Oh what do you do in the summertime?

We visit friends and family in California and Arizona. It was only 100+ degrees the whole week, not too bad.

In the picture of Cosette by the flannel board, she was given the assignment of preparing a lesson for Family Home Evening. She and Aunt Nic worked on it for about 30 minutes and wrote everything down. They practiced three times. Nothing Cosette said was what she and Nic had talked about. That's a four-year-old for you. She was so matter of fact though with what she did discuss - families.



Grandma and Grandpa Sewell's 50th anniversary was June 14th. We had a party for them in Fontana. That was the first reason the kids and I (Emma) took ourselves down south.

Cosette, Isaac, and Ethan got to spend lots of time with their cousin Mira. They all enjoy each other a lot.

First day of summer

For the first day of summer I thought how fun it would be to take a nap in the shade. So I hung our hammock between our quacking aspen and our apple tree. At a high of 85 degrees it was pure bliss.

Entertainment

Here is Ethan, what can we say...pure entertainment!

Brothers here are bonding in the only way brothers can...with trains.
This is the morning that Aunt Nicole, Emma and the kids went to California. Why are they on the floor you ask? I am not sure they know the answer to that.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Sunset in Pocatello

Sunset from our backyard at about 9pm. That's the crazy thing about living so far north...the sun doesn't go down until it's 9pm or later.
Ethan is trying out his new found legs anyway that he can. He's kind of like a puppy in that he likes to crawl around on the floor under the kids' stools to find stuff the dropped and I didn't pick up yet...
Please, Mom, can't I got outside just this once? I promise I won't get dirty or eat snails!

Ending May

Here's my trio! Ethan is sitting up quite well now. I'm still amazed he is old enough to do that! Isaac's favorite spot to sit and think, or eat, or rest, or ...
Where did Ethan go? There he is! Great spot for hide and seek.
Swimming in the "pool".
We went for a walk Sunday, June 1. This is Ethan nice and strapped it. He's been having a hard time with his teeth since Saturday. We stayed home from church with him because he was spiking a 103 fever.

The Fence

Wow, it is beautiful... oh and the flowers are nice too. We have so many different colored flowers
The kids will be safe from the road

Grass is still green too. Lots of rain in May so far.
NEAR & FAR (think seseme street)
And we have two sides of the house. Heres the other one. Much better that the first if you ask us.
Cleared out all the ground cover near the house, looks better now.

This is the fence that we built...I would sing it to the tune, "This is the House that Jack Built" - but it doesn't come across on paper very well. This is what we did all day yesterday (Saturday, May 24). A two-person auger was rented for the post holes and we put this up in about 6 or 7 hours. It's only a 4-ft high fence, just tall enough the kids can't get over. The fencing was bought in 8-ft panels. I'd almst say it saved us time and effort, but on the East side of the house, we took off all the boards of one panel so we could angle them down.

The gate on the west side of the house (the last picture in the series) is pretty cute in my opinion because it swings out from the middle, like the old fashioned bar doors from the Western movies.

Randomness

Isaac got this bed tent for his birthday. He thinks it's pretty cool to sleep in! Cosette wants to take it outside so she can use a sleeping bag...still a little cold for that.

We actually got the kids to pose in front of our tulip bed! This is one of Ethan's new favorite places to hide...he'll also get himself stuck halfway in the carseat.

We passed this house about a mile from Garden City. Cosette thought it was a great replica of Cinderella's castle.
Here's Ethan pulling himself up on the couch last weekend.

Adieu to Vacation

You'll have to click on this picture to see the kids and the lake...but what a color Bear Lake is!! There is a lot of limestone in and around the lake that put calcium in the water. That's where the deep, sparkling blue is from. Here Cosette and Isaac got to put their new fishing poles to good use. Since they got them, Cosette has been begging to use hers. We obliged at home and let the kids practice casting and reeling in the lines in our hot tub at home. Once we arrived here to Bear Lake she's been dying to go. Here she is showing us what she caught.


A little embankment separated the water the kids played in from the rest of the lake. It was good since the water the kids are laying in here was much warmer than the rest of the water. Rob and I wanted at least one picture with both of us in it. Here's us and the lake.
Other notable happenings this weekend were that Ethan broke thru his first tooth on Friday and he pulled himself up to standing on a chair. I'll post a picture of him pulled up to his knees in the next little bit.

More fun

Opening presents...thanks Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Nic!! Isaac got up at 6am with the sun. Hopefully a nice, long nap is in the cards today.

Birthdays

I had a great day yesterday. It was just me and my family. We went into Logan to figure out why my cell phone wasn't getting any signal when the coverage map said it should be great. We also went to see Maxine Howser, Rob's former landlord from Granada Hills. She lived right around the corder (kind of) from the Willow Park Zoo. The kids had fun playing at the park for a couple of hours.

It was a n ice, leisurly day that I don't think could have been better.

Today is Isaac's big day - 2 years old! It's hard to believe it was two years ago we were packing up to leave Northridge and Rob and I were graduating from CSUN.

Well, to liven up everyone's day and save me from talking too much, here are some more pictures from our stay here in Garden City, Utah.

Notice Isaac jumping for joy in the background. We couldn't have gotten this picture like that if we'd planned it.
Daddy and Isaac admiring the fish. All Isaac was thinking was how he could get in there to catch them!
Mom and kids at the end of a long day. Isaac wasn't going to have any of it, but the pretty blue lake is in the background.
This is the park set at the resort of where we're staying. You can see the lake right over the slide, that's how close we are!!

Happy Day in Bear Lake

So, I was getting really sad on Wednesday night, my camera just quit on me. The lens got stuck half way in and half way out. I guess, since the camera was about 2 years old, it was time for it to go caputs. Electronics are designed to work for 2 years anyway, if you get more than that, it's a bonus.

That brings me to the huge "problem". We left yesterday for Bear Lake, Utah to spend the weekend away for Isaac and my birthdays. How can you have a birthday without a camera?

Well, I went to Walmart to think of a solution to my problem. I was thinking of getting a couple disposable cameras, but then there's the cost to process them and I'd end up spending about $15. It doesn't sound like much, I know, but if you consider that I could spend $15 on something that I don't really want just to get a new camera later, I decided to go with my next option - New Camera!! It was on sale and is a nice, cute little model.

The great thing about the new camera is that it takes the same memory card as my old camera. The bad thing is I left the memory card at home because I didn't think I would need it for the trip and didn't want the pictures to somehow find themselves erased. That being said, I can only take 6 pictures at a time with the new camera. I have the laptop (obviously) and so we just upload the pictures as we take them. Because of this, I have pictures of our tuilips that are going to have to wait. They are stuck on the memory card.

We are staying at the Worldmark Trendwest Resorts in Bear Lake. We have a two bedroom condo overlooking the Lake. I'll get pictures of that and put them up too. Here are the kids enjoying a movie while we got unpacked and settled.

For my birthday, Rob got me a Nintendo Wii. It's very exciting to now be part of the "in crowd". Here are Rob and I playing the Sports games.

Here is Isaac modeling Cosette's new slippers. He's all about "oohs" (shoes).