Visitors

I love to have visitors, so we were really excited when we got a call from Bart saying that they were coming down from Utah to spend a few days with us. Unfortunately, I always get so involved in what is going on that I forget to take the all important "blog photos." We got to celebrate Jarom's 5th birthday on June 28 while they were here, so I did get a few pictures of that. Here he is opening his presents with Kerina looking just as excited as he is. On the right is his cousin--Uncle Jason's son. They came up from Phoenix for the "big" party.Porter very concerned about the presents, Hannah sharing something fun with her mom.
I had to add this picture of Uncle Jason's daughter. Isn't she just the cutest little thing? That's her mom with her.


All Jarom wanted to do for his birthday was go swimming, so we found this fun little water park down in Prescott Valley, and off we went. The kids all had a great time. Some of those people belong to us.


Porter and Emma waiting their turn to go down the slide.

Porter--someday he's going to "love" this picture. He is such a little charmer.
Hannah and Emma. That Hannah is getting sooo pretty, and is such a sweet girl and good baby sitter.
Kerina in the water, and Emma out. Check out Emma's pose--she is such a little cutie!
Joseph--growing up way too fast. He will be twelve in November--a most important birthday. We will be going up for Thanksgiving and to see him ordained a deacon.
Kerina--you just can't help loving that girl.
Okay, so I know there are eight kids in that family, and I only took pictures of five--don't know how I missed the others, especially baby, Grace, who is adorable, and who I took care of the whole time while she slept. You'd think I would have clicked a quick photo--and where were Andrea and Jarom, the birthday boy? I know they were there, but you can't tell it by my shoddy photo journalism skills. Sorry you kids--I'll get you in November.

The day before Bart and Marie left, my sister, Melinda, and her husband, Randy, flew in from Colorado. (We also had one extra elder for a couple of days, so that meant we had 17 people here. Does it get anymore fun than that?

Randy has always loved to cook, so when he lost his job a few months ago (he was a superintendent for a very large construction company--can you say, "Freddie and Fanny?"
Anyway, it was probably a blessing in disguise, because it forced him into a career change, and since he has always longed to be a chef, and since they have a great culinary arts school near him, he enrolled. So needless to say, I didn't cook the whole time he was here. Check out the pro-chef attire. He even has the full-on checkered pants (but it was just too hot for the smock).
Here's one of the meals he cooked--the best steaks ever (done in the frying pan instead of the grill), the salad was amazing, and the grilled corn . . . well, there just wasn't enough of it.
We went to the rodeo (world's oldest, right here in Prescott) while they were here, but I forgot the camera. They were here on the 4th of July, and we watched fireworks with our neighbors from the street in front of our house, but I didn't take any pictures of that either. I did capture a little Wii-playing the night before they went home. I have no idea how long they played--I went to bed and they were still at it. Such fun, and would you believe, they are coming down again in two weeks? I am so looking forward to it. This time, I'll try to be more efficient with the camera.