Friday

Friday morning we woke up and received our official reunion T-shirts. My sisters, Becky and Rachel, put together "An Amazing Race". We all had to hike to the "V" (mountain with a big V for Vale) then race down to our cars to find our first clue. Then we were sent all over Vale for more clues and things to do to get them. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Rachel and Becky for putting together such a fun thing.

Macho macho man.....getting ready for za race!

Nieces and brother inlaw getting their bandannas on. We were separated into teams and had bandannas for each team.

The whole crew! We ended at the park. Way to go Team Chili Peppers! You are the weeners!

Thursday's events

Like I mentioned in the last post, we got up early to husk, blanch, cut of the cob, then scoop corn into freezer bags. It was a lot of fun doing it together. Not sure I'd want to do this job alone. The plans got changed up a bit because we all got busy doing the work. The boys were supposed to go golfing, but not sure who it was, maybe Scott, said they should stay and help with the corn. So, their golfing trip didn't happen. But we got 17 bags per family of corn. There were 8 families to divide. That's a lot of corn. We were supposed to go boating that afternoon, but again, plans got changed, this time due to weather. It was pretty windy and not hot that day, so we played games instead. The watched a movie that night.

Only part of the corn crew

Uncle Dan and Foster

Cheese!

The "out" crew. Here they are watching the people who were still in the game Ninja.

Daddy and Fos

Foster and cousin Layla. Layla is about 10 months older than Fos

Scott and Kass. Last two standing in Ninja

Blind-folded musical chairs. This was a lot of fun. And funny to watch. I think I got to the chair before nephew Garrett.

Children of the Corn

There will be more to come, but just wanted to give the first update of our FUN FILLED FAMILY REUNION! It was our 9th annual immediate family reunion held in Vale, Oregon. The first morning, we awoke bright and early (my sister Becky and I) and waited till everyone else woke up to go pick corn. We picked this truck bed full of corn. I forgot to get pictures of it completely full. We would fill bags then dump them in the back and go for more until it was almost overflowing.

Such troopers. Maybe they were smiling because they didn't know what they were getting themselves into.

Fun shot. I loved the work ethic of these young children.

Another fun picture.

I'll try not to take another month before I post some more! Stay tuned for daily updates of the reunion.

Flood

The pictures don't do it justice, but this is what I found in the basement one morning. I went into the laundry room first and the rug was wet. My first thought was oh no, the brand new washer has a problem. After looking all over for a leak in the washer and not being able to find one, I decided it was a fluke. A few minutes later, I walked into the bedroom and stepped onto a mushy wet rug. Oh no, the fridge upstairs is leaking through the light fixture. I looked all around and realized the bed wasn't wet. Then I remembered the night before, someone left the sprinkler on right by the window for about 5 hrs. Then I remembered it was a good thing I reminded that someone to turn it off. I checked the window sill and sure enough, water all over it. So, I called that someone and stated what I found. He said, well, I guess you'll have to roll up the 5x7 big shaggy rug and take it out to the deck to dry out then mop the floor. Exactly what I had time to do today. So, I roll it up and to my surprise, I couldn't lift a rug that size full of water. I laughed out loud at that point thinking how crazy I was to even consider that. So, I called some nice neighborly young men to come help me with my dirty job. They agreed. The two strapping young men lifted the rug with some struggle and water was pouring out like a faucet. It poured out the entire way up the stairs to the outside. I thanked them kindly then made them cookies the next day for another thank you. Needless to say, our flood wasn't as bad as it could have been. Only a few other things had to be hung to dry!

Just look closely to see the 1/2 inch of water on our floor after I rolled up the soaking wet rug. Thank goodness it acted like a sponge.

Almost.......

.....fresh from the garden. everything but the broccoli and red peppers came from the garden. I just love a fresh garden. It's nice to say, let's go pick some stuff for dinner tonight. And that is exactly what we do. I made a homemade spaghetti sauce for dinner too. Recipe below...

spray cooking pan with PAM

Add about : 1 1/2 teas minced garlic

4 tomatoes cut in half and face down

one green onion chopped

1 yellow zucchini squash peeled and sliced

2 green peppers cut into chunks

2 TBS brown sugar

1 teas Italian seasoning

1 teas salt

1 teas pepper

Saute it all then put in food processor. Blend until desired consistency. Pour into meat and serve over pasta.

Scott says that is the best way to eat yellow zucchini.

Feeding Time

One morning, Molly decided to be helpful and feed Foster for me. He wasn't too hip on the idea. I think he may have gotten a few bites in his mouth, even though it doesn't look like it!

Yep, it was bath time afterwards!

If you give a mouse a cookie........or if you give Foster a cookie......he's one happy boy. This might be my new favorite picture! He's quite like his mamma, a cookie monster! Oh and he loves cookie dough too. Whatever it takes to keep em' happy right?

