Father's Day

 I was able to celebrate Father's Day with my Dad this year!  We went down to Sara's house in Spanish Fork, ate dinner, shot off rockets, and had a marshmallow gun fight!  My favorite part was watching my Dad open up envelopes that us girls had written some of our favorite memories of him.  I think it was a great success because I could tell by his voice that he almost cried!  Love you, Dad!

ROCKETS

Charlotte patiently chilled in her car seat . . .

. . . but as soon as she saw the toy on her Mama's head she insisted on being picked up.  Who could resist such baby cuteness!?

MARSHMALLOW GUN FIGHT

Peter loved building a new design more than actually shooting the marshmallows.

MARDI GRAS MASKS

All of the girls, plus Peter and Rigby, got some masks from NOLA.

FATHER'S DAY GIFTS

My Dad really likes A&W root beer, so the grandkids gave him some for Father's Day.  The tags said "You're an A&Wsome Grandad!" and then they each drew on the back of their individual tags.

Here is Dad opening up one of the "favorite memories" that Sara, Marissa and I gave him.

Idaho

We made a quick trip 3-day trip up to Idaho, so we could visit with my Grandma and Grandpa Farrow.  I LOVE seeing my kids get to meet their Great-Grandparents.  I know old age is not fun, but thanks for staying around so I can have these precious memories of you getting to know my children!  I love you Grandma and Grandpa!

My Grandma was a 1st grade teacher so she and Peter had a lot of fun reading and doing math problems together.  He considers the math flashcards she gave him one of his special possessions.

Adeline was a complete mess most of the trip, but she did eventually warm up to Grandma-Great toward the end.

The kids "helped" Grandpa-Great weed the new raspberry patch (they might have stepped on a few plants, oops).

The boys curled up in some warm blankets to watch a movie on this ancient television.  I love watching my kids enjoy some of the same things that I did as a child.

All of my Grandma's toilets have these covers on them and soft spongy seats.  Rigby found this fascinating and said to me: "This seat is bouncy! Where is the flusher?"

Poor Reuben was so tired that he just fell asleep while we were loading the car to leave.  This is notable because he is one of those babies that will NOT sleep anywhere but his crib.

Grandpa Farrow, Rigby, Grandma Farrow, Reuben, Adeline, Peter

Rigby, Grandpa Farrow, Rachel, Reuben, Grandma Farrow, Peter

Fun in Utah

I made it to Utah this year with all four kids!  I did not think we would be able to go but I found a great deal on tickets and my wonderful mom was willing to help me drag a 6-year old, a 4-year old, a 2-year old and a 4-month old through two flights and a layover-TWICE!  In addition to cleaning up A LOT of pee and pooh from Adeline and Rigby, here are some fun things we did for our two weeks out West.

FUN WITH COUSINS

MARISSA'S BIRTHDAY

SALT LAKE CITY - TEMPLE SQUARE 

The church has a little children's museum just across the street from temple square.  They have some Book of Mormon, missionary and cultural arts activities for small children. 

The boys fought over this activity the most until the second station opened up.

AQUARIUM

MUSEUM OF NATURAL CURIOSITY
This museum had just barely opened at Thanksgiving Point.  It was so much fun and so creative, but wow, I forgot how many children there are in Utah; it really chaotic.  The kids did not seem to mind the chaos though and had a lot of fun.

The "Lego room" was one of my boys' favorite.

Sometimes I feel like we need a storage container this large at our house.

LAGOON

Rigby had to ride on the frog! 

(frogs, turtles & pirates are his thing)

This girl needed to sleep so badly, but she refused to give in because she did not want to miss any of the fun!

Reuben's Blessing Tux

Reuben wore the same little tux that Peter and Rigby did on their blessing day.  The only problem was that he was bigger and older than both Peter and Rigby, so we basically had to stuff the poor kid into the outfit and the shoes.  We even had to leave the top button in the back undone.  He was very upset during this photo shoot because I think he was uncomfortable.  These pictures are terrible too because I tried using Scott's new camera.  From now on I am sticking with our old camera which is more for photo taking dummies-that's me!   

Grandma Freeman

We had Family Home Evening one night when Scott's parents were visiting with us for Reuben's blessing.  I think we talked about Easter and then the kids made some pictures/drawings for Grandma Freeman.  She has recently been diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer, so we thought getting something in the mail might lift her spirits.  I promised Peter I would take a picture of it because he was upset that he had to send it away.  Also, I have been wanting to add some pictures and stories of grandparents to our blog so we can see some fun family history stories in our printed blog book.

Kristine told me such a great story about Claudia that I would like my kids to remember.  Leave a comment if I get anything wrong!

Grandma Freeman grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah.  When she was a little girl (how old?), she caught ringworm along with many other children.  The only way to treat ringworm in those days was to shave ALL of the hair off your head.  Her mother took her to the doctor who told her she must shave her hair off immediately so they could get rid of the ringworm.  She begged her mother and the doctor to wait and get her head shaved the next day.  That night at home, she prayed very long and hard to Heavenly Father.  She explained to Him that she was very shy and had very tender feelings.  She told Him that she if she were to have her head shaved, she could not face the teasing from the other children; then, she asked her Heavenly Father if He could take the ringworm away.  The next day her mother took her back to the doctor and surprised them all when the doctor said, "You don't have ringworm anymore!  If you had not come in yesterday and I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed that you ever had ringworm yesterday."  

Here are some fun pictures of Claudia with her beautiful hair!