Six Month Recap

Let's see....March, April, May June, July, August... yup, six months of catch up. To summarize, the last six months involved two birthdays, two family trips, a car accident, a baptism, two major holidays, and a visit to the University of Utah burn unit. I promise to do my best to keep this one concise and to the point (though for those of you who know me well it is next to impossible for me to keep things to the point). I am guessing it is best to take this month by month. (Deep breath) ... here we go!

February: Jacob turned ten (five days after Matthew turned one). Once again, Jacob wanted to have a soccer themed birthday party...despite the fact it was in the 40's and there was still snow on the ground. Please note that Jacob is the only person who is in an actual soccer uniform (shorts and all). The rest of the kiddos noticed that it was actually cold outside.

Here is the soccer field Jacob wanted for his birthday cake. He wasn't very happy that the cake did NOT come from the store. Oh well.....
March: The family decided to take a trip to see the wonders of Southern Utah. Our points of destination were Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. Bryce Canyon was breath-taking...especially with the snow still on the ground. We meant to take a leisurely walk around one of the look out points, but somehow found ourselves completing a six mile hike. By the end of the journey our feet were soaking wet and totally numb. Most of us thought it was worth the discomfort for the beauty which we saw...Andrew was just flat out annoyed and tired. Here are a few pics of the hike.

Matthew was thrilled about his accommodations. He has never been in the backpack before and thought it was super cool.
Happy faces before we accidentally wound up on the six-mile hike. (Andrew looks like he may have an idea this isn't going to turn out as he had planned).

This incline was the last stretch before coming out of the canyon. Talk about winded! The boys had already run out out of the canyon and were bolting to the car for some snacks.
After hiking Bryce Canyon we made our way over to Zion National Park. We told the boys we were going to take a short walk and somehow convinced them to put on their cold, wet socks and sneakers. Okay, so we kind of lied. It was about two miles to get to this point. But look at the cool photo op!!!
The next day we allowed Matthew to do some hiking of his own! Look at the joy on his face!
And there he goes...... our little dare devil!
Okay, so not that much of a dare.
April: Easter. (Told you guys, I am trying to keep this thing short).

May: I got in a car accident. NOT MY FAULT! I was taking Andrew home from his soccer game when we were t-boned by a teenager at the four-way-stop in front of our chapel. Luckily, Andrew was in the back on the opposite side of the car. Let this be a lesson to all you teenagers: do not play with your ipod while you are driving!
May also brought leaves to our trees and grass which grows extremely fast. The boys were all excited to finally be able to break out the riding mower. Here is Scott overseeing his handy work while Andrew takes a spin on his cool new ride.
Totally thrilled he is old enough to ride this thing,
Totally THINKING he is old enough to ride this thing. Matthew tries to get on the mower any time he has a chance.
Okay, so we let him pretend every once in a while.
June: Andrew turned eight years old! I am still in shock. He really wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for his big day. Also, please note that Andrew is in his Gryffindor robes from Harry Potter. He wears this robe almost every day (I say almost because he is not allowed to wear them to church). Anyway....back to the birthday.
Andrew is making sure that no one attempts to blow out his candles.
This was the only thing Andrew wanted for his birthday. He had been asking for the Hogwarts castle since January. I was so happy to finally have an excuse to buy it for him.

Utah randomness = we woke up one morning to see this outside our bedroom window. The ballon made an emergency landing down our street.

We also designed a make-shift Slip 'N Slide for our backyard. Here is the first day of its operation. Once Matthew got the hang of it he was a total wild man on the Slip 'N Slide. We also wound up with about half the neighborhood in our backyard....however, I have only included pictures of our family.

In the middle of June we took another family trip to Florida. We stayed in a town called New Smyrna beach. We brought a camera...but the battery was dead....and we forgot to bring a charger. So no pictures. Luckily my brother and his family came as well - and they WERE smart enough to bring a camera AND a battery charger. So you will have to wait on those pictures until a get copies from them.

The highlight of our trip (well, for Jacob and Andrew at least) was a trip to Hogwarts at Universal Studios. (Matthew and I opted out of the trip to Universal and instead went to visit my best friend Eva and her family). Since that visit, all our lives have become consumed with Harry Potter: the boys carry their wands everywhere they go, Scott has built them a Hogwarts fort in the back yard, and the family has watched the entire Harry Potter movie collection from start to finish. I am honestly starting to think my name might actually be Hermoine Granger. Alright, on to the rest of the summer.....

July: The 4th of July! Alright, so we wound up with probably the coolest neighbors in the world. (Honestly, these people are amazing). Anyway, the husband is a bit of a pyromanic and puts on a firework show every year. We had been hearing about the show a few weeks in advance and had been "warned" it would end with something he had named the "Vortex of Fire". The "Vortex of Fire" was created by weaving a number of various stringed fireworks together. The photos do not even come close to doing this thing justice. All I can say is that as it was going on I was both screaming and laughing at the top of my voice, AND I thought my eye lashes had burned off. We still have a giant black mark on the street as proof that "The Vortex of Fire" was all it was cracked up to be.

On July 9th, ANDREW WAS BAPTIZED. It was thrilling to see him take this step in his life. We are all so proud of him. I love how he is giving a mini-thumbs up with his right hand in this picture.
Look how excited Matthew is about the baptism!
Even though Matthew screamed when Andrew came out of the water, he was very happy for his big brother when we finally got outside.

We were very blessed to have a majority of our family members come out for Andrew's baptism. Here is the group photo of everyone.

Here is the Barry side of the family...
As well as the Barlow side.

It was a wonderful day and the Spirit was very strong during the service. True to form, Andrew made sure to put on his Harry Potter costume the second he got home from the baptism. Later that day we went to a Singapore reunion and everyone was asking if his costume was what he wore to the baptism.

I would like to end with Andrew's baptism, but we had one last major event in the past week.

On Pioneer Day, we decided to grill some hamburgers. In the hustle and bustle of getting everything cooked, we momentarily lost track of Matthew. In those few seconds, he decided to check out the barbeque. The poor little guy torched the top of his pointer finger. It actually took us a while to figure out what had happened because he hardly cried when the injury occurred. The next day we realized the burn was more sever that we had initially thought. We took Matthew in to see the pediatrician who had to refer us on to the Burn Center at the University of Utah.

It is a third degree burn, but we were told that his finger should heal fine. Of course, the afternoon we came home, guess who ran right up to the barbeque the second he went outside. Guess he is going to be one of those kids who learns the hard way......