Cameron's Big Day!

Cameron had a great day today. We had crepes for breakfast per his request, then he had a few cookies...and waited and waited for his friends to arrive for the p-a-r-t-y. He had 4 friends over and they had so much fun playing outside and being silly. I didn't feel like going crazy with games or anything and I'm glad I didn't since they were so happy just hanging out together. Cam wanted to have a watermelon eating contest, which was a big hit. Then we did some water balloons and sprinkler/slip n slide fun and came in for presents and cupcakes with sundaes...He had a day full of friends and sugar so he was a happy camper. I think he is ready for school to start, he misses he friends a lot. I am so glad he has found such a good group of boys to be buddies with. They all have the same 'boy' interests. In fact I think the highlight of the day for them may have been when they discovered a dead skunk under the tarp at the pond. I was unaware of this til Cam brought me the skull and a bony arm with little tufts of fur on it. It was simply delightful.

My eight year old! Although he looks like he's about 3 in this picuture.

Water slide time

This was during the water balloon toss-unknown to Cameron at the last minute everyone turned their waterballoons on him. I love his reaction in this picture:

I'm just glad no one puked up watermelon

Aren't they cute. Boys are so easy to please!

Happy Birthday to Cameron!

We love you, and wish you a great day!

Tahoe

Here's a few pics from Tahoe. I miss it already!

Bliss beach is so.....blissful.


Carrie and the scenery at Eagle Lake




Adam and Cameron were inseparable

Up to Eagle Lake!

Just a few things we've been up to...

Okay, definately not my most flattering picture, but wanted to show you my cayenne peppers. This isn't all of them, there's more, but my thread ran out.

Abby is rolling all over the place now, and is learning how to sit up. These two pictures are funny, look at her eyes, as soon as she had one toy, she was eyeing the other- she only wanted what she wasn't holding.

So sweet!

We got Caitlin's stuff for her online charter school this Fall. Whoa. We were a little overwhelmed. Boxes upon boxes of books, science stuff, math stuff, workbooks, blocks, and oh yeah, a computer, monitor, and printer. We have to eventually return most of the stuff at the end of the year, but we had no idea where to put it all or where to set up "school". So out went our washer and dryer into the garage and in went a galvanized-metal tabletop Rod made at work and chairs from craigslist (that I reupholstered). My hubby can do it all!! It looks pretty awesome. There's still some wiring to figure out where to put, and more school-ish things to go up, but you get the picture:

Also, good news: Rod's boss said to expect to go back to 5 days a week after he gets back from vacation! Whoo-oo!

Man vs. Wild

Here are a few pictures from our recent Stake Scout High Adventure. Mt. Darwin was our goal at 13,800 ft elevation. It was very challenging - had to survive by sleeping in this cave.

Dad

the zoo, zions, egg rolls and more!

The cheescake factory has delicious avacado egg rolls so clark and i thought we'd try to make some...they were delicious! here's the recipe we used: http://www.recipezaar.com/Copycat-Cheesecake-Factorys-Avocado-Egg-Rolls-60891 i didn't use any tamarind or powdered saffron, cause i couldn't find any and they were fine. i highly recommend them.


this was a hike we did called the living room. there are rocks set up like chairs and couches and it's an awesome view.


We went to a demolition derby the same weekend em and brett went. surprisingly it was very entertaining watching cars smash into each other. just picture a life size version of travis playing crack up cars. it's every boys dream i think.


i went to zion's this weekend and we went on just a small hike there, but it was beautiful. we met this couple from england and the woman kept talking about an "adorable creature with the most lovely little face." turns out it was a chipmunk and i learned they don't have chipmunks in england.


Clark and I met Em and Brett and Brett's 2 nephews they were babysitting at the hogle zoo. there was the cutest baby snow leopard!!

Cankles

I had never been stung by a bee as of a week ago. Then I stepped on a wasp and man, that hurt! The next day my foot was all swollen and I didn't think much of it, I figured it would go away later that day. Well the next day it was worse and it was starting to hurt. By the fourth day it still was swollen and it was going up my leg and my foot was getting a weird color. So I finally went in on Saturday (I really hate taking the time to go to the Dr, it's such a pain!) and turns out I had an allergic reation and an infection from the pucture of the stinger. So I had to get a fun tetanus shot and an anitbiotic shot and for a week I have to take antibiotics that make me feel sick (a reminder that I don't want to be pregnant again). The swelling is finally going down and I'm so glad to see my ankle again! So that's what's been going on in my world.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Spokane for the Whittle reunion. I wish I had some serious sedatives for the ride there. I wish I had your DVD player in my van, Carrie. It's those long road trips that make those things priceless!! Is everyone counting down til Tahoe? Hopefully mom is surviving Girls Camp!