Boxes, Boxes EVERYWHERE!

 We are moving out of our house in a couple of weeks and I've been packing up! Our renters are moving out of the house we're going to move into today, so next week we'll be busy painting and getting it ready for us to move into. Sooooo, I've been busy the last couple of weeks packing up - so I don't have to worry about it next week. Everything, except the things that need to hang up, is out of the closets and the only cupboards that have anything in them are the kitchen pantry, a couple of cupboards with dishes in them and our bathroom cupboards. I'm pretty well ready to go. I've been cleaning as I go along, so the move should go pretty smoothly. We are planning on taking the boxes over room by room and then we'll have a moving day with helpers coming to move all the big stuff. Here is my office: 

 These 6 boxes are the books that go on my bookshelves. The other 2 have my colored paper in them.

 The yellow bedroom - one pile for the new guest room and 1 pile for storage. We will have one less bedroom and a lot less storage space in our new place, so we need to be creative with storage space.

 Here is the bedroom affectionately known as 'Michael's room" - even though he only lived here for a couple of months! It's all packed up and the closet is empty except for all the food storage boxes in the closet.

 The family room - it looks so strange without pictures on the walls.

 Kitchen area....

 Dining Room area....all of the cabinets are empty, I'm planning to hand carry some of the breakable items.

 and the Living Room.....I'm sad to leave this house - it is such a nice floor plan, but it will be very nice to have half the mortgage payment when we move to the other house.

 As we were taking things out of the playhouse, I just had to take a picture of this. These are the grand kids assignments when they play in the playhouse. I noticed they're all supposed to Listen! And Claire and Ethan are the watch guards - they haven't been doing a very good job since they haven't been to the playhouse for almost 2 years! Maybe we wouldn't have had the bee problem if they had been on the job! I'm sad the grand kids won't have a playhouse anymore, but we'll have to create another play place for them.

 This is the fireplace for the playhouse. We drew a fireplace on some paper and attached it to some cardboard. Isn't it adorable? I want to keep it just because it's so cute! Maybe we can use it in our new family room! (just kidding)

 We had our last Sunday dinner at this house last week. Sadie sat down at the kids table, posed like this and said, "This is how we sit at school". It was so adorable, I had to take a picture of it. And it really is how they sit at school while they're waiting for their teacher to begin class.

 Lexi got dish duty after our dinner. Thank you, Lexi!

 Then we played a little Grand Slam and Creepy Crawlers. We missed BJ, Shannon and family, who were home with sick kids. Brodi's birth grandparents are buying our home though, so BJ's kids will be back at this house very often for visits! Maybe we can sneak in a visit or two as well.

We have made such wonderful memories in this house. I will miss it, but we'll make many more memories at our new house. Posts of our new house will come once we get settled.

Honey, anyone?

For a few months now, we've noticed bees going underneath the playhouse. It's been too hot to do much about it and the kids haven't been playing out there anyway - due to the heat. Bryan sprayed a few times, but the problem hasn't been going away. Since we're getting ready to move, we needed to take care of this problem. 

The play house was very heavy, so Bryan hooked a rope around the roof of the playhouse, tied it to the back of our car and pulled the playhouse up with the car. When he pulled it up, this is what we saw.........

 The bees had been very busy creating this amazing honeycomb. It was very interesting to look at. Of course, we couldn't get too close, and had to zoom in to get this picture, but it is amazing. Bryan was going to try to remove it himself until he saw how large it was. He actually got stung once when he was spraying them. We called in an expert and it only cost $95 for him to remove it. Well worth the money, I'd say!

There are still bees hanging around looking for their hive, but it is all gone!

Sam, Sam, the Lego Man!

That's my new name for Sam. He loves legos and trains. So, what could be better than a lego train? This is a train he built out of the legos we have here at our house - no instructions, no kits - just a bucket full of legos. Very creative!

 Brodi made her own lego creation! She loves to make designs out of hers legos.

 And Hannah wanted her picture taken too! She is totally able to walk, but she won't do it just yet. She stands up in the middle of the floor and will stand for a very long time, but just won't take steps - unless of course, she thinks nobody is watching. I love that big smile!

