The rest of the story...

Sorry for the absence the last couple weeks of our vacation. Chris came and he started taking way too many pictures to organize and go through and put up here. Now that we're back, I've had a little time to be able to go through them and make a slide show. These are the highlights!

Our summer has been perfect! Sun nearly every day, FAMILY, friends, BBQ's, swimming, sleeping in, running, the mountains, camping, everything you're supposed to do during the summer. We're not sure when we'll be back, so it was wonderful being able to be there for such a long time. The kids are happy to be back "home", but for me, Farmington Utah will always be home. I loved every minute of it!

a couple I missed...

Was a bit quick with adding these. For the 4th of July, my grandpa was honored in the Malad parade as the Veteran In Honor in recognition of his World War II experiences as a B-24 bomber. It was touching for me to be able to be there and watch him as people stood and clapped at this wonderful man!

update

So much has been happening, I haven't had time to update this thing...Here's simply a slideshow of the past couple weeks. They include a trip to Uncle Steve's work to play on his super-cool-jungle-gym, A midsummer celebration in SLC where we happened to run into a couple in our ward back in Sweden :), 4th of July celebration up in Malad, celebrating Father's Day with Great Grandpa Alder, the Oakley Rodeo, the Dinosaur Park, Swimming lessons, and playing in grandma's pool.

Square Foot Gardening

Have you heard of this? Supposedly you can plant more in less space and not have to worry about weeds! Some people refuse because it seems too easy, but it was perfect for Grandma and Grandpa who this year didn't have any gardening space and who love gardens. They have 3 4x4- squares (each divided into 16 smaller squares) filled with dirt and fertilization and have planted peas, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, potatoes and flowers. :) Samuel and Sofia each got two small squares of their own and have to help grandpa water it each night. :)

Dates with Mommy

The other day, I realized I kept running out every couple days leaving Samuel and Sofia and Emmy with Grandma or David so i could do some shopping. So, the other day, I decided to take two days and take my kids out for lunch separately. It was a lot of fun and they felt so special. On mine and Samuel's date, he confided in me that he wanted to take dance classes, so he could dance real cool with an electrical guitar and have everyone cheer for him and that he no longer wants to be called Samuel, but only Sam. Sofia didn't confide anything, but found a "super cute care bear t-shirt that she just loved so so much and wanted to get because Grandma has so many cute care bears!" My mom was proud of her. :) It was fun. (we obviously went to Taco Bell on both occasions so I could give my children that American experience...not many taco places in Sweden.)

Wheeler Farm

On Friday we invited my good friend, Maria and her son Max to go to Wheeler Farm with us for the day. It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun seeing all the animals and going on a wagon ride. And although Samuel is NOT a fan of animals, he enjoyed being able to play on all the tractors!

What's More American?

The other day Samuel and Sofia saw our neighbors having a lemonade stand and curiously wondered what they were doing. When I explained, they got super excited and wanted to have one of their own. So, the next day, we cut up fruit into small bit size pieces and put them on a toothpick like a fruit-shish-kabob and had cold water. We put out a sign for free fruit and ice water. I went inside and let them work their magic and within 45 minutes, all the shish kabobs were gone and they had earned $3.25! (so much for free!) They were super excited and I had loads of childhood memories coming flooding back to me. Sometimes I miss being a kid :).