Once upon a time....

...there was a little girl who loved to dance! And dance she did!

Alyssa had a big dance recital at the end of June. She had been practicing for months. She did 2 dances, Peter Rabbit and Swan Princess. The recital was great and long and entertaining. They did not allow any recording or picture taking in the auditorium, which made me really sad, but we snapped these pictures of her in her costumes luckily.

She is so talented in dance and so beautiful inside and out! We love to watch her share her talent and share the joy she finds in dancing. We are already looking forward to the next recital!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

When I asked Trevor what he wanted to do for his birthday he said he just wanted to stay home, have dinner and a regular Family Home Evening. We have been playing so hard this summer and traveling so much, I thought it was the perfect way to celebrate his special day and so that's just what we did.

This guy doesn't have many "quiet" nights at home. He is always busy. Always working on something. Always doing something for someone else. Always trying to find time to fit everything in. We are grateful he is ours and that he has a birthday so we could just sit together as a family, eat burgers and chocolate donuts and cake and celebrate his life. It's been a great life so far and we are lucky to be a part of it!

Happy Birthday Trevor!

We love you!

Bombs Away!

When a certain Uncle is in town for the 4th there is always a very anticipated water fight that will take place at the family barbeque. Ethan asked me everyday the week before the 4th "Mom, when is the water fight?" My kids came prepared with their guns and plans and I came prepared with a set of dry clothes for each kid. I'm glad I did.

The girls attacking!

The boys attacking!

The attackee.....Uncle Travis! He spent the whole day preparing his fort. He had hoses, shields, barricades and an endless supply of water balloons and squirt guns. My kids were not deterred, even with the unfair advantage. They went after him with all they had! They threw and squirted till they could squirt no more. They ran and shrieked and laughed!

They got very wet and felt a little defeated .....

until Uncle Travis emerged from his fort.

When they saw that he was more wet than they were they felt vindicated and declared themselves champions!

Until next year Uncle Travis.

Be afraid.

Be very afraid!

I Love America!

It was kind of different having the 4th of July on a Sunday, but I enjoyed it. I felt the spirit strongly in church as we all stood and sang patriotic hymns in Sacrament meeting. I have always loved the patriotic hymns. It was also neat to have Kara up on the stand playing the songs on the organ. I also remember feeling the spirit strongly many many years ago in my American Heritage class at BYU when we watched the movie "A More Perfect Union." So this year, I bought the movie, and we all settled down to watch the miracle of the signing of the Constitution. We all enjoyed it and it started some great conversations.



I also planned a yummy barbeque for just our little family. Marinated chicken kabobs, grilled pineapple, grilled corn on the cob, rice and rolls. Trevor got out the barbeque and got all of the food placed ever so carefully and strategically so it would all fit. It looked so pretty and was starting to smell so good when........the propane ran out. Our propane tank lasts us about 2 years and seriously it ran out on the 4th of July! We quickly turned on the ovens and ran everything inside. It still tasted OK, but the moment was kind of ruined--oh well! We still very much enjoyed our quiet little 4th of July.

In grand 4th (or in this case 5th) of July tradition we arose early on Monday to get down to the parade. We never miss it. We sit in the same place every year. We cover our ears when the cannon comes by. We stand when the flag and any military veterans walk past. We cheer loudly for the pooper scoopers. We chant "turn, turn turn" when any big balloon is in front of us and then scream when they actually do it. We wonder who is keeping the streets safe when all of the policemen come by and do their little motorcycle routine. And of coarse we give a standing ovation when the Cougars, the Provo missionaries and the American Fork High School band parade past. We love every long hot minute of the Freedom Festival parade!

And of coarse, it wouldn't be tradition without Grandpa's flag shirt!

Every year after the parade we head over to Cracker Barrel for our traditional 4th of July brunch. It just seems right to sit on the porch of the restaurant and rock in rocking chairs and play checkers until our name is called. We then all pile in and eat eat eat. Even though we love this place, it seems like every year something happens. This year they forgot to bring Trevor's food. Even after we told them he didn't get his food it still didn't come until everyone had long since been done eating. He ate all by himself, quickly, because we all wanted to get home and rest.

There is truly no better place to have a barbeque than Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. There were 70 people this year at our family barbeque! That makes for one great party. We ate, visited, made homemade ice cream, launched water balloons and of coarse had a huge water fight! What a great holiday! We really do love America and love to celebrate in every way possible on this great day!

Cul-de-sac of Fire!

