Phoebe Pictures

Our Aunt Laura asked us for drawings of her dog Phoebe, who has just recently passed away. Here is the artwork of Jared and Kaitlin. Click on them to see the full size if you want.

粉紅色 (pink)

Tomorrow is the first day of school for Ruth. Jared also has his kindergarten interview with his new teacher(he doesn't start for 2 more weeks). Both Kaitlin and Ruth were really nervous about this interview but Jared is totally unphased. One of our family mythos is a story of Kaitlin at her kindergarten interview. Durring her kindergarten interview her teacher asked her what color her shirt was. Kaitlin looked down and answered confidently "fuchsia." The teacher laughed and said, "Then I suppose you know the color pink" . So tonight I was prepping Jared for the interview so he knew what to expect. "And when the teacher asks you if this crayon is pink, you tell her that it isn't pink, that it's fuchsia" I told him. Jared looked at me confused for a minute and then answered "Mom, I don't know my colors in Chinese."


Girl's Camp

Kaitlin spent a week in Heber at Young Woman's Camp this week. I heard from all her leaders that she had good attitude, one leader even referred to her as "bubbly." Kaitlin was a little disappointed, saying that the girls in her group were boring.


Days of '47

This week we went to the Days of '47 float preview. We had a great time looking at all the creative and well done floats and voting for our favorites. We especially liked one with crickets chilled in green jello cubes. Here are some pictures of us in front of our favorite floats.

Watch out Chaz!

Days of '47 Youth Parade

Our highlight this week was the Days of 47 Youth Parade. For those of you that are non-Utahns, the Days of '47 is a state holiday. 1847 is the year the Mormon pioneers first settled in the Salt Lake Valley, my own ancestors being part of those first companies. Also known as Pioneer Day, the 24th of July holiday is as big (if not bigger) then the 4th of July.

This year, our stake (a stake is a unit of local congregations. Our stake has 8 congregations or "wards" in it.) was invited to enter a float in the Days of '47 Youth Parade. Being the president of the primary in our ward, it fell on me to do our part for the parade entry. So for the last week I've been sitting on the garage floor cutting out rain dropped shapes out of cardboard. 42 in all.

Ruth and Jared and I lined up to walk in the parade Saturday morning. Chuck and Chaz and Kaitlin were spectators. Jared decided at the last minute that he didn't want to be in the parade either, so he also became a spectator. It was good to have a few spectators because most of the 1/2 mile parade rout was empty. I guess you only go to the Youth Parade if you have a child that is walking in it. Which explains why we have never before attended.

The parade was on TV but because we were the 3rd to last entry, we didn't get much coverage. Our TV coverage amounted to the helicopter flying over and the commentator saying something like "oh my, that is a huge group of kids!" (we were told that we were the largest entry ever in the parade).

After the parade we went to the Youth Festival. It had free crafts and slides and booths. The kids had fun. Here is a picture of Chaz and Kaitlin pulling a handcart. This Stormtrooper was in the way so Kaitlin said "Get of my way! I'm pulling a handcart here!" which was very brave, considering the Stormtrooper had a big gun. Talk about a clash of cultures!

Post Script: So I can see that you can't see the words on the video very well. Sorry about that. Our group is the one carrying raindrops. Ruth was carrying our banner. She was the 2nd from the right at frame 35. Becky is walking right behind the banner carriers, supervising. You can see Becky wave at frame 40.

It All Started with Ruth

Every parent dreads it - the middle of the night visit from your older child. You know whatever they say it can't be good. They say things like, "Mom, I wet the bed," "Mom, I think there is a burglar outside our house," or "Mom, the toilet is overflowing." But nothing you child can say could be worse then what Ruth told us at 2:30am Monday morning, "Mom, I just threw up."

Thus was the beginning of 4 days of misery in the Barnum household. All our hand washing and disinfecting was in vain. Ruth recovered within 24 hours, and then Tuesday night right before dinner Chaz made the mad dash to the bathroom. And then right before bed, Jared. After we finally got all the children settled in for the night Chuck looked at me and said, "I don't know if I'm getting sick myself or if I just feel sick from watching Jared throw up all night." "Well, I'm not getting sick" I told him. I would just not allow it. Poor Chuck woke up to me in the bathroom at 3:30am the next morning. It was bad. I mean, really bad, like, can't-make-it-back-to-bed-afterward-because-your-going-to-faint bad. Chuck stayed home on Wednesday. He just didn't feel well. I was flat on my back all day. Pass the toast and sprite please!

In the end Chuck never did get the sick sick. I got the worse of it with 2 days down on the couch. Kaitlin didn't get any of it. Not even a tummy ache.


"The Best Day Ever!"

After a week of sickness we all had a great weekend. We split into three groups and did three different activities. I've asked some guest writers to write about the events I didn't attend.


Kaitlin and Ruth Go to “Girl’s Night” with Cousins
By Kaitlin


On Friday Ruth and I went to our Aunt Kathy’s house for a “girl cousin sleepover.” We went boating on Uncle Mark’s boat and Ruth and me and Mary almost died on the innertube but we didn’t so it’s okay. I didn’t get sunburned thankfully. I had a very, very long bumpy ride on the innertube all by myself and I didn’t fall off. And the next day we woke up late and we played “Apples to Apples” (the card game) and did make-overs (which was pretty cool!). Oh, and we had crêpes for breakfast, made by Stacy and they were yummy and they were in shapes (“I got a Mickey Mouse one” says Ruth). And there were snowmen and hearts too. Then we went to Diane’s concert (who plays the violin in the Youth Symphony). Which was not boring like I expected. And then we had to go home. I was super tired. I almost fell asleep in the car. Ruth did fall asleep. And here we are. The End.


