4th of July

I was pretty sick with a sinus infection the weekend of the 4th so we didn't really do much on the 3rd of July. Our neighbors invited us to a BBQ and swim party that night so Chad, Maddie, and Ethan went. I kept Emma home because she's a maniac around water and hard to keep track of. Luckily on the 5th, Chad's sister invited us over to their city's celebration. The kids got to be in the bike parade and then we all watched the regular parade with them after. We also wandered over to the park where they had a few things going on there. Later that night we did our own little fireworks at our house. It was nice to spend time with family and celebrate the 4th...on the 5th.




Check out Emma's dance moves below. Doin' a little robot!

Baseball

Ethan was in coach pitch baseball this year. He really enjoys this sport and was so excited for every game! They were the Giants this year. Ethan wore his hat everywhere, not just to his games. He's a pretty good hitter once he gets ahold of the ball and improved on catching and throwing this year. He's also getting a little speedier at running (poor kids got his dad's genes there!) It was fun to go and cheer him on.




Bet you can't guess who Ethan's biggest fan was!

Bridger Lake

In June we went on the annual Bridger Lake camping trip. The kids look forward to it all year long. The kids had fun playing with their cousins, fishing, hiking, riding bikes, staying up late around the campfire, looking for animals, and just hanging out. Chad's family goes to this campground with a big group of people and they always have a dutch oven cookout. Chad and his sister won this year with a dutch oven Cafe Rio dish. It was delicious! Haylee came with us and it was evident up there how old she's getting. At first she struggled getting around everywhere but by the end she seemed revitalized by the great outdoors. Here are a few(ok alot) of pictures from the fun!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

So we attempted our first ever garden this year. We started small with one garden box and planted a some tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, squash, and Madelyn's cabbage she brought home from school. We weren't sure if anything would really grow but so far so good! Here are the before pictures the day we planted.


Here are the after pictures. It's a little wild in there. Madelyn's cabbage is pretty giant. I think it was part of some contest to grow the biggest one but I can't find the paper that she brought home with it. It's pretty big compared to some of the others from her class even with the holes from the bugs that got to it! We've already had some peas from the garden and can you see our first red tomato??

Something's Missing

Ethan lost his first tooth yesterday! He was so excited and has been working on this tooth for weeks. He was even more excited to wake up and see what the tooth fairy left him. I kind of want the cute little baby teeth to stay in forever...especially when I see how much braces are going to cost us for Madelyn who needs them in the next year! AAhh he's growing up!

A Challenge

Chad's family had a family reunion/birthday party for his Grandpa. They had asked before hand if I could bring my camera and get a picture of everyone in it. I was a little nervous about getting everyone in the picture, focused and not blinking, etc. but I think it turned out pretty good considering the number of people and the challenge of it all. And yes I had to do the whole timer run and be in the picture thing. Good times!

Did you know?

Did you know that you can successfully keep a potato bug...aka...roly poly...aka...pillbug...aka...whatever else they're called, alive for more than a few days?

Did you know that you can successfully breed said creature in captivity?

Did you know that baby potato bugs are tiny little white almost translucent creatures?

Yes we are the proud owners of baby potato bugs. Madelyn and Ethan brought home a little cup with seeds in it from a school activity back in May. Well Madelyn's didn't really grow anything so it was then converted to a home for 4 lovely potato bugs. That was over a month ago and they are still kickin'. This morning we took a peek at them and low and behold we saw a bunch of little bug munchkins! Who knew?! Here's a pretty bad photo of the bugs (guess I need to brush up on my bug photography skills). My camera lens didn't want to focus that close and when I realized how blurry it was the little bugs were burrowed in the dirt again. They are the little white things you see in the picture. There are more burrowed. Well I'm off, I think I have something crawling on me...

P.S. Did you know that ladybugs are natural enemies to these bugs?