Family Photo Shoot

Our good friend Peter took these family photos for us. He is a super talented photographer.
www.peterthomsen.com

LOVE those buns!

I count 8 rolls!

What made us think putting her in a wooden bowl naked was a good idea?

Grandpa Chet

This is my Grandpa Chet. He is about to go on the canopy tour at Mt Hermon! What an adventurous guy!

Instructing this group of canopy tourees is my cousin Shelby!

She has been guiding tours at Mt Hermon for a couple years now.

She knows a lot about the trees.

And how to fly through them.

Look at Grandpa fly through the trees!

A visit with Grandpa is never boring. A couple of summers ago he taught me how to use a chainsaw. This week he brought us "witching wands" that could help us find our underground water and electrical lines. Here he is demonstrating how to use them. First you have to "wind them up" by twirling them for a few seconds.

Then you hold them loosely in your hands pointed directly in front of you.








When you are over a water line, the two rods will automatically pull apart like this. The water line is directly in line with the rods.
An electrical line will cause the rods to cross in front of you.

Who knows how in the world it works. But it was pretty fun walking all over the property finding them with Grandpa!

Grandma Jan's week with us

 Grandpa Chet drove Grandma Jan down to our house so she could stay the week with me. Grandpa always brings his pruning tools to work on our trees while he's here.

I'm sure he is appalled at how little we do for our trees ourselves, but he says he just does it cause he loves to, and cause he loves us! 

This is our amazing plum tree that he pruned this week.

I love this picture!

Ellery had such a good week with Grandma Jan! 

Bath times were still a challenge that week. (at six weeks old)

BUT, we got a new bath tub that lets Ellery be more covered in water and sitting up a little more, and she is really enjoying her baths now! I'm sure just being a little older helps too (she is now 9 weeks old as I write this). Now we let her just splash around for several minutes after we're done washing her and she loves it!

THANK YOU Grandma for everything you did that week! I loved seeing you and Ellery interact. She seemed so happy in your arms! Can't wait for you to visit again!

James's birthday

James turned 34 this month!
For his birthday I gave him a daughter!
And some new climbing shoes...but those pale in comparison.

We are LOVING being parents. It is the coolest thing.

We had a BBQ to celebrate the birthdays of James, Jason (now known as Uncle J), and Brad.

You might be thinking, "isn't it soon to be throwing big parties?" Or you might be thinking "it doesn't look like that many people showed up." 

Oh no, it isn't, and they did!

We had about 20 adults and 9 kids. You can't stop us, we love to throw our parties!

Grandpa Chet was still in town from driving Grandma Jan down. He quickly made friends with our friends' 2 year olds, Marc (shown here) and Sophie. It was so cute. For a second it made me anxious to see Ellery be two and play with Grandpa too, but then quickly I remembered how I don't want her to get ANY older EVER!!! 

(this is a joke between James and I- I am in fact OK with Ellery aging appropriately)

French fries in the deep-fryer!
Regular AND sweet potato!

So we had a bit of a disaster on the grill. Apparently it was hilarious!

(not so much to James)

In the middle are our NEWLY ENGAGED friends, Jon and Joanna! We are excited to host their rehearsal dinner at our house in June and to go to their wedding!
Also still laughing at the burnt burgers are Cassie, Carrie and Jessica. Andrew in the distant background.

My handsome Grandpa!

Marc just wanted to give Hayden a hug, but she wasn't having it!

Dear friend Maleah and her son Marc. She has another little one on the way! A little girl for Ellery to play with!

Karen (birthday boy Brad's wife) with Ellery. She has three kiddos of her own, Hayden, Elliot and little Ezra. They are cuties!