Jake's in his second round of swim lessons for the summer, and he's doing great! We've had no tears and he seems to enjoy himself. Yesterday after his lesson, I commented that I saw him float on his back and that he did a good job. Jake responded, "Yeah, we did back floats and front floats." *thoughtful pause* "And they aren't easy!"

Jake has been telling Doug and me for a few weeks now that he wants to climb a mountain. We attempted hiking to Stewart Falls today, but didn't quite make it to the half-way point. In fact, we're wondering if we even made it 1/4 of the way. You'll understand why when you see what Jake's idea of "climbing" a mountain is!

so.

 I can't remember if I already posted about the time all of our trees fell down...?

If not, here's the tree in front of our house (back in May), it blocked our walk'way (bottom left) for about a week before they cleared it. Below is the tree at the entrance to our complex-- they hauled that one away pretty quick.  I think we were the only crazy ones walking around during the storm, but since there was no electricity, it seemed like a pretty entertaining thing to do. 
 For Memorial Day we went to Cedar Point... not too far from here.  Lots of fun roller coasters.  On my way home from work on Friday I heard an announcement on the radio that military people got in free, so I came home and told Hyrum we should go.  Between that and the military discount for me, it was a cheap trip! 
 It wasn't until we were there already that I found out Hyrum hates roller coasters.  He was scared the whole time we waited in line for the first roller coast, but it gave him a pretty good adrenaline rush that kept him excited for the rest of the day (though terrified on most of the rides, still.)
 This was perhaps the worst roller coaster... you go WAAAY up, then straight down (off to the left is all water).  The Yellow one is similar, you twist up, completely verticle, then go back up the other side, and back and forth. 

 Another weekend in May for Hyrum's monthly training, they had a family weekend.  I drove down Saturday and we got to hang out at the base about an hour south of here.  Nothing too exciting to do, but Hyrum was sure glad he didn't have to sit around by himself. 






And for MORE exciting news in my life... we found a delicious hot dog place close by!  It's 2 minutes from the beach, so right before Hyrum left, we went and got hotdogs and took them to the beach.  Just to get your mouths watering.... think about hawaiian hotdogs, and nacho hotdogs.  yumm

And just in case you thought Hyrum looked a little middle-eastern, here are two more pictures for the collection:


As for more recent news, I've spent the last month reading books and doing crafts.  I told Hyrum I've changed some things around the house (although they're nothing drastic...).  He said, "Ooh, great, I love surprises, don't tell me.... by the way, I wouldn't mind if part of the surprise was a plasma tv...?"  A guy can hope.  Instead, it's a side table, two new pieces of art for the wall, two new flower pots, etc. 

He comes home on Tuesday night and I'm excited to not be alone anymore!  He spent 3 weeks "in the field" doing training.  They had real weapons (empty) and did drills for about 36 hours.  They only slept about 5 hours a night and had no breaks.  Sounded pretty crazy!  After he came back, he was finally able to call and I didn't have to wait for old-fashion LETTERS to come in the mail.  He still seems to like the Army, and said he can deal with these miserable trainings once in a while as long as he's not in an infantry unit where they're doing this all the time.  So the Army life continues.

Got bored and decided to lighten my hair.

Courtney may not need help finding a husband, but Amie and I were struck with an idea in her behalf last night. So, Courtney, here is your husband. Jenna has connections, so a meeting WILL be possible before the big day.

What did you do on the first day of July??