34

Let's face it, birthdays are only fun while you are excited about getting older. Once you hit that age where you wish the number would go backwards birthdays are something of a drag. But, considering the alternative to having a birthday, we celebrate each year! 

This is Tyler's 34th!

I was able to find the elusive Boba Fett 6 inch action figure! A tie fighter tshirt and some GI Joes made up his gifts. (I imagine 6 year-old Tyler had similar gifts!)

Tyler - Happy Birthday. We love you! Hope 34 is a great year for you!

Siblings and Berry Picking

I realized that my audience is two fold. There are the readers today - grandparents and aunts and uncles. This blog helps keep you updated as to the happenings now. But the other audience is my kids. I am working on formatting the blog to get it printed for each kid. It is fun to flip through old photo albums of your childhood and remember those moments the pictures captured. But I don't print pictures any more. This blog is the best way for my kids to have a connection to their childhood. So kids, when I reference a siblings blog, sorry, that is for the audience today.

It is fun when we do things together as siblings, for a moment it is kind of like permission to slip backwards in time and just "play." I felt that way last summer swimming at mom's house. I kind of slacked off on parental duties to flip into the pool and try to "surf" across the pool and just be silly. This past weekend Peter, Jill and Lisa were here. While I did not get to totally ditch parent duties it was fun to occasionally joke around with someone who is not under three feet.

We went berry picking, as you have seen in Lisa's blog and probably will in Jill/Peter's blog. But what we didn't take pictures of was the card playing and sitting around talking. Peter lost. I (tied with Tyler) won. Of course :). I wish that I could spend more time with siblings. Drew and Jessica of course had to move all the way back East just when we moved closer to Provo. Lori and Zach are counting down days to be back East. Peter and Jill are unsure where they will be, but looking Eastward. Lisa is still hanging around for a while! And Katie still has to make it out here. I feel sad when I think that everyone is going to move away. So, I'll throw this out - we'd love to have y'all stay close. Yes we will abuse you for babysitting. But I promise when Topher and Maddie are old enough to babysit, you may abuse them as much as you want! So just think about it - free babysitting! And one day, when you have kids, you will realized how valuable that is!

Okay, back to what we did - berry picking. We drove down to Mapleton (35 mins south of Lehi) to a small farm. We went there last year and had a blast so off we went again. Everyone did a good job picking berries until Caroline saw the deer. She then promptly fed the goats and deer all of her berries. She is such a little animal lover. I think I got 21 jars of blackberry and raspberry jam. Not bad for $34. But best of all, we got out and did something to make a memory!

Discovery Park 2014

As a child we visited Discovery Park. It was a lot of fun to play tag and hide and seek. As an adult it requires a lot more ducking and bending to weave through it. But, with family in town we set out to have fun. Too bad it was so HOT!

After the kids tired of the playground we went across the street for a quick football game. The next series of pictures is funny. Especially if you notice that Maddie is running in the wrong direction.

I don't think I got this on camera, but Caroline got the ball, was running in the right direction and Zach came up and play yelled at her. She screamed, turned and ran the other way.

It was a fun few days with Lori and Zach in town. I was able to stuff with the kids that I just feel way too outnumbered to try on my own. 

Herriman Reservoir

Right before we moved from Daybreak Herriman Reservoir opened. We didn't have a chance to go last summer, so with two sisters and a brother-in-law in town I felt I could survive the outing. It was cold water and rough sand, but it was a lot of fun. We built sand castles, played in the water, ate a picnic lunch, played football and played on the playground. August enjoyed laying outside under the umbrella and we all enjoyed each others company (except Maddie and Topher who cannot stop fighting right now). I didn't realize how foggy the camera lens was (due to kids stealing it earlier) until half way through the trip.