CUL-DE-SAC of FIRE!

On the 4th of July we went to my friend Amy's house for the 

"CUL-DE-SAC of FIRE!"

We enjoyed a BBQ in the back yard with good food, friends and conversation.  Talan insisted on getting inside the bucket of ice water (meant for soda) even though it was FREEZING cold!  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera handy at the time to take a picture of it.  

He's a funny kid!

When it got dark everyone moved to the front yard for fireworks.  Every family brought some to share.  The show lasted at least an hour.

Luckily Talan was tired by then and content to just sit and watch.

We brought glow in the dark necklaces for all the kids.  Ethan and Reagan loved playing with them.

Bradon and Carsten were in Pyromania heaven along with all the other neighborhood boys!  When it was all said and done I asked them which they liked better, going to a big firework show or just setting off their own with the neighbors?  They thought about it and said, "I liked setting them off!"  So it was a success!  Everyone was happy and we didn't have to fight any crowns or traffic!

Thanks Amy for inviting us.  

We had a fabulous time!

5K Freedom Run

David and I raced in the 5K Freedom Run on the 4th of July.  Either of us have ever raced in a race before so we though we would start with a 5K.  David seems to think he's going to stick with racing in 5K's but I'm thinking that I want to go for a 10K on the 24th of July.  It was a lot of fun!  There was something like 4000 runners racing.  It was quite a sight to see all those people running down the streets of Provo together.  It was fun to be apart of it!  

Official results:  

Stephanie

 Run time 33:26 

Finished 1104 out of 2018 total runners

Finished 495 out of the woman

50th place in my age group

David

Run time 33:52

Finished 1152 out of 2018 total runners

Finished 626 out of the men

68th place in his age group

The Lehi Roundup Rodeo!

We have made it a family tradition to go to the Lehi Rodeo every year. 

 There is just something about seeing them there cowboys do their thing!

This year our cute little 8 year old cousin Carson Adams dressed as a Rodeo Clown and competed in a little dance competition. 

 It was so adorably cute!

He did an awesome job!  

The audience loved him and he took home the trophy!

We saw a little of everything... Bucking Broncos,

Team Roping,

cRaZy KiDs On MoToRcYcLeS!

(I have to admit that watching these guys is worth going to the rodeo all together! ...THRILLING!)

Bull Riding and much more!

We look forward to our night out at the rodeo 

and this year was no different... 

a good time was had by all!

The Ultimate Slip-n-Slide!

My brother Christopher had this sign hanging on a semi truck to advertise one of his properties here in Utah.  He called us up one day and had David and I take it down for him.  While David and I had it all laid out on the ground getting ready to fold it up I said, 

"This sign would make a great Slip-n-Slide!"  

And sure enough it does!  I brought it out the other day and the kids had so much fun with it!  Then I took it to our primary water fun activity and all the kids had a blast with it including a few grown up kids.  My friend Jennie thinks that we need to have an adult Slip-n-Slide party with it.  We have 2, 40 foot signs.  If we link them together we could have 80 feet of endless fun!  I can just see the competition now!  

How far might ONE sLiP-n-sLiDe?

Adair Boys Lawn Service

Now that the boys are getting older we decided that there is no reason why they can't learn how to work hard to make their own money and pay for their own sports activities.  

We sat down at Family Home Evening a few weeks ago and talked about it.  We decided that starting a lawn service business would be best since we already have all the laws equipment to get them started right now.  They were all very excited to start their own business.  Ethan quickly made flyers that we took around to advertise their new business.  They offer mowing, weed eating and edging at a competitive price.  David and I have been overseeing all the jobs and working right along with the boys to teach them how it's to be done.  It's a lot of hard work but we have been impressed with how hard working our boys can actually be.  It's fun to see how proud of themselves they have been.  It feels good to work hard and see the results of our hard work right away with a beautifully manicured lawn.      

Sweet Marvene

This is a picture of David's cousin Marvene (left) 

and David's mother Jeannine.

Marvene is the oldest grandchild in the Slade family and David is the youngest.  Because of their age difference we usually refer to her as Aunt Marvene.  Marvene is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet.  She has had cancer several times throughout her life so she goes in for a check up every 6 months.  6 months ago everything checked out just fine and she was cancer free.  In May she went back for her check up feeling confident that everything would check out fine again.  Instead just the opposite was true.  Not only had the cancer returned but it returned very aggressive and in a location that makes it inoperable.  They decided to go ahead with chemo therapy to prolong her life as long as they could. 

David and I had the opportunity to sit with her just a few weeks ago when she was feeling well enough to sit.  She had had her first round of chemo and was feeling weak but good enough to go out to the front porch and visit with us.  We talked about her condition and the realization that she won't be here much longer.  She expressed her great desire to attend fast and testimony meeting so that she could stand and bare her testimony while she still had enough strength.  She looked adorable like she always does.  Wearing a cute outfit with her hair and makeup done.  At the end of our visit she was feeling weak and needed to lay down for awhile so we left just after expressing our love and exchanging hugs.

