THREE WEEKS OF FUN EXPERIENCES!!!
July 20th - August 10th, 2008

Sunday, July 20th was the day Dean was blessed. As Latter Day Saints we traditionally have the father of a new baby give that baby a blessing within the first few months of life. The blessing is much like a prayer, given or offered through inspiration. Each blessing is unique and very special. All blessings do have two common purposes however, which are to give the baby a name, and to also give encouragement to the baby in his or her life ahead. It is also common for immediate and extended family to attend these blessings. We were very delighted to have many family members come to Dean's blessing. Above is a happy Aunt Laura holding a tired little Dean! And for some reason the camera angle was really weird and made Dean's head look extra tiny. Sorry Dean!

After church, and before a small luncheon we held over at Brian's parents' house, some of my extended family came over to our house to visit for a little while and hold the new baby! We all sat in the living room and just enjoyed talking with each other. Here's Momma working on the very cute baby blanket she made for Dean. I love the colors!

From left to right in this picture are my Uncle Gary, my Aunt Kelly and my brother-in-law Dustin (Lindsey's husband). All three of them were trying not to encourage a group of girls that happened to be sitting across the room and giggling out of control! And....

...here they are! (Aunt Kelly's mother is on the far left). Whenever we get together with my cousins two things inevitably happen: 1) There are many HILARIOUS jokes made and 2) We wind up laughing so hard we want to throw up! And actually, Uncle Gary is the biggest culprit in making this happen. He likes to pretend he's not the cause, but he really is the biggest "jokester" teddy bear I know besides my dad. Uncle Gary's sense of humor is extremely witty and very weird! Example: one time at Thanksgiving one of his daughters came to sit down at the table and join the conversation. Uncle Gary looked up and said (about a sit it the middle of her forehead), "What's with the third eye?!?" His daughter rolled her eyes, as did Aunt Kelly, and then his daughter punched him in the arm! Then Aunt Kelly said, "It's no wonder they've turned out the way they have!" Uncle Gary is the biggest tease I know next to Poopa!

My youngest sister Lindsey and her husband had also come down from Idaho to attend Dean's blessing. I was so happy to see them there, as I don't get to see them very often. Lindsey and Laura were so sweet, showering Dean with hugs and kisses. I have to admit, there is nothing like holding a new baby. They are just so tiny and helpless and precious! You just want to protect them at all costs! We had such a good time with our family that day! Thank you all for making it such a special day!

The next day, Monday the 21st of July, Brian had a family reunion up in a canyon above Ogden, Utah. I didn't think it was a good idea to take a new baby there because it was a camping reunion. But I was sad not to be able to go. I was glad though that Lindsey and Dustin decided to stay longer. They came over to my house for a visit, and as you can see, Dustin very kindly sat down and started shelling peas! Between him, Laura and Lindsey, I got a ton of peas shelled! I told them they all did a "shell of a job!" (Yes, I know it was a bad joke)!

Dustin and Lindsey had to leave later that afternoon, but before they left, Ben and Emily called to invite everyone out to lunch at a restaurant called The Bombay House. I've never been one to enjoy Indian cuisine, but I'm telling you, this place was AWESOME!!! It was so dang good! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves eating great food and visiting with each other. And I have to say, I think Ben and Emily are so cool. They really do a great job at giving their kids a well-rounded upbringing. They are always doing the coolest things!

Little Prairie was so tired that she couldn't take it anymore, so Ben put her on the floor and she fell fast asleep! It was so funny to see her sprawled out like that while we were all enjoying this fabulous Indian cuisine! I just want to say a big "THANK YOU" to Ben and Em for being so generous and taking us all out. It was a lot of fun and some great food!

A few days later on July 24th, Brian and I had an unusual opportunity to go to an outdoor concert up in Orem. One of Brian's bosses had some VIP tickets that he wasn't going to use and gave them to us! We got VIP passes to a dinner before the show began, and we also got to take photos with the group that was performing. And that group happened to be......ABBA!!! They weren't the real ABBA, but they were from Sweden. And they are the only group in the world given the full rights to wear the clothing designs that ABBA wore, and to sing all the ABBA songs. So it was pretty much like seeing and hearing the real thing! Here we are in the blistering heat, waiting for the concert to begin! (Brian may look a little annoyed in this picture because of the next picture....)

This next picture shows nobody performing! It was really weird, but they did so many weird introductions and announcements and odd gimmicky type things for almost an hour while we waited for the group to come on. And right when we thought they were going to come out, the announcer got back up on stage and said we would take a short 15 minute break before the show began. Brian was ready to poke his eyes out! But eventually the group came out, and they did a GREAT JOB!!! They sounded almost exactly like ABBA! They even had one of the original guitarists there who had toured with the original group. They also had all the dance moves and quirks down for each member. It was really fun dancing and singing and enjoying a blast from the past. P.S. We weren't allowed to use photography or video cameras of any kind during the performance, so sorry we couldn't show you what we saw while they were performing! It was a nice night, and a ton of fun with a hot babe!

