Sunday, July 25th--FINALLY! The two bottom front teeth have been quite wiggly. Not only that but the two permanent teeth are coming in right behind them. We've been reminding Brady to wiggle the two everyday but we think he's been kind of nervous. Tonight Nate got one of them to wiggle enough to get some dental floss underneath and snap the darn thing out. Brady said it hurt but not too bad. The other one is not quite ready but I'm hoping he can get it out before Nate leaves on his business trip tomorrow night.

Saturday, July 24th--One of the few "perks" of living in Utah (sorry, peeps, I am a Washington girl through and through!) is that July 24th is a state holiday. It means most people get the day off or the Friday or Monday, if it falls on the weekend. July 24th is the day we celebrate the Mormon pioneers coming to the Salt Lake Valley. There is a huge parade and many celebrations and festivities. Our little neighborhood did a little Primary parade where kids dressed in pioneer or patriotic clothing. They rode their bikes or scooters around and waved at the people standing outside to see them. On this day, we celebrate the Mormon pioneers settling here (in Utah), for good, after years and years of persecution and torture in other states. The stories of pioneers are many and I am honored to be a descendant of several Mormon pioneers. Their stories give me strength to endure my own trials. I can't imagine what life was like with a brand new religion that you believed so much in and yet, in the eyes of too many was stomped on and ridiculed. It took great faith. Maybe people then and now don't understand the Mormon faith, I get that. I don't understand everything to do with other religions but I don't feel the need to bash and ridicule other faiths. It doesn't make sense to me to do so and, for so many who believe in Jesus Christ as I do, I don't see how that would be "Christ-like".

Thursday, July 22nd--Nate took a few days off work so we made some plans. Today we decided to take the kids to the Kennecott Copper Mine. We invited Nate's parents along and headed up to do the tour and all. Nate and I hadn't been to the copper mine for several years. I think we took Elise when she was a baby. If you've never been, the copper mine is absolutely fascinating. The massive hole that has been made from thousands of rounds of explosives to get the copper, and other metals, within the mountain, is visible from outer space---it's HUGE! The kids really enjoyed going up there, especially with grandpa and grandma, since we don't get to see them as often as we'd like. We walked around the outside and stood next to one of the wheels used on a massive semi that is used to transport the rock. These semi's are as large as a house--no kidding! Inside the visitors center was a 20 minute film full of propaganda but interesting, none-the-less. We all were amazed at how many things require copper to work and what is made with copper. It was a great place to visit and it was even free this day!

Monday, July 19th--We had our annual maintenance of the AC unit today. Same Day Heating and Air came and did a great job servicing the unit and making sure we were okay for another year. However, the service guy forgot a little something that's, oh, I don't know.......RATHER IMPORTANT! Perhaps, next time he'll remember that when flushing out the AC unit with a hose, he should turn the water COMPLETELY OFF before leaving. Yeah, that's right, he freakin' flooded our basement! I guess since we haven't had a good basement floodin' in the last year that it was time. NOT! We have dealt with more basement floodings than I can count thanks to neighbors, rain and the stupid home builder that didn't bother to pack the dirt around the window wells. It's expensive, folks! We finished our basement to enjoy it, not to worry about it flooding all the time! Every time it happens the carpet pad has to be replaced, the carpet cleaned and we pray no mold builds up behind the drywall (note I said DRYwall!).

Saturday, July 3rd--Ah yes! Team Gullane has succeeded again with a totally rockin' July 4th party! We held our 4th Annual street party on July 3rd this year since July 4th was on Sunday. My planning team (Kathy and Ashley) and I spent a few months brainstorming for a most spectacular party. Everyone on our street was invited and we also included a few "honorary" Team Gullane families from streets in our neighborhood that don't party hard like we do! he he he
I decided I wanted to do Fear Factor. I had seen the elementary school do it and so I took some of their ideas and added a few of my own. HOLY MOLY, it was hilarious! I did five stations and 2 teams competed against each other: Grandpa's Hankey, Potty Mouth, Goo-Goo Ga-Ga, Creepy Crawlies and Foaming Bubbles. Grandpa's Hankey was a hankerchief with some green apple flavored goo inside--the player had to lick the goo gone. Potty Mouth was some Tootsie Rolls inside a bowl of lemonade--the player had to get the Tootsie Rolls out using only their mouth. Goo-Goo Ga-Ga was a player eating real baby food being fed by another team player. Creepy Crawlies was a bowl of crushed Oreos and the player had to find all the gummy bugs/worms inside and eat them. Foaming Bubbles was a pie tin full of whipping cream, the player had to eat it all and find the two pieces of bubble gum at the bottom and chew them enough to be able to blow a huge bubble (not as easy as it sounds). Everyone was laughing like crazy! It seems like most of the people on the teams walked away all sticky! Other games we did were Minute to Win It. Kathy had come up with some creative games to play within a minute, based on the TV game show. We did a donut eating contest and some water fun as well. As usual, everyone brought a side dish to share (most popular dish this year: baked beans!) and their own meat. We asked the Alonzo's to smoke some pork roasts and they were delish! We ended the chilly night with fireworks. Such a great night and such a great street to live on! Go Team Gullane! Lets see if we can plan an even BETTER party next year! : )

May-June--The whole season I kept forgetting to bring my camera to games. I don't know why but I did. Finally, I remembered the last game and was able to get some great pictures. Brady had a great baseball season. Nate volunteered to be coach again and prefers coaching baseball much more than coaching soccer. His assistant coach, Keith, was very helpful and so excited to work with the team. The first couple weeks of the season were met with really bad, cold weather so 2 games were cancelled and the season was extended a couple of weeks. I think it turned out to be a good thing because the kids got more practices. Brady seemed to improve throughout the season and usually hit the ball pitched to him. The kids would get a few pitches and if they weren't hitting them then the coach would put a tee next to them and let them hit the ball off it. Brady had to hit off the tee every once in a while. As usual, Brady was quite the little social bug and really enjoyed all the kids on his team. The team decided to call themselves the Raptors. I really liked visiting with many of the moms during practices and games, even getting to know moms in my neighborhood that I didn't know before.

