Jared’s Shiner

Jared loves to play basketball.

Really.

A lot.

Did I mention he loves it?

I always worry that he’s going to come home broken and battered.  Guys seem to do that to each other.

And he usually does come home with a minor injury or two.  You know, jammed fingers, scratches, banged up knees…minor stuff.

I knew it wasn’t good when the phone rang at 10:30 p.m. 

“Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I split my head open and need stitches, so a couple of the guys are going to take me to InstaCare to get it taken care of.”

A couple of hours later, this is what I saw – a cut about an inch and a half long right under the left eyebrow(no stitches, just several layers of glue).

And a couple of hours later, this…

And a couple of hours after that…

And 18 hours later…

And it got even worse, but we stopped documenting.  It was getting a little gruesome.

And oh, the comments!  The comments!  If you can imagine it, he’s probably heard it!

Jared still loves basketball.  A lot.  Enough to get up before 7 a.m. this morning and go play – 10 days after all this!

Paul McCartney

Jared and I went to see Paul McCartney perform at Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake on July 13.  It was the most fun I’ve had in years!  It was worth every penny – not just to see Paul – but to see Jared as excited as a kid on Christmas morning!

The concert was amazing – just under 3 hours long with 2 encores!  And some fireworks thrown in to add a little spice.  Despite being nearly 70 years old, Paul McCartney was incredible!  He was like a teenager on stage, totally in his element.  To say it was entertaining would be a huge understatement!

Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our camera.  But thanks to a few sites on the web, we’ve got a few memories.  Here is some of what we saw…

I am sure if he ever comes back to Utah, we will be enjoying ourselves again.  But I’m thankful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I got to spend with my love!

Our FHE Adventure

We decided to have FHE in Providence Canyon a couple of weeks ago.  I cooked some boyscout dinners and we all loaded into the van for a fun adventure.

We ate our yummy dinner amidst the cow pies.  Thankfully they were dry.  But much to our dismay, we could not keep Caleb and Rachel from playing with them.  EWWWW!!

Then we pulled out Jared’s .22 and shot water balloons that we had filled up with air.  Emily and Josh LOVED that part!  Oh, and Jared loved it too.  OK, I’ll admit it – I had fun too!  It’s a great way to let off a little steam!

Rachel and Caleb had fun playing around and picking up the little plastic BBs that were all over the ground.  Jared was lucky enough to snap these picture of Rachel being not so happy.  First comes the lip…

And then the floodgates open, letting out quite the outburst…

That’s some quality blackmail material for down the road!! 

And based on this picture, I think Caleb will get the hang of using a gun with no problems at all!!

As we headed back down the canyon, we were keeping our eyes on the road, looking for a snake that we thought Jared may have run over on our way up.  Sure enough, we spotted a snake lying in the middle of the road, so we stopped to take a look.  And this is what we saw…

A nice sized rattle snake with a squished head!  YIKES!!  Jared has some serious driving skills!  I’m just glad we were in the van and not sitting in the grass having our dinner!

First Haircut

Rachel (finally) got her very first haircut a few weeks ago – age 3 years, 3 months.  Here she is at Cookie Cutters enjoying sitting in the airplane and watching Scooby Doo.

I was hoping the trim would revitalize her curls.  I don’t think it worked :(   She really does have beautiful hair, but I sure miss the days of really tight curls back when it was much shorter. 

4th of July…sort of!

Here are a few pictures from part of our Independence Day celebration.  Since the 4th was on a Sunday, we partied from Friday through Monday (with a break on Sunday of course).  We had fun watching fireworks, eating yummy food, and being together.

Emily loves Alaina’s glow-stick glasses

The kids all had fun playing frisbee – Conna is the BEST aunt ever!

Caleb with a mouth FULL of candy – and some of it drooling out the corners.  He’s such a cute kid!  I can’t seem to get enough of him!  And he always makes sure I have lots of chances!

I love the expression on Caleb’s face as he and Rachel are watching the fireworks!  After a few seconds of watching, he was up in my lap, saying “I scare fireworks!”  He roamed from one person to the next the whole time, sitting long enough to see a few flashes and hear a few booms, and let us all know he was scared.  Rachel loved them and couldn’t take her eyes off them.

Uh oh, I think she’s already to the “no more pictures, please!” phase!

I love that we are so close to family.  Holidays are so much more enjoyable when we get to spend them together.  The kids get along so well – it’s fun to watch them play together.  We are so blessed!

Bad Hair Day

Must’ve been a rough nap!  Maybe it’s time for a haircut?

