Raptors on a Spaceship

This week we spent some time working on the front yard. We have dug paths in a wagon wheel configuration around the yard, covered them with sand and pavers (that were being thrown away by a ward member), and also built a sandbox in the middle. Alison is ordering a patio umbrella to cover the sandbox (to keep the neighbor cat out of it), and we plan on planting various gardens in between the spokes of the wheel.

Alison and the kids went on two hikes this week.  On Tuesday they joined a Meetup group hiking in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  The other big kids ended up not meeting us, so there were two 2 year olds and Rea and Sara and Timmy.  The girls still had fun, and we climbed on boulders and threw rocks in the creek and had a great time.  On Friday, we hiked Cecret Lake with Grandpa Craig and Grandma Julie.  Even Sara hiked the full 3.2 miles with steep switchbacks!  We ate currants, saw a moose up close, and watched waterdogs in the lake.  It was an awesome day.

Both days after hiking, we finished up at the pool. Rea jumped in the diving well of the pool!  She was so proud of herself.  Unfortunately, our outdoor pool is now closed.  This is very sad, since we have gone at least three times a week this summer and absolutely loved it, and all the kids have made great strides in swimming.  Alison really didn't like the nearest indoor pool the one time she went, so we're considering finding a farther away pool or getting a hot tub for the kids to swim in.

I have been working on 'Jurassic Space' (which is what I am calling my most current board game). I convinced Alison to play it with me last night (Rea and Sara played as well, and Timmy screamed the whole time (but he was in one of his moods, so it is not like it is that surprising)).

It is a game where you deliver spaceship loads full of animals (modern and ancient) to various human habitations on various planets. Considering the fact that the trips take years, the animals have to be in viable ecosystems during the delivery. I am trying to keep it fairly realistic, but I am willing to make concessions to make the game more playable.

This Saturday I made a cheddar. The make did not go very well. Perhaps it will be tasty still, but it may or may not be very cheddar-like.

On Saturday Alison made us home-made bean burritos (which were excellent.) This was the first time that she cooked tortillas, and they came out really well.

Saturday night we went to the adult session of stake conference (while the Strombergs watched our kids). We learned a lot about keeping the Sabbath day holy (which was the theme of the entire conference). We are going to try to implement the things that we learned in the conference over the next few weeks.

Sunday morning we opened a cheddar that we made in January. It had a very cheddar-esque flavor, but it was more lipasey than expected. Perhaps we should partially skim our cheddars in the future.

We invited the Strombergs over for dinner after conference (Sunday night). Max and the girls all ran around and played in the new front yard while the adults and little kids talked. It was fun. We need to invite people over more often.

Timmy has started shaking his head no in response to questions. It doesn't seem that it matters to him what the question is. He thinks that it is grand fun that he gets to shake his head and say something at the same time.

Sara has begun trying to write messages.  She usually gets a few letters that are trying to be formed right (like P or W) and then starts scrawling her pencil across the page and telling us what it means.  It's very fun.