June Randoms

This is how the kids look most days.  Ahhhhh.. summer!

 Lacey and I started our "business" Red, White and Blue for You! We repainted these wood America signs with chalkboard paint.  They turned out cute, but after we subtracted out expenses we didn't make any money.  The girls helped us paint and (like a lot of things) everything took longer than we thought it would.  Oh well.

Date night for Geo and I.  He found a show that he thought I'd actually like (I'm really picky when it comes to movies) and found a tender.  When we arrived, they weren't playing the show til the following day (I guess it was an outdated website he checked).  Boo!  So we walked around Ogden.  They were having an old car show (with 50's dress up theme) and it was a great place to people watch.

Can you see those tiny dots on the hillside?
Geo and the kids participating in the neighborhood party to remove Dyer's Wood - a yellow weed that is
really invasive but actually looks pretty.

Lucy and I attended a mother/daughter picnic in the park
for our church.  We listened to a great message on the
Holy Ghost and made a little necklace.
I sure love this girl! She WANTS to be good and really
tries hard to give life her best.

Erik learning to color!

Annual dental visit to Holden.
The Stephenson's are always so good to us and fill us with dutch oven.
 Elise & Emily are a perfect mischief match!

 Elise gave her dad a coupon for breakfast in bed for Father's Day.  She was SO excited for him to use it!  He's been working almost every morning at the hospital to check on new babies.  This Saturday, he had to climb back in bed when he got home so she could give it to him.

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Geo (in his gruff voice, from his bed):  "Kids!  Go to your rooms and go to sleep!  1...2..." (and he's out before 3!) haha!  Wish the kids went to sleep that quick!
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Lucy pushing both boys.  :)

I asked Lucy to fill out her form for a day-long Activity Days camp...
Height:  11.5" (she had 138cm from a recent dr visit and divided by 12)
Weight:  611 lbs (decimal points ARE important)  :)
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block color nails by Lucy

Elise and I have quite the conversations while she is painting my nails.  How I wish I could record them!

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Lacey:  Hey Austin, will you get me some water please?
Austin:  Sure.  About 5 ounces?
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Jake and his date April came up to an outdoor movie party at the Elem School.  We watched Frozen.  First time for Jake...what?!?  Erik and I didn't last a real long time, but everyone else thought it was great. (no pics... boo!) Elise:  "WOW!!!  There are THREE April's in the world... my birth mom, her, and ME!"

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Austin pushed Elise into the stool and she got a
big gash on her head.  No stitches, but Geo said
if someone brought a kid in that looked like her
he probably would have put a few in.  :(

I kissed Austin before he went to bed...
Austin:  Aaaugh!  Why did you kiss me on the lips?!?  What do you think I am... an adult?"
(this made me laugh... and a bit sad too... first time he's been sad about a lip kiss.  And I remember the time his primary teacher in HI had to take him in the hall to tell him not to kiss the girls on the lips if they didn't want to be kissed.)

Speaking of kissing...Elise woke up early (as she likes to do) and had prayer with George and I before he left for work.  Afterwards, he always kisses me three times.
Elise:  "Hey!  I want a kiss too!"
Geo kisses her on the top of the head.
Elise:  "No way!  On the lips!"
He obeys.
Elise:  "Hmmm... that felt good.  especially on my bottom lip.  Kinda tingley."
*sigh.*  watch out world.
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We have a daily devotional during the summer.  Each child is in charge of a particular day and decides on a Mormon Message, hymn and says the prayer.  Then we put our hands in a circle and give a cheer.  The child chooses the cheer too.  When it was Cole's turn, he picked the chant, "Diap-y's RULE!!!"  I wonder if this child will ever want to wear underwear.  P.S.  Favorite videos (that get picked really often):  The Coat, The Reason Behind Christmas, A Mother's Hope, The Shiny Bicycle.   Favorite songs:  Give Said the Little Stream, Wise Man and Foolish Man, Baptism.
Sure love these cute kids of ours!
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Lucy and Elise participated in a week long summer art workshop.  They studied a particular artist and then created something in that style.  They had a great time and were sad to see it end.

