new car

We bought a new van.
We haven't bought a house yet, we are still looking at options.
Meanwhile, we play with cousins and friends, spend our days inside
hiding from the sun, and standing by flickering computer screens looking
at houses. We also cook meals wherever we are, and do dishes. On Thursday
we head down to a reunion in Ferron, where we have been warned that you can't
get out of the car due to alarming amounts of swarming bugs. Then the next week
we head to our cabin in the mountains, and then school starts. Which is scary,
because its a month before ny school would start. Our summer is cut in half.
Elias left for scout camp this morning. He decided to go last night, so we set record time in borrowing supplies, and going to a friends for a physical.
I am also going to get to go to girls camp, on a overnight backpacking trip,
which you do fourth year, instead of camping in the woods like ny. I think this actually sounds like more fun. Love to everyone, and I will post pictures soon.

Utah

We made it to Utah safe and sound, with everyone's eardrums in one piece. Hallelujah!
We are having fun with cousins despite the hot hot hot hot weather, and the fact that I keep getting nosebleeds. Dry weather is such a change from humidity. We stopped only one night to sleep in a hotel in Nebraska. Watched fireworks from the road, but the fireflies that accompanied us along the road were almost better.
We are trying to decide to build a house or buy one, and I personally want to build. Even though it means I would be living out of a suitcase for another six months it just might be worth it.
More later!

"Would've been prize winning if not for the house in the background"

I think they will look better if you click on them individually.

photo class pics

home school photo class. I didn't really like the teacher. After she looked at a picture Elias took of his shadow during the night (so it looked really abstract) and commented that if you turned it on its side it could look like a arrow. I figure doing wedding photos in previous years has really limited her creativity. Anyway, here are some of the ones I took.

family biking

Dryer Rd for Elias's b-day, mom and dad winter running, me pretending to be Leonardo Da Vinci, and then a friend and I jumping off a table. I felt like I needed to add some pictures

Denmark

This summer dad is going to Denmark. He got into a design contest, and gets to go over there, and sell his product.
I want to go.
I need to earn some money.
Anyone want me to babysit/mow/clean/wash windows for them this summer?

Dad got released as the bishop today. He came home right after church. How amazing is that?

Birthday!

On Elias's birthday, he was at the father and son camp-out on Seneca Lake, jumping in a ice cold lake (a characteristic he got from his dad) so we had to celebrate his birthday on Sunday and Monday. He had a mint ice cream cake with thirteen candles, and his dinner of choice was a huge sandwhich with avacado, tofu, tapanade, sundried tomato's, cucumbers and more that I can't remember. Yesterday we went to Dryer Rd. park, and biked a lot of the trails. We only had one injury. Atticus was on the pump track, and didn't land right. Fortunatly he only got a skinned knee. Pictures to come soon.