The Rest of Summer

To finish up the summer, we...

enjoyed chocolate popsicles...

 and were so sad when they were gone!

spent some time helping Grandma Waddoups at her school library.

had an overnight adventure at Daniel's Summit to watch the meteor shower with Grandma and Grandpa Waddoups.

got a new style...

(love it!)

went to our first Owls baseball game

learned to scoot...

(please ignore the mess... reorganizing our front closet where all my craft supplies are... Paul is helping.)

which led to getting stuck.

played Grandma Shelly's piano.

got some more style.

And now Paul is turning 1! I can't decide if it's been the longest year of my life -- I just can't remember life without him -- or the shortest -- just yesterday he was this little boy in the basket and now he's this not-so-little boy pulling all of my fabric out of the same basket (and tipping over... help me, I've fallen and I can't get up!)

 We've got a very busy birthday-day ahead of us, so I'll tell you all about my marvelous 1-year-old (toddler!) later. :)

The Hawkins Visit + Trip to Salt Lake

Our best friend, the Hawkins, came to visit in August, too. We are so glad that they have to come weddings or we'd never get to see them. :)

Paul and Sofie continued their courtship...

 Although we might have to have a talk with Sofie about seeing other men. ;)

We all took a trip to Salt Lake, together, too, to visit all the free things in the Gateway... which was mostly just the planetarium since we had to leave early before we hit the fountain.

This perpetual motion display is Mark's favorite thing ever. He and Paul watched it for hours, I swear! There are tons of little balls that roll around and around and go up and down in slides and elevators. As they move around, they make music (?) as they roll across xylophones and hit chimes. It makes for a very loud atmosphere, which Sofie didn't like very much.

 We also spent a few coins to roll them down the big funnel thingy.

 Paul and Mark walked on Mars

 and we took a family trip to the Moon.

 And the brave daddies even made it up the escalator with both strollers and the children intact.

 Paul didn't seem to even notice when we put him inside the ball and collapsed it. :)

Springville's World Folkfest

I've spent nearly my whole life in Springville but I hadn't even been to the World Folkfest that's here every year. While Mark was gone to a teaching conference in Oregon (yes, back in Oregon!), Leslee, Paul, and I went to the opening night street dance.

Just waiting for the action to start...

The art museum parking lot, waiting to be filled with dancers

And there are the dancers! And all the other people....

Apparently, the street dance is the night to get out and learn some of the dances... as in, mingling with the dancers in the parking lot of the art museum. We were unaware of this and thus made a hasty retreat after watching a couple of the dances. Paul really was ready to go to bed, too. ;)

24th of July

At the Nances for our annual 24th of July barbecue, we got to meet Ken's fiancee! Her name is Bri and we love her to death. He met her over the 4th of July weekend and they were engaged by the 24th. They're getting married in November and we are so excited for them!

The happy couple

Bri's brother Jared and his wife Ashley

Shelly and Grandpa Dunn

And, of course, Paul is the center of attention.

And, the other Paul... the Grandpa one. :)

Oregon Part 2: Mount Hood

Government Camp is an amazing little resort town at the base of Mount Hood. We were seriously contemplating moving to Oregon after our stay there because it is so beautiful and green and wonderfully cool all day. We met up with the rest of the family (minus two brothers who couldn't make it).

At the resort (yes, resort... so posh!) where we stayed, they had a great pool. Paul loved it!

Just so long as he could splash without getting water on his own face. :)

My sister-in-law Rebecca showed Mark how to do an underwater handstand... "Just hum to keep the water from going up your nose..."

This was Mark's underwater handstand... Can you tell he's humming? ;)

That afternoon we went up to Trillium Lake, just about ten minutes away from where we were staying (at the resort, in case you'd forgotten that we were staying at a resort ;).

My sister had canoes and kayaks for us to take out, so we took the canoe as a family...

And then took it for a real test drive with just the two of us. :)

Paul wasn't so sure about dipping his toes in the cold lake water,

but he eventually deigned to dip those cute little toes in.

This is the view from the lake... That's Mount Hood. Yup, still snow in the middle of July. You can go skiing if you want to, even.

The next day we went to Skibowl, a little amusement park (think mini Lagoon) just walking distance from the resort. Despite the misspellings, we had a good time. :)

Paul couldn't do most of the rides, but he entertained himself

And found a soft Grandpa's shoulder.

We were the first ones there, so we had the go karts to ourselves, just the seven of us: Jeremiah, Megan, Sarah, me, Mark, Isaac, and Keagan.

Jeremiah was happy to ride with me... until he found out that I don't know how to drive a go kart am a crazy driver. He was still nice enough to lie and say that he had fun, even after we lost. :)

After we left Government Camp, we went back to Greta's (my sister's) place in Hood River. This is the place that they just moved into this week, but the owners were nice enough to let us look when we were there visiting. It has much more space than their old place, so it's more suited to a family with 4 children and 3 dogs. :)

Speaking of which, Mark and I decided that that's how you can tell the difference in Oregon between a Mormon and a non-Mormon: the Mormons have more children than dogs, where everyone else has more dogs than children. :)

We went down along the Columbia River to see the windsurfers and kiteboarders. Those people are amazingly talented! I still don't understand how you can harness the wind in your kite to pull your board against the wind.

And, last time we visited Mark didn't realize that that was THE Columbia River with Washington on the other side until we were leaving, so, we made a drive over to the Washington side of the river.

And luckily Sarah had taught us how to jump earlier in the week at the cheese factory... The students become the teacher... ;)

This is the view from the Washington side: Mount Adams, green trees, and the multi-colored train. So much better than this picture (taken through the window of a moving car) does justice. :)

As we headed out, we ended up lost fueling up in the same area of The Dalles as when we came through the first time, by this cool church.

We had the best time in Oregon. We can't wait to go back!