July 2010- Part 1

   

I really wanted to take the girls strawberry pickin' this year, and make jam, even though I wasn't feeling very well.  (I have wonderful memories of doing this as a child.)  I have always wanted to do this every year and for some reason or another, it just hasn't happened.  My husband thought I was crazy but I had more plans than just strawberries.  (Why do I do that to myself?)  I really wanted to take them blueberry picking as well, and maybe raspberries too..., however, my Mom talked me out of it and told me not to overwhelm myself, while I was feeling sick.  (Hopefully next year...)  Anyway, long story short, I couldn't let go of the idea and one afternoon (Saturday, July 3), we went.  The kids had so much fun, which made me very happy!  :)  They loved picking the strawberries and were really excited to help make them into jam.  Since I have never made jam, and since we have a flat top stove, we headed over to my Mom's house and she helped us.  We all had fun and the jam tastes amazing!!  There is nothing quite like homemade strawberry jam.  :)

The first picture is of Karina playing her pretend violin.  It was very creative of her and completely adorable!  :)

The next two are from the 4th of July, which was a Sunday.  We stayed home and had some yummy food.  My parents and 2 youngest brothers came over, as well.  (The girls loved having Daddy eat at their little table with them.)  We had to ration out the asparagus or my girls would've gone crazy!  They absolutely love asparagus and in fact, they fight over it!  (Some of us had bacon wrapped steak but I couldn't handle a lot of meat during my first trimester, especially not steak!)  We also had a red, white, and blue dessert- strawberry/blueberry/banana shortcake.  Yum, yum!  Then we watched fireworks out our windows and also sitting on the grass together.

  

   

  

 Grant had Monday, July 5th off of work, since July 4th was a Sunday.  We decided to take a family trip to Mt. St. Helens.  (Grant had wanted to do that for some time.)  We were all excited (and some of us, even a little nervous) to go, even though I was kind of having problems breathing (I found out later that I had bronchitis or mild pnemonia.)  First, we stopped at a short waterfall hike (very simple for a healthy adult).  My breathing problem was way worse at the higher altitudes and the little hike ended up being more difficult than expected.  There were several trees and things we had to help the girls over.  By the end I was really struggling to breathe.  (To be honest, it was a little scary!)  However, the waterfall was spectacular!!  WOW!  I was so glad we took the little hike!  It was so much fun to hike down below the waterfall.  Karina's poor little bum was totally covered in dirt by the end!  Fun times!  Then we headed over to the actual mountain.  Unforunately, it was quite foggy, so we didn't get very good pictures of the actual mountain.  The girls were a little bit scared of the whole thing, since it was a volcano and everything.  Plus we had watched a documentary about the mountain, a few days before we went, and I think it was a bit much for them to grasp.  Grant took a couple of the girls on another little hike up many, many stairs.  I thought it would be better if I just stayed in the car with Aurora, and Tia decided to stay too.  The destruction around the mountain was just incredible!  It is amazing that it has been 30 years! ...and yet, you can still see by the devastation, just how powerful and deadly that blast really was!  It was quite astonishing to see in person!  The pictures just don't do it justice!  It was a fun and interesting day.  (Then we rushed back for Riana and Sariah's soccer game.)  PS- Aurora just loved picking up the rocks, since they were so light to carry!

We planned to go to the pool with another family from our ward, to a late night family swim, and it ended up that several families from our ward, and neighboring wards, were there that night.  It was a lot of fun!  Riana and Sariah passed the swimming test and were able to jump off the diving board.  They had a lot of fun doing tricks with their friend, Aimee.  What was even more impressive was watching Grant and his friends doing tricks off the diving board!!  :)  I wouldn't be that brave.  In fact, I didn't even go in because I was still getting over bronchitis and the water was a bit cold.  Aurora had a lot of fun in the kiddie pool and also loved swimming with Nessa, Grant, Brookie, Caleb, and Logey!  Tierra and Karina had fun learning to trust their life jackets and swimming around in the shallow end with their friends.  It was a fun night at the pool!

  

1-3) Karina has been begging to get her hair cut, ever since the other girls and I cut ours short, about a year ago.  I told her that after we had her pictures taken and her date, I would let her cut it off.  (It took me about that long to get used to the idea.)  I feared that cutting her hair, would cut off all her baby curls and they wouldn't come back.  However, just the opposite happened!!  It became even curlier, after I cut it!  I was so happy!  She looks as cute as can be!

4) Karina with her cousin, Connor (Grant's brother's son), right after her haircut

5-6) Connor really wanted me to take his picture, all by himself, just like Karina... so I did!  Look at those blue eyes!

7) Riana saved up her money and ordered a new outfit for her American Doll.  She was so excited to receive it in the mail!  All the other girls were excited to watch her open it too!  :)

 

We had the opportunity to attend our neice, Kaiti's baptism (Grant's sister's youngest daughter.)  It was really nice visiting with our family and being their to support Kaiti, on this important day.  (An added bonus- I ran into one of my old beehives that I haven't seen in 4 years, Liah!  I can't believe that she just graduated!)  Nina and Rori especially had fun playing with Auntie Shannon!  We attempted to get a picture of the sister-in-laws, while we were together, but we had a bunch of goof-balls behind us that kept getting in the picture!!  Stinkers!  Riana suggested that I "paint" her out of the picture, so that last picture is my attempt to take her cute, trouble-making little head out.  LOL!  So glad we could make it for Kaiti's day.  :)