Parentheticals

On Monday Alison and the kids went to the library and got to use finger paint on some mini horses (they were actually living horses that were rather small.) They had lots of fun, and the horses didn't seem to mind it. At the library, they met the Dalyais, and Marissa got to come over for the afternoon. They played dolls, since both Sara and Marissa got dolls for their birthdays in July. They had lots of fun. Tuesday was Pioneer Day, but we didn't really celebrate. Alison and the kids went swimming. The kids watched Sara's birthday movie (the Disney version of Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella) while Mike went to Board Game Design Guild in the evening. At his  meeting he played a game by another designer, and had a fun time. On Wednesday Alison and the kids met the Dalyais at Flat Iron Mesa park. The kids played that they were pioneers crossing the Great Plains, so I guess that was our Pioneer Day celebration. Alison liked talking to Sylvia; they haven't really...

On Tuesday Rea had riding lessons again. She trotted a lot, and is getting stronger and better at riding. She still loves it. We celebrated Sara's birthday on Thursday. We went to a puppet show at the library, and then had luch at a mcdonalds with a play place (she has been asking for this for months). Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Mike took us out for Dairy Queen, and we had fruit pizza, fruit pie, and then went swimming as a family. It was crazy busy, but Sara enjoyed it a lot. Friday and Saturday we also went to Olivia's sealing, and her adoption party. We got a new babysitter for the sealing, which went well, and the kids were super excited about the party. Fun was had by all. On Saturday, among other things we went to a neighbor's garage sale and found a new used microwave for $10. It is about the right size, and we have not had one for about a month, so it was totally worth it. We also picked some more chokecherries and a good amount of currants of various varieti...

We got to see Becky's family twice this week. They joined us at nature group on Tuesday and then came to our house to play afterwards. Ellie loved being around Rea and Sara, and Aelfric, Timmy, and Gideon all had fun building with blocks with their moms, if not with each other (they're a little young to play together yet). Then Wednesday we drove down to Springville to go to the splashpad with them. We had a lot of fun both days. On Tuesday night Mike went to the BGDG meeting, and played the Citadel of Madness there. It went well. He got some new ideas and is currently working to implement them. Wednesday night Alison went to League of Utah Writers and learned about different ways to name characters and then critiqued some interesting chapters. Maybe soon she will have enough written in her novel to bring a chapter to critique group herself. Sometime Wednesday the electricity in the master bedroom went out (and also one outlet in the spare room). We were so busy all ...

This was a full week. All week Mike has been working on a surprise expansion for The Perfect Moment. Jason Tagmire - Mike's publisher - asked him to prepare an expansion as a stretch goal for the kickstarter campaign. It has been fun so far to come up with some new abilities as it has been a while since the game has changed. Rea started horseback riding lessons this week. She has four lessons, every Monday night from 6 to 7pm. She is very, very excited and she had a wonderful time. She learned to signal the horse to walk and to stop and practiced posting and trotted a few steps. She is very proud of herself. She was also eager to tell everyone about how one of the older girls in her class got bucked off a horse! That was a little scary, but Rea still loves riding. Wednesday was the 4th of July, so we went to the pool park and picked some chokecherries. They were not as ripe as they could have been, but we still got a ton of ones that were fairly ripe. Mike and Rea were the...

This week the kids have been playing with the Marissa Dalyai a lot. The Dalyais are our best friends, and they are moving out of our neighborhood and closer to the library. We will miss being able to walk or bike over whenever we want, so we played with them almost every day this week. Mike had Board Game Design Guild and Alison had League of Utah Writers this week, so it was busy. The kids took naps and cleaned up so that they got to watch movies both nights, so they were pretty happy. During the week, the kids got a card from Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Mike with stickers and $20 to do something fun. On Thursday, we went to the grocery store and spent the money on supplies for an ice cream bar: ice cream, cones, chocolate coconut sauce, walnuts, sprinkles, whipped cream, and cherries. It was a very fun family activity. Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma! Friday we sat around after dinner lamenting our lack of date planning. Alison checked the internet and found a free "Youth...