10 Years!

Many thanks to Cami for helping to make our first 10 years of marriage such a fun and rewarding experience. Instead of diamonds, can I get you a new bike instead? I love you!

Saturday at Brighton

While Cami rode her bike from our home in Riverton up to Brighton the kids and I did some hiking. Check out the pics...

Happy Birthday Les!

What I wouldn't do to be 29 again!

Millcreek Date

Many thanks to Grandma Toni for watching Alder & Kate this afternoon while Cami and I rode the upper Millcreek trails.

Kate's First Day of Kindergarten

Grandma and Grandpa's July

Happy August! July was an eventful one, but it went by way too fast. Along with the 4th and 24th, we celebrated our anniversary this month (the 34th) and Anya's birthday. (the 62nd) Grandma and Grandpa have been staying in good shape chasing after Nicki and Tyson's Henry and Owen. We enjoy them very much, but boy are they active. (and very creative) We never know what interesting entertainment they'll come up with next. See pictures Nicki included. We also love seeing our wonderful Gus, Malia, Tessa, and Alder and Kate. Oh, and of course their lovely parents. Here's a thought. One day I (Grandma) thought about how excited I used to be as a little girl when Christmas approached, or waking up on summer mornings anticipating a day in the park. I thought, what happened to that really excited happiness I once felt---those exhuberant, I can hardly breath, feelings? Then I realized I still have those giddy happy feelings when we're surrounded by our children and their children. That's happiness!
Let's see, what else has happened? Oh some not as fun things. The stock market too a nose dive for one thing right after we invested more money in it. Then we had a couple of vacancies which means lots of time-consuming little repairs for Grandpa, the fix-it guy. We finally got smart and now have a list of things we expect tenants to do if they want their full deposit back. That's cut cleaning time tremendously. Yahoo! Christy came and helped us get rid of some wallpaper residue this week with her equipment. Thanks, Chris.
Nicki and Christy have also been helping us get rid of stuff and clean out here at home. It takes someone else to help you get rid of stuff because everything looks valuable when you find those things you didn't know you still had in the first place. Looks like we'll be having a garage sale soon because we have lots of stuff which has now been transferred to the garage. It makes you realize how blessed you are when you have so much extra that you can't fit it all in your house anymore.
Grandma Anya still hasn't heard from Deseret Book to find out how her book is doing, but should any day. She has been waking up at three or four every day and working on another book. We'll see what happens. Nicki just read through the rough draft and gave some input, but really liked it. And that's what we did this July! See you next month.

Henry and Owen's Summer

Henry and Owen are having a great summer...

they love to play and explore,

jump on the trampoline with their cousins,

eat yummy popcicles while almost nude,

and lots of other things:

playing with outlet covers and sucking them like a binkie, fighting with each other while they climb up their highchairs, going to nursery, helping grandma sweep, talking to daddy on the computer, petting the cat and making him bat at them, giggling during naptime, playing with their house/tent Grandma Toni made them, jumping on the bed, moving their porta-cribs while they're in them (I still haven't figured out how they do that), singing in church (while holding a hymn book)--even during the talks and prayers, racing mom and grandma down the halls, discovering treasures on top of the counters, and biting each other when they both want the same toy.

Yep, they're having fun this summer.

--Nicki

Tyson's New Pet

Tyson isn't able to contribute to a blog without permission from his commanding officers, but he wanted me to share this story with you. This is an exerpt from a recent e-mail. --Nicki

Our dog 'Chelyb' enjoys beef jerkey. He is just an ownerless dog that was hanging out by our Stryker one morning while we were on patrol and I gave him a piece of my jerky. Ever since then he always sleeps under our vehicle while we are conducting checkpoint operations at the bridge. The funny thing is, he is an actual guard dog. Every time any local national (our term for Iraqi's) comes within 10 feet of our Stryker, Chelyb barks and barks and chases them away. For some reason he is able to tell the difference between US soldiers and everyone else, even Iraqi army and police. If an American approaches he sits and wags his tale and smiles--anybody else and he barks up a storm; it is quite hilarious to watch the Iraqi's, especially on bikes, try and get away from him. A couple of times some Iraqi's actually rode their bikes into a ditch by our Stryker trying to avoid him. Chelyb means dog in Arabic, so the name just kind of stuck. The locals seriously think he is our guard dog now. One Iraqi came up to me and thanked me for bringing out the "American Trained Killer Dog" because he said he thinks the insurgents are now scared to bring weapons and munitions through the checkpoint because of the dog. For some reason Iraqi's are more scared and superstitious of dogs than most Americans.