Thrill Riders...

First of all, I just had to post this picture of James's smile. I have very few pictures where he is making a natural happy smile, but I guess his little princess has inspired one here!

The boys have loved driving their Power Wheels, so we thought we would let Alanna enjoy the experience also. We got some great video footage of her squealing with delight as if she were riding on a roller coaster. She just loves being able to do anything her big brothers do.

Jackson's latest thing is carrying around
one of James's old wallets. He is constantly asking us for cards to put in it, and he has collected an old insurance card and shopping cards. When he drives his Power Wheels Jeep or Truck, he is sure to have his proof of insurance, and his "driver's licence" in his pocket just in case the cops pull him over for speeding! It's good practice for responsible driving
I suppose, it's really funny how serious he is about being prepared though!

Fun in the Sand...

On Saturday, our family hung out with our good friends, the Linnells at the lake. We have been friends with the Linnells since Sarah (left) and I were 6 years old, and we have kept in touch ever since. She and her siblings have some of the CUTEST kids I have ever seen. This is her newest addition, Savannah. It was so much fun to get together and catch up with them.

Like always, our boys did not lack for any attention! Uncle Luke and Uncle Caleb took them out in the water and built really cool sand sculptures that James and I would never think of doing (or have the artistic skill to do so!). Jackson became a octopus man about to eat a crocodile. They also made a dog for Paul, and a "hot tub" to sit in. The boys want us to dig them a "hot tub" every time we go to the lake because even though it's 90 degrees or more outside they think they get cold! Alanna hung out with Poppy (my dad) and was cuddled most of the day which she can't get enough of. Paul talked Grandma Ce-Ce into taking him ALL OVER the lake in boat - he's pretty good at talking his grandparents into doing almost anything he wants them to do!

Jackson is FIVE!!!

Happy Birthday Jackson! I can't believe my baby is 5 years old and will be starting Kindergarten in less than a month! We already had a "friend" party for Jackson, and we had our "family" party on July 15, on his real birthday. He wanted a birthday cookie, but I couldn't really decorate it because the boys managed to break my frosting tube that day. Jackson is really into skateboarding now, the Tec Dec finger boards, and real skateboarding. I'm encouraging the fingerboards for now! He already has a collection of them, and he got a 1/4 pipe for them that he can build onto in the future.


James came home from work early, and we spend the evening at our new neighborhood lake! I actually spent almost everyday this past week at the lake! I LOVE it! It's just heavenly to have a beach right up the street. My parent's got Jackson an inflatable boat and life jacket for part of his birthday present, so he is all geared up for a summer of fun on the lake. The kids could play for hours in the sand, swim in the shallow water, and lay out in the sun. Alanna LOVES the sand and water, and we really have to watch her because she will just crawl right out into the water with no reservations! I let her crawl out and sit up in the water up her neck and she was
upset that I wouldn't let her go any further! It's so fun to see her happily explore her new surroundings.

Thank you so much for all the phone calls and birthday wishes Jackson received! He is so blessed to have such loving grandparents and aunts and uncles! We love you all! And, thanks to Grandma Ce-Ce for spending an afternoon with us at the lake. She even went in the water and towed us around in the boat! What a fun grandma!

Williamson Family Reunion...

Last week, we attended the Williamson Family Reunion, which was all the children, grandchildren, and great-grand children of Lyle and Glenna Williamson. It was fun to see all of the Aunts and Uncles and cousins running around the campsite and lake playing together. James's Aunt, Maurine, put together a very touching memorial service for Grandma Glenna and Grandpa Lyle, and I hope that my kids will get to know them through the memories and stories shared about them. One of the activities our kids participated in was eating a donut on a string, shown here. I don't know why I was such a slacker taking pictures...oh yeah, probably because camping with three kids in tow is pretty hectic! Alanna isn't walking on her own yet - she just holds on to objects with one hand to steady herself. She will crawl anywhere and everywhere though, which wasn't a good idea in the thick weeds and dirt all over the campsite. We pretty much had to hold her or stroll her about the whole time!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of James's big joke. To make fun of his Dad and Uncles, he shaved only the top of his head and left the rest a normal length, and he grew a moustache. It was hideous! I don't know how women kiss men with moustaches either - ouch! The funny thing is that James's extended family hadn't seen him since last summer and they just thought he had started balding like his Dad! I asked them if they liked his new do, and then they laughed and said it was funny. At first, they weren't sure if it was a joke! I was glad to get home and see him shave it off completely. When he does go completely bald and has to Bic it like his brothers, I think he will still look good! A chrome dome is much better than a comb over or comb forward in an effort to deny or hide the baldness!

