Reunited and it feels so good

But first cute pictures of Erica and her haircut even though she didn't want me to take the pictures and she wanted me to delete them and she certainly didn't want me to post them on the internet for everyone to see.

 

Saturday was the Baadsgaard reunion, my mom's side. We gathered at Hobble Creek Canyon. Mary, these are for you because you seem to like this sort of thing.

 Melanie and Kathryn. Tessa (Cousin Amy's daughter in blue) Allison in pink pants, Henry and Erica.

 Cousin Alicia and Aunt Karen and Karen's DIL Belomie.

 Joelle in foreground, Leanna, Evelyn and Joann's daughter on the left side of the table. Teresa, Joann and Lily on the left side.

 Thank goodness for Kathryn and the craft table. She kept the kids busy with necklace making, playdo and cool coloring pages. My kids didn't even notice the river 20 feet behind them.

 The Super 8 they like to call themselves. Like a gymnastics team.

 These are some of my most favorite people. Every last one of them is kind and funny.

 And a little dorky.

 And then they got into this cliquey huddle for several minutes. The rest of us didn't know what to do. I found out later that Ross was telling them he got a check in the mail for my grandma who died in 2002. It was for $48.

 Professor Uncle Dr. Brian Newbold helped all the kids make rockets and brought a super cool air-compressor launcher.

 That kept the big and not so big kids occupied for a very long time.

 Karen and her 3 of her 4 sons: Daniel, Brandon (who's going to Fiji next week on a mission) Ryan and her super cute chubby grandson Willard. Aaron left early.

 Evelyn and Owen and their daughters Joann and Alicia and Kathryn, Joann's two daughters, Kathryn's husband and 3 little kids, Gus, Ruby and Oscar.

I didn't get a picture of Leanna and her daughter Teresa or Ross and Janine and their daughters April and Amy that were there or Irene, Joelle, Jeff and Macy. Or Sue and Doug. Or Melanie and Brian and their boys. I got bored or had to find James.

So there you go, Mary. Be here next year, dangit.

I'll sleep when I'm dead

June has been so busy! For some reason I scheduled all the kids' activities during the first 3 weeks of June and even needed to be at two places at once. Thank goodness for family!

We started out slow, just a few lazy mornings swinging under the table.

James cracks me up. I've lost track of how many words he knows. It's probably somewhere around 30. We are definitely in the "Lassie" stage where I'm trying to guess what he's trying so hard to say. "What is it? Do you want a cracker? Do you want to play on the swings? Is Henry stuck down a well?" And James just gets more frustrated with each wrong guess but when I figure it out he's so excited.

He's a little charmer when he wants to be but it comes at a price.

Henry and his cousin Nathan did a sports class for a couple of weeks. They did a new sport every day. This is when I picked him up from football day (he's in the blue BYU shirt. He's always in that BYU shirt....)

 He was so cute to watch because he acts like every play is the biggest deal and runs his hardest.

During the second week of that class Henry and Erica had their swimming lessons right after which means Henry changed in the car and they ate lunch while they waited.

James was a little trooper and was fine watching and eating.

I love summer kids.

Erica and her class were freezing waiting to jump back into the pool. She sat down and put her feet in but her teacher made her stand back up. She's never been able to handle swimming for very long because she gets so cold.

Henry loves swimming. Maybe a little too much. I was afraid she wasn't going to pass him because he spent so much time goofing off and doing his own thing. Luckily he buckled down when it counted and passed off the skills.

The diving board was his favorite, of course.

Erica did great and remembered everything from last year. It helps that she's been practicing in the tub all year.

Her teacher always used Erica to demonstrate to the class.

This is the house across the street from the swimming teacher lady's house. It speaks to my heart.

I don't know if it's the brick or the front door.

Or maybe the wood columns or the overall cottage look.  #housegoal #brickisbest #hashtagsdontmeananythinginblogs

James was so intrigued by the street sweeper truck I thought he was going to fall off the couch.

 This was James's activity of choice rather than go to nursery without me or go to gospel doctrine without whine-singing.

I am so over sitting in there with him but he's not the type to cry for aminute but get distracted and calm down. He's more the cry-inconsolably-for-the-2-hours type and I don't think that's fair to the teachers or the other babies. So here we sit.

During Erica's swimming lesson, Sarah was at the high school doing a 2 week tumbling class. I was able to watch her that second week.

I may have to sign up Henry next year. He followed along on the side.

 James was interested this day too.

 And he decided to just make himself at home.

  This stretch was too hard.

 This is his interpretation.

By the end Sarah could do a back handspring on her own. I think it helps that she practices all sorts of crazy stuff on the trampoline.

Back at home we have a family of 4 baby squirrels living under our back steps. They are so cute! The kids throw their apple cores out there for them to eat. They are the closest thing we'll have to a pet. It's a terrible picture but if I open the door they scurry under.

Maybe I'm just not remembering my other kids accurately but James seems super coordinated for his age. Part of it might be his height but he can do so much more than I remember the other kids doing at this age like climbing this thing at the library like it's nothing. He just walked over and did it. Then he went down the tall slide all on his own then ran around to climb back up again.

My mom showed Erica her bride doll from when she was little. My mom only pulled this doll out a couple of times when I was little. I remember it being much bigger. My grandma made two dresses for it too and they are so fancy. 

Aaaand more table tunnel.

We still have Sarah's swimming lessons next week and then I have girls camp. But I've got nothing scheduled for July so hopefully we'll have time for all the other lazy summer stuff.