Our Newest Purchase

Ashley has signed up to play violin in the fourth grade orchestra for this coming school year.  She was fitted at the beginning of the summer and she needed a full size violin.  I happen to be looking through the paper yesterday and noticed a violin for sale.  It is a 2007 Franz Hoffmann Maestro violin.  There is a woman in our ward ( Cindy) that teaches violin and I called her to see if she knew anything about this model.  She volunteered to come with my to play and inspect it to see if it was good.  I was so grateful for her help.  She played it and said it sounded great.  The strings will need to be replaced in the near future, but she thought it would be fine for Ashley.  The violin has only been played for two years and the people I bought it from purchased it new from a lady that never played it.  Cindy offered to give Ashley 4 free lessons to get her started.  I think we might take her up on her offer.

On a different note, Joslynn cracks us up.  She has now decided she likes to sit at the table with all of us.   If I put her in her high chair half way through the meal she wants out and then goes to Alyssa and pushes her out of her chair.  She has finally started to use utensils more, but some days still prefers her fingers. 

Pioneer Day!

One last picture for the day to make sure I could do it.  The men were playing with some of the kids outside so I could get the dishes done.  We had dutch oven potatoes and chicken for dinner.  Allen did a wonderful job cooking.  We are going to miss Diane and Joseph.  We were really glad that Jason and Rachel could come spend the night also.  The day definately went by to fast. 

Lazy afternoon TV watching

Benjamin was not very happy that I was standing in front of the TV blocking his view.  Kaylynn should not have water downstairs so she is in trouble for that.  She blames it on Alyssa, imagine that!!  Alyssa really is happy about the visitors, although her face really leads you to believe otherwise.

Ashley and Grace became friends quickly.  They watched some TV as Diane gave me a private lesson on how to blog!  I hope I remember things when she is not sitting by my side.  Diane is more positive with my capabilities than I am. 

Family Garden Night

The kids were not very excited about the Thursday night activity.  When telling them it was a night to have fun together all their ideas were very different than mine.  They were informed that after dinner we would be working in the garden!!!  I was very excited about it and find working in the garden to be relaxing and very enjoyable.  My children did not have the same thoughts, but we did have a fun time outside.  Before heading to the garden we did have to go to Logan to retrieve my wonderful husband from work.  He took the bus into work every day this last week because Diane and Joseph borrowed our car to go to Boise.  The last bus leaves at 5:45 and after getting on the bus, Allen realized it was the WRONG one.  He enjoyed a nice ride around the University and called me to come get him.  We all had a good laugh.  Anyway - it was a cooler night out and all the kids worked together well.  Tyler called to weed the tomatoes.  He pounded more stakes in to secure the tomatoes with.

The girls helped pick the peas and Kaylynn loved snacking on them.

Joslynn loves peas, unfortunaley she likes to eat the pod to get to the peas. 

Allen weed wacked ( because he LOVES that job and does it so well!) the weeds in the field behind our house which made pulling all the weeds off the fence much easier.

These are my pepper, beans, carrots and onions and potatoes in the way back.  My peppers are ready, but the tomatoes are not.  We have had 2 tomatoes, a zucchini, peas, beans and beets from the garden.  I bottled 6 pints of pickled beets on Thursday.  Yummy!!  I have 1 quart bag of frozen peas and the beans I shared with a neighbor.  I hope to have more beans because I need to get some canned this year.

My good little helpers.  I will miss them when they leave for New York.

California Trip July 2011

 Allen, Tyler, Ashley and Kenneth went to an Oakland A's baseball game.  They had a fun time, although parking was outrageous!!  The A's lost the game, but there was a fireworks show following the game which was spectacular.

This was taken in the Redwood forest.  Those trees are incredibly tall.  It was a beautiful day for a stroll through the forest.  The kids were all hungry by the time we finished and we had a nice picnic in the park.

We spent the day at the beach and this was the most favorite activity for all of the kids.  We had planned to only stay for a couple of hours, but it turned out to be the entire day..  Joslynn loved the sand!  Ashley, Tyler, Allen and Kenneth spent most of the time riding the waves.  Kaylynn, Alyssa and I played it safe on the beach, just getting our feet wet and played in the sand.  I was amazed at how much sand came home with us in our clothes!.  After the beach we went back to Kenneth's for dinner and watched the fireworks from his backyard.  It was a wonderful day. and we are so thankful that Kenneth and Heidi let us come.

We spent one night camping on the California coast and it was beautiful.  The ocean was right out our tent opening.  It was a little windy, but after the sun set the wind stopped.  We roasted hot dogs, had smores and froze during the night.  It was very cold during the night. 

Heber Valley Campout- July 16-17 2011

We went to Heber Valley Camp for a Dawes reunion.  We spent one night in a cabin with all of Allen's family.  Bed time was very interesting, but all the cousins had a great time together.  There were flushing toilets which was a bonus!!  The kids went on the zip line on Saturday.  Ashley was extremely excited and climb the pole in no time.  It took the rest of us a little longer.  I was very proud of Kaylynn, because she is afraid of heights just like me.  Allen's aunt and uncle are missionary's at the camp and it was really fun to see them and visit with them.