Swimming Lessons

We decided to put the kids in swimming lessons this year. It worked out really good because the class they are in is for 3 to 5 year olds, so they both got to be in the same class. It's been really fun! Bria is doing awesome! We knew she would - she is pretty fearless when it comes to trying new things. Max is also doing incredible! I almost pulled him out at the last minute because he's had a lot of water anxiety lately. Until swimming lessons started, anytime we went near water he went running the other way. Even if we could talk him into getting into the pool, he would hold onto a grown-up for dear life! But, he is just joining right in and doing a great job! It amazes me to see him try things by himself and the expressions on his face are so enthusiastic. It's too bad it's only two weeks! I think they would both love to go everyday for the rest of the summer!

Idaho Summer Festival

This weekend, Dave had a booth at the Idaho Summer Festival. He did all the graphic /website/advertising designing for it, so he got a booth for free (or rather trade, I guess, since he did so much work). The festival started on Wednesday and went all the way to Saturday. Me and the kids went to go visit him on Friday for a while - they had a TON of stuff going on.

It was kind of like a carnival-type event, so there was lots of yummy food. Our kids have never eaten a funnel cake before, so I knew they had to try one. Yep - an instant success!

They also had a booth from Austin Kade Academy in Idaho Falls doing crazy hair for kids. So, we headed right over.

Very cool!! Bria requested braids with lots of pink....and green, and yellow, and sparkles. Mad didn't know what he was getting himself into. They hair dresser did a fabulous job on the star. He loved all the attention he got walking around after that. Bria cracked me up! I finally had to tell her to quit pointing when she saw someone walking around with crazy hair. Some of the girls walking around may have had crazy looking hair, but it wasn't "crazy hair". We got a pretty good laugh!

I must be suffering from camera forgetfulness lately because I meant to get a picture of Dave's booth. His dad was there helping also. But, somehow I left and no pictures of that. Darn!!!

Cherries, Cherries, Cherries!!!

45 pounds of cherries is A LOT of cherries. Seriously. When I first saw them, I didn't think it was very much, but trust me - it most definitely is! I ordered cherries from my old visiting teacher. Her parents have a fruit farm and were selling them for an excellent price, so I couldn't resist. They were VERY good! They were picked fresh last Tuesday morning and delivered that afternoon.


Max loved eating them. I think he would have eaten the entire 45 lbs himself, but I can't imagine what that would have done to his little system, so I had to keep him from sneaking too many. I told him not to eat the pits, so he started on one side and ate all the way to the pit. (I guess he didn't realize that he could also eat the other side.) He's really sensitive with name calling, so he wasn't very happy when I told him he had a messy cherry face. When I told him to go look in the mirror, he agreed - definitely a messy cherry face! (I love how red his teeth are!)





It took me several hours just to wash and de-stem all the cherries. I dried a few, but decided after pitting about 100 or so cherries by hand that it was going to be WAY too time consuming. So, I decided to bottle all the rest. I was really excited to use the new canner Dave got me for Christmas. I ended up with 34 bottles of cherries, so we should be good for a while. Since it was my first solo canning experience, I was pretty proud of all the bottles sitting on my counter. More great canning to come!

How we spend our 4th of July

At our house, the 4th of July is probably the busiest holiday of the year. Dave grew up selling fireworks with his parents and we have carried on the tradition by selling fireworks ourselves. We have 2 locations that we run every year in Rexburg - one in the Walmart parking lot and one in the Broulim's parking lot. It's an amazingly HUGE amount of work! Every year I wonder how we make it through, and yet we always seem to. It's long hours - 12 to 16 hours every day for 9 days. Then, after it's over, we still have inventory, accounting and settling to do with TNT, the company we sell through. But, it really is a lot of fun.

So, as you can imagine, the 4th of July is our busiest day. We started this year at 8:00am and didn't get home until about 2:30 the next morning. If we watch fireworks, it's only for a few minutes from the stand or tent and then back to work.

But, despite the busyness, I always try to at least go to the parade with our kids. Dave usually misses it - he's almost always stuck at Walmart. But, I head over to the Broulim's stand and spend time with them. I'm sure they have a lot more fun. They usually spend the rest of the day with Dave's family. This year they did some backyard swimming. Then, when evening comes, they head over and hang out with Dave and I until it's time to go home.

This year, our helpers at the stand were my brother, Tyson, his cute girlfriend, Jalim, and Vallie Pond. They were fabulous helpers! In this picture, they were taking a break during the parade. I wanted to get pictures of Dave and his dad at our tent, but it was so busy (and to be honest, I was so tired) no pictures were taken. We always have next year, I guess.

The parade is a hit with the kids. Almost every float has candy to throw out. Bria really got the hang of collecting all the loot this year. She got all kinds of fun stuff. Max got a few things, but kept coming back to sit by me so he missed out on all the booty.

Most of Dave's family usually comes to watch. Bria and Max are watching the parade with cousins Morgan, Alexess and Michael. I love how Bria is covering her eyes from the sun!

When they got to the tent with Dave and I, they were absolutely exhausted!! It took a good hour and a half to get them calmed down enough to finally fall asleep in the back of the van. We rented a few movies to help them fall asleep. I thought it was so cute how they fell asleep cuddling each other! So cute.