Finally Done

This morning when it was time for the kids to read Abbie, Jessie and Vickie were in the mood for fun. They tuned the bottom bunk into a blanket club house and sat in there and read Summer of the Monkeys. Ken finished that book with the kids a few days ago, but Jessie enjoyed it so much she started it again. They took turns reading and besides being a little stuffy and having just enough light to see they had a blast.I tried to find someone to help me make FHE treats, but everyone had a friend over so Spencer ended up helping. Can you guess what kind of help I got. We had to wash the cookie scoop twice so we could finish the batch. But it was fun.
But the grandest news of all is that -- THE PAINTING IS FINALLY DONE! You know that country song The Dance where he says if he'd known how it would end he probably wouldn't have done it. Well, if I had been told I'd have to squeeze past a dresser in the hallway for a month before I started this project, I might not have done it. So I'm glad no one told me because I'm so happy with the finished product, even though it did take a third of my summer to complete.



After a few pictures Ken helped me move the dresser and bookshelf back into the boys room. But every time I open the door to come out of the bathroom I'm still turning to the side to squeeze past the dresser. I wonder how long it will take to break that habit?

Photo Shoot -- Part 2

All right, this is the last of the catching up! While we were at Cascade Springs I tried some more birthday pictures of Jessie. These turned out fabulous! Here are my favorites. The last picture is the one going up on my wall for this year.

I'm thinking if anyone wants to skip out on school pictures this year, I'd love to take pictures of your kids for you. It's so fun and you could keep all the images and just print out however many you like. Let me know if your interested and we'll work out the details.

Cascade Springs

Since we weren't able to go hiking at the Family Reunion we drove up to Cascade Springs in the Provo Canyon. On our way there we took a short detour to stop at BYU to buy some bug mounting pins and then another short detour looking for the turn off. If you ever come to visit don't worry now we know exactly where we are going.

Tiffany Olher, my parents foster daughter, who now lives out here in Provo also came with us. Vickie and Jacob joined us for yet another adventure. Jacob was our main butterfly, lizard catcher.
The Springs are beautiful! If you know anyone who needs engagement pictures taken, the wooden bridge and beautiful waterfalls would be a perfect backdrop.
Me, Becca, Rachel, Mark and Abbie up on the bridge.

My dad took this beautiful picture which is the next desktop for our computer.
Today Mark and Abbie had the flu. We still decided to go hiking. Unfortunately we still had to use the towels we brought "just in case." Mark was a little frustrated that as a 7 year old he had to be pushed around in a stroller. Poor guy. He was so happy even though he felt awful.
We had a picnic lunch while we were there. Sandwiches or fresh bread and butter, tons of grapes, carrots, string cheese, and M&M's. Yummy!

Jacob was our "King Catcher." Here is the lizard he caught.

When it was time to let it go everyone wanted a chance to hold it. It liked Jacob the best and just sat on his hand. Every time Becca got it it ran up her shoulder and across her back.
Near the end of the trip Jessie found a garter snake and Vickie snatched it up.
Rachel and Becca used the snake to scare mom, which I still think was pretty mean.
What a fun day.

Last Tuesday

The most exciting thing that happened last Tuesday is that Spencer's scrapbook came in the mail!! Spencer was as excited as I was. Grandpa Woodward opened the package for him and he kept jumping around the living room, "My favorite scrapbook!" What a great response.

Poor Jessie was sick with the flu that day, so we put off the hiking trip we had planned until the next day. Abbie with Becca and Rachel in front of our rose bush. What a bright sunny day.

Mark was Grandpa's big helper for every project. Aunt DeAnn sent down some more bleeding hearts for us to plant -- thank you!
That evening we went down to see the goats and the horses.
As always it was so peaceful out away from the hub-bub of life. The sunset was breathtaking.
That night while Ken was reading Summer of the Monkeys to the kids Spencer was wondering around in the chicken costume from Halloween and after Rachel read him a story he found a great place to relax right behind Ken.

