Washington Trip

A couple of weeks ago Julia, Elliott and I headed down to Washington for my cousin Juli's wedding while Joshua held the fort with the boys here.  It was wonderful to see everyone--all of my brothers and families were there, along with many cousins on the Little side.  I got to relax while people passed Elliott around and Julia loved the attention from aunts and uncles and everyone else there.  We enjoyed some time with the Swifts too, and Julia got to meet cousins Andrew and Mallory, and also got to do a date with her aunt Talitha for her very first pedicure.

Joshua, Ethan and Christian lived it up here going camping, hiking, doing building projects at the home improvement stores, and visiting the library (reading 200+ books for the summer reading program), with unlimited treats and movies to boot.

Julia and cousins with Juli the bride

Julia and Elliott with Grandma and Grandpa Swift and Andrew and Mallory

At the temple with my immediate family

Summer Activities

For Memorial Day we tried a new hike as a family up in the mountains east of Anchorage called Wolverine Pass.  It was a great trail, but long and really muddy near the end, so we stopped after a couple of miles, had a picnic, then headed back.  Julia and Ethan walked almost all of it, and Christian would have loved to, if he hadn't been strapped into the stroller.  All of the trails around here have signs at the beginning warning hikers of bears, and so we are always on the lookout but haven't seen any to date.  We are glad.

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turned 4 in May!  As a family we went to a kids' bouncing place, and a couple days before his birthday he had a superhero party.  It was a lot of fun--Joshua planned it as a scavenger hunt where the superheros (all the kids) had to follow the clues and do different heroic activities to be able to ultimately find a stolen treasure.  The activities included popping balloons, sending parachute guys off the deck, musical chairs, and looking through superhero sunglasses.  Everyone had a lot of fun, and there were only minimal fights, mostly in the last 15 minutes of the party, so I would say it was a success.

The Birthday Boy and siblings (minus Elliott)

Eating Batman cupcakes at the party with friends

Looking super handsome in his new suit!