We failed to write for a few weeks, so this is a big post to get caught back up.
Three weeks ago we did Organized Simplicity on the front room. On Monday the 13th we took everything out of the room. It doesn't look like it has that much stuff in it, but it still took up half of the carpeted room and half of Mike's work room to hold all of the stuff. After cleaning out all the stuff we cleaned the room and Alison decided that she also wanted to paint the walls. We ended up painting it a yellowish white that matches the color of the Kallax. Painting took till Wednesday night, so we started moving things back in Thursday and we got it all back together by Friday. Mike marked some board games for disposal, and we also got rid of some art stuff. The room was re-arranged during the move, so we now have a cool new setup which gives us less horizontal furniture to put things on. Hopefully that works to keep the room cleaner.
Boo's birthday was on the 15th. We ate fruit pizza and she got fancy shoes, crowns, skirts, and dresses (that is what she asked from everyone), so that was fun for her.
The kids had a sleep over with the Plastows, which was successful. They planned it themselves and had a fun time.
On Friday evening we went as a family to Jurassic Park City at the OBT. It was part of celebrating Timmy's birthday, and we had a fun time as usual. The play was both fun for the kids and a little bit scary.
Timmy's birthday was on the 18th. He got a new video game called Astroneer, which he was excited about. He also got some Bakugan and money. He hasn't spent the money yet, but he has plans to buy more Bakugan with it.
That Sunday was Fathers day. We had biscuits and gravy, and Alison made some really great onion gravy (which Mike wants to have again) We also had a walk with the Plastows. We went to a new trail and had a fun time. The kids also painted the miniatures which we got from SaltCon and also from Mike's cousin and her husband. They had a fun time painting them and ended up with some cool looking toys to play with.
The Dalyias (our friends from Sandy) came over on the 22nd to play. They had a fun time playing, and Gideon even got along very well with Sammy - the youngest Dalyia.
Uncle Andy came to Utah on the 24th, and we have been hanging out with him and his family fairly often since then.
We went to Thanksgiving Point on the 25th. The original plan was to go to the air show, but we were told that the air show was 1 million percent overbooked and that we had to go somewhere else instead. Thanksgiving Point was fun, and we saw even more dinosaurs than were in Jurassic Park City. We walked from the front runner station to the gardens to JDawgz, so the kids all slept really well that night. All in all it was a 6 mile walk, so we got our exercise in (in the hot sun too.)
Timmy got baptized on the 26th at our stake center He invited all of the local cousins and grandparents to it, and it went mostly smoothly. No-one drowned (Timmy was worried about that) and we had ice cream sandwiches at our house afterward. Craig gave a talk on baptism and how it was like leveling up in a video game, which was very fun. Alison gave a talk on the Holy Ghost; she talked about different fruits of the Spirit and how he'll learn to recognize them. It went pretty well given that she changed the whole talk a few hours before the baptism. Grandpa Mike and Dustin gave prayers. Rea and Logan witnessed the baptism, Mike baptized and confirmed Timmy, Dave Plastow directed and Becky Rogers played the music, and Brother Coon conducted the meeting. Timmy woke up with "baptism jitters" and was nervous-excited all day, but he was happy. He had been more nervous than excited up until that day, so it was great that he felt good about the baptism when it actually happened. He got a Gospel Art Pictures book and has been very excited to find the picture that matches every scripture story we've discussed since then.
Boo and Gideon are excited to be baptized now, so get ready in a few years for that.
Recently some heavy wind also caused tree branches from our tree to fall in our neighbor's yard on their shed. Mike offered to help them clean up, but they said they had it under control. We ended up offering to let them use our dumpster that we are getting from the city to get rid of the waste.
Mike took the week of the 27th through the 1st off. Originally it was for the Nature Group campout, but then we found out that Andy would be here, so our plans changed.
We went camping on Tuesday the 28th with the nature group and had a fun time. The kids enjoyed the trading blanket activity that they had, and traded some things for some other things. Mike talked to Loren about how he was doing (if you didn't recall, Loren's family is also part of the nature group), we hiked up Donut Falls, and Mike even found some more morels up near the camp ground.
Every time that we go up to that camp ground Mike is reminded about how much he wants to move back to Michigan. They have such good woods up there, and there are tons of edible berries and plants. We need to go back up and harvest the strawberries, raspberries, serviceberries, elderberries and currants we found up there - hopefully we will remember.
We slept in the new tent that Mike got for Christmas. It was big enough for seven sleeping bags and we all slept quite well. Even though there was some rain it kept us dry and happy, so it was a very good tent to have!
Wednesday morning we hung out with the nature group some more, painting clothespins (the younger kids) and making a leather pouch (Rea). Around lunchtime, we met Grandpa Craig, Grandma Julie, Andy's family, and Becky's family at Silver Lake (farther up the same canyon we were camping in). We had fun walking around the lake, and then we got caught in a cloudburst. It was nice and cool, but the rain was a little much for some of the kids, so we drove back down to the 100 degree valley. We saw a moose as we were driving out, which was great since we hadn't seen any moose in the lake and we usually do.
The Browns took Rocket when we went on the campout, and he came back sporting an attractive new collar, so apparently they even like to spoil the grand-dog periodically :)
On Thursday and Friday we stayed at the Poulson's and went swimming with them too. It was fun to all get together and talk. Andy's family went to visit Amanda's relatives on Friday afternoon, so we headed home. Becky's family went to Missouri, but we will go back to Grandma Julie's house this week Wednesday-Friday when Andy gets back.
While all of this was going on Mike has been working on his final class for his masters degree. He is just 3 weeks away from (hopefully) passing and becoming a master of computer science. It has been pretty brutal, but he is learning stuff, and excited to finish it up.
Another fun thing that happened was that the Plastows got chicks. They are super cute, and the kids went off to see them yesterday. Between recuperating from the busy week and the 100+ degree temperatures we haven't been doing much beyond survival stuff.
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