Oh how summer has flown

This is what our garden looked like in June. We haven't taken a new picture lately but I will get that done this afternoon. We have been able to enjoy a little bit from it, but as you all know how Winter/Spring just kept going; well things are producing a little now and looking like if cold weather holds off we will have a nice 1st year of garden produce for our little family.


At the end of June Spencer went to Ogden overnight for a job assignment. We met him that night and spent the evening with him in Ogden and then the next morning when he went back to the job site we went sight seeing on our way home. I'm not too sure what I think of Ogden, but the Temple grounds were very pretty. The boys enjoyed stretching their legs as I looked at the beautiful flower beds and took some pictures of the Temple.


We also stopped by and saw the Oquirrh Mountain Temple since I have not been to it before. It was amazing to stand on it's grounds and see 2 other temples so close. Very surprising to be in one place that has 4 Temples all in the same valley. It was a neat experience.

June also brought our city's celebration days. We attended the parade and parts of the mayor's dinner. Choose to skip the golf tournament, the run etc. But the boys had so much fun at the parade. A friend of mine let us sit in her driveway and Cameron just loved her gravel. Erik was too busy being worried that the parade was across the street in another yard as their were a lot of people over there doing a lot of fun things. :) After the parade was over I think it finally sunk in what a parade is.
At the mayor's dinner they have a portion where a helicopter flies over the city and lands on the playing field. After letting the children check out the helicopter a little then they have a ping-pong drop for the kids. Erik was not interested in the helicopter, so while everyone else looked at it he played a solo game of imaginary baseball. One of the little girls we know eventually joined him in running the bases.



Erik had fun, but we've taught him too well I guess because when they dropped the ping-pongs he ended up letting the kicking little girl take his ping-pong ball. She's lucky it wasn't last year because he would have cleaned her clock and taken the ball. One of the EMT's though confiscated balls from older kids who were not suppose to be on the field or those kids who took more than the 2 per child limit and he passed them out to the children who did not have any. So Erik came home with 2 licorice ropes and Cameron with 2 powder candy sticks.

I thought this was cute. Erik was wanting a cookie in the kitchen not at the table. So I let him sit on the floor to eat and Cameron joined him. At this point Cameron had already eaten his cookie and is trying to sweet talk Erik out of his cookie. Nice try! :)

Then came the month of July. WOW! We attended Colonial Days and introduced Erik to the past. I think he still doesn't understand about history being so long ago. But he was excited to see the cannons and Abe Lincoln. He really liked the clothes the young colonial boys were wearing too. He cried as we left because he wanted to stay and he wanted a costume like theirs.



Erik is really glad that we don't still have punishment like this:

I was very interested in the modern spinning wheel. It's so compact!


July also brought a new biking experience for Dad & Erik, a tag-along. By now both have pretty well mastered it, but at first Erik was very nervous and a couple of minor spills I think made Daddy a little nervous as well. Spencer has the cleats that lock into his pedals so when they go down he can't really stop them. :) However, they both love it!!!!!! So now with the trailer for Cameron we can go on family bike rides. I just stipulate flatter ground than we have here in town.

This is while we were waiting for Daddy & Erik to return from their bike ride.


We were tickled to buy our first flag and got it attached to the front porch for the 4th of July. We all really enjoyed our own fireworks at home. We could hear fireworks from around the valley close to us, but trees blocked many of them from our sight.



Erik still loves to build robots and monsters with his big blocks.


Mom, this is my pair of crocheted baby booties that are from the Country Woman pattern. I'm making another set for a baby shower in a week. I'll have to let you see them when I'm done because I'm doing them in pink and planning to place pink roses on their toe instead of a bow.


Erik is the artist and our family. Here is his chalk rendition of our family.

While Cameron and I were waiting to be radioed to head down the hill for our family bike ride, I decided to snap a shot of him in his new sun hat. He was so excited to go. It makes it fun that the boys enjoy biking so much.


One of our summer projects has been getting the chainsaw that Uncle Ray so generously gave us ready to bring in winter wood. So during one of our backyard meals Erik was pretending that he was a logger.





I guess we spend enough time in front of the computer. Cameron started trying to spend his own time typing at the computer.


We went to the ward camp-out and have camped out in our yard a few times since July. Cameron loves the tent as much as Erik does.


Here was our new backyard find. A California Long-horned Beetle.


Cameron loves to share big brothers food.

And since he likes to clean. He's very willing to wipe up their spills.


In August we went for a drive on the scenic Nebo Loop. This is a picture of Mt. Nebo. We really enjoyed our day.


The boys and I had a park date with my friend Rachel. Cameron loved this climbing spot. Erik had fun playing with the children. And thought it was fun to be spiderman on the dome.



Cameron is learning to take his own naps. It's so cute some of the places and ways he decides to settle down. Last week was the hallway while I took a shower. But this picture had to be the cutest one of all.

We've enjoyed watching the wildlife and birds in our area. Spencer had spotted some piper type birds in a field so we went and looked at them. But across the road in another field were three cranes. They were really neat to see. You can't tell it from the picture but they were large birds. Not to mention there was a rooster pheasant playing hide in seek. Can you find his tail?

This last Saturday Spencer went with a friend from work and they hiked to the Mt. Nebo summit. This is one of his pictures while on the trail. They are headed to the peak farthest away in the picture. He really enjoyed the day.

So far that sums up our summer months of fun activities. Erik starts school next Tuesday. So Monday afternoon we kick off the week by going to school and meeting his teacher. Here comes fall. But what a nice summer it has been!

Catch Up

Well May was an exciting month.

Here are a couple of pictures of the bird that gave me a jump start for the month by flying into the kitchen window as I stood at the sink.



Erik graduated from Kindergarten. It was a fun concert. The children had several fun songs and a couple of poems they performed and then they received a "diploma" from the Principal.


Then there was the Emergency Services Fair in town. Spencer had to "work." We got to see AirMed ("life flight") land and take off. We also got to look inside it & Erik even got to sit inside the helicopter. He also got to sit in the fire departments water truck & their big fire engine (front seat & back seat). We had a good time look everything over and going inside the station for different "booths." Erik even had a helicopter painted on his face.



And Cameron spent a lot of time walking around, making messes & perfecting his climbing.


June was filled with Birthday celebration for Cameron. First we celebrated at Grammy & Sir's since we were in Oregon up until just a couple of days before Cameron's Birthday. He wasn't so excited about the cake and candles.
However on his birthday for family dinner he enjoyed the cake and presents.
I guess it was practice makes it all make sense. So it was enjoyable the 2nd time around. :)

Now Cameron's next adventure is learning to ride a bicycle.

April

While I'm on a roll I'll post a couple of April pictures. Well I take that back, why procrastinate. Here's our month, since tomorrow is the last day of April.


April was a big month for Erik. He has decided that now he is 6 and can do a lot more than when he was 5, since he's a big boy now. He has started getting himself ready in the mornings, even most Sunday's, without being asked to.

The biggest achievement though is last Saturday he told his Dad at breakfast that he was trying a new flavor of yogurt, since he is 6 and trying new things. That's a big deal for the boy who up to a couple months ago would only eat 5 things; yeah 5 things to choose from for meals! Anyways, he followed his declaration of trying new things with "I have an idea! I will ride my bike without training wheels!" So that afternoon they took the training wheels off at the church parking lot (the closest large flat area to our house, as we live in the foothills).

It did not take him long to go "straight". He's been riding a bike since he was 2 (just with training wheels) so I think it's more a matter of confidence & mind. He has ridden since several times and is enjoying it. He has worked on corners & u-turns now. If only he would stop using the brakes when he's doing well and using his feet when he gets worried about slowing or stopping. I know it will come with time and before the summer is over he'll be a pro.

Cameron wasn't sure what to think of the whole thing and sitting on grass. But even he got in on the action.

Later Spencer discovered the reason Erik didn't sit on his bike "properly" was not because of anything Erik was really doing, but because the seat was crooked. The poor boy! It would be hard to learn how to ride with a crooked seat. LOL :)

Cameron has been mastering the art of standing. He is good enough at it, even without something to hold on to, that he is beginning to try walking. He also loves to play with doors, open/close etc.

And Mom print this out -- you were right! I found one of the walking toys at Walmart on discount/clearance for $10. So I figured at that price I would get it. Cameron loved it right away! It is the favorite toy in the house, even for Erik. That seems to be the only problem with it. :)


As for Spencer & I, besides keeping up with the boys & our individual hobbies, we have been planning and getting ready for our first garden. In March we rented a chipper to take care of ALL the plant/limb debris Spencer had been making/accumulating. This was the chipper:

We have used the mulch in the flower beds that go most of the way around the house, and in other various spots throughout the landscape. We're still not sure if we came out even $ wise, but it was an experience for all, including the neighbors who were so curious. :)

Then this month we bought straw for the garden. It was nice and clean, but forgot that what is on a hog farm smells like hogs. At least it wasn't too strong of an odor and I believe it's all aired out now.

Erik had fun jumping in and sliding on the straw while Spencer worked at getting it spread over the cardboard walkways.

Cameron enjoyed watching. Oh how he wants to be running with big brother. But he did get to handle the tools.

He now has 7 teeth in, with the 8th one trying to break through. Usually they can't be seen as he's teething because that tongue is always going over the teeth. Kinda cute :)

Several couple's in our church decided to have a get together. Thanks to the white elephant portion of the party we now have a new water nozzle for the hose.

One of the ladies at the party wanted it to leave hanging from her gas tank as she drove around town. Spencer almost lost his white elephant prize. Oh well, since it drills holes in the mulch, dirt, and plants he brought home a nice watering wand the other night. I'm thrilled with it.


Here's a couple of cute pics of the growing baby. His favorite packable toy has been one of the kitchen spoons.



Cameron got into a box that I was trying to unpack but couldn't figure out where to put things. He found this Flag and became satisfied with his search through the box. He loved waving it around. Within seconds I had to find a place for it because it was a hot commodity between the boys. :)


Life is good. We are staying busy and yet there's such a calmness here. I love where we live! The other day I looked out my kitchen window to realize the scrub jay was napping in our tree and got this picture.
Then before the storm came I got to see the most beautiful colored clouds coming over the snow covered mountain behind us. Breathtaking! We are happy to be living here and grateful the boys get to be close to the things we love about nature even though it's not the home state or neighborhoods/cities we grew up in. They still have pine trees, wild & farm animals, fields, flowers and a down home/small town experience around them. I'm very grateful to the Lord for it all.