Birthday Time!

We celebrated two birthdays in June. Claire turned 2 on the 19th and one week later, Nicole turned 12! We had a lot of fun with both of them. Claire has learned how to hold up two fingers and she LOVED blowing out the candles on her cake. On Nicole's birthday she had a big party with 20 friends. They played games and ate snacks until it started getting dark and then they walked to the town square and played a big game of capture the flag. They had a lot of fun! On Sunday Nicole went to Young Women's for the first time and loved it. Exciting times!

Here is Claire looking at her new book.
And here she is, so proud of herself for blowing out all the candles!

Her favorite summer pasttime--sitting in HER spot on the porch and chain-sucking otter pops!

Nicole blowing out her candles.
Playing a game of fruit basket.

Memorial Day

Last Thursday was the last day of school. The kids had a great year and are very excited for all of the summer fun to come. Yesterday we celebrated Matt's birthday. We had lunch with family and then took grandpa's canoe to the reservoir in the evening. No fish, but the kids loved being out on the water.

On Friday, I loaded up the kids and went with Grandma and Grandpa to put flowers on graves. We visited cemeteries from Ogden to Mink Creek, so it was a long drive. But the kids did great (thanks to a stop for lunch that included a play area), and I really enjoyed the day. I love that my Mom and Dad have always made it a priority to visit graves on Memorial Weekend. Here they are with the kids at my Grandma Lindhardt's grave.

Here is my Grandpa Lindhardt's grave. Spencer wasn't about to let the rain stop him from helping with the flowers!
We hoped the rain would clear out by the time we got to Mink Creek, but no such luck. Here is my Grandpa and Grandma Baird's grave. And as a side note: Mink Creek is BEAUTIFUL right now! Everything is so green. It was fun to see.

I love this next picture because of the story behind it. However, I will warn you it's a long, boring story. I'm putting it on mostly for my own sake, but if you'd like to read it, you're more than welcome! As many of you know, Matt and I were fortunate enough to find out, during our engagement, that we are related! Thanks to that good pioneer blood and plenty of polygamous ancestors we have the same great-great-grandfather. (Actually he is Matt's G.G.G. Grandfather--he's a generation younger than me!) Anyway, this grandfather, James Morgan Keller, had 5 wives. One of them is my GG Grandmother and another one is Matt's GGG Grandmother. Do you follow so far? So, a couple of years ago, Mom and I were putting flowers on graves here and we noticed that James Morgan Keller is buried next to only two of his wives. Guess which two?? It was a touching moment for me to think of these two grandmas up in heaven looking down on my kids---their shared grandkids--at their graves. Sort of a full circle kind of moment. So this year I remembered my camera. On the left is my grandma--Anna Christina, in the middle is our grandpa--James Morgan Keller, and on the right is Matt's grandma--Karen Valentine.

If you made it this far, I'm sorry for the gigantic narrative, and I am well aware that I have invited any and all redneck comments and kissin' cousin jokes so bring 'em on!

Wellsville Mile

"A little rain can't hurt you!" Isn't that what we tell our kids? Well, this morning Corinne found out how true that is! The annual Wellsville Mile, which, if you've read my other post on this subject you already know that I am more than a little bit fond of this tradition, was held today. It was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but it was a little bit rainy that morning so they postponed it until today. The poor kids had to run in a downpour. And if you think that was bad, you should have seen all the poor parents who had to watch in a downpour! We all survived though, and Corinne was very happy with her performance. She ran it in 9:26 which is about 45 seconds better than her best practice time. She also came in 12th in her heat of over 100 girls! She'll get to run it again next year as a 5th grader and she's already looking forward to it. Good job cute Rinnie!!

All smiles at the starting line.

Running strong and being paced by a HS track team member.

Warming up after the race. She was even too wet and cold to want her drink or ice cream they handed out!

Here is a video of Corinne crossing the finish line.

Happy 10th Corinne!

Yesterday, our sweet Corinne celebrated her 10th birthday! She's such a joy in our home and we love her very much!! And we still enjoy the same sweet smiles that she gave as a baby:
And as a little girl:

We had a fun day with lunch together at school, donuts for her class, and dinner with 3 grandmas at Chili's. (Sounds like a good name for a band!)

For you Webkinz fans out there, the cake is a "W". Recognize it now?

And here are the GORGEOUS flowers from Matt.

Mighty Hunter

Well, it took her almost 12 years since her birth, but Nicole finally shot and tagged her own turkey. She drew out for this turkey hunt, and last Saturday she and Matt found this big guy in the hills above our house. To say they were both excited would be putting it rather mildly!
Here is a reenactment of the kill shot...

Here she is trying to hoist all 20 pounds by herself.

Death Row

The kids didn't have school on Tuesday so we all went shopping. We ended up at the pet store and left with two extra family members. I figured at 13 cents a piece, goldfish were a great end to a whole bunch of boring errands for the kids. Before we purchased them though, I explained that sometimes goldfish don't live very long and I would only buy them if they promised not to cry if their fish died. They agreed and home we came. My talk must have made an impression, because one of the first things Corinne did was make this "fish living chart", so that they can track how long each fish lives. (Click on it for detail.)

As you can see, poor Shiny didn't even last through day 3. But here is Splat, swimming happily in his fresh water. Everybody send up a prayer for little Splat. Maybe he'll make it through the weekend!

Baby Animal Days

Last Friday we went to Baby Animal Days. It was Grandma Pat's b-day and she came with us. The kids had a lot of fun seeing all of the animals, riding the train, and playing games. Here are some pics from the day!

All of us together with our gorgeous mountains (and a rusted out car) in the background.
Spencer petting one of the baby cows.
Spencer got a special treat when the conducter invited him to climb up and blow the whistle for him.
Matt, Paige, and Corinne playing "Indian bowling". Paige rocked this event!!

My favorite baby animals!!