Family Reunion

 Joseph's extended family enjoyed a reunion in this sweet little spot tucked away in a quiet valley of northern Utah.  Joseph flew out to meet the kids and I after our little visit with my parents, and together we enjoyed some good times, good food, and good company.  

 There were games - Joseph and Jacob won the horse shoe tournament!

 These two were inseparable.

 A little blurry, but it was so sweet to see K-lady greet Aunt Bev - it's been WAY to long!

 She was entranced by the tether ball.  It's the little things, right?

 Taking her little cousin for a ride.

 We enjoyed a few extra days with Joseph's parents and siblings - went to Temple Square and celebrated the fourth of July together.

 I took pictures for my brother-and-sister-in-law's family @ the temple.  Such beautiful folks!

 The kids and dads went on a hike while my sister-in-law and I made a pilgrimage to Ikea.

 They found and killed a rattlesnake, skinned the thing and grilled it on the BBQ.  Ew.

 And watched Tangled during quiet time. :)

 And watched fireworks from Uncle Jared's beautiful balcony overlooking the southwest side of the Salt Lake Valley.

 wobbly camera. :)

June 2011

We attended the baby blessing of our newest neice - it is always so fun to visit Jake and Jen!!

 Father's Day fun

 We got new patio furniture - so nice to have a comfortable place to banish the children outdoors.  At least for a few weeks till it became unbearably hot!  We've been diggin' the games on family night.  And a little craftiness on the side - a housewarming gift for my sister.

 When the weather turns good I get an itch to build something. :)  This was quite gratifying - quick and easy.  The hardest part was waiting for the paint to dry.

The kids and I took off to Utah a few days earlier than Joseph - the drive was beautiful.  I drove through part of this stretch of the Flinthills a few months later and it was dead dead dead fried up from drought and heat.  Quite the contrast.

This is at a rest stop along Bear Lake - almost to mom and dad's!!!!  We had an interesting twist to add some spice to this trip.  In an unfortunate act of service, Joseph inadvertently acquired an infestation of cockroaches in our swagger wagon.  It was disturbing (in other words: resulted in days and days of scrubbing/vacuuming/bombing the van, more than a few episodes of weeping on my part, reaffirmed our no-food-in-the-van policy, and meant that all snacks consumed during our 20 hour drive had to be stored in sealed containers and only enjoyed OUTSIDE of the car.  Hence the nice long break at Bear Lake rest stop.  Might as well take pictures while I'm at it, right?

 In between my boughts of cockroach freakage we had a nice visit with my parents/sister for a few days - we visited Grandpa at his work site...

...and visited Scotty at HIS worksite - he was a counselor at this boy scout camp up in the mountains for the summer.  It was breathtaking.  He lived in that picturesque little cabin up there.  It was the first time he'd seen my kids since Christmas of 2008! 

We explored the camp a bit...

 And ended the night with a camp fire.  I sure love this guy!

 And so do my kids!

The last thing I did at 'home' was work on my music stand for a bit with dad.  It's coming along nicely, if I do say so myself. :)  That's the desk, all rough cut, and behind it the stand part is laying along the work surface, all clamped together and drying.  Next up: shaping the edges on the desk with a file and a router, and turning the pedestal on dad's big fancy lathe.  It's gonna be good.

Easter 2011

I look at this picture and just smile.  I love these kids!  They make life good.  Hard sometimes, but good.

 The Saturday before Easter I was out shopping for some last minute little things, and I just couldn't resist the clearance, and J-boy needed some new church clothes anyway (justify justify justify), so we ended up with a little Easter outfit coordination. :)

 I made J-boy's bow tie using the directions here - he wasn't sure what to do with it (the only bows he'd seen belong in girls hair), and asked if he had to wear it, 'cause the kids might laugh at him.  But we convinced him it was cool, and he submitted - the Primary chorister complimented his bow tie, and he said, "Thanks, but it's a bow."  :)

Baby A insisted on wearing clunky black Mary Janes that are a size too big for her.  And she also insisted on taking her little Easter goodie basket to church.  Sweet after-church snacks!  Though it made it hard to get pictures of her since her mouth was FULL of chocolate for half an hour or so.