Our CRAZY train ride...

Last week, Maryann and I decided to take our kids to the Gateway to play in the water fountains via the TRAX. Our ride there was fun because the kids thought they were riding a roller coaster, and they would put their arms in the air and loved moving around from seat to seat when the train stopped. A nice old man, George, sat by us and got to know him a little bit.

It was a very hot day, so the kids loved getting soaking wet in the fountains. The funnest part is when they do a big fountain show with music every 1/2 hour. That's when the water gets really crazy, and I don't think the kids are really
supposed to be in it, but how could they resist? After spending a few hours there, we decided to head home. We didn't anticipate what an experience we were about to have!

Having lived in the DC Metro area, we got used to taking the metro and easily finding our way around the city. The TRAX, however, is not self explanatory system. We couldn't tell which train we should get back on, so we asked a family who were sitting there waiting for the train also. They told us to get on the Central train, so we went with their directions. Soon after getting on the train we started heading up to the University of Utah, and we knew we were not going the right direction. A passenger lady on the train told us that we were coming to the end of the line, and that we must exit the train and then get back on. This sounded senseless to me, but we did it anyway. I'm sure we were quite a site with six kids and two strollers between us! We were too busy unloading our caravan to notice that no one else was exiting the train

Even though we were feeling pretty foolish, in retrospect this was a helpful move because we ended up sitting by Daryl, a UTA worker who said we could follow him back to the proper train to get us home. So, after 2 1/2 hours on the train and meeting all kinds of "interesting" people, we finally made it back to our stop completely exhausted! I think that will be my last TRAX ride unless I am in a very desperate situation! I have more stories about funny incidents that we had with people on the train, but I'll be nice and keep them between Maryann and I!

Alanna's 1st Birthday!

I just can't believe that our little Alanna is 1 already! She weighs in at 18.5 lbs (9%), and is 29.5" long (56%). I never knew that having a baby girl would bring our family such joy! It amazes me to see how much love her brothers (and her dad) show her. She definitely seems to be every body's favorite! We had a fun birthday bash with both sides of the family since the Williamson's were in town. For dinner we had kind of a taco salad with the Cafe Rio Pork Barbaco, and the Cafe Rio Creamy Tomatillo salad dressing. I made Alanna a princess cake,
but I didn't spend to much time on it, so don't look too closely! We have a tradition of giving our kids their own cake on their first birthday to let them devour it! I think it's just as fun for us to watch as it has been for our babies to eat the cake! Alanna was a little hesitant at first, but after her brothers started digging in too, she warmed up to the idea of helping herself. Speaking of digging in, her Uncle Luke was encouraged by the audience to stick her foot in the cake... didn't go so well. It was entertaining though. Uncle Caleb and Aunt Lauren bought Alanna a special chocolate moose cake from their favorite bakery, and she definitely preferred that
over her princess cake. The day after her birthday, she wasn't shy at all about grabbing fist fulls of the chocolate and shoving it in her mouth. I made Alanna a special birthday outfit - the tutu and flowers. She loved all of the attention she received while wearing it! As with most one year olds, the paper wrapping on the gifts was much better than the actual present - at first anyway! Thank you so much to Grandma Ce-Ce and Poppy for the shopping cart and play food, Williamson's for the baby stroller, cousin Kaia for the my little pony and video, cousin Mikayla for the outfit, and as mentioned, Caleb and La La for the delicious cake! I bought Alanna

a kitchen, and if I had known how much my boys loved to pretend with food etc. , I would have bought one long ago! It's the perfect toy for them to all share and play together with! After the birthday festivities, we headed to our neighborhood lake to play on the beach and swim. Yes, I did say our neighborhood lake...I'll have to post more about that later! We love you Lanna Baby!

Independence Day!

Our celebration started on July 3rd with a local parade that my kids LOVE! They got so much candy, and as a bonus, this year Jackson's best friend and family were in the parade. I wish I had a picture of Preston, (Jackson's best friend) sporting his festive red, white, and blue mohawk! It was very cool! After the parade we enjoyed listening to a local jazz band in our down time. Alanna and Paul were dancing like crazy, and we got some good video clips of them. Their hyper activity might have had something to do with eating all of their candy from the parade, and huge Slurpees from 7-11. Then, we watched a movie in the park, Kung Fu Panda, on a big blow up screen. This is the second year we have taken part in these local events, and it's perfect because our kids have a blast and it's so close to where we live. We're so lucky to live in such a family orientated community with fun, free, and safe activities. There were free activities hosted by the city throughout the day of the 4th, but having spent the previous days carting the kids around for activities in Denver, we just relaxed at home. We all needed a breather! Later that evening, I painted the boy's faces and we went down to Provo for a barbeque with James's family. Maybe next year we can relax on our deck and watch fireworks all over the valley as our neighbors did!

