Oh! The Places You'll Go!

We've all had "bad parent" moments, right? Okay, at least say you have so that I don't feel too guilty. With all the excitement brewing from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," Joshua decided to become Harry and drew a black scar on his head-with permanent marker. After telling him that the scar will probably be there for a while, he got rather nervous, but soon came up with a grand solution. "I know mom, just use the Magic Eraser." Are you familiar with the Magic Eraser? It's an amazing little tool that takes just about anything off of walls or furniture. Let me reiterate-off WALLS and FURNITURE. Apparently, it is not intended for permanent marker on your child's forehead, for after scrubbing off the marker (yes, it did come off quite easily)it also seemed to have rubbed off a layer of my son's skin. I know, I know, bad parent. But at least he'll never write on himself with the marker again.

This past month has been wonderful. Let me just recap all the events! Kelli stayed with us for a whole month-and just left on the 19th. It was so much fun to spend that time with her! She came with us to Disneyland, and though it poured rain, we had a great time (I mean, it's Disneyland, right? How can you NOT have a great time?!) During all this excitement, my in-laws came too! Glen, Holly and my bro-in-law Collin visited. They are great and even allowed my crazy family to accompany them to London. It was a beautiful city and we had a great time. The kids were even able to swim at the hotel, (Dax is a little too fearless in the water, I'm afraid.) One of my favorite events this
month was our trip to the Netherlands to a little town called Kinderdijk. It has beautiful old windmills (preserved from the 1800's), so we all rented bikes and set off along the paths by the canals. Josh and Dax hopped into seats on the back of Cam and Glen's bike, while Ella sat comfortably in a seat on the front of my bicycle. It was a good time.

Another great event was the birth of two babies! Shera had her baby boy, Jack Delson Whitmer, on June 4th (and she ran a 5K 4 weeks later, what's the deal with that?), and my brother Scotty and his wife Meghan had their baby girl, Audrey Pierce Thredgold, on July 22nd. It is so exciting! Though pictures and web camera's are great things, I still can't wait to hold my new niece and nephew in my arms! Shoot, now I'm getting misty.

Josh-
Let's begin with the Josh quote of the month. We asked Josh if he would like to go to Amsterdam, to which he replied "I love Hamsterdam! It's full of Hamsters." When we were walking around the windmills, he was anxiously looking right and left to see if he could catch a little golden fur ball. Funny kid. You are probably getting tired of me saying how much this boy grows, but I'll say it again, Josh is growing like a weed. He turned 5 this month on July 14th. Wow, I have a 5 year old! He just got out of school end of June, and is loving his summer vacation, as well as having so much family come to visit.

Dax-
Isn't it nice when your children can finally communicate with you? Instead of playing the "what do you want" guessing game, they can just tell ya. Dax is quite the little jabber-box now. Now that Josh is around so much, Dax is enjoying having so much time with him. It's nice now that they can play together, however, most of that is spent beating up on each other. I always thought Dax would be the child who wants to be left alone, to do his own thing, however-he seems to need the most affection. He is constantly wanting to be held, hugged, or kissed. Perhaps middle child syndrome?

Ella-
Red hair, green eyes, and two little teeth describe my Ella-Bella. She is great. I just love having this little baby. My favorite moment is right when she is waking up, as she stretches her limbs, and contorts her little face. Then, as she squints her eyes to adjust to the light, her eyes focus-she recognizes me, and gives me a smile. Does life get much sweeter?


Cam and Me-
I think Cam and I will both look back on this summer as one of our fondest. We have been able to spend so much time with each other, with our family, and with our children. We are able to play with our kids every day! It truly is a blessing to have Cam home so much, and to have this time together.

Maybe it's getting older, but it seems like things are starting to click for me. The light bulb is on and I am realizing what a blessing motherhood is, as well as an extreme responsibility. There's so much I want for these kids-so much I want them to know. I guess we all just need to take it a day at a time and do our best each day. There's so much I am feeling, however, I lack the skills to put it into words-but all those parents reading this know exactly what I am talking about. Getting misty again.

I hope your summer is a good one. Those of you in Utah-suck on an otter pop, and try to stay cool. We don't have much trouble with that here, as with the month that Kelli was here-we had 2 days of sunshine, and the rest was rain. We love you and love hearing from you!












Josh and Dax asleep in the Hotel-
Kelli swinging Josh around at Chateau La'Hulpe
Cam and Josh cheering on the riders in Ghent for the Tour de' France