Fish Fry, Bowling, Liver Clinic, Splash Pad, High Altitude Camp, Horse Camp, Hiking, Girl's Camp, Baseball, Youth Conference, Summer School

Another two weeks have flown by.  Two Sundays ago Aaron wanted to try out a shrimp boil for Sunday dinner.  It had shrimp, corn on the cob and potatoes with added seasoning.  The reviews were mixed (some enjoy shrimp some don't), but it was fun to try something different for a change.

Daniel attended scout camp all last week up at Camp Bartlett in Idaho.  He had a good time and worked on multiple merit badges.  While he was gone we did go do some bowling as a family.  We all are pretty horrible at bowling, but we still had fun.

Since Daniel was gone and Josh had to work I took Sarah and Noah to a splash pad for an afternoon.  They had lots of fun and wore themselves out which was pretty great.  We brought a picnic lunch along with us so they could eat when they got hungry and then go and play some more.

Wahoo!  Wore the kiddos out!

Last week we signed up to feed the missionaries.  Aaron had planned on smoking a tri tip roast and serve it with a salad and baked potatoes.  However, three hours before they were going to come for dinner they called and let us know that the other pair of missionaries had a dinner cancellation and wanted to know if they could come, too.  We said sure and Aaron went and picked up a second tri tip roast to make sure we would have enough food.  We cooked 26 potatoes, made a huge salad and had two tri tip roasts ready to go when they showed up.  It must have been good eating because after they left we had no leftovers.  I thought it was bad with three teenage boys appetites in the house--when you add four more to that--Wow!!  That was a lot of food, but I am glad we were able to feed them!

Josh made some brownies last week, but Noah was a bit impatient.  He couldn't wait for them to cool so he dove in and scooped out a handful to eat.  Sigh...I really do try and teach my kids manners, but sometimes they still have a mind of their own!

Sarah, Noah and Daniel decided they wanted to sleep in the backyard inside a tent.  I was wondering if they would actually stay outside all night or give up and come inside.  I was impressed to see they stayed outside all night long.  They did get awakened pretty early in the morning, though, because our neighbor's dog was having some issues, but I still count it as an all nighter!  Here they are as I checked on them before I went to bed:

Last week Josh went to High Altitude Camp with the cross country team.  It is a camp high in the Uintahs about 8000 feet in altitude to build up their endurance and red blood cells.  They do runs multiple times a day and finish up with a 25 mile one-day run up to Red Castle which is a 25 mile trail with over 3000 feet in elevation gain.  Josh really enjoyed his time there.  It doesn't sound like a fun time to me, but Josh and the rest of the team loved it.  Here's Josh right after we dropped him off before they left for the week as you can tell because he is still clean.  He did not come home anywhere this clean--haha!

After dropping Josh off we headed down to drop Matthew off for his 3rd week at Camp Kostopulos this summer.  This week it was a residential horse camp where they learn how to take care of the horses and ride them throughout the week.  Matthew was pretty excited to be back at camp:

After dropping Josh and Matthew off we then headed over to Primary Children's Hospital since Sarah needed to see the liver doctor.  Her liver levels have been rising so they wanted to see her in the clinic to evaluate her.  I got to bring Daniel along to this appointment since the allergist drew labs two weeks ago and Daniel's bilirubin levels were elevated as well.  His eyes have also been yellow tinged for the past few months so they wanted to evaluate him as well.  Here we are waiting to get called back to a room.  They have redone the doctor's clinics so it has a beautiful view of the Salt Lake Valley:

Good news is that Daniel (and Matthew whose bilirubin has been high for the past two years) most likely have what's called Gilbert's disease/syndrome.  

A quick explanation is that Gilbert's syndrome is an inherited condition that's often discovered by accident, such as when someone has a blood test. It occurs due to a defect in the processing of bilirubin by the liver. The syndrome may cause the skin and the whites of the eyes to have a yellow tinge due to the buildup of bilirubin.  Gilbert's syndrome is typically harmless, and treatment isn't needed.

