Monday, July 23, 2012

Little Bird

My little bird is changing before my eyes, so I finally made the time to go out and take some pictures of her.  The boys went camping with their grandparents and Jer was gone on High Adventure with the Scouts.  That will probably happen again never, so I thought I better take advantage.  I had to break out the notes from my Photo 101 class I took three years ago to refresh my memory a bit. My friend Rose made this sweet doll for Leah when we got back from China, and she loves it. I was so happy to get a picture of her "giving it a love!" For the first time ever I tried editing a photo. I've never done anything beyond cropping or fixing red eye.  It was fun and I'd really like to start taking more pictures again, but I've got a lot to learn!






I liked the light behind her but couldn't quite get it right and wasn't sure how to edit it.




We had a fun mommy-daughter weekend.  It was great to spend some one-on-one time with Leah.  She loved it.  When I was trying to get her picture she would keep coming over to me and backing up into me to sit down in my lap.  Now we're back to complete pandemonium again but hopefully sometime this week I will make time to post more about Leah and the great strides she's made lately.  She's doing amazing, and we couldn't love her more!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Fourth of July Fun

We've spent a few fun weekends at Bear Lake this year. The second one was rainy and we spent most of our time at the Liechty's cabin, but the fourth was really nice. I didn't take many beach pictures, but it was a good time.
Luke and Seth were out to their necks before we'd even had breakfast.


Leah hit the beach in her patriotic suit,





Leah loved playing in the sand and water and just couldn't get enough of having those piggies in the sand.



The rocket balloon activity with the grandmas was a big hit.




We spent some fun time out on Jodi and Jeff's boat.  It is so nice!  The kids tubed, and we wake boarded.  I've never done that before, but it was pretty fun.  Jer even tried surfing behind the boat which I hadn't even heard of before.  I should have kept my camera out after dark.  Since fireworks were banned the kids had a blast playing with glow in the dark swords, bracelets, wands...they had a blast and Leah was right there in the mix partying!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Luke's Baptism

One last event for June that is definitely last but not least is Luke's baptism. Luke was baptized on June 30th. It was an awesome day, and we are so proud of him! He was very excited about it, and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy his special day. Jer did a great job too. Luke spent almost two hours later that day filling in every detail in two different baptism journals he was given. I was pretty impressed, and I'm glad he will always have something to remember it by. What an awesome day with great family and friends to support us!  I think Luke looks so darn cute in that suit.  He was really excited about it too and claims he is going to wear it to church every week...so far that's true!






June Wrap Up

Wow, the summer is just cruising by and I'm not finding the time to blog or clean my house or cook for that matter. Let's just say there have been all too many "hot and ready" nights around here. It's summer break for me too, right? I'll just tell myself that! I am working right now on editing my 2011 blog (yep, quite behind) to get it into book form, and it reminded me of how much I do love having this record. My memory is getting short because for lots of it I felt like I was reading about someone else's life...stuff that happened last year! It's so fun to look back, and I can't believe how much my kids have changed since then. So in an effort for my posterity here are a few June highlights I don't want to forget. I'll start with t-ball. Seth and Ian played on a team in River Heights. There season consisted of 5 games—with one rain out and one during Disneyland we ended up with three. Seth had fun and will be old enough to play "real" t-ball next year if he's interested. Ian was a zoo and ended the season as clueless as he began. At one point his coach put his hat on backwards and then busted out laughing. Apparently Ian turned it right back around, gave him a funny look, and said "come on coach." That's Ian for you. They were stinkin' cute though in those gigantic batting helmets—since when are those needed for t-ball?
Notice, he's looking nowhere near first base.



Cute spectators.  Luke sporting his new "sport goggles" after he broke every pair of glasses he owned and was down to his kindergarten ones.

They were both in it for the treats!

Ian's rosy cheeks, his mullet, and that dress he's wearing are a crack up!

Also, as of June we have a Cub Scout in the house!  Luke was able to attend his first Cub Scout day camp, and he had so much fun.  He came home and told me with all sincerity that he "loves Cub Scouts!"

And on to a bit of nostalgia.  Jer sold his green Tacoma...well actually we're still in the process of selling it, but we replaced it.  I took Jer's picture with the truck when he and the big boys left to go drop it off, but I didn't realize I had it in manual and it's so overexposed.  I'll have to take a picture of him with the new one.  But I did dig up these beauties both circa 1998...

I remember taking this shot of Jer after a day of skiing the Beav while we were still dating.  On another occasion I went to Jer's apartment to pick him up on a Saturday morning for skiing, and he already had his truck warming up locked in the parking lot.  For some reason we decided to take my Jeep and so when we got home about 8 hours later there it was still running.  Oops!

There she is (the truck) in all her glory back when she was new (I guess the same could be said of me)! That truck was awesome and now has over 200,000 miles on it.  Here are just a few notable mentions about old green:  
  • That truck hauled us on countless trips to ski the Beav and later Snow Basin when we lived in Ogden.
  • We left for our honeymoon in that truck.
  • We drove that truck and cut and hauled home our first Christmas tree as a married couple.
  • We slept in the back of that truck at countless trailheads in the Uintahs and southern Utah.
  • That truck faithfully hauled Jer to work everyday for almost 14 years!
  • We learned some great financial lessons from this truck.  As in Jer leased it before we were married, then we financed it and bought it, and then paid it off in a lump sum.  Leasing, buying new, car payments...things we would never consider now!  I'm glad to say that now we're older and smarter we saved and paid cash for a 2010 Chevy truck that can haul our family around.  I must say though it's currently experiencing a few mechanical problems so maybe we should have stuck with Old Faithful!  It was also our last vehicle that was a stick shift, and I kind of miss that. Now I want to save and buy an old Jeep to cruise around in the summer.  Someday!