Another Birthday

Happy Birthday to my little brother Jason!

Jason has always kept life interesting in our family. He's done unique things like painting our little brother from head to toe with house paint. (To this day my Mom wonders about the long term effects of a turpentine bath.)

Now that he's grown up he's done lots of responsible things like serve a mission, get married, graduate from college and become a dad. But he still manages to keep things interesting. Jason is still fun to be around and as an added bonus, we get to adore his beautiful baby and his sweet wife.

Hope you had a great birthday J!

Just don't come near me with a paint brush.

I Love My Life!

"Have you started school yet?"

This time of year I am asked this question quite often, and I'm never sure how to answer.
Our homeschool life just doesn't fit into that big "First Day of School" mode.

Aaron's math class has continued all summer
Seminary started this week
Our Scholar Projects start next week
Math, Art and History Club start on Sept 8th
Our Young Statesman Club & Young Stateswoman Society start mid September
I traveled throughout the summer teaching and attending trainings.
Our reading, learning & discussions are just part of life and we don't stop or start by the calendar.

Was today a "school day"?
I'm not sure, but we learned a lot and had a great time!

Thanks to free passes from our friends, Marianne, Evan & I went to the San Diego Zoo. I was worried it would be packed for the start of Labor Day weekend. Amazingly, it wasn't crowded and we were able to enjoy some of our favorite spots.

We love this peaceful little garden with the pond and waterfall. Evan loved watching the turtles and the colorful koi and Marianne took this great picture of one of the locals.

The Polar Bears were the more active and playful than I've ever seen them. They were jumping, diving & playing with their food. It is amazing how graceful those huge animals look in the water.

I love seeing all the plants and gardens at the zoo. This plant is a great combination of delicate blossoms and big thorns. Evan wondered if this could be a safety issue for zoo guests. If you look closely you'll even see a spider in the picture.

The Reptile House is another favorite place at the zoo. It's always nice and cool inside! Isn't this Burmese Python beautiful? It is incredible to be so close to such powerful and/or venomous creatures and yet know that they are safely behind glass. (Well, as long as Harry Potter isn't around)

I love the Sky Ride, but I hate waiting in line. Usually we ride it once across the zoo and then walk back, but today we rode it 6 times in a row. The views of the zoo and Balboa Park are gorgeous and the fresh breeze is wonderful.

Here we are on top of the world!

It only takes one day like this to remind me why I LOVE homeschooling!

Catching Up

I've finally updated my blog with some of our summer activities.

To read about John & Aaron's scouting adventures, click HERE.

For 4th of July photos, take a look HERE.

To see pictures of our trip to Wyoming , click HERE.

To read about Marianne & her 12th Birthday, take a look HERE.

To hear about Evan's adventure, go HERE.

Cardz4u

My sweet Marianne has started her own blog featuring her handmade cards.

Check out the cute cards she has for sale HERE

She will be adding some fun Halloween cards soon.

It's Contagious

We have a serious illness at our house . . . and it's catching!

At first I seemed to be immune to this malady, but last night I was up until after midnight due to a fever. The worst part of it was that I went to bed earlier than everyone else in my family. Thank goodness it's summertime because . . .

Everyone in my family has caught Olympic Fever!

Your family may become infected too. Here are the symptoms to watch for:


Intense family discussions about the ages of Chinese gymnasts.

Your 10 year old can recite every word of the Visa card commercial that ends with "Visa, a proud sponsor of the Olympic games and the only card accepted there."

Your new goldfish is named Phelps.

You suddenly don't have a problem with your husband and teenage sons watching women play volleyball in bikinis.

Your daughter has become a huge Michael Phelps fan. (Case in point: As I typed this, I said, "Wait, what's the last name of that swimmer?" With a shocked look on her face Marianne replied, "Mom, you forgot Michael Phelps name?! Everyone knows him!!")

If your family catches this disease, don't worry. It will likely go into remission for 4 years (well maybe only 2. We love ice skating & skiing too.)

I'm back!

Busyness seems to be epidemic today! If you ask someone how they're doing, most of the time they reply, "I'm so busy." I have even heard teens and kids competing in the "I'm busier than you are contest."

So at the risk of sounding like a whiner, I have to tell you how busy I've been!!

Maybe you've noticed that I haven't spent much time online. (If you didn't notice, just pretend that you missed me. It will make me feel better.)

No, I didn't drop off the face of the earth, nor did I give up blogging. I have just had an incredibly busy summer. In fact, I was only at home 8 days in the month of July. For a homebody like me that is a big change!

I have lots to post about our summer, but I'm a little overwhelmed at the thought of getting caught up on all those back posts. So I decided I'll start with today and then work to get caught up a little bit at a time.

It has been great to be home this week. Here are a few of the things we've been up to:

Marianne has been busy with creative endeavors such as:

Taking great pictures of her little brother

and making really cute cards. Here is a sample of some she made for her Grandma, who requested a set of "thank you" cards.

Evan has been busy playing hard.
This picture cracks me up. He had two friends over to play and here is how I found them. All three sitting there playing DS. In their defense , they did spend quite a bit of time outside too. Evan has also been busy with swim and golf lessons this week. John is thrilled that one of his children has finally taken an interest in his favorite sport!

Aaron has been busy studying and spending time in the great outdoors. Here he is with an onion he helped Evan grow.

Aaron is also working on his Eagle Scout project. Here's a close-up of one of the park benches he'll be replacing.

Ryan is busy working and getting ready for BYU Idaho. I helped him order towels and bedding online from WalMart. Then we'll pick them up in September in Rexburg. I laughed when he told me that he wished they had laundry soap in little tablets like they do for the dishwashed. I was very proud of myself when I found these online. You can read all about them here.

Ryan was happy about the laundry supplies, but for some reason he is a little more excited about the new laptop we're going to order next week. He doesn't really want one of course, but he HAS to get one because BYU-I has a Laptop Initiative and is requiring all students to have a laptop this fall.

I'm wishing our family had a laptop requirement, because I could really use one. Maybe I wouldn't be so busy if a had a laptop. Whatdya think?! Unfortunately, the laundry dropps fit in better with our budget now that we have a college student.