, Nicole, and Taylor put on a little show for us and it was fantastic. I love their little creative minds.

Summer Swim Team - "Grab Your Goggles. It's On"

This summer Kaylee was on the swim team. It was ALOT of work and I was alittle nervous to do it with her because Kaylee can be a slight perfectionist (Who knows who she takes after?!....could it be Me?).
Our goal at the beginning of swim team was to atleast compete in one swim meet and do one race. Well, she met her goal and exceeded expectations. She swam in 3 swim meets and competed in 2 to 3 races at each meet. She loved SWIM TEAM!! She liked the exercise and loved the races. She didn't care if she came in 1st, she just wanted to improve and have fun. It was such a great experience for her and Dad was pretty thrilled with his daughter.

Happy girl...She swam in the 25m freetsyle race and came in 3rd. Her time was 35 seconds. She also swam in the 25m backstroke and came in 2nd. Her time was 35.8 seconds.
She was so proud of herself. Kaylee went from barely swimming across the pool to racing across the pool. At first, the loud BEEP to start the race freaked her out and it took her awhile to begin her race, but once she got going...as Warren said with a huge smile on his face, "She has a really nice stroke and is finding her rhythm."

Sweet Taylor is not so fond of the water. She likes to walk around and socialize with everyone.

Kaylee's swim coach, Taylor, did a good job with the girls. Kaylee learned a lot and we will be doing it next summer for sure.

Aren't these girls adorable? Way to go FALFINS!! Monday - Thursday these girls would swim for 1 hour every morning.
(Ashley, Alea, Kaylee, and Ella)

Bob, Dora, and Princess Elizabeth

Earlier in the summer, we were driving home after being with some friends and it was pretty late. As were driving home, Warren stopped in the middle of the road and got out of the car because he saw a couple of things in the road. He came back to the car, grabbed a plastic bag, and put whatever he found in the bags. He had found 3 toads. They were jumping all over in the bag. Some of the legs were sticking through holes in the bag. Warren proceeded to hand me the toad infested bag to hold while he drove home, but I REFUSED!! I do not like TOADS! Especially hyper-active, scared to death, jumping ones.
When we got home, Warren put them in a bucket and the girls immediately picked out which toad belonged to them. Nicole named her's "Dora the Explorer" (the medium sized one), Taylor named her's "Bob" (HE WAS HUGE), and Kaylee named her's Princess Elizabeth (the tiniest one, with a high-pitched, frantic croak)

The next morning, the girls were so excited to check on their toads. At first, they wouldn't touch them, but they warmed up pretty quickly. Nicole's favorite "Dora" was the feisty one. She would jump out of your hand and quickly bolt for it, but the girls were too fast for that poor toad.

Bob was lazy and did not want to be bothered. He would just sit there and looked completely bored.

Taylor was scared to death of these toads. She wanted to be held anytime one would get loose. She kind of warmed up after awhile and would hesitantly pet it - but her hand would quickly jerk away once she felt its warty back.

The girls invited some friends over to play with the toads. Kaylee's friend Ashley loves animals and she was the first one to pick one up and hold it. Once my girls saw that it was not scary, they couldn't stop holding those poor things.

Bob was by far the favorite toad because he was HUGE and FAT! He would just let you hold him.

Kaylee loved Princess Elizabeth. Princess Elizabeth would croak ALL THE TIME!! Kaylee said she was singing to her lost love to come and rescue her.

This was the SAD part....
Warren and I decided to let the girls play with them for one day, but at the end of the day...we needed to put the frogs back in the nature preserve by our house.
So, after one full day of frog races, finding bugs for them to eat, chasing the runaway Dora the Explorer, trying to croak like Princess Elizabeth, and squeezing poor BOB really tight..we had to let them go. Each girl took their little frog (except for Taylor) and put it in the pond. Dora was the first one off, she didn't look back. Bob was pretty slow, but left after awhile. Princess Elizabeth hung around for a long time. Kaylee was convinced that her toad wanted to stay with her. We kept picking her up and putting her in different spots of the pond, but she would not leave. After awhile, Warren said to put her in the reeds instead of the open water. Finally, Princess Elizabeth took off and Kaylee lost it. She cried and cried and cried. Poor thing.


That night, Kaylee said she could hear Princess Elizabeth croaking and maybe she was trying to find her way back to our house. I told her ... maybe she had found her lost love and she was so happy to find him.

It was such a fun day. It was the perfect summer day. It felt like a childhood summer.
The day brought back a lot of memories for Warren and I.

Oh, to have the imagination of a little child JUST one more time. I kind of felt it that day...

I AM BACK....THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST

I am BACK!! This summer was crazy - Warren was in the hospital TWICE, I have been reading all of the Harry Potter books for the FIRST time, I feel like I spend my life in the car, I have been learning the wonderful value of YOGA, I am adjusting to new medication for my seizures, and more excuses....BUT I am back. I am slowly going to update my blog just because some wonderful things happened this summer and I can't just skipped them.

I thought I would start with this wonderful talk from Kaylee. Kaylee has her primary program at church in a couple of weeks and she was asked to give a talk for her part. Yesterday she wrote her talk and here it is. I love her simple, but HUGE testimony.



"A Time I Felt Guided or Protected by the Holy Ghost"

One day I was riding my motorcycle, learning how to ride it with no training wheels. My family was up in the mountains and there was an area where we could ride around on our motorcycles. There was a spot where there was a dead tree that was shaped as a triangle and under it sticks poked out. I was riding near it and tried to turn when I got close to it. My motorcycle would not turn. I was scared!! I quickly heard the Holy Ghost say, “To Stop,” so I did. I did not get hurt. The Holy Ghost can help you at any time. He spoke to me when I needed help, so He can do that for you.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.