A few more pictures from Kirtland

 Cute cousins walking

 Cute cousins posing

 Girly cousin friends

Kirtland Temple.  Even though this temple no longer belongs to our church, I still love to look at it and remember all of the sacrifice that went into its construction.  Just amazing.  Up next:  What we did while everyone besides us was at Niagara Falls because we were afraid that our car was going to fall apart.

An appalling discovery

I can no longer write.  I don't mean that I can no longer express myself in a creative manner with words, I mean that I can no longer physically write.  With my hand.  And a pen (or pencil).  While we were up at our reunion (which by the way I am not done posting about) we wrote letters to all of the family members who were on missions.  My handwriting was so sloppy and my hand was cramping up after a couple of sentences.  Then, last night I was at a meeting where I was taking notes and I could not for the life of me coherently end any of my words.  My S's looked like sad wiggly L's and I kept writing my Y's backwards.  That is just plain sad and unacceptable.  What has happened to me?  I'll tell you what has happened to me.  I don't write anymore.  All of my "writing" time is spent on a computer and not on a piece of paper.  Who knew that after years in school where hours upon hours were spent taking notes and writing this is what would come of it all, a sad and weak little writing hand.  Also, I am horrible at keeping a journal, which is one place where I should be writing on a regular basis, and all of my thoughts that I do record are shared on this blog.  So, what am I going to do about this?  Well, I obviously need to start exercising my atrophied writing hand which means that it must be time to break out that dusty journal because I don't think my grocery list is going to be exercise enough, unless I feel like writing "milk, cheese, and tortillas" down over and over again.  So, wish me luck because this may prove to be painful. 

We went for a trip just north of here a little bit

This past week was spent in the company of some wonderful people who also happen to be family members.  It also marked the first family reunion that I have been able to go to in about 12 years and so I was very grateful for everyone I was able to see this past week.  Honestly, I just love family and family reunions and I have been very sad for all of the ones that I have missed.  Many fun things took place during the week which I will slowly unfold over the course of several postings, but to start things off here are the pictures that I took from our trip to Kirtland.  I didn't take many pictures (I have no idea why) and so you will just have to enjoy this small sampling.

 Some cute little cousins playing a vicious game of checkers (made out of dried slices of ears of corn) which  really turned into a contest to see who could build the tallest checkers tower without it falling over.  I think they both lost because many little checker pieces found their way onto the ground.

  A lovely lady

 Two boy cousin friends.

 Two girl cousin friends.

 A sampling of the group intently listening to everything the tour guide had to say about the N.K Whitney General Store.

 Hey, here's a cute group in a candid shot.  I am sure they are more interested in what is being said by the tour guide than they look. 

 My love.

 I am sure that this girl, too, is more thrilled to be visiting Kirtland than this picture portrays.  Actually she had a ball, she is just annoyed that I am taking her picture.

 This little guy was a big wiggly and whiny for my tastes on this particular day.  Although once we got a few snacks in him he did seem to perk up a little bit.

We, as a family, standing by the saw mill.  If you haven't been before (and you are interested in Mormon history) than I highly recommend a trip up here.  Next up . . .well, I am not really sure, but more reunion pictures are sure to be included.

My baby had a birthday

This past week, this little man of mine entered the ripe old age of 5 (sniff, sniff).  Since we were going to be out of town for his birthday I threw together a very, I repeat, very last minute little party for him so that we could officially celebrate this milestone.  He started the morning off with a birthday donut with Dad and then we opened some presents.  Here he is happy as can be because he had just opened the Wii game that he had been wanting.  You see, several weeks before this moment the kids were wandering through Costco with their father when Tiger spotted Lego Pirates of the Caribbean for the Wii.  He was instantly smitten and a tad obsessed.  In order to get Tiger to leave the store quietly Doug told him that he might get the game for his birthday.  What seemed like a good idea at the time backfired a bit on Doug, for you see, Tiger never forgot that moment and as far as he was concerned there was no question that he was getting this game for his birthday.  So, what else could we do?  We marched ourselves back to Costco and paid (*gulp*) for the game and made this little man's dreams come true.

 Check out those muscles.  Who needs to wear a shirt when you look this good?  The chocolate around the face just adds to the intimidation.

 Since the Wii game set the mood for the birthday, I decided to make Pirates the theme and we bought him a little pirate dress-up set which he has worn just about every day since.

 Even pirates like cupcakes.

 Captain Jack says "Arrgh"!

While we were on vacation he had his actual birthday.  It was extremely low-key, but we did manage to at least give him a couple of presents to open.  Since the boy also loves Indiana Jones, this time he was given a couple of guns and a holster.  He already has a piece of rope that he pretends is a whip, and so now I just need to find some sort of hat for him.  Even though this birthday was a bit odd, he didn't care.  He came away a happy man and I am still in denial that he is so old (and for those of you wondering, because I get asked a lot, no he is not going to Kindergarten this year).

Sparky was a goalie once during a game

 Just hanging out, wondering if the ball will ever come his way.

 Oh look, mud.

 Ok, I'm ready.

 Ball saved, goal denied.

And now, more soccer pictures than you would care to see

This was the wettest, muddiest soccer season ever but it will go down in history as the year that the team one its first and only game (although my boy is a decent player the team as a whole is really quite terrible).  Apparently mud and lack of practice really work for our guys.

Don't you love the socks?  He forgot to put his soccer socks in the dirty clothes and so they were still wet and muddy and he couldn't wear them. 

 I love this boy.

Coming up next, the goalie series of pictures.  Stay tuned.  You don't want to miss it.

My thoughts on and plans for summer

1.  I am 100% in favor of it.
2.  I will try very, very hard to still go to bed at a decent hour and to not sleep in all morning.  The alternative just spells disaster.
3.  I am looking forward to using my children as little worker bees.  My house will be so clean!  Besides, teaching kids to work is very important for their success in life and so really I am just doing all I can to ensure their future success.  It has nothing to do with my desire to use them as little slaves to do the things that I don't really feel like doing.  Really.
4.  I am really excited for my upcoming reunion and seeing some family members I have not seen in a very long time.  Oh the fun we will have.
5.  We shall go to the pool . . . a lot (once Sparky's shoulders return to a normal color from their current fried/purple color).
6.  We will hit Sonic's happy hour frequently because that's just plain fun.
7.  The sunshine and warmth are just so glorious!
8.  I think that we should eat a lot of ice cream.  I just love ice cream.
9.  Viva la Summer!!

Won't you take me to Funky Town?

Last weekend this girl had her dance recital.  She danced to Funky Town.  It was fabulous and I even managed to keep my tears of pride under control.

Woo's Quilt

Find it here at paper, ink, and more.

Bring on the Pomp and Circumstance

Jumping

Although it feels like summer today, this Spring has been a non-stop stormy monsoon which has caused many mud puddles to form in our backyard.  On one particularly stormy day it was actually warm enough to go out and play in these tempting puddles.  So, what is a boy to do?  He grabbed his snow boots and headed out for some muddy, splashy fun.  I don't think these snow boots will ever be the same again.