May Happenings 2014

1) The first weekend in May, Kristen and Kevin graduated from Southern Utah University; Krissy in English Education like me and Kevin with his MBA like Burke.  I spent the day tending the kiddos out at our house, joined the family briefly for lunch at Tropical Smoothie and then back again to the house while the rest of the family attended more ceremonies.  That night we had a big rib dinner in our backyard and had the pleasure of seeing Kristen presented with a Kitchenaid of her very own!  In the Adams family, all the Uncles and Aunts go in on a Kitchenaid for any newlywed nieces/nephews.  Well, Krissy is a fantastic cook and baker and Marie decided it was high time Kris had one of her own.  When she opened the present, Krissy's face was priceless; jaw dropped, eyes wide with delight and disbelief.  I loved her response when she said, "Who says you need a man to get a Ktchenaid around here?!"  Grandma Elaine had missed the opening and when she saw what Kris had she said in indignation, "But you're not supposed to get one of those until you get married!"  It was so priceless.  

2) Daphne went to a birthday party for her friend BJ Vilarious, a little boy in her nursery group with cerebral palsy (In the collage below, he is in the blue train car).  BJ is obsessed with Thomas the train, so for his birthday our neighbor Dana Hunter brought over this adorable train made out of those giant blue plastic water barrels people use for food storage that she then painted into different animals.  She had probably 12 different animals, but I forgot to get a picture of the whole train.  The whole locomotive is so light, it can be pulled by a four-wheeler, so once the kids were settled, Dana hauled those kids up and down the streets of the neighborhood.  BJ's mother also did a puppet show, face painting and a pull-string pinata.  They loved it!

3)  That same day our neighbor offered to let us borrow his rototiller to plow up our garden and start planting our seeds.  Burke did a great job and was very meticulous in measuring each row.  Funny how huge that garden spot began to look as we realized how much work it was going to take to maintain it. 

Here I am teaching Daffy how to plant the seeds.  I love the gardening process.

4) A small fair came to town.  I don't know about you, but I think the atmosphere at most fairs are straight up weird.  Plus everything is ridiculously overpriced!  Daphne got to choose one ride to go on so she picked the Strawberry Whirl and I was so glad for the preggo excuse so I didn't have to ride with them.  Barf. 

5) In May, Daphne's drawings took on actual bodies with all 4 limbs.  I wonder what switches in her mind to make her draw a head with legs jutting out from the sphere one day to a full on body the next.  She was so proud of her developments too.

6) Towards the end of May we were in Salt Lake again visiting the Kirbys while Burke had work meetings.  I wrote about it in our other blog, but here are a couple pictures.  Daphne and Amira playing like champs the whole time and Gideon waiting anxiously to receive his "Eagle of the Month Award".  

7) For Memorial Day we were in Parowan and up at Co-Op per tradition of the past several years.  Alan conducted the Memorial Day service at the cemetery.  I always tear up when they play taps at the end and do the gun salute in memory of those fallen.  We then loaded up and went to the mountain where Kevin made to-die-for dutch oven pizzas, the little girls took turns going on 4-wheeler rides and we sat around getting fat and telling stories.  Always love an afternoon spent at Co-Op.

Daphne, Laney and Hallie waiting anxiously for someone to take them on a ride.