Last Monday, I took James to check out a climbing gym that Jamie told us about because they have a program for kids. He wandered around and liked what he saw so we've decided to sign him up for three months and see how it goes. I don't want to overschedule our kids and stress them out, but at the same time, it's important to me that they always be involved in one sport, although I don't really care which one. James has done soccer, tee ball, karate and now wants to try rock climbing, which is fine with me. He's done indoor climbing before both with his dad and his Uncle Jamie, so I know he'll enjoy it. We've always kind of known that James was going to be more of an individual sport kind of kid than a team one, and that's just fine.

Monday night was FHE. It's fun to get back in the routine now that James is home. He asked us about fasting on Sunday and why Kenny and I were doing it and what we were fasting for. We turned it into our FHE lesson and talked about the law of the fast ... Read More »

Ah, the lazy days of summer are done. Good bye, do nothing days....

We spent our last two free days before school started just taking it easy as a family. On Monday, Kenny worked part of the day from home and then we snuck away with James to go see Wall-E at the cheap theather. It was a cute little Pixar indictment of consumerism, but we liked it. I snuck in my own popcorn too, not because I'm cheap (although it's not a bad guess) but because I can pop the healthy stuff at home. I love me some movie theather popcorn, but MAN! is it bad for you. Sheesh.

On Tuesday I let James have a totally chill out day, being as lazy as he wanted. He watched cartoons, played Fantastic Contraption on the computer, and made lots of new Lego inventions. After Kenny got home from work, we rode our bikes to James's school to find out which class he would have the next day and found out that his best friend Raven would be in his class, which was exciting. Then that night we went to ... Read More »

Since I haven't been as bloggy as I should, I'm not going to try to go day by day over the last few few weeks. Instead, we'll hit the highlights!

At the end of July, I went to a writing conference in San Francisco and Kenny and Grant came to keep me company. We stayed at Big James's house and got to visit with Jamesie, who we had really missed! It was fun although I didn't like to be in workshops all day. But I got lots of free books, including my new favorite one, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Great read.

A few days after we got back from that, it was time to turn around and begin our Alaskan cruise adventure. (See Kenny's pictures, below). We had such an awesome time. We flew into Anchorage and took a day to enjoy the city and took in a neat exhibit at the museum about one of the native Alaskan tribes. Then we drove the next day (via stretch Hummer limo), to our departure port. We stopped at a wild animal preserve alo ... Read More »

July 21-27

This is Grant, the beach monkey.

Monday night is dinner guest night lately and this time we had Tyler and Sandra Large over. At this point, Tyler practically qualifies as an "old" friend because we have travelled through Europe together. Well, Scotland, anyway. When Kenny and I were dating, Johnny 99 did a tour of parts of the UK and I got to go for a week of it. Tyler was filling in for Ammon and that's how I met him.  Anyway, it was a fun visit. He and Sandra are laid back people. We made Cuban chicken skewers and rice. My new favorite thing with rice is sprinkling in a generous dash of chicken boullion before turning on the rice cooker. I think it works better than cooking the rice in chicken broth.

 Anyway, Tuesday m ... Read More »

We just got back last night from a long holiday weekend in Bear Lake, Utah. Kenny's parents and sister each have a home up there. Jill has the "party" house. It's a really nice model home right on the edge of the golf course with a big, bright kitchen and guests galore. There's always something going up there. Skip and Joan's house is higher up with an incredible view of the lake. It's a lot quieter but I find that peaceful. It was the perfect place to hang out and decompress.

We fly in so we can maximize the time off Kenny gets from work and then drive the three hours (sometimes less) to Bear Lake. The first time we flew with Grant over Memorial Day, Grant was a little angel on the plane. This time....not so much. It wasn't even that he cried or fussed or anything like that. It just seemed like a little wiggle worm took over his body and he had to get his hands or teeth on everything. He laughed and had a great time but he twisted like a spastic eel and drove h ... Read More »