Unfortunately Sarah wasn't as lucky.  Her liver enzymes (ALT, AST, GGT) have not gone down to anywhere near normal since her hospital stay back in February.  This is why they did a liver biopsy back in May.  Unfortunately things are still not resolving so they are looking at possibilities. They have done testing which hasn't shown any reasons for the elevation in liver enzymes.  Unfortunately, the pediatric liver doctor is now thinking she may have the very beginning stages of Primary Biliary Cirrhosis/Cholangitis which is definitely NOT the news we wanted to hear.  I had to stop googling about it because it just heightened my already high stress level.  They will be following her closely and if things continue like they are now she will be needing another liver biopsy in a few months to see if there are any changes in her liver cells.  Her last biopsy showed inflammatory cells around her ducts which shows there is some inflammatory/autoimmune process going on so this is a logical explanation for the high enzyme levels.  The pediatric liver doctor wants her to start taking a medication called Ursodiol which will hopefully help slow the damage to her liver ducts.  She will be getting monthly lab draws to check her enzyme levels and check in with the pediatric liver doctor.  BOO!!  Aaron and I have been keeping our emotions in check since we don't want Sarah to worry about something she has no control of at this point.  I am still trying to come to terms with this news, though.

After the appointment we tried to lighten the mood and went out to eat at the Spaghetti Factory.  Daniel is annoyed that he is not going through puberty as fast as Josh has, but it is to our advantage because they still let him order from the kids menu--haha!

After lunch we decided to do some hiking.  We went up to Brighton Ski Resort and did some trails around the lakes.  I did make me a bit nervous when I saw this sign about an aggressive bear in the area:

Luckily, we didn't run into any bears--phew!  We did love the awesome views, though.

All the fish were hanging out under the bridge.  I tried to get a picture, but you still can't tell that there were TONS of fish there:

After finishing hiking around that area we drove over to the Temple Quarry hike and walked around there.  It was pretty cool to see where the pioneers got the stones/granite for the Salt Lake Temple.  The kids had fun climbing on some of the HUGE boulders, too:

The next morning Daniel had his very last orthodontic appointment--wahoo!  Sarah went in for a check up as well.  After falling and hitting her mouth which broke both her front teeth we have been dealing with the aftermath.  She got two root canals 4 months ago, but her front teeth are still settling.  Her front teeth are not even lengths so the orthodontist shaved her one front tooth down so they will be the same length which was really nice.  This is the second time he has had to do that because they keep moving.  Hopefully it will be the last time he needs to shave that tooth down!

Tuesday evening Josh attended traffic school to keep his ticket off his record.  I hope he learned something and I really hope he doesn't have anymore violations!  Teenage drivers are stress inducers for sure!!

Last week to celebrate the 24th of July the local hardware store was the sponsor to the Ogden Raptors baseball game and they gave out free tickets.  I went and picked some up for the family.  It was really weird because Matthew and Josh were gone so I only needed to get 5 plus 1 since we invited Grandma T to come along with us.  Grandpa T, Uncle Burke, and Uncle Bryan had gone on a fishing excursion up in Alaska for the week so it was just Grandma T at home so we invited her to come along with us.  When we got there and got in our seats I happened to look over and see my sister Johanna with two of her kids, Kade and Adrienne at the game too.  We invited them over and we all sat together.  It was a fun game to watch.  The Raptor mascot even came over to take some pictures with the kids:

The next day was Girl's Camp for me.  I was a bit anxious, but excited to go, too.  When we got there they had these pretty cool boxes for everyone.  Inside was a few 'camp necessities' which made it fun.  The theme was 'Because I Love Him'.

It was a lot of fun.  We got to do a scavenger hunt, play games, roast s'mores, paint a watercolor picture--this is what mine turned out like:

We also went hiking as well.  It was beautiful and there were so many wildflowers out:

While I was gone Grandma T came and picked up Daniel, Sarah and Noah (Josh and Matthew were at their different camps so they weren't home) for an overnighter which they loved.  Since Grandma T had the kids Thursday night it meant Aaron was home alone. He said it was a bit creepy to be in the house all by himself.  He was glad at least Sophie was around to keep him company.  He was able to go to the temple and then on the way home he picked himself up a small steak to cook for dinner.  He was pretty excited despite being by himself.

The next morning he stayed pretty busy since Matthew had to be picked up from camp down in Salt Lake, Josh had to be picked up in Syracuse from camp, and Sarah had to be at Roy Aquatics center for Activity Days all roughly around the same time.  Thankfully Grandma T took Sarah and Aaron was able to pick up Matthew and Josh.  Sarah seemed to have fun swimming with the Activity Day girls:

I got home the next day from girls camp.  It was a fun time, but it is always nice to be back home!

Sunday morning Grandpa T, Burke and Bryan got back from their Alaskan fishing trip and did a fish fry for all of us for dinner that night.  Fresh salmon never tasted so good!

