Ode to pests

Alex and I are back in Billings again! It was so hard to leave all the fun and family in Provo, but I am excited to spend some time with Mom and David and do all the farm things out here again.
This last week Ben and Kate moved into the Brady's basement with me, and it was so fun having them there all the time. Susan, Kate, Alex and I went and picked blackberries at a farm in Payson and it was (in Kate's words) like hunting for treasure! The berries were so huge and delicious. We had blackberry lemonaid and waffles for dinner that night.
Alex and I also went to Swiss days with Kate, Pat and Susan on Friday. I have never seen so many crafts in all my life! There were so many cool things and we got a lot of ideas. I bought a couple flower clips for Alex and a slice of pie that came with about a pint and a half of icecream for $3.50! Alex loves being outside in her stroller. We said goodbye to Pat and Susan who went to Bear Lake to pick up Kara and Devin, and that was sad. Friday night I went out to dinner with the Asay's and it was a lot of fun to be with the whole family (minus David who was at home).
Now we are back on the farm and I have found that, among other things, having a baby has made me hyper squimish of spiders. Mom fogged the basement before she came to Provo, which makes me feel a bit better about moving down there. But today I saw the largest spider in the world, in the bathtub upstairs.
I think one of the only downsides of living on a farm is the abundance of bugs that you just can't keep out of the house.

nothing to do on a Wednesday afternoon

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We've got some catching up to do.

Last Friday Kate, Alex and I went to the county fair. While it turned out to be small beans, our two favorite things were the baby llamas and the horse vaulting. Very cool stuff!

On the way back to the car, Alex fell asleep in her stroller like this. The whole time at the fair she refused to lean back in the stroller, and when she got tired she just slumped forward and let her head rest on her toes!
Tyler got back in town on Friday night, and on Saturday we went with Ben and Kate to the Mayan. I've always wanted to go and see the people dive while you ate, so in the spirit of "do everything you have always wanted to and never have done" we went. It was so much fun!

Before Tyler left for work, about a month ago, he picked up his new fancy boots. These ones are 16 inches tall! Other than being super cool, they keep his legs from getting scratched up by all the underbrush and such. Here is Tyler on an average day.
This fire was up in Idaho I believe. Don't know exactly where.

Susan was going through her hope chest and found this cute little outfit that Kara (Alex's aunt and where her middle name came from) had worn when she was a little baby. This this is 20 years old and still in near perfect condition. So Alex wore it to church, complete with cute little red shoes. I even tried to put her hair in a little pony tail on top of her head, but you can barely tell.
Alex hanging out with Grandpa before church.
Saturday night Kate and I held our long awaited "chocolate night"! We ate chocolate fondue, watched the movie 'Chocolate' and even did chocolate facials!
Alex was very intrigued by the red shoes strapped to her feet. This poor child has never really experienced socks, let alone shoes.

This month has just been so much fun! let me give you a mini outline of the outragiousness....

August-

1-3- Ben, Kate, Alex, Kristen visit Kara and Devin at Bear lake

6- Ben's birthday dinner

7- Kate's baby shower

9- Tie Dye onsies

10- Watch Bollywood "lagoon" with Ben and Kate

11- Family Olympics

12- Visit Rachelle and Megan and Mushu, movie night with Devin, Kara, Ben, Kate, Pat, Susan

13- Go to color me mine with the Brady (and Gagon) girls

14- Shriners apointment. Find out Alex's hips are doing great, don't have to go back for 6 months!

15- County fair with Kate. Tyler comes home

16- Temple and the Mayan with Tyler, Ben, Kate. Go to reception dinner at Thanksgiving point.

17- Play homemade deal or no deal. Win dinner at Tucano's!

18- Dinner at Tucano's with Tyler and Alex! Visit bookstore.

19- Bollywood night. Eat curry and watch a Bollywood

20- move into small bedroom

21- Paint big bedroom

22- Movie with Ben, Kate, and Susan.

23- Ben and Kate move into big bedroom. Go to Farmers market and hit the jackpot on vintage fabric. Chocolate night

24- play games, eat leftover chocolate, watch Olympic closing show.

photoshop, tie dye, and cute baby

Alex in her dancing shoes. One of the few times this summer she has worn clothes, and one of the first times in her life she has ever worn shoes.

Kate and I planned a family Olympics and so on a Monday night we had the competition. It was a BLAST! Above you can see Pat (my father in law) who had a bit of trouble with the "spin your head on the bat 5 times and then walk down the line in the cement with a glass of water" portion of our obstical course. On the right you can see Susan (my mother in law) doing an outstanding job of it. Below you can see Kate, Danielle and Pat doing their thing with the bean bag toss. Quite the intense game.
We added all the points and events together and Danielle (the one none Brady there) got the Gold, I got Silver and Ben won the Bronze.
I feel the need to take pictures of Alex every time she is wearing clothes. I feel it is too hot for clothes in the summer, and I wouldnt wear them if I didnt have to.

Not my best work, but i think i did pretty good for spending 10 minutes on this one. GO ALEX!
she has started playing with her tongue alot.
Kate and I tie dyed baby clothes on Saturday. It was fantastic.

Sikorksy S-16

Before Tyler went out and began actually working on fires this summer, he was able to take a few classes that got him certifications so in the future he can get better jobs working on fire. Unfortunately for him, I don't plan on letting him get any job where these certifications would come in handy.

In one of these classes they handed out a packet that was 30 pages long, and all about the many different ways that wildland firefighters can die. It listed most common ways and being burned to death wasn't even in the top 3! Aircraft accidents was #1, vehicle accidents was #2, and surprise, heart attacks were #3 (although the article stated that volunteer firefighters were the ones to die of those). Falling rocks and trees was #5 and electrocution, lightning, falls, smokejumper training, and murder didn't really got a percentage but were lumped together.

Since reading this article I have tried NOT to think about it, but yesterday a helicopter carrying 11 firefighters crashed in the Shasta trinity national forest. That is exactly where Tyler was on his last tour, and he was shuttled around a few times by a helicopter. Every time I hear about him getting in a plane or a helicopter I get so nervous. I am so grateful that he has been safe so far this year, and I pray daily that the Lord will continue to keep an eye on him. I feel awful for the families of the 9 firefighters who died in this crash. I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to Tyler, he is my best friend, my everything.

Bear Lake

This month is what Kate and I have dubbed the "month of fun". We have decided to do all the fun things we always wanted to but never got around to doing. We kicked the weekend off by heading up to Bear Lake to visit Devin and Kara who are managing the Motor Lodge up there.
It was a ton of fun. We went swimming and skim boarding, made sand castles, ate ice cream, pizza and fries, watched movies and played games. I finally understand what all the ado is about Bear Lake. It wouldn't have been near as fun without Ben, Kate, Devin and Kara. They were all so great at helping with Alexandria and making sure I was able to have fun.

Here we are on the private beach Devin had access to.
Alex discovered her toes and was pretty content to lay on the bed playing with them. Devin and Kara taught us all how to skim board.
Including Alex.

Alex got a great opportunity to bond with everyone, Devin and Ben especially. Ben generously hauled her around everywhere for me and paced the floor more than once while she was screaming. Devin got her to smile and goo at him while the girls finished our fantastic sand castle.

Don't remember what exactly we were doing here.

Kara, Kate (and Archie) and Kristen up to their lower calves in fun!
This was one of my favorite moments at Bear Lake, hard to explain why, but there was lots of laughing involved.

The sweetest sand castle ever. It looked only slightly more awesome before the moat started corroding the outer walls.