Shea Turns 1!

We were on the road on Shea's official birthday, June 25th. With vacation, followed by birthday after birthday, it was getting hard to find the time to fit Shea's in. (I guess that's the bummer about being the youngest!) So I decided today was the day. I threw together this lollipop cake in no time flat. I was afraid the kids had used all the candles on Matt's cake, but luckily I found one in the back of the cupboard...and that was all I needed!

After dinner, we sang a lame rendition of Happy Birthday and let her dig in! When Brian was one, we had to give him a spoon (because he was always afraid of getting dirty) and feed him. So Shea must be my most brilliant child because she knew just what to do...she dug right in! Before we knew it, cake was EVERYWHERE!

Shea was up a lot of the night with teething pain, so it wasn't very long until she was all done...and of course the thumb went straight to the mouth...cake and all! Shea is now officially one. And that, my friends, is the end of our family's marathon season of birthdays...until March anyway!!!

Go Giants!

We all know treats are the best part of baseball!


Well, our treat was that Michael was our only baseball player this year! That meant the kids could ride their bikes to the games a little early to play on the playground and we didn't spend every night of the week rushing around. Can't think of a better treat than that!

Catcher

Mighty Stance

Ready to run!

Princess Rachel at the Princess Festival

Rachel has always LOOOOOVED princesses...always been a girly-girl, unlike her momma! She loves to sing and dance and wear dresses. So, when the Princess Festival came to Lindon, I decided it would be great fun for just the two of us...and it was indeed! (And it waaaay beat standing in line for two hours at Disneyland!) She started the day off with a chance encounter with Belle!

All the princesses then had to begin a journey to help save the day!

After the princesses saved the day, they got to go on a treasure hunt and get the signatures of the other princesses.

"Cindebrella" has always been Rachel's FAVORITE!!

Of course, all that princessing wore Rachel right out...what a fun day!

Bear Lake '08

After a hot humid couple of weeks in Indiana, it was time to come home and get ready for our annual pilgrimage to camp on the shores of Bear Lake. Michael and Dad had a great time digging in the sand. They were sure they could get to China from there.

Mom and Rach enjoy a tastey Dutch Oven pot luck meal.


Mom and Rach enjoying the water.

Can't forget those famous Bear Lake Raspberry shakes from LeBeau's

We even caught the Raspberry Days Rodeo. Brian compete in the calf chase. He almost won the $10 prize, but was beat out by someone with a little longer arms.

The Workman Company Goes to Indiana!

For several weeks after I heard about my family's flood problems, I just worried. One morning Matt came to me and said we needed to take The Workman Company out and give them a good two weeks of work to help get them back on their feet. When we called Dad to tell him what we had decided to do, I could sense some serious relief in his voice. So, we bought our guys plane tickets while we hooked the tool trailer to the back of the pick up and made the 1500 mile journey with the kids back to Indiana to help. I didn't know how we would be able to walk away from work for that long during such a busy summer, but we knew it would be a great experience that none of us would ever forget and our kids were able to build relationships with their Indiana relatives that never would have been possible. It was also fun to get to know our employees a little better as we gave them a taste of farm living.

On our first full day in Indiana, Matt celebrated his 36th birthday and the kids enjoyed a swim in Fred's pool.

This is Fred meeting his new friend the paint sprayer. We brought it out to help the work go quickly, but he did not want to get the paint every where. Matt started spraying doors and sprayed all the doors in the subdivision in a day, and that made Fred a believer. In fact, our beloved paint sprayer is still a member of Fred's family!

Many wonderful friends from the community had come and helped out with the clean up. They had spent tireless hours gutting the homes to the studs, removing carpet, cabinets, doors, trim, furnaces and other debris which had been left in the wake of the flood. The drywallers got the sheetrock replaced before we got there and the HVAC guys were working tirelessly getting the HVAC systems back on line so we could work in some air conditioning. We were really amazed when we drove into town and you could hardly tell there had been such a devastating flood, other than dumpsters and piles of debris here and there. I know that inside the homes was a very different story, as we found in the subdivision. Our guys quickly got busy installing trim and doors in 22 homes. Fred and I were leading a couple of paint crews trying to paint the walls ahead of the trim carpenters. When they were done with the trim, they installed all the cabinets that they could--they were lucky to be able to get their hands on that many cabinets at such short notice.

We stayed out on the farm again for the two weeks. Since we had the trailer, we were able to bring the boys' bikes. They absolutely loved riding around the farm!

The kids had fun hanging out at the subdivision with us all day. We had a special house designated as the "food house" where we kept drinks and treats. The kids would ride around for a while then go get a treat. Then they'd go play in the water for a while and then go get a treat. Then they would watch some movies for a while while they had a treat! The kids also had great fun hanging out with their cousins. Despite the long hours of hard work, it was a great experience that we will not soon forget. By the end of our time, they got four families back into their homes and because of the big boost of help, they were able to have all of the 33 homes inhabitable by September, just three months after the devastating flood waters hit.

Here is the 350+ foot hole in the levee. It was just amazing to see the devastation. Dad lost about 80% of his crops, so he spent the entire two weeks we were there in the tractor trying to get some beans replanted. The boys loved being able to ride around in the tractor with Grandpa!

Michael turns 5! Hurray!

Well, we decided to go take our crew to Indiana for a couple of weeks this month to help with the flood rebuilding, but before we left we had to fit in Michael's birthday! He had his friends over and we set up the Bonzai. He requested a cowboy cake with his cowboy toys he picked out at Bryce Canyon. Of course the cake was great, but the presents were even better!

Summer Fun!!

In June we added a new member to the family--a Rhino. So, we had to take it for a beautiful ride in Fillmore. As you can see, it was quite a dusty trail, but we all had fun. The rest of June was spent at the ball park watching the boys' baseball games. This was Michael's first year and he thought it was pretty fun. It was Brian's fourth year, so he is an old pro. He was the fastest runner on his team, which made him quite proud!

Michael's favorite part of baseball was the treats and the trophy he got at the last game!

Don't be fooled! Nothing gets past this outfielder!