4th of July

We had a great 4th of July. We started by leaving early to go to Lindsey Gardens to go ice blocking. For the uninitiated, ice blocking is what it sounds like, you sit on a block of ice and slide down the hill. For those familiar with Lindsey Gardens, the hill was in pretty rough shape. We found one little place that was suitable for sliding. The rest had too many bare spots and mole hills. The following pictures are of everyone taking a turn sliding (the camera battery died before we could get a picture of Ryan.) Lauren was the champion ice blocker. She must have the Grandpa Lindsey genes. After the ice blocking, we stopped by Grandpa and Grandma Lindsey's graves.

That night we had a barbeque with the Ogborns and our annual cul-de-sac of fire fireworks show. (All the neighbors bring their fireworks to the cul-de-sac and light them off at the same time.)



Ryan had the trick of the night by actually falling asleep during the firework show.

The Bike Ride

Ron Thorpe invited Adam Whitefield and I (Derek) to ride with him in the MS150 bike ride in Logan, Utah. In order to ride, you have to raise a minimum of $250 to donate to MS research. (Thanks to those who sponsored me.) We didn't register until June 2 and the ride was June 28. I hadn't ridden a bike in over a year, so I had some work to do. I borrowed a bike and rode three or four times a week to get in shape. By the time the 28th rolled around, we were ready (or not) to ride the 75 miles of the trip. It started at the fairgrounds in Logan and looped up into Idaho and back to the fairgrounds. The first picture is of us pedaling back into the fairgrounds at the finish of our ride. (Derek on the left, Adam in the center and Ron on the right)

We camped in Logan Canyon the night before with our families (except for Mark who was at scout camp.) The weather was nice and we made pretty good time on the ride. Our total time was about six hours. That included a few rest stops and a lunch stop. We were tired by the time we got done, but it felt good to have accomplished the task. The second picture is of nerd man of America at the end of the ride.

BTW, since my company didn't sponsor a team, I signed up with Ron's team of Fidelilty Investments - hence the jersey.

Summer Orchestra

Mark is having the Mother of all Summers. He signed up for Summer Orchestra. Taught by the Jr. High orchestra teacher, it ran for two weeks and then they had a concert. This is a picture of Mark and his friend Davis Crabb during the concert. As the teacher announced each number for the concert, we realized that Mark was the first chair violin - and that he had an extended solo on one of the songs. The turkey hadn't even told us that he was first chair OR that he had a solo in the concert. (The second picture is him playing his solo. Sorry about the quality of the photo.)

Along with summer orchestra, Mark only has one or two other things going on this summer. He has Lehi team tennis five days a week. He has piano lessons. He has violin lessons. He went to scout camp. (His b-day coincides with scout camp, so he had the option of going or not.) He has Teacher's camp. (He is now 14 and a Teacher, so he can go to that too.) We are going on a family vacation to Nauvoo. He is going on trek at Martin's cove. In his spare time, he likes to play computer/video games and write computer programs. Wow!

Lauren's World

Lauren is our planner/organizer/designer. She loves to plan parties and design stuff. For the 4th of July, she decided that she wanted to make cupcakes, but not just any cupcakes, she wanted to make patriotic cupcakes. She had grand plans, but was foiled by not being able to find the right decorations for the cupcakes. Since she couldn't put flags on the cupcakes, she decided to make a flag out of the cupcakes. This picture is the result of making about 70 mini-cupcakes and putting the right color icing on them. Notice the stars on the blue cupcakes. Very impressive!

Lauren also lives to swim and almost swims to live. She would live at the pool if we let her. Unfortunately we don't have pictures of her swimming.

Lauren is taking an art class this summer. She is a really good artist. I am constantly amazed at what creative ideas come out of her head. This picture was taken by Ryan of some doodles Lauren made on a white board we have.

Ryan the Builder

Ryan loves to work. He loves to find out how things work. He loves to build things. One of his favorite activities is shoveling mink manure and spreading it on the garden. I came home from the store today and he was scraping paint off our back door frame. (It needs to be repainted, so he was OK to be doing it.) He loves to ask how things work or how they were made. If I don't know the answer, he makes up a story about how it works. (Sometimes the stories are pretty funny.) I took Mark and Ryan to the driving range yesterday. Ryan was intrigued by the tees. He turned it around and around in his hand. Finally he said, "Wow, how do they make these?"

Ryan also loves to build things. He likes legos, blocks, anything you can put together. If it involves tools he likes it even better. These pictures show some of his creations. The first is a tower built out of blocks. The second is a structure made out of toothpicks and mini-marshmallows. He had been bugging Marsha to let him build something. Finally she got out the toothpicks and mini-marshmallows. He was intently involved in building the structure for an hour or two. He built the whole thing by himself without any help.

Holding Fire in Your Hands

One day Marsha was in the back yard with Joseph. She was holding him and the sun was shining on him like in these pictures. Our neighbor looked over the fence and asked, "Are you holding fire in your hands over there?"

He certainly has firey red hair. It is getting a little lighter now than it used to be, but when the sun hits it, look out!

Joe is a very mellow boy. He loves anything and everything to do with balls. He was watching Winbledon with Mark the other day and was grunting along with the players when they would serve. A little later he was serving a little tennis ball with a racquetball racquet and doing it pretty well. He loves to play ping pong and carries a paddle around all the time. Here he is on the ping pong table.

Bubble Boys

Ryan and Joseph were playing in the bubble bath one night and were making funny beards and hats out of the bubbles. They started laying down in the bubbles with just their faces showing. It was really cute.

Can you tell which on is which? They are really fun boys who like to play with each other. Joseph thinks he is four years old like his big brother.