Lions, Tigers, and Bears... thanks to Cami

We had a dragon...

Some kind of a cat...

A tiger...

A really cute zebra...

A scary lion...

A ferocious bear...

And a beautiful pink panther.

Cami's party was very fun with lots of creative details and games. My children loved it, thank you Cami for turning one!

Memorial Day

After a long night at work, placing flags and crosses at the cemetery was the last thing I wanted to do, it was hot and I was tired, but we decided to go anyway.

My scouts led us off with handfuls of little wooden crosses painted white by the sweet old ladies who were part of the local veterans group.

We walked row by row searching for the identifying markers of a V or a STAR, and there we would carefully place a flag and a cross.

While we wandered the cemetery I taught my children about grave etiquette, and flag etiquette, and we talked about the brave men and women who died fighting and still die today to keep this land free.

We talked about sacrifice and what we would give up for other people. We talked about daddies and brothers, sisters and mothers, sons and daughters. We talked about loss and pain and death.

It was a beautiful experience. And even though we didn't know a soul in that cemetery we felt a special tie to each grave we honored with a cross and a flag.

And by the time that the cemetary was strewn with flags I think my children felt a little more humble, a little more grateful, and a little more respectful of this nation and the men and women who gave their lives for it.

And in the end isn't that what it is all about. These little teaching moments that hopefully will imprint themselves on their hearts and minds. And the possibility is worth any amount of sleep deprivation.

Something is not right.

My little sweetie lost his first tooth right before his 6th birthday. Brendan says "I can't wait till my birthday so I can loose a tooth too". The anticipation and excitement of our little rights of passage. Our baby teeth fall out signifying the end of babyness and the impending "growing up". Why is it that we can't cherish what we have when we have it? Why do we wait till later to see?

The video every mother should have.

"What was that?"

"Schreech, boom, rumble rumble" "What was that?" my husband asked me. Still fairly bleary eyed I replied "What? I didn't hear anything." A few minutes later I did hear the blaring of sirens. Jeremy ran out to peek over our back fence that borders the road. There was a hole in the block fence directly across the street, and worse than that there was a car in the hole. It was quite an exciting event until I realized that the little teenager who had lost control of her car only needed to swerve right instead of left and that would have been our back yard instead of the one across the street.

Do you remember Sunday drives?

I remember Sunday drives up the canyon, my favorite were summer and fall. I have an especially fond memory of Sardine Canyon listening to conference on Dad's transistor radio.

I can still hear the wind rustling through the quaking aspen, the quiet roar of the river that cut it's windy way down the canyon and I can still feel the quick little glimmers of sunshine that broke through the dancing leaves to kiss my skin. It is in memory of those Sunday drives that we load up our car after church on Sunday and head up the little canyon close to our home. While it didn't hold quite the magic that the drives of my youth held it held a different type of magic. For 3 solid hours my sweeties didn't fight. We were a big happy family and any moment that helps creates that is magic. Dad and the boys tossed the football back and forth, we skipped rocks and competed to see who had the strongest rock throwing arm. When finally exhausted we piled back in the van and headed back down the mountain. The kids were sad to go, but happy to have gone. It's not the big things, it's the little ones.

Taylor's photo shoot at the zoo

A few years back Taylor was chosen to take part in a special photography class. The teachers picked one student from each class to go. They spent the next few weeks learning the basics of digital photography, but then school ended and that was that. I didn't hear much more about a camera till the scouts decided to go to the zoo. I decided to take the plunge and let Taylor take my expensive, Christmas present digital camera to the zoo and see how responsible he was... Needless to say, my camera came back in one peice and his efforts at photo journalism weren't half bad. The following are a few of his zoo experiences, from the eyes of a 10 year old.