Omaha

In August, my sister and brother-in-law, Hannah and Matt, welcomed their first child, a little girl named Penelope. I LOVE that name and they obviously love it too. I booked a flight and got everything ready to go visit for the baby blessing and to see some family, which was over labor day weekend. It was an interesting weekend. My mom, who had been there for about 3 weeks helping, fell down some stairs and broke her ankle in 3 places and dislocated it. I've always said she is an overachiever. Because of this, another younger sister, Molly, who wasn't planning to be there, flew out to help take care of my mom until my dad and I got there. Everything went as well as possible with someone who was basically bedridden.

The blessing was Sunday night and we were able to have it at the hotel. It was very nice of everyone involved to come to us since my mom was injured. I did have a chance to meet two of the cutest little girls ever! *Sigh* Too bad they are only 4 and 6 and live in Omaha. I'm not a big proponent of arranged marriages but the thought did cross my mind cause they were so stinking cute and adorable!!!

Mom, dad and Molly left Monday around noon to begin the drive back to WA State. They got there incredibly quickly and safely. After they left, I headed out with Hannah, Matt and Lil P to see the sights. We went to the Winter Quarters Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Right next to it is a cemetery where lots of members of the church were buried. It's a lovely little place. Across the street from both is a visitor's center where we took the very abbreviated version of the tour. The tour starts with a video and then goes around the visitor's center and you learn about the early pioneers of the church, how Winter Quarters was founded and a lot of church history. It usually takes about 45 minutes. We did it in about 15. Matt had already seen it and Lil P was on a schedule all her own.

It was a really nice visit. I got up early Tuesday morning and went for a very nice run. It was very green and cool. It was a beautiful run. I did enjoy my quick visit. I loved driving down a main highway/road and seeing corn fields on both sides! I wrongly thought corn fields flanking a road was something only found kind of out in "farm" country. Nope. It was beautiful and I had a lot of fun.

Lil P in her blessing dress.

The fam that was there.

Lil P sleeping.

Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple

View from the road.

Entrance to the cemetery.

View of the temple from the cemetery.

Closer up view of the temple.

Me and the sign. 

The visitor's center.

Emily's Birthday

A month after Pach's birthday is my birthday. We have 3 summer birthday's in this house, so it's a party all summer long! I got to pick dinner, so we head to Hot Rods here in Vail. We like it. The food is good, the service is mostly good and the boys LOVE all the hot rods sitting around. It's a great place for us as a family.

After we got home we did the presents, which meant, the boys opened them for me. Actually, just as we sat down to open presents, the doorbell rang. It was a friend dropping off a present for me. Bacon took it and before I had even closed the door, he had pulled everything out of the bag! They get so excited for any type of celebration with presents! Then came the cake.....

I think it was my second birthday after we had gotten married, Tim tried to make me an elephant cake. We would watch "Ace of Cakes" and he would get all sorts of ideas for cakes. He made a cake and rice krispy treats to sculpt an elephant. It didn't work. That year I got a soccer cake, which was awesome! Fast forward a few years, a few kids and lots of crazy cakes and Tim made another attempt to make elephants for me. I think it was a success!! It wasn't an actual elephant cake but it had elephants and I loved it!

The ever helpful boys!

Bacon is never far from the action!

Pickles turn to help.

Bacon is the ham of the family. I guess the nickname is very appropriate.

Pach is such a cutie!

Bacon is actually helping this time.

The elephants that went on the cake. I LOVED them! The boys did too.
They ate them.

Blowing out the candles with help. 

Dig into Reading - End of the library summer reading program

Each year (as I found out this year), the library holds a "Dig into Reading" program to help kids get into reading. Each child gets a reading "log" to keep track of how many books are read. It's a rock path broken up into four sections. Each section has 10 rocks. Whenever a child reaches the end of a section, they can go to the library and get prizes. Sometimes it's books and little papers. Other times it's more books and pamphlets and cutesy little things. At the end of the summer, any child who has filled in all 40 rocks get a free pass to the Zoo where the Library holds it's end of the summer reading program party. There is a lot of things to do and it's a lot of fun. I'd never been before, so this was very new to me. I'm glad we are zoo members because the line to get in was crazy long! We were able to go straight to the "Zoo Members" window and only wait 5 min. versus the 30 mins or so. The kids had a great time. We went with some friends so we were able to divide and conquer!