Mile High City...

A couple of weeks ago, we were very brave and made the 8 1/2 hour (driving time) journey to Denver to visit the Williamson grandparents. I was so nervous about the car ride, but the kids were fabulous travelers! I wish we had DVD players in the car for the road trips I had to endure as a kid! Alanna never cried, and we only had to make 2 stops to eat and potty! Boondocks has become one of our boys favorite places, and Grandpa Joe promised he would take them there when we came to visit. He bought them passes to ride everything, and we spent a whole fun filled day of riding motor cars, bumper boats, arcade games, mini-golf, and the kid jungle gym. Grandma Leslie even got them the all you can eat make your own ice cream sundae's at the snack bar. It was kid heaven, but I've had my fill of the noise and chaos of Boondocks for a while!




We kept busy every day for the week we were there. The kids loved swimming at the local rec center that had a kiddie pool, water slides, and a water playground. I think James loved it just as much as they did. I just love Alanna's bikini body! Unfortunately, we hit the water park during her much needed nap time, and she slept in our arms as we waded around the water playing with the boys!

We enjoyed a camp fire in the backyard making s'mores with Reese's peanut butter cups and Hershey's cookies and cream white chocolate bars! Grandpa Joe brought some pretty fierce looking marshmallow roasting skewers. I don't know how many s'mores our kids have had this summer, but they never get tired of the ooey gooey treats! James shared one with Alanna, again, and she was covered in marshmallow from head to foot!

Of course, Alanna enjoyed exploring a new house and made plenty of messes. One of her favorite places was the banister railings, just like at our house! It's so fun to watch her progress toward walking independently - she's almost there!

The Denver Nature and Science Museum was so fun for the boys. At this exhibit, they got to dress up as scientists and conduct their own experiments. One experiment allowed Jackson to hypothesize about which cereal had the more sugar content, and then we ground it up and put it through a centrifuge to extract the sugar and measure it. He guessed correctly - Captain Crunch contains more sugar than Cheerios :) We saw an IMAX show about how the sun came to be, and one about river conservation and the Colorado River. If you are ever in Denver, I would highly suggest this museum. We could have spent all week there!

While at the Denver Zoo, there were rain storms throughout the afternoon. During the heavy rain, we just stayed under the huts to watch the animals and take a break. This is James's "Got Milk?" pose he make Alanna participate in. I think she is in for much more embarrassment from her dad as she grows older. She is just looking at him like "I can't believe you! How old are you?"

We ended up spending a full day at the Denver museum and didn't even see everything. Our favorite was the primate exhibits, probably because they act just how our kids do! I think we all learned a lot from the shows and docents at the museum. If we lived closer we would have to buy a season pass and take our kids there often - they couldn't get enough of the animals! I am impressed at how much they like to learn while also having fun!


This is a picture of our kids with the dinosaurs... and their grandparents! Thank you to them for hosting us for a week in Denver, and spending time with our kids and spoiling them! As soon as we made it back to UT, Paul wanted to turn the car around and go back! I guess they thought watching movies for 8 1/2 hours was a great part of the vacation fun as well!

June 20

June 20th is a very special day for our family, it's the day that my brother, Paul, was born. It would have been his 29th birthday this year. People often say about their loved ones that not a day goes by that they don't think of them. I would say not an hour goes by that I don't think of Paul several times. There isn't a family function where I don't imagine what Paul would be doing or what wisecracks he would be coming up with. For every exciting thing that happens in my life, I wish that I could call him and share it with him, as he was one of my biggest cheer leaders. Although his death has left such a sense of loss, I also feel that his life has left me with such joyful memories and a great example of love and compassion. I know that when my time comes to pass to the next stage of existence, he will be right there front and center to welcome me there!

To celebrate his life this year, we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house which is less than 5 miles from our home. Then we went to the Pie, a pizza restaurant that Paul loved, and then back to my house for dessert and games. We had two of Paul's best friends join us for the event. Brent, and Jordan have been friends with Paul since they were about 6 years old. They have been so good to stay in touch with my parents, and they always visit on Paul's birthday to help us celebrate! We all really appreciate the friendship we still have with them!