Pocatello Times

We are in Pocatello with my sister ruth and her family visiting my brother Kimball at my parents' old house. It's empty if furniture, but we fill it up with fun and family!

Archie and aunt amanda's little guy Ben.

Uncle kimball and Archie.

Karver and Elliott have had 2 water plays already!

Then they knocked over some lawn chairs and were suddenly astronauts taking off into space...

BLAST-OFF!!
(who says you cant have fun in an empty Grandma's house?!)

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Summer Fun Times

This summer has been a pretty mellow one, but still fun and busy. We have only had one trip--to AZ-- and haven't really been camping yet. We have a camping trip planned for August, but other than that, we are plan free! So, what have we been doing to fill our time? Running, Young Women stuff for church, plenty of play dates, chores, shopping, movies, and playing with Archie. Mike and I went on our first date in AGES (Archie came too, but it still TOTALLY counts!) the other day, to see a movie, and we are still enjoying the memories! Here are some other things we have been doing:

Archie tried out his big-baby-bed once or twice. Not too successfully I might add; the boy doesn't like to lay down flat. But, on a happier note, he is sleeping 8 hours at a time almost every night!

Yet another money-making scheme. A successful one too, once they went door to door and made phone calls.

Mike and I hosted a work bbq at our house. Thanks Johnsons for the painters tarp slip-n-slide idea! Only two employees couldn't come and we had yummy pulled pork, giant volleyball and other fun times! It's nice to like the people you work with.

Harmony and Had Abogi took the kids Cherry picking in Emmett. They got to pick at a friend's house and that meant climbing on the roof! Lucy loved it...

Elliott just made it to the ladder.

The kids made super-sidewalk chalk pictures at our neighbors', Sonya and Ron's house. He has his artist daughter outline pictures, then the kids sit on special chalk-drawing-rugs, and fill them in. Then Ron sprays on a coat of clear paint and the pictures stay for weeks. The kids got to do this twice and they loved it. Now a day doesn't go by that Lucy doesn't ask if she can go visit Ron!



Even Archie got to join in the chalk fun....he watched.

We went to a local indoor play center--Just Kidding Around-- and the kids found a new favorite destination.

We discovered that Archie is pretty darn good at tummy time!

While Mike and I were on our date, Harmony took Lucy and Elliott to a nearby splash-pad,

And we celebrated Archie's Baek-il; his Korean 100 day birthday. I am going to post pictures, but I have to do it separately because there are so many! It will hopefully be soon, but I am also trying to rescue pictures of Lucy and Elliott's Baek-ils from the other computer so I can post those too. I'm not very tech savvy, so it may take some doing! but stay tuned, they are coming!

The Real End of our Arizona Adventure

One of the funnest things we did was go to the Southwest Museum of Natural History. It was amazing, and it's just right there in the middle of Mesa....unassuming and wonderful. Mike was so excited right away because you walk in the doors, before you even have to pay, and you see this:

Mike has never seen dinosaur bones before, so it was especially amazing for him. I got to see some dinosaur bones as a kid when we visited the La Brae Tar Pits. I remember it was super fun, so I hope my kids have this memory with them for a while too. Yay wooly mammoth!!
Washed-out Archie liked the giant, dinosaur shark teeth.
A Real triceritops!!!!! So cool!
This is our family feet compared to a dinosaur foot. Boy is Archie pink!
Panning for gold in the yard. Fool's gold, but the kids loved it. The water was a nice break from the heat too.
That's one hot-looking Elliott!
Don't worry though, we cooled off at one of my favorite dessert joints in the valley, Mesa Frozen Custard!! YUMMMMY!!!!!!!
This is my lone 4th of July shot. This is moments before the Transformer fire cracker shot a missile inches from Elliott's head, into the garage behind us. Exciting times.

We loved this trip! Mike didn't melt in the heat, we spent great time with great people in a great place, and we had so much fun. The kids came home and crashed. Here is the proof:

Same time, same place next year everybody?

Finishing up the Az Trip Part 1

To sum it all up, here are some pictures!

Morgan put up a slip n slide in his backyard under a canopy. All the kids loved it, and I stayed out in the heat just long enough to take a few pictures!

Lucy and Cassidy were, as always, inseparable! Whether they were holding Archie, doing a nail spa or playing dress-up, they were together constantly! Thanks for being such a great, patient cousin Cass!
Christa is amazing. She had bought all kinds of art supplies and fun things for the kids to do together, and then she actually followed through and helped them do it all! My kids love to paint and they don't get to do it that much at home, so it was a treat!
Elliott and Will were always having some kind of fun together. Gramma Karen bought some painters tape and Christa let the kids have a ball! here are the cars lining up....but where is the road?
Ahhhh!

Again, Christa's foresight saved the day!! She bought nerf darts to spare and the bullets flew!

Christa, what would we do without you?! She even made goo for the kids to play with; brave lady!
Night swimming! My favorite part of living in the Valley of the Sun.
Ok, day swimming isn't so bad either. Here we are at Cathy Garino's house for our fourth of July feast!

These are some pics from the Mercury WNBA game that Morgan got us tickets to. Good food, good people and good fun!

Juliet fantasizing about her not-so-secret crush on Steve Nash.
Enjoying the game from the box seats!


My favorite chubby, little man (this caption refers to the bellow picture, not the above....not that I needed to clarify, but just in case hee hee).

And Now (why is all this suddenly underlined? I don't know, just go with it) onto the bloopers part of our story:

We had so many injuries this trip! Not my family necessarily, but everyone! (ok, Ruth mostly!) it all started with a beautiful, wonderful sisterly jog around the golf course by Morgan's house at night. We were just finishing our first lap when BOOM, Ruth was down flat to the deep bass sound of her kneecap striking the pavement. The next day her baby developed an ear infection, the day after that, her little Karver was all splotchy with a mystery ailment:

Guilio mistook my Clear Care Contact solution for contact rinse and put straight peroxide into his eye:

Some other mishaps:

Ruth got stung by a wasp while night swimming (it is now a full-blown infection on her arm)

Juliet, Morgan, Christa, Chantel, Warren, Pappa and Elliott all shared a cold

Lucy kicked Lund in the ear in the pool and burst his eardrum

and Elliott woke up one morning with blisters all over his lips

In spite of all this, we had a great time and would do it again in a second!