Summer 08

I'm finally taking some time to update our blog. The summer flew by but was a lot of fun. Ellie rehearsed all of June for the play. Thank goodness I had such a small part that I only had one rehearsal in June.

We took a few days vacation the end of June and went to Zion National Park. We stayed in a cool home out in the middle of nowhere. We had a great time hiking in the park and relaxing.

Cade played T-ball and I was assistant coach. He had fun hitting the ball and playing first base. It was a little too stressful for me to try and keep the kids on task and to teach them the fundamentals. Next year I definitely just want to go watch.

The 1st week of July Ellie and I spent rehearsing many long days and nights. The play opened July 10 and ran until August 25. It was a great success and was a lot of fun to do. The scenery, costumes and special effects were truly amazing. It was a great experience. Ellie had a lot of fun and loved performing and meeting so many new friends. It was a little too much time away and stress for me, so I'm sure I won't be pursuing an acting career. The first two weeks I was sick to my stomach the entire day of each performance. After that wore off I must admit I did enjoy performing.

Our big trip this summer was camping at Tally Lake near Kalispell, Montana with all the Baileys. It is a gorgeous warm water lake. We rode bikes, water skiied, swam, cliff jumped, rowed boats and ate lots of great food. The kids loved being with cousins for a whole week. The day before we left Hannah got a fever and after two more seizures, we ended up in the ER to make sure she was ok to travel the next day. Thank goodness the virus was short-lived. Two days later Jace got the same thing and freaked out all the relatives with his own seizure. Our current count is 9 for Hannah and 2 for Jace!

At the end of the week we all drove to Canada for the weekend for Barnwell's big 24th of July celebration. It was complete with a great town pancake breakfast, parade, games, dinner and fireworks. Jordan had fun seeing old friends and neighbors. It really is a wonderful town full of amazing people.

The beginning of August we had another fun family reunion with the Browns. We headed to Wolf Creek up Ogden Canyon. We spent a day at Pineview swimming and riding waverunners. The next day we hiked and swam and played outdoor games at a park. We loved the home we all stayed in. The kids had fun playing wii and the adults had a great time playing board games together at night.

We also had a fun Lagoon day with the Browns in July. The kids loved riding with cousins.

Cade had his first friend b-day party this year. He turned 6yrs. August 8th. He loves Indiana Jones even though he's never seen any of the movies. The Lego version is much calmer than the real thing!! We had an Indiana Jones b-day complete with a treasure hunt, archeology dig and obstacle course. We had 12 adorable boys come enjoy the adventure. Jordan even had the movie music playing as they ran the obstacle course, being chased by the boulder(large bouncy ball) down our tube slide off the swingset. I made over-the-shoulder satchels like Jones carries to put all their loot in. It was a great success and tons of fun.

Jace didn't get quite as big a b-day. He turned two August 24. Uncle Colton and Aunt Angella were visiting to see the play so they stayed over Sunday to celebrate with us. Jace loves trucks so we made him a truck cake and he got a fire truck for his present. He amazes us with all he can do and say even though we've spent less time teaching him than any of the others.

That night we had our 1st annual Spudnut Night. Mom and Dad Brown had theirs the same night. I think its their 20th annual or something. We had lots of friends and neighbors come enjoy the homemade donuts and everyone commented how good they were and that they expect it next year. For those who don't know, spudnuts are donuts that have mashed potatoes in them. My parents started having spudnut night when I was in high school. The Sunday night before school started my mom would make spudnuts and invite all our friends and neighbors for one last hurrah. We doubled the recipe so it made around 200! They were gone by the end of the night!! Thanks to Colton and Angella for helping so much that day with Jace's b-day and making the spudnut dough.

Yesterday may have been the last hot day of the year. We spent the afternoon in Lava Hot Springs with some friends floating the river and sitting in the hot spots of the river. The kids loved it. We had so much fun.

Our project this summer was our kitchen. We had old, small tile counters with little pores all over the tiles so they were always dirty and the grout was awful too. We ripped them out and got new granite counter tops. Our cabinets are in great shape and are nice oak wood but I didn't care for the light oak look. We took off all the doors and drawers and some friends and I painted them all with a dark glaze then wiped it off leaving an antiqued look. I love it. Then Jordan and I finished the cabinets inside and put on new handles. I can't believe how different it looks.

The kids started school August 21. So far they love it and I've enjoyed having just two kids at home. That's our summer in a nutshell. It was fun having the kids home, but crazy too. It's been nice having a schedule again and soon we'll start with soccer, dance, Kindermusik, piano, and home preschool for Hannah. Life is good. Crazy, but good.