Homecoming Invitation

Utah has a strange tradition / phenomenon when you want to find a date for a High School Dance the telephone is off limits. Doodle got asked to Homecoming on Friday by a darling boy named Chris Gallager. After the football game she returned to the car to find it covered in BANANAS.


Then when she went to open the door she was looking eye to eye with a stuffed gorilla!


After regaining some composure she listened to a message that was delivered through a walkie talkie hidden in the gorilla's head - asking her to Homecoming.

So to answer back she returned the Gorilla with a banana poster and pie.

What is a FIREANT?

A fireant can either be a stinging red ant or a member of Miss M's soccer team. GO FIREANTS! Apparently Miss M's fireants have misplaced their sting because they lost their last game 15-1, but who cares as long as you get Capri Sun and Fruit Snacks after the game!

First Day of School

So it's the time of year that we love and dread at the same time. BACK TO SCHOOL! I asked the girls what they thought was the best part of going back to school. Here is the list in no particular order:

1. The smell of new notebooks and pencils.
2. Meeting your new teacher/teachers.
3. Seeing old friends and making new ones.
4. New underwear and socks. Or at least not searching for socks on the first day!
5. A clean slate. (a school metaphor)
6. Learning
7. Coming home at the end of the day!

Hike to Bloomington Lake...

The other day I took the girls on a fun to hike to Bloomington Lake - a small mountain lake. It really wasn't much of a hike but the scenery was SPECTACULAR! At the start of the hike we all needed to make a potty stop, so with 4 girls waiting in line I decided to go into the unoccupied Men's restroom. When I emerged I realized that two men had showed up and were waiting to use the restroom. Either out of embarrassment or quick thinking Miss M looked at me smiling, winked and quickly said, "Hi Dad are you ready to go on our hike?"

On the trail to Bloomington Lake.


At the Lake.



Swimming in the Lake. I use the term "swimming" very loosely - it was cold!




AB's new favorite wild flower - Indian Paintbrush.


Later that evening making STICK TARTS - wrap a dough biscuit from a can around a large wooden dowel, then cook it over a fire or hot coals. When it is cooked to a lovely golden brown fill the hole with pie filling and top with whipped cream. TRY IT!

Raspberry Days

We have heard so much about Raspberry days in the Bear Lake Valley that we just thought we had better go and experience the entire affair. I think we did everything except enjoy a fresh raspberry shake. I told the kids that it was OK because my raspberries already have enough shake. Check out the pictures.....

Waiting for candy at the parade



Some cool tye dye shirts that we made the day before. GROOVY!


Fun in the water despite the fact that the boat got stuck on the trailer in the mud.



Happy Birthday - now how many is this???? In the words of the lovely, Marjorie Hinckley, "Who wants to know?"



My cousin is going to make and sell SKIM BOARDS at Bear Lake so AB just had to try it out. They are really fun.

The Biggest Little City in the World

We took a fun trip to RENO (The Biggest Little City in the World) Tom and his good friend Mark Talbot have always said that they would someday see Steeley Dan in Concert. Well, today was that day! I am always up for a road trip - especially if it is with some fun friends. Everyone warned me that the drive from Salt Lake to Reno was the ugliest stretch of road on the planet perhaps even the solar system. But, I kind of liked it. Where else can you see salt flats for miles and miles and a BM on the mountain.

Tooth Fairy visits our house for the second time this Summer!

The tooth fairy found 4 hugh "wisdom" teeth under Doodle's pillow Tuesday night - she was pretty out of it as you can tell from the video!

First Weekend at Bear Lake

Last weekend we went to Bear Lake to check things out. Here are some pictures ...



Girls going swimming

Gathering and stacking wood


It was a beautiful weekend, of playing games, gathering wood for the stove, resting and reading good books. PS If you haven't read The Witch of Blackbird Pond, it's a great read!

Cabin at Bear Lake

So it is finally a reality - we have a cabin. Crazy, fun, frightening... We just purchased a little cabin at Bear Lake. It is really kind of a funny story, we made a low ball offer on this little cabin just so we could get an idea of what properties were worth and the guy accepted. We weren't sure whether to laugh or cry. We are still quite nervous, but here are some pictures......

MOO- OPOLY

So Doodle's good friend RJ had his birthday the day before her birthday - she made him a game of MOO-OPOLY. Moooploy is a specialized game of Monopoly, only using Maggie Moo's in the place of Boardwalk. She made new cards and new properties using things they have done together. Kind of like the quilt he made for her - only out of paper!

Birthday Quilt

Casey's good friend RJ decided to go above an beyond for a birthday present. He made her a quilt! He searched high and low for different fabrics that represented fun times and dates that they had been on together. Then put them all together and tied it with yarn in their favorite colors. It is really amazing and the pictures don't do the quilt justice - of course a homemade quilt will always be treasured in this home. Check it out.

Doodles Golden Birthday

Apparently your "Golden Birthday" is when you turn the same age as the date of your birthday. Doodle's birthday was on the 17th and she turned 17 - hence her "Golden Birthday". It was a fun day - we opened presents, had lunch together and ate an ice cream cake from Maggie Moo's!