Drew and Alicia's Fia Fia

We had a wonderful evening on Tuesday with our family and Alicia's family as we celebrating the upcoming wedding together.  Mom (Dixie) had some of the food catered and also did all the decorations.  I especially love the pineapple palm tree she put together with a little help from Ian's welding skills as he made a stainless steel stand that is under all that fruit.  Alicia made each family member a lava lava skirt and gave us each a lai of some sort.  I really liked Drew's seed necklaces!

All the kids on both sides of the family got along so well as they ran around, jumped on the trampoline, and also enjoyed a Samoan dancer show us his skills.

The whole evening was so great!

Grandpa and Grandma Minerich - Liam's great grandparents!

Mom did a wonderful job on the whole spread!

 

 Aunt Alicia handing out the the lai's.

 

Blake and Seneca and Bronte'

 

Uncle Drew and his cute niece and nephew.

The future Aunt Alicia!  We love her already!

Baby Keith from the Price side of the family.  SO CUTE!

Antelope Island 2013

We had a great time playing in the sand, skipping rocks, chasing seagulls, catching brine shrimp in a bucket, and enjoying the gorgeous views! The brine flies keeps the crowds at bay so this boy's haven is picture perfect! — with Ian Peterson at Antelope Island State Park - Great Salt Lake.

 

Skipping rocks.

Sad face when it was time to leave.

 

Bonafide 2nd Grader

Me: Let’s take a photo of your first day when the bus gets here.
Liam: No, this is my millionth day of school, Mom!
Me: Come on! Just let Dad take your picture! It’s your first day of second grade!
{whine whine - smile – get on the bus – ignore parents - talk with friends}

Davis County Mud Race

We met up with Heather and her son Taylor this year for the same mud race they did together last year.  Here is a photo album of the sloppy fun!

I love this lady - Thanks, Heather, for meeting up with us!

Sneeches vs. You Are Special

Last night Liam picked out a Dr. Suess book for me to read to him.  It's one I hadn't read before.  It was called The Sneeches.  These Sneech creatures were long necked furry green pear shaped things that lived, of course, on the beach.  (It rhymes - thank you Dr. Suess.)  Some Sneetches had green stars on their bellies while others did not.“Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small. You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.” However, the stars served as a source of discrimination until Sylvester McMonkey McBean came to town with a machine to add and remove stars (for a price) forcing the Sneetches to question their differences.

Those troublesome stars reminded me a of a more compelling book - You are Special.  Max Lucado wrote and published it long ago.  I had gifted it to Ian 5 years before Liam was born.  I found it and immediately read it to Liam after the Sneeches story.  He was captivated by the story of the judgemental-sticker-labeling Wemmicks. And he seemed to understand how visits to their maker, Eli, could make others' judgements disappear.

I enjoyed helping Liam see that the Wemmicks respresent the human race, and Eli represents Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  That if we take time to visit with our maker, then a lot of our troubles would be easier to cope with and possibly disappear.  We leafed through the book again to discuss the concept more. 

I love these kinds of moments with my boy!

Creative kiddo

Liam worked hard on this project this week and then insisted on posing as one of the angry bird heads!  So awesome!

Fun with Grandma!

We went to the $2 theater to see Escape from Planet Earth and afterward found this photo booth in the lobby!  We totally took advantage of it!

Earthly Father, Heavenly Father

Happy Father's Day to our Daddy, Ian.  We love you.  You are our protector and friend.
We are very grateful you are a part of our eternal family.

Dontation Conversation

I had donated blood at the Red Cross on Saturday and Liam took notice of the marks left behind that night and asked if it hurt to donate. I said it was a little prick and no big deal. I then noticed his veins practically popping out of his arms and said how lucky he was since mine were deep and harder to find. I told him how he’d make a great candidate to donate. He gave me a sheepish look and he said, “Mom, I’m only 7.. so do I have to donate?” I was surprised and reassured him that he couldn’t donate until he’s 18 and it was up to him – not me. I was just sharing how easy it would be for him IF he decided to. He asked me more questions about how much I give each time and how often you are allowed to donate. I told him about how many lives you can save each time, etc.

I thought it was cute how intrigued he was by it all.