Sam Turns 10!

We had a fun evening celebrating Sam's birthday with good friends and relatives. Patty and Nicole, Sylvia and Jules, Sandy, Lupe, our little mexican Tucson Nana, and Sandy's dad all came over for a BBQ. Sam cooked up some great little fruit tarts for his birthday dessert. They were yummy! After eating, we all played Wii.... great fun. Lots of laughter!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the Duke and Liberace also came to celebrate with us!

Vacation

We had a great vacation last week! The boys flew to Wyoming a week before our scheduled vacation time to spend time with grandma, grandpa and Kaleb. Sam was nervous because he couldn't remember flying before. But they did well. He took pictures with his disposable camera, so when they are developed I'll share!
Doug and I drove up to RS on a Sat. Of course we split the trip and did it in two days stopping in Mesquite, NV. Once we hit Utah, I was in awe of the greenery. Always makes me want to move out of this desert.
We had a great visit. Got to see lots of family. I miss being close to family dropping in and visiting and just hanging out chatting. Mom was a strong gal - hanging with her shingles and all of us at her house. Glad she has learned to relax and let others take over.

Thank goodness for Kim - she took over the cooking duties and boy is she a great cook! She fixed us her favorite BBQ shrimp, which isn't BBQ'd and it doesn't have BBQ sauce in it. I also got a beautiful drawing that Kim had done for her drawing naked people class. The boys think it is disturbing, but I am going to frame it and hang it in my bedroom - it's art after all!

We celebrated Ray's birthday over at my mom's with a cake from Cold Stone Creamery - you know RS is growing if they have stores like that now! He enjoyed it, I think. He got his first Harley Davidson shirt, which I am sure he will look great in while riding his 4-wheeler all over South Pass City.


Doug, Ray, and Mup took Sam out golfing. It was Sam's first official try out on the course. He has only gone to hit balls on the driving range. He really like golfing, but says he really isn't any good. I asked him if he hit a hole in one. That was a stupid question. I was informed that the holes are like 200 to 500 yards away and he can only hit like 50 yards at a time. I think that meant that he did double or triple work compared to his grandpa's and dad. Next time he would like to play 18 holes but rent a cart for the whole thing. He loves to try new things.

Aubrey did some entertaining, singing a few of her competition songs. She is sure a great singer. Very confident and presents herself well. She is really good. It's no wonder she won the title Miss Pre-Teen Wyoming.
The kids all had a great time playing together. Mom bought a little pool for the yard. Aubrey, Addison, Ashton, Nathan, Sam, Solveig and Bailey had a great time splashing and chasing each other around the pool. We were lucky and got to bring it home with us to Tucson.Solveig was a big help when we took the pool down - she helped more than any other kiddo and used her strong muscles to lift the pool to drain it. She is too cute!

We also got to meet Kim's new puppies - again, TOO CUTE! Miley and Zoey are little luv bugs. I think Sam was contemplating hiding one in his bag to bring back to Tucson (although I am sure our dogs would eat them in one gulp!).

Kim brought her camera and we took the kids up to the old hospital and took their pictures together. It is amazing that they are all so big. I just kept looking at them all sitting there wondering where the time went and how the heck did we get old enough to have such a motley crew? Wow! I have to admit, they are sure all good looking kids. We did good in the reproduction vein.