Max's birthday

Max was born on Pioneer Day. That means as long as he lives in Utah, he gets fireworks for his birthday. We do a friend party every other year so this year it was a family party year. The kids really like that too because they get to pick anywhere they want to eat. Max picked Boondocks which means he also got to play Laser tag and video games, he worked the system. His one and only present from us was a motor scooter. Maddie bought one with her own money a few months ago and he LOVES it. Since it is Maddie's scooter he would have to ask her before riding it and she doesn't always say yes. It goes 15 mph and is nice to go back and forth to Grandma's house a block away. We told him he could open his present at 8 am (because we knew it would be charged by then.) He woke up 3 times before 8, it felt like Christmas. He was very happy to have his own scooter.
He picked out an oreo cake at the store, that made my job easy.
That night we got together with lots of neighbors for the "cul-de-sac of FIRE."
Max waited until Monday to go to Boondocks so the Krumholz cousins could go with us. Jon's mom was also in town so she got to go. We called Jon's brother's family and Ryan's family and my parents and Gram all came. It was a fun, big group. Yay, Max. Happy 9th birthday!!!

Cabin Fever

My Grandma has a cabin in Kamas that we don't go to enough. We scramble through the calendar trying to figure out 2 to 4 days when we can get away. We always have to miss some event but don't regret it once we get to the cabin. Something about being in the mountains and away from day to day life that makes us relax, ahhhhhh. We let Tanner bring up a couple of the neighbor boys which was really fun.
Max got a little marshmallow on his chin eating a smore. Must've enjoyed it!Jon's brother Joseph and his wife Bethany came up for one night with their 3 kids. Seth and Elisabeth are the same age and get along great!

A few years ago we bought a canoe because there's so many lakes around us. The kids think it is so fun to put their hands in and look for fish. Ah, the great outdoors.

Elisabeth and Seth in a field of wild flowers, so cute.

The boys' room, ARRRGH!

I decided to do Max and Seth's room in a pirate theme. It's taken me pretty much a year to finish because I keep getting distracted, but today I think I'm done. Hopefully they haven't outgrown the theme yet. So first I painted it a very bright blue, which is almost too bright but I like it. Then I got them a pirate chest toy box and glued gold coins to a cork board.
Jon's mom made really cute quilts and matching pillowcases for their bunk beds. Then last week Jon's sister gave me all these cute (or I should say scary) pirate sayings to put around their room. I just finished with the vinyl letters and am officially done with their room! Now, if they'd just keep it clean.

4th of July

I asked Jon when he was going to take the kids to go buy fireworks. He didn't seem that enthused about it. I wasn't that enthused either. I joked with Jon saying we should just put a $20 bill

on the ground and burn that, but it doesn't emit sparks or blow up so I relented and took the kids.

Last year we went to an Orem Owls baseball game on July 3rd because

after the game they had some

great fire works and we didn't have to fight traffic. We decided to do it again this year. The kids were a little baffled that we were going to ANOTHER baseball game. They're fun but a little long for their attention spans. Here's Donovan and Paige entertaining Seth, yay. The fireworks were great.

On the 4th of July we pretty much swam at my parent's house the whole day. Poor Lincoln got burned the most, he should probably wear sunscreen or something.

Then that night we did our few fireworks and Devin went and bought a little box. It was just right. Yawn, time for bed. What a great weekend. I'm so grateful for this country and all the wonderful freedoms that come with it.

Max's shiny smile

Max got braces yesterday and boy is he feeling it. He's had soup for three meals, poor guy. He was the one kid that I thought would not have to get braces because he had gaps between his baby teeth and the dentist mentioned to me that that was good he'd have lots of room for his permanent teeth. But apparently he has a cross bite so my hopes were dashed. He only needs them for a short time. Now Seth is super sad because he wants braces and he hasn't lost any of his baby teeth. Maddie lost 3 teeth last week and he just hangs his head in depression. It's hard being the youngest. It's got its perks too, but he seems to forget those.

Tanner got braces on again last week because the orthodontist didn't anchor his retainer to a tooth that turned. It is free and only for 3 months so Tanner was okay with that.

Beach vacation 2009

Every summer we go to California with ALL of the Dewey family (unless they're on missions or in school). This year we had 22 of us. It is a lot of fun and a lot of chaos. The cousins have a great time being together and being on the beach they never run out of things to do.

Max was a little too tall for these monkey bars
Jon bracing himself for this huge wave...and it was cold!
Tanner loves the water, he gets way in lots of times a day.
Seth got pretty cold pretty fast. He would try to get warm or just go inside to take a hot shower.
Katie and Maddie spent a couple of hours making menus for "My Sister's BBQ" then pretended to be our waitresses for dinner. They did say tips were welcome.