Summer's Annual BBQ

My sister Summer and Bro-in-law Jarom have a BBQ and fireworks every year in July. I look forward to this all year. It's fun to get together with friends and family and have a good time.

Ryan is a stud! And always has to carry around Mr. Bear. He said, "but mom, Mr. Bear likes fireworks too".

Mom and Ethan. What is that look he is pulling? Super funny!

Me, my brother Brant, and Kit's girlfriend Lynzie (Kit's in San Diego being a Marine). We love that Lynzie seems to still like to hang around us even though Kit is not there. She is super cute.

Jarom can't wait for the sun to go down. He wants to start as soon as possible and just lite the "baby" fireworks.

All the kids waiting for them to start.

I'm already excited for next year.

Ben's 29th Birthday

Ben's birthday was Saturday. We hung out with the boys and went to Cafe Rio during the day. Summer gave Ben tickets to Secondhand Serenade for his birthday (she was too busy to use them). So the boys went to my parents and we went to an outdoor concert at Thanksgiving Point. It was really fun. We got there on our blanket at 6:30 p.m. and Secondhand didn't start until 9:50 p.m. They had Parachute as the opener ("they call her love, love, love, love"). And they also had 2 other bands before that, Single File, and A Silver Lining. We really had a great time. Ben kept saying how old he felt though (there were a lot of young people at the concert). Thanks Summer for the tickets.

Ben waiting for the concert to start.

The boys and I gave Ben Cologne and a book for his birthday. The boys were excited to help Ben open his presents. Happy Birthday Ben!

The 24th

We had the Clegg Reunion on the 24th. We went to Settlement Canyon and ate lots of good food. Thanks Bruce Clegg girls for putting it together.

Ethan with the Bruce Clegg family horses.

Ryan with the horses. They both love horses.

Swim Lessons

Ryan started swim lessons this year. He loves the water. He has been doing great. I think the hard thing is that he is not afraid of the water at all. No fear. All the girls in his class scream and giggle because he splashes them all the time. The teacher is constantly telling Ryan to stop splashing the girls.

Ryan is Five

Can you believe I have a 5 year old? (I hope your answer is no way, you're way too young). Ryan was so excited for his birthday this year. He said he just wanted family to come over for his birthday so that's what we did. He was really into Transformers this year. His favorite is Optimus Prime. Ryan was in our room at 7 a.m. asking to open his presents. Crazy boy!

Ethan watching Ryan open his presents.

Before the family party we took a trip to Home Depot. The boys can not go there without sitting on the riding lawn mowers.

Ryan opening presents from family. We were really grateful for all of you who took time out of your busy lives to be there for Ryan. Ryan was excited to have all of you there.

Ryan wanted birthday cake, but he can't have cake so I decided to make a birthday ice cream pie instead. He insisted on the fudge and the sprinkles.

Uncle Brant and Ethan.

Ryan eating his pie.

Rick & Liz and Jake & Shayla. Sorry for the sun in your face! :-)

Happy Birthday Ryan. We love you so much!

7th Year of Bliss and not so Blissness

Ryan's Birthday came first but I can't get to my pictures right now, so I'll do our anniversary post first. Our anniversary was yesterday, July 19th. We celebrated it last week so we didn't really do anything yesterday. I can and can't believe we've been married 7 years. You know...sometimes it feels like you've been married forever, and sometimes it feels like just yesterday. I won't make this too gooey like I did for Father's Day. So this is it: Ben I love you, and I'm so happy I married you. And you must be super smart to have married me. Thanks for being so good to me and thanks for being a great father to our children. And p.s. you can post something on here too! :-)

Here are some pictures from our wedding day. Enjoy.

p.p.s. The title is not meant to be rude...we all have good and bad days in a marriage. But we love each other anyway.

Blue Pancakes

During Ethan's nap Ryan and I have "quiet time". We either play with quiet toys, watch a movie, or read books. Ryan usually likes to read for a while. He's been reading Green Eggs and Ham. So he wanted to make Green Eggs (we decided on Green pancakes since he can't eat eggs). So he invited his friends, Will and Logan over for Green and Blue pancakes (Ryan preferred Blue). They were a hit!

