MIA

I know I haven't been around much. You might think I've been off having lots of fun, but no. Just living life. Chloe finished up her sewing class, and we just started our second session of swimming lessons. That's kept us pretty busy, plus lots of playing with friends.

I have been trying to find more activities to do with the girls to keep us busy, while Brandon's busy studying for his Java test he's trying to take. We've gone to several activities at the library. This one particular adventure we got to make "Peter and the Wolf" costumes and participate in a little play. The girls were a little hesitant, but once it was over they realized it wasn't so bad and asked if we could do more of them, so we have. The last one we went to, The Mad Scientist (which is pretty cool, by the way), they each won a prize PLUS our neighbor, so they were way excited.



We also took some time to celebrate the Fourth of July. We missed out on the Bear Lake Rangers festivities this year, and just stayed home. The night before (the 3rd) they have a great children's parade. Any child who wants can participate. They decorate scooters, bikes, wagons, whatever and just walk several blocks through town. It's a big deal for the kids. Last year we just went and watched, which was ok, but we were one of very few. This year the girls wanted to participate. We didn't plan enough ahead, so their decorations were a little lacking but they still had fun. And at the end they handed out those delicious Pace bars -- remember Sophie's AR party when I commented on those red popsicles that tasted like pina colada? Yeah, those. So we made sure to get red again.





Centerville also does their fireworks show the night before, so we all went up to that. We have a nice spot we found last year, and the girls were pretty excited to go back to the same spot. Kids thrive on tradition. Then Saturday morning I took the girls to the parade. I was prepared for the heat and crowds, but it turned out to be ok. The weather was pretty decent, and we found a nice spot to sit (we don't reserve our seat 24 hours in advance like the rest of the town) and to make it even better some nice people offered to let us come sit up front next to them. And sitting on the other side of us was BRANDON CROFT! No, you don't know him. He's this crazy little kids that was in Chloe's kindergarten class. She's pretty set on marrying him, the only problem is that he moved away and we had no idea if we'd ever see him again. I guess miracles do happen. So, the parade was great. Afterwards we went to the park where they have a bunch of booths, games for the kids, and concerts going on. We sat and listened to the music for a while and played on the playground. We got to tour the city's new mobile command center (pretty cool), and went to the heritage quilt display. It was pretty simple, but all in all a good morning. Then we went home and Brandon took the girls fishing that afternoon while I ran errands.

The girls have done so many cute/funny things lately that I keep meaning to write about, but I'm not so good at getting those things done. But here's a story from today I'll share. Chloe was a little naughty yesterday. I had called the dentist and made appointments for us, and then wrote them on my calendar. I noticed someone had erased them (and it wasn't hard to guess who). So, after talking to her about it we decided her punishment would be that SHE would have to call the dentist back and find out what time they had been scheduled for. Well this morning rolls around and I hand her my phone and tell her it's time to make the call. To make a long story short, she couldn't go through with it. However, Sophie was begging to help her sister out of her predicament. So, to ease Chloe's pain I allowed her sister to do a kind deed for her. SOPHIE made the phone call. She did it perfectly and got all the necessary information. She told me the secretary thought it was pretty funny (as I would expect her to). Hopefully Chloe learned that it wasn't such a scary thing, but most importantly she learned that she has a great sister who will bail her out. They have gotten along wonderfully today!