Art City Days 2010

It was another fabulous year at Art City Days. The weather again tried to scare us away but we are tuffer than the rain and wind so we enjoyed everything they didn't cancel.

All 5 of us completed the 5k this year. Even Hillary and I. It was super fun.

The Childrens parade.

This was Friday night at the block party thing. It was drizzling the whole time.

I couldn't believe how fast the clouds moved in. This picture was taken about 3 minutes after the last one. Note the clouds. This was the one night they cancelled all the concerts:(
It rained all night long - but cleared up for the Fireman's Breakfast.

And it was perfect weather for the parade. Not raining - but not hot. And I think the rain scared a lot of people off - so Hillary didn't have any competition for the goodies that were thrown out.

It then proceeded to pour all day long until about a half hour before we were supposed to leave for the concert/fireworks. We had already given up going it was raining so hard. But the clouds parted and the sun actually made a very brief appearance so we headed out.

Another brief appearance by the sun.

Enjoying Orleans in concert.

Yes my son has moved into the stage of not wanted his picture taken.

You can't really tell - but that's Orleans.

A pretty night view of the band. The rain held off long enough for the fireworks.

All in all a great Art City Days. I love that we do it all as a family every year. I'm sad that I only have a few more years before Breanna will be old enough I won't be able to force her to go with us anymore. Hopefully she'll still want to go anyway.

Happy Birthday Connor - a couple days late I know...

So my little boy turned 11 on Sunday - yes on Father's Day. He was actually born on Father's Day - so every once in a while he has to share his day with all the Dads in the world. Anyway - I think he had a great day. We actually went to Wendover for the night. We swam in the pool and stayed in a hotel and that was tons of fun.

This is Connor and Colton - I felt the need to make sure Colton was in this post as Connor spends 80% of his life at Colton's house. I think he'd move in there if I'd let him.

Connor is a great scout. He just finished with Cub Scouts though. He earned all the important awards including his Religious Knot and his Arrow of Light.
Connor is one of the craziest and goofiest kids I know. He is always making me laugh.

When he feels like it - he is a great big Brother. Here he is helping Hillary learn to ride her bike without training wheels.

Connor has the ability to make friends easily. He made several friends while we were in Arizona last month.

Connor is crafty and artistic. Here is a hat he made for himself. He loves to draw and create. A few years he was obsessed with creating things with paper and tape. He also does this thing where he makes little men out of pencil top erasers.

Connor is also an outdoors kind of kid. He loves to fish and hike and camp.

So Happy 11th birthday buddy. We love you tons.

Friday - The hummingbird

We have humming bird feeder just in front of our picture window in the living room. We've always had great success in attracting the hummingbirds. Last summer they started fighting. I don't know why - they probably learned it from my kids. Anyway - I bought a second feeder in hopes that they would stop. Now they just fight over that one too. Last year we had to cut down our tree because it had been struck by lightning and was 90% dead. But the boys didn't get the trunk out and it's started growing back this year and there's one long stick that sticks out the top and one of the hummingbirds is constantly sitting on it. It's pretty cute actually. But anyway - to make a long story short - here it is sitting on the twig. Not fighting.

Edited: Hey Dad - I was just checking over my post to make sure it posted - and I realized this would be the perfect project for you when your here - get the trunk out of my front yard. Thanks in advance.

Thursday - Hillary's photos

One day last week Hillary got up early and decided to take pictures. So she got out my camera and shot away. Luckily no damage was done as Connor appeared to be up also and perhaps turned it on for her. Who knows. But heres a small sampling of the result. I now have more pictures of balls, dolls and dogs than I could ever want - like 30 or so of each!

I only got one picture of the zhu-zhu butt.

She even ventured outside to photograph the roses. Which she has been hand watering one by one each day for me. I can't convince her about roots.


Doll in the hall - I got LOTS of this pose. She did get some close-ups too.

Meet spot the dog and bear in a scarf - plus her go-go's.

Another shot sans go-go's.

One of about a hundred of Penny. Most she's still sleeping but a few she's looking at the camera.

Balls.

One of what Hillary calls her "family pictures". Note the appearance of Baby Amelia on the right.

So perhaps I have a budding photographer.

Tomorrow - the hummingbird.

Wednesday- the day I embarrass

When we stopped at the giant hill outside of Moab - Breanna refused to get out of the van. So I told her I would just take her picture in the van instead and here's what I got.

I must preface this by stating that Bre requested I take this picture. I had a less blurry one - and one of Connor - but they got lost last week when I had to do a master re-set of my phone:(

Tomorrow: Hillary's photo session.

Tuesday's randomness

The trash burning bins in Arizona. They burn all their trash. I think they're mostly going constantly and they just take the trash over whenever they have some. Not sure why I took this picture - but maybe for the background.

For those of you who don't not ever see us - Hillary got her hair cut for the summer. Short. As short as Pat and I could stand anyway. She loves it and I was pleasantly surprised at how cute it is. This is the picture we took to send to Grandma Tinka to show her. We were waiting in line at the Deli at Walmart. In case you cared.

Random Photo Week

I've recently cleaned all the old photo's off my phone so it will quit yelling at me to do it. It's like a nagging mother sometimes:) Not that I have one of those. Don't get upset Mom - you don't nag. But since it's summer I feel like one all the time with my kids. Anyway - I digress. So I'm devoting the entire week to strange and obscure photos from my phone - or Pat's phone - or the camera for that matter. Every once in a while Hillary will get a wild hair and get the camera out without permission. Then I find strange photos when I download.

This was the saddest dog we ever saw. We were in Orem one Saturday. Hillary still awe's at the poor doggie whenever she sees this picture.

Hillary decorating Pat while he sleeps. She does this a lot.

Breanna's un-matching socks. Her fabulous Grandma Tinka found these socks for here. There were like 10 socks in the package and no two alike. She loves them. She asked for more for her birthday - and wears them exclusively now.

Check back tomorrow for more weirdness.

The rest of us

While none of the rest of us desire to own a horse - most of us got on one in Arizona.

I told Pat to look Native. This is what I got.

Connor was great and was able to ride by himself.

And not to be out done by my kids - but mostly because no one thought I could and I wanted to prove them wrong....

Breanna made a hasty retreat as soon as she figured out I might ask her to get on the horse for a picture.

Hillary's new love of horses

After the pony rides at the wool festival a couple weeks ago - Hillary started asking to ride a horse everytime she saw one. There were a couple opportunities on our trip and she was too too excited.

This was at the first stop we made in Arizona. I should have known we were in big trouble then.

This is Hillary on a horse with Rick at sunflower rock.
This is when she finally talked Victor into saddling up Checkers.

They rode off and were gone quite a while.

Finally back.

Hillary convinceing Victor she wasn't ready to be done.

He let her ride Checkers back to the corrall after he took the saddle off.

She is now convinced that we are going to buy her a horse for her 5th birthday. Anyone know where I can buy a horse for $25 that doesn't eat or get sick? You'd make a little girl really happy.