Projects

Meet Chia. It's surprising how much fun you can have with some dirt, grass seeds, and nylons.

I would not recommend this project; at least not on your front porch, anyway. Before we left Idaho, Adam and his cousins had made "pancake batter" together. He was bored one day and wanted to re-create the fun. This batter consists of just flour and water, but makes one great mess!

No, this is not an unused fireplace made into a less-than-attractive place for blankets. Nope. This is our elevator that Adam uses daily. :)

Bedtime pix

Yeah, Blueberry is still around. Any thoughts on getting rid of a stuffed animal friend that your son values more than you? (I think he was pretending to be a dog here)

Exploring

We've done some exploring of this new city with some new friends. And it's been hot! This is a little canyon path that we hiked for about 5 minutes before deciding it wasn't worth it and turned back. We ended up at a neighbor's pool instead. :)

Brothers.

Have I mentioned yet what a great big brother this kid is?!

Helpers

A shout-out to all the awesome friends and family who helped us pack up and make this big move. We had such an outpouring of love and support, and just one picture to represent it all (sorry). Friends, siblings, parents, nieces, nephews, and cousins... THANK YOU again!!

Update your links!

We've created a new blog address! No, not to annoy and take up your time in having to fix links/bookmarks/etc. (though sorry if you do). The old address--adamthedude.blogspot--was started almost 5 years ago when Adam was a baby. We just thought that it needed to be adjusted to include our growing family!

Don't worry, though... I definitely won't be changing the address again any time soon. Because, among other reasons, I hate choosing a blog address! Anything that sounds good or fitting or witty is, of course, not available. And suddenly you end up with something like "incaseUeverwonder.blogspot.com" as the best choice you can come up with. Oh well! There is a really cute book we bought a while ago for our kids entitled, "Just In Case You Ever Wonder", so I thought it was good enough and hopefully not too cheesy. :) The process of changing the blog actually wasn't too big of a deal, and hopefully it won't take me too long to import the rest of our posts. So, for now, the old address will still be valid. But look for new posts here!

p.s. We also have a new address and phone number... just shoot me an email if you need it.

Photo shoot

Another highlight of the reunion was a photo shoot of the babies by my awesome sis-in-law, Tracy. So much fun!

Can you believe we had SIX BABIES under the age of six months?!! It was adorable madness. They were surprisingly great sports about it! Can't believe we got a shot w/out anyone crying. From left to right it's: Bryce, Jack, Sadie (she's the easy one-- the only girl:), Landon, Mavrick, and Brigham.

As everyone was heading out the door the last morning, Tracy got in a quick session with Grandma and her 8 kids. Awww!

Family Reunion!

We had so much fun at the family reunion this year! We stayed at this amazing inn at Bear Lake... it was awesome having everyone under the same roof. Thanks again Sue and Justin for all your hard work in planning the event!! Here are a bunch of pics documenting the multi-day par-tay...

Nothing like a little ultimate frisbee on the Lake!

(Thanks for the great action shot, Andrea:)

This little fish had SO much fun

Brave souls...

you couldn't wipe that grin off Adam's face the whole time!


Of course Guy and I got a turn too. Doug had a little too much fun driving the boat trying to dump us! We hung on for a while, enjoying some serious (COLD) air. When he finally succeeded, we both piled over on Guy's side. Freezing! The collision completely knocked the wind out of me (thank goodness for life vests), and I'm pretty sure I cracked (or at least seriously bruised) a rib that I felt for weeks after. All worth it:)

Staying safe at the beach...

He had so much fun at the beach that he couldn't quite make it through lunch in the car :)

Family Olympics! Here's just most of the family that was there. Fun memories.

We had so many great helpers/baby-holders!

(Love Jack's helpless face in this pic:)

How much harm could a bunch of little boy cousins with sharp "arrows" do? I decided not to find out, so I confiscated them right after the picture.

