New Camera

I have always loved photography. In high school I took yearbook and was the darkroom manager, I developed my own pictures and I even bought an SLR from the school when I graduated. I still have that SLR and have not used it much at all because it is a film camera. I have wanted a nice digital SLR for a long time and I finally got one for my birthday this year. I decided to let myself splurge because Jon bought another truck, I think this is number 34 since we have been married, and I was sick of him spending all of the money on his hobbies. Even though the camera was a small fraction of the price of the truck (which we will be posting about soon), I still felt guilty spending the money. I am just not a big spender and I always have buyers remorse. Now that I have had it for a couple of months I do not regret it and I love it!! It is a Canon Rebel XS. It came with the standard 18-55 mm lens which does great, but maybe just maybe I will let myself get another lens sometime. I am also going to take photography classes from Inkley's which should be fun. And that should explain the enormous amount of pictures I have been posting lately.

I will make millions

Calvin has been really intrigued with money lately. I am not quite sure how this has come about but it makes me laugh. He is always thinking of ways he can make money or do trades. His latest idea happened tonight while I was reading to him.

Mom: The Berenstein Bears and the Spooky Old Tree. Written and Illustrated by Stan and Jan Berenstein.

Calvin: Wow, Mom the writers of this book named the book after them. The berenstein bears are named after their last name.

Mom: Yes, that's right, good job recognizing that.

Calvin: That is what I will do.

Mom: What?

Calvin: I will make a book called Captain Calvin, written by Calvin. And I will make millions.

(side note: Captain Calvin is a character I made up when I tell the kids stories before bed. Captain Calvin and Princess Lily have been on some great adventures).

Mom: That is a fun idea, why don't you talk to dad about helping you with that.

Calvin: Okay, we'll do it tomorrow.


Conversation from earlier today. We were in the van driving home from Salt Lake. We were out looking for a new truck and talking about how much they cost. Calvin chimed in from the back saying:

Calvin: Dad how much is this? (He shows Jon a piece of paper that he had written a 1 with 7 zeros on).

Dad: That is ten million.

Calvin: Wow, that is a lot. How about if you give me some money for my piggy bank then I will give you 10 million dollars.

We both start laughing and ask where he is getting 10 million dollars.

Calvin: I will come up with something.

A few minutes later

Calvin: Dad, how many is this? (now the one has a lot of zeros behind it).

Dad: I don't know how many that is but I know that a 1 with 100 zeros is a google.

Calvin: Cool.

Lots of updates

I have been busy playing catch up. There are new posts all the way back to Mother's day. Make sure to check them out and there are lots more to come!!

4th of July BBQ

The 4th of July BBQ was at Bambie's this year. We had a lot of fun visiting with family and eating yummy food!

The great big birthday party!!

Once again we had the annual Calvin and Lily water birthday party. It was so much fun. This year Lily got a Little Mermaid cake and Calvin got a pirate ship. The cakes were made out of cupcakes. The kids were spoiled by loved one's generous gifts. The water fight was a blast. I think we managed to get everyone at least a little bit wet.

After the party the cousins, Ambree, Bailey and Brielle stayed for a birthday slumber party. We had pizza and breadsticks, movies, candy and all sorts of fun. The picture below is of the kids playing house on the stairs. They are pretending that the stairs are a minivan. Calvin is the dad and Ambree is the mom of course. It was so fun to get to know all of their little personalities better. I think Brielle is an intellectual, a real thinker. She loved sitting down and reading or looking at activity books. After I read Sir Kevin of Devon to them she said, "That was a really great story about how that boy became a knight." It was cute. Bailey and Lily are like best buds when they are together. They have crazy amounts of energy. Running and jumping and singing and hugging and coming up with plans. Those two are hilarious. And I loved that Bailey told me she loved me like 10 times!! Ambree is the nurturer. She wants to help and take care of everything. She loved seeing little Ava around the house. She loved playing the mom to everyone. Calvin, the only boy. He is such a good sport, putting up with all of the girls wanting to play dolls and dress up. Calvin has the best attitude and he is so easy going. He would just add his little twist to each game they played. Like he would have a sword in his belt or he would tell them they had to live on a pirate ship if he was the dad. The kids stayed up until 11:00!! Holy moly the parents were tired!! We woke up and had Calvin's favorite breakfast, eggs, hash browns, ham and juice.

After breakfast some real excitement started. Brielle felt sick and threw up in the vent. We thought it could have been staying up to late, to much junk food, too much sun? Later we found out it maybe could have been a flu bug caught at Jaime's family reunion. Who knows? But after I washed her up she went on playing and acting as happy as can be. While I was cleaning out the vent cover in the sink, Bailey was running around the kitchen and fell into the the vent, cutting her toe. She was screaming and crying that it hurt. It was so sad. She wouldn't let us see it. But after we called Joe and she got to talk to her dad, she let Jon and myself fix her up with a princess band aide.

Jaime came over after lunch and all of the kids were playing and having fun. So we decided to go to the Lindon swimming pool. That pool is so much fun. It has a pirate ship, a lazy river, a big slide and a soft floor so your feet don't get scraped up. We met Tisha, Kaden, Abby, Jennylynn, Emma and some of their friends there. It was a fun two days of playing.