 K-lady was worn out w/ the picture taking and wouldn't let me take one of just her, and only agreed to another group shot if it was silly faces.  The dress has some tulle peeking out there @ the hem, and K-lady says it's horribly itchy, and hasn't worn the dress since then, so this is probably going to be the only photo I have of her in her Easter dress where you can actually see the dress.  So there you have it. :)  Cute dress, though, right?  (curse itchy tulle)

After church we made the drive up to Grandma & Grandpa's for a family dinner and Easter Egg Hunt - these kids LOVE their cousins!

 And we got to meet this sweet baby - she was only 3 days old at the time, our newest little neice (destined to look kinda like Baby A, since her Daddy is Joseph's twin, and her sister looks kinda like K-lady and her brother looks kinda like J-boy).  :)

 And because we didn't get to it before Easter, we dyed eggs for Family Night on Monday AFTER Easter Sunday.  What do dyed eggs have to do with the Resurrection, anyway????  I was a little worried about Joseph dying his fingers - kinda gross if your dentist comes @ your mouth with green and red fingertips, right??  But he turned out okay.  Baby A, on the other hand, was pink for a week. :)

Spring Break

 Back in March we decided to go camping.  I am not a big fan of midwest camping at the height of summer - 104 degrees + 95% humidity = very unhappy momma from the Northwest!  So we went in March!  And we went south, hoping to catch a little more warmth than we were getting here.  We landed in Devil's Den State Park where we enjoyed hikes, crawdad chasing, paddle boats, and a ginormous new tent (car camping just got way more comfy).  Spring was just around the corner - there may not have been many leaves on the trees, but the grass was green, and there were no mosquitoes, no ticks, and no humidity!  And there were beautiful hills and valleys and rivers and lakes.  Here are a handful of pictures from our little adventure.

 Baby A is such a big kid (she needs a new blog alias - "Baby" is just wishful thinking @ this point) - she tore off her shoes and socks and followed K-lady and J-boy right out into the stream.  Joseph tried to get them to herd some crawdads into captivity, but it didn't quite work. :)  They still loved it.  This was the evening of the first day - right after we took these photos, we hopped back into the car and drove a half hour to the nearest town w/ a sports bar - we watched the last BYU March Madness game over dinner.  :)

That's Joseph' pop can stove on the top left, and J-boy looking for fossils on the bottom right. :) We went to one of the park ranger classes at the visitors center on fossils.  5 minutes into the 1/2 hr. presentation, the ranger asked if any of us had any questions up to that point.  J-boy raised his hand politely, and asked, "When is this going to be over?"  :)  Love it.

"I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have some more of nothing?"  "You're killin' me, Smalls!"

 Baby A was in HEAVEN when it was finally her turn on the paddle boat.

 Cheese whiz & crackers, granola bars & lemonade for lunch.  All the essential food groups, right?  K-lady was thoroughly grossed out by the cheese whiz texture.  Can't say that I blame her.

 Devil's Den was built by the CCC back in the 30's - beautiful trails, cool old caves (closed down so the bats don't all die of some weird bat disease spreading across America that makes them wake up from hibernation early, then starve to death because there aren't enough bugs around to eat), amazing stone shelters & dams.  In the Visitor's Center they had some of the old original CCC newsletters from the camp titled The Voice of Satan.  HA!  Cheeky little Depression boys, right?  :)

The day we got there was beautiful - sunny, about 70 degrees or so.  The next day dropped down to the 50's-60's and drizzled a bit, and that last night we had a HUGE thunderstorm - the kids slept through it alright (amazingly enough!), but Joseph and I stared at each other wide eyed for a couple hours.  It cleared up enough in the morning for us to get up and make breakfast and pack up camp.  The temperature kept dropping and by the time we got home, it was just cold (that's frost on the window on the way home - she was very protective of her junk food even in her sleep :).  That night we slept snug in our beds while it flurried outside. 

