Summer pictures and stories

This post has been a long time coming; all summer in fact.  We did a lot of fun things and had a good time.  We did a few camping trips (in good weather and bad).  Clara went to SLC to visit with grandma and grandpa over the 4th of July so we took George and Lydia to the parade here in town.  George loved the big trucks and Lydia liked the attention.

The girls took swimming lessons and Lydia really took to her water wings.  George loves eating, ‘anything’ and ‘everything’.  We had some fun lunch dates, like one up at lucky peak reservoir.  We made little marshmallow and licorice creatures for a fun FHE activity.  Clara played soccer for the first time this year.  In addition to a stellar year for our strawberry patch, we had bundles of raspberries and about 20 second year peaches.

Clara started school this year which was exciting for the entire family.  She’s doing a half day (afternoon) of kindergarten.  One funny thing about school is that she rides the bus (it’s about a four minute walk), but that’s what she wanted to do.  She wouldn’t even consider walking.  I think it might be because the fictitious Sassy Sue (a personality I made up when telling stories to the girls) always took the bus to school.  I also got a digital voice recorder and I think that Clara has made at least a hundred recordings on it.

Lydia is part of a community (ward) pre-school class.  There are a handful of mom’s with children her age and each week they cycle through their homes.  It’s two days a week for just under two hours.  Ever since that started she’s been a lot more talkative and a little less shy.  She might be the funniest person in the house and she loves to make us all laugh.  Some of the stuff she comes up with is pretty funny (but I can’t think of one right now).  Sort of like Tim was at the breakfast table telling us all about his epic dreams.

George is figuring out how every atom in the universe works at a surprising pace.  He doesn’t talk much about it, but he sure understands it.  One fun thing is that he loves dirt and he loves to dig.  He gets real dirty really quick.  Oh, and there was the funny night that he got hold of a balloon and held on to it with one hand through an entire meal.  I think he had it in his hand for a couple of hours.

Rachel started teaching piano lessons about a month ago.  She has five students + Clara.  Clara is doing great, by the way.  She teaches on Thursday nights.  It’s been good for her to get back in the saddle.  She loves teaching and she has worried that she would lose her techniques if too much time went by.  After she started teaching Clara she decided that it wouldn’t take much more time to prepare for others too and so she took on a few more students.

I’m busy doing a bunch of different things and I’ll probably write another post about my plans later.  For now there’s the family update and here are some pictures.

Dan goes wake boarding.

Yup, same family reunion, but this activity was wake boarding on uncle Mont’s boat.  This was my second time wake boarding and try as I might, I couldn’t get over the wake.  Oh well…  There are some great close ups of me totally eating it, including a really great face plant.  Thanks to Ryan and Lyndsey for filming me with their camera.  Check it out.

I’m in the newspaper (Idaho Statesman)

I recently had an article in the Idaho Statesman about my hobby website, Maintain Fit. It was a lot of fun. They even sent a photographer to take my picture and put a front page article about me in the business section with a full color picture. Here’s a picture and a link to the online version of the article.

Idaho Statesman article on Maintain Fit

New Suit (after 10 years)

Well, I guess I’ve had other suits in the last 10 years, but the first suit I ever bought from Mr. Mac’s 10 years ago is the one I was still wearing to church. It must have bothered Mom, because about a year ago, she bought me a new suit (I think it was for my birthday). Since it was brand new I needed to get it tailored, but with the move to Boise, a new job and endless adventures with Clara and Lydia I just didn’t have time. Finally a few weeks ago I found a suit shop and had the suit altered.  I wore my new suit to the temple on Friday and finally to church today. THANKS MOM!

I had Clara help me stage a photo to show it off…

I think you can click the image to make it bigger.