Congratulations Thomas!

We celebrated Thomas' graduation last night by throwing him a party! We had a really fun time. We especially were glad to see cousin Dan before he heads off to California. Dan has served in the US Marines for the last eight years, and has been on several tours in Iraq. He now has the opportunity to work at a Federal Prison in Northern Cali. For any of you who wonder where Blakey gets his size, these pictures of the boys on my side of the family might help out a little. Danny and I are only 13 days in age apart, and he has always towered over me. There is a picture floating around somewhere of us together in a crib when we were 1 and he was tons bigger even back then!

Sunday pictures!

Elder Blake A.


I just figured out that my camera that I have had for two years can snap shots in black and white. I love taking pictures of the kids Sunday's right before church because they look so cute. I hope you like.

My Crazy Kids...

This afternoon my kids were CRAZY! My kitchen was a mess, Michael was gone to work, and the kids were driving me nuts. So I got out the camera and this is what I got. Please note Anna's leotard with her panties showing (since the Olympics she always practices her gymnastics) and Blake with only a diaper (with a diaper wedgie). Pure chaos.

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My old fart soap box and Anna the character....

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Anna is a character, there is really nothing more to say about it. She loves to sing, and in my efforts to try and be hip and cool(while I am driving my minivan) I find myself listening to KISS FM a bunch. I have found though that I have to turn the station quick because of the inappropriate songs. She can pick up songs very easily, especially ones with a catchy tune, but always manages to change the words and cracks herself up. Today after hearing Anna's 15 different versions of Handlebars by Flobots in combination with KK and Tay's freshman orientation where the dress code specifically states that boys are not allowed to paint their nails and no facial jewelry of any kind that includes spacers, and the ridiculous fact that the school has raised over 25,000 in the last 4 years in cell phone confiscations, I have decided that I am getting old and I need to face the fact that I am not cool. When I was in high school we had pagers! I am actually embarrassed to admit that. The fact there has to be rule for boys that they can't wear nail polish is just ridiculous, and so the old lady comes out I guess. I need to stick to my church music. I am glad that I have my cute little family who delights in changing words to every song church or non church. I will climb down off my soap box and I hope you get a giggle out of Anna's post.

PS If you want to get a good listen to Anna you might need to pause the music at the bottom!

The introduction of Michael's new hobby!

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Favorite Fun Pictures

We made it!

We made it to the beach! We were lucky but we thoroughly enjoyed our time with our family and relaxing on the beach. We have some great memories and hope to return in a couple of years.

Crab Hunting..

Crab Hunting was the favorite night activity
Anna loved hunting being able to stay up
The twin cousins McKay, Taylor, Tony and Alina

In true crabbing fashion at the end of the hunt all crabbers bury their feet in the sand and all the crabs are released. The one who keeps their feet buried the longest is the winner for the night. Anna won the 2nd night of crabbing. She also was convinced that she has caught her own crab and that I take a picture of it, she still thinks that she caught one (even though it is a aluminum can tab, I think that they look similar, don't you?)

The Dolphin Watch and Fireworks!

The Dolphins! These ones were following the wake of the boat.

We were able to go on a dolphin tour along with a fireworks show and we had a blast.

Watching the fireworks in the bay from the top of the boat.

Anna and Ashley posing at the end of the tour.

This crab was in the parking lot and scared us half to death. He was huge!