Ode to D.J.

I love D.J. He is a very intuitive and thoughtful kid. He is very smart, especially with math and is usually always willing to help without complaining much. He loves to build things and make things with his hands. Until recently he was very set against taking piano lessons until he taught himself how to play "twinkle, twinkle" on a playground chime set and now he can't wait to start lessons. He's my kid who goes with the flow, yet sometimes if the flow isn't what he wants he's very stubborn about getting something he wants out of the deal. He's a no fear, try nearly anything kid. He recently told me that he loves Jesus more than me, which is just how it should be. Here's to our Dallin Jay:

The requested Lego Star Wars cake. If you cannot recognize it, it is a scene from the battle of Geonosis, Star Wars Episode II.

D.J.' s party invitations had to be unscrambled and put together.

It's a friend party this year!

When we were in St. George I declared a vacation from making breakfast and we had cold cereal (which my kids usually don't go for). Spencer exclaimed one morning: "D.J. is on the cereal box!"

Mom watch! Crazy nutso takes after his Uncle Jed.

D.J. finally lost one of his front teeth. Now he has a three tooth gap, two on the top, one on the bottom. His tooth booty is on the countertop. He will properly fit into second grade now.

A Vacation From A Lot of Things

We had a great vacation at the beginning of August! It was a vaction from a lot of things. The first part of our vacation was with the Davis Family, who are so good to us! While with them, we took a vacation from sanity, from wearing clothes (most of our time was in swim suits). I took a vacation from my regular swimsuit (I forgot it) and was introduced to the bottom-of-the-barrel August KMart seletion of swim suits that have a V-neck to the belly-button (I wore a cover-up) and no support. My other option was a camoflauge bikini at Sportsman's Warehouse that didn't camoflauge what I wanted. We took a vacation from cooler weather, from hydrated skin and brown dirt. We were given a free skin exfoliation with red sand and wind from mother earth and a chance to practice patience when we got stuck in it. Here are a few pictures taken with our fun Davis cousins!

Three-headed chicken:

Leaning tower of cousin:

Syncronized couins:

James the giant prune:

Cousin zone-out:

Then we went to Wheeler Peak with the Wheeler family. We took a vacation from any heat whatsoever except from the camp fire which was raging all day and most of the night. Mark and I took a vacation from sea-level as we ascended Wheeler Peak at 12,500 feet (almost to the top before vertigo and blood sugar issues kicked in). Mark and I also took a vacation from sleeping, only two to a sleeping back and added James. We took a vacation from long pants unfortunately and the boys stayed in their pajama bottoms, which were their only long pants. Oh, but we had fun and perhaps even convinced Matt to come camping again next year (provided they get a new air mattress and Loni gets a new camera).

Lehman caves that elephants and naked people can't enter:

Yes, hat, jackets, long sleeves and lots of love (awwww):

Climb every mountain (almost)!

Fire! Fire! Fire!

Now, school starts tomorrow.