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.