Haircuts All Around

For a couple of weeks now we have been trying to talk Anna into getting a haircut. I wasn't thinking anything drastic, just a trim, because everytime I bring the hairbrush near her head she starts complaining and screaming (If she knew any swear words she would probably use them!). I heard about this place called "Cookie Cutters", it's a hair cut place for kids. I have been talking it up to Anna for a few days, and this morning I showed her pictures on their website, and she was finally sold. I took both the kids in this afternoon and it was so awesome! They let each kid pick a movie to watch and they got to sit in these cute cars and airplanes while they got their hairs cut.


Anna loved it! Her stylist was super nice and even blow dried and styled her hair. After their cuts they got balloons and a sucker so of course they were in heaven. This is was Anna's first real hair cut and she got about 3 inches trimmed off. As for Matt, this is probably his 50th haircut-so no big deal-but he does look handsome!

Following the Rules

This is Anna eating breakfast while watching cartoons. She is not allowed to eat in the living room, so she scooted her chair as close to the living room as possible while still technically in the kitchen. That girl is great!
Summer is coming to a close. You can tell because just when it has finally cooled down enough to allow our lawn to be green again, the kids (not our kids, the neighborhood kids) have resumed trampling our lawn on thier way to and from school. Not only are we on a corner lot near the elementary school so lazy 5th graders cut across the lawn, we are lucky enough to be the bus stop for the middle and high schoolers who shuffle off the bus each day with their slouchy pants and cell phones. I never thought I'd turn into that old person who is always yelling at kids to get off their lawn-but I have been seriously contemplating purchasing some water ballons and putting them to good use!

Bear Lake & Back

This past week the kids and I drove up to Bear Lake to go camping with my family. My brother Bryan and his family drove down from Washington and Anna and Matt had a great time playing with some of their cousins. Bear Lake is a really fun place to take kids because it has a sand beach and the water is shallow. So we spent the first day at the beach playing in the water and building sand castles.
The next day my sister, Sarah, and I made a treasure hunt for the kids, and they had a great time finding the treasure-they had so much fun that after they found their treasure they made another treasure hunt for the grown-ups to do!
Later that day we all went on a hike on the limber pine trail. On Thursday we were going to go to the beach again, but it was so windy! So we drove home to find...a giant pile of wood chips in the driveway! Oi! So I spent Friday and Saturday shoveling wood chips and doing laundry! But we had a great time on our camping trip-It was great to see everybody.
This last picture is the view of the lake from our campground.

Bachelor days have come and gone again

This past week, Bethany and the kids drove through Wyoming and back to Northern Utah to get to Bear Lake. The in laws had a big whooptie-doo together on the shores of the lake. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I took time off from work and partied by myself at home. By partied, I mean I did back-breaking work in the yard and under the clothes washer.

So they went to the in law infestation Tuesday and got back Thursday evening. They brought with them a car full of sand, and a week's worth of laundry. They must have had fun.

Since they took the car, I was left defenseless and immobile, much like a newly born kangaroo. It is nice, though, to have the opportunity to not have to go anywhere.

As I mentioned, while they were away, I had plenty to do. I painted a section of wall behind the clothes washer that was just drywall. We had replaced a section of wall that had been damaged when one of our pipes started leaking last year and just hadn't finished the job. I also replaced the floorboard on the other side of the wall (through the wall). I mowed and trimmed the lawn.

But the big project for this week started when we had 7 yards of shredded bark dumped on our driveway Tuesday morning just after I was left to myself. We started a project last year that entailed spreading shredded bark over the planter beds in our yard. At that time we didn't have enough shredded bark to finish the job, and we didn't really do it right. We didn't put weed block down under the bark, so we still had to pull weeds every Saturday. Not this time. Tuesday morning through Thursday, I moved the existing bark out of the beds where it was, put down weed block, and then put that bark back.

When Beth and the kids got back, they couldn't park in the garage due to the huge pile of shredded bark in the driveway blocking the entrance. So the car had to stay on the street for a few nights. Friday and Saturday, Beth and I tackled the two big planter areas, I putting down weed block and she hauling the shredded bark from the driveway to the planter beds where I handily spread it about in a uniform pattern of random barkiness.

We'll get some pictures up of the end result. Sometimes it's hard to comprehend that this is my house and my yard. Most of the time it feels like I work as part of the maintenance crew at somebody else's home while the owner is away.

I should mention that shredded bark dust gets everywhere. I've been blowing shredded bark out of my nose this whole week. And sneezing all over the place.

Out For A Walk

I thought Anna looked so cute with her boots on when we took our strollers out for a walk.

Licked and Loving it

On Tuesday I took the kids to the Thanksgiving Point farm. They had some really cute baby goats and we went for a hayride and Matt got licked by this cow-he thought it was great!