Family History Discovery

Two days ago I was unpacking boxes (yes, I still have lots of those left!) and discovered a folder full of Crane family history stories and pedigree charts that Nile's grandma gave us for Christmas. I started looking through it when a name caught my eye--Jeremiah Rappleye. One of my paternal great-grandmas is a Rappleye. Further investigation found me discovering that Jeremiah Rappleye is Nile's great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather and my great-great-great-great-great grandfather! So I'm married to my cousin--my VERY DISTANT cousin so I guess we didn't break any laws or anything. Hmm...that explains why our kids turned out so weird. Just kidding, kids. (For those of you who may have been wondering if I changed husbands, check the side bar for an explanation of our blogging nicknames. The kid's nicknames I am used to, but it is still weird to me to call my husband Niles. It sounds like I'm married to some stranger!)

Haircut Dilemma

So, tomorrow I have an appointment to get my hair cut. Which always presents me with a dilemma these days. See, I'm currently not particularly happy with my hair. Growing it out longer is definitely not an option. Thanks to a little bit of the "early-greying-hair Pew gene," I discovered about ten years ago why most older women wear their hair short. Grey hair is rebellious. Even if you have perfectly straight, flat, no-body hair (like me); the grey version of your hair tends to be full of body and wave. It sticks straight out-perfectly perpendicular from your scalp and curls weird directions. It is quite visable when the rest of your hair in still straight, flat, and has no body, so it is plastered to your scalp like glue. You can't pull your hair up into a pony tail or elegent sweep, either. The grey hairs sticking out all over show even more then. A really short hairstyle is the best way to disguise this problem. The happiest I have ever been with my hair was when I had it cut really short when Atom was a baby (probably the only thing that kept me sane through the exteme sleep deprivation and non-stop nursing.) Good thing it could look good with almost no effort, because I never had more than five minutes to spend on it and usually Atom was screaming by the time those five minutes were up. But see, then I had an infant in arms so I didn't worry about looking "old." I was a "trendy" young mother then with a trendy haircut. This image is becoming more and more difficult to keep up with a child in (gulp!) high school. Now I am afraid that a short haircut will make my attempts to be delusional about how old I look ever so much more difficult. This delusion is already being seriously impaired by the fact that I am back in Utah now and sometimes run across high school classmates at stores and such and I think they are their mom or dad. Then I realize that it is a much older version of my classmate--not their parent!! I am also afraid a really short haircut will just cement in other's minds that yes, indeed, I am middle-aged--in case they still weren't quite sure despite all the other obvious evidence. My other concern about getting it chopped short is that I will never want to go through the growing-it-out nightmare again so I will basically be stuck with the same hairstyle for the rest of my life. And (most days) I hope that will be at least another 40 years. My hair complicates this whole dilemma in my mind by playing a trick on me the day of the haircut. It always arranges itself into a gorgeous hairstyle without any effort on my part--so that I start debating whether to get it cut at all. But I am onto it now--I know it will be back to it's horrible tricks the next morning so I'm getting good at ignoring it. So what to do...

Jet's Talent

In our primary, the children are each assigned a turn sharing a talent with the rest of the primary. Jet got this assignment for last Sunday and for a week, was unenthusiastic about any talent I suggested he share. During Sacrament meeting, we realized we had forgotten and never settled on one to share. Niles had the brilliant idea that Jet should say one of his talents was being a good big brother and he could have Atom come up as his display. Jet loved the idea so that's what he did. I told Atom that he was going to help Jet share his talent. Atom was so excited about the idea and talked about "talking in the microphone!" When I told Atom it was his turn to help Jet, he hopped up, ran to the front, climbed on the chair and grabbed the microphone. I told him Jet needed to talk first. So Jet shared that he was good at playing with his brother, helping him, and helping him be happy. Than Atom grabbed the microphone, and with my prompting declared, "Jet is a good brother!" I wish I could have gotten the whole thing on video tape. They were both adorable. Atom was so thrilled by the whole experience. Hopefully I won't have a hard time keeping him away from the microphone when it isn't his turn!

Random Update

Jumble got her uniform on Monday and she tried it on so I could check it for alterations and so we could take some shots of her. It fit perfectly--yeah! No sewing for me to do. If only getting her to practice her music was going as easily. She is doing pretty well at the marching and feels like she almost has it down, which is pretty impressive given that she has only been practicing with the band for 2 1/2 weeks. It has been a very intensive 2 1/2 weeks, though.

