Happy Late 4th of July....

It looks like everyone had a great 4th of July. Our family had a sort of screwball one. Don had a huge deadline looming over him at work, and we had nothing planned for the 4th, so on Monday, July 2nd, the kids and I (minus Ben) took a mini vacation down to St. George to visit Mom and Dad. And we had a great time!



Mom and Dad were the perfect host and hostess as usual. Even being willing to go to Zion Park in the 115 degree weather, but we did spare them at the last minute. We played the Wii. Dad really loved the golf and bowling. We had hamburgers and hotdogs and we even celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary with Dinner and cake.



Dad told some great stories of when he was in the military. And the boys loved spending some one on one time with grandpa. Grandpa even showed us Eragon which we had never seen before and liked. Grandma showed us "Song of the South", a present that Doug had given Mom for her birthday. Seems like every time we started to watch a movie, something would interupt it. So, Dad, you still owe Jared a viewing of "The Hunt for Red October" sometime at your convenience.



Man was it hot, tho. I will pray every night that the power never goes off there during the summer. That would be some misery!



It was way too hot to sit outside and watch fireworks, so when we left Mom and Dad's house that night, we watched the fireworks in the comfort of our car with air conditioning blasting in a vacant lot by our hotel.



The last day of our vacation we spent at 7 peaks water park. I actually went in the water (i ususally don't like to display my rotund bod)! I've never seen the park so crowded. The wave pool was so crowded that you couldn't move without bumping into someone. It was a little scary seeing all these little kids bobbing up and down in the water. A couple of em looked like they were drowning, but it all turned out fine. We really enjoyed our time together and had a lot of fun dumping each other over. Bad news was we did get sunburned even while using SPF 50 baby strength sunscreen. But we are feeling ok now.



It was nice to relax for a few days and just enjoy being together, although we did miss Ben and Don a great deal.

Hey Uncle Doug and Aunt Patty! Happy Anniversary! I didnt know when yours was so I will have to mark it on my calendar for next year. :)
love ya!

The Coolest Fireworks Show in the USA

seriously, believe me or not, but bean-town is a cut above the rest when it comes to their fireworks show.

being in a canoe, on the charles river, listening to the boston pops play, getting rained on, 2 hour round trip canoe adventure and some really great friends were only the precursors for the amazing fireworks show that i watched last night. and i couldn't have asked for better seats... the barge that carries the fireworks was about 200 yards away from us... no other boats blocking the view, no trees, no weird people trying to cram next to us. perfection!

it was even okay that it completely rained on our parade-- i was soaked through to the bone... and wearing white pants (that was quite a view)... it was freezing. but really and truly i would do it all again in the same conditions. and the people i was with made it all worth it.

next year i really would love to have some of my most favorite people here with me on the that canoe-- yes, i mean all of you.

One Week From Today

One week from today little Isaac will be here. Weird!!!! I'm pretty sure of this because Dad gave me a blessing that said that he will come at his appointed time and not before then so one week it is.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!

to mom and dad on their 46th wedding anniversary


you are a mom and dad
to more than just one lad (and lass)
you've changed diapers and such
and heard whining way too much
you fought through it all
it took much gall
and now you look back on this great deming fam
and see how it's grown you old grandpa and gram
thanks for giving birth to all us weirdos
some of us have caused a lot of woes
but we love you nonetheless
and we'll try to do our best
to show how much we love you
for it is quite true
that we are who we are all because of you!

how's that for hallmark, huh?

You Have To See These

so i went a little crazy with the camera the last couple of days. i am actually working on a special (secret) project for the thorndikes as a going away gift. check out some of the photos i got of anna and russ today... aren't they amazingly beautiful?