Her Halo is held in place by the horns

Amelia was in the studio the other day, standing in front of a large white canvas. I took out my camera and she started crackin' it up. I took 60 or so shots, most of them are blurry because she is in constant motion. but as you can see there are a few gems in here too.

Burn permit

last night was the first real day of yard clean up. Suzy and Mac showed up and all 13 of our kids "helped" out with yard work. Actually they did quite a lot! We burned a huge pile of weeds and thoroughly smoked the kids. We even did Boy Scout dinners on the hot coals. Ivie and Ethan Mowed the lawn for the first time this year... Ivie in her bare feet...

Amelia and Faith on the swing

Chef Todd, I eventually gave up on using that shovel to get the food out of the coals and used my hands (yes I had gloves on)

Dinner was really quite good, Lara made one dinner with stuffing and cram of chicken soup and chicken with potatoes and carrots and peas.. the bottom was a littel burned but other wise perfect!

this is the first time that night that Ethan didn't have a stick on fire in his hand

Hannah is doing so well with walking, its been 2 weeks since her accident... she is truly a miracle!

Ducks come and go

I never posted the pictures I took of our ducks. They were fun to have, the kids liked to chase them and watch them waddle all over the yard. The downside was the doberman sized turds and 15$ a week to feed them! Not to mention when I left for work at 4:30 in the morning they would make such an awful noise to be feed... I thought our duck-hunting neighbor might make good on his shotgun promise... Isobell was very fond of the lame duck she named "hobble" (because she can't walk very good)so we kept her.(the duck and Isobell) We also kept the male mallard but he left us one night and has not returned. We let 2 families come and get them, one was from Draper and wanted to add to their farm, the other was a nice family from Peru, they took the rest of the ducks and the rooster... I wonder what they did with them?

Ethan and Aaron first in flight

The boys are working on their Aeronautics merit badges, so this week we took them to Provo airport for a "introduction flight". Aaron was not excited, for a couple of weeks he insisted he was not going. Just look at that smile!
The boys went in separate planes, they are the Diamond DA-20 Katana. here they are with Instructor Bret, learning the "6 pack" instrument cluster



Here they are after the flight having a look around the almost spotless hanger.

Kyoung and Ryan visit

Our Good Friends Kyoung and Ryan came to visit a few weeks back. Kyoung and I always take the opportunity to cook a bunch of good food. This time it was a Tex-Mex Asian fusion. we had fresh grilled chicken tacos and vegetable Thai wraps. We don't get to see these guys enough!

Signs

I went in to use the Bathroom the other day, when I got in there and shut the door I found this on the backside of the door. I think it is a sign that says "start saving for professional counseling"



Creative, but disturbing... can you guess who did this?

RanDoM piCs from this summer, 2011

Isobell and Rose fishing at Spirit Lake


Rose, Hannah, and Amelia... almost ready for the Lake..


Front to Back, Ivie, Amelia, Elise, Lara, Isobell, Aaron, Ethan in the canoe at Spirit Lake, notice how Amelia doesn't look so happy?


Lara and Elise(asleep)on Bear Lake in my Dad's boat....


Ethan and Amelia (unhappy)on Spirit Lake in a paddle boat...


Isobell all gussied up, one of the neighborhood kids did this to both Isobell and Elise, fun but hard to get off.....


Todd and the 2 little girls playing in the sand at Bear Lake..


Amelia on the back porch with some cream soda, Notice the name and phone number on here hand? I wrote that on there just before we went to Kholes to do some shopping...Yup you guessed it, she wandered away and some dude called us....


Amelia and Dad on cousin Art's 'Sea-Flash' at Bear Lake...


Ethan in his Sunday best..


The 3 Little girls in the back of a Handcart. This is the first morning at Martin's Cove in Wyoming, most of them ended up walking the 10 mile route that day, accept Amelia who stayed in the back of the cart...


Todd and Ethan pulling the handcart as we departed camp at 7 am for a 10 mile trip..


A water crossing, we did not get to cross the Platte river as it was too high, but there were frequent stream and bog crossings. You can see Lara and Aaron in the background about to wade into the water. Our good friend Diane is in the fore ground


Lara, Isobell, and Aaron; this was about as close to pioneer garb as Aaron would come. Notice the tight grip on Aaron's hand from Mom? He needed a bit of "loving encouragement" , he later did the walking on his own...


The Kids at Bear lake burying each other in the warm sand..like cat po...Oh Lara says I can't write that.

Maxima at 200000

Our trusty Nissan Maxima has been servicing us for about 115000 miles. We bought if from mom at about 85 k miles. It has taken me all over the state, and Wyoming too. I took a shot of of the odometer.

The Cosmos are Blomming

I was wandering around the yard tonight just as the sun was setting. The Dragonflies were out, along with a few humming birds. The grass was cut yesterday and the heat from the day was gone. I took a few pictures of things in the yard that bring me joy.

don't laugh at me, I am easily pleased.


one very nice red pepper... I need some salty chips to go with fresh salsa....


The plum tree that we planted in the wrong place is starting to make juicy plums...

..while the brussel sprouts are out of control, if only somebody else liked them, I would have someone to share with....


..this cabbage will be a salad this weekend....


..and the herb garden has flavored the pizzas! Well just the basil.

Yeah !! Summer

Summer officially began with a maiden voyage of our new grill.

4th of July

The 4th of July was a busy day, we started with lunch at Grandma Linda's house, the small kids had a potato sack race, there was one over-sized uncle too!
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We then went to my sister Christine's house for dinner. Ivie wore her new University of Utah shirt, much to the delight of Uncle Brian (ultimate U fan)


Amelia liked the sparklers, but buried her face when the ariel fire works started.

Later this week Chick-a-fillet was having a "cow appreciation day" The kids dressed as cows and received free kids meals.



Today is the last day of the week, the kids jumped on the trampoline and enjoyed the mild night air. Amelia is impossible to keep dressed BTW.