Just some random pictures

We finally got a bunch of our landscaping done. Not much of the little details like bushes, trees and flowers, but we got the grass in the front and back as well as the retaining wall, gravel and wood chips. We should be getting our fence in the next couple of weeks. Seth was so excited to get to ride in the bobcat and help !





There was a beautiful rainbow tonight so I thought I would include some pictures of it that also show the yard. This is in our back yard. The fence will go right in front of the trees.

Seth has had so much fun this summer playing with his cousins that he doesn't get to see very often. We figured since TJ and Seth have the same b-day, they should have the same pajamas as well.

Addie, Seth and TJ

Luke, Seth, TJ and Collin. Give these boys a few years and I think we will have some real trouble makers on our hands.

Ian, Seth, Sam and Brandon. Seth loves having all his Chicago cousins come to visit!

My boys really love animals. We were at the park and a family had some puppies there. They were so cute and if they weren't $500 each, maybe I would consider getting one.

Speaking of animals, we had to take our cat Belle in today and have her put down. She was getting pretty old and she has always been our "special needs" cat. We got her 2 months after we got married, so she has been with us since almost the beginning. It was pretty sad, but it was time. We think the rainbow today was for her. She was purring right up to the end. Here is Seth saying his goodbye before we took her in. For all of you keeping track, that is 3 pets we have had to put down in the last 8 months. Both the cats we have left are both getting on in years, but hopefully they have a few more years in them...this is killing me!

A few more pictures of Sam making a total mess of himself when eating. And now you can see why!

And just because I think Nick is cute.....

Bear Lake!!

For our vacation this year, we went back to Bear Lake with Shane & Allyson and Lon & Rebecca. For those of you reading and remember our trip last year, I have to say that this year was much more successful. We had such a blast. What a difference a working boat makes!! Shane and Ally got a new tube and most of our time was spent on it.

We had to work pretty hard to get the guys off it.....

And sometimes we were successful.

But lest you think it was just the guys having fun....

We even took the babies along for a short ride. 2 of the 3 really liked it.

Whenever Sam was wearing a life jacket, he was extremely calm and docile--almost catatonic. I think I may consider him wearing it full time.

We did some wake boarding and water skiing (when I say "we" I mean them. I don't even try)

The only tragedy of the trip was when Shane was pulling Lon, Nick and me on the tube and was doing his darnedest to take us out. Going around a turn, there was a little too much slack in the rope and we could tell that it was going to give us quite a pull when it straightened out. Well, Shane gunned it and I closed my eyes waiting for the whiplash. Next thing I know Nick and Lon have both flipped out of the tube and I am sitting there by myself and the tube is not moving. Nick asks if the rope broke, but once Shane comes back to get us, he informs us that the back of the boat ripped off. Yikes!! Seth was on the boat and a little concerned because Shane is "crazy". Luckily we were able to use good old duct tape to patch the hole and buy a new rope to hook on to a different place on the boat and we kept on going.

Sam doesn't seem to care much for the water and this was about the only time he was in it willingly.

However, Seth is a little fish and loved to go swimming!

And for all of you who have ever doubted that I am a princess, here is proof. This is where we stayed. This belongs to a friend of Shane and he was nice enough to let us rent it for a few days. Nice beach front place with a private beach and a rhino to drive down to the water. It used to be that they could jump off the deck into the water, but it has receded quite a bit. Here is the front and back view.

We had such a great time and we hope that we can make this a yearly tradition!

on to the 24th of July

For the 24th we had my mom and my sister Darla and her boys (visiting from Chicago) with us. We started out with the traditional breakfast of biscuits and gravy. We then hit the parade long enough to see Nick and his float for the bank. We went over to the carnival for the boys to go on a few rides during the parade so there were no lines--heck they were pretty much the only ones ON the rides.

We then did our favorite 24th tradition...Taste of the Valley. About 20 or so restaurants from around the valley all get together and give out samples. You get so many great things and you leave completely stuffed--and we only hit about half of the vendors. It keeps getting bigger every year--I think there were about 3000 people this year. We went with our friends Lon & Rebecca and Shane & Allyson.

Later that night a bunch of people got together at our house for snacks and some lame fireworks we bought that sucked!! Finally at about 10:45 the city fireworks started. They shoot them off a couple of blocks away from our house so we have a perfect view. Of course, Sam didn't stay awake long enough for those either....

Nick's family gets together!

Nick's family does not all get together very often, but his brother Mike was visiting from Norway as well as a niece from Switzerland so we got many of us together for dinner and visiting. With a family as large as his, it is not very often that everyone can be together, but with the exception of one brother (and his family) as well as 8 nieces/nephews and their families, I think everyone else was there.

All the siblings minus baby brother Eric. You are lucky if you can get a shot of all of them together without at least one of them pulling some crazy face. From what I understand, it used to really tick off their dad.

A few days later, we got to welcome a new sister-in-law to the family. Nick's brother George married fabulous Sara and we are so happy to have her and her 4 kids in our family.

Continuation to the 4th of July

For the 4th of July we started out by having breakfast with my dad's brothers and some of my cousins. It was good to see them again since we don't get together very often even though most of us live around here. We met at a park to eat and play. My sister Valerie and her kids were visiting from Chicago so we got Seth and TJ matching shirts to wear on the 4th. Imagine our suprise when my nephew Collin had the same shirt. These 3 boys love each other!



Sam also had a great time at the park playing with Daddy!

My parents got a new dog and Sam thought he needed to drink like Missy does!

That afternoon we headed out to my brothers house for the 2nd annual 4th of July party. They make a big water slide down their hill and have a big pot luck dinner. Kyle and Lena did face painting this year as well. We also had a big water balloon fight that was quite entertaining, but alas, I didn't get any pictures.

We didn't watch any big fireworks this year, just some sparklers and neighborhood street fireworks. Unfortunately Sam only lasted long enough to get the token sparkler shot.

What's been going on the last month....

Okay, so it has been a LONG time since I did a real post. I have a bunch of pictures that will show our summer so far. Here it goes!

We got the opportunity to go on a hot air balloon ride.

At first I was quite nervous. Not an easy thing for a person who is scared of heights.

And really, can you blame me?

Especially when we were THIS close to the freeway?

But then we got views like this. At one point we were about 1000 feet high. It was an incredible experience and I highly recommend it to anyone who gets the chance. So relaxing and peaceful (but maybe that was because we were without our kids).