kiddos

This week, Seth asked me to play "chest" with him.  He and I play on the same level so it's kind of fun.  Poor kid lost twice to me and three times to Evelyn.... but Evelyn and Seth did create their own rules so I'm not sure how fair those 3 loses were.

Flying

This is Evelyn.... They've said both she and Sam need braces.  Sam now and Evelyn in about 6 months.  Luckily we have two years worth of money on our HSA card that needs to be used before the end of the year so....

Sharon brought Lance down to spend time with Sam and the cousins.  They love just hanging out with each other and wished that we lived closer together.

We went to a brazilian restaurant near that is owned by our neighbors.  It's always yummy food, but we'd never taken our kids before.  Seth ordered a bowl of soup.  We asked how big it was adn the waitress gave us a medium sized finger bowl signal... We thought Seth could handle it, so we let him get it.  This is what came!  We ended up taking a lot of it home.  We also ran into my Greataunt and GreatUncle.... Linda and Doug Harding along with Becky and Brooke with one of their spouses and some of their kids.  It's so fun to give them hugs and know that we belong even after years away.

Jer introduced Lance to his forge.  The boys all had fun smashing aluminum into the right size and melting it down into ingots.

 

camping

 

Sam at the Aaronic Priesthood encampment

My parents took the boys to Bear Lake.  They had a blast.

Seth had a blast with Vivien

Johnson special request

My friend asked if we could try putting her husband in the pictures.  We tried a few.  They look okay, but it was definitely a first time for me.

 

Evelyn's ballet

 

The Johnson Family

 

Heavenly Father sure had a hand in this photoshoot.  Virginia is my friend and neighbor.  Her husband died of Covid 9 months ago.  They haven't had family pictures since before their 7 year old was born.  For her birthday she asked her kids to do pictures with her.  She has two kids on the spectrum, one with social anxiety, one with a bilateral cleft and a niece living with them after being kicked out of the house a week before high school graduation.  She was not anticipating being able to get very good smiling pictures, let alone get her kids to stand next to each other very long.  I was worried about the lighting because we've had a heat wave. Her son almost couldn't get work off and it started raining the morning of the shoot.  That's where God stepped it.  Rain brought clouds which makes much better lighting.  All the kids were kind and smiling.  The one with social anxiety had no problems with me.  And it started lightning and raining as soon as we got to our cars.  We didn't have to rush or anything.

They brought their husband/dad's favorite hat, a bear he'd given their oldest at birth and a sign.  Every time those were in the pictures we used it to signify Dad was there.

Things to celebrate

 

This week has been full of things to celebrate.  Sam was called as a counselor in his quorum. Evelyn finished her rehearsals for the "Princess" ballet. It's an adaptation of A Little Princess.  Ada started her first job at the nearby retirement center.  She serves the meals.  I think she's going to have fun.  She works with two of her YW in her class and she came home telling me about some of the fun conversations she's having with the residents.

My parents took Sam and Seth to Bear Lake with them for the weekend and they're having a blast.  I stayed here to get Evelyn to all her required rehearsals and to chaperone them.   

Red Robyn celebration dinner with the girls.

I don't get to do pictures from backstage very often.  Evelyn's the doll straight in the middle of the picture.

This is Evelyn too.  The one in the dark lighting.

Getting Ada ready for her first shift at work.  We were getting our window shield replaced so we went next door for cheese curds and for Ada to change in the bathroom and be dropped off at work.

I only have three cousins my age. Here's me with two of them.  They're such good people and doing good things.  Tiff loves her two boys with a passion and will do anything for them no matter what physical challenges she has.  Jake is a hard worker and takes care of his brood of 8.  He's a good man and has an amazing wife.  My other cousin is on my Wilcox side.  Conrad.  He's smart and amazing.  He's done everything from owning a pool hall, living on a boat, to working on an oil rig.  It's my pleasure to know these people. (We were at Shelby's reception. I love seeing family.)

My friend/co-worker invited us to go play at Hang time with her and her kids.  It was a lot of fun.  I didn't realized how expensive it is though.  The lady at the desk saw me hesitating and offered me a free half hour for each of the kids so I didn't end up paying a fortune.  It was very kind of her.

Sunday night we watched The Amazing Spider Man.  I'd never seen it and neither had the kids. They love the idea of watching all the spiderman movies after watching the last one with all three spidermen in it.