dave

happy birthday, my handsome husband,

i met you when i was fourteen, hit you when i was fifteen, kissed you when i was sixteen, stayed out late with you when i was seventeen, threw you in a barf bag when i was eighteen, said farewell to you when i was nineteen, thought about you when i was twenty, and married you when i was twenty-one...and now we are raising four brilliant children together and we are how old?

time flies when you are having fun.
i think you are YOUNG and AMAZING...
emphasis on the amazing:)

infinity,
myndie

finally!

this morning, after dave took sadie to songwriting camp and kai to swimming lessons and we dropped max off at preschool, i took abe fishing at the pond by our house and what do you know? one pole was too tangled to use, one reel fell off and it wouldn't work, i broke a fishing pole, but....
we caught a fish!!!

i wasn't really expecting to actually catch something so i had to run and get a bucket to put it in and ask the nine year old boy fishing next to us to help me kill it, and i really felt so sad for the fish, but it was exciting!

dave cooked it and the boys ate it for lunch. i'm kinda glad i wasn't home:)

haws point

i spent the afternoon in the fishing aisle at wal-mart. we gained three fishing poles, a tackle box, gear, and lots of tips from wal-mart shoppers/fisherman. it took us so long i couldn't remember where we parked, but luckily sadie was with me because she always remembers those details. i loved fishing when i was a kid and i have decided this summer we will learn to fish.

i remember as a child fishing at strawberry reservoir, so for family night we packed up our new fishing poles, some tin-foil dinners, fire wood, and headed to the same place i went as a kid, haws point.





everyone was pretty creative when it came to roasting marshmallows. next time i will make sure we have sticks:)



can't have a campfire without a guitar...
sadie is in a songwriting camp this week, so we were trying to inspire her.




we left with three very tangled fishing poles and no fish....but the tin-foil dinners were actually good!
AND i love the smell of campfire in my hair. i really do.

baby jade

we have a new cousin! baby jade! she is a doll and i so enjoy holding her. we were lucky enough to go to her baby blessing. dave's brother gave jade a beautiful blessing. he blessed her to choose optimism and i loved it.

afterwords, we attempted some cousin photos on this cool couch, then it turned into random photos and we thought we were funny. love it when we are funny!






just looking at max's smile in this photo makes me feel happy!

fishing

i love summer.
today i took the boys fishing for their first time. we didn't catch any fish, but enjoyed it anyway.

AND

i didn't actually gag until later when i was driving alone in the car, and i remembered hooking the worm....i haven't done that in a while. blah!

luau

my nephew graduated from high school, which meant the traditional samoan luau! it's one reason dave loves being married to me, so he can attend my sister's luaus. my sister is amazing and so are her luaus. this year i was the photographer, because i'm FREE:) i really loved the way this family photo turned out. such a great family.

star fish

this little guy is about to become the star of abe's book-possibly about the food chain. i love him, that abe (and his little fish creature).

can't wait
to see what he comes up with!

yesterday, we shopped for supplies for our three, simple, at-home camps. art camp, photo camp, and our children's book writing workshop. we can hardly wait...my kind of summer fun!

summer school

max started summer preschool today!!! with his lunch and his show and tell penguin tucked in his soccer backpack, he was ready and excited!

a tradition at our house is a candy bar poster on the first day of school, so he got his very first candy bar poster! we read it to him and he kept laughing, saying it was so funny! on the way he said, "it's my first day of school, i can't believe it!" i really don't think he could believe it, he has been taking siblings to school for so long, this was a BIG day for him!

first day of summer

yesterday was the first day of summer break! sadie headed for girls camp (sniff, sniff) so it was me and my boys. here are few things we did:

had a summer fun planning session, watched a few episodes of phineas and ferb to get us in the summer mood, attempted the first picnic of summer on our deck but it was too windy and abe said it was a pathetic picnic, and last but not least, built a chain reaction! abe has been interested in rube goldberg and his chain reactions--see a cool example here

it took fifteen tries and all afternoon, but they didn't give up, and finally they got the marble in the cup!

cows and horses

i found this clip from one of our many long drives between here and flagstaff. who needs a dvd player when you can look out the window? my favorite part is when max says, "baby horses and baby cows, that's amazing!"


a few sundays ago, our bishop spoke about appreciating the familiar things in our lives...something i want to do. well done, max!

i am aching for a road trip.

thanksgiving point

we spent part of the weekend at thanksgiving point with grandma and cousins. sadie and abe spent a couple hours in the iworld space simulator. they LOVED it! abe was a spy. enough said. kai and max spent a few hours at the petting zoo.

highlight: driving up to thanksgiving point, kai said, "where is the petting zoo?" sadie pointed to the red barn. in disgust, kai said, "that's not a petting zoo, that's a petting farm!"
i'm not sure what he was imagining when i told him we were going to a petting zoo. tigers?

afterwords, we took the kids back to my brother's house. sadie tended while my bother, his wife, and dave and I went out to eat at rodizio grill. my stomach hurt so bad from eating and laughing. loved it!

t-ball

t-ball,
watch out.
here we come!

(p.s. abe told max to tuck in his shirt...is that possible?)

competitive

ok. i grew up in a competitive family. infact, my nephew just got officially banned from four square at the mtc for being "too competitive". made me laugh. my confused kai asked, "how can someone be TOO competitive?"

i have a quirky love for smack talk t-shirts and get giddy excited when abe wears a shirt that says, "thank you for being a gracious loser".

what is wrong with that?

i do constantly remind my boys that smack talk is for t-shirts only, and if abe were to ever win the yearly academic scholar award at the 4th grade graduation program, and got called up to get the award from the principle and, looking at the audience of parents and children, raised his hands high above his head and pumped his fist (if, hypothetically that were to happen) i would need to remind my children that we need to be gracious winners as well.

anyway, point is, i like competition to a degree. over the last few weeks i have thought about it a lot since abe is trying out for a club soccer team and it is competitive! this year, as he is now ten, the competitiveness has really kicked in. he has his final try-out tomorrow. 28 boys for 14 spots. i'm not sure what will happen, i am just praying for a good wind, ya know, whatever is best for abe. all i can say is i am so glad we don't have to compete for fourteen spots in heaven! we can ALL make it if we do our part and that's the plan. we can all make it back. i am a big fan of that plan... what a relief!