A Zoo Trip

It was fun to see my college roommates again. Stacy (the one on the right) has a darling baby, and Julie's little boy is so good.

A Fun Walk

My friend took us to this neat place in Layton we'd never been to before. There's a boardwalk over marshy land and a tower to observe, and lots of birds. I'm not sure if it has an actual name, though it most likely does.

New Pets

Our parakeets, Snuffleball and Puffball.



Our cute bunny, Raindrop.

Thanksgiving Point

Last month Grandma took the kids to the barnyard at Thanksgiving Point.



We saw goats.



They rode horses.







We took a wagon ride.



And Nicholas climbed a tree. We also had a great lunch. Thanks, Grandma!

Another Interesting Emily-Way of Sleeping

Ouch!

Maddie accidentally rode her bike into the back of a parked truck last week (her helmet was sitting on the porch). She had to get 10 stitches on her head.

Summer Stuff

The kids and I have had a very fun summer together. I can't believe they started school two days ago. It's way too soon.
They played with friends practically every day, ate around 500 otter pops (well, I might have eaten 100 or so), they watched movies in our new theater, took a few "field trips" and went swimming several times.







Maddie before stitches.

Emily and Her Nap

For nap time today, Emily laid on the floor, put her upside down doll's playpen over her, and went to sleep. Comfy.

The Fourth of July--Finally

Jordan called to ask why I had not posted the pictures from the 4th of July. Here's why:
1. It seemed appropriate to wait until two days before the 24th of July, because, you know, it's another fireworks holiday, and
2. It seemed like a lot of work to download my pictures to the computer.

But they're downloaded, and there's a ton, so lucky you, there will be a post today, and some more new posts for the next few days. Be sure to check back.



We spent much of the night of the 3rd entertaining ourselves with Dad's case of sparklers. We warmed up with circles.



Then moved on to hearts.



And the finale, "We love the 4th of July". Do you see it? (This took a ton of practice, so say 'ooooohhhh!')



On the 4th we went to the parade in Provo. It was soooo much fun. I love it. I don't know why everyone else moans about it. They secretly love it, I'm sure. Here's Jordan, above. Apparently he has an issue with my always commenting about his look. So he's trying on a new one. Doesn't work, does it?



He looks better here. Stick with the usual, Jordan, I always say.



Nicholas raked in the water bottles that were thrown from floats during the parade. My dad suggested he undercut the local kids $1.oo bottled water sales by selling his for 99 cents. Good idea.





The Stadium of Fire fireworks. Yay! They were excellent this year.

Oh, this made me laugh today.

I haven't read this book, or anything, by Meg Cabot, but I've seen The Princess Diaries, so that sort of counts.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

This may be my favorite holiday. There's not much preparation and there's something to do all day long--and you can do it outside!

Last weekend was Syracuse Heritage Days. Emily lost her little pink squishy thing (seen here in Nicholas' hands) in the dark at the fireworks. We drove by the next morning before church, and there it was lying on the sidewalk.
Getting to the point of this post, I usually encourage my kids to speak positively about people and events, but for once I could not. This is what they had to say about the fireworks at Jensen Nature Park:

Nicholas: They're too far away.
Maddie: Where's the music? They need music.
Nicholas: At the Stadium of Fire the fireworks are right over your head!
Maddie: They're not very loud.
Nicholas: I bet kids who have never been to the Stadium of Fire think this is pretty cool.
Maddie: I can't wait to go to the Stadium of Fire.

I can't wait either!!!

A New Golfer Has Entered the Picture

Nicholas has a new favorite sport--right now he likes it even more than football.

Strawberry Days Rodeo

I love to do the same things over and over. One of them is to go to the Strawberry Days rodeo in Pleasant Grove. The pictures in this post will show the large amounts of fun we had. Maybe people were acting so silly because we knew the next day, we were heading down to Manti. I don't know, it's just a theory.



Actually, these pictures show how hard it is for me to get a decent picture of my family. I do not especially enjoy snapping the same photo over and over.



Emily and Maddie are the ones being good here, but of course the picture was ruined due to the lack of cooperation of some other people.



Emily and Maddie still being super sweet, while others are not.



Better, but a smile would be good here.



And finally, when the older ones figure out how to act, Emily and Maddie are done.



Mom and Dad are fairly easy to photo, there was only one this time in which Mom closed her eyes.



This is what we were all there to watch, along with a few horses and bulls. Yay!

The Mormon Miracle Pageant

You can always tell it's going to be a good day when a balloon lands in the backyard.



Grandma ran Maddie and Emily (Nicholas was asleep) up to see it. They gave Maddie a very short ride. This is it below:



Later that day, we headed down to Manti to see the pageant. Darren had never been before.



We stayed in an 1850's restored pioneer home. It had squeaky, steep, skinny stairs and had many intriguing features; for example, Maddie discovered she could wash her hands and go to the bathroom at the same time!
Here is Jordan, Dad and Emily in the parlor.



This picture is to show that Jordan really does look like that all the time.



The view while we ate ice cream.



See? Same look for Jordan. James is in his protective gear (there were a lot of mosquitoes).



Right before the pageant started. We had a great weekend.