Finally, we can blogagain!

Yes!!! I finally fixed our internet connection that was prohibiting photos on the blog. The bad news is, the wireless router is probably SHOT, and I'm not happy that I paid $100+ on it less than a year ago and bought it from rip-off city Best Buy. My mistake.

The good news is that you'll finally get to find out what Ana wore for her birthday party, and other little visual goodies from our family.

First off, look above and wonder that our little Ana is now in second grade. Crazy. She started the 12th of August ?!?!???!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??!?!?! Can you tell that I think that its sill to start school that early. Whateva. Weirdos.

She has a fabuloso Spanish teacher/home room teacher, and she thinks he's the greatest because he lets them talk in class. She made sure I painted her fingernails and toenails on the night before she has her Spanish-speaking teacher because then she could show her friends and talk about it in class. Every other day, she has her English-speaking teacher, and she's quite strict, which is taking some getting used to. All-in-all, I'm happy we found this school and that Ana's getting a bilingual experience. I'm just mad that it starts so early and we had to come back here to hotland so soon.


Even though it is just barely starting to cool down to under 100 every day, we've tried to enjoy the beauty all around us here in the Southwest. We had our really really good friends from college come visit for an extended weekend August 15th-18th. They were none other than Will and Cassie, and they have three kids almost the exact same age as ours (except for their youngest, who is almost a year older than Elsie... we missed the "every two years" boat on that one... what was your term for that Cassie?). Jonah and Will took the kids on a "pajama hike" their first morning, and they came back two hours later after getting very lost in the desert behind our home. Sweaty. Above is a photo from that adventure.

We wanted to prove to these Northern California heat-strokers that we can actually be outdoors in the Southwest and not sweating, even in August. So, we drove up to Zion National Park and enjoyed some time at the base of The Narrows, where the Virgin River enters Zion Canyon proper. I wish I had a better photo of Ana and Lorien, because they had some great outfits on. You can see it better at their blog (and more pics of their kids and ours... I can't believe I don't have more photos... what was I doing all weekend without a camera?!?): http://wclwc.blogspot.com/

Little Orphan Annie visits the Narrows.

Ode to Jonah's sister Charity, "Master of the Jumping Photo".

After many years of the same hiking backpack (thanks Looslis!), we bought a new one, and it works great, except that Jonah claims it doesn't fit him right. Oh well, viva la quads!

Right after Will and Cassie and crew departed, our awesome little guy Cam had his first day of Preschool! He was so thrilled, oh, except that the first day was just an Open House and you had to bring your parents! He was so bugged and said, "I'm not gonna be scared! You don't have to come with me." I explained that its good to have your parents there on the first day, and he thought for a bit and said, "Oh, I know Mom! Its because some of the other kids are going to be scared without their parents, so they have to come with their parents." After he got back from the Open House with Jonah, he said, "Acutally, Mom, it was good that Dad went with me because he showed me things like where the bathroom is and that's an important thing to know when you go to Preschool." He said those things exactly, except with his funny Camaccent. Isn't he so cute, though. Seriously.

Elsie tried to help me get the house cleaned up and ready for our next group of visitors that same day, but mostly she likes to try on shoes.


So, on that Tuesday, we had six Kenyans from the Singing Children of Africa show up. Two leaders and four kids aged 11-13. They are from a school/orphanage in Utange, Kenya, and they are sponsored by a music festival in the UK and Utah to travel around and sing for donations for their school. Our South African friend organized their visit to Saint George and let us host six of them! We had a great time with four preteens running around the house for four days, though it took awhile to recover the kitchen after their Kenyan cooking adventures (after three months on the road, they asked if they could PLEASE cook themselves some Kenyan food). Here they are at breakfast letting us try some fried potatoes.

They toured around Saint George during the day with the whole group, performed at Tuacahn in the evening, and then came to our house at night. The kids LOVED going swimming and writing emails to their previous host families on our computer. The youngest girl, Dorah, also had a My Little Pony movie marathon with Ana. Dorah also ate seven bananas a day, which we teased her endlessly about. Ana has the time of her life one night doing karaoke with the kids, too. She especially loved that 13-year-old Aisha knew ALL the words to High School Musical. I don't know how she did it, since they don't even have electricity in her village.

Jonah took one of the leaders, Edwin, who was LDS, to the Temple and they had a really fun time. Omar, the other teacher staying at our house, was always taking Jonah's motorcycle for a ride, and he was amazed that Jonah bought it for only $200 (so am I, actually).

Elsie was mad at first to wake up from her nap one day to find six strangers had taken over her house, but by the end of the week, she didn't want them to leave. In fact, when we took them to their bus on the last morning, she said over and over, "I go, bus. Bye bye Mama. I go BUS!" Somehow, I don't think she'd fit in so well in Kenya.

This is the group that stayed at our house, except for those two jokers in glasses in the back. Where did they come from?

Where's Waldo.... I mean Elsie? Here's the whole group and Elsie trying to escape with them.

That week while the Kenyans were here, I had to take a quick one-day trip down to LV for a conference, and my mom drove me down and I laughed with her that I bet by the time my conference was over, Jonah will have found a car for me to buy (Jonah likes to buy cars, fix them up, and sell them for a profit). Sure enough, I came home with a nearly stolen 1982 Mercedes 300 SD, which he has already converted to vegoil. Jonah is crazy, but luckily a predictable-crazy.

Ana's seventh birthday FINALLY arrived (according to her... she's been waiting all year), that Friday that the Kenyans left. Since we'd had guests and work and all sorts of stuff, I miraculously pulled off a b-day party with only two hours until the guests came. Granted, it was pretty weak, and even the cake tasted pretty dry, but I am thinking I could get away with two hours of prep every year and we'd get along just fine.

Ana's "I'm the birthday girl and don't you forget it" outfit.

Here's a photo of most of the guests. We had a manageable 10 kids there this year, so I didn't have to jump in a save anybody from drowning, and I didn't have to purchase $100 worth of snacks and food. In fact, I just used left over food from all the house guests.

I was nervous about the pinata this year because the monkey face one from last year was so incredibly unforgettable (see here: Monkey Pinata) . But honestly, I didn't have the time to paper-mache a pinata over the five days it takes for each layer to dry. So, we had a birthday present box pinata. I highly suggest it. Easy to make, and it broke at just the right time.

That night, we had a simple family party, with just our family of five, Ana's friend Megan who was spending the weekend while her parents were out of town, and my sister Sonna, who was driving through on her way home to Provo. We sure do love our little Ana. She's so energetic, kind to her siblings, beautiful, fun, strong, smart, good, and creative. Happy birthday!!!

So, if you need a good laugh, you need to check out the Seriously So Blessed blog because it is truly true. And funny. You probably should be familiar with Mormon stay-at-home-mom culture to really enjoy it, but maybe you'd still get it. Seriously.
Also, a friend recommended http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ because in the course of one conversation, she said I talked about at least 12 things from the list. And I thought I was being so Native lately...