Miscellaneous

We picked some of our home grown tomatoes. Some are normal size, some are... not.


We went to Temple Square this afternoon.
Family pictures didn't quite work out, but we had a good time.


Cute Lady


Brother with the firetruck and water.


(0 out of 2)

(1 out of 4... someone asked if they could help take the picture. Sure! Click (no counting). We weren't ready.)

(2 1/2 of 4)

(3 out of 4. Our best yet.)

Yesterday King came in from doing yardwork and told me,
"(Brother) just told me, "Dad! You need to relax!""
King often tells him this when he is upset or throwing a fit... I don't know what King was doing, but I thought it was hilarious.

Day with Dad

Little lady got a bug, so King took the day off of work yesterday. He and brother had a GREAT time.
King took brother on the front runner in the morning. They stopped downtown and took Trax over to the gateway where they ran through the fountains and shared a snack. King was the mighty protector from the thunder on the way back home. Forget how cool the train was, brother just repeated over and over that there was THUNDER! (How come he's not afraid of REALLY scary things... just thunder...?)
After nap they headed over to the Rec Center and swam while I took care of Lady and our neglected house. We had a quick dinner, King went to frisbee, and then I got to go to book club when he got back!! Ahh- so nice! I wish King could stay home EVERY day.

Sunday Best

Choco-lot

His favorite food group.
What he asks for for dinner ... almost nightly.
His first love.
What he can't get enough of.

Chocolate.

In case you were wondering, he's pouring every last DROP of chocolate ice cream onto his spoon.
Waste not. Want not.


Ahhh. Got it all.

Double Vacation ... Part Two

In Brother's perfect world, he would live in Montana.
The first words out of his mouth each morning were usually, "Can I go on a See-Doo Ride?"
Our days went some thing like this:
Wake up (late), eat breakfast, get in a swim suit, and head out back!
The rest of the day was spent throwing rocks in the lake, going out on a tube with dad, getting pulled around on the duo or extreme behind the sea-doo, going on sea-doo rides, going in the authentic sauna, and eating GREAT food.
We also had a chance to go hike as a family on Wild Horse Island, watched late night movies, played games, cooked over the fire, read books, tried unsuccessfully to learn to ski slalom, played tHe MoSt challenging croquet game in history (one of the wickets was up on a stump and required going up a ramp... that took a while...), and enjoying time with family.
Really, that sums up a F A N T A S T I C week.

Get it right.

King: Hey Baldy!
Son: I not bald! I buzz!

Another fun quote:
King: Do you like your haircut?
Son: Hair broken.

Well.. I guess...

More good news than bad...

Good news: It's summer.
Good news: Brother got a hair cut.

Bad news: He moved during the haircut...

Good news: I know how to buzz a little boys' head.
Good news: He has hats and sunscreen.



Good news: As the old saying goes,
"What's the difference between a good haircut and a bad one?

Three weeks."

Double Vacation... Part One

If you don't like pictures... skip this post.

We just got back from a massive, two-week, double vacation. 46, yes 46 hours of driving later, we are home safe and sound. Sane might be up for debate. Fortunately, the kiddos did exceptionally well (mostly) in the car.
Here's our favorites from the Oregon half. Unfortunately, we didn't take ONE SINGLE PICTURE in Montana, so I'll just tell about it in the next post.

First, the fam. King's brother lives on the coast in Oregon. It's BEAUTIFUL,

but a tad chilly. The locals think its too hot to be in the kitchen when it hits 70. We marked ourselves as outsiders and wore jackets the whole time. It was a nice break from the 90's though!
Since family pictures never quite worked out... you'll see what I mean in a minute.... here's them one at a time:
Cousin A and E: ALWAYS so helpful with little Lady.

Cousins I and T: So much fun!

And the parents. Love them!

As promised, an attempt at a family picture. 4 out of 6 is at least half!

This character (T) was Brother's favorite. Two two-year-olds makes for a lot of mischief. And some very cute pictures.

Here's the girls tending Lady and getting her to smile! They were wonderful!

We talked Uncle C (another brother) into coming up to visit the same time we did!
Despite the look on Tae's face, we were ALL glad to see him!

Those three aren't very serious when they're together...

When I grow up, I want to be just like A. Epitome of motherhood. ALWAYS smiling, and making her children (and mine) feel like they are the most important people in the world. I LOVED being around her. I should've taken notes.

You can't really tell from the pictures, but we went to the beach a few times, visited Stout Grove (the redwoods), and just enjoyed being together as a family!
We celebrated both of King's brother's birthdays while we were out there too.

Now a few of our fam.
Little Lady cut her first tooth and is now 6 months old! She's turned into quite the Momma's girl.

Brother, is brother. Always mischievous, always making us smile.
He's supposed to be smiling for a picture...



All in all, we had a GREAT visit!

New Year's Resolution.

One of my goals this year was to run a 5k.
Let's preface that statement with: I HATE RUNNING. So, no. I'm not a runner.
Until this morning, the farthest I'd run in.... oh, ten years, was a mile and a half. Even while training for this monster (no giggling) I'd only run 1.3 miles. But our Young Women had a camp fundraiser and I thought, "Hey. It's a good cause. And if I run it now, I can stop running the rest of the summer!! ... or life."
So I did.
I ran next to a girl in my ward which was extra motivating. I was the instigator of all our walking though. Not to brag, but we did run at least 4/5ths of the time. Just towards the end we (I) needed a few walking breaks.
Our time?
Drumroll please....
30 min.
No laughing. It was great for me!
The down side is I'm already hobbling like I'm 90 and I'm sure the lactic acid hasn't finished setting in yet. Tomorrow could be really painful....
Maybe next year I'll pick a better goal.

Scripture Study

Tonight Brother and I were reading his scriptures (in the Book of Mormon) before he went to bed. We were reading the story about Abinidi and King Noah. I told him Abinidi was a prophet a long time ago and asked him who the Prophet was now. With a little prompt he was able to say, "President Monson!" Righto!! Now for the full name.
Me: "Can you say "Thomas..."
Brother: "The train."
What??
Me: "Thomas... S..."
Brother: "The train."
Oh. I get it.

Then we had a little discussion about how Thomas the Train and Thomas S. Monson are not the same. Life must be confusing when you're two.