Baptism day!

Emily was baptized yesterday, and it turned out to be a really nice day. We were lucky enough to have my dad and step-mom and their twins as well as Joseph's mom and her husband all come to visit for the event.

Before the baptism.

Another one before the baptism.

Snacks afterward.

Looking at these pictures I'm realizing now we should have set up a few chairs for this...

The kids didn't seem to mind though.

 And a few pictures at the very end:

Elinor and her good friend Mckay.

Em and her good friend Jacob (he was in her second-grade class and said the opening prayer at the baptism).

My dad and Crystal back left with their twins Matthew and Sydnee in front of them. Matt's cast says: "It broke while I was doing a ninja dive roll over a jump rope."

It was a great day, and we felt very blessed to have so many friends and family in attendance. Congratulations, Emi!

Party Time!

Emily got a party this year! I am not cut out to plan this kind of thing, so it was all kinds of stressful for me, but it ended up being a success, I think. She chose an "Under the Sea" theme and we ran with it. Decorations are important to Emily, so we worked together on a few.

These jellyfish bowls were probably my favorite. They're still hanging outside, blowing in the breeze.

Birthday banner.

The food table was pretty great. Check out that shark that Joseph carved!

Baby octopi were a hit.

Other sea-themed delicacies...

And these cute crab cupcakes that Emily and I worked together to build.

Emi surveying the food in all its glory.

We made some ocean slime first, then played a few sea-themed games...

Fish race.

Action shot! Em's super fast when she's motivated! (There were Swedish fish on the line!)

Ping pong pearl scramble.

Pin the fin.

 ... and tucked into the food.

Blowing out the candles... or about to.

Elinor

Jacob

Elinor, Emily, and the other Jacob.

Pinata was next (sea-horse-shaped, natch).

And then presents, another craft, and before we knew it parents started arriving to pick kids up. It was good and exhausting and fun and I'm really super glad I have a husband who knows how to wrangle kids. Most of all I'm glad we could do something that Emily was so excited about. Its great to be eight, isn't it?

Happy Birthday, Emily!

8 years old!!

A few things

Just a regular day at the park...

A little while ago we had closing ceremonies for Caleb's baseball season. Due to some glitch in planning, they had to find someone to hold the flag last minute, so they looked to the tee-ball teams! And of course, Caleb is always eager to volunteer for anything, regardless of if he knows what's going on or if it could possibly be something awful or embarrassing. So here he is, thrilled with his position of prominence in the ceremony.

The other day Joseph surprised me with a mystery date. I was confused as we pulled up to the Mountain Winery but then sort of impressed as he casually pulled out two VIP tickets for special parking. I still had no idea what was going on as we joined the crowds of people headed up the pathway, but then this beautiful amphitheater came into sight and he told me it was a Plain White T's/Rob Thomas concert that he thought would be fun but we could totally leave early if I hated it.

The cool thing about this venue was that it was literally on top of a mountain. You could see for miles in every direction and there were rows and rows of really green, twisty grapevines everywhere.

The concert was really fun. Plus we got special seating and access to the VIP lounge with all kinds of fancy free food.

This is where we were sitting as we ate our food. Great seats for enjoying the concert, but even greater for eating free food! It was a pretty awesome surprise date. And it made me feel cool because I went to a Rob Thomas concert. NBD.

Maybe next time Joseph can give me some notice so I can pull out my gold sequin shirt or leather miniskirt.

Late Night Sewing

Pretty sweet setup, yes? And I've got Netflix going just outside the frame of this picture. Perfect for endless nights of mindless quilt piecing!

Just because.

My Boys

I loved these shots of the boys matching and ready for church.

And Jake jumping in to be part of the action. :)

Beach Day!

I had been having trouble this summer coming up with ways to keep the kids happy. I just always have so much I want to get done that it's hard for me to set it all aside to step out as a family and do something awesome.

So, today we went to the beach. One of the great things about living in California is that we can decide spur of the moment to do that, and then be there in a couple of hours. First we hit Target for way too much junk food and a few buckets and shovels, then we headed home to change and pack, and before we knew it we were on our way to the beach.

This was a more crowded beach than what we usually go to, but it was still really nice because there was a cute little beach town right up against the beach. It was nice to not feel like we were out in the middle of nowhere. Plus we scored really great parking. Literally 5 feet from the sand.

Goofing around in the sand.

Lunch is always something of a trial on the beach. I ended up feeding each sandwich to each kid. They just don't have enough control to keep their hands sand-free for 10 minutes!