Cucumber tree

Have you ever seen a cucumber tree? Well, neither had we - until this year. Our cucumber vine grew right up into our Ficus tree and the cucumbers were actually hanging down from the tree. It looked so funny!

Here are a couple of our very large cucumbers. I put a spoon next to them so you could see the size.

They actually taste good too. This was the only thing we were successful with in our garden this year.

Baby Finnegan's Blessing Day

Another reason for our trip to California (and Yosemite) was to attend Finn's baby blessing. He was blessed  by his dad on August 5 in Livermore. He slept through the blessing and all the way through the meeting, but when they got him out of his car seat for pictures, he was ready to eat!

 Michael found a hat for Finn that matches his hat. They looked so handsome together.

 Finn wore the same blessing outfit that his daddy wore almost 28 years ago. I'm so glad Michael has a son, who was able to use it!

 Cute little Finnegan Arthur! We're so happy he's in our family. 

 Michael treated us to his homemade pasta. Below is a picture of him preparing the pasta.

 My job was to take the pasta after he cut it and hang it on this bamboo stick in the kitchen for it to dry.

 And here is the finished product. Michael is a fabulous cook and he enjoys it too! 

 Madie's 3rd Birthday wasn't until Aug 20, but since both sets of her grandparents were in town, they celebrated it on Aug 5. She wanted a huge pink cake and she got it. Those are strawberries being used as the candle holders - what a great idea, Marilou! 

I love the look on her face after the candles were blown out! She's so cute.

 We gave her this dress for her birthday and a little doll that looks like Finn. She calls the doll Finn, too. Grandma Conner gave her the flip flops, which she loved!

 Madie likes to pretend the whole movie of Beauty and the Beast. When she wears this yellow dress, she is Belle. She acts out random scenes from the movie and it's hilarious.

 Madie loved playing with Papa's iPad. 

We loved visiting Michael and Mallory and their cute kids. 

Yosemite Camping

Believe it or not, I lived in Northern California for 24 years and never went to Yosemite! If I had known how beautiful it was, I would have been there long before now. We had the chance to camp in Yosemite with Michael & Mallory & kids and also Mal's parents, Casey and Marilou and her little sister, Eden on Aug 2-4.

When we were driving through Yosemite, we really hadn't seen a lot of the mountains because of the heavy tree coverage, but as we came through a tunnel, we saw this beautiful view - it was breathtaking! Pictures don't do it justice.

 Here is a picture of El Capitan. There was somebody rock climbing up the front of this mountain - we could barely see a dot, but those with binoculars were able to see the climber.

 Here is Half Dome - absolutely amazing.

 Another view of Half Dome....

 Bryan and I in Yosemite

 On Friday morning, we went for a picnic near a creek. Here is Madie walking in the creek.

 Nana, Madie and Papa

 Madie and Papa

 Our campground at Yosemite. It was beautiful!

 Cute Madie at our campground

Here is the Finn-Mann!

Casey, Michael & Madie, me. Eden and Mallory on a small hike

 Michael, Madie and I on a hike

 Hiking in a meadow near our campground

I'm so thankful I was FINALLY able to make it to Yosemite. It was a very fun trip.

Another Rook Trophy!

About 8 years ago at one of our Clark Reunions, Doug's family found the trophy below that my nephew, Andy, is holding. It has been the official Rook trophy for the winners of the Clark Rook Tournament. I've had the trophy at my house all these years, since I've been the Rook champ every year. The first 2 times, Tyler was my partner and the 3rd time, my brother Dave was my partner, but this year I got dethroned and had to give up the trophy. Andy took the trophy back to California because he and Tyler won. The problem was - there was only one trophy, so the 2 winners didn't both get a trophy.....

UNTIL NOW.........

My nephew, Riley, found a duplicate trophy at Deseret Industries. He came to visit in Arizona a couple weeks ago and hand delivered the other trophy to Tyler. I can't believe there are two of these birds around and that Riley found another one! Now we have a trophy for each of the Rook winners. And, by the way, I hope to have one of them back on my plant shelf sometime in the future!