Coming Home

We will be headed home the end of this week. Our AC stopped working and no body can get the part that isn't working until the 31st. I didn't want to go back to Arizona without AC. I believe we will be headed out on the 1st. And, Ben is actually going to be able to come home a little earlier than we had planned, so he will be back the middle of August, instead of the end of it. I guess they have a guy to take the position there in Salt Lake. What a crazy summer!

Orange Cremecicles

Janae' this is in response to your heat advice. Yesterday we went to the Tautphus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls. It was me and Josi and Hyrum, my sister-in-law, Kaelynn and her two kids, Kleyn and Kaleb, and my sister, Alysha. It was overcast when we left the house so we were all wearing jeans and socks and shoes instead of shorts and sandals. It was really fun, and I will blog that later. By the end of the trip, the sun had come out and it was in the mid to upper ninties (guessing, didn't have a thermometer). We were all hot and sweaty and ready for a dip in the kiddie pool. We stopped at the grocery store for a few things and decided orange creamcicles sounded really yummy. We opened them when we got to the car, just for the adults, too messy for the kids. Well, as I started the car, I remembered that my A/C and powersteering were not working because the belt broke because of a larger problem(underwarranty, but dealership can't get the part for a week, yippee!). So, I need both hands to steer, I also had to shift, the other adults are in a different car, because we wouldn't all fit in one, so I hand my cremecicle to Josi in the back seat. Within minutes, her hands were all orange and sticky and she didn't want it anymore. I didn't have the wipes because we put everything in one backpack, which was in the other car. I had three napkins in the jockeybox, I used one to take the cremesicle and ate it all in two bites(except the napkin), used another to sort of wipe my hands and contain the meltyness as much as I could and handed the last napkin to Josi. It didn't do the trick, it just stuck to Josi's hands. I couldn't do anything, because I didn't have any wipes, so she sat with her hands stuck in a napkin 'til we got to the house, which, by the way, is in rural Idaho Falls (Osgood), about 10-15 minutes from town. By the time we got home she had fallen asleep and was all sweaty. I ran in, grabbed the wipes, cleaned her up and then put her in bed, still asleep.

New Family

This is my brother, Andy, and his beautiful wife Amy. This weekend was their wedding.

Saturday morning they had a semi-traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony. It was only semi because our family was involved and, well, we aren't Chinese. But, they wanted us to be included. The tea ceremony consists of them serving tea to all of their elders. Aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents, and older siblings and their spouses.
They also mixed it up with the traditional American wedding. They had a flower-girl, ring bearer, etc.







Josi was asked to be the flower girl and the ring bearer was Amy's cousin Kenny. Kenny and Josi were so cute together.

Here is a picture of Josi holding the maid of honor's bouquet during the tea ceremony. She is taking a little break from her duties. She just ate it all up. She loved it and once the ceremony started, she never left Amy's side.


Hyrum had to inspect the ice and spent quite a bit of time with it. Everybody said that he was in the family business.


This is all of our family with them. Amy's sister was the maid of honor, so she is in the picture too. Ben wasn't able to be there in the morning.

That night they had a dinner/reception at a Chinese restaurant with a 10 course meal. The food was delicious and consisted of everything from chicken, pork, crab and shrimp to calamari (squid), jellyfish and sea cucumber. The dessert was coconut milk with cantelope and honeydew melon pieces in it.

The entertainment for the evening was provided by the guests. No surprise, there was kareoke at an Asian wedding. It was so much fun. My sisters and I (and a couple of cranky little boys) dedicated "The Lady in Red" for our new sister-in-law because she wore a gorgeous red dress at the dinner (seen below). We also sang "Rainbow Connection" with Josi. Later several of us sang "Dancing Queen" for Andy. Ben even joined us for that.

Josi loves her cousin, Kleyn, and they ran around the restaurant most of the night, trying to get the balloons down from the ceiling.

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY AMY!!

Independence Day

We were in Salt Lake for the 4th and, like usual, Ben had to work. So we hung out with my brother, Andy, at his fiance/wife Amy's house (The wedding is the 19th). They bought some sparklers and simple little fireworks that we could light in the street. The kids loved the sparklers, but Hyrum was afraid of the ones that made lots of noise. So he held on to me pretty tight for most of it.


The next morning we went to Brighton Ski Resort in
Big Cottonwood Canyon to go hiking up to Mary's Lake.



First, Josi had to take a potty-break.
This is Hyrum being goofy while he waiting.


Kodak moment on the hike up there. We strayed from
the trail a little and found this little creek.
Andy found a $10 bill on the ground too!


At the top just before the lake was really pretty. You could see one of the other lakes in the area and the base of the resort.

Hyrum liked throwing little pebbles into the lake.

It was a 2 mile hike in all. The kids did pretty well. Hyrum
wanted to walk most of it, but it was too difficult for him so we
had to wrestle with him a lot. Josi did a lot of walking except in the
really tough spots. There was still snow up there so there were
some really muddy and slippery spots on the trail. Hyrum ended up
falling asleep on the way down and Josi was pretty close. They slept
the whole drive back.

"Vacationing"

So it looks like Ben will have to spend the whole summer in Utah. The guy that replaced him got sacked and a couple other people quit so he has to fill in. It started out that him and his boss were going to take turns spending 10 days at a time in Salt Lake, but it ended up being in worse shape that they thought it was so now he is here til the end of August.
So, the kids and I are now "vacationing" in Utah for July. We might go up to Idaho Falls for a week or so and visit some other family and friends. Just a little FYI for you all.