A few days after our visit with her, her heart started going crazy and she ended up in the ICU.   She is now at home being cared for through hospice and everyone is doing all they can to make her comfortable and to let her know just how much she is loved.

We visited with her again this past weekend.  It's hard to see someone you love struggling to live.  Even though I know she will be going to a much better place she will be so terrible missed!  Her sweet husband Dave gave us hugs and kisses as we left and my heart just broke for him.  He is a wonderful man and loves Marvene very much.  He is so tender and sweet with her and always has been.  I'm so grateful for the good example they are to us.  And I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation.  We should all be happy for Marvene and the journey she has ahead.

We love you Marvene!

All in a days work!

Talan is such a busy active little boy!  

He has lots of things to do!  And from the speed he does it,  you would think that he has very little time to get it all done!  But from time to time he just enjoys HANGIN' AROUND!

He loves more than anything to be outside!  When he hears any door in the house open up he makes a run for it.

Just recently he has learned how to climb up the ladder and go down the slide.

And Ethan enjoys taking pictures of him!

CHEESE!

Talan loves to swing,

play with Teegs,

and just monkey around.

He keeps us on our toes and we love him!

Our 13th Anniversary.

On June 7th David and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary.  Since June 7th fell on a Sunday we went out on June 6th instead.  We told the kids that they were going to babysit themselves and have the opportunity to make some money.  Ethan would get paid the most and be the main kid in charge.  Bradon would get paid the second most and so on.  However they all had to do their part to get paid.  They were pretty excited for the challenge!  They had to feed themselves dinner, change Talan's diaper, get him ready for bed, put him to bed, straighten the house and then Carsten and Reagan were to go to bed too.  David and I left the house with no real plans except for staying away for a very long time!

When we got home we found this note 

tape to the door in the garage.  It says, 

"Happy 13th anniversary 

from your wonderful kids!"

Then when we walked in through the laundry room 

this note was taped across the door way.  

"Welcome to a clean house!  (Well not all clean!)"

We walked in to a quiet, clean house.  It was so nice!  David and I were so impressed!  Talan and Carsten were both asleep.  Reagan was in our room quietly watching TV.  And Ethan a Bradon had just finished cleaning up the house and waiting for our arrival home.  They were both so excited to surprise us with our little anniversary treat.  

The next morning we found this little creation.  Ethan had put together a little contraption that held a happy anniversary note inside.  What wonderful kids we have!  It's so nice to see that when they want to they are capable of so much.  They are growing up and becoming so helpful and kind.  We couldn't be luckier parents with better kids!

Thanks Ethan and Bradon for going out of your way to make our 13th Anniversary so special!

  We love you!

A visit from the Mehlberg's.

My sweet friend Jenny came from Arizona to visit me.  She brought along her kids;  Kaler, Kaia, and Korban.   They came Monday June 1st and stayed until Thursday.  We had so much fun with them.  They are like family to us and we love them dearly!

While they were here we went to Salt Lake City to visit This is the Place and Temple Square.  Here is a picture of all the kids (minus Talan).  Aren't they cute?  

The kids had so much fun going around participating in pioneer like activities.  Here is Talan ironing the table.  Shortly after this picture was taken he fell off the table!  Oh, and me being mother of the year and all, I forgot his shoes at home.  Poor kid!  

They have a little petting zoo area and the kids LOVED hanging out with the animals! Especially Talan.  Talan has no fear of animals.  He called everything a doggy and then made the horsey sound.  He's a confused little boy!

Talan just sat right down and made himself comfortable.  At one point he was SITTING ON the poor little lamb!  The lamb didn't seem to mind though.

What a cute bunch of fine looking children!

Reagan, Ethan, Talan, Bradon and Carsten.

Ethan fed the goats some leaves.

And Bradon and Carsten followed this little guy around for awhile.

After we did all we could do at This is the Place we headed downtown to pick David up from work and go to Temple Square.

We went to the conference center and had a tour.  And from the roof top of the conference center we took these pictures.

Where there is water there is kids! 

Look at them!  Aren't they cute?  I looked over and they were all leaning in trying to touch the water.

Jenny and I. 

My sweet friend!  

I am so glad she came for a visit!  I miss living so close to her.  She's like a sister to me!

And we couldn't leave without taking pictures in front of the Temple.  I am so grateful for my membership in the church.  I hope that my kids can gain strong testimonies and have a desire to choose the right and live there lives so that they can return to live with Heavenly Father someday.

Baseball is over.

Bradon and Carsten's baseball season is officially over.

Bradon's team did really well during the regular season games.  I think they were 2nd going into the tournament.  But they came up short in there first tournament game losing to the Cubs.  Bradon improved quite a bit as a player and we were very proud of him.  He got to pitch an inning or two in almost every game.  He loves to pitch!

Carsten's team had an excellent season too!  They won there first playoff game but lost their second.  It was a close game and they played their hearts out!  Carsten is a really good little ball player.  He can smack the heck out of the ball.  He had so much fun playing this year that he's requested to play year round.  We'll see.  I have a feeling he'll be loving football just the same in just a few short months!

Way to go boys!  

We sure had fun watching you!