Pioneer Day Neighborhood BBQ

Our neighbors pulled out their awesome water slide again. This time Seth got to the top and was too scared to come down, so my friend Tami volunteered to rescue him. My suspicion, though, is that she wanted to test it out; unfortunately that didn't work out so well for her. ;)


What cuties! This is the boys playing with their friend Carter. Carter can't tell the boys apart, so he just says "Brad/Seth" to cover his bases.

Lake Blanche Hike

As my friend Bob says, "Lake Blanche is the jewel of the Wasatch". It was a spectacular hike.

The highlight for the boys was eating Starbursts and throwing rocks into the water.
They got really fussy on the way up, so we let them out for awhile and they were good hikers with their Maacka and Grandpa.

Boating at Jordanelle

Grandpa Stapleton has a boat and the boys went for their first ride this past weekend. Brad was pretty into it.
This was also Ellie's first time and once we went fast her whole face lit up; it was super cute.
Brad wouldn't go swimming, but Seth and I did. He looked like this the whole time, so I'm not sure he enjoyed it, but he did tolerate it OK.
Brad watching Seth and I swim. Dan and I went skiing as well. Dan looked great, especially considering his six year absence from the sport.

Stitches

With two boys I think it was inevitable that one of them was going to end up with stitches. I'm just glad it wasn't on my watch! :)

We don't know how it happened, Dan was outside with the scouts, and next thing he knew Brad was screaming bloody murder and was covered in blood. We think he bumped into some furniture. The poor Webelos scouts are a bit traumatized. Dan had trouble getting the bleeding to stop, so he had Brad lie on the floor in the kitchen while he applied pressure to the wound, blood was splattered on the floor, and Brad was screaming, one of the boys came in and asked if everything was OK and Dan told them they'd have to go home, so that was the scene they all filed past.

Five stitches later, Brad was home and in great spirits. I rarely give them suckers so he was thrilled. Brad and Seth were sad to be apart. While I got Seth ready for bed he kept saying "Bradie, boo-boo".

Best of Friends

I tucked the boys into bed and then went out to do yard work. When I came back this is how I found them. Don't you wish you'd grown up with a twin?

A Weekend Without the Boys

Dan's parents offered to take the boys for a night, so we readily accepted and went backpacking overnight to Twin lakes in the Uintas. It's about 2 & 1/2 miles from Trial Lake, close to Kamas.
The trip had a rocky start since we forgot mosquito repellant and they were so bad that they formed a cloud around you anytime you stopped hiking. I was contemplating asking to turn home when I got the courage to ask a hiker if he had extra and could we have a quick spray. He gave me the above bottle to keep and he saved our trip. So, mosquito man, I'll try to pay you back with a pay it forward kind act.
I discovered this camp site after we'd already set up camp. Dan liked it so much he insisted we move. When a group of scouts came into sight he literally ran to claim it. But, my find made it into his top five camp sites ever.

Between the two of us we caught nearly 20 fish. They were all little guys, but still fun to get.

A Conversation with Dan

So, my ten year high school reunion is in a few weeks and I registered for the dinner tonight (thanks for the reminder Sean). As I was getting ready for bed I was feeling some anxiety and self-conscious, just like I did in high school as I thought about going to the reunion. So I told Dan how I felt and this was our conversation:

Janet: You're not as self conscious as I am.

Dan: I don't know aobut that

Janet: Well, you're cooler than I am.

Dan: That's true. I don't know why you're worried. What do you have to worry about? You're taking somebody cooler than you to your high school reunion; isn't that what everybody wants?

Yep, Dan definitely has more confidence than I do. :)

Fourth of July

Our backdoor neighbors have this great blow up slide and invited us over to come play. Brad had no fear and climbed up with no problem. Seth had to have a bit of help, but they both had a blast.

The boys with their friend Carter. We had a BBQ with them on the 4th of July and he spent the majority o the time spitting water from the water table; it was pretty funny.

Hooray for water fights!

I also took the boys swimming for the first time with Grandma and Grandpa Ogilvie. When I get pictures from them I'll post some. The boys loved it.

Visit from the Kellers

Our good friends the Kellers came to visit us this week. We've been looking forward to it for weeks and had such a good time visiting with them. The boys especially loved it. And what's not to love to wake up to five new friends to play with.

It was boy central: seven in all.

Brad and Seth wanted to be just like the big boys and insisted on having everything the same- metal fork, same cereal, same chair.

We went to see the Kennecott Copper Mine. I thought it was a very manly boy activity.

They didn't want to hold my hand, but as soon as Rook volunteered they loved that idea.

This is our hike around Silver Lake at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. There was a family of ducks and a moose jumping around in the water.

What a good looking group of boys!

We went to visit Temple Square as well. Gary wasn't able to make this trip, too much work, but it was so fun to see Teri.