Jam!

If I had my camera I would have a great picture for you today. Instead I will have to describe it for you. It was after dinner and I was reading stories to the girls before bed. Abigail got bored and wondered off. I finished the books and shooed Lily and Eve off to finish getting ready for bed and went to find Abigail.

She was at the table, that hadn't yet been cleared with the jam jar. She looked at me and smiled really big and said "Jam!" She had been eating it with her hands so it was up to her elbows, all over her face, in her hair and smeared across her chest. The messy girl was taken straight to the bathroom.

Time will tell if I've learned my lesson about clearing the table quickly after dinner...

Silly Faces

We're waiting for the parade to start.

Water fun

Playing with cousins at the zoo

After the family reunion, Gordon went off with the boys to go back-packing. So I went down to spend time with my sisters and Mom in Utah. The first day we worked on cleaning Amber's house that she had just moved from. The second day we started our fun and went to the zoo.







My Dare-Devils




We were there in time for an elephant encounter. It was really neat to watch them show off all of her tricks. They said they train them so their healthcare is easier to do.


Here's the cute penguins


The giraffes


And the tigers, watch out, they're dangerous!

Family Reunion

Our first stop on our trip was in Idaho with Gordon's family. For our activities we did a jog down memory lane. We went up to Sugar City, ID, where no one lives any longer and played. We had lunch and dinner at restaurants that Gordon's family loved and played in a park near their former home. Then we walked around the town running into a few old friends and listening to alot of "remember when...?"

Here are some pictures of the park, the kids spent hours on the Merry-go-round.





We took some new family pictures too, but I haven't been e-mailed copies yet. (hint, hint)

Some Fabulous News!

Gordon passed his test!!! He got the results while we were on vacation, so there was some extra pressure as the whole family watched him check the website. Once Gordon saw his good new he shared it immediately with a success yell and we celebrated with ice cream. Since this was his seventh test Gordon is now qualified to become an associate. This is a big deal in the actuarial world. He will now be able to give qualified opinions and he get letters after his name. We will be traveling to Seattle to accept his honors. I'm excited for that.

P.S. (For those of you who don't live with an Actuary) Gordon is a college graduate with a degree in Actuarial Science. Actuaries take a series of exams after college to become fully certified. Each test takes approximately 500 hours of study time to prepare for them. It takes the average Actuary 7 1/2 years to finish the exams.

We are home

We did make it home safe and sound from our family reunions. But I left our camera at my sister's house, so....I'll post the report once I have some pictures to go along with it.