It has happened a few times recently where Nicole has been in a complete meltdown over me not being able to fulfill her request to “say what I said.” It’s an impossible dilemma to solve because she will give me no clues and she will not answer questions about the subject matter of what she apparently said.
This is a picture of Nicole the other day before school. I have a love/hate relationship with her sense of style. I love it when it works out, but sometimes it’s a delicate balance between looking fun and colorful and looking like she should ride the short bus to school. I talked her into the denim shorts that morning. She’s generally opposed to denim (she has refused to wear jeans for years). After getting dressed we went upstairs where I started making breakfast and she sat down at a Xylophone and started banging on it while singing “I’m still like Nicole, I’m still like Nicole!” I don’t know if she felt her identity was challenged by the denim or if she was just proud of her outfit that morning, but somehow the song seemed to be related to her outfit. Also, the song went on and on and consisted entirely of that one line repeated over and over until her father yelled from the other room that it was too early to be banging on a Xylophone.
We’ve totally dropped the ball on teaching any of our kids to ride bikes. Luckily, we now live across the street from the kids’ Grandparents!
By the end, Grandpa could ride like a pro. Isaac, however, needs more practice.
Like one morning before everyone was awake and I was still living in a living room, I thought Thomas looked really cute. So I took a bunch of pictures:
He has a lot of teeth:
I decided to meet up with our ward mother’s group at the splash pad at Riverwoods this morning. When I got there, I found out that they didn’t open for another 40 min, but the man was so nice that he offered to turn them on early for me and the kids. I had Ila, Thomas and our neighbor, Ian with me and the pictures I took turned out so fun that I had to share lots of them.
They were a little hesitant at first:
I need to get myself back to blogging, so I thought I’d start off with a picture share. My brother-in-law, Dan took pictures of the kids playing in the sprinklers a week or so ago and I think he did a great job. Here are some of the pictures he took:
Isaac:
We’re in Utah now. We own a house a few blocks away on 400 East that we’d like to sell. We’ve had it listed, but it doesn’t show very well with our current tenants. One of our tenants was diagnosed with cancer several months ago and they stopped paying us rent. They did surgery and started treatment, but they soon discovered that the cancer had metastasized and was terminal. They sent him home to die. They are suppose to move out this weekend. Today, he died. I don’t know how this affects everything.
So, I should start off by saying that on day 2 a freak wave came up while me and my siblings were out playing in the ocean and carried off all of our things and tried to take a kid or two with it. Everything was retrieved and moved to higher ground, but my beloved camera was a casualty of the event and so the rest of the reunion pictures were taken exclusively by Barb and Athena while my camera sat in a bag of rice (I should also note that many of the pictures I shared previously were also taken by them).
Krista holding her son Michael
We all stayed at a house close to the Ocean in Lincoln City, Oregon. There was a pirate ship inspired swingset in the backyard for the kids:
I’m running out of blog titles and my brain is not creative right now. My brother (Lee) arrived late on Saturday the 22nd. Krista and I picked him up and then stayed up late laughing and talking.
Nicole warmed up to Lee right away. Here she is “reading” to him:
My sister Krista, her husband Paul III, and their two sons Paul IV (almost 6) and Michael (2) arrived in the wee hours of the morning on the June 22nd.
After a few hours of sleep, we shared Mexican candy (which she brought from Texas) and they made plans for an adventure in the city for Paul III’s Birthday.
My family planned a family reunion for the end of June in the Pacific Northwest, which meant that I got to see all my brothers and sisters, their families, and my parents. I have way too many pictures for one post so I’m going to start from the beginning and break it up over several posts.
The first one to arrive was my mom. She flew into Portland and visited my sister first, then took the train up to Seattle. I picked her up on Saturday evening (June 15th). My Dad and brother, Bryan, arrived late on Monday night (June 17th). They left my house on June 22nd after my sister and her family arrived. Here are some pictures from their visit:
Grandma reading to Charlotte over breakfast:
Isaac’s 9th birthday was on a Monday (June 17th). After a special breakfast, I gave him some new jeans and he opened a card from Grandma Bunny which contained birthday money. He spent the rest of the morning researching Nerf guns that he could buy with his birthday money. He collected all the money from his room and talked his sister, Charlotte, into contributing her money so that he’d have enough for the Nerf gun he wanted.
Then, i sent him off to school. I picked him up for lunch and took him to taco time. He loved their fancy soda machine. He had a beef burrito, nachos, and a raspberry sprite.
I threw a small party for Isaac on the Saturday before his birthday. He wanted a military themed party.
I made some simple invitations for him to pass out to whomever he choose. He gave the first one to Charlotte’s best friend, Ander, at recess. He invited one boy from his class at school and two boys from scouts. 
The night before the party, he helped me make cupcakes. I let him follow the box directions to make white cake batter and yellow cake batter. Then we followed a recipe for a homemade chocolate cake batter.
I feel like I’ve been absent from some parts of life for months. My blog has obviously suffered. If you want to skip the details and just read when our moving date is, skip to the end.
For spring break at the beginning of April we went to Utah here are some of the pictures from our trip:
