Ooops

Ok, I know I did it to myself. I have neglected the blog for over a week now. It has been a very busy ten days or so, that now I have so much to fill you in on. My guess is that this will be a bit of a lengthy blog packed with catch-up info.

Well, we met Jessie's fiance, Taylor and he is a great guy. The two of them will be a great pair. Taylor survived spending time with all of his wild soon-to-be nieces and nephews. My kids had a great time taking advantage of his kindness by making him go outside in the 90 degree heat to play baseball with them.

Josh graduated from high school on June 14th. I can't believe that he is already in college. Actually, he really is already in college, he left for BYU almost a week ago to do the summer term. I can still remember waiting for the call from the hospital the day he is was born since my parents hadn't told us if they were having a boy or another girl beforehand. It will be weird to go to my dad's house to visit and not have Josh there.

Right before Josh was going to walk across the stage to get his diploma, he reached his hand into his pocket, which made us all nervous since we had no idea what he was going to pull out. Well, he pulled out a false moustache, stuck it beneath his nose, and got quite the cheer from his classmates as he walked across the stage. My dad told me he would send me the pictures of Josh wearing his cap, gown, and moustach, but I still haven't received those pictures. When I do, you know they'll make it to the blog.

On Father's Day, we had my dad come over, along with Josh, Jessie and Taylor, and Brooke, Justin, and their kids, for a special dinner. Ben grilled up some flank steaks, and we had green beans, salad, roasted potatoes, lemonade, and banana cream pie. It was fun to have everyone over. As a gift for my dad, Ben transferred some VHS Lee family home videos onto DVD, so we ended our evening watching them.

(Josh, Andrew, Taylor, Maddie, Bracken, Abbie, my Dad, Mylie)

Then, on June 19th Maddie graduated from first grade. Brooke watched Zack and Mylie while I took Andrew to Maddie's end of the year picnic. When we got home, Brooke told me she had left Mylie and Tate up in Mylie's crib playing. When we went to check on them, this is what we found:

We have had a fun couple of days with school out. We have been able to go to the pool and to the playground. I am trying to find ways to keep the kids out of the house, so that they are not just making big messes.

On Thursday the 21st, Ben's brother Will graduated from high school. He'll be heading out to Utah State in the fall. Both of Ben's parents graduated from USU, so they are very proud. Will's graduation was very nice. The only thing Ben had to complain about during William's graduation, was that someone left some gum on his seat and it got stuck to Ben's suit.

(Ben, Will, and Sam)

Jessie and Taylor watched my kids while Ben and I went to graduation, and it was very nice of them to help us out, because my kids are a handful!

We had the most beautiful weather on Saturday! It was nice and sunny and warm (not HOT!!!). The missionaries had stopped by earlier in the week trying to figure out if we had anything they could do for a couple of hours as service. So, they stopped by and weeded our yard and helped Ben paint the stairwell. They stuck around for some pizza before heading back to their apartment to change so they could make their afternoon appointment.

Saturday evening Maddie went to her first race. She has been running with Ben in the mornings. After he does his marathon training workout, he'll head back home to pick her up and they'll set out for their special time. Maddie really looks forward to this special alone time with her dad. He was so excited to have her come do a one mile fun run with him here in Ashburn. She has been looking forward to it for a few weeks. They had a great time and we're so proud of her!

Here is a cute shot of Ben and Mylie from after the race:

There were booths set up where the kids were able to get their faces painted after the race. Maddie wanted a tiger. The kid who was doing the face-painting was not greatly skilled in the art of face painting. Maddie was diappointed when I showed her this picture of her tiger and saw it really looked like an orange teddy bear:
Andrew asked the kid to paint Dora the Explorer on his face. The guy had no idea what Dora the Explorer was, so when Andrew then asked him to paint Boots the monkey, he was equally at a loss. Andrew's third attempt was asking the face painter to paint a moon bounce on his face. I thought this was an odd request, but I was surprised that Andrew could come up with some weirder. Andrew ultimately ended up asking for a "pink shirt" to be painted on his face. Where does he come up with these things? Then he wanted a number four painted on the shirt, since he is four years old. He was disappointed that the number four couldn't also be painted in pink, but settled on having a red four instead. I wonder if any other mothers in the world have had a son request a pink shirt be painted on their cheek. I'm so proud...