Pyramid Schemes

We've been having a great time with Uncle Jon visiting since he finished his canoe trip down the Mississippi river. The other night we learned about cooperation in family home evening, so for the activity we decided to cooperate and build a human pyramid. It's the best kind of pyramid scheme. See everyone's smiling and nobody lost their money when it collapsed. A few more photos of fun with Uncle Jon:
AJ throws the football and...

Uncle Jon gets splashed.

Well we have many more adventures coming up this summer so stay tuned...

Plants in our yard

I put up a photo of some roses earlier, but I took several shots of a variety of plants last night. Here are a few of them.

Lemons almost ripe.

















A flower on the lemon tree, we'll have more in the fall!

















Surprise! We also have a pomegranate tree. I'll have to figure out what to do with these.

















Tomatoes, bought the seedlings at OSH, but managed to keep them alive even during the move. Ate some tonight in our taco salad. First time I ever ate food that I had grown! I will be doing that again!

















Some pretty flowers growing over the back fence.

















And a bonus: not plants, but boys in the pool! We love having it to use. And the boys are doing great at swimming. I couldn't breathe out my nose until I was maybe 14, and both of them will go get pool toys on the bottom. A.J. does it on his own, and Levi needs a little help. Of course, we can't leave the balls out of the pool.

Interesting tidbits

This week Aaron was in San Diego for work. The boys and I went down on Thursday to join him. We spend Thursday evening at the beach at Torrey Pines State Beach. I love this beach. The waves are gentle, and roll for quite a way. They are strong enough for boogie-boarding, but not so strong that they knock Levi down.

The interesting parts, though, started on the way down. We had checked out Mary P0ppins from the library, but hadn't managed to watch it yet. So we put it in when we left town. The best part for the boys was when all the chimney sweeps are dancing on the rooftops. Levi said, "Wow, those guys are good dancers. And the other guy with the kids and the lady (meaning Dick Van Dyke's character Bert) is good, too. Because he's good at singing." Several times, he asked me to hold his hand so he could "chim-chimeree." Meaning, he needed a little stability so he could try to kick his heels together.

He is such a little performer.

He started gymnastics classes a couple of weeks ago at the YMCA. They have several classes going on at the same time, and in one of the others is a girl we knew from our old church. Her name is Tessa, and you might want to keep an eye out for her in national competitions. She's pretty good. Anyway, we were putting on his shoes after class on Wednesday while her group was practicing vaults. She landed on her feet, so he felt he needed to give her a high 5. So he did.

Levi cracks me up.

A simple post in honor of Independence Day

One of our old friends from college is currently serving in Afghanistan. He wrote a post for their blog, and I thought it was perfect. So I am sharing his post with you. Their family is currently in Alaska, far from family in Missouri. The twins, Gavin and Asher, are just a few months younger than A.J. and Corbin is a little older than Levi. Megan and I started college together, and Jared and Aaron served their missions at the same time, though to very different corners of the world. Please read and enjoy, and think of him and his family when you watch or light fireworks tomorrow.

Levi at the park

Yesterday was Levi's last day of school. They close for a few days to prepare for the summer program (which we are calling summer camp.) So we made a big deal about him finishing school, and he gets to choose what to do today. He chose to go to the park this morning.

I took some pictures, which by the end turned into a photo shoot, with Levi posing like a model. It was pretty funny. Here are a few of them.

On the jungle gym. Yep, that's your Interstate Batteries hat, Al.














Posing by the steering wheel. This is when he started the silliness.














Looking all serious with the railing.





















Aren't I hot? Oh, yeah. I am.




















Such a cute face.














Does anyone else see headshots in this kid's future?