Hopefully we'll see some fireflies too. Happy Summer Solstice!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The Longest Day of the Year
Tomorrow is the summer solstice - the longest day of the year. What are you going to do? Do you always wait for it, and then miss it? I think we'll sit and watch a beautiful sunset, like this one that I photographed tonight.
Hopefully we'll see some fireflies too. Happy Summer Solstice!
Hopefully we'll see some fireflies too. Happy Summer Solstice!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Making Messes
My kids always want to do some kind of project. Why does it always involve paint or some other messy substance? I finally gave in today and yesterday and let them paint to their hearts content. I think one of the reasons I let them paint was to make it so I don't have to finish certain projects. I bought these wooden birdhouses about a year ago and they were still sitting unpainted on top of Rachel's book case. I bought these wooden crates to make little end tables for the boys room. I did paint one of the crates about 6 months ago and I'm quite proud of it (it's painted red, white, and blue with white stars) but I never painted the other one and I finally put it in their room unfinished. So, even though I cringed at the idea of three kids throwing around acrylic paint, (unwashable, mind you) they stayed occupied for an hour and 3 projects got finished. That's probably the only way they were going to get painted anyway. So, they are not perfect, and they don't really match anything, but kids love making stuff. And I can handle the mess - but just not every day.
All in a day's work
On Saturday Aaron spent hours working on our yard. I really should have taken a before picture because even I don't really remember what it looked like before, but it is much improved now. There was no division between the grass and the bark where the flowers are. The grass was starting to creep into the flower bed area and it just looked messy. One of the small trees had died. Aaron weeded all the grass out of the flower area, put an edging all around the flower area, planted a new tree, put rock under the area where the gutters drain, and put new wood chips down. It only took 3 trips to Lowes and several hours in the hot, humid weather. It looks really nice.
Rachel calls this our "magic" rose bush. It has light pink roses on it and dark pink ones too.
Aaron also pruned this tree very nicely so all the flowers underneath it now show. This is my favorite tree in our yard. It has beautiful pink blossoms on it for about a week in the Spring. The only problem is that the blossoms don't last very long!
This made me realize that some jobs can be very satisfying. You work hard all day long, but at the end of the day, you have something beautiful to look at. That's why I enjoy sewing so much - the fruit of your labors is worth it. This is also the reason I find housework so discouraging. I can work in the house all day and at the end of the day it can still be a mess. A clean kitchen can be made very messy just preparing one meal. I can spend all day doing laundy and the next day I'm still putting it away. I haven't even finished putting it away yet and there is already more to do. A clean room can be messed up in a few minutes by a 2 year old. I guess next time I get everything really clean I should take a picture - then I can look at that and remember all the hard work I did. Somehow, I don't think it would be the same :)
Rachel calls this our "magic" rose bush. It has light pink roses on it and dark pink ones too.
Aaron also pruned this tree very nicely so all the flowers underneath it now show. This is my favorite tree in our yard. It has beautiful pink blossoms on it for about a week in the Spring. The only problem is that the blossoms don't last very long!
This made me realize that some jobs can be very satisfying. You work hard all day long, but at the end of the day, you have something beautiful to look at. That's why I enjoy sewing so much - the fruit of your labors is worth it. This is also the reason I find housework so discouraging. I can work in the house all day and at the end of the day it can still be a mess. A clean kitchen can be made very messy just preparing one meal. I can spend all day doing laundy and the next day I'm still putting it away. I haven't even finished putting it away yet and there is already more to do. A clean room can be messed up in a few minutes by a 2 year old. I guess next time I get everything really clean I should take a picture - then I can look at that and remember all the hard work I did. Somehow, I don't think it would be the same :)
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Trip to Utah
After the Bloomfield Family Reunion we headed to Utah to see Amanda's parents and sisters.
Our first stop was down in Utah county. Amanda had to go to the dentist to get a crown replaced. By the way, if you live in Provo and are looking for a dentist I would recommend Dr. Braithwaite. He replaced the crown free of charge because our dentist in Omaha thought that it needed to be replaced (Dr. Braithwaite did the original crown). They also put a rush on the lab so that the crown would be completed in one week. They were very accommodating even though Dr. Braithwaite didn't fully agree that the crown needed to be replaced. Anyway, back to the main story. Since we were down in Provo we had a fun time visiting BYU campus. It was fun to see what has changed and what has stayed the same. I don't even remember what the old SFLC used to look like, but the new building is really beautiful. The computer science building hasn't changed a bit in 10 years - well, maybe the equipment inside has changed. Maybe that's the next building on their list for remodeling, although it looks like they are gearing up to redo the JKHB. We went to the BYU bookstore and the kids had a good time picking out a BYU t-shirt. We ate in the cougareat and hoped that nobody thought that we were still students.
Later on we headed up to Fruit Heights to see the Madsens in their new home. The next day we went to downtown Salt Lake to take the kids to Temple Square. We did bring our camera and then left it in the car so sadly I have no photos :(. We ate lunch at the Lion House Pantry, walked around beautiful Temple Square, and took a tour of the Conference Center. Later in the week we were joined by Mollie, Harrison, and Noah. We had some fun swimming in the yard.
We also went to the This is the Place Heritage Park. It's like a little village of Houses and historical buildings. We arrived after the activities in the buildings had closed, but we were still able to take a train ride around the park.
