St. George

I’m sure you have noticed that I have been seriously neglecting posting to my blog.  I just KNOW you guys are all dying to hear everything we’ve been doing too.  So, this post is about something that happened way back in the beginning of May.  We headed down to St. George to see Jason’s youngest brother get married.  We lucked out & heard about an accident on the radio right as we got in the car so we were able to bypass that part of the freeway and make it in plenty of time to change for the ceremony.  Big thanks to Mike and Alisha for letting us use their condo to change in so we didn’t have to change in the car.  The ceremony was beautiful and it was a gorgeous day too.  Here are a few pictures from the temple.  They had a photographer with a real camera, but I haven’t seen those pictures yet.  I’m sure they are better than these…but this is all I have so here goes. 

Just Married! Congrats Andy and Bailey!

With all the nieces and nephews that were at the temple.

SiblingsJason and Liam with their favorite uncle…I really want to see the professional one of these.

After the ceremony and all the pictures outside we headed to the luncheon.  I took my camera, but only took three pictures the whole time.  Cousin loveThe rest of the time I was busy talking and eating so I forgot to take pictures.  Oh well. 

After the luncheon we headed to Mike and Alisha’s condo for some swimming.  The kids all had a ball even though it was windy and every time they got out of the water they froze.  I didn’t trust my camera so close to the water so no pictures of swimming.  Liam talked for weeks about going to Brooklyn’s condo to swim. 

To end the day we headed to our hotel and relaxed a bit then went to bed so we could wake up bright and early to have fun the next day. 

Saturday we woke up bright and early, got breakfast, packed up and headed over to see Brigham Young’s house.  It was interesting to hear all the history and see all the artifacts there.  The grounds are beautiful too.  beautiful groundsCool huge tree that was hit by lightening.

the porch

After this we got some lunch and then headed to the Red Cliffs.  It ended up being tons of fun for everyone (except maybe Daddy).  All pictures courtesy of Jason’s iphone. 

Jason jumping off the cliff

Me and the Twins on the cliffEm was super brave and jumped off a bunch of times. 

I finally jumped in right before we left.  The water was cold!  But it was fun!  I still wish we could have found the other cliff that was supposed to be there somewhere…maybe next time. 

I love having fun together as a family!

July

For the fourth of July we went down the street to the Becksteads to watch their fireworks.  Their son had bought a ton of them and it was fun to watch.  A few minutes into it their sprinklers turned on and got us all wet.  It was a night full of excitement.  None of my pictures are very good, but I’m going to put some on here anyway.
 Liam loved “playing with fire”Can you see the excitement on her face??
The weekend after this we joined Bonnie at a triple header Shakespeare performance at the Utah State hospital done by Grassroots Shakespeare.  Em and I only stayed for the first two shows, but they were both really good even with the background music of the 7 peaks dance going on. 
I don’t remember what else we did in July since I have no more pictures until the 24th of July weekend.  Just assume that we did so many awesome things that we didn’t have time to take pictures. 
Our Pioneer day weekend was packed full of fun.  Jason and I started by going to the carnival as part of our date night.  We got funnel cake and rode the ferris wheel.  It would have been more fun in the dark, but I got a good laugh at Jason’s reaction as we went down the first time.  (it was a pretty fast ferris wheel)
 Yummy funnel cakeon the ferris wheel waiting for the ride to start.
The view from the top
Saturday we started the day at the Children’s parade with Liam.  He and I got to ride on the float for our Ward and then he had fun at the kids carnival afterwards.
  On the float Playing with his pinwheel while we waited in line to bowl.
He knocked a few down.  Playing with his cousin KensieGolfing.  He came away with tons of candy, a ticket to go on a ride at the big carnival, and lots of little toys too.  It’s a really busy place to go, but it was worth it to see him having fun. 
Saturday Jason took the kids to the carnival on his own.  I was gone somewhere, but I can’t remember where.  They had a lot of fun together, but I don’t’ have any pictures of their fun. 
Monday we had our very first Rodeo experience.  It was pretty fun to watch even though none of us really understood exactly what was going on as far as how the scores were given or anything.  It was still lots of fun and we will surely be going again. 
I think this is the one where they had to jump off their horse, flip the calf and tie its legs.  The rodeo clown.  He was from Walla Walla, WA that’s pretty close to where my parents live.  Em and Jason showing their enthusiasm.
Liam didn’t know what to think at first, but it grew on him.  Especially when Dad brought back concessions to eat!
Proof I was there.This is our friend Teni.  He did mutton busting the night we went to the rodeo and it was right below our seats.  It was fun to watch.  Liam thinks he wants to try to do it next year.  Teni on the sheep.  He didn’t last long this year.  I guess he did better last year.  The bull riding.  I have to say I was a little bummed that only ONE of the riders all night stayed on the full time.  Most of them got thrown pretty fast after coming out of the gate. 
The only thing I didn’t like about it was the constant commercials.  It was worse than tv because you couldn’t even change channels and it was the same few commercials the whole time.  I think the whole thing would have been 30 minutes shorter if they had just done one for each sponsor and left it at that. 
Tuesday dawned bright and early because we had to get Jason down to the parade.  Then we went to watch it ourselves.  Luckily our former Stake president lives on the parade route and he was kind enough to let us sit in his yard so we had great seats even though we didn’t save them days in advance.  Liam got tons of candy and that was all he needed to be happy. 
First we say Camden and Brighton with their karate studio.
Later on Jason’s Karate studio came by.  I made him come do something cool so I could get a good picture.  I don’t’ know if you can tell, but this is a jumping kick so neither of his feet are on the ground.  We were hot and tired when the parade was over so we went home and rested until it was time for our family picnic.
Every year on the 24th we have a family picnic up the canyon at the park and then we go see Matthew’s grave.  It is a great family tradition with both fun  and remembrance.  It love that we take the time to visit Jason’s brother’s grave and remember him. 
Shortly after we ate someone (I strongly suspect Liam) started a water fight.  The kids all had a blast getting wet since it was REALLY hot. 
 Liam getting BrooklynAndy helping Kate get LiamGrandma and Bailey watching all the fun.
We decided not to watch the big fireworks this year, but it turned out that so many of our neighbors had bought cool fireworks that we had our very own really great show right in our front yard.  This is one of the fireworks Jason Jr. bought because he was dying to light some fireworks of his own. 
All in all I’d say we had a pretty awesome week of celebration. 