This week is starting off busy, too. Josh and Daniel are currently at Youth Conference up at Utah State University.  Sarah and Noah have started a second round of summer school/enrichment, too.  Before I know it school will be starting soon!

It definitely has been a crazy two weeks.  I keep thinking things have got to slow down, but so far they aren't--haha!

Flat Tire, Family Reunion, Allergist Visit, Puppies, 4th of July, City Days, Baseball, Park, Bowling, BINGO, Hike

This summer is going by pretty fast!  It has already been two weeks from the last post and so much has happened.  A couple weeks ago the kids wanted to go to the park and play.  Poor Josh came with us, but only for a few minutes because he had a job interview so that's why he is dressed up.  Josh has been busy applying for some different jobs because he isn't getting very many hours at Urban Air.  His hard work paid off because he is now employed at three different jobs instead of just one.  He landed a job at Arctic Circle and at Clinton City Recreation.  He (Aaron and I as well) are pretty happy for him to be working and earning money.  The kids had fun playing at the park while we were there, though.

Baseball started winding down.  They only had one game before the playoffs started.  This picture is of Daniel on 3rd base with his awesome 3rd base coach (Aaron).

I did take the kids out bowling.  The kids have started getting a bit competitive which makes for some fighting.  Sarah and Noah decided to try bowling without the bumpers so they could truly compete with Josh and Daniel.  Well that went over about as well as you'd expect....It was fun in the beginning until the scores weren't very close anymore.

The scores weren't spectacular, in fact they were pretty bad, but we had fun for the most part minus the huge competition....

I think Sarah took it the hardest, though.  Poor girl!

The beginning of July I got to participate in doing a refugee immunization clinic in downtown Salt Lake which was really interesting.  There was a big language barrier, but we did the best we could.  Most of the refugees were from Africa which was interesting.  A lot of them needed a lot of shots.  One poor guy got a tetanus, pneumonia and a hepatitis B shot all which make your arm really sore.  We tried to explain to him that his arms were going to be sore the next few days, but he didn't quite understand.  He probably figured it out the next day when he couldn't lift his arms, though.  It was really an interesting experience.

July 4th was pretty fun.  It started out bright and early with Josh and Daniel running the 5K race.  Then we went and dropped Sarah, Josh and Daniel off at the beginning of the parade since they were going to be in it.  We then got a spot on the parade route. Aaron got up early to mark a spot for us with a blanket and four chairs.  Unfortunately one of the chairs was stolen when we got back to that spot to wait for the parade to start.  Who steals parade chairs?!  It was a pretty crappy chair so I hope the person really needed it more than we did.  Anyway, G&G T weren't with us this year since my niece Miriya was getting married July 5 back in Ohio and they were with my sister Jennifer instead.  Here we are (Aaron, Matthew, Noah and me) waiting for the small town West Point parade to start.

Josh and Daniel participated in the community marching band the Marching Muskrats.  Here's their group:

Daniel playing the saxophone:

Josh played the trumpet wearing some awesome sunglasses:

There are some cool perks living by an Air Force Base--they did a flyover the parade route which was pretty cool:

This guy is in every parade with his tractor.  We think it is fun to see him every year:

Sarah was in the parade with her dance team DforDanze:

Here's my cute girl:

After the parade we then went to the park and participated in the activities.  We got Sarah and Noah set up for the kid BINGO game while the rest of us played the adult BINGO game.  As always our luck isn't the greatest, but we had fun playing.  Josh did end up winning a Wendy's gift card which he was pretty excited about.

Noah won a kiddie bowling set in the kid BINGO game which he played with the rest of the weekend.  I think he is hoping it will help his bowling game the next time we go--haha!

After you win a BINGO you can't play anymore.  To kill some time Noah went and played some of the crowd games up on stage.  He got picked to be blindfolded and try to throw marshmallows into someones mouth.

Josh also got to play a game up on the stage, too.  They also threw out crowd prizes from the stage.  Sarah and Noah got hooked up since it really pays to have a gigantic brother who is heads taller than everyone else in the crowd to catch prizes for them.  They came home with some t-shirts and other things--haha!

Since G&G T weren't with us this year I had to make the homemade Rootbeer myself.  I have never done this even though I have seen Grandpa T make it numerous times.  We picked up the Rootbeer extract and some dry ice and tried it out.

Thankfully it worked out and ended up being pretty tasty.  I think everyone else agreed since they drank 5 gallons of Rootbeer in the space of 24 hours.

