SUMMERTIME

It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and all three (that's right -- ALL three!) of our kids are asleep. Life couldn't be sweeter! :) So, I decided to take a nap (as a smart mommy would do)... However, Danny had different plans. :) He came in when I was almost asleep and asked me how to sign into our blog, because he wanted to update it. Now, you know I must be REALLY REALLY behind on updating the blog when Danny has to try and learn how to do it! So, I showed him the ropes and tried to return to sleep. But every other minute he had another question.... So, now I've given up on that nap idea and we are trying to double-team the blog together. How we will ever be able to fit all that has gone on in the past few months is beyond me, but we'll give it our best shot!

JULY
We'll start with July (since that's when I last updated this little baby -- wow, time flies!)... First, on July 8th, little Davis was blessed by his Daddy. Danny gave Davis Ammon a beautiful blessing, and we truly enjoyed visiting with our friends and family who celebrated the day with us.

Davis is such a little sweetheart! Next, we took off for two awesome family reunions -- one with the Davis family (my mom, dad, brothers and sisters) at Lake Powell, and one with the Korth family (Danny's mom's family -- extended) at Bear Lake.Both trips were tons of fun, and we enjoyed lots of family, lots of boating and lots of sun. Macie and Reid are both becoming pros at inner-tubing and surfing (they surf with Danny behind the boat!), and Danny has been able to successfully land a wakeboarding backflip after all of our lake time. (if only he could do it without letting go of the rope...)
We returned from our reunions to celebrate Macie's 4th birthday, at which Cinderella made a surprise visit from Disneyland. I think it was one of the highlights of Macie's life, up to this point. She was thrilled, and the other little kidlets at her party seemed to enjoy themselves as well. She is a very loved and lucky girl, and we still can't believe that our little "princess" is four!

AUGUST
August brought lots of heat to Provo, and lots of trips for our family. Danny began with a week at Lake Powell with the young men -- lots of merit badges and fun. The boys love him (he's kind-of like a big 16 year old himself, you know...). :) He came back for a few days, and then headed off to Houston, TX, for an oil conference. I was really really missing him by that time, so when he got home we took the whole family to Lake Mead for the Davis family (my Dad's extended family) reunion. Once again, we enjoyed family, food, warm sun and some beautiful water. I don't think I've ever seen Lake Mead that smooth for that long! The highlight of the trip (for me, hehe) was our very last surfing ride ... Danny sported some sassy eurotrunks (sp?) -- basically some tight,white, boxer briefs with the Portugal flag on the front (Thanks to my brother, John, for sending them to us last Christmas) -- and posed for a few minutes as we took picture after picture of him surfing. Danny won't let me post any of those pictures online, but let me tell you -- they were great! :)

SEPTEMBER
As Danny and I lay awake in bed our last night at Lake Mead, Danny turned to me and said "Honey, I can't sleep. I'm just so excited for football season!" So, of course, BYU football (and football in general, for Danny), has been the focus of our family this month. I forgot to mention (how could I?!) the BYU Women's clinic that I attended in August. About 300 women got together with Bronco, his coaches and the players and got psyched up for Cougar football. We toured the stadium and locker rooms, learned theory and had questions answered by coaches and players, and then ran some drills on the field. It was lots of fun. Coach Kafusi (sp?) gave me a really hard time for smiling during the drills -- I guess that "real" football players don't look so happy when they are trying to tackle the other team. :) My friend Lisa and I met up together and even had our pictures taken by some newspaper and TV crews. Whoo-hoo -- I'm famous! Did you see me? Anyway... back to the current football season. We had a blast at the first home game -- we invited Mitch and Dalys Christensen to come with us and try out our new seats. :) Ahhhh, football season really is sweet this year ... we're on the 50 yard line with seat backs on our chairs and everything.
BYU played so well against Arizona that we decided to take a little road trip down to Cali to watch the Cougs face the Bruins in the Rose Bowl. It was our first official Daniel and Mary Gunnell family vacation, and it was a blast! We stoped and visited my family in Vegas on the way there, and then we stayed with my grandparents in Claremont and Downey for the week (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Brown & Grammie and Grandpa Sandy!). Thursday night we hit the Angels game (Angels vs. Indians, we won, 10-3) and the kids had a blast. Reid, our little All-Star, loves anything with balls. :) Friday was our beach day (Seal Beach -- we figured we'd try one out that we hadn't been to before), and even though it was pretty cold, we had a fabulous time as well. I buried Danny and the kids in the sand, we found lots of shells and seaweed, and we watched the sunset from the pier. Saturday was the big event -- the football game! We tailgated on the golf course with the Halladays (who knew UCLA enjoyed such a sweet tailgating lot?!), and enjoyed the game with the Hodges, Cahoons, and Tingeys. Monday brought more friends and fun -- Danny golfed the morning away with Jake Hallday, and then we enjoyed family night with the Soren Halladay and Sterling Garns families. Our last day, Tuesday, we met up with Lee and Ginger Akin and took Disneyland for a ride. Although it was warm, Splash Mountain and fun friends made it a truly fabulous day! Sadly, we headed home on Wednesday, back to normal life in Provo.
Now Macie is back in school (she started Learning Dynamics preschool this fall) and Danny is back to work. I am back to full-time mommy of three. We are a happy family.
Macie had two soccer games this week, and on Saturday she actually kicked the ball 8 or 9 times (her first game was mostly spent twirling, waving, and smiling on the field)! Reid's favorite thing to do is "be the Dad" -- he pretends to play softball, wakeboard, make breakfast, go to scouts, or go to work (since that is apparantly all that Daddies do!). It's super cute. Davis is getting bigger each day, and I've decided that his new nickname should be "Smiley" since he is such a happy baby. Danny's suggestion is "Pukey," since he is such a spitty baby. :) Yesterday he was laughing for 10 minutes straight while I tickled him on the bed. So, all in all, life is very good.

We love you all and hope that your summers have been as fun and fulfilling as ours was. Please call us or visit us if you are ever in Provo!