A New Look For A New School Year

Jonas' eyeglass prescription only needed a little tweaking this year, but he had outgrown his kid frames, so here's this year's version.

Lucky for him, he still only needs to wear them occasionally at school if he sits too far back.  (I hope he enjoys that while it lasts.)

We'll have to update this photo in another month or two when we get to add braces to the look.

Forty?!

It's hard to believe, but it's true.  Shawn turned 40 on Sunday!  We didn't have a big celebration or anything since we were out of town for the whole week before, but I think his day was still OK.  We did go out to dinner and a movie on Saturday night, and then Sunday morning, the little girls brought him breakfast in bed.

 Peter wanted to join in the celebrating, too.

 The birthday hats and banner were displayed in his honor.

 And Amelia performed a special Happy Birthday Hula dance for him.

 Of course, since it was Sunday, he headed off to meetings in the morning, but not before a picture in the birthday hat.

 During Young Men's, he had all (well, several) of the priests over for an afternoon pancake breakfast.  Two of them leave this week on their missions so it was a goodbye "breakfast", but it was a good way to celebrate his birthday, too. 

 This is a great group of Young Men.  Shawn has been lucky to work with them.  (Plus they keep him young.)

 After church, we headed to the neighbor's house for dessert.  (A missionary open house.)  That had to stand in as a substitute for cake, since we didn't have any at our house.)

After that, we came back home to open presents and enjoy the company of some birthday visitors.

 I believe all of these pictures are courtesy of Peter who was snapping photos left and right while we were visiting and not paying attention.  (Wow, there were a lot of them.)

 Doug and Cathy were there,

 as well as Ralph, 

 and Judy.

 Plus, the rest of us.

 (There's Cathy.)

 Not much happens at our house without Woody.

 Peter was very good about getting (multiple) individual shots of each of our visitors

 There were several gifts geared towards his goal of climbing 40 peaks this year.

The 3D topographical map was a hit with everyone.

 Some good winter hiking clothing.

After presents, this group of visitors left and the Marshes came over with delicious cupcakes to share.  (Thanks Michelle, for making sure that he had some cake on his birthday!) We sang Happy Birthday (horribly) to complete the celebrating.  I hope that by the end of the day he felt loved, (and not too old.)

 He may be 40, but I'm pretty sure he is the youngest 40 year old I know!

Happy 40th Birthday Shawn!

Look Who Joined the Family

Peter is thrilled to finally have Buzz living with us.  I think I mentioned how much I was dreading potty training this kid since he burst into tears anytime we discussed putting underwear on.  And I just didn't want to deal with it myself.  But one day, Shawn went to the store and bought Buzz and he started texting video messages to Peter from all over the city.  Peter would get so excited waiting to hear from Buzz and he knew that Buzz couldn't come home until he was potty trained.  Of course, that meant that I had to be on board for the whole potty training thing, but that bit of encouragement seemed to do the trick.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it would be.  We are diaper free during the days and really close to being diaper free at night.

Peter was so surprised when Buzz followed us to Bear Lake and found us out on the boat.  He and Buzz and Woody have been best buddies ever since.

Bear Lake Part 2

In addition to time spent on the ski boat,

Shawn and I also did a little sailing on the Laser.  (Thanks to my dad for towing it up for us, since we can only manage one boat at a time!)

There was some fantastic sailing weather - especially the day Shawn went out by himself.  (I think he compared it to a 36 inch fresh powder ski day in the winter, so you know it was good.)

Happy campers!

For the first time in at least 20 years, we decided to go to the Pickleville Playhouse to see the melodrama.  It was "The Hanging of El Bandito."   We were all highly entertained and have been quoting lines from it ever since.  It may have to become a regular Bear Lake activity.  

Some of the kids posing with Juanito Bandito after the show.

The show is coming to Salt Lake this winter and the kids are already asking to go see it again.

Some of our condo neighbors were packing up to leave and asked us if we wanted to keep this big ball.  Of course, we said, yes.

 The biggest kid inside the ball.

 Another of those awesome hairstyles Shawn was sporting all week.

 It was a sad day when we had to start putting things away.  The sailboat was first.

We weren't in the water all the time - just most of it.  Especially if you count the time spent in the pools and hot tubs. But there was also some tennis and some playing on the grass, miniature golf, riding bikes and scooters, eating ice cream cones and snow cones, climbing the coconut tree and flying kites.

Peter and Samantha trying to help Grandpa Ralph get the Trilby in the air.

Girl power!

On Friday, the condo turned 40 years old.  (Yep, I've been going there since I was in the womb.)  My Dad made a cake to celebrate.

On the last day we realized we hadn't taken a group photo yet.  My parents and Jake were already gone, so we had to settle for our family and the Marshes.

The cousins always have a good time together.

Goofy kids

The only way to get them to pose somewhat happily for a picture is to promise them a silly photo afterwards.

The Marshes:

And of course, the Stringhams:

And the silly photos:

No one was ready to go home. (A sure sign of a good vacation.) We were all so sad to leave.  Peter had spent the morning screaming and trying to block me from opening the drawers to pack my clothes.  At least we know we can go back again.

We love Bear Lake!