butterfly catching

Grandma and Grandpa Bishop gave us a butterfly net when they came and visited. We have had several unsuccessful attempts at catching a butterfly until today.

We saw one in the backyard while we were eating dinner. Chris grabbed the net, ran out, and it flew away.

We continued eating, and about 5 minutes later it flew back. This time Chris snagged it with the net. It was a very pretty butterfly, and we did promptly let it go after snapping this quick photo.

built by us

Chris and I have no idea when it comes to building anything, so we were very happy to actually build something in our yard. What is it?

A sandbox. (i know- simple build, but we've got to start with just baby steps) It was a lot of work though. A full truck load of dirt that we removed and hauled away in buckets and than a whole truck load of sand. I'm sure it will be hours of fun for the girls.

Here is a full look at our backyard standing at the back door.

We love our little space.

home sweet home

This was the first day of our trip out to CA. We drove straight there in one day- 15 hours, and it actually wasn't that bad. We stopped to eat our breakfast at the salt flats in Utah. They are pretty remarkable, Caitlin thought it was the ocean. We saw plently of the real ocean later!

This is our nephew, Gavin. He is a handsome little guy. We had a great time with the Will family, and we wish we had more pictures, but that is where our camera battery died.

We are now home and were very glad to be back home. Caitlin walked around her room looking at all her toys and books and both girls were excited to see their own beds. You would have guessed we had been gone a year rather than a week and a half. I guess there is just no place like home. We were pleasantly suprised to see all the flowers in bloom in our backyard. All the rain we had earlier this month really paid off. Now it is sunny and hot. Yesterday I had to contemplate the idea that if it stays hot for many days in a row, or gets much hotter we may actually have to use our air conditioner this summer.

Chris is enjoying his time off work this summer with the girls. Lucky guy to have only daughters!

fun in the sun

We are having a great time in Santa Cruz. We are enjoying lots of time on the beach, we went to an amusement park this morning, we are playing some Wii at our rental house, and just having fun together.
Wish I had some pictures to go with the fun, sigh.

sad story

We are in California for Stanford graduation and our Will family trip.
We have a computer to post blogs of our fun adventures while here.
Our Camera battery is nearly dead.
Our charger is in Arizona.

No pictures.

Swinging

This is our newest toy. Installed Monday by my Mom. The permanent eye hooks are just above the garage door (in the garage) and we can just hang up the swing when we are outside playing. It is great for Ashlee, and Caitlin is light enough to enjoy it too. Although we haven't been enjoying it as much as we would like to due to our cool and crazy rainy weather.

Dress-up treasures

My parents visited us over the weekend. We had a great time, including opening a couple of early birthday presents. Chris- a present that we will need for our upcoming trip to California, and Caitlin- a dress-up barrel filled with dress-up treasures. She loved it and had to try everything on.

Even Ashlee got in on the action, although she did not find so much joy in the hats.

6 years

(Backing up again to a day in our busy past week)

Saturday, June 6th was our anniversary- 6 years! We were able to go to dinner and a movie, while my parents stayed home with the girls- thanks Mom and Dad!

Chris- I love you more than the day we were married. Thanks for 6 great years full of adventure! I love you.

(We don't have any wedding pictures on the computer, so this is us a few years ago)

SLC

We've had a busy week. Last Thursday we went to Salt Lake for the day. We have no pictures, but here's what we did.....

• went to Costco (hooray for trips to Utah where they actually have a Costco)
• Went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. (it was very beautiful and fun to have our whole little family in the temple together. The girls and I went to the Draper open house earlier this year, but this was the first of the year for Chris)
• Decided that if we ever lived in Utah we would live in Daybreak. Check it out, they have cottage looking homes that we love.
• Chris and I did a session at the Bountiful Temple while my parents watched the girls
• Caitlin lessened her fear of bugs while we were in the temple thanks to Grandma and nature walks
• Finally, we went to my cousins reception that evening. We saw lots of family we hadn't seen in a while. And Chris, once again, was blown away by the amount of cousins I have; which may not be that many but is so when compared to his 4.

brrrrrrrr

Ashlee had her first taste of popsicle the other night. She had about 4or 5 tastes and was clearly not amused by the first sensation each time. Way to cold. When the coldness finally wore off, she decided she really like the taste, forgot about the cold, and went back for more; only to be surprised that it was, once again, very cold. It was very amusing.
If only the popsicle wasn't frozen.....

cleaning is hard work

Today we cleaned the upstairs fans and windows. It was involved as we cleaned the windows inside and out, sprayed down the screens and cleaned the blinds. I had a good helper though. She knows cleaning is hard work, but she is willing to help anyway.

Later in the day it started raining. Oh well, at least the windows were clean for a few hours.

Than I did some deep cleaning downstairs, and even touched up the paint on the walls and baseboards. And Chris and I rearranged the living room a little. We're not sure that we like it, but we are going to keep it for a while anyway.