Parentheticals

On Monday Mike went back to work with a damaged finger. It was hard, but he managed it. The kids have a hard time being gentle with his finger. The Rogers moved back to Utah this week, so we helped them move in on Wednesday and Thursday. We are so excited to have them back in Utah. They hadn't unpacked their toys, so we had to bring our own when we were helping them. On Wednesday we got a new kiddie pool, and we brought it over to their house to play in. It was very popular. On Thursday we went to a convert baptism in our ward. The kids liked the fact that it was short. For school this week we started reading the story of king Arthur and his knights, and so they got to see the Disney movie "Sword and the stone" on Thursday as well. Timmy liked the start of the movie the best. Thursday night Rea went to activity days and learned cross stitching with the other young girls. On Friday Alison and the kids went to an oak connect meeting where they planned for their ...

We totally started writing this on Sunday as usual, but Sunday was interrupted to some extent, and we failed to finish it until now. Here is the blog post for last week (such as it is) Monday we got (and began to spread) another load of wood-chips - that chipdrop website is great if you want free wood-chips, and don't mind getting some leaves and sticks along with them. This load was large enough to pretty much cover the remainder of the yard, so we probably will not order another load this year On Tuesday we went to the park group's faux camping trip up the canyon. We had dinner, and played and talked, however we didn't spend the night. After the camping trip, Mike went to BGDG. He played a game by another member of the guild, and had a fun time. On Wednesday, when trying to clean out the drain, Mike got the cleaning tool stuck and it broke off when he tried to get it out. That was annoying. On Thursday we spread wood-chips again - we finished most of them. Hopef...

Apparently we have not written blog posts in a long time. From the 22nd to the 26th of July we went to a family Reunion in Oregon. Much of the Brown family was able to make it there, and we had a fun time. We loved playing with our cousins and going to the beach. The kids also "found" arrow-heads that seemed to magically be seeded in the yard of our camp site. Rea remembers the really windy day at the beach where it was so windy that it kicked the sand around all over the place. The first time that we tried to fly kites at the beach, we were hardly able to get them up, however the second time, it was so windy that we had a hard time controlling all but the largest kites. Sara liked the fact that we stayed in Yurts, and she also liked "crab paradise", which was when grandpa Mike caught them a lot of crabs and they played with them in a man-made tide pool. Gideon liked playing on the sand, and drawing pictures to Mommy, and grandma Sheila sharing out foo...

I don't know if I even need to say it, but this last week was a busy one. We had grandma Julie over for most of the week, which was a huge help to us. She kept things under control while Mike went back to work. On Monday Grandma, Mike, and the kids went hiking up Bell Canyon to pick Serviceberries. It was a total bust this year. We got 6 berries total, so even though the hike was fun we didn't end up making anything afterward. During Mike's paternity leave he scheduled Gideon's surgery, so on Tuesday he took the day off to get the surgery done. The surgeon was apparently running super late, because the surgery took all day and though they left at 10:30AM they finally got home at 6:30PM (the surgery itself took about half an hour). Gideon was very brave, and the surgery went without any real complications, so hopefully his recovery is quick, and he is back to normal pretty soon. Alison is also still recovering, so Mike is trying to make her take it easy. It is ...

Ultimate baby wrestling This week Mike worked half a day on Monday and Tuesday, and he worked all day Wednesday, but he had the rest of the week off. This was part of his paternity leave package that he agreed upon with his employer. Alison and the kids did a good job of holding down the fort while Mike was gone, although the house did get pretty messy since Alison spent a lot of time taking care of the baby, which took away some time from her taking care of the rest of things. One thing that happened early in the week was the conclusion of the light install in the front yard. Mike was able to finish putting everything together, and the lights were easy to install. They look good, however they are not bright enough to be the sole source of light in the room. On Tuesday we picked the "last" of the strawberries on strawberry hill. On Wednesday during the day, Amy offered to watch the kids, so Alison dropped them off, and napped. When mike came home we had pizza at A...

Monday we went to the park near the Dalia's house, and discovered a huge mulberry tree, and picked tons of berries. We made them into jelly and ice cream and smoothie, and plan on making a pie. On Wednesday Mike called an arborist to schedule them chopping down our cottonwood tree. It died this year, and we miss it. Timmy is very sad about chopping down the tree, but we don't want it falling on our house, so we have to do it. Mike also took Gideon in to set up his surgery (for removing his extra toes) and got a date for that (July 9th). We ordered LED strip lights for the front room, and they arrived Wednesday. Thursday we went out and bought a bunch of stuff to finish installing them including a Costa Rican mask to hide the electronics. We got the crown molding installed, and the mask, but not the lights themselves. Mike needs to do some electrical work before we are ready for that, but we think that it is gonna look great. Thursday we also walked Rea to activ...

We were so exhausted after Elizabeth's birth, Grandma Sheila decided to drive down Monday and help us out. She got a hotel with a pool and took the big kids to stay there with her for two days. It was heavenly! We managed to get enough naps to feel recovered from the birth, and the kids had a fabulous time. Alison mentioned it to her midwife, and she said that was the best idea she'd ever heard for out of town relatives and she was going to suggest it to other families. We loved it! Grandma even orchestrated Timmy's birthday party on Tuesday. He wanted Logan and Dustin to play and ice cream cake, so Grandma brought pizza and Dairy Queen ice cream cake and invited Logan and Dustin over to eat with us. Timmy loved it. He also loved his gifts: eggs you chisel open to reveal sea creatures from Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Mike, and two decks of Pokemon cards from Mom and Dad. He got money from Grandma Julie and Grandpa Craig, which he decided to spend on a LEGO set with a dra...