Confession Time!

For the last month and a half I have been spending quite a bit of time reading books 1-6 of Harry Potter, anticipating the much sought after and talked about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I feel that everything is getting in the way from completing my goal...my kids, my husband, church, vacations, and friends. You know, all the important things in life!!! I started book 6 last Monday thinking I was going to accomplish my goal, but I have not finished it as of yet because we ripped apart 2 of our 3 bathrooms and tiled and upgraded them. I can't be more excited about my bathrooms, but I have had to put off my goals and ambitions. I still went and bought it on Saturday morning. When I got home, Alan said "Can I read it while you are finishing book 6?" Now he is almost done and I have so many questions that I so badly want to know, but on the other hand I won't ask them or read anything on the Internet. I announced first thing in my Sunday School class that I would not have the name Harry Potter spoken or they would be sent away because I want nothing given away. On the other hand, I have always hated surprises. **Sigh** what to do!?! I will soon be done and this will all be just another moment in time.

Funny Peter Moments

Last week Peter came running out of the bathroom yelling, "Mom! Dad! My eyebrows move!" I don't know that I have ever seen him so excited about a discovery!

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Yesterday I took Peter to Toys"R"Us to use his birthday money and a $3 off birthday gift card. I told him how much money he had to spend, and we began to walk around gathering things that he might like. We checked prices and he came to the conclusion that he wanted a dragon. But he didn't have enough money for both dragons he had picked, so I gave him different options of what he could get. After thinking about it he sat down on the floor and said, "Maybe I won't get anything because I just can't decide.....sigh..." I, of course, melted. So he and I sat on the floor together deciding which dragon was cooler and which could do more things. A sales associate came by, gave me a bizarre look, and asked if he could help with anything. I just said, "Nope...unless you want to make a decision for a 5-year-old." A look of understanding came across his face and he said to Peter, "That's the hardest part." He ended up pleased as punch with his purchase of an Imaginext dragon and fighting knight...and he looked so big getting out his wallet to pay for it! What a sweetie!

It's a ......................

Beautiful profile

Alien face shot

Girl!

Here comes the Bride....

It is so funny to me how you can have so many wonderful memories of a place and then you revisit this place after many, many years and you don't remember a thing!!

I was able to go to Seattle, Washington for 5 kid-free days (I think that was probably the best part! Sorry Tracy) to attend a friends wedding. My family lived in Kent, Washington for about 5 years and I would have to say that my best and most fond memories from my childhood are from there. As a family we did many different activities and explored a lot of Seattle and surrounding areas. We would go to the Pacific Science Center, The Seattle Aquarium, Boeing Family Days (my dad worked for Boeing), Seattle Space Needle, Salt Water State Park, Olympic National Forest, The Old Spaghetti Factory, Underground Seattle, etc.

My friend, Tracy Lambert almost Peterson, and I drove around trying to do some last minute wedding stuff and I didn't recognize hardly anything. There was Lake Meridian that I did recognize, and going into Seattle it looked the same, but everything else was lost. It made me sad in a way, but happy that I still had the fun family memories of what we did.

The Beautiful Bride and Me not ready yet!!

Tracy, Rebecca, Sue

Dale and Sue Lambert,
The Bride's parents who I absolutely love!
The Wedding Party

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Father's Day to you .......

Happy 5th Birthday, Peter!!
Happy Father's Day, Alan!!

Peter was so excited to share this day with Alan! For months he has been telling people that his Birthday is on Father's Day! We decided that since we would be away on this special day that we would celebrate it a week early!

Peter got lots of stuff including Spider-Man (his favorite super hero) lunch box, action figure, and hoppity. He got a soccer goal and a rescue Helicopter (which he wants to fly when he grows up), but I think his favorite was the umbrella. We also celebrated with cake and ice cream in Utah on his actual birthday with the extended family!

Alan got a couple of classic musicals, Trans Europa (a new game) and 2 turtles! He wasn't exactly thrilled to get the turtles but had to act excited anyway because they were from the kids. We actually had a friend ask us if we wanted them and since half of our family is obsessed with turtles, how could we not take them! We named one Testudo after Alan's school mascot. Way to be a good Terrapin fan Alan!! "FEAR THE TURTLE" The other one is still unnamed. Although we think it might be Hercules or Franklin, tough decision. We welcome other good turtle name ideas...

The Drake Fam Reunion

After a long trip, with many events in between, we have returned home to find everything just how it should be:

Our garden overgrown, not with weeds, but the actual plants are enormous, which people don't usally complain about. But when the garden plot is smaller then one of the plants it makes it more difficult.

Our two turtles that we gave to Alan for Father's Day (so that he couldn't complain about having them...Hey, I know how to work the system!) alive and happy and our house didn't stink as much as we thought it would!

Our lawn freshly mowed and trimmed by our good neighbor Grandpa Dan! He also fixed the back stairs, which was a pleasant surprise!!

People taking bets on weither or not we would ever return!

Just some quick highlights from the trip.

1. We got to see my parents new house.
2. We got to meet our almost sister in-law Brittany
3. We got to meet all of the cousins that we had not met yet!
4. We got to go to cousin Isabell’s baptism.
5. We got to celebrate both Peter’s 5th birthday and Father’s Day on the same day!
6. We got to witness little Georgi get blessed by all of her uncles and grandpa’s.
7. We got to see many wild animals up close in Yellowstone, but unfortunately we didn't see any bears (that's all I wanted to see).

All in all it was a good trip and we got to see family and friends that we hadn't been able to see for a long while. Sorry about how many pictures there are, but it was hard to choose just a couple!