Happy 3rd Birthday, John

We had quite a time choosing a theme for John's birthday. Initially, we thought we'd do Knights, but when we got to the Party store, there was nothing to support that. So, Grant influenced him to choose cowboys (for the simple reason that he could get a gun), but I needed something a bit more 3-year old. So, then we're standing in front of Mickey Mouse and Curious George, with John changing his mind every 5 seconds. We were all laughing so hard at John. He liked everyone's ideas and ultimately didn't care! So, we went with George and RAN out of there after a whole hour!

This was John's first REAL birthday. I don't know what was happening last year, because I don't even remember it. I know that on his first birthday, we were staying in a hotel in Washington D.C., it was a Sunday, and I bought him a Big, Big Loader which was way too Big Big for a one year old, and I couldn't even figure out how to put it together. So, there we were. 6 of us in a hotel room with a toy that wasn't working - I burst into tears and hoped that John would never remember that he ever turned one!

John is such a sunshine in our lives. He tells jokes all the time, and occasionally they are actually funny. His favorite is "I'm not afraid of birds like you, Mr. Snoops!" I know, it's not really a joke, but he always prefaces it with "I have a joke for you, Mom!"

I love John so much, and can hardly believe that my baby is 3 years old! We are having so much fun with these kids right now! They are all self-sufficient and happy to play together! They play swords, cars, and John's newest toy - Magna Tiles, which are magnetic shapes that can be built into thousands of different things. Everyone loves them! And we love YOU Johnny!

Andrew's Fishing Trip

Andrew traveled to Alaska for Business reasons, but stayed an extra couple days to FISH! He said he felt so manly! On the very first day, he caught this 45 pound King Salmon! It took 15 minutes to reel in, and he brought us home some great looking salmon that we'll share with the Wixoms this weekend.

Here are the two fish from the trip - they said the river was pretty "dry", but at least they caught something! The usual limit is one giant fish per day - can you even imagine?

Andrew and Secretary Mike Leavitt. Andrew has truly enjoyed working for him these past 2 years. We feel so grateful to know him.

This cake picture snuck onto the end of this post - you can see the rest about JOhn's birthday on the post above. But, this was my attempt at the Curious George cake. Mindy gave me some great coaching via IM from Thailand, and I thought it turned out pretty cute - I wouldn't say it looks like George, but definitely a monkey, right?

More Beach Fun!

Documentation - I actually WAS at the beach, but didn't venture very far into the water. I enjoy the beach in a very different way than Andrew does. I love to watch him out there kicking around, and enjoy the kids digging in the sand! After my rescue from a very handsome lifeguard last summer, my confidence in my swimming abilities has diminished drastically!

Ron buried the kids up to their necks, and then they thought it was hilarious to put chairs on top of their heads!

Here's the sand bunch with their friends. From left: Claire, Faith, Clark, Grant, John and Brig, with a very handsome Andrew in the Superman shorts.

Grant loved this little Body Board, and if we return to the beach this summer, we will definitely need to take one of these along! Ok...I think I"m officially caught up. Stay tuned for next week's post of Andrew's Adventure to Alaska!

Beach Fun!

We were at Cape May in New Jersey, and had a great day! The weather wasn't too warm, which also made it a bit cold for the swimmers! The kids dug and buried themselves for hours,

and even tried some "surfing". Clark was great at it! Daddy was a good sport to send them in. If you look closely, you can see that he is FREEZING!

Here comes Daddy! He loves the water and would rather spend a week at the beach then almost anywhere else in the world!

Here's my cute Johnny who wasn't interested in the water, but had a great time digging and "accidentally" dumping sand on everyone!

Camping with our NJ friends!

There is something magical about camping in a tent - I honestly think I could do it for a month...with my raised Aerobed, of course (wink). The boys are wrestling on the air mattress, but look at Clark's feet! They were filthy for the whole trip - part of the fun, I guess!

Here's my princess, Faith, in her pink and purple (her favorite colors) sleeping bag with "Sweet Sara" as her companion. We had to warn them all that IF they wet the bed, (which has been happening a lot lately) we would have to come home with STINKY sleeping bags! I think one of them still wet - what do you do???

The kids are "roasting" their sausages in the morning. It was more for the experience, because I think more ended up in the fire than in their mouths! But, I did make Buttermilk Pancakes and they turned out great!

Here's about half the crew eating breakfast. We had 6 adults and 10 children over 3 camping spots. Next post will talk about the BEACH, where we headed right after breakfast!

School Picnic

I'm not sure who thought of this idea, but it seemed a LITTLE dangerous to do with Kindergarteners!
They were roasting marshmallows over the grill! They had a great time, but I'm quite sure the Principal didn't know about it! (wink)

Faith's little friend, Briya. I remember one day when I was dropping Faith off at school...Briya came running out of the school and THREW her arms around Faith and said "Hi Faith!" I knew Faith had made a true friend! And she is so adorable and just tiny!

At the picnic I snapped this shot of Faith looking at her class garden. With the effects, you don't see her "kool-aid" mustache or anything! I love watching Faith with her friends. She's very sweet and laughs a lot!

End of Year Party

I am SO far behind, that my blogs are all out of order, but please bear with me! The day before the LAST day of school, all the classes had a picnic on the playground. We ate hot dogs, and watched the kids play together. The little boys loved all the attention from Faith's little friends! This is Grant riding one of the "school" scooters around the track.

They set up a sprinkler on the black top and Faith and Grant couldn't stay away from it! They were having so much fun together!

This is Faith's little friend, Kimberly. I believe she's the guilty one for making Faith such a BIG fan of Hannah Montana. Kimberly is always wearing something with Hannah on the front! She is a darling girl and Faith has really had a great year!

Kimberly is dancing to the music while the boys blow bubbles to their heart's content!

Slip Sliding Away!

A piece of plastic and some water can make for some serious fun! We set this up in the backyard and had a GREAT time!

Faith is so beautiful, and I love the way the water turned out! John is our only child who's not a big fan of the water, so he sat with a stick and poked it into the water as the kids would slide by.

What fun! Who needs to pay hundreds of dollars to join a pool when we have a Slip N Slide?

In action! Faith even added soap to the "track" so it would be extra slippery!

Grant's Cub Scout Camp

I know that I haven't blogged for WEEKS and weeks - we've been busy having FUN! We are about a month into summer, and we're having a great time! The first week after school let out, Grant attended a Basketball Camp with two of his church buddies - the next week, he went to Cub Scout Camp! I know...this boy is having some serious fun!

They did Archery, shot BB Guns (his favorite, by far), climbed into a cave, went on Treasure Hunts, and engraved leather.

They also swam every morning, oh no...not in a lake. IN a swimming pool complete with slides! This is the life!

These are my two sweet "babies", Clark and John, asleep in our bed. I can't remember now why they fell asleep in our bed, but aren't they just angelic? I love being a mother!