Moms Birthday Party

We had a big family reunion/birthday party for Mom this year. We missed having Nancee, JJ, Roo and their families here, but everyone else showed up. It was a LOT of people.





We ate good food, played board games, talked, played tennis, rode the golf cart, went on walks, and played with the animals. The boys got to do a fun sleepover on the balcony too!



On the day of the birthday celebration, Spencer and Kristin brought a fun cupcake shaped pinata that everyone got to take a whack at--including Grandma Tutu! Spencer had to figure out a way to suspend the pinata from the ceiling! It all worked out pretty well.



We also had Matt come up and give everybody a personalized gun shooting lesson. He set up a special gun range with targets and everything. It was lots of fun!




The girls decorated the house up very nicely with patriotic decorations, and then Mom blew out the candles on her delicious American Flag cake.


Even Freckles got in on the party! (He's been a very good sport)


Thank you everybody for making the effort to come up and celebrate with us.

 Happy Birthday Mama Tutu!

Fire in Poky

While Mom and Dad were in England, we had a huge fire in Pocatello. It was a very hot and windy day--perfect conditions for a fire. It burned all day and all night, and they had to evacuate an entire subdivision. The fire ended up claiming 66 homes, with hundreds of others displaced indefinitely. The hillside where the fire came into town is still all burned up.
I had a birds eye view of the fire just a few minutes after it began, and I took this photo from Mom & Dad's balcony.

Away to England!

After dropping Erica and Sadie off in Phoenix, Mom and Dad flew directly to Houston to help Roo and Annie with their newborn baby, Penny--and the little matter of relocating their entire lives across the Atlantic Ocean to live in England. No big deal.

Mom and Dad did all they could to watch the girls as Roo and Annie got their house packed up and fixed up to be sold, Dad spent a whole day fixing up the yard, Roo and Annie spent time getting international visas for themselves and the kids, they sold their cars, and best of all, Esmé got to go to the water park! Mom says that Esmé still talks about that one.

Then it was off to England on a 9 hour flight. They took a red eye flight and Grandpa Tutu was generous enough to give up his seat for a few hours so Esmé could stretch out and have a nice sleep. Mom said the girls did really well on the flight.

Mom and Dad had a great time once they arrived England. Getting used to the small cars, driving on the left side of the street, the complex roundabouts and tiny parkings was hard. Mom said the living spaces were really small and the exchange rate was tough to figure out. She said the weather was beautiful and that everything was super green. She said everyone has a wonderful yard and there aren't even any sprinklers. She said the meals were amazing--better than she was expecting!