Aaron cooked up a storm.  He made some yummy hamburgers and we also had some potato salad, corn on the cob and some chips--the typical 4th of July BBQ dinner.  Shockingly we did have some leftovers, but the kids were afraid they would miss out so they ate the hamburgers for breakfast the next morning.  The kids feel that if they don't eat the food they want when they see it, it will be gone before they get hungry again so that is why they were all eaten for breakfast the next day.  That was the end of the leftovers--haha!

When it got dark we headed over to the park to watch the evening fireworks.  This 4th of July was so weird weather wise!  It didn't get over 80 degrees which was really nice, but made for a chilly night of fireworks watching.  There was even a HUGE storm that afternoon which almost cancelled the fireworks, but it stopped thank goodness.  It did make it even more chilly so everyone wore a sweatshirt and had a blanket to watch fireworks because it was so cold.

They didn't disappoint.  We really love the 4th of July and the family traditions we have on that day!! We did miss G&G T, though!

The next day was my niece Miriya's wedding.  I was sad I wasn't able to go out to Ohio for the day.  From the pictures she looks happy and it looks like it was a wonderful day for everyone.  Here's a picture of the happy couple:

The next day we decided to hike Waterfall Canyon as a family.  It is always a beautiful view.

As expected the kids made it to the waterfall 30 minutes before Aaron and I could drag our sorry butts up the steep trail.  It was worth it when we got there, though.  Here's proof that we made it--just barely though--haha!

While waiting for Aaron and me to get there he decided to do a polar plunge in the waterfall.  Since it is snow runoff it was pretty cold:

The view at the top is so pretty:

On the way home from the hike we stopped by and let all the kids get a Slurpee.  As I was driving home I turned into my neighborhood only to be followed by a Sheriff's car--DOH!!  He pulled me over because I was speeding.  It was pretty embarrassing since it was right in front of all our neighbor's houses.  I didn't have my purse on me either which meant I didn't have my driver's license.  I didn't take my purse with me because there have been a ton of car break-ins at trailheads so I didn't want my purse stolen while we hiked Waterfall Canyon.  I also didn't have an updated insurance card in the car either--double DOH!!  He looked everything up through my car registration and saw I was legit.  He also saw I had a car full of people with Slurpees that were melting.  The Sheriff was so nice and let me off with just a warning.  I was so grateful!!  If I had gotten a ticket I might have had to attend traffic school with Josh--haha!

Saturday evening Josh's work, Urban Air, was doing a date night for parents where they watch the kids for a few hours.  Josh was nice enough to take Sarah, Noah, Daniel with him and they played that evening for a few hours.  It was really weird only having Aaron and I awake in the house.  Matthew went to bed early because he was pretty tired from coming home from travel camp and from hiking Waterfall Canyon.  I feel bad we didn't actually go out on a date, but it was nice just to have a quiet house to ourselves for a few hours.  Sarah, Josh, Daniel and Noah had a lot of fun, though.

Since the hamburgers were such a hit for the 4th Aaron decided to try a different recipe for burgers Sunday.  It was a stuffed meatloaf wrapped in a bacon weave which you cook and then slice into burgers when it is done.  It was stuffed with crumbled bacon, caramelized onions and shredded cheese with BBQ sauce.  It was delicious!  There were no leftovers after that dinner--haha!  The kids were wondering what they were going to eat for breakfast the next day--haha!

Matthew had his second travel trip camp last week.  He got to camp in at tent at Jackson Hole and the Tetons.  He loves it!  Here he is right after he checked in--all smiles:

When I picked him up Friday he said he had a lot of fun.  Here's the award he got, "Future Train Conductor":

 Here's his camp journal his leaders keep so the parents can actually know what is going on while they are at camp.  I never thought Matthew would enjoy camping in a tent, but he has proved me wrong which I am glad!

We did have some excitement last Tuesday morning.  I had to pick up G&G T from the airport Tuesday morning which happens to be the same time the kids have piano lessons.  Josh was nice enough to volunteer to take them to lessons while I was down in Salt Lake.  As soon as I got to the airport I got a call from Josh.  I answered and he told me that he had a flat tire. DOH!!  I was down in Salt Lake at least 45 minutes away so I couldn't help in person.  I had Josh call Aaron at work, but he is impossible to get a hold of so he called me back.  Last time we had a flat in the van we made Josh change it so he was somewhat familiar with changing a tire.  I just had to talk him through it.  Thank goodness for cell phones with cameras.  Here's a few pictures of our text conversation:

J:  What's this thing with a spring?

Me:  It's the Jack.

