Recently

About every other Saturday Blayne takes Darek to Lowes for their free project. They both LOVE it and Darek gets to paint his project later (I have to attribute all of this info to Ashley, she knows everything). If you want to check it out, go to http://www.lowesbuildandgrow.com
 

Mia hanging out at Darek's swim lessons
 

Darek at swim lessons.
 

Blayne's friend Scott, who is a pilot in our ward, pulled up to our house last Monday night and before I knew it Blayne was yelling, "Scott's taking Darek and I up on a plane, see ya later!" Luckily they left fast - before I had a chance to say no. And thank you Scott for the adventure!

Robot Boy

Kids make the best use of boxes. Darek was pretending to be a robot in this one before I even cut holes in it (pretty dangerous).
 

It took us a LONG time to convince him that it was best to take off his robot box to sleep.
 

He found this poor cat in our garage and followed it around all day. Torture for the cat, fun for Darek. He needs a pet, Daddy.
 

THIRTY

Truthfully I'm not planning on aging gracefully. I'm planning on lying about my age and digging in my heels the entire way down the timeline. But thirty was not as absolutley horrific as I expected. My sister-in-law Katy ended up staying at our house a little more than two weeks and she was like a gift in herself. She cleaned the house and organized my basement and pantry and fridge (I realize that it's a little pathetic that there was so much work for her to do). And to top it off, she watched all of the kids while Blayne and I headed over for a quick trip to Sun Valley. It was our first night without any kids since Darek was born. And It was wonderful - Sun Valley is a great getaway. Then on Sunday, Katy made dinner and a cake and let me take a nap (didn't Blayne get off easy?) Katy and the kids left today and now the house feels so empty (and organized :) We loved having you!
 
 
 
 

Bear World

Blayne's brother Bryan and his wife, Katy, came to visit on July 4th. It was wonderful. They have kids close in age to ours: the boys could not have fought more if they tried and the girls were precious.

We went to Bear World (and somehow I didn't get any pictures of bears), but they had these great rides:
 
 

Cousin Bradley
 
 

July

July is my favorite month of the year. With Independence Day and my birthday and the summer sun, it cannot get better. On July 3rd Blayne and I ran the Firecracker 5k - I got first place for the 30-35 age group; kind of a backhanded award since I was still two weeks from being 30 and not eager to get there, but I'll take it. After the race was the city parade. Blayne's parents had come up for the holiday and we had a great time watching the parade together.

This past Saturday Blayne and I ran a 40 mile relay with these folks (yeah, that's just 5 miles per person):
 

After the race they did prizes and the kids jumped in bouncy houses, ate hot dogs, and danced to live music.

 
And then we got home and they had to play in the dirt before bed. A long, sunny, wonderful day.

 

Brothers (in law)

Now that Blayne and Joe (my brother)are working in the same industry, they not only get to bounce ideas off of each other over the phone all week, but they meet up all over the place. Here they are in Pittsburgh, PA checking up on an energy investment - it's all about oil.