August 2011

August got off to a rough start. Remember how I said we were getting good at riding bikes all over town? Well, our luck ran out, my luck anyway. I decided to ride my bike to the gym and came to this intersection. I was on the left sidewalk heading into the construction zone, looking for cars, and then... bam! That sidewalk, looks like it dips, from this angle and from my angle. Well, it is a big fat curb with no pedestrian access. I crashed hard and broke my bike and tore some tendons in my shoulder. I was just lucky I didn't land on my head since I wasn't wearing a helmet. Next year: we all get helmets for our bikes!

Next up came Kai's baptism. I can't believe my little boy is 8 already! Where did the time go? He looked so handsome that day and so excited to get baptized. And I must say I was pretty proud of him.

Grandma Drake flew out to witness this event and we sure had a lot of fun with her.

Look at these two handsome men.

Fun with grandma!

The best restaurant in Provo! My brother's wife's family owns and operates this place and it is delicious! They serve authentic Taiwanese cuisine.

One super lazy cat!

  Last "fun in the sun" for the year!

August is our anniversary month. This was 9 years. The kids wanted to help us celebrate this year so they mad us a banner (it's hard to read since they did it with pencil- Happy Anniversary) and helped cook a nice breakfast.

Jeremy attempting to help our duck learn how to fly. Mission unsuccessful! 

Hanging out with cousin Ellie.

 Jeremy wanted one last hoor-ah with the kids before school started. He took them hiking up the Grotto trail. They loved the hike and lunch, but the water was super cold and they weren't thrilled to have to get in it for a picture.

Back to school! This is the first day of school - kindergarten for Natalie, 3rd grade for Kai.

Riding bikes to school. Nicole's wishing she could come too.

Kai in his handsome new glasses, all ready for school.

Our first egg! Anikan was the first to start laying.

At the end of the month we decided to release Eggbert the duck into the wild. Winter was on the way and we worried that he would freeze to death here in our yard. So we took a family trip and did the deed.  We brought a lot of bread to try and lure some ducky friends over to him. I hope he's is happy wherever he ended up.

July 2011

Well I guess when you have 3 kids, every month seems very busy! Here are a few highlights of July.

You can click on each of these to enlarge them.

Top left to bottom right: Kai's 8th birthday. We had family parties for all the kids this year. *Kai had a Star Wars cake (I forgot to take a picture before we ate it. oops) *One of Kai's presents.

*Just finishing a 7 mi family bike ride! We were all getting into riding bikes everywhere we went.

*Water balloon fight! *Dad takes a hit.

*Nicole would fall asleep eating lunch every Sunday after church. It was a pretty rainy month. *It was fun to see the outlines of various toys left on the driveway, but it also was the season of the snail! They were everywhere! *A picnic in Genola; they sure don't make slides like that anymore!

*Home Improvement by Jeremy. Jeremy lost his job back in May so we did some major yard projects to fill our time. *A huge rock pile to fill in all out planters. *Some finished planters. *Jeremy hard at work.

Trying yummy cuisine at the Green Panda near the Riverwoods. My brother's wife's family owns and operates the restaurant. It is authentic taiwan cuisine, and it is delicious!

Our camping trip, you can read the whole story and see some film images here: http://www.frecklesphotography.blogspot.com/2011/07/fish-lake-camping-trip-film.html.

 *The truck fully loaded, every inch crammed with stuff. *Kai soaking up the sun instead of helping unload. *Jeremy setting up camp with helpers. *Lunch. *A nice bike ride near the lake over to the lodge (we all got sunburned). *Lunch in the truck while it poured rain one day. 

*Nicole asleep after a long bike ride. *Natalie the dirt queen. *Kai's new favorite game: Solitaire. *Kai chopping wood. *Fish Lake sign. *Taking a walk in the wilderness. *Nicole climbing rocks by our fishing spot (we didn't catch any fish).

Natalie gor her ears pierced this month! She had been begging us and we finally gave in. Here is her before and just after one side. She didn't even cry!

We did have some really nice days to just relax and play in the pool too!

June 2011

Nicole with cute pony tails.

On our way to Colorado to visit Grandma Drake - leaving Spanish Fork through the canyon.

Our traditional pit stop in Grand Junction Colorado - the visitor's center. There is a picnic table right under this tree we eat lunch at. The kids wanted to climb the tree.

A rest stop up near Loveland Pass. Yes, it's June and there is that much snow up there! That's why we avoid winter trips to grandma's house in the middle of winter, too dangerous with all the snow.

Same rest stop - Reason #1 I love Colorado?! There is a ton of snow, but the sun is shining and it's warm enough for short sleeves! People really can ski in the winter with short sleeves some days!

Rest Stop closer to Denver, lower elevation. There was still snow, but this was when the whole nation was dealing with flooding. You can see the raging Colorado River waters! 

Chasing bunnies (we call them all Fred) at Grandma's house.

Visiting the park in Littleton where Jeremy proposed to me.

The Denver Temple - a whole 15 minutes away from my mom's house.

We took the kids after church to go see it.

 Reading stories with grandma Drake.

Running trains with Grandpa Hermes

 Natalie turned 5 this month! I can't believe how big she is getting. We decided to just have family parties this year with all the kids.

Cousin Ellie was born! We are so happy for Jake and Marcee, she is such a cutie and the kids are excited to have a cousin close by to play with. Nicole is obsessed with Ellie. She pretends to call her on the phone a lot. haha

I learned a new craft - crochet. This was my second project. My first was a ball for the kitty. My first attempt looked more like a muffin, but my second try actually looked like a ball.

Jeremy took the kids fishing, which almost proved to be hazardous! Look closely at the next photo! Jeremy caught Nicole!!

This poor man trying to help Natalie almost got hooked too.

The final catch! Not too bad.

May- Part 2

Kai built his new ship in a hurry. I'm still proud of him for working hard to earn the money and for  saving it until he earned enough to reach his goal.

Kai's end of the year class performance.

Jeremy, Grandpa Nelson and Kai built a small go cart. They had a lot of fun pulling it with the jeep and racing it down the hill by our house.

 Natalie's Preschool graduation! 

Our annual yard sale, this time we teamed up with our friends the Walters. It was a fun and crazy morning! I think we'll do a repeat this coming summer. Natalie was our spokesperson for facebook advertising. I tried and tried to get a video of her saying, "We're having a yard sale this Saturday." This was one of the funny out takes:

What's better than a yard sale? 50% off all the junk left! haha We do this every year during the last hour and get swamped with people.