Sister Jeffery, July 4th, Washington, Canada, Beaches, Birthdays, and Moving.

Yea, It's obviously been a crazy couple months. So warning, it's going to be a long one. I could split it up, but then I'll never get it done. So we start with the week my sister left on her mission. They came to visit us on their way to take her to the MTC. Really, we all just hung out and played games and such. I'm glad I got to see her some more before she left. My family came out for the weekend of the 4th of July and we had a great time! We celebrated Alex's 7th birthday, saw The Last Airbender, walked the street fair on the greenbelt, went to a Chukar's game, where the kids got to run the bases, then walked down to the waterfront and watched the best fireworks show west of the Mississippi. All in all a good and busy day.


Later that week we flew to Seattle! Maggie's first airplane ride, and she did pretty well aside from choking on a goldfish and throwing up in the airport, then crying the whole descent. I don't feel bad about the crying though, because there were at least 10 other kids upset/crying/screaming on our flight of maybe 50 people. Yay! We spent the night packing up the trailer with camping stuff and left the next day for Canada! Almost all of Ruth's (my mother-in-law) family was there! We stayed at Camp Linley- a boy scout camp near a nice lake. We had s'mores and hot chocolate every night, made movies, played family feud, went to the lake, and had an all-around wonderful time. I am so glad that I decided I wanted to go. And just in the nick of time too, I barely had time to get my passport renewed. I loved spending time with my new family! Camping is also one of my favorite activities, so it combined to be a very wonderful weekend. We even got some pictures with four generations! We all look a little grubby from camping, but it was so much fun, who cares what we looked like? We got back to Washington Saturday night and Steve and Kathy and family came over for dinner on Sunday. Little Katelyn is not so little any more, and she loved playing with cousin Michelle and the bubbles, while the boys played basketball.

Brandon went back to Idaho to work on Monday, and Maggie and I were able to stay until Thursday! Michelle loved to play with Maggie, just making her smile and giggle! Her four little teeth made it all so much cuter! Michelle and Neil and I got to hang out some. We all went to the beach with Twix too. Maggie wasn't super excited about the water, but she wanted to play in the ocean more than just sit in the sand. Neil taught me a bit of how to skim board. Michelle and I made some skirts too! Well, we only finished one, but we got fabric for 3 each. I just finished one of mine last week. It's super fun for me to think up and design these. I decided I love it so much, I'm going to start making baby dresses like this to sell at craft fairs and farmer's market's, etc. Back to vacation. Whenever possible Grandma would put aside work for a while and play with Maggie. When Grandpa got home from work Maggie would run her fingers through his beard. She had lots of fun getting to know her family better.

Maggie and I stayed at my family's house when we flew back through Boise until Friday night, then we all came back to Idaho Falls for the weekend. A couple days later I went up to Rexburg and picked up Alecia and all her stuff, because she finished her first semester of college!! She'll be going back in the fall, along with Neil and Michelle - Brandon's siblings.

A couple weeks later we celebrated both Maggie's first birthday and Brandon's 25^th! There was an air show starring the blue angels that Brandon worked at on Maggie's actual birthday, so we celebrated the next day. We had a little party for her with some of our friends, sadly only a couple of kids could come, but she doesn't really play with other kids yet anyway, so no biggy. She wore a pretty light up butterfly crown

and played with her new toys. She didn't much care for her butterfly cake (don't look too closely, it was my first attempt and has many imperfections), she ate barely a few crumbs, but the rest of us liked it. She got lots of new cute clothes and some fun new toys. Her favorites were her owl jammies (ok those are my favorite-they are SO dang cute!) and a new crawl and play ball. It has lots of fun buttons to push and it sings her fun songs. Brandon's birthday was much less ideal. He was at work all day, so I brought in 2 banana cream pies to work for him and everyone else in the office. Then Maggie and I came later that night to the game. Of course it started raining and he got to help put out and take down the tarp on the infield, then help dry it all out. The game was only an hour and a half delayed…which meant that Maggie and I were there for about 1 inning before we headed back home. He was very tired when he got home that night, but he got a good night sleep after a labor intensive day.

All in all July has been a great month for us! We're heading into the last couple weeks of games and then things will be much more calm. I started working at Melaluca Field during the games, waitressing the suites. Maggie gets to be one of those kids that's parents both work at the park, so she just hangs out with the people that are there all the time. The girls at the gift shop, some of the season ticket holders, and a couple of the ushers have been watching her most. Fun times, but it's nice to have a bit of extra cash, since Brandon is still technically an intern – evidenced by his salary, and there's 0nly 10 games left. Hallelujah! Life works out amazingly, giving you your little needed perks and small cash bonuses when things start getting tight.

Oh and news for August … Just this past week, the house we've been renting while for sale, has now sold. We have a month to find a new place, even though we don't know how much longer we're going to be here. Brandon is applying for other jobs right now, and we are praying that we find the perfect thing. We have a couple options but haven't found the ideal. We're still searching, and in the mean time finding a place to live. Got to love the possibilities opened up when you have no idea where you are going to be in a month. However, we are happy and healthy (Maggie must be teething again though, because she's not been sleeping very well.) We are grateful for family and friends that love and support us.

I count my blessings, and they are many.