Slurpees, Pioneer Day and Kentucky Fried Chicken

Madeline and Ethan had their very first Slurpees from 7 Eleven today. Ethan told us "I love my snow ice cream!" I must have deprived them from not having slurpees because I remember having them when I was young and loving them. I didn't even realize that they hadn't had one. We also had Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner and Madeline and Ethan won't usually eat dinner, but Madeline ate 2 pieces and Ethan said he loved it, but he was only eating the crunchy outer part and when asked if he liked the chicken, he said "Yes, but I don't like the bones" My mother laughed about that for the longest time. While watching fireworks from our house tonight, Ethan said "Pioneer day is like pinecones" Kids say the funniest things.

VA get together pictures of kids...

Last night, we had a get together with some friends we knew back in Virginia. Shaunae and Jon were visiting from Virginia and so we decided all the others that live in Utah now would throw a party and get together. Also attending were Summer, JanaLynn and Brad, and Karen and Paul. We had yummy Cafe Rio for dinner - recipe from Summer. The kids got to play on the playset I put together in our yard. Fun times! Ethan especially liked playing with Corynn. Before he went to bed, he said a pretty girl played with me. She was wearing a rainbow swimsuit and had pretty hair and she helped me find my walkie talkie. I didn't know who it was until I showed him a picture of all the kids and he pointed to Corynn. Madeline liked playing with Madeleine, Kiersten and Allen she said.

Saturday get together and Lagoon

Yesterday, we got together with a bunch on Jared's former work associates and their wives that Jared worked with back in Virginia. We hadn't seen some for 5 years! Crazy! We got together in Kaysville at one of their houses and had a bbq. These are the people we lived around when Madeline was born. It was crazy to see how the kids changed - Madeline is now 6, so that was 6 years ago. The main reason for the get together was because a couple that lived in Baku, Azerbaijan, and Budapest now came back to the states to visit. They adopted 2 girls - sisters from Hungary. They are people that Jared envy. We had a chance to do that - go abroad and live with the government paying for everything, but we didn't do it because of my wanting to live near family. What a great husband Jared is for letting me do just that. I always wonder what would have happened if we had chosen otherwise.

After the visit, we went to Lagoon, which was close by. We got season passes again. There are some pictures above of us at Lagoon. After that, we went to the Golden Corral. Our monthly trip to a buffet, the day before fast Sunday.

Eva's birthday

We also celebrated Eva's birthday on the 4th of July. The kids did a slip n slide and then we had fried chicken for dinner and tinkerbell cupcakes with tinkerbell rings and ice cream. Funny story about the tinkerbell ring - Ethan was wearing his all day on Saturday. We went to Golden Corral and he lost it, we were looking underneath all the buffet tables and a kid came up and said "did you lose something" turns out he found it and gave it back to Ethan and Ethan slipped it back on his finger. They must have been thinking what is that boy doing with a tinkerbell ring? The kids were all given tinkerbell headbands also, Ethan included. See what he has to live with growing up around all girls - sister and cousins. He needs another boy in the family. If only Erik's (my brother) kids lived in Utah.

4th of July

Our house

For the 4th of July, we went to the Magna parade. We went last year as well. They throw out lots of candy for the kids, so they enjoy it, they also got firefighter hats, otter pops and water bottles. It was really hot that day, but cloudy, so we didn't need a lot of shade, just lots of water. There were people in the parade using squirt guns to squirt the people watching.

Our vacation...

Written by Jared:

We took a roundabout trip that encompassed our first national park -- Yellowstone, and family on both sides. We spent a weekend in Yellowstone, that included seeing many of the geothermal wonders, an encounter with a bison on a narrow path, and some spectacular waterfalls.

We then drove to visit Jared's grandmother, who lives in an assisted care facility in Missoula, MT.

After spending time there, we drove on to Deer Park, WA, where we spent 3 days with Christi's brother Erik and his family. The kids loved having five cousins to play with. We spent time tubing at a park, and getting lunches in the park among other things.

Our next leg of the journey was to Leavenworth, WA via Moses Lake (We tried to find the old house where Jared lived, but couldn't exactly). There was not enough room in the house for all of us. So we stayed the first night in a motel. But some drunk construction workers chased us out of there. We ended up buying a tent and camping at the house. That turned out to be more fun anyway. The occasion was to celebrate his other grandmother's 90th birthday. All together, there were about 60 people staying there. The kids had a great time on the trampoline, rafting around the river, making s'mores, and sleeping in the tent.

But all good things must come to an end. We are back and recovering from gas price sticker shock before we go somewhere else.

Leavenworth Reunion June 25-28

Jared's grandma's 90th birthday celebration


a racoon - they frequent their back porch
for food

Our new tent we bought for the occasion

s'mores

The icicle river

Deer Park, Washington June 23-25

cousins...Ethan and Elli

Strawberries

tubing - Madeline Eli & Kolya

Ethan, Ki, Madeline & Eli

Madeline, Ki, Kolya and Eli

Ki, Eli, Madeline, and Kolya

Tribe with squirt gun

Ki, Ethan, Eli and Madeline

Jared with kitten

The cats and kittens

Yellowstone June 21-22

Artist Point Water Fall

Petrified Wood

Mud volcano

Dragon's mouth

Old Faithful

Visit to Missoula where Jared's grandma lives