Grant's 3rd

We did a Pirate theme. Kids dressed up, swam, played a treasure game, cake, the works. I am so NOT doing this every year for every kid. But everyone had fun!!

Day at Fairytale Town

Grant at the wheel, watch out!

Nathan did not like sitting on the horses too much.

Look at my big guy go!!

I'll admit it, I had to photo shop wrinkles out of this picture! I'm getting old, but my boys are wonderful!!! They ran around like crazy chickens and had a blast. How do I know that?? Because I had to drag them from the place & they both screamed at me until they fell asleep in the car. 

My baby did it!!!!!

I am soooo proud of Jared! He completed his triathlon this Saturday at his goal time. 2 hr 32 min. He was around #529 out of 1500 competes or so. He had to run 6 miles, bike 12 miles, then paddle for another 6 miles. Get out of the water, & race across the finish line. He wasn't even that sore afterwards. We  learned a lot for our first triathlon, where to park, what to do, where to wait, to get a different kyack, how to drop off & pick up his equipment, etc... Also that we'll need more help next year. It was too much for me to do everything, I ended up being more sore than him. It was from carrying that dang kyack almost a mile. That thing was heavy! 

Jared as he finishes his 6 miles of running.

Changing his shoes for the ride. 

He is the one getting out of the yellow boat, silver helmet, blue vest. I stood here for an hour waiting to take a pic  and that dang volunteer is in the way. 

Crossing the finish line!! I didn't quit get the "finish" line in the pic, but he did it & didn't die! (I was super paranoid for the last couple of months that he would drown or die, something) 

We had a blast doing this. Starting at 6 in the morning, not coming home until after 1. We were beat, but for anyone who has never gone to a race like this, it was just as much fun for me cheering people on & watching people finish! I recommend it for anyone. 

Discovery museum

We went to the Discovery museum on Monday since Jared called in "sick." It was pretty lame, but cheap, so it was ok. I'm sure the boys had fun. Saw some animals & gross insects. They got to dress up & play with magnets & other interesting exhibits. The best part  (in my opinion) was watching the penny smasher. We really need a nice children's museum around here. 

The boys driving the space shuttle outside.

I have aliens for boys!!

Nathan doing his thing. He was very independent throughout the whole place.

Oops. Jared trying to fix the display we broke.

An update on our family

So I've been posting a bunch of pictures, but have been lame about writing details on anything. So here is an update. 

Jared- is currently working at VSP. It has been over a year (congrats!!) & is doing a wonderful job providing financially for our family. He is training for a triathlon that is on the 19th. It's called Eppie's great race. Pretty popular & is one of the oldest triathlons out there. He was able to get VSP to sponsor himself & another co-worker. He is active in his company's basketball league which won the championship 2 seasons ago. Calling in church is assistant ward clerk over membership, & gets called to sub in nursery lots of the time. That is own fault since he isn't in class.  He enjoys all sports, which means our tv is verbally abused by him quite often!! Nothing vulgar, just loud. Jared loves to play with the boys, which is fun for me to watch, but they get VERY loud & run around everywhere. 

Jennifer- currently knocked up, will find out in Sept. if it's a boy or girl. I just started a new job the beginning of this month. The company is called NEBO Tools, I sell them from home calling different types of companies. So far it has been interesting trying to juggle that & the kids & morning sickness & the house etc. etc...... I am still the Enrichment leader at church but usually lay out in the nursery cause I don't feel so hot. I enjoy reading (with what time I don't know), laundry HAS to be done, & have been sleeping a whole lot extra than normal. Which normal already, is a lot. 

Grant- his thing right now is Diego, Scooby Doo & The Wonder pets. He doesn't like to play outside because it's too hot, if his mother isn't taking care of him, he can get his own food. He has really been growing in the imaginative role playing, he makes Nathan play with one toy while he attacks him with it. Loves cars, dinosaurs, & always wants me to read to him. I should relish in that fact, but we have some rather annoying books I don't enjoy reading. But he is now able to "read" to me by making up a story of what he sees on the page, which usually has to do with if someone is happy or angry. In general, he is a wonderful & loving child who says " don't be sad, it's ok" to everyone who seems to have an issue. 

Nathan- this kid says "no" to everything unless it's some sort of treat or juice. His vocabulary has exploded with words such as basketball, look, no, cookie, banana, church, Jesus, no, play, up, down, kiss, Bumpa, hug, apple, no, Grant, Mom, Dad, did I mention he says no? Still does not have his canine teeth, jumps up & down, holds his own on the trampoline, & loves the water. He still gets a BB when he sleeps, & spits it out when he is ready to get out of the crib. Will drink liquids all day long until his diapers explode, but is my cutest Barlow baby. 

As a family we love to go to In & out or Dos Coyotes. Still in Sacramento which I don't think we'll ever leave, it has everything we need! We drive a van (ugh) & a POS.. you can figure out what that stands for. None of us can sleep without some type of white noise or go more than a week without seeing some set of Grandparents. Parks are the best when it's not too hot, & we go to see Mr. Tim at the library every Wednesday that he is there. 

My porch pal army......

Last year I started painting porch pals for a craft fair we had at my house. Then I was hooked & started doing more. This picture was taken awhile ago getting ready for another craft fair. I thought it was fun cause it looks like a small army. 

Poor, poor trampoline.

As you can see here in this video, this poor structure

was creaking & working hard to stay together.

We were all waiting for it to break. But alas, no

one will be needing to buy a new one yet. 

WII

Parts of this video are a little boring, but others

are fun! Grant usually beats us at bowling, even 

though we are helping him.

My boys in the crib!

These kids are too cute! Grant is trying to tell us 

what Moroni says on top of the Temple.

The 4th of July

So there was lots to do this weekend. The PJ & Pili family came up, pancake breakfast that wasn't so hot. Literally, it was cold. And the food was a little worse than normal. No cotton candy, games for the kids, but the band was there. Nathan just stood in front of them staring. No dancing, just staring. 

We swam all day, went down the slide, rode the swan, ate good BBQ ( thanks Jared! ), and had lots of fun. No one got burned with fireworks, Jared wore his "England" shirt, PJ crossed out Jared's name in the street & the neighbors looked like they spent thousands of dollars on fireworks.

The trampoline even made it through the weekend. PJ, Perry & Jared decided to torture the poor thing. They jumped so high we were sure it would not last. But that thing is faithful! 

4th of July!!!!

We had tons of fun on the 4th!!!!