More summer photos

Just for the heck of it! (whatever that means.) I just wanted to remember some of these moments.


Tommy is reading a bedtime story to Taylor.

Playing in the fountain at Anne Morrison Park.

We rented a boat and spent the day with Scott and Lewis on the McCall Lake.

Fun at the Fourth of July Parade.

Tommy's Preschool graduation with Mrs. Patricia.

Goofy spouse.

The fruits of our labor. I think I made 15 cups of freezer jam.

Aunt Emily's birthday party.

The joy of Taylor's life.

Rockband! Need I say more?
Vacation to the dunes with Rob and Cort.

The end of Tommy's first season of T-ball.

Just for the heck of it!

Visiting Utah

So my blog is out of order. Sorry! We went to Utah twice this summer. First, I took the kids and went with my mom and sister. We went to Lagoon and met my brother and his wife and their two children. My cousin also met us there with her three kids. It was an adventure and around 10:30 PM I was more than ready to call it a night.

The next trip to Utah was for the annual Ricks family reunion. There was another Lagoon trip in there, a visit to the grandmas' houses, and lots of fun.

Taylor has begun two new things. Preschool started the first Tuesday in September. She loves it and transitioned without any problems.

Ballet started the following Friday. She told me she wanted to be a ballerina. I signed her up for a combo tap/ballet class. She was so excited to go and did great during the ballet part of her first class. The second half of the class was devoted to tap. She did well until there was about ten minutes left. She suddenly froze and got a real concerned look on her face. She started to wimper and soon it turned to a full on bawl. Her teachers helped her but she wasn't at all calm for the remainder of the lesson. When she got out she was beet red and told me that she never wanted to dance again. I was watching her the entire lesson and couldn't figure out what went wrong. Taylor told me she wasn't excited for dance anymore and she never wanted to go back to the ballet place. I continued to probe her to find the reason. Finally she told me, "those tap shoes are too noisy." She couldn't tolerate the sound of 10 little people tapping their hearts out. I can't say that I blame her. Throughout the week I convinced her that the noise the tap shoes make is normal. Today she attended her second tap/ballet combo class tear free.

Summer of Camping

The tradition of camping goes on in the Rick's family trailer. With gas prices so high we went every third week instead of every other week. Here are some of my favorite photos.

My Kindergarten Boy

My baby started kindergarten. Tommy has been so excited to start kindergarten. As I dropped him off his first day of school he said, "Mom, I have been waiting for this day since I was three." A lot of the mom's asked me if I cried when I dropped him off. With a child as excited as he was I was able to fight of the tears. I am so proud of my little boy.

Funny Children

I have the best story ever about a little five year old boy with a preoperational brain who can read very well... Tommy, Taylor and I were on our way to visit my sister and her kids. Tommy started up a conversation. He said "Mom, you know that green "magic" tape?" I said yes. (Tommy was referring to regular old scotch tape.) "Well," he said, "It doesn't work." I asked why not. He said that he put some on his finger and waved his finger around while saying "hocus pocus." I knew where this was headed and was trying to keep a strait face. I asked, "what was supposed to happen?" He told me that the package on the tape read "disappearing" and he thought that if he put some on his finger and said the magic words then the tape would disappear. I thought that his logic was the cutest thing ever. I have laughed and laughed about it.

Now a simpler but quite funny and cute story about a sassy three year old girl. Taylor wanted a snack, and she asked her daddy to get her a granola barf. After looking in the pantry, Emmett told her that he couldn't find a granola bar. Taylor replied "Dad, think about it. It's in the second pantry." She was referring to the food storage closet. Emmett turned to me, shaking his head, "Just think about it? Where did that come from?" Children repeat what they hear. Maybe Emmett and I need to be more careful in the ways in which we respond to our children.