Another Broken Bone

So, apparently broken bones are not going to be a stranger to our family...however, this time it's not me!

The weekend after we arived home from the family reunion, we had a ward (church) party at "Old Cougar Stadium" (the old highschool's sports complex turned family park). Amid softball, snowcones, tug-o-war, and water balloons...the kids were running around on the playground and one of them tripped off the monkey-bar platform...make a guess...who do you think it was?

Are you surprised?

Brendan's enjoying all the attention...and loved the pre-summer break (he missed 4 days of school).

Brendan will get his cast off the day after Memorial Day...and is already making big plans (summer break starts the Friday before) on how many times a day he gets to go swimming and take a bath without a big bag around his arm!

7 kids + 4 adults + 1 cabin = FUN

So some old friends (the Halls) from Mesa invited us up to their cabin in Heber, Arizona (about 3 hours Northeast) for the weekend...and it was a blast. The weather was perfect 60's/ 30's...a little breezy...but that's what hoods are for. It was so nice to get together with old friends...I wish life weren't so busy so we could hang out more often. Here are some shots to make you wish you had been there :)

The Gang (Top: Daisy, Luke, Cooper, Seth; Bottom: Lindsay & Brendan)


Besides Dylan, Cooper was the youngest at 1 1/2 years old...don't worry, Coop--next time you'll be old enough to give Luke a run for his money. (And the spots on Cooper's face ar e leftover from chicken pox...Luke didn't bully him THAT BAD).

If you noticed in the shot of The Gang, Brendan was having an "un-photogenic" moment...he made up for it later...

Happy, again.

Seth and Daisy have been friends since they were just a couple months old...




Now they're spies!

Where did those handcuffs come from?! We SPLURGED and let the kids pic out toys at the local dollar store (we're so grateful cheap toys still make them all happy)...and these handcuffs were part of the loot. Apparently Brendan and Lindsay wanted to be in-separable.

Dylan really liked Daisy...she was great with him. I think it was the first time he had been around a "little" girl for longer than a couple hours...I'm sure Dylan thought she was very strange to not be patting his head or making funny faces at him--the difference between the nurturing of a girl vs a boy is night and day.

Luke liked locking himself up and loosing the key (he didn't know the key was unnecessary and we didn't tell him).



We had arrived at their cabin Friday night...and in the morning after driving to get pizza for lunch (and might I mention we took up 1/2 of the dining area...it was a small franchise)...anyway, we discovered the Hall's cabin was only a couple miles from Marilee & Jim's cabin (Charlie's childhood step mom & her husband). I'm sure she'll forgive me for posting this picture. We popped in on her without calling first...but Dylan kept sticking his tongue out and it was so funny I couldn't resist the shot.

The Baptism & The Derby...all at once

For those of you not able to attend Seth's baptism...it was great. We are so happy that Seth chose to be baptized. I think we may have overwhelmed him with discussions about his choice to be baptized and what that meant...finally one day he kinda rolled his eyes and said, "I got it already...I know what I'm doing...I'll have to be REALLY GOOD after this."

Seth is such a thoughtful, sweet boy...he really makes Charlie and I look like great parents (but most of what he does is without prompting on our part--like going around the room after his baptism to 'thank' everyone for coming).

Seth's cousin, Andre' (who is almost 16 yrs old now), gave the Baptismal talk explaining to Seth the covenants he was about to make. This was very special for Seth. He REALLY looks up to Andre' and we are greatful for the wonderful example Andre' sets for our boys.

After Charlie 'dunked' Seth under the water Lucas let out a delightful squeal and announced it was his turn!

We watched a video that I put together of Seth growing up (which would have been easy if I could have gotten the first three programs I used to work the way I wanted...12 hours later the video was done). The funny thing is that Luke thinks the pictures are mostly of him and Dylan instead of Seth & Brendan...would it be bad to use the same video for my 'clones'? Would they know the difference? (If I can ever get it to download to our blog...then you'll be able to see it, too).

Then, my Mom gave the talk on the Holy Ghost explaining to Seth how special this gift is...she does such a good job of taking really complicated things and putting them into a child's perspective.

After his baptism, we had 30 min to run home & eat before returning to the church for the Pinewood Derby (if any of you don't know anything about Boy Scouts--like me--the Pinewood Derby is where the boys take a block of wood--pine--and make it into a car that they race, and race, and race, and race...and 3 or 4 hours later their parents drag them home either delighted that their car was one of the fastest...or already planning on how to make their car faster for next year). Seth's car was offically raced 4 times and he placed: 1st, 3rd, 2nd, and 4th in that order...needless to say he was pretty happy. I'm slowly being introduced to this NEW world of 'boy'...maybe I'll have it down by the time Dylan is eight! And instead of making his Derby car in less than 7 days...this next year I think we'll be starting 7 months in advance--I married a perfectionist.

So it was a busy, but fulfilling weekend. And next weekend will be just as busy...family reunion in St. George, Utah. Things will slow down eventually, right?