Boomer (our dog) escaped on Sunday as we were all leaving to visit family and Jumble ended up chasing him all over the neighborhood. The rest of us were getting into the car when he slipped by us, so once we were all in, we went to try to find them both. We finally gave up and came home to wait for Jumble to return. Thankfully, she was already here and had Boomer with her. But she was quite upset because Boomer had encountered some unfriendly dogs and one of them had bitten him. Boomer hightailed it home all on his own after that! But Jumble was pretty shaken up--she was worried about Boomer and she had been scared that the dogs were going to bite her as well. Thankfully that didn't happen. Boomer was bleeding quite a bit but it wasn't really too deep of a bite. He is still moving slower than usual (the bite was on the inside of his upper thigh) but he seems to be healing without complications. Jumble said that while she was looking for Boomer she was praying that she could find him and that he wouldn't get hit by a car. I was surprised that she cared so much. She usually doesn't have too many kind words for that animal. It's good to know she cares about some things deep down inside when she doesn't ever act like it. We can hope the same is true of several other unnamed persons that she knows! :)

Jumble started seminary and loves it and says she wishes she could have seminary every day (Her school is on an A Day-B Day schedule. She has eight classes and alternates--taking four one day and four the next.) We can't even say how grateful we are to be in the world of released time rather than early morning seminary! We are grateful that she loves it and know that it will do great things for her testimony.

Minnie and Jet both started soccer this week. Niles is coaching Jet's team. Minnie got lucky and landed on the same team as her cousin, Emily. So that will be fun! Niles reports that Minnie almost scored a goal at her game on Saturday. Jet's team is frustrating us a little bit. Four of the eleven teammates failed to show up for the game. Six positions to fill on the field means that the seven players who came had to play almost the whole game. They were troopers, though, and did a good job. Jet got close to scoring a goal as well. Another frustration was that the team mom said she would assign someone for half-time fruit and another for after-game treat but then she and her son were some of those missing in action and no one that was there had been given either assignment. I ended up running to the store for the treat and missed half the game. Hopefully this won't be the pattern all season! It was warm on Saturday and many of the families commented on the heat. The boys did get pretty warm running around--but it wasn't as hot as the first few games of the season in Arizona (in October) typically are. A soccer game at noon on August 23rd! No way would this be possible in Arizona. The kids would all literally die of heatstroke! Atom is having a hard time with the fact that he can't play, too. At practice and pre-game warm-ups he was right there doing everything along with the other boys. On Saturday morning when he saw Minnie and Jet in their soccer clothes he said, "Need soccer shirt too!" Thankfully, he was happy with Jet's old shirt and shorts from a former season. He wasn't happy when I told him he couldn't play in the game. With only seven players, too bad we couldn't use him! He is so anxious to play but I'm afraid that day isn't coming soon. He probably won't even be old enough to play next fall, since he doesn't turn five until November. Poor little guy!

This week I opened up savings accounts for the kids. They were given a little bag of stuff which included a little bank for each of them. Atom's is shaped like an elephant. I was surprised that he even realized it was a bank. He was fully aware and immediately started saying, "Need money!" So I gave him all my spare change. That satisfied him for a few seconds. Then he started following me around, carrying the bank, and saying, "Need more money! Need more money!" Welcome to one of the realities of life, Atom. Get used to it.

First Day of School

Monday was the first day of school. Jumble is in 9th grade, Jet is in 2nd grade, and Minnie is in 6th grade. How did my babies all get to be so big?! The kids hate that I make them pose for these photos every year, but I tell them some day they will be glad. They all came home happy that evening and seemed to have made friends and had a good day. I could have handled a few more weeks of summer, but ready-or-not, the school year has begun. It certainly feels like fall here. For the last two weeks, we have been opening the windows in the house at night since it cools down to quite cold at night (the kids wrap up in blankets when they get up in the morning), and one day last week it was so cool that we kept the windows open all day--not even close to needing air conditioning! Very bizarre for us--it isn't showing any signs of cooling off at ALL--day or night--in Arizona in August. We keep shaking our heads in disbelief that it is AUGUST. It feels like a typical October in Arizona. We are enjoying the weather (and have enjoyed it all summer) even though we know it means the winter is going to be way too cold!

Band Camp Survivor

On Thursday I went to Delta (Thank you, Grandma Crane, for going with me!) to pick Jumble up from band camp. She had committed to help our neighbor with a catering job for a wedding reception that evening so I had to pick her up a little early. She had a great time and chattered excitably non-stop for the first 45 minutes of the trip home--then she crashed--and it was hard to wake her up when we got home. She got sunburned the first day because her bag with the sunscreen in it didn't arrive in Delta until after they had started marching. We didn't realize she needed to have it on before she arrived on Monday morning. You can't even tell in the photo how burned she got, but now she is peeling like crazy. If you look at the back of her neck, you can see how dark of a line she has from all the sun on her neck. She also lost her chapstick so her lips were cracked and swollen. After she got home from her catering job that night, we discovered that both of her feet and ankles were really swollen. The photos above were taken on Friday evening, when the swelling had already gone down a little. It looked like she had sprained both ankles. You could hardly see her ankle bone at all. You can see how tan her legs got as well! She also has a nice bruise from when someone accidentally stepped on her when they were marching backwards. So she looked pretty banged up but she was happy! One small miracle, she reports that her arm didn't get sore at all--lugging around that big bass clarinet--which is at least 3 times heavier than the B flat clarinet that she is accustomed to!

Well, I've been wanting to do this post for awhile but it took some time to find my photos so I could. So, this post is a belated "Farewell to Arizona" which is what that says up there--but it is so tiny you probably can't read it. I have been emotionally attached to Arizona my whole life. I once told my mom that I was homesick for Arizona and she said that wasn't possible since at that point, I had never even lived there. Now that I have spent eleven years of my life there, the emotional attachment is even deeper. So indulge me while I look back for a moment on how our family has changed over the past eleven years. (Or feel free to skip this, if you have no interest. I promise it won't be too long or sentimental!)This is a photo that was taken enroute from Boise, ID to Peoria, AZ in January of 1997. This was all our worldly possesions at that time, including our one child--Jumble. Well, I guess I should have been in the photo, too, so you could see the bulging tummy that was all that was visible of our six-months along in gestation second child. Everything we owned fit in that one small U-Haul truck and you can see the front of our one and only vehicle at that time, our beloved blue Honda Accord, that was being towed behind the van.

Here is a closer shot to show how cute Jumble was--not quite three years old at the time.

Now here is a photo of mostly all of our worldly possessions at the end of May 2008:

We've grown a little, haven't we? Now we not only have Jumble, but Minnie is visible--free and independent of my tummy--and we have added Jet and Atom as well. We have two vans (one is the largest you can rent and not possible to entirely fit in the photo) full of our "stuff" and our mini-van and pickup aren't in the photo at all, nor is our house. We owned no kind of dwelling at all at the time we moved to Arizona--we were renting an apartment.
Again, here is a closer photo so you can see how cute our kids are!

So now when I think of Arizona, I have eleven years of memories of three children being born and four children growing up. Almost all of our history as a family raising children from toddler to teen and infant to pre-teen are in Arizona. Almost all of our memories of new-born babies and first teeth and first steps are in Arizona. All of our memories of Joy School and first days of school and school concerts and Primary programs are in Arizona. I will miss a lot of things about Arizona--things like shorts and sandals nearly year-round, no coats or mittens to mess with, taking my kids to the park on Christmas Eve, the cacti and desert flowers, the wonderful life-long friendships we made there, visiting our family there and enjoying holidays and special times with them, swimming lessons and swim team, sitting out in the driveway on Halloween to pass out candy (wearing shorts), serving in the church there, the awesome schools, etc. I could also list a lot of things I won't miss--the top of the list being everything to do with the scorching, searing, summer heat that doesn't really let up much before October. (One thing I hated the most--unloading groceries and running errands which I don't enjoy anyway--but 115 degrees definitely makes them even more oh so miserable.) Arizona was very good to us. We were very blessed there and prospered. We were able to buy our first home there, and then buy a bigger home as our family grew. More importantly, we were blessed with three more children and were able to watch all four of our children grow and progress.

I feel good about where we are now, too. I think Utah will be good to us as well. We are enjoying a lot of new things and there is a lot here to love. I already see things happening here that are going to be good for our family--things I could not have anticipated even a few months ago. So we have landed where we belong and I am grateful, even though a big piece of us will always remain in Arizona.

