Year: 2010

We kidnapped Liesl today and went to see ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ in the dollar theater. On the way to the theater we stopped to get frosties (which the kids call “frostings”) at Wendy’s. Liesl tried to hand Kyle some money to help pay for it, but he wouldn’t take it. So Tyra snatched it out of Liesl’s hand and said “I’ll take it!” THEN she asked Liesl if she could have it. Liesl laughed and said that she could have it “IN the car”. But after that she had to give it back.

The movie was cute, and we all liked it. Ethan is already saying that he wants to go back and see it again. 3 of the 5 kids sat and quietly watched the movie. Dinah at one point was just screaming in the aisle and had to be taken out, she was just mad that we wouldn’t buy her a drink at the theater. And Chloe is just not capable of sitting still unless she is asleep, and Kyle couldn’t get her to sleep. 🙁 But hey this is Utah where everyone around us had kids too, and nobody got on our case for having a couple of noisy kids, because they all understand….Unlike the people in California where people everywhere just don’t understand what it’s like to have kids. I also now know why some people refer to that theater as the “Sticky Feet”. I sat down and I just felt like my feet stuck to the floor and every time I picked up my feet I could feel the resistance of the stickiness pulling my feet down and then that classic sound as I pulled my feet up off the floor. Uh ya so the “Sticky Feet” I get it now!

After the movie we went to Ihop for dinner. And Dinah was cranky there too. She just would not sit down. I had a headache and ya…..basically the best part of being there was getting to spend some time with Liesl, which is a very rare occurrence.

Independence Day is an AWESOME holiday. As a kid my family’s tradition was to make homemade ice cream, and we did fireworks out on the corner (until do-it-yourself fireworks were outlawed in California) and watch the movie “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. Now that I’m grown and married I have insisted that we keep the tradition of making homemade ice cream, but instead of just vanilla every year, like my family has always done, we have had fun making all kinds of flavors. And instead of “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, we like to watch “1776” which is an awesome musical about the writing of, and signing of the Declaration of Independence. LOVE IT!

Of course since getting married we don’t JUST watch a movie and make homemade ice cream on the 4th. The 4th of July happens to be Karen’s birthday, so that gets added to the plans. This year we had a family dinner at our place to celebrate both the holiday and Karen’s birthday. We had bratwurst, sour kraut, kartoffelsalat (warm German potato salad), a green salad, and cherries from Karen’s tree. And for dessert Laurel made a jello cake, and of course we made homemade ice cream, mixed berry ice cream to be exact. It was all yummy!

After dinner Laurel and I escaped down to the basement to work on a project that we had been working on before dinner, and everyone else just hung out. So since I was in the basement I didn’t take any pictures, but thankfully Liesl did and I’m just going to use hers. 😉

Tyra is such a social butterfly and THRIVES on attention. And I just love this next picture of Chloe. I love how her eyes ‘sparkle’:

Then here’s Kyle playing with Chloe:

When it got dark they all went outside to play with sparklers:

And when all the sparklers were gone Kyle started doing fireworks in the street, while the kids sat in the back of the MegaVan to watch:

I just love Jeremy’s face! Hehe….

When the fireworks were all gone they came back inside to hang out for a while, because Laurel and I were still working in the basement.

Dinah is such a crack up! Liesl told her to open her eyes, so she opened them as far as they could go!

And this picture just cracks me up too. Kyle is such a great dad, I think because he never really grew up, and he just knows how to be a kid with the kids. 😉

Love you hunny. 😀