Jaxson's 6th Birthday

Jaxson turned 6 years old on Wednesday, September 17, 2008. Jessica planned a birthday party for him at their house and invited about 18 kids - she was brave or crazy. I took Max and Garrett and we took some pictures. It was a gloomy day. In fact, when I arrived at their house, I heard some thunder. Jessica was freaking out trying to figure out what she would do with 18+ people in her house and how to entertain them for an hour and a half. All the games she had planned were outside games. But luckily, the wind blew the clouds away and the sun came out a little later so they were able to have the party outside. You will be able to see how she decorated her backyard. Sonia also took some video so she will need to post it and Jessica will need to write more on the party details. Enjoy the photos and video!

Shhhh...don't tell Buddy and Grandmama!

So the other day when Jessica and her kids came over to go with Gina and her boys to Liberty Land, there was some downtime while they waited for the place to open. Needless to say, children will always find something to do to fill the time. Before we knew what was going on, we heard some thudding and then some laughter. We saw what the kids were doing and I had to quickly grab my flip video to catch it on film. Don't worry Mom and Dad, we made sure they weren't leaving stains on the carpet or hurting anything in the stairwell. Here's what we found them doing...

A Trip to Liberty Land

Today, Jessica, Jaxson, Sydney, Blake, Max and I went to Liberty Land. It is a fun center that opened up not too far from the house. I left Garrett at home with Dee. They have fun rides for the kids and adults. And we had 2 for 1 deals - so we decided to get the kids out of the house and to tire them out.

We took them on the bumper boats. Jaxson decided that he was big enough to ride the boat by himself. He just couldn't get himself away from the waterfall so he came out of the ride all wet.

We also took them on the race cars and Jaxson did really well for his first time behind a wheel. Watch out when he turns 16!
Then there was the roller coaster. I had to wait with Blake so Jessica went with Sydney and Max and Jaxson sat together. I forgot how fast it goes - I thought Jaxson could hold on to Max. Well, Jaxson was scared and held on for himself. It is hard to see, but Jessica has one arm around Sydney and then she is reaching in front of her holding on to Max. The roller coaster goes around 3 times and at the end of the 3rd time it comes to a very quick and hard stop - which they warn you. But Jessica was so concerned that Max would fly out that when they came to the stop, Sydney slid off her seat. But she was ok. In fact, she and I went again.



Then we let them play miniature golf. There wasn't anyone around so we had the pick of the greens. We let them play how they wanted to play and didn't keep score. We skipped some of the holes that looked more difficult for them. They even have a couple of holes that are played in "caves" - as you can see from the pictures.


They had so much fun. It wore them out. In fact, as I am writing this blog, Max is falling asleep on my lap.

My First Harvest

You won't believe it...I hardly did. I picked my first tomato from my garden today! And when I went to get it, I saw a lot more green tomatoes growing. I'm so excited!! There is actually a chance for me to bottle something that I've grown and add it to our food storage. Wow, what a feeling. I know I'm a novice but this is amazing especially since I killed most all the other vegetables.

(The cantaloupe is the only other plant that looks like it might produce something.)

Provo Canyon Half Marathon

I'll let Jessica write her own blog entry about her training and the actual Half Marathon event today but I took some video of it, so I thought I'd post it. We're all very impressed and proud of her!

Blake and Garrett

Earlier this week I went to Payson to have lunch with my friend Natalie so Gina and the boys came along. Dad had asked us to get more pictures with just Blake and Garrett since they were missing in the 4th of July photo. It was a hoot trying to get the picture because Blake kept flipping over trying to look over his shoulder; then he ended up getting wedged in between two pillows, so we quickly put Garrett in the photo with him; and finally, Jaxson helped us by holding them at each side. You'll see the difficulty we had along the way through these photos:

New Pictures of Max and Garrett

I took some updated pictures of Max and Garrett this morning. They both just had their baths so it was a good time to take their pictures.