4th of July

The 4th of July was a busy, busy day.

It started off with a baptism at the church. The the person getting baptized was late. After a half our waiting I said that my kids and I were going on a walk, and invited others to go to. Pretty much everyone went out side and walked around the church.
Eventually we just hung out, chatted, and even picked weeks growing in the landscape.

The baptism started 1.5 hours late, but once it happened, it was very spiritual and I was really glad that we had stayed and waited.

During our waiting time, we made plans to play mushball. The Johnston/Dorfman family came, as did the Nielsons. We had a lot of fun.

After the game we let our kids play at the playground before we went home.

Later that night we went to a BBQ at the Hadley's house. They have a fun tree swing.

The kids loved the trampoline.

Ladderball is always a hit.

Finally, the kids got to go down a little zipline.

They even have a harness so that Jet can go down too.

Since the 4th was Monday night we had a Multi Family Home Evening.

Then we got out sparklers and glow sticks.

Here is a picture of everyone.

There's a Garden In Here Somewhere

Our garden really thrived while we were on vacation. Unfortunately there were a lot of weeks.

Slowly I started weeding and clearing space.

Woot! Mostly done!

I did actually finish weeding the garden, and I thought I had a picture of my excellent work, but apparently not. So just pretend that you can see how awesome of a job I did. :)

My 34th Birthday!

I always look forward to my birthday. I love the excuse to make fancy cakes. This year I tried a Tres Leches cake. The first one (yes, I made two) I made with Splenda and it just didn't turn out quite right. It tasted fine, but the texture was off.

We ate the first birthday cake in the morning with the kids. (I was having a party later in the evening with friends.)

Eli and Josh lit the candles.

Noelle and Jet helped me blow them out. Or they tried at least. They did not know that I had bought trick candles and were confused when they kept flaming back up again. :)

Later that day I made a second Tres Leches cake with real sugar and it turned out much better.

My birthday present from Morgan was a KAYAK!  We actually bought it just over a week after my birthday because we wanted to try some out first. A local outdoors shop, Crawdaddies, does free Demo Days. We went up to Waverly on Saturday the 9th and found the right kayak for me.

I also got a haircut that morning, so I love the way it looks in the above picture.

Monday night our Family Home Evening activity was kayaking. We stayed out for about an hour, letting everyone have a turn.