October 2010, pt. 1

October started out with a sad event. On 10/01/10, my last living grandparent, Grandma Berkline, passed away. She had been in a lot of pain so it was a blessing, but it's always sad to see someone you love go. We went to California for the funeral and made it into a fun little vacation while we were there.

This is the drawing Casey did of my Grandma when she was younger. What a beauty!

Owen being cute.

Evan being cute.
(We had a few umbrellas for shade at the cemetery. It was so hot!)

Emily decided to participate in the funeral by being a pallbearer. This gave us a chance to laugh a little at her expense. :)

Another light moment, which Grandma would have totally approved of, came when Jenny told us the story of how Grandma reminded people that her name, Frances, was spelled with an 'e' and not an 'i.' She was a funny lady and did not want any of us to be sad when she died. She wanted a big party. We pretty much obliged.

Bye to Grandma "Brokeline," as my kids would call her. See you later!

All the cousins (a whopping 2 families' worth).

We took the opportunity to go to Disneyland and California Adventure while we were there. The night and morning before we went were kind of disastrous. The power went out on just a portion of the street my Grandma lived on. Edison International said they were on the problem, but we don't think they sent anyone out to fix it until the morning. We spent that evening trying to get ready for a long day at the theme parks by what little candlelight and flashlight light we could find in Grandma's house. We had to buy ice to keep food in a cooler (which, luckily, was still there from the post-funeral luncheon). Everyone bathed and showered by candlelight. We couldn't charge phones unless we had car chargers. We had frizzy hair because we couldn't blow dry it and we tried to put makeup on in the dark (when we go to Disneyland, we leave early and make good use of all our time). And then, 5 minutes before we left ... the lights came on. Boy were we mad!

But we still had a blast and the boys loved it as much as the rest of us.

We spent time at Aunt Carol's house and got to see her turtles, kitties, giant spiders (those aren't pets), etc.

Of course we had to visit Seal Beach and walk down the pier.

And we can't forget the traditional photo by the seal.

Casey did some plein-air painting on the beach while we walked and played.

It was a little chilly, but not chilly enough to keep us away from the water.

We hung out in Grandma's backyard for, what has turned out to be, the last time.

And no California trip would be complete without a trip to the duck park.

A new and exciting feature this year ... the giant mushrooms.

And one of the favorite traditional activities at Grandma's is bouncing all the super balls down the stairs. We are going to miss Grandma and her home. We have a lot of great memories there.

September 2010

I realized I better hurry and catch up before this baby comes. He's expected on the 29th, unless something happens before then. So I don't have much time. Here we go.

September started out with our 2nd annual Labor Day staycation. We went to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake first.

Some of the big kids enjoyed it as much as the little kids. We stayed the night at a hotel in SLC where we enjoyed some swimming, but not any hot tubbing because it was broken. [BIG frowny face]

We hiked to Bridal Veil Falls again where the boys hiked up for a closer look.

Emily and Kate hosted a murder mystery dinner party at our house with our cousins. That was fun!

And last, but not least, we celebrated Aunty Kake's birthday, complete with Birthday Bingo, of course.

August 2010, pt. 2

I guess now would be a good time to mention that it was shortly before we went to Wyoming last summer that I found out I was pregnant. Which is why I've both gotten more behind and wanted to catch up on this blog. My other two pregnancies were a piece of cake. This one has been a little different. It was great up until the third trimester, but recently I've had problems with high blood pressure and general pain in "that" area (round ligaments, apparently). Right now my BP is borderline and as long as it doesn't jump back up and stay up, our 3rd boy will be joining us on March 29th. Hooray and yikes!

Here are the boys in front of my tomatoes when they were still kind of standing. The plants themselves were ginormous this year!

This was my thriving squash.

And this, my zucchini. It never got any bigger. I didn't think it was possible to kill zucchini, or at least not have it overtake the surrounding area. Somehow I managed to grow everything but zucchini.

This is Owen on his first day of preschool. This social, outgoing, talkative kid had a bit of a hard time adjusting, but he loves it. And I hear from his teacher, Miss Janae, that he is finally just coming out of his shell in class and talking in more than a whisper, being a little more rowdy, etc. That's the Owen I know.

It wouldn't be summer without a trip to Hogle Zoo! A few of the highlights were ...

the baby elephant ...

the giraffes (including the part where Owen was "that kid" who lost his flip-flop inside the giraffe enclosure; luckily it was just the outer perimeter and we were assured that it happens all the time) ...

this ginormous bird (and all of the birds who grazed the tops of our heads during the bird show) ...

the carousel ...

and the orangutans (who performed especially well when one of their handlers came over by us and talked to them and such).

We also visited the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.

This is Evan on his first day of Kindergarten. It was a bittersweet day.

Here are the two of them before we took Evan to school.

Here's Evan with two other Kindergartners from our cul-de-sac.

And here is his class lining up to go inside on that first day (the only decent picture I got of Mrs. Bunting).

I'm fat, fat, fat...

Okay, we have to pause all the catching up for a quick look at the present. Owen's new favorite thing to do is play with Photobooth on Casey's laptop. We find random new pictures and videos on there almost every day. Here is one of his particularly hilarious videos:

August 2010, pt. 1

August was such a busy month. It all started with an exciting event for Casey. He had a solo exhibition of his art at Communal restaurant in Provo.

It was so neat to see nearly every wall space covered with his paintings and drawings. The opening night coincided with the restaurant's monthly dinner club. We were able to come that night and enjoy some incredible food.

Several of Casey's family members came as well. We really appreciated their support and good company. (Sorry for the terrible picture ... just wanted to document who was there.)

One of the delicious courses.

Dessert ... mmmmm!

I had to include a picture of me with my dear friend, Jennifer. We used to be next-door neighbors, but I do not get to see enough of her anymore. Her husband, Joseph, is one of the owners of the restaurant and we really appreciate him giving Casey the opportunity to exhibit there. It was exhausting to prepare for, but it turned out wonderful!

Wyoming Trip--Summer 2010

Last summer the boys and I headed to Wyoming to visit my parents. My mom knew we were coming, but she thought we were coming in August. We surprised her and came at the end of July. It was a fun surprise for her to answer the door and have the boys standing there. My sisters and I spent the next few days making last-minute preparations for a big birthday bash--my mom's surprise 60th birthday party. Oh, the web of lies we weaved! But it paid off in the end. She had no idea. She was completely surprised and it was a fun night.

While we were there we went to the dam Visitor Center at the Buffalo Bill Dam. It was lots of dam fun.

We saw lots of old dam equipment.

The boys had a precious moment (those are rare).

We got to look down from the dam walkway. WAY down! (Kate does not like the dam height!)

Evan got a dam penny (which he will proudly tell anyone). We also got dam pencils, dam pens ("This is my dam pen!"), dam cup holders ... lots of dam stuff.

We got to see the dam Jones brick that our family donated to the dam Visitor Center for. We had a lot of dam fun. And we kept referring to every dam thing for days on end because it really doesn't get old.

The boys got to ride on the tractor with Pata Jones.

We also got to see this little gem. Chloe is my cousin's girl and she is so adorable! She's not only easy on the eyes ...

she's incredibly entertaining as well.