The Puyallup Fair

This pumpkin weighs a little over 1000 pounds.

Every year we have to see this guy's comedy show at least once, if not more. He juggles various things and is just hilarious to watch and listen to.

Every year we go to the Puyallup Fair, which is our county fair. We looked at some animals, (ok - A LOT of animals), ate our favorite county fair foods (corn dogs, kettle corn, ice cream and lemonade....what a combo that is....) and just had a great time hanging out. We invited Hannah and Alyx to come with us, so the girls went off on their own to go on a few rides while I wandered around the buildings with arts and crafts displays, the veggie and fruit displays and all the wierd/goofy stuff that people/companies try to sell. All-in-all it was a GREAT day!

Happy 14th Birthday Sam!

Five of Sam's friends from church/school came over to the house last night to help celebrate her 14th birthday. They each painted a little wooden box to take home, ate hot dogs, chips and cupcakes, played on the trampoline and just hung out talking and giggling until 11:00 at night. We have been fortunate this week to have awesome weather. They spent all evening outside in the backyard. By about 10:00, it was starting to get a bit chilly, so they took some blankets outside and continued laughing and having a great time. Since her actual birthday is tomorrow, we'll have our family "party" tomorrow night. Dinner will be her favorite food (seafood), she'll open presents from us and then we'll all play board games.

Back to school....

It's 4:30 a.m. and the alarm is ringing. It's 5:30 a.m. and I'm driving to the church to drop Amanda off for Seminary. Yup - summer must be over and another year of school is yet again in session. Even though Amanda is in 11th Grade and Samantha is the 8th Grade this year, I still insist on taking pictures of them on the first day of school. (With a lot of protesting on their part.) When I left for work, the girls were still getting ready for school, so I had to take a picture of them that night. Oh well....close enough. So far they both like all their teachers (they actually started on Tuesday, the 2nd). One of Amanda's classes is French, which she absolutely LOVES. Andy's mom speaks French, so she's looking forward to talking to her in her language. One of Sam's classes is Leadership and she'll be working on the school yearbook. She's looking forward to taking pictures at the different activities.