Little bit of baseball, tennis, hiking, and jumping

It's always a party when Auntie Lacey and fam comes to town...

lunch at Slackwater Pizza in Ogden
first time for all of us and it was FANTASTIC!!!
We tried California Sunrise, Cardiac Arrest and Taste of the Islands.  YUM-MY!
Mom especially raved over the cheese filled breadsticks and sauce.

We started off in Morgan, watching Elise and Austin play baseball.  (post on that coming up)  Elise was especially thrilled with her audience.  While on deck, she waved and posed and yelled out names to make sure she was being watched.  And then stepped up to the plate on the wrong side.  ha!  

The party moved to Logan... (poor Geo had to miss it.  He was on call)
First stop was a wall-to-wall trampoline place.  These places seem to be all over, but it was a first time for our family.  We had a great time!  My favorite thing was the dodge ball area.  There were 100+ balls around this huge area (with slanted trampolines on the wall too).  We'd grab as many balls as we could, pick one person and then all of us would run screaming at the person throwing our armload of balls.  It sounds very 11-year old-ish and it was, but SO much fun.  I laughed so hard!  First we did it to family members (with mixed reactions :) and then Gracie suggested we move on to strangers.  Good times.  No pics though.  Later, Gav taught us how to play lacrosse.

The next day was filled with tennis and the worlds best corndogs.

And we couldn't leave before seeing Benji's college pad.  The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever and they were probably right...

Me:  Ok everyone.  This is Benji's house.  You can unbuckle and hop out.
Elise:  We are ready for action!!!

 Monday was a mini-Gundi hike to North Willow.  The Allreds and Bleazards joined us.  Heidi and I hiked together lugging our babies.  Erik is at the age where he doesn't like to be held.  After an hour, I gave up wrestling the little worm, took off his clothes and let him play in the dirt.  One happy boy!

Speaking of dirty boys...

half of the crew

Father's Day Fun!

We celebrated our fathers for a whole weekend. Good reason to celebrate!

First stop... overnighter in Park City (planned by Greg and Chris).  Only sad thing about it was that it was FREEZING cold!  What... in June?!?  The temps were in the 80's a few days before and dropped to the 50's the weekend we were there... brrrr!  We played games, ate, and swam in the pool.  In the early morning, George, Greg, and Chris went up to Guardsman Pass on a big 'ol fatty mountain bike ride.  George said he came back bruised but not broken.  

Alpine slide buddies

Gavin, Isaac and Cole (riding with gpa)
Gpa was a great sport.  He rode with one of my
kids most the afternoon.

 The boys met us at a Mexican restaurant (nice choice by Grandpa Ed...yum!) and we all headed to the mountain for some fun.

boys determining that MAYBE the route they took wasn't the best...
really difficult in some spots.

Alpine Coaster was a favorite for many
(and a first for many too!)

 Saturday evening, we met George's family at the Roof to celebrate some more.  I haven't been to the Roof in forever and the thing that made it even better was that it was HAWAIIAN night!!!  Now, to be fair, there wasn't a lot of real poly food.  I can't think of anything we ate that was actually served at a ward party.  Wait... maybe rice.  :)  But it didn't matter... we got to wear our Aloha gear and I was thrilled.

What a view... right?!?

Salt Lake Temple at sunset

this guy gets a lot of love around here!

On the actual father's day, I sorta dropped the ball.  Both of us had lessons for church to prepare plus we were all tired and just kinda lied around.  The kids made fun gifts before we left.  Geo opened his big present (new grill) two weeks early so we could have it for Erik's birthday party .

After church, I hadn't planned any menu, but from the kids' responses, I thought we ought to have candy, cereal and noodles.  I was REALLY tempted, but remembered the nice dinner he made for me.  So guilt took over and I made chicken asparagus casserole (variation of his favorite chicken broccoli).  It turned out really yummy.  We sure feel blessed to have Geo around and our dad's as examples for him to follow. And of course, the kids think their grandpa's and uncles are fantastic.  Happy Father's Day, men!

cards from church
top:  Lucy, Austin
bottom:  Elise