July 22, 2007

Well the excitement two weeks ago is: Juliette lost her first tooth and Carol got a black eye. I was surprised when Juliette's tooth fell out. She hasn't even started Kindergarten! She is already growing up too fast! Carol got a black eye from swim lessons. I was able to get us all in the pool at the same time this year. I'm doing water exercise, Lucy and Juliette are doing regular swim lessons, Major is doing water polo and Carol was doing synchronized swimming. Today her teacher accidentally kicked her in the face. She had her goggles on. It was a big scene as everyone had to exit the pool while they took care of the emergency. She was bleeding a lot from her nose and it looked really bad! She was very brave and didn't cry too much.

This week Carol had two sewing classes from the sweet little ladies at the Bernina store. They were private lessons since no one else showed up. She made a cute game bag and a tiered skirt. The other day she made a bag for her MP3 player all by herself (almost). Friday night we had a big ward water party in our front yard. It was fun! Saturday I took the girls to see “The Little Mermaid” at the Hale Theatre. It was really cute. That night the kids sang at the stake pioneer celebration. They sang “In Our Lovely Deseret”. Each child sang a verse. Juliette went last and was so cute! She sang really loud. This was her first time to perform, so we weren’t sure what to expect. She also had a small acting part. She had to run out on stage and pretend like she was receiving a piece of bread. She did great on that too.

Aspen Grove

Last week we went to Aspen Grove, near Sundance, in Utah. It was fun, but we didn’t get much sleep so we are all exhausted. The Brown family and a few friends took up two family lodges for a total of 63 people. All of Clint’s brothers and sisters came and all but four grandchildren. We were the biggest family reunion there. They keep you really busy at Aspen Grove. I didn’t have much time to read. My favorite part was learning the pottery wheel. Clint enjoyed the lectures. We knew both the guest speakers. Robert Freeman spoke on his book “Saints in War”. It was really interesting and spiritual. I especially enjoyed him. The other speaker was Chad Kerby. He is a seminary teacher and very entertaining. We had fun visiting with both of them. Carol’s favorite part was making a movie with her group. They showed it on the last day. It was a werewolf movie – lots of running around and screaming. She also enjoyed the miniature golf, soda pop at meals, her friends from her group, and arts and crafts. Major loved his group and made lots of friends also. He loved playing the games at the family activities, board games with his sisters and friends, and racket ball with dad. Carol and Major both saw kids from school. Lucy loved the store. She was constantly buying candy. All the kids brought their own money and bought lots of junk. She also loved sleeping on the top of the bunk bed in our room. Juliette loved the ice cream that dad treated us to several times. They gave huge scoops! She also loved swimming. The other kids thought the pool was too cold, but Juliette loved the baby pool and it was nice and warm. After check out we flew to Seattle to meet my brother's girlfriend. We ate Indian food and visited a park and the troll under the bridge. We flew home the next day. We had a great time!

Musical Theatre

The cousins had a great time doing Musical Theatre! Afterwards we had a wild party at our house. I went to bed after midnight and before the kids. They had such a great time playing games and eating junk! Party on!

The Kittens

Carol has worn me down again and so we took two of Diane's many kittens. The kids absolutely love them! They will play with them for hours even in the heat. They are named "Socks" and "Midnight". They are scaredy-cats but are getting better. I'm annoyed that they are killing my plants.