July 12

"Morning."

I mean, "Morning."

Doug cooked up a fresh batch of red potatoes.

I added some scrambled eggs and mandarin oranges,

and "voila," we had breakfast.

I spent Thursday night throwing up until 4:30am.  We went to a funeral in St. George on Friday morning.  We returned Saturday night.  I don't like to clean on Sunday.  So, this is what we had on Monday morning.  This crazy haphazard cluttered mess extended throughout the house.

Melissa Montoya, my friend and visiting teacher shared a short lesson with me.  Then she helped Rachel learn about cause and effect.  "If you pull the binky out then Marcus will cry.  If you put it in his ear the crying gets louder.  If you put it back in his mouth then he quiets down."

I updated our family calendar.  I LOVE this calendar.  It's magnetic.  So, each week you pull the top week's panel off, erase it, move all of the weeks up, then fill in the blank week and put it on the bottom.  Everybody has a different color for their activities.  Green is Doug, red is Jessica, pink is Rachel, orange is Zoe, blue is birthdays and anniversaries, black is for everybody.

The whole family went to Wal-Mart for groceries.  You could say it was our "family night" activity.

 Zoe really wanted to go, but it's too hot to leave her in the car.

We ate fresh corn on the cob, strawberries and watermelon for dinner.  Perfect fare for a hot summer night.

 Rachel practiced some post-dinner yoga in preparation for bed.

Big Bear Park

This week's playgroup adventure took us to Sandy, UT to Big Bear Park.  It's named after the big bear statue that beckons children to play.

Rachel explores the park like a baby Ferdinand Magellan.  Her imagination took her on travels by land,

by air,

by elephant,

in a group,

and by weird metal bird.

She navigated with ease and curiousity through wood chips,

grass, concrete

and curbs.

As always the swings were her favorite.  I love how swinging evokes two types of moods.

Elation and laughter.

and mellow contemplation.

Every week Rachel is getting more adventurous on the playgrounds.  Each week she seems to enjoy it more and more.  I love witnessing her life.  I love being a mom.  

I even love her shadow.

Independence Day 2010!

We had a great Independence Day weekend.  We did most of our celebrating on Saturday, July 3rd.  We got up early and attended the annual Valley Ridge Ward Breakfast.

We spent time with friends.

Rachel overcame her distrust of grass.

 We laughed, played, talked, and took tons of photos (most of which are not featured here).  

By the end Rachel had had enough.

Later that afternoon we crashed the Hopkins Family BBQ.

Rachel played with a bunch of different adults, including Bethany.

She had fun trading binky stories with her good buddy Kai.

Mostly we just hung out, ate great food (including spectacular potato salad which I was craving), and enjoyed being together as a family.

That night we introduced Rachel to fireworks.  We opted to skip the big shows because we didn't know how she would react.  Plus, church was at 9:00am.

Rachel wasn't sure she liked sparklers.

But she loved the rest of our homespun fireworks show.

Doug was our master of pyrotechnics.

On Monday the 5th we helped Laura and Greg christen their new grill.  We had a wonderful meal of steak, hamburger, potatoes with bacon, corn on the cob, and homemade popsicles.  I got so caught up in spending time with family that I forgot to take very many pictures.

It was a great weekend of celebration.  Now it's time to get back to business.

Happy Independence Day Everybody!