Sammy becomes a Walker! June - August 2011

*This movie is a compilation of about five 1 1/2 to 2 minute clips that spotlight Sammy.  There is a two minute clip of Ben feeding him peas, and it has poor lighting, but I included it anyway because he was being so silly.*

Ben learns to ride a bike! June 2011

July 2011 - the kids

 A few random pictures from July 2011...

Eliza and Ben reading scriptures on the couch. Ben is reading and Eliza is pretending to because she saw Ben doing it. :)

Eliza and Sammy on the couch in the morning. Sammy is 17 months old. He loves sitting on the couch and feeling like a grown up. When he started doing this a couple of months ago, Jed and I got such a kick out of how ultra-satisfied it made Sammy. :) 

 He is also reading the scriptures... He is really smart because he can read upside down. True story.

Eliza and Ben showing off some of Ben's finished activities. 

Eliza was having a tea party with her animals one afternoon. It was really cute. She is 3 and a half years old.

Ben is 6 years old and will be starting 1st grade in a couple weeks. He is excited. :)  He loves to ride his bike. He also loves to read. He reads for a couple hours every day, just on and off throughout the day. He's going to be a compulsive reader just like his mom. Sorry for passing that on to you, son.  :) We usually keep him well stocked with books from the library, but if we haven't got new books lately he will either reread the ones he has or raid my bookcase for the classics he's read a bunch of times already, like The Secret of Nimh, The Indian in the Cupboard, and Charlotte's Web.  The same stories never get old for him. :)

 

Girls Camp 2011

 I went to Girls Camp again this past summer, in July.  It was so much fun to be there with 'my' girls.  :)  We took this picture when our Bishop came to visit on the evening of the skits.

I was one of the adult leaders over all of the 2nd year campers in the stake. There were 11 of them, and three Youth Leaders, plus the three adult leaders.  Our girls were so sweet! By the end of the week I really loved them!

We had lots of fun activities, including swimming, hiking, and archery. Here I am showing off my not-bullseye. Just smile and nod... :)

On the last day I took a few pictures with some of the girls in our group. I was happy that two of my Beehives from my own ward were in my group of 2nd years. Including Ryleigh Bonk (second from the left)-

 and Hannah Myrabo (far left).

I love Girls Camp!

Ye Scurvy Dogs!

Ahoy, Mateys!
Yer invited to Ben's birthday party!

Come prepared to fly the Jolly Roger at Ben's birthday party... or walk the plank! This pirate is turning 6 years old!  Festivities will last from 10 to noon. We hope to see ye thar.

 At Ben's pirate birthday party, I showed the kids a long-forgotten treasure box I had found in the attic... it was all covered in dust...  The kids unlatched it and discovered an old piece of parchment:

Hidden by a pirate's hand

Their loot is buried in the sand

 They couldn't believe it!  There must be a treasure buried around here!  We all piled outside to look in the sand box for the jewels...

But those pirates apparently weren't about to let their treasure be discovered that easily!  The kids ran from clue to clue... 

Until, Aha! They found the pirate bounty! There was plenty to go around. There were gold doubloons, jeweled necklaces, bottles of ocean water, and ... fruitsnacks. (? hmmm... oh well. no one seemed concerned.)

They came inside to relax and enjoy it.  It was hard-earned, that's for sure.

After that we played a few games, including the Peter Pan game, 'Tick Tock, Where's the Croc?" in which they hid and searched for a ticking timer. They were so cute, all lined up facing the wall and fastidiously covering their eyes.

Ben was really cute as he opened up his presents. 

 

Ben got to decorate his Treasure Island birthday cake. He made a treasure chest out of modeling clay and hid some sparkly jewels in it and placed it on the island, along with some other trinkets I rounded up for him. He also made a pirate ship and a X-marks-the-spot out of modeling clay. Before we blew out his candles, he showed his friends the contents of the treasure box. :)

Here he is after the party, playing with his new Legos.

Showing off some cool presents from out-of-town family members.