June recap part two

We love going to playgroup with our adoption friends.  One of the places we went in June was to the Salem Pond.  It has a fun little beach and lots of shade if you’d rather not be in the sun.  Liam loved it and got totally wet and played in the sand so much that he had sand everywhere! 
His stick that he had to bring home and still has outside somewhere I’m sure. 
“Helping” Sarah make a castle.Requisite feet picture…like my tan line?  I never could get rid of it.  more help for Sarah and her castle building.
His “hot tub” in the sand.  I’m so glad we did this!  I have all kinds of plans to go back this summer, but we were so busy that we never made it.  We’ll have to settle for feeding the ducks this Fall or something.
One of the coolest things we got to do all summer was see Jason participate in the Summer games.  He competed in three categories and got three medals.  The first category he did was traditional forms.  He did well, but sharpness has never been his strong suit and the judges were really tough.  One of the judges that did that category was an international judge so she has seen some amazing skills I’m sure.  He got a bronze medal in that event.  During the opening ceremonyMy camera isn’t fast enough to not end up with blurry pictures. 
On the podium. 
His second event came fairly quickly after the first event.  This one was weapons forms.  He made this form up himself and practiced it tons.  This was the form he felt was the least impressive.  He got a gold medal with it.  Funny how that works.  After all the contestants had performed they had Jason and one other boy come do their form again because they had and exact tie.  Something about what Jason did gave him a little bit better score the second time and so he got first place.  It was so fun to watch him.  Definitely a proud Mom moment. 
They had to “inspect his weapon” before he could start.  His weapon forms were done with Kamas.
this is where she’s telling them they have to do it again. 
He had a cool spinning kick in the form.  This is the best shot of it I could get.  The podium again.  Triumphant!
His third category was also a weapons form.  One of them was open weapons and the other was traditional weapons.  I think this last one was the one considered traditional weapons forms.  Before going down his Karate teacher told us we should be done fairly quickly since he wasn’t sparring, but boy was her wrong.  We waited, and waited and waited for his final competition.  There were five people signed up in his age group and three of the others were sparring and since sparring takes precedence we had to wait for them.  I don’t think they were actually sparring, but just waiting for their turn to spar for most of the time so I’m not sure why they couldn’t come do their form for five minutes while they waited…but it wasn’t my call.  We waited for HOURS and that is NO joke.  We were all annoyed and I was REALLY frustrated when they let the two GIRLS compete, but made Jason, who had been waiting for hours wait for the other boys to be finished.  In the end I think the waiting and the nerves got to him because somehow he forgot part of his form and instead of faking it he said, “oh crap!”  Since there were only three of them he still got a bronze medal, but I wish they would have just let him compete with the girls when they went (I even went over and asked if he couldn’t’ just go with the girls since all the other groups had been mixed sexes and this one was supposed to be too, plus we’d been waiting for hours, but they pretty much ignored me)  Regardless we were very proud of him and it was a great experience for him.  I think he’ll want to try again next year. 
Emily took a guitar class through the city in June while Liam took a kindercraft class.  They both had a blast.  Em got to perform with her class at the big concert at the end of the classes.  She did great. 
She was nervous, but she played great and I think she learned a lot too.  Hopefully she’ll keep up the practice so she doesn’t forget.

Liam also had swimming lessons.  He already thinks he’s invincible in the water.  He has been fearless of the water since he was a baby.  I was so relieved when my friend Sherylynn said she’d teach him lessons last year.  He learned even more this year and is a great little swimmer, but I still have to keep an CLOSE eye on him near water.
  Jumping in is his favorite
Whew!  You made it!  Thanks for not giving up!