State Fair with Doug, Christen, Dillon and Jeanie

It is kind of sad - we have lived in Lincoln for 5 years and never gone to the State Fair (which is only about 1 mile from our house).

Doug and Christen (Brenden's cousins) moved up to Omaha last year and Aunt Jeanie was visiting - so we made an outing of it with them. It was a lot of fun (though we got sunburned).

Guy high-diving from 80 ft. Very entertaining - way better than the pig racing.

Fair food - Super Corn Dog. Delicious!

Ems did better with the animals this time than she did at the County Fair last month. She walked around the goats for a good 10 minutes just pointing and laughing - each time getting a little bit closer and almost touching one.

She looks so unhappy here because she was having some crazy allergies or something that made her eyes puff up and water. Very sad.

More fair food. The curly fries were a bit disappointing. I bet they would have been a million times better ON A STICK!

The deep-fried Snickers was the most horrendously delicious deep-fried monstrosity we have ever experienced. SO GOOD!

Afterwards we took the Reids down to Ivana Cone. Very tasty. It was a great time and convinced us (again) that we need to get together with Doug and Christen more. They are a riot. You hear that Reids? Expect calls from us soon!

Kaki King Style

So Emmie hits my guitar more than she strums. Perhaps I should start her on some Kaki King.

Gotta love a good wedding.

Brenden and I got to attend a fabulous wedding this weekend of a couple in our ward. I love weddings. It makes me remember how much I enjoyed our wedding and reception. For those of you who weren't there, here are some pictures.

Someone asked me if I was nice to Brenden when we cut and ate our cake. I didn't think I was but I had to make sure. Here is the proof. It looks like Brenden wasn't too nice either!

Do you like her haircut?

You wouldn't know it but Emmie got her 1st haircut. She had one really long hair about 3 inches longer than the rest at the top of her head and it would stick straight up. Brenden convinced Melissa at church to cut it. Thanks Melissa- the haircut looks great.

Ignorance is Bliss or Stupidity is Stupidity?

I am coming to believe that the majority of the world follows the philosophy illustrated here by Calvin:

County Fair Fun

We went to the county fair last week with our friends Brad, Emily, and Mya. We wish we could say that Emmie enjoyed seeing all the animals but they kind of freaked her out. Mya on the other hand loved them!

Although she didn't like it, we forced her to pet the animals anyway.

We saw some excellent pig racing.



And we enjoyed the make your own scarecrow contest. I think next year we will enter a scarecrow.

And Brenden even met Ringo Star.

We also found this very disturbing slogan on a bag of calf feed. How morbid!

5th Anniversary Picture

We do this every year. Good times.

Warning! Emzilla on the Loose!

I'm the next Martha

I had this skirt sitting in my closet for a few years and I never wore it. I really liked the fabric so I decided to use it to make a dress for Emmie.

I used the same pattern as her Easter dress but this one turned out way less Sgt. Peppers-esque. I only had to take this one apart and start over maybe 6 times. I am getting better! She smiled real big for me didn't she? Brenden and I are thinking red might not be her color.

Cabin Adventures 2009

After a few days respite from the madness that was the Clawson DC reunion, we piled back into the car and headed off on another adventure. Our car was so packed that Emmie (whose car seat was in the middle of the back seat) couldn't even see out the windows because stuff was packed in around her. Very full!

I dropped Julianne off at the Buehner Cabin in Island Park, ID on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River and went up to Calgary to the Glenbow Institute Archives for research. A few days later I made it back and we spent a little over a week with family and friends. It was a much needed recharging of our batteries. Here are some photos.


Emilia sitting by the fire ring.

Gregg, Rachael, Julianne and Brenden at the Summit of Sawtell Mountain. This is looking roughly NW.

As tradition dictates, we of course made a pilgrimage to Old Faithful. Our new tradition (started by Gregg a few years back) is to start yelling WHOA! WHOA! really loud way before the geyser blows - just to get people really worked up, excited and then watch their spirits crushed as nothing happens.

On July 22nd, it was my B-day. This is the 2nd time we've celebrated my Birthday at the Cabin. At least we didn't have to scrape paint off the exterior and repaint it in 90 degree weather like last time. Also on my Bday, I went fly fishing by myself and it was fabulous. I caught 29 fish in about 3 hours. Very fun. That night, Julianne surprised me by taking me to Elk Creek Ranch for a tasty dinner of salad, scones, Rib Eye, bacon-fried green beans and cheesecake.

Emilia's latest trick is clapping. She gets really excited about it.

Something possessed Julianne into giving Emilia some marshmellow smore. I don't know how she thought it would turn out, but it seemed pretty obvious to me - STICKY MESS!!! Emmie thought it was tasty though.

On Thursday we floated down the Henry's Fork on a power-paddling speedrace down the river (we were going to be late for a campfire). On the way, I spied a great rope swing, and even jumped out of the boat, swam over, gave it a jump and swam back.

So, on Friday, once our great friend Ken had joined us, we (Brenden, Gregg and Ken) went back in the car and found it. It was SO fun! (and cold)

We met up with our friends Jake and Andrea who used to live in Lincoln. Andrea's dad lives in St. Anthony which is about 45 minutes south of Island Park. They treated us to a dinner of deep fried salmon and venison. I know what you are thinking but it was delicious.

Of course there was scum late into the night.

Our friend Ken also came down from Seattle for a visit. It was cold the day we were in the park and Ken being the good boy scout he is loaned Julianne and Emmie a coat.

We had so much fun spending time with the Buehner/Clawson/Crandell clan- we sure do love you guys!