Moving into August....On August 4th, (I think that was a Saturday), Brian was really enjoying the warm weather. He was itching to be body-boarding off the coast of California. Unfortunately, those beaches happened to be too far away at the moment, so he opted for the next best thing....a kiddie pool and an adorable son! Vaughn was so excited to finally get his Daddy into the pool with him!

Brian took great delight in showing Vaughn how to properly spray the water hose in water combat situations. Those two must have been out there for a few hours just splashing around and being guys! When they came into the house however, their fingers and toes looked like perfect prunes, so I knew it had been longer. I was so grateful though for Vaughn to be able to have such a fun time with his daddy.

When I was about six or seven months pregnant with Dean, I forced myself to plant a garden. I knew that I would regret it if I didn't. My next-door neighbor, who happens to be a great friend, told me that I'd go nuts if I didn't have a garden. She knows me very well, and I was glad she gave me a little push. But, I did something different this time. I laid out landscaping fabric BEFORE I planted to keep the weeds out. And do you know what? IT WORKED GREAT!!!! I will ALWAYS use landscaping fabric from this point on! A sweet older couple that lives down the street from me recommended I do it, and boy did it pay to listen! I only had to weed a handful of times, and for just a few minutes at a time. And I harvested a LOT of produce!

Above I have onions, potato plants, tomato plants and a few pea plants that are barely visible. It's funny because we had a very odd year as far as weather, so everything BUT the tomatoes produced well. In fact, NOBODY I talked to in my neighborhood got tomatoes this year EXCEPT my next-door neighbor Dawn. I was lucky that she happened to plant about 24 tomato plants, because that was really my only source of tomatoes for almost the entire summer.

To prove how ridiculous our tomato harvest was, I have pictured above our first tomato. I think I picked it just after the first week in AUGUST! That's ridiculous! And, it happened to be one of the most pathetic-looking tomatoes I've ever seen. The year before I remember picking 40 tomatoes at a time, so this was definitely a disappointment. But like I said, my neighbor Dawn was extremely kind and let me get at some of her tomatoes. One thing I did learn though is when your tomato plants have green tomatoes on them, but they won't ripen, DON'T water them for several days. This forces the tomatoes on the vine to ripen! After I tried that with this year's crop, I began getting some great results! If you look up at that tomato one more time, you'll notice a few cracks at the top of the tomato. This means that the plant got too much water too fast. We had a very wet season this year, so that's why I didn't get as many tomatoes as I wanted! Better luck next year!

On Sunday, August 10th, just two days before Vaughn's 3rd birthday, we decided to go out in the evening for a trip to a local park. We had never been to this park before with Vaughn, and it was quite a delight to see him play and interact with the kids there. He was actually very nervous at first, and took his time getting up enough guts to walk across the bridge. However, as he was in the middle of the bridge, an older kid who weighed a lot more than Vaughn ran across the bridge, and poor little Vaughn got so scared! He grabbed the side rail as fast and he could and stood there for a little bit, trying to calm himself down! I've never seen a kid that is so apprehensive and careful when being exposed to situations for the first time. But eventually Vaughn got up enough courage to finish the trip across the bridge!

After that initial experience, Vaughn made a Bee-Line for safe and solid ground. I couldn't blame him. You should have seen me and Brian sitting on the park bench giggling at him!

Vaughn decided to play it solo for a while as he decided if he would try to mingle with the other kids again. And.....

...luckily he saw the other kids going down the giant slide! Vaughn really wanted to go down, and most of the way up the stairs he looked back at me for encouragement. Eventually, Brian and I realized that Vaughn wasn't going to take another step without one of us there...

...so Brian went up with Vaughn. It was so cute to watch Vaughn get excited as he saw his Daddy coming up to be with him! I just wish I could have gotten a picture of it!

Once Brian and Vaughn had made the trip up to the slide, and then down the slide together, Vaughn was totally fine. He turned into a regular monkey child and ran all over the play equipment, swinging from things, jumping on things, and interacting with other kids. And I'll just point out that when Vaughn is really excited about something, he usually doesn't smile! As you can see in the above picture, he gets a stone-faced look like he's concentrating really hard! In reality, he is holding in all of his energy and eventually releases it by jumping up and down and shaking his arms. Only once in a while will he crack a smile as he's doing it! We like to call this entire process "Spazzing."

Our evening wound up being extremely pleasant. Little Dean, who was almost two months old at this point, was very calm and peaceful. I enjoyed just sitting there with him in my arms and watching Vaughn play. Brian and I also enjoyed some nice time to just talk together. Just as we were getting ready to leave, the sun began to get lower in the sky, and it provided a beautiful goodbye for us!

Love, Lisa