Wednesday, July 4

Independence Day started at the playground…

…then moved on to the mini-golf course.

Look at that form!

This mini-golf course holds so many memories for me. I worked at the resort every summer of high school and many of my shifts were spent in the mini-golf shack. The rest of the time I was scooping ice cream or working the register in the store. Ah, fun times!

After golf, we headed up to Paris, Idaho for the 4th of July Parade.

Small-town parades are great because they still throw candy to the kids. Here are Logan, Raine, Carter, Carson, and baby Addy checking out their haul.

After the parade, we headed down the road to the Paris Youth Rodeo. It featured chicken chasing, pig chasing, rabbit chasing, and lots of mutton bustin’. Logan and Carson tried their hand at the chases. Fortunately, they came up empty-handed because the prize was to keep the animal you caught. Raine preferred to watch the events from the stands but told me that next time she would do the mutton bustin’.

On the way home, we stopped for famous Bear Lake raspberry shakes — except the kids wanted vanilla and chocolate, so Daddy and I enjoyed the shakes.

The fireworks show that night was canceled and all fireworks were banned because of the tinder-dry conditions, so we had fun playing water balloon games instead.

Carter thought it was hilarious to get moving so fast side-to-side that his balloon would fall out and pop. He had us all rolling with laughter at his little wiggle-run.

Tuesday, July 3

On the first full day of our family reunion we headed down to the beach and spent the day swimming in Bear Lake. Well . . . Carter swam in the lake, the rest of us didn’t make it much past our knees in that chilly water.

Shortly after we arrived at the beach, Carter and I were in the water while Daddy and Raine were playing in the sand, when someone started talking to Daddy. We didn’t even have to look up to know who it was . . . Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He and his wife were out for a walk along the beach and just stopped to chat for a minute. It was a fun little “celebrity encounter”!

That evening the kids customized their Dora/Diego backpacks. Aunt Sara made the faces, then the kids added their name along with buttons, foam shapes, and sparkley pom-poms. I made eight of these backpacks, one for each grandkid, for our birthday party adventure on Thursday. They were cut from the infamous blue fabric that has become a running joke in our family. My dad “rescued” this bolt of blue fabric when he was working a temp job in California, long before any of us kids were born. The fabric has been used for everything: tablecloths, temporary walls, clothing, aprons, and who knows what else. Now each of the grandkids has a little piece of it to carry with them!

Afterward, we enjoyed some juicy watermelon on the front lawn.

Mmmm…

Wednesday, June 27

The kids and I flew to Utah. Carter barely squeaked in as a lap baby, but lucky for us they saved him a seat so we didn’t have to share. Thanks to the portable DVD player, the iPod, and toys from the Target dollar spot, our flight was a breeze. Well, except when Raine had to go potty.

Airplane bathrooms are barely big enough for one person. Cram yourself in there with a small child and it is a TIGHT fit. When you have two small children, there is no way you are all going to fit. So what do you do? The three-year-old has no idea how to work the fixtures in an airplane bathroom so you have to go in . . . but the one-year-old can’t be left outside by himself. It was a situation I hadn’t anticipated. Luckily, we survived without violating any federal laws. I happened to glance out of the bathroom just in time to see Carter’s chubby little fingers reaching for the intercom telephone next to him on the jump-seat . . . one split-second away from alerting the pilot that there was Trouble on board!

We spent our first three days at Grandma and Grandpa Anderson’s house in Orem. Raine loved the daily trips to their gigantic garden. Here is Grandpa showing her how to pick beans.

Carter couldn’t get enough of Grandma’s remote control tractor.

Saturday, June 30

Daddy arrived and we headed up to Sarratoga Springs to visit the Browns. After that, we made a brief stop in Woods Cross at Grandma and Grandpa Dewey’s house before heading up to Fruit Heights where Daddy’s high school buddies got together for a family BBQ. We spent the next two days at Grandma and Grandpa Dewey’s house.

Sunday, July 1

We were there for the monthly family birthday dinner which was a lot of fun. Most of the family was there — Aunt Katie and her family live in Ohio so they weren’t able to attend, but we got to see everyone else.

Carter was so excited to get presents!

Raine couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t getting any presents when it seemed like everyone else was. After we explained, she was content to help Carter with his.

Grandma, Carter, Uncle Tom (oops, somehow I managed to cut off his head), Parker, Aunt Karin, and a few helpers blowing out their candles.

Monday, July 2

We took Grandma out for a birthday breakfast and then drove into downtown Salt Lake City to see the temple. First we met up with the Browns at the City Creek Center to splash around in the fountains. Parker, Bryce, Rachel, Raine, and Carter — notice who is the wettest!

This is why he was so wet. His negligent mother let him get IN the fountain.

Next, I took my soggy kids over to the south visitor center at Temple Square so we could see the temple.

Unfortunately, the temple was under renovation and this was as close as we could get. Raine was really hoping to get close enough to touch the temple.

That evening we drove up through the mountains to Bear Lake for the Anderson Family Reunion.

