June 2012 Part 2

Last day of Peanut Butter n Jelly kids, swimming party.  We'll miss you Sister Ricks!!

Such a happy girl!

One morning we decided to hop in the car and take the 40 minute drive to meet friends...and ostriches!

We learned SO much, these birds don't have the same problems as other birds, no salmonella etc.  Their meat is super lean and apparently tastes very similar to beef, they don't attract bugs, even their dung, and their feathers, well let's just say goodbye dust!

Beautiful self-portrait Ellia.

Their eggs were the equivalent of about 18 chicken eggs.

Daddy gave mommy a break and took the girls fishing one night.

Love this one.

I set up a tour of Albertsons for our mommy group thinking we'd see things like how the deliveries work etc.  I was so impressed when they took us all around the store, gave us samples and talked to the kids about sometimes food and always food. It was so well done! They even took home a mini reusable shopping bag, some other treats and a reusable water bottle.

 An octopus (no samples here, phew!)...a few days later when we went into Albertsons, Ellia had to take Jeremy to show her this.

We were getting the kids ready for bed one night and Ashlyn insisted this is where she wanted to sleep. I was tempted to let her try but Jer said no.

Needed to get out after a hot day, so we took the kids ice blocking for the first time this summer.

Lia is getting really good, Ash is a but wary.

She enjoyed it so much she even tried to push the ice UP the hill a few times so she could go again.

We had some friends meet us there to enjoy the fun and have some popsicles too.

Needed a mountain retreat for Fathers Day....found a great one and spent the day near Frog Meadow. However, this started out as an off road trip to try to get to a fishing stream.  It was more like a four wheeler trail and we got stuck half way down.  We thought it was a good time to show the kids an example of praying in times of need, and shortly after we prayed a man drove up behind us and helped push us out.  He was the only person we saw in the mountains that whole day.

As the heat increases, we are spending more time in the pool, Ashlyn is slowly progressing, first she had to get used to the ring, then arm floaties and then we realized she could touch on her tip toes so she gets really excited to try that.

Stake sponsered Pioneer Day activity.  This was so well done I was really bummed we couldn't share it with someone who otherwise wouldn't have gone!  I also wish we would have had pioneer outfits for the kids.  So many people were dressed up and when the kids asked their stories (they were depicting real pioneers) they got a bead to put on the necklace.  Ellia LOVED this, with all the other awesome activites and games she kept saying, "I want to ask more people their stories."

 The Jacobs were asked to depict Joseph and Emma Smith and Marcy sang some great songs!

 Hearing a pioneer story.

 There was a hatchet throw that I couldn't resist.  Hit the target on the second try, oh yeah baby.

 Kids riding in the handcarts.

Planting pumpkins for the Elders Quorum contest this fall.