Summer Activities

Keith and Cherie bought a boat this summer. We got to score a ride with them and enjoy a beautiful afternoon at Willard Bay.



Keith & Cherie both rocked it at wake boarding. We even got to see some tricks. Jake tried out wake skating and liked that.


There were some pretty awesome biffs all around. Keith was thrown off the wake skate & did a little roadrunner movement in the air with his feet. It was awesome. Cherie got slapped pretty hard in the face & Jake pretty much drank his fill of water for the next month.


We were all pretty tired at the end of the day. None more then Jayda who stuck out all of the activity like a champ. She really likes when the boat is going fast fast fast.

Cherie & Keith have been really awesome this summer and have let us tag along when they go rock climbing. They are awesome at it. If it wasn't for Keith & Cherie, we seriously would have had no life this summer. Thanks guys!


My second attempt at out door rock climbing. Biggest fear = putting my fingers onto a crevice with a spider. Uck!


We took Gelica to spend some time with her before she moved. She did really great & told us "When I get a little bit taller, I will rock climb with the rope."

And the rock climbing award goes to........

Our only other summer activity has been working outside. It was so fun when the flowers on the lilies started blooming.

We get a couple of small pink flowers each day that are very pretty.

The giant yellow flowers are my favorite. They are about the size of a large soft ball. We only get 1-2 flowers every couple of days.

The Summer of Babies

It is baby madness around here. If you look back at my pics through winter, you will see pregnant women in all of the party shots. Now all of our parties of full of babies, nursing, crying, & diapers.

Featured is: Desie & Seth, Cherie & Ryan, Annie & Jayda - Cherie & Annie's babies are mixed up.


We scored Jayda for a night. She liked the fish, but she was more interested in putting them in her mouth then feeding them.


I made her a little do-rag so we could be twins.

She was pretty patient with me while I tried all of my headbands on her. She needs some legs warmers to go with that headband. "She's a maniac, maniac, on the floor. And she's dancing like she's never danced before."

Busted.

Jon likes to hike Seth's pants up to his arm pits. I would cry too if I thought my pants were going to swallow me alive. ;-)

For the Love of Rock Band

Jon brought over his new stage kit he got for his birthday for Rock Band. Pretty much the coolest thing ever. Smoke, stage lights, the works.

Jake's brother Mike came to hang with us for the weekend. We loved having him.

Jake was born to be a rock star.

Jon twirling his sticks.

And you wonder why I love my husband

(This is a little hard to see but still worth it. It gets lighter as it goes on.)

Live wElle 5k

Live wElle is a foundation that raises funds to create scholarships for students to attend college. The foundation was created by Jake's cousins Scott & Kirsten Hullinger in the memory of their daughter Elle who passed away in 2006. We decided to get together as a family and run the 5k to support their foundation. Their was an awesome turn out. It's especially amazing to be in the first 10 min. of your run & realize that people are already passing you on the way back. Ouch!


This is the part of my life I call "Running my first 5k."

I slapped this awesome sticker on Mark's Hullingers back at the end of the race. I can't help it if it's true. ;-)

Jayda did awesome on her first 5k.

Battle of the Bulge

In most countries, a crisis concerns someone dying, a natural disaster, war, ect. But no, here in America, many of us wake up everyday to a natural disaster in our own homes. With all due respect towards real crisis, I will now go on to talk about my own personal natural disaster/war with my pants.

Lately, my pants have been trying to let me know that they are unhappy with my food choices. They complain that I give them no respect as I stuff down Doritos, Reese’s Pieces, & my latish fetish, chocolate mint ice cream. They have begun to wage war on me by splitting not once in the crotch, but twice. I am blatantly ignoring their complaints by shutting them up with sewn in patches. I will not listen to you I say. I have not put on any extra weight and I refuse to acknowledge your complaints. They hit the final straw yesterday when I spent 8 hours outside gardening with them. I went inside to find they had cut my stomach to let me know that they were suffocating from the fat that was drooling over the edge of my pants. I have decided to teach them a lesson today by ignoring them and refusing to wear them. Ha! That will show them.

