Why We Love Daddy

He takes us fishing - every season and any kind of weather.  And we even get to eat it!  Yummy!

He makes cookies with us (AND all the cousins!).

He lets us spray the fire hose, slide down the fire pole and play on the fire engine.

He builds the best forts ever!

He has cool work parties!  We don't like that he has to work at the hospital on his days "off", but we sure like the perks!

AND . . .

He makes the best crepes with no effort at all.
He plays "Transformers" with us.
He plays video games with us way more than mom does.
He always buys us gum at the gas station.

He takes us camping and has taught us to love the outdoors.
He lets us ride his horse.
He drives the boat round and round while we tube and kneeboard.
He taught us how to play Lord of the Rings Risk.
He helps us with homework, teaches us how to tie our shoes and how to ride a bike.

We love you, Daddy!  Happy Birthday!

Thank you Columbus!

I'm so glad we have this day to celebrate the discovery of America.  Why don't we have the day off of school?  Why don't we have parades and parties and barbeques??  Maybe because it's not as fun in October (or maybe we are trying to forget the decimation of native peoples that occured because of his discovery).  At any rate, hooray for America!  Maybe I should say thank you to Washington and Jefferson and all those guys for giving us a real holiday to celebrate . . . 

Happy 4th of July!! (Yes, I know this post is a little belated, but better late than never.  Maybe.)
The 4th for us is all about family and firetrucks. And even though I was SERIOUSLY jet-lagged, we had an awesome weekend. I got home from India Saturday afternoon, crashed about 6pm, woke up for good at 4am and when the fam finally woke up 3 hours later, we had a yummy breakfast and then headed up to Russ' Uncle's cabin for the day.


It felt so good to be outdoors after spending 3weeks in a city of 7 million people.  My favorite part of the day?  Riding 4-wheelers to the top of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

And hanging out with family, of course!

 

And for the actual day (post should be titled "How much fun can you pack into one day") . . .

FIRETRUCK Tradition:

 

PLAYTIME at Murray Park:

 



POOL PARTY with firefighter friends:

 

 

 

And finally FIRECRACKERS and GLOWSTICKS at Grandma's:

 

 

So, thanks again, Benjamin Franklin and George Read, and all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence.  We truly are grateful for this land of the free!

He really is a firefighter!

On our way home from Salt Lake a few weeks ago, we made a surprise stop to see Russ at the fire station . . . and right across the street we saw this:

We were really excited to get to see him in action!  They were doing training on an abandoned house, but it was interesting to watch.  We saw them pulling guys out and heard them give emergency evacuation horn.  We hardly ever get to see him really "at work", instead of just at the station hanging out, so this was really fun! 

We're proud of our firefighter!  Love you, Dad!

Playing Paramedic

The following are direct quotations:

Paramedic Cody:  "How many allergies do you have?"
Patient Corbin: (counting on his fingers) 7, no 8

Corbin:  "How many lives do I have?"

Cody: "Let me see."  (writes number on board - 850)

A Fire Station Christmas

The Murray City Fire Dept Christmas pajama party is an annual holiday tradition we have come to love! 

There's lots of food and friends and a visit from Santa with individual presents for each child!  This year they also had face painting and Christmas crafts to keep the kids occupied while waiting for the big man.  It was great!

Ready for Santa!