After we rested a bit from our outing to Colonial Days we headed around the corner for our neighborhood's annual Cul-de-Sac of Fire. It started in grand fashion with a patriotic bike parade. My 4 youngest kids rode around the block proud as can be. Ashlyn was the last one, pedaling as hard as she could on her little pink bike.
Bryson's bear den was in charge of the flag ceremony. What a cute little scout!

The night was so full. My kids ran around and shot off rockets, fished at the fish pond over and over, jumped in bounce houses, dunked people in a dunk tank and put temporary tattoos all over their bodies. We hardly saw them. It was a great night!

They (OK, Trevor and I did a little of this too) ate unlimited amounts of popcorn, nachos, hot dogs, snow-cones and cotton candy. Kind of sick when you think about it.

After all the games, music and food, they pulled out this giant pine-wood derby track. The boys raced their old cars and loved all the crashes, wipe outs and jumps that this awesome track created.

We had a fabulous night with our great neighbors and friends. We ended the night with a little firework show and of coarse glow sticks. We were exhausted and filthy and happy, just how you should be after a shin dig like that!

Stepping back in time

Since the 4th of July was on a Sunday this year, our family literally celebrated for 3 straight days. Here is the first post to honor this fabulous holiday,

one of our favorites.

On Saturday afternoon we headed down to Colonial Days at the Scera Park. We couldn't have asked for a better afternoon. The weather was perfect, there was tons of shade and it wasn't too crowded. We walked along the path of the park and enjoyed stepping back in time.

(Brandon is looking over my shoulder as I write this and he thinks he looks like he had cornrows in his hair in this picture-and I kind of have to agree. (: )

The kids were fascinated by the calligrapher who wrote with a real quill. He wrote all of our names on little pieces of paper and Ethan was very proud because the writer said "E" was his favorite letter to write (very curly and flowy). I can't imagine writing back then. He had to dip his quill in the pot after every couple of letters- what a pain.

(Brandon feels he looks "demented" in this picture.)

As we were looking at some of the displays a bell rang and they called school into session. All the kids gathered in a tent, put on their hats (can you see Alyssa on the girl side?) and began a lesson. They were told and shown what it was like to have school back in the day. They had to stand and bow before giving an answer, did some arithmetic on little slate boards, and were introduced to the dunce cap. Don't they look thrilled to be back in school during the summer?
(Brandon is now begging me to change this picture because he thinks he looks like a woman, legs crossed and lips pursed.)

Here we talked to an Indian. Ashlyn wouldn't get anywhere near him for the picture and Tyler called him a fake because he saw a little white skin around his ankle. He was still fascinating to listen to and told us how his people were so skilled with the bow and arrow that they could shoot 10 arrows into the air before the first one landed. I think my boys are going to want to try that one.

It was a great way to start our festive weekend. We got home brewed cream soda, ate popcorn and old fashioned candy, took an immigration test (and passed), played with cannons and rifles, and Brandon passed off almost all of his requirements for the Citizenship in the Nation merit badge (they actually had a whole booth dedicated to that!). You can't beat that-even if you are a demented womanly kind of boy with cornrows!

It's for the Dogs!

On my birthday, Trevor and I found this quaint little restaurant in Carmel, to eat lunch at. We sat down, looked over the yummy menu, and ordered our food. We were waiting for our food to come and having a lovely conversation I'm sure, when we noticed someone walk into our little garden room with a dog. We looked at each other a little surprised and then overheard the customer at the next table say "oh, now Poochie (I made up that name) will have a friend"

We heard some dogs yipping, and the dog that had just entered had indeed found a friend, the dog who was sitting under the next table. We slowly looked around and noticed there was literally a dog sitting under each table in the room, even one on his owner's lap! We were dying! I then overheard the conversation of the couple sitting next to us, she was getting into way too much detail about her dog's pooping schedule and telling her parents that if anything happened to her dogs while she was gone on vacation, she would sue them. Then I heard her husband mention kids. So we figured her kids were at home with a babysitter, while they dined out with their dogs! A waiter then came into the room and asked one couple if their dog wanted water. The dog apparently did, and it was brought out and set on the ground in a silver bowl. This is the same waiter that would be handing us our food. The icing on the cake was when a man was walking out of the restaurant with his large dog. They stopped right by our table and the dog did one of those shake things, like when they are wet and trying to dry off. I swear we could almost see little black hairs flying through the air and landing on our table. I thought we were both going to lose it. Trevor picked up the menu again and sure enough right there in the bottom corner it said "dog friendly restaurant" Never in my life have I heard of a dog friendly restaurant, but apparently they exist and we found it! We had no choice but to eat our food, which was still yummy, and we laughed all the way home.