But you know what I will miss the most? I'm not sure I can ever give up my Arizona Driver License. Driver Licenses in Arizona don't expire until the holder turns 65! I'm not sure if you ever have to go get a photo update. But if not, I would be able to flash this photo of myself when about 29 years of age until I hit retirement:

Now, it's not the greatest photo in the world--but not bad for a driver's license. And as the years have gone by, it is looking better and better to me! Only problem is, I might have trouble getting on a plane some day when I look too old to be the person on my photo ID. So eventually I guess I'll have to give it up and move on. :)

American Fork HS Marching Band

Our big news of the week is that Jumble has been recruited into the American Fork High School Marching Band. We are still not sure how this happened, but feel that it was definitely divine intervention. As long as Jumble survives Marching Band boot camp this week, this is going to be dominating our life and draining our pocketbook for the next 3 months. We are excited because the American Fork High School Marching Band is the best marching band in the state of Utah and one of the top in the nation. (The photos above are from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade they marched in last fall.) We are nervous because the rest of the band members have been practicing all summer and have half of the drill sets learned and all of the music memorized already so Jumble has a lot of hard work to do to catch up. She is also taking on a new instrument--the bass clarinet (second photo above.) The fingering is the same as the clarinet and they say the parts are pretty easy for this instrument. The hard part is going to be developing the arm muscles to lug this monster around. So everybody pray that her arm doesn't fall off this week and that she can learn the music and drill sets quickly! She left at 6:45 this morning for four days of non-stop marching and playing in Delta, UT. They told her to expect to feel like her head is barely above water for awhile so hopefully she can survive this part and have a great experience.

How did this happen? Last Thursday the director of the bands at AF Jr. High School called us because he saw that she was a new student and found out that she played clarinet. We were going to the school that day to fix Jumble's schedule so we arranged to meet with him to talk about Jumble and see if she qualified to play in the premier group at the Jr. High. Jumble took some of the music that she was playing at the beginning of 8th grade in Arizona to show him what she could do. After seeing that, he felt like she could definitely be in the top Jr. High group. And then, by the way, we are in desperate need of one more bass clarinet player for the High School marching band (he is the assistant director)--are you interested? Thankfully we can rent the instrument from the high school for a small fee. They are going to the Bands of America Grand Nationals in Indiana in November. That won't be so cheap. But we felt very peaceful about it--that this is exactly what Jumble needs in her life right now--so we feel confident that it will all work out. We are hoping that she will take this amazing opportunity that has been handed to her and run with it. We already met a distant cousin that is in the band. John and Renee Pew--youngest son (and his wife) of Glenn and Louise Pew--have a son in the band. I met Renee last week but haven't got to meet John or their son yet. There are a total of 5 bass clarinets in the band and the other 4 are boys! Jumble has 4 escorts to look after her now.

So for the fourth time this summer I have handed my first-born child over to semi- or total strangers. EFY, Girls Camp, and Band Camp have all been virtual strangers. Youth Conference we at least knew some of the leaders for a few months first. All four times Jumble has been dumped into a situation with complete strangers--even at youth conference they divided them into "families" and avoided putting you with anyone in your ward. Hopefully it will turn out as great this time as it did the other three times. I just have to sit here biting my fingernails for the next four days (and biting my fingernails is not even a habit I have.)

In other news, Jumble was able to get into Honors English and Peer Tutor for the entire year. Her counselor at the school was so nice--basically gave her whatever she wanted and said she was giving her the best teachers so hopefully this will be a great year for her--but she is going to be busy! They posted class lists at the Elementary School today so I went down to write down Minnie and Jet's teachers. They will also be going into a situation where they know no one. We are in a small section of the ward that goes to Shelley Elementary. Almost the entire ward goes to Legacy Elementary. So all the kids they have met this summer go to the other school. I didn't see one name on their class lists that I recognized. Minnie is pretty nervous about it but Jet seems unconcerned at this point. There is an open house on Thursday so they will at least get to go meet their teachers. We have heard it is an excellent school. Right now it looks like a disaster because they are remodeling the kitchen and lunch room and won't be done for a few more months.

Minnie and Jet are also signed up for soccer. Niles is going to be the coach for Jet's team and we just found out that Minnie is on the same team with her cousin, Emily, so we are excited about that. Niles is one of the new Webloes den leaders and I am one of the Sunbeam teachers now so they have us busy at church. Niles was a Webloes den leader for his first calling in Rose Valley Ward and I was a Sunbeam teacher for my last calling in Rose Valley Ward. Things are about to get really busy around our house.