Father's Day

I have to say that Father's Day wasn't our most organized day this year. Mark and Jessie pooled their money to get Ken a ticket to see the new Narnia movie. They were so excited about it that I didn't hear that they had given it to him while we were getting ready for church until later that afternoon. I'm glad they were excited. I remember being a kid and really wanting to do something special for my parents and I'm glad they love their dad so much.

After having an early dinner we played a game of Settlers together and then had a snack of chips and salsa before going to Ken's parents to have dessert with all the family. I got the camera out while we were there, but there wasn't much to take pictures of until Steph and Kyle started having a "texting" contest to see who was the fastest.
On Monday we tried out a sprinkler that a friend of our gave us. The kids had a blast trying to get the clown hat to balance on the spray.
My parents had stayed in SLC for the rest of the weekend and came down for dinner on Monday. I was trying out a new recipe for Sunburgers. They are "hamburgers" made from oatmeal with a bunch of spices in them. You boil the oatmeal and spices and then bake it in patty shapes. We had them on buns with all your normal hamburger trimmings and you know what they really weren't too bad at all. I was very skeptical because I'm all for eating healthy but I'm not crazy about it. Now I don't think I'd make them all the time, but every once in a while they would be fun.

The Rest of the Reunion

Saturday morning started off with a delicious pancake breakfast with sausage and fruit and real butter! Then the adults played a musical chair hat game and the kids got to do a cupcake walk. Dad drew our circle and Ken pulled the van up next to it so we could have some music to walk to. Brother Bear was the CD of choice and once Mark got his cupcake he took over the music and did a great job. Spencer was so excited when his number was called. There's not much better than cake right after breakfast, right?

Picture time was an adventure as you can only guess. Each of the families wore a different color. My Grandma's color was blue. It was a super idea too. I could finally place a few of my relatives who I seen quite a bit, but never knew where they fit. Can you find us? (Spencer's kind of hiding.)
Spencer didn't get enough sleep the night before and decided he was just going to "nap" on the lawn. Only his idea of napping never gets around to the sleeping part that most of us think of.
Jessie doing the amazing balancing nail trick.
Before lunch we played human Foosball. It was great fun (until someone got a bloody nose). The teams each had PVC pipe to hold on to. Ken and Abbie helped be goalie. It took a while to get the hang of running sideways to get the ball, but everyone loved playing! Mark was a goalie on the other end.This is ME!

Family Reunion Time

So my parents got here about 1 in the morning on Friday. There was a slight miscommunication and I thought they had decided to get a hotel and that they would be here around 1 the following day. So peacefully sleeping in my bed I was awaken by someone knocking on my window to let them in. Not the most pleasant way to wake up especially since Ken wasn't there. (David this reminded me of you two summers ago!)

This is dad working on the family tree for the reunion. It was 9 feet tall with each generation a different color of leaf. Also each of my grandma's brother and sister and their individual families were printed in a different font which really helped out when we had nearly 200 leaves spread out on the table trying to put this together.

At the reunion I helped put together a world map with all the missionaries and where they had served.After a tasty dinner I ended up in charge of all the children. So we went outside and traced ourselves and with chalk in the parking lot. The kids loved it and it was fun to be with them.
When it got to dark outside each of them got to make an origami frog and we had races hopping them. There were four other kids that didn't get in the picture.

First Round Photo Shoot

Ken left for Bremerton this morning with Scott, so after tending all day and cleaning the house for the "surprise to my children" arrival of my parents we went to Bajio for dinner. Afterwards I took the kids down to the river bottoms to take Jessie's birthday picture for the wall. I am learning with each of these I do and this time I learned that shade and a clouds for the sun to hide behind are a definite plus.
This is down where I help with horses. The grass is up to Spencer's chin and it's so beautiful and peaceful there. Mark loves to lie down and hide in the grass and if he doesn't move you wouldn't even know he was there, until you stepped on him.
Right before this Spencer took his sandals off and just left them in the grass. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack! Children... ahhhhhh. Abbie was the lucky one to find them for us; what a sweetie.