June-August

Well, it's been a couple months, so I'd better post about our family.

Sam had a great 2nd birthday. He got nine dinosaurs, or "saurus" as he likes to call them from mom and dad. They have a nice home on one of the shelves of his bookshelf. His Grandma and Grandpa Henrie gave him some neat magnifying I spy books and some cars with a really neat little mat that zips up into a box to store his cars. Grandma and Grandpa Eavenson and Aunt Becky gave him a cute cuddly bear, a neat little stop-motion book, and a book of nursery rhymes. Of course, he also got new cars from them, too. He got new clothes from everybody, and one of mom's favorite gifts, a new set of Sunday clothes. A very good birthday indeed.

In June we went to the Shakespearean festival in Cedar City. We decided only to go for three days this year instead of the usual five, because Jared's dad had eye surgery a few weeks before that ended up having some complications. He had a hard time traveling. The plays were great. We saw Much Ado About Nothing (probably my all-time-favorite Shakespeare play) and Macbeth. I was surprised that Macbeth ended up being my favorite this year. They did such a great job!!

About three weeks ago we went fishing with the kids. Sam had never been, and he absolutely loved it. When we got to the shore he found an old soccer ball that soon ended up in the water. It kept floating out, and he kept asking Daddy to go get it. We could still see it after being there for about an hour when it finally disappeared. Sam thought it was great that we kept catching sticks for him (no fish for us on this trip, there were about 10 boats on the lake making some big wakes) . So, we caught him some sticks and he'd draw in the mud with them. Later on he discovered there were some tiny shells in the sand, so he had a fun time collecting them. Next Sam discovered the joy of throwing rocks into the water! We had a hard time pulling that kid away from the water when it started getting dark.

Surprisingly, little Brittany LOVED the whole trip. She was content the entire time - about 3 1/2 hours total. She laughed and talked and giggled, but mostly just watched us. It was a great time for everyone.

Last week Jared's work had the annual Lagoon party. It's getting more and more fun for us as the kids get older. Sam was big enough to go on Puff the Magic Dragon this year, so he and Dad went and had a great time. Brittany and I waved and cheered them on. You can always tell when Sam is really enjoying something because he is completely focused on what he is doing. He won't smile or look around, but he'll concentrate until he's finished and then you'll see the biggest smile in the world. We went on the train ride as a family and they had all kinds of tigers and lions awake and prowling. It was a great little ride! When we asked Sam if he liked the train ride he said "Oh yeah"! The day at Lagoon had Sam's stamp of approval. Brittany, on the other hand, was not a very big fan, but she was a good sport to let the rest of us go and have a good time.

Today is Jared and my anniversary so we decided to go out and have some fun. Our friends watched Sam and Brittany and we went to check out a local hot springs up Ogden canyon. We were relieved to see that there were no skinny dippers present. There were four pools, ranging from lukewarm to scalding hot. We tried several, including the scalding hot one that we agreed would be a lot of fun to try in the winter. It was a beautiful setting. The hot springs are right next to a gorgeous waterfall and right next to the river. We saw several hikers walk by and we even watched a guy catch a fish! The Mexican guy in his whitey-tightys wasn't quite as picturesque as the rest of the scene, but overall it was a great, fun experience. We later went to the Ruby River steakhouse for an excellent dinner. A great way to celebrate being married four years.

On Sunday our cute little baby Brittany was blessed. She looked like a little angel. Amazingly, she acted like a little angel during the entire meeting too! Jared held her for most of the meeting following the blessing and he leaned over to me at one point and told me that she was the calmest she'd ever been while he was holding her. Good little girl! Sam, on the other hand, was not calm, but we had lots of family there to help out and keep him entertained.

We are done taping and mudding the two rooms we're finishing in our basement, and I will start priming them tonight. Finally! It feels like the mudding and taping jobs

took forever. We were super picky about getting everything very smooth, so we hope everything will look nice and smooth when it's all painted. With any luck the rooms will be painted (not just primed) this weekend.

My running is going well. I have to plan the night before what time I will get up in the morning and which course I want to run. That eliminates all thought processes when I wake up, so I just go and don't have to think about it. I really am loving running again. My knees hurt quite badly last week, but I got some good rest during the weekend and so far they are feeling fine this week. I think my muscles and tendons are getting stronger and it might

take a while for them to get into running shape. I'll just take it easy until they do!

Thursday Sam, Brittany and I are all going to visit a friend from my

mission who is living in Provo. It should be a lot of fun. I've talked with her on the phone s

everal times trying to get things set up, and my Portuguese is just awf

ul!! Hopefully this vi

sit will help bring it back. (later) The visit was great! Here are some more pics.

Meet the Eavensons

I decided to start a blog about our family because of a conversation with a friend about a year ago. We were talking about kids and scrapbooking and how bad we both were at it. She mentioned that blogging would be a good way to record what was going on with the family. I agreed. So here I am, my first blogging attempt. I'm setting my expectations for my self nice and low - posting once a month with five pictures of our family - so I don't feel overwhelmed and I actually do it. If I do more than that, I'm doing great!

So here's a little about each of us:

Jared is currently working at an engineering

firm that does a lot of jobs for Hill Air Force base. He (and I) LOVES the job, which is quite different from what we could say about his last one. He is the Young Men's president in our ward and a county delegate for the republican party. Those two things coupled with finishing a basement, completing a Master's degree, being a dad and husband and working on cars whenever he can squeeze it in keep him a pretty busy

guy.

Sam is one and a half years old. His days are spent playing with the dog, throwing balls, transporting toy cars from one windowsill to the next, "helping" and entertaining his little sister, avoiding Mom's attempts to change his diaper, watching the kids in the cul de sac from our front window, and being very cute. He lives to go outside. He also lives for the minute Dad comes home from work.

Brittany is 9 weeks old. She is a little doll who fills her parents with great delight when she's happy. Unfortunately, she likes to scream a lot, but that's getting better. She has a beautiful smile that likes to surface one or two times a day and makes it all worth it. She started sleeping through the night last week. Yay! Her days are filled by sleeping, eating, talking to mom, and watching Sam. It is fun to see her grow and develop.

I am a stay at home mom who's trying to keep it all together after having the second baby. I am in the primary presidency in my ward. I teach piano. The kids and I have a lot of fun playing in the yard, working in the garden and going different places during the week. I have had a goal to run a marathon for a long time, and decided that this would be the year to do it since I turn 30 in October. A friend lent me a book that convinced me I can do it even though I haven't ran in a long time, and she and I are going to run the Top of Utah marathon in September! I started training last week.

Wally is our beagle. He's two years old. He's great at entertaining Sam and he has a certain power over Jared. He's a good dog.