Another funny Hailey story.

Here's a quick story I heard about Hailey from the primary president. In sharing time they were talking about learning about Jesus, and the seminary program came up.

"Does anyone know what 'seminary' is?

Hailey always has a response ready. Her hand shoots up. and she gets called on.

"Seminary is where people get put when they die."

Good try Hailey. Way to participate.

Dental gals at the park

Not much going on here lately that is blog-worthy. But I promised I'd post the photos from our Dental Gals Birthday Lunch at the Park. It's so nice to see everyone since I don't live on the same side of town as almost everyone else. We'll do that again soon.




Me with my "happy" kids.



Adorable mommies. Although none of them are holding their own child. Except for Laurie, of course. Kind of hard to pass that one off to someone else.



RaQuelle, Sienna, and Dawson. I love his hat. He looks like he needs to go for a Sunday drive.



Kristel and Kieley.



Amy fresh off the plane from Hawaii (jealous) rebonding with her sons that she got to leave behind.



Jr. Honorary Dental Gal member Bri.



The Birthday girls, Kristen and Erin. That's Kristen's bike/trailer in the background. She rode to the park while it was threatening rain the whole day. What a champ.



Catching Laurie mid-bite. Sorry about that.



Taking care of an explosive diaper. True joy.

The logic of meals

Hailey just asked me, "Mom, why did you forget to feed me lunch today?" I asked her, "What were those peanut butter sandwiches we just had?"

"Breakfast."

"Oh, what about the waffles this morning? What were those?"

"Oh, those were breakfast too. The sandwiches were second breakfast before lunch, but then you forgot lunch."

What do you say to that? I apologized for my gross oversight, and asked if there was anything Hailey wanted for lunch.

"No, not really. Just a little pile of pretzels right here," pointing to a spot on the couch. And then she comes up to me and gives me a big hug, and says "It's okay Mom, I forgive you for forgetting my lunch. We should forgive each other. Will you forgive me for making a mess with the packing peanuts? (Her forbidden activity she engaged in this morning.)

Again, what do you say to that? I want to remind her that we had a deal that if she played with the packing peanuts she HAD to clean up her mess, and that contrary to her views I am not generally neglecting her eating needs even if (first) breakfast was plain waffles popped out of the toaster without butter or syrup so I could go back to bed and get another fifteen minutes of sleep.

I just hug her back and say sure, and dish her up some apples and pretzels in a bowl.

Is that intentional manipulation on her part, or just weird four-year-old logic?

Home again, home again. . .

Although it's hard to say good bye to family for a while, it's nice to come home and settle into life again. One of the great things about where we live is being three minutes away from the lake. This is a impromptu picnic dinner of Butter Burgers before our grocery shopping. The picnic was of course necessary, because it was before the grocery shopping trip.

Oh yeah, and here's the rest of our trip.

We had a great time in Vegas, and here's the proof.



Reuniting with cousins and meeting new cousin Lauren.



Escaping the Vegas heat and moving up to the Cedar Mountains.



At Duck Creek.



Hailey enjoying every moment with Grandma.



Mammoth Cave was a little to big and dark (but mostly too muddy) for the kids.



Nora doin' what she does best: getting dirty.



Cleaning it all up. What a party.



Hiking at Cedar Breaks.



Blown away by the great outdoors, obviously.



Working on a great Fourth of July craft put together by aunt Char.



Fourth of July Star Necklaces.


Nora liked hers, too.



Cousins at Brian Head before the Fireworks.


Things that we should've taken pictures of but didn't:

• Bike riding around Duck-creek and Brian Head towing Hailey and Nora in the Trailer.
• John's big mountain biking excursion.
• playing around the cabin.
• Best fireworks show ever- the fire department, who was setting off the fireworks show at Brian Head, had to STOP the show, put out the grass fire the had started, and run up the hill and resume the fireworks. totally awesome.

We miss you all already.

The pool was still fun to play in.

John's family is in the home-stretch of completing the backyard extravaganza that will be the pool, but we just missed it when we visited! The kids still had fun playing on the rocks and in the caves and seeing just how deep it will really be. We can't wait to try it out next time.



John letting Nora do dangerous things.



the view from the top of the waterfall.




"Dallin, just jump! I'll catch you!" says John. Don't do it, Dallin.

Arriving in Las Vegas

The girls go into an over-stimulated shock at the Las Vegas Airport. Vacation has started.





And here is how excited the girls were to be off the plane.

More Photos of Summer.

Noah was buried alive.



Hailey's new favorite at the zoo is flamingos.



Playing one of the many rainstorms we've had.



Nora looking at the camera!



She likes her zebra shirt.



Playing out back.

Freezer jam: Go BIG or go home.

What you are looking at is 25 pounds of strawberry freezer jam. You'll notice there are no pictures of us picking strawberries. We were (check that- I was) too intent on getting enough strawberries to make enough jam to last exactly one year. I think we made it. I hope we're living somewhere where we can replenish our store next year.

Dough Boys.

Dough Boys are an old Brunson family summer tradition- a dessert-like treat you roast over the fire along the same lines as s'mores or banana boats. They are so yummylicious, and now a spreading Milwaukee trend. Here's the breakdown:

First you need a dough-boy stick. You cannot buy them (that I know of) but they are easy to make out of dowels from the hardware store. You need about three feet of 1/2" dowel and 6 inches of 1 1/2" dowel (about closet rod diameter) from the hardware store. Drill a half inch hole in thicker dowel and insert the long 1/2" dowel in the hole, and voila! Dough boy stick.


Next, you need supplies:
Butter, to grease the stick
Canned biscuit dough

and

stuff to put inside: pudding, marshmallows, fruit pie filling, whipped cream, jam, NUTELLA (yum), anything else you can think of.



Next, you grease the top of the dough boy stick with butter and spread biscuit dough over it, creating a cup or cone. And then you roast.







After the biscuit is golden brown, slide off the cup and fill it with whatever toppings you want. My favorite is nutella, raspberry pie filling, chocolate chips, and whipped cream. yum.



Here is the result:







messy kids, once again. theme of summer.

What we've been doing this summer: letting every one else take the pictures.

ALL of these pictures have been stolen from other friends' blogs. Thanks for letting me pilfer them (even though you had no choice in the matter) Carolyn, Mandie, Pam, Becki, and Shalet.

driving.

teetering. tottering.

sun bathing.

gardening.

cooking.

posing.

pouring.

splashing.

barbecuing.

pretending.

chillin'.

squealing.

saying goodbye.