Summer Catch-Up!

 In July my brother, Leif's, two younger children came to stay with me while he and his wife and oldest child were at a church girls camp. We had SO much fun with them. I'm so glad they came. We took them up to Bass Lake (one of my favorite places in the whole wild world to go). I love that the water is warm and I have so many happy memories of going there as a child with my family. I'm so glad my Grampa Sirman built the cabin there and wanted to keep it always in our family.

 (below) For some reason Jacen never likes his picture taken. I don't know why...he's so handsome.

 My other brother, Chris', daughter below--Morgan.

 Of course we play board games there. Here we were playing Clue. We played while Chris went to pick up some pizzas.

 Canoeing is always fun.

 

 Now we are at the zoo in Fresno. It was a hot day but we still had a lot of fun and the shade was nice.

 Micah loved the elephants.

 Micah and Will loved posing for pictures.

 This guy is my favorite at the zoo. He is from Fiji. I wish Jacen could have found his cousin and smuggled him home when he was there. (: I love him because he just looks so wise when I look into his eyes. I know it sounds weird but its true!

 Then we went swimming. I LOVE swimming. I want my own pool so bad. I would never wear clothes all summer--I'd live in my swim suit and swim every day all day.

 My neice, Erica, moved here from Florida around the same time as we did. This is her little girl and she now has a brand new baby too. So this is my great-niece. I sound like I'm getting old!

 Here is Erica the day her baby was blessed.

 My sister and her kids came for the blessing. (:

 Albert and I went to the temple one night and Linnea babysat. These pictures were then found on the camera. (:

 No one was hurt.

 Micah took this picture of me before going to the temple. He wanted to be sure I included it. He is a budding photographer! (:

Some more of July...

 My mom made this cute flag cake and brought over the night before the 4th. Of course the kids had to get out of bed and eat some.

 On the fourth we went bowling. It's one activity that can be done when its hotter than ... outside.

 Micah was so cute bowling. Jacen actually took video clips of him. I need to get the videos.

 We bought our own fireworks and did them in front of our house. We haven't been able to buy and do fireworks in years and years over on the coast so that was new and exciting to everyone. Chris' family joined us.

 Now this picture was from Linnea's birthday. She had a friend come over from PG and then Chris and his family came and my parents. We did Just Dance. That is one of our favorite things to do. My mom even did it! My Dad wouldn't...not yet.

I'll post the rest of July soon. (:

Ollalaberries!

We had like a week straight of 110 degree weather. We almost died. We decided to take a break from it and drop in on my sister who graciously accommodated our whole family of six plus one big dog at her house. One of the days we drove over to Gizditch Ranch in Watsonville to pick ollalaberries. They are so good! We sampled a few. This picture was taken towards the beginning of our picking. By the end, most of the kids had purple faces and shirts! (: That day we drove back home to Clovis and upon arriving pretty late at night, I immediately froze enough for future pies and then made most into jam. If I had waited until the next day they would have gone bad. They were ripe and sweet! I LOVE ollalaberry jam. It's like a dessert to me on toast. After giving some away, I am savoring the rest and trying to make it last.

Happy Birthday Linnea!

Happy 13th Birthday to my sweet daughter, Linnea!

She woke up and went out with her Grama Shirley and Grampa Jim shopping and seeing some sites in Fresno. Then she spent the afternoon with a friend that came all the way from Pacific Grove to see her. Then peanut butter cake and ice cream with Grandparents and Chris and his family and lots of Just Dance. A fun day!

We love Linnea so much and are so glad she is in our family!

Swimming With the Dog!

 I am SO very sad that I didn't wait out for a house with a pool. I love our house but NEED a pool. Thank goodness we are making friends with pools. I also think we will add a pool but for now we got a kiddie pool to keep the kids happy. Our newfie just  had to get in too. Newfoundlands are water dogs. They were originally bred to rescue people in the water and were kept as ship dogs on boats. Its in their genes. (I have also found him just sitting in a just-used shower.)

Linnea's Girls Camp (comments by Linnea)

 This is when my cabin went to rappel. There was a shorter, easier one, and a slightly taller one with a crack we had to jump over to make it harder. I went on the slightly harder one.

 This was the view of the place we rappelled from. 

 My cousin Morgan was really scared and is took a lot of encouraging from the whole cabin to get her to participate, but she did it and found out it wasn't that bad :)

 Here are three girls from my cabin (left to right): Claire, a Junior Counselor, Lexi, and Lauren.

 We hiked to this creek, 5 miles total. (2 1/2 there and back). After hiking in the hot sun if felt so good to put our feet the cool water.

 This is my whole cabin to a waterfall we walked to. I am on the bottom row, second from the left.

Happy 4th Birthday Micah!

 Micah's birthday is at a hard time at the end of May when school is getting out and graduations are happening and end of the school-year activities are in abundance. This year was even more difficult because his birthday was three days before moving. We celebrated a day early on Memorial Day and he was happy with the little party I was able to throw together. His favorite people were there: his cousins and brothers and sister. We ate chocolate cupcakes and hit open a pinata and played party games.

Yay! Micah is 4!!