Congrats!

My oldest BFF, Leslie, got married on July 30th.  She moved into our ward in 5th grade, when we were only 10 years old.  We became friends and have remained friends ever since!  Congrats Leslie--we wish you and Doug the best!

After re-reading this post, I realized that I made Leslie & me sound OLD...of course we're not old; she's my "earliest" BFF, not my "oldest" BFF!

New Family Pics

We got new family pictures taken with all of Bryan's sibs and their families. We took them at a park in Syracuse, which was a really pretty back-drop, but it was SO bright that day. And the photographer had a white shirt on, so every time she counted to three, it about killed us to look up at her, with the sun glaring off her shirt. Anyway, we are very squinty in the pics...but I must admit they are better than I expected they would be.

Miles was not very interested in smiling, or looking at the camera, for that matter!

Here are the kids, doing what they love best--throwing rocks in the water!

Budding Music Critic...

This morning Miles was hanging out in the kitchen, playing with play-dough while I did some baking.  We were listening to the radio and he was giving his commentary...several times during Bryan Adams' old song "Summer of '69" he said "this a PITTY song!"  (a pretty song.)  Then later, during Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" he shouted loudly, "I LOVE this song!"

Waterfall Canyon

Our family enjoyed a beautiful hike up to Waterfall Canyon in Ogden on Friday. I had heard of this hike, and Bryan had hiked it with the Scouts, but I had never gone up there until this week with the Young Women. I liked it so much that the whole family went back up two days later! It's a pretty easy hike--Tess did the whole thing with no problems and Miles did about 1/4 up and about 1/2 down (the rest of the trip he rode happily in the backpack. Thanks, Bryan!) It feels so good to stand near the falls and feel the cold water mist all over us; it's a great way to cool down after the climb.

Here's Miles, sporting his cool shades, which I picked up for him at the dollar-spot at Target. I didn't really think he'd wear them; I thought it would just be a fun novelty for a few minutes until they got lost or broken. But he loves them!

Here's our beautiful girl. She was a real trooper on the hike. I call her our little mountain goat.

Here's Bryan, hot and tired from lugging the tank (a.k.a. Miles) up the mountain.

A few self-portraits:

Yuba Lake

We always do a water-ski trip over July 6th (this year marks 11 years since my Mom passed away.) This year we decided to try Yuba Lake. We were all worried that we'd die of heat, but then the weather forecast called for beautiful days in the low 80s. Well, unfortunately, the weather was quite cold, very windy, and sometimes rainy! Dang! But we still had a great trip. I didn't get to ski as much as I hoped but the kids loved playing in the sand and riding on the tube behind Papa's boat. We also played lots of games (which I love...) and the kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. We also brought the motorcycle so we enjoyed some rides as well. It was a lovely vacation.

Here's Tess, with her "Mom, just take the stupid picture so I can go play" look. Miles, doing his still-favorite pastime of throwing rocks into the water. (Rocks which, incidentally, would always go out about 5-10 feet into the water--just right for us to constantly trip over and stub our toes on when we're helping to push the boat out from shore...grrr.)

Miles took naps on Bryan's lap each day. They were buddies when it came to naptime. Since Miles is a pretty light sleeper, poor Bryan was stuck, unable to move a muscle, during each nap. What a great daddy.

This was probably Tess's favorite activity of all--driving Papa's boat. She's a feisty little thing and when Papa would try to "help" her steer in the right direction, she stubbornly held her ground going in the direction she wanted.
On our last day there (July 6th), the weather was gorgeous, the water was smooth, and the lake was virtually void of boat traffic. How appropriate that our best day was July 6th! My niece Bayli learned how to ski on one ski that day. We were all so proud and happy for her (and I'm sure her Gramma Kathy was proud too!)