We saw Brigham Young's Farm House
And a number of other log cabins and other buildings.
Here are the kids in front of an old log cabin.
They had fun playing with the old fashioned toys in the general store.
They had a school with desks, slates and readers.
And a petting corral.
Our last stop was play ground of miniature cabins and houses. Rachel claimed this yellow house.
Josh liked this one.
And David rang the fire bell.
There was also this wooden train to play on.
I highly recommend visiting this park - we had a lot of fun. If you get there before 2pm there are lots of different activities. We had a great time.
The rest of trip was spent mostly relaxing and visiting other relatives. We got to see Sarah's cute house in Sugarhouse, roast smores with Richard and Ranae Mann (Amanda's aunt and uncle) and their family. Aaron and the kids went and found some geocaches. We took two days to drive home with a stop in Little America, Wyoming. It was really fun to see friends and family but we are glad to be home and glad that we won't have another loooooong road trip for a least another year!
Our first stop was down in Utah county. Amanda had to go to the dentist to get a crown replaced. By the way, if you live in Provo and are looking for a dentist I would recommend Dr. Braithwaite. He replaced the crown free of charge because our dentist in Omaha thought that it needed to be replaced (Dr. Braithwaite did the original crown). They also put a rush on the lab so that the crown would be completed in one week. They were very accommodating even though Dr. Braithwaite didn't fully agree that the crown needed to be replaced. Anyway, back to the main story. Since we were down in Provo we had a fun time visiting BYU campus. It was fun to see what has changed and what has stayed the same. I don't even remember what the old SFLC used to look like, but the new building is really beautiful. The computer science building hasn't changed a bit in 10 years - well, maybe the equipment inside has changed. Maybe that's the next building on their list for remodeling, although it looks like they are gearing up to redo the JKHB. We went to the BYU bookstore and the kids had a good time picking out a BYU t-shirt. We ate in the cougareat and hoped that nobody thought that we were still students.
Later on we headed up to Fruit Heights to see the Madsens in their new home. The next day we went to downtown Salt Lake to take the kids to Temple Square. We did bring our camera and then left it in the car so sadly I have no photos :(. We ate lunch at the Lion House Pantry, walked around beautiful Temple Square, and took a tour of the Conference Center. Later in the week we were joined by Mollie, Harrison, and Noah. We had some fun swimming in the yard.
We also went to the This is the Place Heritage Park. It's like a little village of Houses and historical buildings. We arrived after the activities in the buildings had closed, but we were still able to take a train ride around the park.
We saw Brigham Young's Farm House
And a number of other log cabins and other buildings.
Here are the kids in front of an old log cabin.
They had fun playing with the old fashioned toys in the general store.
They had a school with desks, slates and readers.
And a petting corral.
Our last stop was play ground of miniature cabins and houses. Rachel claimed this yellow house.
Josh liked this one.
And David rang the fire bell.
There was also this wooden train to play on.
I highly recommend visiting this park - we had a lot of fun. If you get there before 2pm there are lots of different activities. We had a great time.
The rest of trip was spent mostly relaxing and visiting other relatives. We got to see Sarah's cute house in Sugarhouse, roast smores with Richard and Ranae Mann (Amanda's aunt and uncle) and their family. Aaron and the kids went and found some geocaches. We took two days to drive home with a stop in Little America, Wyoming. It was really fun to see friends and family but we are glad to be home and glad that we won't have another loooooong road trip for a least another year!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
The Summer Begins!
Well, school is out and we have already had a busy and productive summer. The kids got to miss the last 2 days of school and head out to New Mexico for a fun family reunion. We then headed to Utah to see the Madsen relatives and the Payne cousins. It was a long trip with lots of driving but well worth it to see family. Now the real days of summer have finally hit us and I'm already hearing cries of "I'm bored!". I'm hoping that the zoo, children's museum, and library will hold the kids interests for at least a few weeks. We are all excited that the new Life Time Fitness gym is now open. Not only is it a great place to work out (for the grown ups) they have an awesome outdoor pool. We've already been there 3 times and the kids really like it. I have a feeling that we will be spending a lot of our summer there. But, with 4 kids and one of them being 2 years old, a couple of hours is about as long as they will last and that still leaves the rest of the day to fill. My goal for the summer is to keep the kids entertained and to not let them watch very much TV. Anyway, I just wanted to give a quick update. I've been awful about updating the blog and I will try to post more stuff! Happy summer everyone!
Bloomfield Family Reunion 2007
We had a great reunion this year at the Bloomfield's home in New Mexico. The kids had fun making treasure boxes.
Blowing bubbles with their cousins.
And playing in Grandma's sand box.
.
Here are all thirteen cousins!
The kids got to have a money dig.
And hit a pinata.
We celebrated the May and June Birthdays.
Rachel got a dancing hippo that she loves.
We had a great reunion. It was so fun to see everyone and for the kids to see their cousins. Now that we live far away we really enjoy these times when we get to see family.
Blowing bubbles with their cousins.
And playing in Grandma's sand box.
.Here are all thirteen cousins!
The kids got to have a money dig.
And hit a pinata.
We celebrated the May and June Birthdays.
Rachel got a dancing hippo that she loves.
We had a great reunion. It was so fun to see everyone and for the kids to see their cousins. Now that we live far away we really enjoy these times when we get to see family.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)