We played in the water a lot. Jacob went from being terrified to go near it to jumping in waves as high as his waist. Once he was comfortable in the water it was almost impossible to drag him away. Emily has always been at home in the ocean. I sort of wish we lived closer so we could get the girl some surfing lessons!

Afterward we went to the local grill and creamery for some treats. The kids loved each choosing a flavor from over 30 that they had available.

I chose the fries. Cut and fried as we ordered them.

We got home, showered, had dinner, and got ready for bed. As we gathered in the boys' room, everyone was exhausted, but in a happy, satisfied way. And then - this makes my heart so happy - they pulled out a few of their favorite books and just looked through them until we pulled them away for prayers and bed.

These are the books they had out.

And, in case you're a little insane like I am and obsess over book details, here it is a little more in-depth:

Emily: Charlie's Birthday Present (Best book ever!! I ordered this because I had such fond memories of it from my childhood!), Mice and Beans

Caleb: Alexander and the Terrible... Day, Battle Bunny, Big Mean Mike, Creepy Carrots, Leonardo the Terrible Monster

Elinor: Mike and the Magic Cookies (another great one from my childhood!), Room on the Broom, Uni the Unicorn

Jacob: In the Town All Year 'Round, Curious George and the Firefighters, The Seven Silly Eaters

I love it. I have gone to great lengths to make sure we have really fabulous, worthwhile books all over our house, inviting our kids to sit down and have a read. No mediocre books here - every one is chosen very carefully and purposefully. And moments like these make it totally worth it. (You know, even if I didn't love making lists of books to own and taking a minute every time we're out at Goodwill or Saver's to pull new treasures from those shelves. :))

So, yes. This day pulled us out of our summer time funk a little bit and inspired me to plan more days out with the kids. A success all around.

Ogden Marathon

So, this one time I ran a marathon. And it was a huge deal! You would not believe the amount of time and training that goes into running one of those things! And to add to the difficulty, I had to finish all of my weekday workouts by 7am so Joseph could get to work. Some of those weekday workouts were 10 miles in the mountains. I was very tired for all of the month of April. Anyhoo, I got through it and then on the evening of May 14th I flew out to SLC.

The next day (Friday) was so busy that I wasn't able to get to bed until around 12:30, which was bad because I had to wake up at 3:25 the morning of the race. But, I made it to the start okay, stood around in the FREEZING cold and occasional flurry for over an hour, and then started running. Too bad the rain started right as the race did. And didn't let up the entire time. I remember being soaked through at the one-mile marker and thinking to myself, "25 more miles of this?!?" And I remember contemplating stopping around mile 6 but then thinking that I had put in too many miles (and told too many people!) to stop so I just kept going. After that there wasn't any question in my mind about whether or not I would finish. I just plugged along, losing more and more of the feeling in my hands.

But. The course was beautiful. And it was so well supported. And finishing was one of the most amazing feelings I've ever had. I was grinning like an idiot as I crossed that line! Moments later I was planning out next year and how it would be way better. So, overall, a great experience! But I sure am glad to have all that training behind me!

Unfortunately, I had my number covered the whole time, so I don't have any pictures of myself running. I did manage to find a few by looking someone else's bib number up, but they're horrible anyway, so no big loss there. Here are some other pictures from that weekend though!

I spent some time at Temple Square, wandering and trying to stay out of the rain.

I always love the flowers there.

And I found one of my favorite young women from Austin in the visitors' center! Yay! (Too bad I look homeless... I hadn't washed my hair in a while and I also under-packed and ran out of non-running tops.)

 My friend was texting me these sunny California pictures from the school walk-a-thon as I was enduring the depressingly gray and drizzly Utah weather.

And I was able to spend some time with my supermodel sisters (while Eric did dishes in the background).

I had promised Emily months ago that we would go get pedicures after my marathon, so we finally went and did that on Memorial Day. It was pretty fun. I should probably run another marathon just so we can do this again. :)

It was such a fun and memorable weekend! If any of you out there are considering running a marathon, do it!

Last day of school. And motatoes.

Yesterday was the last day of school. It was very bittersweet. The kids have had a great experience at Ellis Elementary School and have had fantastic teachers. We will miss them.

Last day of kindergarten. He has excelled academically... he's just gotta figure out the minor details of "following classroom rules" and "respecting other people and their possessions."

Last day of second grade.

 Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with all these kids for the next three months!

We were able to harvest a few early tomatoes today. Jacob calls the big one "the daddy motato!" Elinor calls all tomatoes "tormadoes." We've got a lot more tormadoes coming! I'm excited!