I would like to say we actually saw some animals but not really. We saw the Otters, a couple monkeys, the giraffes and the lions. And we only saw those because they were on our way to someplace we were heading. It was accidental animal viewing this day at the zoo.

Digging for dinosaurs.

Nothing beats playing in the water on a hot day!

Not really a river but fun nonetheless.

Trying to hula hoop.

Not to be outdone by his older brothers.

He got pretty good. 

Cute red stegasarous. 

He surprised me by getting a lion. I thought for sure he would have gone with the dinosaur.

"Where the Wild Things Are". There were many
storybook characters roaming around.

Doing the "limbo".

A friend's son asked the DJ to play "Gangnam Style". The older boys danced.

For trying to hula hoop for so long, Pach won these window clings.
Until we decorated for Halloween, they were proudly displayed on the bathroom mirrors.

Another School year Starts!

Here in Vail, we have a modified year-round school system. I really like it. The kids start in mid-July and go until the end of May with a few breaks thrown in. I like they start in the summer because it gives them something to do during the inferno called summer here.

Pach started 1st grade! I can't believe he is in 1st grade already! And in a small but nice change, Pickle started his second year of Joy School the same week! He LOVES it and I can't believe he will be in kindergarten next year! Ahhhh!!!! Where is the time going?????

Pach and his new backpack.

Bacon wouldn't be left out so I got a picture
with all my handsome little men!

Pickle with his new backpack.

Even though he isn't starting any type of school,
Bacon will not be left out. 

Pachman is 6!!!

Not long after Bacon's birthday and Father's Day is Pach's birthday. This year he turned 6 years old! He is growing up so fast!! I don't know that I like it.

He chose to have a Transformer's birthday party and had a lot of fun. He was able to have a few friends over. Each got an Optimus Prime mask and played "Pin the Allspark on Bumble Bee."

He had a great time opening the presents and loved each one. The surprise hit of the present opening was a gift bag that played "Happy Birthday to You" while candles lit up. Everyone wanted to play with that. Guess I know what to get him next year!

Tim mad a great cake again this year. Pach had asked for a Bumble Bee cake, specifically his face. I was wondering how Tim was going to pull that off since Bumble Bee's face is a bit more difficult than Optimus Prime's. Luckily for him (I guess), Pach decided he didn't want a face, he simply wanted two figurines fighting each other. So Tim made a wonderful cake with Bumble Bee and Star Scream fighting each other.

I love his smile!

The boys playing Transformers.

Opening a legos. 

He is such a good brother! He let Bacon open one of his presents.

Bacon was really excited!

The bag! Biggest hit of the party!

Ben 10 Humangasaur. (That is probably spelled wrong).

 

The cake. I really like the bright yellow and black contrast.

Happy boy with his cake!

Tim thinks I'm funny I always want a picture cutting the cake.

Bacon decided he didn't need a fork or plate.

We made him take this bite for a picture but he would've done it anyway.

He was so proud of himself!

Happy Father’s Day!!

 Right after Bacon’s birthday we got to celebrate again. Yay for Father’s Day!

The boys LOVE Father’s Day. Every year I dress the boys in all their BYU stuff: shirts, socks, hats, toys, etc. and we head out to get Father’s Day pictures taken. That is the one gift Tim gets every year: a picture of the boys that says “Happy Father’s Day” on it. It’s hard to keep it a secret now and he knows that is one present but it’s still fun to do.

He got a couple Cure CD’s that he didn’t have. I was shocked when I found them but quite happy too. He opened and listened to them that night. It was great fun! I wrapped all the presents in white paper and the boys went to town decorating them and their cards with stickers and markers. It’s always fun wrapping paper for dad!

Bacon helping dad unwrap his movie.

Pach helping dad unwrap his CD.

Pickle's wrapping job.

Helping dad unwrap his other CD.

His present from me. A card and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

 

Opening his annual Father's Day present: A picture of the boys decked out in BYU gear.