The next day he and Eliza undertook the task of digging out some dinosaur fossils from a piece of sandstone. It was quite an important job. Thank you, Grandma, for the archeologist kit!

 Eliza, ever patient, didn't complain about the dust in her eyes. :)

I love this picture. Jed and Ben are intently reading this amazing book about the Human Body that my sister, Mindy, sent for Ben. This book is seriously incredible!   

Ben is standing in front of his entire Lego collection. He loves Legos!

Happy Birthday, our sweet six year old! We love you!

4th of July celebrations

For the 4^th of July, the kids and I went to a community parade just for fun. We met some friends there and we all had a fun time. A nice lady gave Ben and Eliza little flags, which they waved around enthusiastically. (Eliza is pretending to be too sad to take a picture in the photo below. Silly girl.)

That weekend we went to the “Uncle Sam Jam” fair with some friends of ours. The kids got to do some rides. Jed and Ben rode a wheel screeching rollercoaster ride... the Caterpillar. :)

Ahh! This is so scary!

Eliza had fun in a tame boat ride... 

And she rode the airplane with Ryleigh and Madison Bonk. They are darling girls from our ward and they came with us to the fair the night before they moved to Kentucky. :(  We really miss their family!

 Jed and Ben got to ride a   REAL MONSTER TRUCK!!!

So EXCITING!!!

 After the fair rides, we sat with friends to enjoy a great fireworks show.

Happy Fourth of July!

Fishing at the Park

 On June 11, Jed and I took the kids to a fishing outing at the park with some other church members. It was SO FUN!!  There were tons of these tiny fish, about 4 inches long, that kept biting on the kids' lines. These fish tried to eat the worms even when the bait was dangling in the water right off the shore. It made it so much fun for the kids!  They were catching fish left and right, and it was so exciting. Who cares how big they are? It's all about the ACTION when you are fishing. :)

Everyone got a chance to hold the little fish and throw them back in the water.

 Ben was one of the lucky kids with his very own fishing rod and he was catching fish by merely lowing his hook & worm into the water below him. :)  Although there were plenty of rods to go around, there was one point where he was surrounded by a bunch of other kids who were enjoying all his action. :)
He was also casting too, of course, and he is pretty good at it! You wouldn't know it, but his kid fishing pole does a great job casting out into the lake.

Disney World surprise vacation with Jed

This is the story of the most amazing birthday surprise of my life.  :)

 

On Sunday night (May 1st), after Jed and I had spent the evening playing with his new toy basketball hoop, he said, “So, I need you to leave the house tomorrow morning from 8 until 9:15.” I thought it was very mysterious and exciting, and as I lay in bed I pondered on what he could be up to. But he is so sneaky, that after ‘reading’ him the next morning I couldn’t decide if we were leaving on a date when I got back or if he just needed to get something assembled for my birthday gift…  The next morning, he was up early and told me he would take care of the kids while I got ready for the day.  He had the kids dressed, beds made, rooms tidied, and was feeding them breakfast when I raced out the door just at 8am.  When I got back at 9:15 he escorted me from the car and into the van passenger seat, where the kids were all strapped in ready to go somewhere.  We dropped them off at my friend’s house and we headed off on our special surprise date!  I had no idea where we were going… maybe a movie or golf, or bowling or something like that? We started heading toward the airport but I just assumed that our activity must be in that general direction, although there really isn’t much there. But when we turned into the airport I was like, “What are we doing??” and he just smiled and said, "Oh, we're going to watch the airplanes for a while..."  It occurred to me that we must be picking up a surprise visitor!  But when we parked the car and Jed pulled out luggage, I was truly baffled. I thought to myself, “Surely we aren’t going somewhere?” He just smiled and bustled about, leading the way without giving me any hints.  It wasn’t until the check-in lady said, “So, you have a straight flight to Orlando,” that I realized that we were actually going to fly away somewhere… and LEAVE… like out of town… as in, we’re going on vacation… right now. WHAT?!! 

