A HomeZone Summer

During the school year, Anna has been going to the YMCA once a week for a program called HomeZone.  She did art, sports, and swimming lessons.  It was a great group and there were 5 girls all about the same age and 2 with brothers about Matthew's age.  The moms got together and decided that we would continue to meet at each others houses for the summer.  It's been lots of fun!

Not only has Anna become close friends with the girls, I've gotten to know some other homeschooling moms well.  Anna and Matthew have gotten to try out some new things like rollerblading and ice skating.  We've also played in the water and ground our own wheat. We've had lots of fun.  Now, we're thinking of starting a Brownie troop for just our girls!

Random Moments

Here are a few pictures from the past month.  One set comes from a visit with our neighbors, the Ranges, to a nearby splash pad.  The other set are from a visit to my Mom and Dad's to see Uncle Travis.

Murder Mystery Dinner

Early in August, my friend, Mary, and I decided to host a Murder Mystery.  We chose one called A Taste for Wine and Murder about a California vineyard.  The participants were Steve as Ralph Rottingrape (the bad boy and owner of the vineyard) and me as his wife Tiny Bubbles; Mary as Marilyn Merlot (a movie star) and Tom, her husband, as Papa Vito (the vineyard's manager); David, our bishop, as Otto Von Schnapps (a wine merchant) and Laurie, his wife, as Hedy Shablee (owner of neighboring vineyard).

We started out with hors d'oeuvres and a bunch of sparkling juices on the back patio while we read our information packets and our babysitter put the kids down to bed.  After all was quiet in the house, we headed inside for dinner and the game.  Mary made a wonderful chicken dish and I made a pasta herb salad and attempted green beans rolled in prosciutto.  Unfortunately, I burned the beans.

As we ate, we took turns reading our parts.  We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs at the escapades of our fictitious characters.  I ended up being surprised at who the murderer was.  We had a lot of fun and I hope we can do it again.

4th of July

Our first 4th of July in California was pretty good.  Our original intention was to go to a parade with Charles & Desiree at 9am.  However, when we woke up at 6am, tired, we rethought our plans and went back to sleep for a while.

Instead, we had a nice, leisurely breakfast and then headed to the neighborhood park.  It was still early, so the heat hadn't built up yet.  Anna and I found a patch of dandelions with long stems.  We gathered up a few bunches.  I made a flower wreath for Anna's head.  I think that's the first time in years I've made one of those.  Even Matthew modeled it for a bit.

After the park, we had a nice lunch and everyone went down for a nap.  Yay!  I love it when everyone gets to rest all at the same time.

That afternoon, we headed to Charles and Desiree's house for a barbeque.  We thought it would only be us, them, and Desiree's high-school friend.  As it turned out, the friend had a husband and son with her.  We also had a friend that's living with them and her friend with two daughters plus two other friends of Desiree's.  It was quite the group!

There was a lot of talking amongst the adults and a lot of playing amongst the kids.  What I thought was the most impressive about the barbeque was that it was 99% fresh, whole foods!  We had chicken kebobs, natural hot dogs, real chicken brats, fruit salad, homemade bread, fresh pico and guacamole with whole corn chips as well as several other things I can't remember.  We were stuffed with all the good food.

When we got home, Anna took a bath and the kids went to bed.  Fireworks are illegal because of the fire danger, plus the kids were tired.  Steve and I ended the day by watching Day 2 of our Lord of the Rings marathon.

This and That (part 2)

Here are some more random pictures.

Picking flowers in Stansbury

Anna's first picture trying to draw people (our family)

Anna and her good friend, Kaylee

Anna and her other family, the Ricks

Steve and Anna on the pier at the lake at the cabin

Matthew sleeping all wrapped up on my chest

Anna and Steve in the 'wheelchair' at the cabin

This and That

She found the lip gloss!

A new hiding spot

This is going to be a little of everything.  We have a lot of just cute pictures but no story to go along with them.  Stay tuned for another installation soon.  Hope you enjoy!

We assimilate all our children.

Pushing Matthew's stroller

Daddy and Anna make cookies

The rugrats of Shady Brook Lane

All bundled up

Melissa's Birthday

 I had a great birthday this year.  It started off with a waffle breakfast in bed!  Yum!  The house also smelled of cake.  Steve was making a cake before he went to work.  Unfortunately, I got to smell and gaze at it all day long.

After work, Steve picked Anna and I up and we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Canton City, in Grantsville.  We had yummy Chinese food: wonton soup, Mandarin combination, and black mushroom beef with rice.  Anna loved the food.  She even tried using the chopsticks.

At home, I blew out my candles and opened my presents.  Steve got me a new book and an ice cream maker; Mom & Dad got me a beautiful necklace; and Mom & Dad Wheeler got me a couple of books.






To finish off the night, Steve and I headed over to the Atamanczyks to play games and talk.  It was Preston's birthday, too, but he's a year older than me.

Water Baby

Anna went 'swimming' for the first time today.  Her friend, Kaylee, invited her over to try out their new wading pool.  Exciting!  I finally got to have Anna try on her bathing suit.  She was so cute!
She wasn't quite sure what she thought about the pool at first.  I had to get in to coax her in.  Then, she would only stand.  I asked her to sit and she'd squat down just far enough for the bottom of her diaper to dip in, then she'd stand up real fast.  She did slip and fall on her bottom once- she didn't like that.
After spending about 20 minutes in the pool, Anna was done.  She wandered the yard and ate strawberries and chased bubbles.  We ended up spending almost two hours hanging out with our friends.  What a great day!