Before I get to the shots of England...

I do apologize if you were hoping for the photos of England. I'll get there, but I do have a couple of events that I need to make record of here first.

My friend and traveling companion Kathleen Skinner posted some photos of England on Facebook and I am tagged in several of them. Check out my Facebook page and you'll get a preview!

So, back to some of these important events:

Evan started Lucky Sevan Home Maintenance and Repair, LLC.

Amelia is sporting Evan's new work attire.

Amelia is employee number one, always ready to go to work with dad and use her skills.

These include

making messes and blaming other people for them,

stopping to dance at whatever music happens to be playing from whatever source,

asking a lot of questions,

and laughing.

Someone was having a Fathers and Sons outing and Evan and Dylan went camping in Northern Arizona with the Rogers and Speakman boys.

Apparently, Dylan wanted to play in the camper more than the woods.

Evan's younger brother Phil and his son Cade use a rope-and-stick swing

Dylan is below, considering the potential fun and safety factor of said swing.

I'm guessing that there was a lot of this going on as it is a critical part of the camping experience.
(Jaron Speakman, Brant Rogers, Duane Rogers)

Briggs (Brant's son) not smiling

Crew (Phil's son) smiling

Dylan and Crew in the camper

Hyrum (Jaron's son) and his infamous bicycle

Dylan with his signature dirty jeans.

Camping hair.

Note: there are no pictures of Evan. Be assured, he was present and as dirty and rugged as the best of them. He just happened to be on the back side of the camera.

Even before school was out, it was hot enough for the blue elephant sprinkler in the back yard.

Dylan chose to participate in this event sans his swim trunks, so this is the most modest picture of him.

Amelia is generally ready for anything requiring water and a swim suit.

And lastly, Amelia finished Kindergarten! Her class had a little graduation ceremony that was simply darling. The kids each stood up next to Mrs. Giroux to receive their certificates and they said their names, their favorite thing about Kindergarten, and what they wanted to be when they grew up.



Amelia said that her favorite thing about Kindergarten was all of her friends and she wants to be a zoo keeper when she grows up. Awwww.

Amelia absolutely loves Mrs. Giroux and is excited that she is looping with the kids to first grade next year. (Evan and I love Mrs. Giroux, too. Boy, do we.)

Here are Holland, Mrs. Giroux, and Amelia. Amelia and Holland have been friends since they were babies.

And here are Amelia, Mrs. Giroux and Seth. Seth is Amelia's very good friend. They like to do art together. She thinks it's cool that he's a boy and he has long hair. By the way, Seth's dad made the graduation caps. Artistic skill definitely runs in the family.

After the graduation ceremony, we had a party at Daley Park. The kids ate pizza, blew bubbles, played in the sand, on swings and slides, and made all kinds of noise. They even tried to make it rain using bubbles, sand, pizza crumbs, and a few dance steps. It sort of worked.

Here are Ella, Natalie, Amelia and Holland. Amelia was too interested in her unicorn bubbles to actually look at the camera. She did smile though.

And this is what Dylan and I did for much of the afternoon. Mr. Safety prefers the baby swings. When I asked him if he wanted to use the big-kid swings he said, "No, Mom. I fall out."

Now you're somewhat up to speed. England photos coming soon...