Adam's starting to show more interest in voluntarily helping out w/the kiddos. He's such a sweet kid.

Sadie has this funny little Elvis-like half-smile that's so cute. Funny girl.

Baby blessing weekend (yep, I'm gonna do it)

What better day to have your children blessed by their dad than on Father's Day? It was a special day and we're so grateful for everyone who was able to make it. Before church we had a little family gathering, and after the crowds left we had a post-dinner game of croquet. Because, really, what's a warm Sunday evening without one? And, yep... I'm really gonna post a TON of pics! (So, sorry in advance:) Thanks Karin for taking all the picures!

Aw... :)
It was great to have so much of our family there!

Yeah... I'm still not good at taking "together" pictures


Granmama and Sadie-bug

Handsome Papa at the afore-mentioned game of croquet :)

Adam with Uncle Jeff

Love the sleeping baby

...and the smiling one!

Meeting Uncle Jeff

Karin thought it was funny how I sometimes feed the babies. But you do what ya gotta do!

Delicious homemade lemonade!

Super-fun surprises from Mamaw...

...which was arguably more fun for the uncles (note Rob w/the leaf blower while Jeff holds up the huge bubble wand...;)

I love this action shot! Rob's lighting candles while Jeff and Jenesse try to save Joseph from eating more rocks, and Adam is, well, being a little boy ;)

While I put Sadie down for a nap, my family pulled out a cake and a few gifts for an early 30th par-tay. I'll not comment on that number right now... too many candles is all I can say! (Not to mention that I hadn't managed to take a shower yet, but who's checking anyway)

My awesome family and friends (Karin and Marci, especially, thank you!!) put together this amazing book for my birthday. I decided that they were all too generous with their letters and comments, but hey, I'll take it! At this age I don't know how many more birthdays I'll get to enjoy... ;) It was a joy to peruse the letters and pictures... a very special book that I'll treasure forever. THANK YOU to everyone who had a part in it!

So, we have this tradition with my siblings of getting a "game" for your 30th birthday. Basically we just adapt an already-existing game with personalized questions for the birthday girl/boy. There was "Mattoo" (a.k.a. Taboo) with Matt, "Jeffardy" (a.k.a. Jeopardy) with Jeff, and um... I guess Karin didn't get one because I was too overwhelmed for making a book for her too (we'll get you at 40, ok Karin?:). Oh, and we made "Road Trip" (a.k.a. Ticket to Ride) for my dad's 60th last year. My game? ..."Kristinary (Wo)Man" (a.k.a. Pictionary Man... a fun take-off of the regular Pictionary game).

Is it vain of me to say that this game was a blast?!

That's my mom's picture of a crow... 'cuz my sister nicknamed me "Kro" when we were little... nothing to do w/the actual bird though. My mom hates the nickname. :)

Most of the game consisted of laughing, sometimes uncontrollably, usually poking fun at me (for being short, popping innertubes while river rafting, etc.) All in good fun. :)

'Said inner tube

Pix are out of order, if you hadn't noticed yet. But I'm not gonna take the time to fix it! Jeff and Jim, helping out in the kitchen for our family breakfast before the blessing.

Papa got the tough job of holding Jack... had to practically twist his arm!

Even cousin Megan was able to make it!

Grandma and cousin Nate w/Sadie girl

Sweet Sarah and Jackson

Love that Anna-girl

How can you keep the kids away from the pond? Luckily there weren't any major disasters before church.

Ellie and Eric

Spunky Rachel :)

It's Joan with Sadie Joan. :) Isn't my mom beautiful?!

The babies of the hour

My babies

We each got our turn w/a family photo shoot in the backyard

Almost all the grandkids! (missing sweet Seni... busy in France:)

...If these pix seem a little heavy w/my side of the family, it's because the events all took place at my parents' house and we kind of made it a little family reuion weekend. More family pix to come from our other reunion soon! It's bedtime for now... but I probably should've said that 2 hours ago!