Yay for the first camping trip of the year! :)

Back in May...

Yes, back in May...

 I went w/ the 2nd grade classes on a field trip to the park - water balloons, many variations of tag, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and playgrounds.  Good old fashioned fun, and the kids LOVED it.

 This sassy little miss also had a piano recital and a piano festival.  She was mildly (okay, completely) terrified at the festival, but she did wonderfully well -- she got a I+!  And got to play at the Honor's Recital that afternoon, which she considered punishment rather than honor, but it's all good.  :)  I put off blogging about it because I wanted to upload the video, but technical difficulties abound and I'm about ready to swap out the computer anyway, so we'll just make do with photos and imagine the lovely music, 'kay?

 K-lady's group lessons were taught by two teachers and a student teacher, and her 2nd grade teacher came to her recital to cheer her on - so sweet!

 We enjoyed a much-too-short visit from Heather and Ryan & their beautiful kiddos - oh my goodness I love those guys!!!  We stayed up WAY too late eating yummy Quinoa lettuce wraps and making s'mores and reading 'one last story' and just soaking in the good company.  It kind of broke my heart all over again watching them drive away.  WHY is my family so darn spread out?!  As soon as we pay off the dental practice and house and student loans I'm going to buy an airplane!!!!!!!!

 We went up to Omaha for an overnight stay and a visit to the Winter Quarters Temple.  So beautiful, and peaceful and wonderful.  Then on the way home we looped over to see my in-laws and visit a cousin who was in town and drove right past the still-under-construction Kansas City Temple!  It was the first time I've seen it in person, and it quite literally took my breath away!  I'm so excited to have a temple in Kansas City. It is amazing the peace and perspective and comfort that comes from attending the temple.  I could always use a little more of that in my life!

 The elementary school had a family cook out on what was supposed to be field day, but it got rained out and we had to eat in the cafeteria.  But foot long hot dogs are fun no matter the weather, right?

And then a visit to Wichita to see Tiff and Matt and their beautiful kiddos.  Tiff and I were roommates for almost 3 years in college.  She's from KS and married a boy from WA and I'm from WA and married a boy from KS.  Makes for good visiting every couple of years! :)

 Fun was had by all (running water and horse troughs and pioneer games and rope swings @ Old Cowtown Museum)

 We played on the little reconstructed railroad and in the school house - the kids actually sat for a good 10 minutes listening to the re-enactment of a graduation ceremony.  It was like they were in a trance.  I wish I could do that to my Sunday School kids.  :)  And the bowling in the alley was a big hit!

 Then back to Tiff's mom's place for some time in the field of daisies. :)  And a little movie to hypnotize the kids while Tiff/Matt and Joseph/I snuck away for a quick little dinner date (Tiff's wonderful mom/step dad/sister watched the kiddos for us)

 We had to pry Matt away from Curious George.  :)

 Back at the home front Joseph persevered (in spite of a murmuring wife) and planted a garden.  And made a strawberry planter that never got it's strawberry plants.  But the garden did produce peppers, zucchini, several cantaloupe and a handful of tomatoes, and we enjoyed fresh basil, parsley, rosemary and peppermint from my little contribution: the herb pot.  :)  We grew food!!!  Yay!  We're excited to try a non-tilling/lasagna layering/mega-mulching sort of garden next Spring if we can get it started this Fall.

 A lovely Memorial Day campout @ Jake and Jen's, complete with rides on the new lawnmower, fishing, canoe rides, and a pancake breakfast @ the park.

And we ended out the month w/ a kid-swap w/ our friends the Bill's - they took K-lady, and we got Sarah for a few days.  J-boy and Sarah had a grand time together - they are such good little buddies!

And now I'm only 4 months behind. :)