reunion prep

This is the book I picked up for this years Steven's reunion. I read twilight last year. If I read one every reunion, I just might finish the whole series. She writes well but the story line is a bit cheese for me.

The USPS surprise

I got a package in the mail this week. I love to get mail (even bills). Anyway...I signed up for a "pay-it-forward" kind of a thing a few months ago and this is what I got! I love it. Jackie continues to amaze me with her homemaking skills. I don't think there is anything this girl couldn't do. Thanks Jackie!

family reunion: take 2

We have come to an end of the Finch reunion. Sunday we all had dinner together before Claire left for home. After we said good bye, we went to the Payson band concert. My dad picked up our grandparents and we all enjoyed a night in the park and watermelon at Grandma's.

Today we pulled out the pool and the hose for our homemade water park. Max does not like cold water so Papa hooked the hose to the water heater.

We had a great time and ate two jack's cheese sticks for lunch. I don't think life gets much better than this.

Well...I could get better if the JJARL family could have been there. We miss you and talked a lot about how much we admire what you are doing and all of our plans to come see you. Love you and can't wait until you are with us again.

the bean museum

A few years ago Curtis found this bug and turned it in to the Bean Museum. He said he is not sure this is the same bug but it is the same species.

Thursday afternoon Max, Curtis, Claire, Kari and I went to the Bean Museum because we thought it might be a fun place for Max and we wanted to see Curtis' bug.

We spent most of our time looking at the mounts. Max fount the samples of fur types. I'll I could think was what germs are probably all over those - but he loved it.

It is more a learning center rather than the fun center we were looking for.

So... We started having fun with the camera.

As it turns out, the Bean Museum does a live animal show every week night at 7:30. I'm sure we will go one of these nights. Thanks Claire and Kari, we had a great time with you.

Finch Fam reunion

The reunion was held in Saint George this year. We met on Thursday at the hotel and planned out our weekend. This is how it went:

Thursday: Dinner at the Mongolian BBQ.

The workers started offering money for the kids. We insisted they were not for sale. They kept feeding the kids and made them origami. It was a really fun/crazy meal.

We had a good laugh over the fortunes we got. A lot of "Treasures".

Then it was off to Tuacahn for the Footloose play. Turns out a boy I went to school with was the lead. It was over 110 degrees and before the play started, dad laid on the grass to cool off and the babies climbed right on. They love Papa. We arrived back at the hotel around 11:30. It was a hot night and we ended up hitting the showers for a little refresher before heading to bed.
Friday: We started out in the pool. The kids had a great time. Max does NOT like to be splashed. He had a hard time enjoying the coolness of the pool.

After some coxing from Papa...Tyler, Lindsey, Curtis and I held a chicken fight. We were laughing so hard. Lindsey receintly broke her hand so we decided we should fight one handed. It was not going anywhere so Curtis got board and dumped me off.

After the pool, we ate sandwiches in the park and Papa sugested we go see the new Harry potter movie. On the way to the theater, our AC went out. 115 degrees out side and no relefe. Curtis opted out of the movie to take our car to a mechanic. They wanted $1200 to fix it. We decied to bare the heat. We put Max in my moms car so he wouldn't over heat. After that, We just hitched rides with everyone else.
That night we called in our order to Cafe Rio. We all cramed into a hotel room to eat together. It was so good, I really would have finished off my awesome salad but we had tickets to another show at Tuacahn.
Amanda babysat for us this time so Curtis and I could enjoy the show without interuption. This time we watched Annie. Bailey and Kennedy loved it...They also loved the mist at the top of the stairs.
Curtis and I decided to get an early start in the morning to escape the heat. We left at 5am and it was still 81 degrees. It was only after we reached Cedar City, we finally cooled down. Max was sweet and slept most of the way home.
After we reached Payson, Papa called to tell us the reunion is headed to Mapleton for the rest of the weekend. I'm so excited it's not over yet! We still need to play some seriouse Games.

Walk at the lake

We went for a walk around the lake the other day and these are the things we found.

This guy was asleep.

Another Beautiful day at the lake.

Weed

Yes, you are a weed. You can't fool me. Your yellow bloom is beautiful and summer-ish but I know whats going on underneath all of that. You are infecting my lawn and in a few days you will want the wind to blow to spread your seed. You will spread your root deep and strong so no matter how many times I try to pull you out, you will just come back again. So that is why you have to go. Your beauty will only get you so far.