My signature Mickey Mouse pancake. Although after they were cooked, they really just looked brown.

Ben and I had a super fun weekend by ourselves. We were walking around Macy's looking for new cologne for Ben's birthday and we ended up in the cooking stuff. So we had to take a picture because we felt super boring after we realized what we were doing with no kids.

Ryan and Ethan were riding the big truck and Ryan said, "Mom take a picture".

Thanks for all your input on the Kindergarten poll. We realize most of you said to start him in Kindergarten, but we've decided to stick with our original decision and start him a year later. As my mother in law puts it: What's wrong with being the smartest in the class?

What Should We Do?

Two things-

First- This weekend we are going out for our Anniversary. My mom is watching the boys for 2 nights. We'd like to stay home to save some money, but what should we do that both of us will like? I thought about going golfing in the morning, and we have a gift card for Market Street Grill in the Evening. What else should we do? I feel like we're getting old and boring...we need help!

Second- Ryan turns 5 in a week. Technically he is supposed to go to Kindergarten this year but we had decided to wait until next year to send him. Ryan is now saying he wants to go. I just want to do what is best for him, but I don't know what that is. So please do the poll on the side of our blog. Do we send him or do we wait another year? If you have an advice please leave a comment.

The Final Three

Ben has school tonight and I know he will be looking at the blog, so this is for him. :-)

Here are the final 3 guys in the Bachelorette. Above is Reid from Philidelphia.

Here is Kiptyn from California.

And here is Ed from Chicago.

For next week I hope Jillian chooses Reid and Ed. I've liked Kiptyn from the beginning, but who would want his mother for a mother-in-law? I'm not into snooty people. Who cares if you like cheap wine as long as you think it's good. I guess the draw back is that she hasn't even met Ed's family yet. I do like Kiptyn, he's just not ready to settle down yet. If she does choose Reid and Ed, then I have no idea who she should choose after that. I really like them both. I guess I'll just have to wait a couple more weeks.

Our Independence Weekend

This picture is supposed to be at the end. This was the last thing we did before we came home. We went up to Rexburg to visit my Grandma Harris. I haven't seen her for a while. It was really great to visit with her. She grew her hair out a little longer, it looks so great! It was so cute, when we said we wanted a picture with her, she said, "oh geez, I don't even have my hair done". We love you Grandma Harris!

For Independence Day this year we went to my Grandpa Harris' cabin in Rigby, Idaho. We had such a great time. We just sat around and watched the kids play and ate lots of food. We had a really great time and can't wait to go back soon.
On our way up we decided to go the long way through Logan so we could go get Aggie Ice Cream (Ben used to go to Utah State), and stop and get some squeaky cheese. We decided not to go past the Tetons though because in Logan we started hearing, "are we there yet?".

Here is my Grandpa Harris and my cousin Zach playing Horseshoes.

The family watching horseshoes.

Me and my Benny Boy.

Ben and Ethan just watching the River go by.

The River in my Grandpa's backyard.

I love this picture. I'm going to have to send it to Grandpa for sure. Grandpa and Ryan talking by the river. Ryan always wanted to be by either Great Grandpa Harris or Great Grandma Carolyn.

Ethan loves his Grandpa Harris. He was with him all the time.

The small town parade we went to in Menan. My Cousin was in the parade dancing. I love small towns. Here is an old tractor. Can you believe it's still running?

Is that lady picking her nose?

The new tractor, pulling a cute little wagon...and some of the cousins up front trying to get candy.

The family in front of some trains just sitting there. I think trains with graffiti on them look so cool.

Here is our attempt at trying to get some of the great grand kids together for a picture.

This was the best we could go.

Some of the Grand kids with Grandpa Harris and Grandma Carolyn.

The children, Pog, Terry, Debbie, Scott & Dad. Minus Uncle Shawn.

We saw the fireworks in Idaho Falls. They were amazing! It was like a finale the whole time! We had a super great time and are really sad to come home. We could have spent a few more days with all the family. Thanks Grandpa Harris and Grandma Carolyn for letting us stay with you.