The Spoon

Sage has a favorite spoon. She won't eat her cereal until she has it. If it's dirty she'll wash it herself to make sure she gets to use it. I don't know what is so special about the spoon. Maybe the fact that we only have one of them. It's a cheap semi-disposable plastic spoon. And in a way I guess it's stolen. It belongs to Harvey Clarke Elementary School in Forest Grove, Oregon. One of the older kids accidently left it in their lunch box after using it for their cold lunch. We forgot to send it back. If I would have known it was going to be such a favorite I would have had the kids leave them in their lunch box more often! Maybe I should see what kind of spoons Alpine Elementary has! Look at me I am turning into the thief!

Family Night at the Rodeo

It has been a long time since we have been to a rodeo. Isaac and Shina are the only kids that have gone to one. So that means about 7 years. We headed down to Spanish Fork last night and enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells (not so much). The kids loved it. At the beginning they had two guys jump out of a plane and land in the arena. The kids thought that was amazing. The rodeo clown was a whole bunch of fun. Sage couldn't figure out how he could climb in and out of his big barrel.


Lafer loved seeing all the big horses and bulls.

Da Bulls!
Da Broncos!


After the night was over I asked Chad if he had fun. He said, "Shina asked me to teach her how to ride, that made the whole night worth it." So we may have a cowgirl on our hands soon. Maybe more than one.

Catch!

My littler Lafer LOVES balls! He doesn't care about trucks or super heroes or dinosaurs, just BALLS. He can spot a ball a mile away. It doesn't really matter what kind. Anything round will actually do. Lately he likes to play catch. He will grab two gloves and a ball and bring them to who ever is around and say, "Catch!".

How does your garden grow?

Well since Grandma and Grandpa Parrish are on their mission in Atlanta they let us use a portion of their garden to grow our own garden. We planted tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, zuchini, walla walla onions, and a variety of different squash. We have spent a few family nights there planting, weeding, and watering. Shina was very proud to pick the first zucchini! It was a little bit overgrown but she didn't care.

There was a beautiful sunset last night and we got a nice shot of the temple from the backyard.
Grandpa planted some garlic before they left and it is almost ready to pick. Lafe and Sage thought they would just have a taste.

What a pleasant surprise to see that everything is growing so well!

Lafer is usually a muddy mess by the time we get done but he loves to help too! What a learning experience this has been for the whole family. We really look forward to being able to harvest the fruit of our labors!

What's more American than Baseball!

For this last Forth of July we went and spent a few days in Price, Utah watching Baseball! Isaac got invited to be on the Alpine All Star team. What an experience that was for him. He had three great coaches, Coach Boyd, Coach Smith, and Coach Goeckeritz. They really worked well with the boys and made it such a great experience. They took third in the State Tournament. We had fun watching and cheering for them. Before the tournament Coach Smith had each boy tell of 3 things that they needed to improve on. He wrote them on the board.
He then had each boy break the board with their hand. Showing that they are breaking their bad habits.
Most of the boys were really nervous about doing this and some of them it took a couple tries. But they each broke their board. It was pretty impressive.

It was a great Fourth of July!

Mills Family Retreat!

We took my family up to Chad's family cabin a couple weeks ago. They had never been there and we had a ton of fun. We rode four wheelers, shot skeet (it was Jeffs first time shooting a gun), rode the zip line at Uncle Max's, played games, slept, Chad and Stacey swam in the lake to prepare for the Scofield triathalon they are doing in a couple of weeks. The trip was all in all a success other than the fact that Brady and Neil and Alison and their kids weren't there. We missed you guys! Typical Mills Family Picture
The more serious side.

Not very often that you get everyone smiling.
My tough sister Stacey and her little guy Aiden.
One of the funnest couples ever. My brother Jeff and his wife Andrea.
My brother Nathan and his wife Laurel are the best! These are their kids Holly, Jackson, and Quincy.

Goin to town with the root beer float.

Grandma reading bedtime stories to the kids.
Looks like a serious story.
DOG PILE!!!!!!!
Chad, always has to be doing something.
Quincy likes root beer floats too!