Niles' brother, Ben, and his wife, Lori, were here visiting the same week as Hans and Griffin. We got to see them a few times and it was great to see them, but I forgot to snap any photos. Ben pulled his back out and landed in the ER the last day they were here. We hope he is feeling better now. Niles' dad, Russ, kindly arranged for me to go will Eileen (his mom) to the 4th annual BYU football women's clinic and we had a great time. We got to tour the stadium, meet some of the players and coaches, hear them speak and answer questions, saw a few video/power point presentations and learned more about football. We also got a bag full of cool BYU football stuff and a t-shirt. Again, I forgot my camera so I din't get any photos of the event. We are looking forward to a great season. I haven't been to a BYU game in LaVell Edwards Stadium since before the name was changed from Cougar Stadium--about 15 years or so since I have been to a home game--I am excited to be back!

Grandma Crane is here visiting from California this week and we are looking forward to spending some time with her. We had dinner with the Cranes last night and this is a photo of Grandma with Lauren.



Niles spent last week in the booming metropolis of Cheyenne, Wyoming at a planning conference. He brought back cowboy hats for the boys. This is Atom wearing his.

There are only two girls in the ward that are Minnie's age (both go to the other school) and she has gotten to be friends with them both. One of them, Kari, seems to have a lot in common with Minnie. They both like cooking, rocks, and Webkinz. Can I tell you how much I like this girl? She came to play last Friday and they washed Niles' truck and made a double batch of chocolate-chip cookies! Now that is a friendship the parents are hoping Minnie cultivates. (They made some bar cookies with some of the dough which is what they are showing off in the above photo.)

On Friday we were able to take a day off and go to Lagoon for the day. We all had a blast! Atom went on everything we did, as long as he met the height requirement (only a few he did not) and didn't seem to be scared by anything. Jet was also adventurous and willing to try almost anything. Minnie was the most timid about trying new things--she is afraid of heights so didn't want to try anything that got you flying too high. We successfully avoided paying any inflated food prices by taking sandwiches, chips, and fruit snacks with us along with plenty of water. The wheel on our stroller decided to fall off before we even got to the first ride so we had to rent a wagon to tote our stuff. We took our swimming suits in case we wanted to go to the water park, too, but never made it there since it was hot for Utah that day (abt. 101) so the water park was too crowded. Plus we were having too much fun just going on all the rides. We arrived about an hour after opening and stayed all day until closing at 11:00 p.m. We actually ran into some Arizona friends--the Scoffields--who were visiting family in Utah. What are the chances of that?! Jet's favorite ride was called "Turn of the Century" which is these suspended swings that fly around in a huge circle very high in the air. Atom's favorite was the Hydro Luge which is basically a big tube water slide that you ride down on a raft. His dad and Jumble were good sports and took him down it about five times--getting soaked once. I think he would've stayed there the rest of the day! Minnie preferred the Space Scrambler, Tilt-a-Whirl, and Music Express. Jumble seemed to like just about everything. The best part for Niles and I? Making memories with our kids!

Jet and Jumble try the first ride of the day--the Lady Bug Bop.


Jet and Atom on the Moonraker.
Minnie, Atom, Jet, and Jumble on the Dragonfly.

Minnie rides the carousel.

Atom on the little bumper cars. This ride frustrated him because when he ran into something, his instinct told him he needed to go backwards but he couldn't figure out how (you have to turn and turn and turn the steering wheel.) We kept telling him to turn the wheel but he is so little and had to turn it so far that he would give up before it would work. He kept trying to climb out of the car to push it!!

Jet and Jumble on the Paratrooper. Atom rode this ride with Jumble as well.




Me, Atom, and Minnie waiting for the Tilt-a-Whirl to start.

During the ride--now we're flying in circles. Not a good ride for people who get motion-sickness!

Jumble and Niles on the Wild Mouse. Jet is sitting next to Jumble but he is too short to see! This ride gave me bruises. Ouch!

Atom

I finally got Atom's 3-year old photos taken! (Now that he is 3 years, 9 months old.) My totally unbiased opinion is that they are adorable! A few things about Atom's unique personality:

He loves to watch/listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We got him a director's baton at age 2 because he likes to lead the choir while they sing. He hums constantly to himself while playing--often I recognize the Star Wars theme, especially when he is playing with Star Wars toys. He hums to himself a lot in church, too, and we can't get him to stop!

