Dirt like I've never seen

We've survived our 11 day camping extravaganza to Colorado and back. And I have a ton of pictures to share, but I'll start at the end of our trip with these from when we met my parents and nephews up in Utah for a few days on our way home. The mountain must have been in some serious need for rain. The dirt was like powder. Everytime I looked at the kids I would end up singing "1 little, 2 little, 3 little Indians..." in my head because they were covered from head to toe in a reddish dirt. Even us adults looked like we had extra dark tans (wish I could have kept mine- ha!).

What we've been up to

- We took another trip up to Duck Creek. Just me and the kids. Stayed with my parents for 3 nights in the motorhome and didn't want to come back to the HEAT. I got my dirtbike on and only almost crashed into a tree three times. They were small trees. I had a helment on, I would have been ok. Madeline rode a 4 wheeler (we rented), a dirtbike (very slowly) and a horse on this trip. The kids rode a 2-wheel bike for the first time thanks to a nice camp neighbor. We saw a bazillion sheep trying to cross the highway and tried to recreate, with not as much luck as we had hoped for, Unruh dutch oven potatoes.


- I took the kids to the library for the first time. We were there right when storytime started so we decided to check it out. Madeline really liked it, although she didn't participate much. Maison ran around the room like a mad man and kept trying to climb into someone else's stroller. Madeline's first library rentals were 2 dinosaur books and the Disney Dinosaur movie.

- Ian spent a couple of days with us last week. On one we went to the mall. I'm trying to decide what we should wear for family pictures in advance this year, instead of waiting until the last minute. But I really have no idea. The second day we went to the Children's Museum. The kids had a blast. Again, Maison ran around like a mad man. The kid is hard to keep track of. He'll disappear around a corner in a flash.

- This weekend was really low key. Saturday Thor worked outside and I worked inside. We (Thor and I) had chicken and broccoli for dinner and ate outside because the weather was pretty dang nice. Then I took the kids to my moms for some swimming, and popcorn after Madeline FINALLY ate her chicken and broccoli. I forgot to feed Maison (he won't eat chicken or broccoli) so he had popcorn for dinner. Sunday we went to breakfast, then Madeline and I went to lunch with my mom and took a field trip to Target where we found lots of stuff we didn't need.

- Today Max spent the day with us. We tried to go to the park, but it was too hot and the kids wanted to go back home. Max tried out a couple of Thor's Playstation 3 games and the kids played in the backyard once it got shaded. Thor came home early and I got some grocery shopping done. I made pizza for dinner, pepperoni and red onion, then went back out to finish my shopping while the kids were in their bath. Summer nights are so nice.

Another lens givaway alert!

Go here- it ends friday evening!

Ian's skateboard cake, take 2

Ian was just a few months old when Thor and I started dating. Now he's 11 years old. 11 years! Holy cow.

Ian liked his last year's birthday cake enough to ask for a similar one for this year. He said he wanted it exactly like it was last year with donut wheels and everything. But he wanted Blind on it instead of DC. I took a design off the skateboard website and frozen buttercream transfered it. It ended up looking much better than it tasted. I picked a BAD cake/frosting combination. Add to that lots of black food coloring and it was barely edible. Max actually gagged on the frosting a little bit. But I'll just blame that on him being choked up about a sad lizard issue just a few minutes before. Sorry Ian (and everyone else)! At least it looked cool. That's all that really matters anyways, right?

His party ended up being 9 days before his actual birthday because my parents had a trip planned. So, lucky guy, got some of his presents early. Giftcards, really cool dirt bike riding gear, and a model car kit, from what I remember. Here are a few pictures from his party.

Happy birthday Ian. Now stop growing please. Love, Auntie Jessica.