Cub Scouts

For Jared's Pack Meeting today they played "water baseball" with little pools for each base and a slip-n-slide to slide into home base. Fun idea!

Forts

Our kids love making elaborate forts in the basement. They made this huge one and they all slept in it. It was out of the way and so it was fine with me. Until we went to eat dinner the next day and there were no kitchen chairs to eat on. They were all in the basement holding up the fort!

Baby in a Bucket

Tomatoes and Chicken Eggs

A neighbor hired Jase to water their plants/yard and feed their chicken for four days while they were gone on vacation. They paid him some cash each day plus all of the tomatoes he could pick and any chicken eggs that were hatched. They also surprised Jase with a giant king-sized candy-bar and a bag of cookies.

Jase was in heaven! I think the favorite thing for him was picking the tomatoes and getting the eggs.

Every morning he was up and taking care of their yard before I was even out of bed. (And as a side note, a month or so ago Rick put Jase in charge of our yard and he has done a good job. He has completely taken over mowing the lawn, much to Rick's delight!)

Anyway, Jase was only required to go to our neighbors once a day but he kept wanting to go more. He kept begging me to let him go back over so that he could see if any more eggs had hatched. This afternoon I was worried because he went to check on things and was gone a very long time. I drove over to see if he was okay. He said he had pulled some weeds and then was in the chicken coop waiting... That's right. He was sitting there waiting for an egg to hatch...for like and hour and a half!

Honestly! I think we need to get Jase chickens for Christmas!

Katie's Goodbye Party

We had a goodbye party for Katie Cook (the one in the middle with the big smile), since she is moving this weekend. Everyone had a lot of fun. We will miss you Katie!!

Happy 15 Year Anniversary!!

Janelle left me this note today. If you can't "read" her writing it says, "Happy 51 Anniversary Mom and Dad!!"

Wow -- we look great for 51 years, don't we!

We didn't get a big "alone" trip this year (unless you count the pioneer trek) but at least we got to spend the evening together.

We went out to eat at the Anasazi Restaurant and quite enjoyed it. We topped off our meal with a yummy chocolate fondue.

Then we went and saw "Footloose" at Tuacahn. It was quite hot but then after intermission a huge storm blew in. There was brief rain and lots of wind and lighting. It looked really cool with the lightning lighting up the mountains. But unfortunately they canceled the rest of the show.

The next day I exchanged our tickets and Janika and I went to see "Annie." Then Rick and I went and saw the second half of "Footloose" the next night. So it all worked out!

Oh, and I have to mention that for our Anniversary Rick wrote me a sweet love note of "Remember whens..."

Words are totally my love language and so a sweet heartfelt love note is the best gift I could receive! I think Rick and I are perfect for each other. I have truly enjoyed the past fifteen years and look forward to many many many years to come!!

24th of July Parade

We participated with our Deaf Branch in the Ivins 24th of July Parade this morning. Everyone was really excited about being in a parade. Except for Jase and Jared -- they said that they would rather be on the receiving end of the candy instead of the giving end. We dressed up in Pioneer Clothes and sang and signed Pioneer Songs. Jenna's stroller broke ten seconds into the parade and so she had to be carried the whole way.

Happy Pioneer Day!