 J: Is this the lug wrench?

Me:  Nope keep looking in the trunk for a thick metal pole with a bent end.  He did eventually find the lug wrench--thank goodness!

He tried getting the lug nuts off, but they were on really tight.  I felt so helpless since I was too far away to help.  Thankfully a nice man stopped by and helped Josh get the tire off and put the donut on.  Unfortunately, the donut was flat so that didn't help a whole lot.  The nice guy offered to take Josh to a tire place to get it pumped up, but by this time I had picked up G&G T and was only about 20 minutes away from where Josh was.  I told Josh to thank the man profusely because he really helped him a lot!! I hope he did!  Anyway, we dropped off Grandma T and their luggage and Grandpa T came to help.  Here Josh and Grandpa working to get the donut off so we could go and get it pumped up and see about the other flat tire:

Upon looking at the flat tire I noticed that it had a HUGE golf ball sized blowout hole on the sidewall of the tire.  Now when we got this car all 4 tires were brand new so this isn't a case of an old tire.  Also with a HUGE golf ball sized hole on the side wall of the tire it shows that it wasn't a nail, or other puncture wound, but that someone hit a curb going too fast.  Hmmmmm.....when I confronted Josh about it he said he only slightly hit the curb....hmmmm... he really insisted on it, but I really don't think I am getting the whole story.  Anyway, we still had to take the tires to get them fixed so off we went.  We first stopped by Les Scwhab tire store.  As soon as the employee took a look at the tire brand he immediately referred us over to Discount Tire because the tire was in such good shape (minus the huge hole in the side wall) it should still have some warranty left on the tire.  I could have hugged the guy if it wouldn't have been so weird.  He gave up a tire sale to help me save money which is so honest and awesome--something that doesn't happen as much anymore.  Grandpa helped me drop off the tires and then I had to take Josh to work.  I did drop Grandpa off because I am sure he was exhausted from his trip and ready to be home.  Afterward I happened to catch Aaron on his lunch so he came and picked up the tires and we met at Josh's car.  I finished putting the tire back on and then drove the car over to Josh's job to drop it off.  As I walked in I saw Josh with his trainer and he looked really cute so I took a quick picture before I handed him the keys to his car parked outside Arctic Circle.

Aaron then drove me back to the van so I could go back home.  What a crazy morning that's for sure!!

When I got home I gathered up the kids and we headed over to Chick-Fil-A to celebrate cow appreciation day!  Every year if you dress up like a cow you get a free sandwich or nuggets.  While I was doing my driving around for Josh I had the kids make their own cow mask and one for me as well.  Wahoo for free food!!  Here's my cute cows:

Later that afternoon Daniel had an allergist appointment.  It was just a follow up, but they did do a lung function scan which Daniel passed with flying colors--Wahoo!  Since it was so good we are able to wean him of his daily asthma meds which is awesome.  He only has to take them if he feels a cold coming on.  I am excited about this because the different inhalers can get a bit pricy even with health insurance!  Here's the lung function test:

He has to blow out all the candles on the birthday cake emptying his lungs and then breath in as deep as he can.  He has to do that 4 times which makes him pretty light headed afterward.

Daniel looked great and doesn't have to go back for another 6 months.  They did draw some bloodwork just to check on Daniel's allergen values which Daniel HATED, but what can you do?!  As for Josh had had an appointment with the allergist the day before and was doing well.  It was time to remix his allergy shot serum so they needed to see him first.  In talking with the nurse practitioner it will be best for Josh to stay on the allergy shots for another 18 months to get the full five years in.  This wasn't what I wanted to hear, but we have already done it for 3.5 years what's another year and a half.  To make sure he will be able to tolerate weaning off the shots we will started weaning him off his daily allergy pill in December to see how he does.  I am hoping he will tolerate it.  Since that is still 6 months away I will try and not worry about it right now.

With Matthew being gone the kids have had to take turns walking Sophie.  Aaron and I even took a turn or two.  At least Sophie keeps things entertaining like trying to chase her tail while cooling off in the shade.  She is a crazy dog!

Noah got to attend Cub Day camp last Wednesday.  He had a blast!

The leaders took a few pictures and here's one with Noah doing the rope walk:

That afternoon I took Josh, Sarah and Daniel to a movie matinee to see Spiderman Far From Home. It was pretty good!

July 11 we took advantage of the free Slurpees at Seven Eleven.  We visited two different stores. I am embarrassed to say that I was the only one to get 'slurped'.  My kids got their Slurpees without any issues, but mine exploded everywhere.  It was a bit embarrassing, but what can you do?!

