Week by week 51

(June 13-19). Another fun week with family. My mom got really excited about her garden this year and every morning she would take the boys outside with her to the top of the hill to the garden and they would water and pull weeds and plant seeds. James loved it.Playing on the hill.
Johnny "gardening". He really just dug around in the dirt a bit and ate a bit. Thankfully it is a totally organic garden so no harm done.
He found a pen which doesn't surprise me knowing my mom.
We also went to the parks around. My brother, Boy, even got guilted into coming. (By the way, this is a good example of what happened to my pictures in our recent, very expensive, technical difficulties). This park was next to the firehouse and it was great because it was mostly fenced.
James and Lexi enjoying the sand toys in the wood chips.
Classic! My mom on the phone? Who would have guessed?My mom and my sister, Karen, with Johnny.
Big cousins playing nicely with Johnny. Elsie and Lexi.
More playing with Johnny. He loved the attention. Max and Jax.
Really loved it. Max, Lexi and Elsie.
Irritating Boy with my picture taking.
Happy baby!
I finally convinced Boy to swing James around. Of course, some of the other kids wanted it too. Poor Boy!
Ashlyn and Johnny.
James got all tuckered out for a moment.
Ashlyn and Lexi. Aren't they beautiful? Handsome Bubba!
We also went to the zoo this week with my parents and my two younger sisters and their kids. My dad keeps a season pass so that he can take kids whenever he wants. Because we went to the zoo he didn't get his regular 4-6 mile run up the mountain and so here he is doing push-ups while we look at animals.
Not sure what this exercise is but it was amusing.
We tried to put James on a leash and Lexi was the keeper. Many of you know that James has a tendency to run off really quickly so this was our attempt to not loose him.
Wu and Ryan on the elephant.
James and Lexi taking a breather in the stroller.
Jax waiting patiently for all of us to catch up.
Carousel fun.
Lexi.
Pink and Jax.
James running and my Mom.
Wu and Ryan again.
James on the carousel.
Riding the train around the park. This is the kids favorite thing to do.
The non riders. You can really tell they are related here.
My mom and Jax.
Johnny didn't get to ride the train because he fell asleep.
We also took family pictures this week at the insistence of my sister Karen. Here is a small sampling of what we got. Pink with Jax and Lexi.
Everyone. (excluding in-laws as they weren't all in town).
Mom and Dad with all 9 grandkids.
Just my parents. See how my mom's face never changes but my dad can't hold still for long enough to get a consistent photo. So classic!
Pink and Lexi and Jax again.
Mom and dad with all 5 kids.
Johnny on the mini trampoline.
Me with James and Johnny.
James wrestling Alex.
We did end up using a bit of bribery. Organic suckers! Can you tell Johnny wants one too? Well, my evil sisters aren't that nice. They made Johnny work for his sucker. He just started taking some pretty okay steps and they wanted him to come bet the sucker.
John and his older cousin (by 5 weeks) Ryan.
James was crying on the phone to Brian who was about to get on a plane to come pick us up for our originally planned departure of June 23. James missed his daddy.
We also saw some of our good friends the Cowans this week but somehow I failed to get any pictures of them or us with them. They lived here in Geneva but then decided to move back to Utah last year. It was fun to see them and catch up a bit.

Week by week 50

(June 6-12). Sorry about the delay. We had some expensive electronic difficulties here at my house which I would rather block out right now. So now that we are back I'm going to plunge forward in my efforts to recap.

This week we had a lot of fun hanging out with family. We checked out Thanksgiving Point with my mom and sister and nephew. It was fun. We spent all our time at the Children's Garden. We started with swimming or really splashing around in the splash pool.
Unfortunately some of my cutest pictures of the event were casualties in our recent "expensive technical difficulties" and so these will have to do. Still cute!
My sister, Wu, and her son, Ryan.
We moved on to the rest of the Children's Garden. Here is my attempt at getting a picture of the kids in the flowers. At least one of them was smiling in the general direction of the camera. James and Ryan were busy trying to pick apart the flowers.
Distracted.
Two cousins being good in the stroller.
Maze fun!
Wu with the babies.

Classic mom-on-the-phone picture. If only we could convince her to turn it off occasionally.

The babies playing in the sandbox.

I actually got a picture of my mom and me together this week. I don't have many of these. Too bad I hadn't gotten ready for the day yet.My sister Karen (hiding in the back) with my parents and her 4 kids (and James). He was so excited to play with his boy cousins and they were so kind to play with him too.

My dad is the healthy-smoothie king. He was so happy that Johnny liked his smoothies.

Fun at Rocket Park with the big-boy cousins and Grandma.
James and Lexi. They love each other so. James has smoothie all over his face. We were glad that my sister, Pink, and her kids could come up from California.
James and Max after wrestling.
Johnny after the dog who is trying to hide under the table. Poor Mahona has been so patient with kids over the years.
As you all can see we had an uneventful but very fun week of hanging out with family. This is the best part of vacations. Especially when everyone comes to us (well after we come all the way to Utah anyway).