A Fun Surprise + an added bonus

Last Saturday I received a surprise call from my cousin Doug's ex-wife, Kari. When Doug and Kari were married, Kari and I became good friends at the Jewett reunions. However, about ten years ago, Doug and Kari divorced and (sadly) I hadn't seen Kari since. It just so happens that Kari and her family were travelling through Idaho Falls on their way to Alaska, and they stopped by our house! (Side note: They're driving from Florida to Alaska--5,000 miles!) It was really great to see them and to meet Dennis, Kari's new husband, and Sean, their son.
Here we are at breakfast: Emily (in the blue), Ellyn, Kari, Sean, Dennis (hidden), and Allison. Allison really enjoyed her time with her 2nd cousins, Emily and Ellyn. We hadn't seen the girls in about six years.
Ellyn and Sean loved Wesley! In fact, Sean tried to sneak Wesley into their car!
The Lynch family: Dennis, Ellyn, Kari, Emily, and Sean. I hope we don't let another ten years pass before we see them again.
The added bonus: Roses from our front yard. Yes, these beautiful roses actually grew in our front yard.

Father's Day picnic

We had a great Father's Day weekend. On Saturday we had a picnic at Fall Creek. The whole family couldn't make it, but fortunately everyone was able to come over for dinner on Sunday. Unfortunately, I failed to take any pictures on Sunday! So, stay tuned for July 4th when I'll be sure to get pictures of the entire gang.

A few pictures from our picnic:

Allison and Dad
Jacob throwing rocks in the river while being observed by Gordon
Thomas and me
Maryn (friend of Caitlan and Jacob) and Caitlan
Thomas

The Joy of Perennials

With the approach of spring (I think), I need to write about how excited I am about perennials.

I've always wanted a perennial garden, but it has never worked out for one reason or another. Last year I removed all the rocks at our entry way and planted several perennials. They actually started appearing a few weeks ago! I'll post some pictures when they're in full bloom.

(left side)

(right side)

I didn't plant this Bleeding Heart, but just like the perennials, it appeared like magic. It looks even better in real life.

Weekend with Nonny and Bob

This past weekend we enjoyed a visit from Nonny and Bob who recently returned to the US from Central America. Welcome back! We went down to Logan and visited the Hansens. Tom and Gordon were as cute and entertaining as ever!

We also learned that Thomas and Gordon will have a new baby brother in October.
The Freeds came over the next day. Don't Dallis, Brynn, and Hadley look cute in their Colombia shirts?
Here's baby Graham AKA Little Todd.

Answers to an Uninvited Tag

I saw this on Ann-Michelle's blog and thought it was kind of interesting.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 766,623 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Our results: 0 for DeArton (as already reported by Ann-M--although, how could this be true? We do have a few DeArton relatives.) My name is the most common: 766,623 Kimberlys. I think I know at least 76,000 of them. Jacob is next at 250,977. Greg and Allison are a close third at 158,192 and 139,939. Kristina follows with 98,870. There are no Caitlans, but Caitlin has 34,985. Elise has 28,900, and Ann-Michelle comes in last at 0. Maybe she should be first since clearly that's where we showed the most originality! My maiden name Jewett has 9,613.

Update

Okay-I was really trying to be a good blogger. I went on a field trip to Virginia City and even remembered my camera! I took a bunch of great pictures. Then a few days later we went to Brynn's birthday party, and once again, I took a bunch of pictures with the intent to create a blog post. So, I came home, tried to download the pictures, and for some reason they disappeared! I was really mad, but what can I do?????

I'm out of school now, so hopefully I can solve all my blog challenges.

A Fun Week-end

We started the day running a 5K at the river. Pictured below is Heather, Ann-Michlle, Allison, me, Julie, Lezhai, and Ryker. Heather is Ann-Michelle's neighbor and Kristi Jost's sister. Lezhai, Julie, and Ryker live in my neighborhood. My goal was to keep up with Julie. Uhhh, maybe next time. The DeArton participants: Ann-Michelle, Allison, and me. Note the fashion change-a hat rather than a headband.
Then we drove to Ogden to the Railroad Museum. Surprise! The Hansens were there. Caitlan and Gordon in a train car.

All of us on a handcar.
Tom and Gordon: the perfect passengers

What she really thought of the museum, part 1: My heart is at the mall!

What she really thought of the museum, part 2: My heart is in Phoenix!