Birthday

Scott and Molly went out shopping for my birthday one night. When they got back, I said to Molly who can't keep secrets, "what did you and dad get me for my birthday" Molly: "a skirt" Me: "what else"? Molly: "a shirt". Well that was true, but Scott surprised me with this picture too. It's one I've been wanting for quite some time now. It fit perfect on the nail we had up from our last picture in the front room. It was a great surprise and I love it!

First Haircut

These pictures aren't the best at capturing Fosters before and after haircuts, but it gives you some idea. It obviously wasn't super long because our kids don't have tons of hair at this age, but it was looking shaggy in the back and over the ears. So, we decided to get the clippers out and go to work.

You have to look close, but you can see the long fine hair over the ears.

Little unsure about the clippers.

He's trying to help, or push it away, not sure which.

Our handsome little man. O.K, again, you have to look close to see that we did trim it up.

One happy boy.

Molly is starving for attention these days, so she needed a picture of herself too. Regardless of how she looked. The 80's hair fairy was in her room that night with her magical wand.

5 Years

July 24th Scott and I celebrated our 5th yr Anniversary. It's been the best 5 yrs of my life. How lucky am I to have gotten this guy? He is a great example of love, kindness and compassion. He is the best husband and dad. I can't believe already been 5 yrs of happiness. Many many many more to come baby!

Anniversary Celebration

You can call us white trash if you want......we don't mind. For our 5 yrs celebration, we went up to Park City for the night. My WONDERFUL mom flew in to watch the kids for us. Course, they don't mind cause they get to do whatever they wanted. Anyway, we drove up Friday when Scott got off work, went to dinner then got shakes and walked around a park. Saturday we slept in till 9. Something we haven't done in 3 yrs. Then got ready and went to Park City Resort to do the Alpine Slide and Zip line. Only problem was the lines for both were about an hour to hour and a half long, so we bagged it and went to the outlets instead. It would've been cheaper to stand in line! The kids got a lot of stuff and we each got two or three things. Then that night we met Mike and a friend and one of Scott's friends from college. Ate at the famous Dairy Keen then went to the Heber Valley Demolition Derby! It was a blast. I didn't know cars crashing into eachother could be so much fun.

If you've never been to one of these, I highly recommend it. It was so much fun! They could do something about the time in between hauling the cars off. That took a little long, but it was still fun!

A little high centered.

The big 5 years!

Two Cuties

Friend Debbie was in Utah visiting so we set up a day to meet at the park and play. It was fun to see them. Thanks Debbie for taking the time from your family to see us. We love seeing all our Colorado friends!

Molly and Charly are still good buddies. Look at the 6 week age difference. I'm thinking their dads have something to do with that size difference.

Swim Lessons

Well she wasn't great, but she didn't scream the whole time. In fact, she didn't cry ever.......just simply told the teacher what she would and wouldn't do. We got Molly in swim lessons to have someone else teach her to be brave. That someone else didn't really help. We could have taught her everything they did and she would've been just fine. But, it was fun nonetheless. She wasn't opposed to going, she just wasn't going all out like some of the other kids in her class. She said she had fun, so I guess that is all that matters.

Can you call this a back float?

Here is the little swimmer. She does do very well with her arm floaties on and has almost all of the confidence. Maybe next year she will go under in water deeper than an inch!

New Pool

We decided it was way too hot to just play outside without water. So, we got this cheap pool from Walmart and the kids LOVE it!

Say cheese!

She loves her baby brother!

We couldn't hardly pull him from the pool. He was enjoying himself thoroughly!

July 9th

A week after we were in Canada, Scott's parents came to Utah to take Brian to the Missionary Training Center. Thursday, we decided to go to Temple Square and check out the Church History Museum. They had a kid room which the kids loved.

Hold to the Rod.......the Iron Rod!

It was very hands on in the kids area. Molly had a great time dressing up. Doesn't she make a cute shepherd?

Of course, she loved the baby area. She would sit in the rocking chairs and sing "I am a Child of God" to them. Too stinkin' cute!

Messy

Every child has one of these. Yep, we let Foster try to feed himself. Guess he's still unsure of where is mouth is.

Walton Farm

Our little garden is actually producing! I must admit, I was skeptical. We have tomatoes, cilantro, onions, strawberries, sugar snap peas, peppers, a carrot, and the weed on the left is a man-eating squash plant.

Some of the fruits of our labors. We should have some peppers and tomatoes soon.

This is what we picked the other day after being out of town for the weekend. Does anybody know what to do with the gourd things on the right (I'm pretty sure they are just Thanksgiving decorations, but Elisha says people actually eat them)? Anybody want some squash????...we have extra. We'd be happy to share...seriously, we'll send you some...please?

Wake Boarding

After the parade, on the 4th, we had a quick BBQ at my sister and brother-in-laws house, then out to Bully Creek for some boat time. It was beautiful weather to get in the water.

I think this is Molly's first real boat ride. She quite enjoyed herself.

Just me and the girls

I was so impressed with Scott. I did not know he could jump the wake.

Look at that air!

Clearing the wake

Proof that I did attempt. This was only my second time on the wake board and I think the first time was over 3 yrs ago. I have a long ways to go till I'm clearing the wake!