He loves DVD's and "movies" as he calls videos. He hardly ever actually watches a movie--he just likes to have the remote and goes through all the menu items, clicking on each option. He especially likes to watch the previews or "commercials" as he calls them. He also likes to get lots of DVD cases down and line them up in rows on the floor or couch (yes, this drives me crazy!) He also can be heard quoting the promotional words they say on the previews: for example, "Coming soon to DVD and Blue Ray!" And he also informs me when he starts the actual movie (as opposed to the previews and bonus features) "This is the feature presentation, Mom!" He also pays attention to which DVD's have THX sound on them and he will hold up a DVD and say, "This one says..." and then he makes the music sound they make when their logo pops up. Today he pointed to the bottom of a DVD case and said, "This is a special edition." I looked to where he was pointing, and sure enough, it said "Special Edition."

Atom loves the computer and probably knows how to operate it better than I do. Yes, he has deleted some important items from time to time!

Once when Atom was watching "The Little Mermaid" it was at the part where the seagull is telling Ariel and Flounder the names of the human treasures they found in a sunken ship. Of course, the seagull doesn't know what he's talking about and he tells them that a fork is a "dinglehopper." When Atom heard this, he said with some surprise and indignation, "That isn't a dinglehopper, that's a fork!" Then he noticed that the fork in the movie only had three prongs on it--we have a few child-size forks that only have three prongs on them so he now calls them dinglehoppers. But the ones with four prongs are still forks.

Atom pays attention to details--he's a little fussy about it at times. When we were having the whole family over for pizza once and I told him a whole bunch of people were coming over to eat dinner, he was insisting all afternoon "Need more chairs!" Who would imagine that a 3-year-old would concern himself with such things?

Atom is a night owl and it is a constant (losing) battle to keep him on a schedule of going to bed early and getting up early instead of going to bed late and sleeping in late.

Atom's brain is a sponge--he has a great desire to learn new things. When Jet was in kindergarten (Atom was 2), and I would quiz Jet on his phonograms, Atom would get angry if I didn't give him a turn to give the answers, too. As a result, he has known all his shapes, colors, letters, numbers, etc. since he was less than two-years-old and we strongly suspect he knows how to read much more than we realize (we know he can read quite a few words.) He'll probably be bored in kindergarten, but I'm worried he won't be potty-trained in time for kindergarten since he shows no interest or readiness in that area!!

Atom talks at the top of his lungs (we've tried to teach him to whisper but he just doesn't grasp that concept) but we don't understand a lot of what he says yet. One of the funny things about his speech is that he can say "Grandma" but not "Grandpa!" He pronounces "Grandpa" as "Ca-ca" which all of us find quite amusing, except Grandpa! :)

We love our little Atom--although he can try our patience to the extreme--our family definitely wouldn't be the same without him. He is a delightful little personality!

Hans and Griffin!

Hans arrived from Boston late on the evening of July 21st. We enjoyed getting to meet our 3-year-old nephew and cousin, Griffin for the first time! We enjoyed lots of fun activities with them over the next week.

At the dinosaur museum:

Griffin comes out of the tunnel.


Gwen and Zane doing dinosaur puzzles.
Minnie and Emily at the erosion table.
Timo, Griffin, Taran, Micah, and Jet at the erosion table.
All the cousins work together to build a mountain.
Atom, Zane, and Jet play dinosaur computer games.
Izak and Gwen uncover dinosaur bones.
Minnie works meticulously with her brush.

Playing at our house:

Griffin and Hans came for an afternoon and evening of playing, visiting, and dinner. The boys all had a GREAT time playing together. There is something special about cousins! Griffin came back the next night to play again while Hans, Tim & Rachelle, and Niles & I went out to eat at a Thai restaurant. Hans helped us pick out what to order. Yummy!
This is Atom with his toy griffin and his cousin Griffin!

Waiting for fireworks at Tim & Rachelle's house:

Jumble, Grandpa/Dad, Niles
Jet plays with his cousins on the tramp with light sticks--which they used as lightsabers, of course!
Erika waits for the fireworks. (We didn't get to watch fireworks that night, after all, because a storm blew in and it was too windy. But everyone still had a great time visiting, playing, and eating!)
Griffin watches Curious George--I think he was starting to get tired from all the playing with cousins.

At Grandpa and Grandma's house for dinner on Sunday:

Eat fast! Another storm is on the way!

All seventeen of the cousins for a last shot together before Griffin and Hans have to go home. It's been a fun week! We'll miss you!