Swimming Lessons

July has been the month for swimming lessons.  Emily and Josh took two sessions of swimming from Gin Manning again this year.  And of course, they complained about having to go for two weeks prior, and after their first session begged to go more!  Go figure!

They are both getting to be pretty darn good swimmers, and we could see a huge improvement from last year in just the first session.  I couldn’t tell you much of what they learned – I was too busy keeping two curious busy-bodies out of the pool.  But here are some pictures.

Just look at that form!

 

These are pencil drop dives – they get pretty deep if they keep their bodies nice and straight.

I think this is called a throw up dive (or something like that!).  They’re supposed to throw their legs up into the air so they get the right angle going down into the water.  Seemed to be a tough thing for all the kids.

Mr. Motorboat

Miss Fish…watch out – she’s quick!

I’m proud of these kids – they are hard workers and always try their best.  And they’re so good at paying attention to their teachers.  Way to go Emmy and Josh!

Misc. June Happenings

Caleb has found a new favorite place – the cupboard where I keep the baking supplies. I think his new love is coconut!

Caleb had a fun birthday and loves his new toys, especially these goggles. What a cutie!

Emily loved blowing bubbles for Caleb and Rachel on the deck. She could usually get some pretty big ones with her bubble wand, and Rachel and Caleb loved them all.

Jared called us on his way to work one day to tell us about the wall of bubble foam in the fountain at the bottom of the street. So I piled all of us into the van and we drove down for a looksie. Wow!! We had to do a double-drive by!

We went on a hike along the Bonneville Shoreline trail with the Ripplinger side of the family for FHE. It was hot! And this is before we even started!

I don’t know why I didn’t get a picture of Josh – he must have been off playing. Rachel was quite the little hiker. She just kept going and going, even with her bright red cheeks. She only slowed down right at the end. And Caleb loved the ride on Daddy's back. Now that's the life!

Whew – what a month! No wonder it seemed like we always had something going!

Lagoon Trip #2

We hit the south end of the park on this trip. Jared was ready to go on Wicked (I would have gone too, but we didn’t think it would be good to leave all 4 kids by themselves!) and they closed it down for maintenance. We’ll have to do it next time!

Caleb is getting more brave, and even stuck his hands up on one of the rides! He was crying during most of it the last time we went.

Emily and Josh went on Colossus with me, and then Josh went again with Jared. They are pretty brave. I was worried that Emily’s glasses would fly off, but thankfully they stayed put.

Emily and Josh came with me on Cliffhanger, and boy did we get soaked! It felt good to cool off, but it’s really annoying to walk around in wet jeans until you dry off!

Rachel and Caleb loved this one – the guns made a noise when they pulled the trigger (or pushed a button?).

Josh and Emily were really good (again) to help with the Caleb and Rachel when we couldn’t. In fact, I think Josh and Rachel had some great bonding time. Silly goofs!

Emily and Josh love this one – it lifts you up and then drops you down, so you get that great feeling of weightlessness (is that really a word??).

We also had a great time on the train and the carousel. We hope we get to come back a few more times before the end of summer!

Discovery Gateway

We took a trip down to the Children’s Museum at the Gateway in SLC during June. My mom had given us tickets for Christmas, so we thought we better get them used. She was kind enough to come with us to help with “crowd control” and I’m so glad she did! Caleb the Tornado was in true form and could hardly be contained. What are we going to do with him?!?!

We loved the museum, but I thought it wasn’t quite as vast as the old one. There were some cool features though. The kids loved the Life Flight helicopter - we had to drag Caleb away kicking and screaming! Emily and Josh really enjoyed the KSL TV studio where they got to see themselves on TV. And of the course the water play area was a hit. We couldn't seem to keep Caleb from drinking the water - EWWWW!! There was a strong odor of chlorine in the air, so I'm sure there was plenty in the water to kill all the ickies, but still....EWWWW!!! There was a hand dryer nearby, which was just as entertaining for Caleb as the water was. Jared held him under it for a bit to dry him off.

Enjoy the pictures! (Click on View Full Album to see all 21 of them. Trying something new...not sure how I feel about it, so feel free to leave your opinion for me!)

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Cute Stuff

Caleb loves to repeat what he hears. And he repeats pretty much everything he hears - the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly. Trust me - I've heard a lot out of this boy!! A few things I'm a little ashamed of, because I know he heard them from yours truly.

I love it when he promptly repeats an "I love you mommy" that he just heard from Rachel. Even if it is parroted, it melts my heart.

I was just changing his diaper when I reached a new level of meltedness (is that even a word??). As I laid him down to get things started, I said, "Hey cute stuff," to which he immediately responded, "Hey coot tuff!" Really, does it get any better than having your 2-year-old son think you're cute?!?!