Ethan's 7th Birthday

It's hard to believe that my sweet Ethan is now 7 years old!! It was just yesterday that I was waddling around in the 100+ degree weather getting ready to have him.

Ethan decided this year that he wanted to go to Main Event for his birthday this year. Main Event is a huge facility that offers bowling, laser tag, glow golf and tons of arcade games and much more.

This is a picture of Ethan getting ready to eat his chocolate chip cookie cake. He's not a fan of regular cake...who does this kid belong to anyway.

This is our little bowler in action. He bowled a 79 and even got a strike. Even with bumpers up, that's pretty good for only his 2nd time to ever bowl.

All of his Sunday School friends and friends from school had a fun time bowling. They all bowled great...I was very impressed.

JT loves anything sweet and he surely loved this sweet treat. I think he was beginning to get tired though from all the excitement.

Below is the video of everyone singing "Happy Birthday".

He got a bunch of neat toys too. Grandpa gave him an Erector Set. He hasn't played with that one yet because little bubba tries to put the little pieces in his mouth. He got Battleship and Operation, which we have played SEVERAL times since. He also got a new game for his Leapster, NASCAR. Don't ask. Here are some pics of him opening gifts with his friends.

Jeremiah Tries Bowling for the First Time...

We were even able to get JT to try his hand at bowling. He didn't like it at first, but he started getting the hang of it. He really like "throwing" the ball down the lane.

Everyone had a Blast and I want to go back and play "Glo Golf". That looked interesting.

Trip to Montana

This summer we spent a week in Bozeman, Montana. This was mainly a Staples family reunion, which celebrated the 60 years of marriage of Randy's grandparents and their 80th birthdays this year.

TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE

Thursday, we took the boys to Yellowstone National Park. Ethan completed the Junior Ranger program and got a badge. They gave us a worksheet to complete while we traveled the road through Yellowstone. We had to stop at most all the attractions along the way because he had to tell things about each. Mom and Dad had to help with this one because he and JT fell asleep at one point.

The picture below is of the boys listening to a park Ranger talk about all the animals that live in the park and their natural habitats. Ethan was even able to raise his hand and answer a question. We were so proud of him. He doesn't like talking in front of crowds. We saw a bunch of animals, mainly bison, which is NOT the same as buffalo. The boys did like seeing these huge animals along the road side. We even got caught in a bison traffic jam. There were about 3 or 4 trying to cross a bridge and they were just taking their sweet time in both lanes of the bridge. I did not like being stranded on this bridge that was several hundred feet above this huge and rapidly flower river below. The best part though was the hippie lady in the travel trailer blowing kisses to the bison as they passed saying, "I love you." Quite amazing to watch.

Of course, what's a trip to Yellowstone without going to visit Old Faithful. We got to see it go off twice while we were there. It went off right as we arrived, but we didn't get to see the whole "show" so we stayed and ate lunch and then visited the gift shop while we waited for the next scheduled eruption. The Rangers said that the timing has been off since an earthquake a few years ago. It was about 90 minutes or so between the two eruptions.

It was a good trip and hopefully we'll be able to go back when the boys are bigger and will appreciate the history of it more.

FAMILY REUNION

Friday, we all gathered for a dinner reception to honor Randy's grandparents. There was much laughter as his dad and aunts and uncle remembered the "Good ole days". His aunt Loreen and her family even wrote and sang a little diddy. I've uploaded the video so you can have a listen. Totally cracked me up.

Randy painted them a landscape of Lake McDonald, which is at Glacier National Park (northern MT). It is a beautiful painting. We had a scripture etched on a plate and attached to the frame. "My Lord, O Lord, how majestic is your name."

All their children got up and spoke about how their marriage has influenced their own marriages and how sweet their memories are. Jerry, Randy's dad, made a touching tribute to his parents as Mary Jane would have liked. MJ always tried to find different ways to show others how much she loved and appreciated them. I know she was smiling down from heaven with Jerry's choice. He had special leis from Hawaii flown in to give to his parents. They were made of plumeria flowers. He even read what each petal meant in the Hawaiian culture.

• Aspiration


• Devotion


• Sincerety


• Faith


• Surrender

Jerry then presented all the ladies in his life with a beautiful plumeria flower necklace. This was so endearing because it was totally something Mary Jane would have done. It was a very moving moment for us all. We saw allot of kissing going on too. Grandma and Granddad are still so much in love after 60 years.

PICNIC

Saturday, we meet at Nadine's house and had a picnic on their beautiful lawn. This reminded of the church picnics we had when I was growing up. Eating was synomous with Baptists, but now that everybody is so health conscious, we don't have those fellowships anymore.

The boys seems to enjoy themselves. They played with their cousins and played lawn games.

"Farmer Jack" video