I started going through my closet to find another pair of pants. I tossed them left & right as they denied me the right to be worn. "If you refuse to wear one of us, you refuse to wear all of us," they cried. They are clearly rebelling against me by refusing to be zipped, refusing to be buttoned, & worst of all sucking up against by behind to give me pancake butt. I came to the end of my pants and sadly realized........there were no more pants left to try on. Slowly, I turned to survey the damage. The carnage was awful. Pants senselessly thrown across the bed, flung over the TV, lying lifelessly in piles on the floor. My poor dog Mysha, was pinned down on the floor by a pair thrown in her direction. My heart dropped at the scene.

In war, one side must eventually be conquered. I fear that I have lost this battle. I can't go walking around the world without pants. It just can't be done.

And then it came. It came in an overwhelming storm. I was at fault. I was to blame for this war. As I sat crying in my closet looking around at the senseless destruction, I cried out to my pants in passion, "I have been so blind! How could I have done this to you! So very very blind!" I promised them with courage and conviction that they would live again. "You will live again," I cried. "You will live again to walk, to run, to climb, to kneel, to play, to live. To truly live! This I promise you! You shall live again."

My pants having a tantrum.

Viva piñata

Jake & I have been spending a lot of time in the yard. For those of you who have played Viva Pinata, that's what it feels like. Taking empty space, creating something with it, & attracting species after species. Only when my species dies, I don't get candy. :-(




I just put this in because I think my boy is hot.




It's been hard to work on my yard with my tooth infection. My weeds were about 2 feet high by the time I was able to get to them. This spot that I've cleared out around the pond took me about 30 hours to weed, edge, arrange the flagstones to my liking, & do some soil prep as the dirt was about as hard as stone.



Jake & I had some fun putting in new pond plants. I can't wait to put in more. Instead of pictures of kids, you get pictures of plants. Ha!

The tall grass is Water Iris & will bloom yellow flowers. The floating plants on the right are Water Hyacinth.

Thalia

Blood Root Grass

Red Leaf Plantain

My favorite is the Blue Mase....maze?...that you plant between the rocks. It will start to trail down the rocks as it grows.

We were happy to find that Iris grew and it looks like a Day Lily is growing as well. I'm excited to see what colors I get. I think the Iris is going to be purple.

This is a Water Hyacinth close up. The float losely on the water & the fish like to feed on its roots. If you blow this picture up you will see the new pinata/species we have attracted.

Everybody, welcome Earl. I was spraying the pump clean when this 2 foot long snake started wildly crawling out of the water. I was screaming "Snake!! Snake!!" I'm pretty sure he was screaming "Where! Where!" I ran away & we lost him. Later I came back to find him wrapped around the pump with his head gently resting on the top of the Water Hyacinth. I fell in love with him & named him Earl.

Here's a funny little video of Earl. Unfortunately, his life was short lived. The pump God has already taken 4 fish of ours. In his greed, he took Earl as well. Sad.

Another pinata/species we have attracted. I'm not going to name this one. He's awfully cute, but he needs to go away. Any suggestions? I'm running into them quite a bit.

Mysha loves being in the back yard while I'm gardening. I think it reminds her of spending time with Mom working in the yard. It's been so fun to have her again. I've totally fallen in love with her all over again.

Sometimes she likes to sit on top of the pond to survey what we are doing. (Anybody feel like pulling weeds?)

Mysha has joined us in our gardening. She's quite involved with it. Here's garden spot #1.

Garden spot #2

Garden spot #3

Garden spot #4


Garden Spot #5 - My favorite

You can see she's been hard at work. We deal with these dirty paws on a daily basis.


I have also been hard at work as well spending 3-4 hours a day trying to get control of this mess. It's hard work man!

However, after a hard day of work, we all get together & and snuggle in our exhaustion. Which provides for some mighty cute pictures with my mighty cute family.