Summer (Not) Lovin'

Bethany LOVES to take baths. So we thought she'd LOVE the little pool we got her. Au contraire.

Exhibit 1: Happy baby

Exhibit 2: Getting used to the swimsuit. Looks like she likes it.

Exhibit 3: Examinig the pool. Interesting.

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We could not take a picture of her in the pool. She immediately panicked.

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Exhibit 4: "Mom, put down the camera; you're embarassing me."

Exhibit 5: Looks like she forgave me. "Just don't ever do that to me again," she says.

PS. The pool has been put in time-out (storage).

There's Nothing Like a Good Book

Bethany loves books.

Mmmmm...Delicious...

Little Cottonwood

We had a little brush with disaster a couple of weeks ago. We took advantage of the beautiful day to go hiking up Little Cottonwood Canyon. We went up a random trail, had a little picnic, looked around at the beautifully roaring creek, took some pictures, and went home...

Bethany LOVED the rushing water- she kept pointing at it!

We passed some police and some news trucks on our way home. On the news later that night, they strongly urged hikers to stay away from there because of severe risk of the creek flooding. In fact, this creek actually DID flood- by the next day some nearby bridges, and even some basements and yards, were under water. We had no idea! We just thought the creek looked pretty!

"When we're helping, we're happy..."

It's official... Bethany is walking! Here are some pictures:

Doing the salsa. She takes after her Uncle John:)

So now she's able to help more around the house:

Reorganizing our cupboards...

Reorganizing her blankets

Helping with the laundry. Or making more...?

We love our baby!

Memorial Day Weekend

To celebrate Memorial Day, we went on a Thornton family camping trip to Fillmore, Utah. It's a teeny-tiny town with a gorgeous camping area (by a river!) and lots of Thornton family history. How had we never been there before? Maybe because of the high gas prices ($3.14!) Here are pictures of everyone who went. Starting with the most dangerous.

Hiram's favorite part of the trip

Thomas, with his all-seeing camera


Bethany helped set up camp. Not so dangerous, but she sure was fun!


We loved having Azia and Whitney with us. We hope they weren't traumatized by our temporary lack of latrines. (We found some latrines later, down the road...)

We also loved being with Martha. She found this place and helped everyone a lot.

Cherie and Logan also came, with their five kids. We were glad Logan brought his guns- a nearby sign told us that it was "Bear Season." Fabulous. Here's the Mecham family:

Cherie, Logan, and Natalie

Trae eating a Red Vine

Julianna and Hunter making funny faces

Sadie, looking very much like a big girl

We had a really fun time! We were just there one night, since Liz had to work the next day. And we were all glad that we never saw a bear.

And here are some late additions (taken by Thomas and his afore-mentioned camera- Thanks Thomas!)

Liz's favorite picture

Bethany very excited at the creek below

Happy Mother's Day

We had such a great mother's day.

1. They gave us chocolate at church.

2. Bethany was happy all through church. Happy Bethany = Happy everyone else.

3. We got to visit Hiram's mom, Peggy. By then, Bethany was not quite so happy, but we took a picture anyway:

4. We ate dinner at Marge and Hiram's dad's house. And got to see Mary, Craig, Matthew, Martha, Mike, and Thomas. And Lisha, Azia and River (who we hadn't seen for FOREVER!) It was so fun. We love them!

5. We got to see little Matthew scooting on the kitchen table covered in crumbs and loving life.

6. Liz got her first Happy Mother's Day call ever. From her own mom!! She could get used to this....

Lots of Corsons

Liz's smart little brothers just got even smarter. They graduated. Sam got his master's in math, and John got his bachelor's in physics, both from BYU. Here are some flattering pictures of them. (Sorry, Liz didn't take many pictures.)

John's hat head. Doesn't he already look like a mad scientist?


The night of graduation, we went out to Chuck-A Rama and had a very fun time.

Love is in the air.

This is Mom and her classic stifled laugh/ red face reserved for mischevous jokes. These are very endearing to us.

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To add to the fun, Becca (Liz's sister) and Ryan drove out to Utah, and we met up at our house, with Mom, Sam, John, and Amy. This was the first time for all of them to meet Amy (John's wife) and also for Hiram to meet Ryan. And for the cousins to meet.

Bethany found a new face to explore. (It was also funny that Bethany and Gwen have such similar tastes in clothes.)

Logan and Sam. Oh so little!

We had a tough time getting a happy picture of Mom and Bethany. Bethany was pretty shy while Mom was in town. Here's the best one we got- Bethany in one of her favorite places.

Liz is adding this photo to prove to Hiram that her sock holes are genetic. (This looks like John's feet, a photo taken by little Gwen with Liz's camera. )