I was completely in shock!  I think I just stared at Jed with this “I can’t believe it” smile, and said over and over, “Are you serious?  Are you serious?”  While we walked to our gate I made him tell me every single detail and I found out that he had been planning this for the past week and a half, around the clock.  When my parents offered us their condo ‘points’ to use in the next month, he thought we just might be able to go out of town on the week that he was scheduled to have five days off in a row.  When he saw a great deal on tickets to Orlando, he decided to buy them and commit himself to it, and since he LOVES surprising me, he decided to make it one enormous, huge SURPRISE BIRTHDAY VACATION for me!  I can’t even believe all the effort and planning he did for every detail. He arranged for our kids to get taken care of until midnight the day we left, until his mother arrived in town (he flew her in to take care of the kids while we were gone).  He wrote instructions on our kids’ routines, medical releases for the kids, instructions to his mom on how to turn on our GPS and get herself home when she picked up our car in the airport parking lot… he had laid awake night after night thinking of what else he needed to do and writing lists of things to pack and arrangements that needed to be made, and added to all this, he actually PACKED MY LUGGAGE!  That’s what he had done while I was gone in the morning before the flight. He packed  every single thing I would have packed for myself and much much more! :)  He said he had to go through my summer bin that was still in the garage to get some capris and warm-weather clothes.  He packed a small corner of one of the suitcases for himself, and the rest of the two check-ins and the one carry-on was all dedicated to me!  I had more shirts and pants and shoes than I could have ever wished for. It was hilarious! I just had to take this picture of eight pair of shoes that I unpacked…  It was seriously amazing how he had thought of every minute detail – a few hand-selected necklaces, all my hair clips and headbands, all my makeup and getting-ready stuff (including bobbypins for my bangs when I wash my face, and pomade when I do my hair), two perfume bottles, and even my ENTIRE JEWELRY BOX securely closed with a strap.  How cute is he?!

We had a fun flight together  – It took me the whole flight to believe that this amazing exciting surprise was really happening and not just a dream!  We landed in sunny Orlando, found our cute condo/hotel, and went out to eat at Bahama Breeze restaurant, where we kickstarted our fun vacation with island music, Cajun shrimp, and the most mouthwatering virigin Pina Colada I have ever tasted or dreamed about. YUM!

We spent all day Tuesday at the Epcot Center in Disney World, and stayed for the evening firework show.  Just the two of us – no kids and not a care in the world! 

 It happened to be the 'Garden Festival' so there were lots of characters made out of trimmed shrubs...

 Visiting 'Mexico' at the Epcot Center.

 Playing with the interactive games.We had to put together a skeleton. Needless to say, I had a partner with some skilz.

 I found Rapunzel's tower and HAD to have a picture with it! :)

Wednesday morning we went to the most amazing outdoor water park ever (Typhoon Lagoon in Disney World) and went down all the slides together. We even got to put on snorkel gear and swim among sharks and fish in one part of the water park. We took off at lunch time and went to Cocoa Beach, about an hour away, and swam in the waves together. 

Wednesday night we went to the coolest miniature golf course ever! 

On Thursday we went to Animal Kingdom in Disney World. We really liked this theme park. There were some cool shows (Nemo "broadway" show, Lion King circus show, bird show) and rollercoasters and lots of neat animals.

 We went on a super fun safari ride, where the animals are right there next to you. Some animals kept wandering and settling down in front of the safari buses, and they would have to wait for them to move, so the ride was 40 minutes. I felt super lucky to get such a long, fun safari ride!  It was the perfect weather too - sunny but breezy and nice.

Our last night, Thursday night, we went to the Cirque du Soliel show. Wow.  There were acrobats, high trapeze artists, jugglers, gymnasts, bmx bikers, tight rope walkers, and all kinds of amazing abilities showcased. That was definitely a highlight. 

It was such a fun adventure!  I felt very loved that Jed would go to all that effort for me.  It was unforgettable!