Temple Trip

For the quarterly Primary activity the kids got to go down and do a tour of the Denver Temple. They took them all over the grounds and told fun stories about specific parts of the temple. The kids got to learn how important temples are in Heavenly Father's plan for us. Halle and Josh both loved it! Josh had never seen the Denver Temple before, but as soon as we drove up he started shouting "temple, temple!" Halle loved seeing pictures of the Bridal room, sitting on the Brides Bench, and seeing a "real live" bride come out of the temple after her wedding. They ended the tour in the little temple annex that has a beautiful mural of the universe and a statue of Jesus. We have a professional photographer in our ward who took everyone's family picture out in front--I'll post that when I get it back. It was a great activity that really hit home with the kids. Thanks Primary Presidency for planning it!


Primary Kids from 5 Stakes saved up money by fundraising and saving their allowance to buy three "Brides Benches" that are in the back of the temple. This is Halle sitting on one of the brides benches dreaming of her own wedding day. At chuch today she said, "Maybe Issac will marry me" I'd be the happiest mom alive if he did!

Now here's just some random stuff we've been up to:
The kids with their favorite summer treat--popsicles!

--Just Plain Funny!

--Playing in the backyard

Fun Father's and Sons/Not so Fun Mommy Daughter

This weekend marked an annual LDS tradition-- the Father's and Sons camp out. Rusty, earning Father of the Year, decided he would take Josh. Since the boys were going to be doing "boy" stuff, Halle and I decided to go do "girl" stuff. I tried to convince her to go shopping at the mall, but she wanted to see a movie. So we met Rusty in Boulder and he and Josh headed to Nederland for their camping adventure. Josh won the youngest camper award, and he had a great time! They got to play on 4-wheelers, or "tractors" as Josh calls them, sit around the campfire, and have a yummy breakfast the next morning. It was Josh's first time not sleeping in some sort of crib device, and although it took a few tries to get him to go to sleep, Rusty said he did pretty well.
With the boys gone Halle and I went out to dinner. We both LOVE going out to eat. I don't know why, but I was really in the mood for a hamburger, which I really never eat, so we went to Island Burgers. BIG MISTAKE. Tasted good going down, but not so good coming back up--but we'll get to that part in a minute. We then headed to the movie theater to see WALL-E. BORING. Halle was really restless and kept saying she was tired. All of the sudden she started coughing, and I knew what was coming next. I picked her up and RAN down the theater steps. We made it down the stairs before she threw up. She then threw up in the garbage can in the hall, and out the car window on the way home. I followed suit shortly. We're glad the boys had fun, but us girls get to try again!

Happy Birthday America!

Per usual, we celebrated the 4th of July a little early. For some reason our neighborhood always does it's big celebration a day early. The festivities started with a Firecracker 5K run. Kami always inspires me with the stories of her races, so I had to try it out. I was lucky enough to take 2nd in my age group. But, what that probably means is that there weren't very many people in my age group who ran the race. But I was proud and had a lot of fun. 8K in August, here I come!




Next we moved on to the annual neighborhood potluck BBQ. They had the biggest bouncy toy I have ever seen in my life. The Loveridges joined us for the party, and Halle and Braxton had a blast until it started to deflate and trap kids under all the numerous toys. Luckily everyone was ok.


We then went and staked out our spot for the fireworks. Sara had bought some sparklers, and we had to do some serious coaxing but finally the kids decided to give them a try. Josh loved them, but he kept tryng to grab the flame. The fireworks show was great, and this is the first year that Halle didn't cry! I said it was a day of miracles for Halle--she ate a hamburger at the BBQ (a first) she walked all the way to the fireworks without complaining (BIG DEAL) and then didn't cry when we got there! Josh was clinging to Rusty, but he was in awe of all the colors.







Then, the next day we headed to Boulder to do some hiking near the Flatirons. Getting Halle to hike is quite a chore, but once we got up into the trees and wildflowers, she had a good time.






Last it was off to the fountains on Pearl Street to cool down after a blazing hot day. All the kids had great fun. Josh was staring down the hole of one of the fountains when it squirted him square in the face and knocked him flat on his bum. Poor little thing was scared to death. Everyone was exhaused by this point, so we had a quick dinner at Pei Wei's and then it was early bedtime for all.

Bruiser!

We had a fun 10 days babysitting Bruiser, a cute little puppy pomeranian. He was so much fun and my kids had a BLAST taking care of him. They wanted to take him everywhere we went. He was so good with the kids--he put up with A LOT of mauling! He was pushed in babystrollers, and carried everywhere. I swear, hit little paws hardly ever touched the floor. The only bad thing about Bruiser was that he wasn't totally house trained. UGGGG. Halle was so so so sad when Bruiser was going to go home, but she was totally trying not to show it. She said, "Bruiser is a rat dog (Rusty's affectionate term) who pees on the carpet and I'm not going to miss him at all" All the while she is fighting the tears in her eyes. It was fun to have him for 10 days, but unfortunately for my children, I don't think we'll be getting a dog anytime soon.