House Guests...

Mike and I had the privilege of housing two Taiwan dancers during the International Folk Dance Festival here in Rexburg. We had two twelve-year-old dancers, Ivy and Tina (their western names). I LOVED having them...and I miss them terribly. I got to be their host mom for 10 days and I enjoyed every minute of it, even the late, late, late nights. When they left, Ivy and Tina cried and I was so sad to see them leave...I felt (and still do) like something was missing. I told them to check my blog to keep updated, and I really hope they do...so if you are reading this...I miss you guys and hope you had fun in Disneyland!

Here are some pictures of their time with us.

Opening Ceremonies

Mesa Falls--Ivy is standing by me and Tina is next to her.

Street Festival--There is a parade where the dancers perform down the street. Then countries perform a dance or two. Then it turns into an open street dance...it was cold this night...while the girls were dancing it started to hail and rain and it was super windy, too.

Trip to McDonalds...

After their big performance in the Hart Auditorium/Gymnasium on BYU-I campus. Ivy and Tina are in the red costumes.

At the end of the week we had a team party and this was a picture of Ivy on my right and Tina on my left. Love you guys!

July Happenings...

The month of July progressively got busier as the month went by. I couldn't post everything we've done, nor do I even want to try, so here's our month in a nutshell.


Brooke turned 5-years-old! She was super excited for her birthday this year. And who would have thought my little loves-pigs (and continally asks for one)-farms-dogs-cows-any kind of animal- girl would ask for a princess party?

We did a split birthday part between Brooke and her cousin Adam. Mmm, licking off the candles...the best part of blowing out the candles!

For the Fourth of July weekend, Mike and Josh (Jill's husband) planned a trip to Driggs/Victor, ID, to see the hot air balloon race/launch (and wouldn't you know I forgot my camera that morning!). After the launches, we went to the parade in Victor.

Brooke started soccer this summer. This picture isn't the greatest, and it is kind of deceiving. Brooke doesn't quite get the concept of soccer, yet. She just knows you are suppose to kick the ball, but she doesn't know which direction or where to kick, she just kicks! But it was still fun to go to her games. She has only one game left!

Brooke has also been taking swimming lessons. This picture is of safety day, when they were wearing life jackets. She is pulling her cousin Adam through the water...Brooke told me they were pretending to be a train.

Brooke finally decided she COULD ride a bike! Mike and I have tried to work with her a little bit and have tried to convince her that she could do it. So yesterday we went for a walk and she just took off!

Just a shout of thanks out to those who helped me with the girls the last couple of weeks...I couldn't have made it to everything without your help!


Check out the following post for pictures from our trip to Colorado in June.