Matilda Thornton: On to Greener Pastures

July 22nd, Hamlet (one of our two pet doves) met an unexpected end, when he escaped his cage and went to our neighbor's yard. They own a dog, and the rest is history. After that, his partner Matilda (a guy dove, we think) looked pretty lonely.

Hiram had been threatening to get rid of the doves anyway, because they make loud mating sounds when he tries to study. So we decided to give Matilda away on KSL. Liz was hoping he would end up in a good home, where he'd get better attention than he was getting at our house.

We got a call from a lady who sounded interested, and she asked us to meet her about 20 minutes away in a parking lot. We agreed on a time, but she didn't show up and wouldn't answer her phone. While waiting outside our car with Matilda in her cage, a nice older man came by, asking about our dove and saying he raises doves. We explained the situation about giving Matilda away, and he actually wanted to take her. Liz is very excited, since he seems like he'll be a better owner AND Matilda will now have lots of dove friends to play with. Woo hoo! Or, in the mating words of Matilda, "doot da doot da dooooo!"

Matilda Thornton

Liz the Triathlete

Liz did a triathlon August 25th! It started with a 275 meter (or yard?) swim, then a 6.5 mile bike ride and a 2 mile run.

Although she nearly drowned in the swim (perhaps she slightly overestimated her swimming speed), she got second place in her age division. And the people handing out medals actually mistakenly announced her as getting FIRST place (then they later announced the REAL first-place winner).

Peace

This post is very out of order. I just found these pictures Jessica sent us from Mother's Day at the International Peace Gardens. Four short months ago!

What a fun day that was! Thanks for the photos, Jessica:)

Summer with Bethany

Bethany's had a pretty fun summer.

She LOVED seeing the flowers grow. The hibiscus were her favorite. Mine too.

We (I) made a fort in our living room. But I (Liz) was not allowed inside of it, since it seems that I was a dragon and she was the princess.

She learned how to pedal her tricycle. And she goes around the neighborhood on this thing. Good thing there's a stick I can use to push her with, to keep her out of streets and such:)

There's pretty funny story with this picture. This was after our first day of (home) pre-school. I'd given the kids "homework" (work sheets). Bethany took these very seriously and colored all over them, calling them her "notes," tapping them on the floor to straighten them, stapling them together, etc. So later we took a trip to Costco, and Bethany insisted on bringing her "notes" with her. There's someone else I know who goes NOWHERE without his notes...*cough* Hiram*cough* It seems the apple has not fallen very far from the tree:) 

Going for a WALK!

Hannah's WALKING! And it's opening up new worlds for her!

(maybe some dangerous new worlds...)

She's certainly enjoying herself! Yay Hannah!

Fashion Statements

It's a good thing we're such a cool family, so we can get away with things like this:

[Future blackmail picture]

Bethany's always asking for a lot of ponytails (when she lets us do her hair at all!)

Hannah seriously loves these sunglasses. She's such a movie star:)

Parks

We love parks! We found this one when we went to play frisbee golf, and we spent more time playing in the park than actually throwing frisbees!

Hannah contemplates life. 

Why is it sometimes so hard to get happy pictures of babies?

...Probably because it was her nap time:)

And here's a new favorite park: Storm Mountain Park. It actually has swings, which seem to be getting less and less common!

This park even got a smile out of Hannah!

Hot Air Balloons

We went to an early-morning hot air balloon show. Bethany was talking about this for weeks! They were quite impressive. Well worth the early morning. I love that Sandy does stuff like this:)

Bath Time

Bath time can be quite the adventure at our house!

Hannah with spiky hair

This is how Liz looked after washing Hannah's hair (Hannah didn't do it willingly!)!

Hannah's Favorite Things

Here are some of Hannah's favorite things:

Our big round ball (and balls in general)

 Stuffing things into her mouth

Eating

Her dog

Her horse

Her song book

Ripping stuff up onto the floor (and eating stuff off the floor...)

Baby giggles (actually, she's usually a pretty serious child. So maybe the giggles are one of MY favorite things). 

She LOVES peek-a boo! I love when she plays it by looking through the mesh in the pack-and-play. She pushes her smiling face up against it, squishing all her features. It cracks me up every time! And then once in a while she surprises me by coming up behind me while I'm waiting for her to pop out on her side of the pack-and play. She loves to trick me!

She is a FUN little girl!

Hannah Turns One!

Hannah has turned one year old! We had a little dinner for her, with spaghetti and pineapple upside-down cake. She didn't seem too impressed with most of it, but that cake... wow! She polished it down so fast!

Whenever we mentioned that we would eat upside-down cake, Ryan laughed and laughed:)

  And, since she was wearing her "Birthday Girl" shirt (which only gets worn once), we took some pictures of her wearing it!

We love our little TODDLER!

Butlerville Days

On Pioneer Day (July 24), we went to a parade celebrating Butlerville Days. It was pretty great, except the part at the end, where a truck sprayed a really strong stream of water at the street to clean up all the mess. Hiram had to high-tail it to make sure his laptop didn't get sprayed. [Serves him right for studying at a parade, haha...]  It dispersed the crowd pretty quickly. So fast, in fact, that the people next to us left us all their candy...:)  

Hannah looked a little bored.

Bethany LOVED it!

Hiram snuck a Twizzler while Bethany wasn't watching

That afternoon, there was a cool car show and some activities for kids.

Hooray for Butlerville!