Youth Conference
By Chaz

[Blogmaster’s note: Youth Conference is an annual 3 day retreat for our church’s youth group]

So me and dad started out Youth Conference by going to the temple. After the temple we spent a really long time at the elementary school cleaning up garbage and washing tables. Afterwards we went to Camp Williams but before we could go to our barracks, we had to listen to this really freaky guy who was a Sergeant in the military. He made us shout at the top of our lungs or else he made us do pushups. On Friday Dad and I woke up at 5:45am to cook breakfast for everybody. After breakfast we went out and went repelling down a 50 foot repelling tower. Dad and I both did the totally awesome freefall which was freaky to begin with and awesome. Then we went to a leadership training course which was an obstacle training course for the military. I got soaking wet! [You got wet when you didn’t accomplish the task correctly]. It is really hard to carry a 50lb weight across swinging ropes over the water! [he says in his defense]. Some of the obstacles were like impossible. We stayed up ‘till midnight playing games, our curfew was 10:30pm. We went home the next morning. Thus ends the awesomeness of Youth Conference.


"The Best Day Ever!"

Jared and I found that we were spending the weekend together, just the two of us. We started our fun by going to the "M Restaurant." McDonald's has transformer toys right now, and while we were disappointed that we didn't get Optimus Prime, we were still pretty excited. Afterward Jared and I went to the Hill Air force Aerospace Museum. With just Jared and Mom we were able to do everything Jared wanted. This meant skipping most of the exhibits and playing for hours in the children's area. We took time to sit in all the simulators and to do all the activities. Jared even entered a paper airplane contest (don't ask him how he did, it still may be a sore spot.) After the museum we went shopping for back to school clothes. Jared decided that he no longer wanted the underwear with the cartoon characters, but just wanted the plain colored ones. (Sob) my baby is growing up. We stopped at Pappa Murphy Pizza on the way home for their $5.99 special. As I was buckling his seat belt (he got to carry and hold the pizza on the way home) he looked at me and said "Mom, this is the best day ever!"

Ruth's Recital

Ruth played her very first piano recital for our family last Sunday. I've been giving Ruth piano lessons for about six months. She has learned really fast and seems to enjoy it. Jared wanted piano lessons too so I give him a mini lesson every week after Ruth's lesson. He is already half way through his book!

My Traffic Feed

So I was wondering who was visiting this blog. I mean, the numbers on my counter go up and up and I know there are only like 2 or 3 people out in the world that would even care to visit. So I installed a Traffic Feed widget, so I can get a general idea of where people are coming from when they visit. So today I followed one of the links I didn't recognize and found my good friend Angela from the neighborhood had visited. I went and read her blog and she has an entry about the Primary Activity I masterminded and planned last March. It even has pictures so check it out by clicking the link here. I've also added my friend's blog to my links. I think it's awsome that so many of you visit! The irony, is that I havn't seen evidence that my mother visits and she is the whole reason I started this blog in the first place. Perhaps I sould email my entries to her?

Castle Building

This week we finally had a chance to sit down and talk about what we wanted to do over the summer. Each week we have chosen a fun activity to do. This week the activity was "Build a Castle from Cereal Boxes." Jared saw this idea in a magazine and has been saving cereal boxes for a couple of months. The castle was assembles with a glue gun. Now it is in our basement.



We eat a lot of cereal in this house! How much you ask? Around 18 boxes a month!

4th of July






We opted for a quiet holiday this year. We've been so busy all summer that we thought a nice 4th of July BBQ and fireworks at home were just the thing we needed. When it got dark we went outside and lit our $20.00 worth of Wal-mart fireworks.




Here is a video of the kids lighting sparklers. It reminded me of something that happened when I was a kid. My brother Dave was around 14 and I was about 11. We had made hats out of newspaper that year and we were wearing them as we played with sparklers in our backyard. Suddenly I heard my mother yell "David! your hat is on fire!" and sure enough, yellow flames were licking out the top of his paper hat. Dave wasn't hurt but I don't remember if he lost any hair or not. That reminds me of another funny story about a flaming marshmallow, but as that story has nothing to do with the 4th of July, we'll save it for another time.




'Tis the time for Grilling

Here is one of our new favorite grilling recipes (I got it from allrecipes.com), it makes your regular loin chop taste like steak. Try it and see:



Grilled Lemon Herb Pork Chop
by: Doreen Buch


INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 (4 ounce) boneless pork loin chops

DIRECTIONS
In a large resealable bag, combine lemon juice, oil, garlic, salt, oregano, and pepper. Place chops in bag, seal, and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight. Turn bag frequently to distribute marinade.
Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat. Remove chops from bag, and transfer remaining marinade to a saucepan. Bring marinade to a boil, remove from heat, and set aside.
Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill pork chops for 5 to 7 minutes per side, basting frequently with boiled marinade, until done.