Raine started ballet four weeks ago and today was the final day of the first session. Parents were invited inside the studio to watch what the girls have been learning. This was my first time in a ballet class so I was very excited to see what exactly was going on in there (Raine’s vague descriptions weren’t cutting it). Even though the class resembled herding sheep more than performing arts, it was fun to watch. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge the camera before I left so most of the still-shots are from my phone, i.e. terrible quality, I wanted to save what little battery I had for video.

The class started with stretching. It is easy to spot Raine, she was the only one not in a tutu. She refused to wear one. I asked her every time if she wanted to wear a leotard and/or tutu and she said no, just a skirt. That was more than fine with me!

Next was centre work.

Here is Raine with her teacher Ms. Tish.

Then, it was “goof-off time.” The class was broken into groups and each one had a turn to dance “free-style.”

Last they worked on technique, but I didn’t get any still-shots of that. The video has a little bit of everything.

Afterward, Raine’s teacher told me that she is one of the most advanced in her class. (Is that really saying much after seeing the chaos? 😉 ) Raine loves formal classes and following instructions, so this was right up her ally. When we return from Utah she will start the second session.

I was scrolling through photos on the camera the other day and half my memory card was filled with pictures like this.

I asked Raine, “What are these?”
She very proudly responded, “Pictures of my pretty toes!”
(This particular photo shows the lines from her ballet shoes. She has been wearing those things non-stop since she started class three weeks ago. Apparently she took them off just long enough to take some more photos of her toes.)

There were also a number of body-shots from a three-foot-high perspective on my camera. As unflattering as they were, it gave me some appreciation of how my children see me!

Carter is another of Raine’s favorite subjects. The photos of him are always VERY close-up!

Snitching berries before dinner.

Here is one of my personal favorite photos of late. I sent Raine off to get some underpants after a bath, Carter of course followed, and this is how they came out several minutes later. She definitely got some underpants!

Here are a few photos from my phone. I love this one of Carter. While Raine was at school, he would make sure to get plenty of use out of her favorite girl toys. Notice the princess shoes, bracelet, baby carrier, etc.

These two definitely keep life interesting.

The Best Dad in the World!

Daddy opened his presents . . . with a little help.

A new photo tie — this is a tradition around here. Somehow I missed getting a photo of him wearing it though.

Time to read the new books Daddy received.

Raine filled out this survey about Daddy in Primary. It was a really cute idea to capture exactly what Daddy means to her.

When we saw how beautiful the weather was going to be today, we knew we had to make one last trip to the zoo before the summer heat keeps us away. We decided to see the new show again, since the kids loved it so much when we saw the sneak-preview. It is a cute crime-solver mystery about the missing star at Lone-Star Ranch.

It is full of animals, like this “pokey-pine” (I love this Raine-isms so much that I can’t bring myself to correct her!) . . .

. . . and the opossum.

At one point in the show, they asked for volunteers. (Since we had seen the show before, we knew what the volunteers were in for.) Raine eagerly raised her hand and was selected to help . . .

. . . hold a 50-pound Burmese Python named Betty. Here is a video of it. I’m not sure how much weight she was actually supporting, but she was definitely touching it. Afterward, she told me it was squishy. You can also see her sort of slide toward the kid next to her as the snake’s head got a little too close. This girl is a fearless animal lover, she will touch pretty much anything!

And not to be left out . . . this little guy thought it was pretty cool that “Rah-Rah” got to hold the “ssssss”!!

Carter fell asleep during lunch and Raine blew bubbles while she waited for Daddy to get back with some food.

Raine’s current favorite craft supplies are the Perler Biggie Beads. These things are great! She can design her own picture or follow the pattern. Then dump them out and start over.

Once we broke Carter of his obsessive need to scatter the beads EVERYWHERE, he got pretty good at putting them on the pegs too.

So much fun!

Our primary took a trip to the Dallas Temple on Saturday. Raine was really looking forward to seeing the temple and worked hard to learn the words to “I love to see the temple” before the trip. The Temple President and Matron talked to the kids while they sat on the stairs in the lobby and then the kids sang “I love to see the temple” and “I am a child of God.” It was a neat experience for them.

Playing ring-around-the-rosies with Elyse while waiting to go inside the temple.

After singing for the Temple President, we took a self-guided tour of the Temple grounds. Sister Walker, our Primary President, was able to keep their attention for a few minutes, but once we got to the big lawn and the water fountains . . . the tour was over!

We managed to pull them all out of the fountains just long enough to take a group photo on the temple steps.

“When you touch the temple, the temple touches you.” — President Monson

Raine and her best friend Elyse.

Carter happily wielding a stick.

Our eternal family.

After visiting the temple we stopped for lunch (and ice cream) at Jason’s Deli . . . mmmmmmm!

Raine practiced these songs at home for weeks before the program. She was a little shy during the performance, but she sang all the words.

Carter . . . well, as you can see, he just thought everyone was crazy!