Summer (not as late...)

FOR THE BIRDS...We had baby birds! Seriously! Two birds build their nest right in our front porch. We thought the birds were hanging around a lot and making a lot of racket, and then we found the nest. It was exciting to have nature happening outside our own front door (literally), until the eggs were laid. For a full month while the eggs, then the baby birds, inhabited the nest we didn’t dare go out our front door. The mother and father bird would SWOOP at us in protection of their babies. We did grow to love them though, and then one day they learned to fly and they were gone, just like that. I imagine that’s how we’ll feel about our little kiddies one day. We love them, get used to haveing them around, then they learn to fly and they're gone…just like that.

GOODBYE to our forever favorite friends and neighbors the Stewarts. Fran is missing her Punz friend and just doesn’t understand why she can’t go see her next door. We are seriously missing the Stewarts! Marty had a great session of soccer with Herb coaching. He even kicked the ball a few times this season. We love going to the WEST FEST. We always go to the rides on family night and enjoy the parade and fireworks on Saturday. There was a huge storm on Friday, we felt bad for our poor friends/family who had booths. The kids had fun riding rides and getting candy at the parade. And I ran my 3rd 5K race. All of that accomplished with Herb on a business trip. AND Marty won a Goldfish!

The Ward Campout (or cookout in our case) was great fun. We hiked Donut Falls and then had a Potato Car Derby race. We sure do love our ward family.

POOL PARTIES…We enjoyed our Independence Day celebration with the Nelsons and company. The kids played and swam and there was lots of good food, fun, friends, and especially FIREWORKS! Lizzy had a BACK TO SCHOOL party with her friends that won’t be in her class this year. She was missing them before they even went back to school. You’ve got to love the Slip’n Slide and especially Marty’s “Troy” dancing.

Young Women’s camp was LOVELY. Our ward was the Humble Bumbles, and we were BEE-lievers. Good times, good girls, good Spirit. A little bear scare, lots of yummy food, a fabulous hike, and some SWEET testimonies were the highlights.

Our Jackson Hole/Snake River trip with the Nordfelt’s was full of good times. The river was high, so the kids spent most of their time at the lake and at camp trying to catch pot guts. Lizzy was sick the last day, and Marty had some SERIOUS mosquito bite reaction going on. We happened to start our trip on opening day of HARRY POTTER 6, so I went to the midnight showing before we left. LOVED it!

We spent PIONEER DAY weekend at Gammy and Grandpa’s house. Uncle Chris took us out for lake day on his boat. We really enjoyed spending time with Chris and Emily and little Brycen. The kids especially liked Brycen’s disco dance, and we’ll not soon forget the wind storm that came through! We adventured around the ranch on the quads and at the pond. We caught some fish…but not on the line, just in a bucket…small ones… When we got home, Wormy the Goldfish was a goner, poor wormy, I didn’t think he’d make it past the weekend of the westfest let alone a whole month! Then we got Swimmer the Beta.



A lovely summer indeed. We did get the sad news however, that Herb will be loosing his job this fall due to a 75% workforce reduction at his office. So we're on the hunt for a new job. Major bummer in this economy. But the Lord will bless us, I'm sure of it!