Saturday (afternoon), June 26th--Our Stake youth are getting ready to go on Trek. Trek is basically a re-enactment of a small part of the Mormon Trail. The youth go with adults and spend a few days in the miserable heat, wearing pioneer outfits, pulling handcarts on a rough, rugged trail. Sounds pretty crazy, eh? And yet, I'm totally jealous! I would LOVE to be asked to help with Trek! Anyhoo, the Stake set-up this "training" day for the youth to come and learn some handy things that might be helpful for Trek--it was called "Iowa City". In the afternoon it was open for families to come. We had a great time going from station to station learning how to make arrow-heads, riding in a handcart and roping a calf. A few people brought their full-size teepee's. It was so incredible to walk in one and see kind of how they work. It was well done and I hope they will do it again!

Saturday (morning), June 26th--We've made a tradition of going to our local parade and the Lehi Parade. Both take place in June. We weren't able to attend our Eagle Mountain parade this year but we were able to go to the Lehi parade. We got there early enough to grab our regular spot next to the city building. Along with us, was my neighbor, Kathy, and her 3 girls. We brought our camping chairs, plenty of sunscreen and umbrellas galore--it was pretty hot! As part of our tradition, Nate walks across the street to the local bakery and grabbed us a dozen donuts to munch on while we waited for the parade to begin. YUM! This year Nate's parents, his brother and his family met up with us. His brothers two sons were in the parade walking along with a float their ward made. The float was a made to look like delicate arch (the actual one found down in southern Utah). The theme of this years parade was "What I Saw". We saw so many different interpretations in the various floats--it was pretty amazing and creative. The kids got TONS of candy, a few bottled waters, t-shirts and toy footballs thrown at them. As usual, a great parade and we enjoyed the company too!

Monday, June 21st--About a month ago we attended a JDRF family night at Boondocks in Draper. The weather was pretty cold and rainy so we were given vouchers to come back another day. So on this day, Nate took the day off work and we headed over. We played miniature golf, went on bumper boats and played games to earn tickets for prizes. I was able to hit a "jackpot" on one of the games and earn over 800 tickets (how come I'm never so lucky in Vegas?!?!)! After a few hours we were done so we turned in our tickets and got a few cheap prizes and then headed home. Pretty awesome day to spend with my family and it was all free!

Saturday, June 12th--Elise has been taking piano lessons for a year now. Her teacher, Sister Mitchell, is constantly amazed at how well Elise is doing. For only a year of lessons she plays remarkably well. Music seems to be one of her many natural talents and so we want to encourage her. She really seems to enjoy it too. For Christmas, she got a Disney songbook for beginners. She's been bringing that to piano lessons since then and picked "Sleeping Beauty" as her recital piece. She practiced it over and over..............and OVER again till she had it memorized (yes, we're sick of that song!). It all payed off when the recital came and she played it perfectly. We are so proud of her hard work and for such an amazing, patient piano teacher that keeps Elise interested in piano playing. There are piano players on boths sides of our family ranging from not-so-great (me and Nate) to absolutely amazing. If Elise continues to be interested in piano I can see her being absolutely amazing as well.

Monday-Friday, June 7-11--We've lived in our house for over 5 years now. Throughout that time I've worked on decorating rooms little by little. I love, LOVE decorating. I'm totally amateur at it but still enjoy it very much. When I get an idea I'm really excited about, I want to do it NOW and can usually do so because it usually only requires a cheap coat of paint and moving furniture. Elise's room was a totally different story. Her room is one of the last I've tackled because of what was required to do it. As she's getting older, I also wanted to do a "style" that would last for a while, which meant no fairies or princesses. She and I talked for a while as to what she would like to have in her room--I threw out all sorts of ideas and she decided she liked the idea of doing a tea party-ish/Spring-ish "theme". All the designer shows say buy one focal point item and base your entire room around it. We were in Disney World last year and I saw an Alice in Wonderland tea pot, tea cup and saucer. For Disney price standards, they were cheap. I showed them to Elise and asked if she'd like them for her room and she got really excited and said "YES!" We based the room around these items and it worked great (they are on the center of the wall shelf with a picture of her in her baptism dress)! She and I went shopping throughout this last year for items that matched and got really lucky to come upon clearance and sales at many of the craft stores. (to those family members that think this room was all about me, not so, Elise helped pick almost everything out!)

May 27th-31st, Thursday-Monday--We just LOVE going to Palisades State Park, near Manti, every Memorial Day Weekend. It is such a fun place to camp! As soon as Elise was home from school we packed up and headed down. We rented a camper again (complete with bathroom!) and pulled it with the Trailblazer. This year, my friend Heather, and her two kids, came along with us. Besides us, there were the usuals, my sister and her family and mutual friends that come every year. The first two days were WINDY! It made for rough sleeping! Heather had just bought a fancy tent from Cabela's and the wind snapped two of the poles. Being "handy" women we duct taped the poles like crazy and secured them with twigs. They bent some but held up the rest of the time. Luckily the weather was pretty good the other 3 days.