 Daniel had his last two baseball games last week.  Daniel is trying to steal home with Aaron as the 3rd base coach:

 Daniel liked Aaron being an assistant coach:

 This past weekend was our city days.  Josh got to help out with youth council.  Josh took Daniel along to check out the car show.  Josh tried to sit in this car, but didn't fit.  He had to curl his legs up under the dash to even get the door closed:

 That evening Josh took Sarah, Daniel, and Noah for the movie in the park.  Daniel saw some friends and hung out with them, but they all had fun.

 The next morning Josh had to get up early to volunteer during the race.  He then came home and picked up Sarah.  He then dropped Sarah off with her parade float/dance team and then he went over to the youth council float.  We met up with the Einzinger's and G&G T to watch the parade:

Here's the youth council before the parade.  They got to ride in this really cool army vehicle:

 As they drove by us in the parade we got drenched:

 Sarah had a lot of fun walking with her dance teams in the parade.  Here she is waving to us:

 There were some Veterans who were in the parade promoting their service animals.  One guy even stopped to let Matthew pet his dog. Matthew was in heaven!

 After the parade we did stop by and visit the art display.  Daniel and I submitted photos for the photo contest for the city.  We were pretty excited to find out we both had won 3rd place in different categories.  Daniel's picture of a sunrise on the left and my picture of Sarah on the right. Wahoo!

Saturday after the parade we drove down to the Terry Family Reunion down in Salt Lake.  We started off by getting a family picture done.  It was really small since only about half of the family could make it.  Here are the ones that could make it, though:

After the pictures the kids did some rolling down the hills which they had fun with:

 Then we played some games.

 They brought a whole bunch of memory books which was kind of cool to peruse.  They had all the grandkids write a letter to great G&GT when they had their 50th wedding anniversary party about 27 years ago.  Here's my sweet 8th grade picture and note that I wrote them.

 They also had some photos of previous reunions you could look through as well.  I showed the kids some of my pictures like this one of me riding on the zip line:

 After I had been married and had Matthew I did see my grandparents once a week to check their blood pressures and visit with them.  They enjoyed the visits and seeing Matthew as well.  They did take a few pictures of Matthew which were included in the memory books.

 I may be biased, but he was a cute baby.

 To help everyone know who everyone else was at the reunion everyone got to wear nametags that showed which family they belonged to.  Here was my name tag with the Terry family crest:

It was cool to catch up with some of my cousins who I haven't seen for YEARS.  An interesting thing is that I found out one of my cousins works in the post high program in their school district.  This is the same type of program that Matthew will be attending in the fall so she was able to answer a few questions about it for us.  I have been really nervous about Matthew learning how to use public transit, but she let me know that he will be really safe and never alone during these trips.  It was really nice to talk with her!  I think they are planning on another reunion in a couple years so it will be fun to catch up with them again in two years.

Saturday evening our city had a show by a hypnotist and Josh and Daniel got to participate.  Josh got to be a rap master and Daniel got to play the drums with his bum.  When they realized what they had done afterward Daniel was a bit embarrassed since his crush was in the audience, but Josh didn't care about looking silly--haha!  Sarah and Noah tagged along for the fun and they enjoyed the show.

Sunday for dinner Aaron wanted to try out a shrimp boil.  He got all the stuff beforehand (Saturday) and put it all together for Sunday dinner.  I thought it was pretty good.  The kids had some mixed reactions, but over all I think everyone thought it was fun to try something different as well as something that Aaron grew up doing which is part of his heritage.

Our neighbors/friends dog had puppies about 6 weeks ago and we got to go love on them yesterday evening.  Puppies are so sweet!  The kids had a blast holding them.  Here's Josh:

 Me:

 Noah:

 Sarah:

 Matthew absolutely loved it as well even though we don't have a picture of him holding a puppy.

This morning Daniel left for Scout Camp bright and early.  He packed everything himself so I hope he got everything he needed.  I also hope he has a great time.  Things are definitely more quiet without him at home!!

With it finally warming up to summer temperatures and Matthew taking Sophie on tons of walks the pavement was starting to burn her pads on her paws.  We ordered some booties for her and tried them out today.  Sophie is definitely not a fan, but what can you do.  We tried to put them on her multiple times, but she keeps shaking them or biting them off.

When we finally got some on her to stay Josh tried taking her for a walk and she did not like it as you can see:

Crazy dog!!