A Must, In My Opinion

I'm going to make a book recommendation, which is not something I often do because I know people have such different tastes and I hate for them to be disappointed. But, I really can't pass this up. Christian and I just read this book and, let me tell you, it was fantastic- so applicable and the things he talks about really rang true for us. Also, it's a really quick, fun, and easy read, which always helps. I would recommend this to ANY and ALL married/engaged/seriously dating couples. If you've read it, let us know if you agree!

"My Country Tis of Thee..."

The day got off to kind of slow start after a failed attempt at the gym (childcare was closed), so I had to run with Oliver in his stroller to the park where I managed to do a little exercise routine there with some tubing. I couldn't very well miss a day of exercise when I knew the amount of chunking out the upcoming day would bring, right??!! So, after that, it was pretty much just a party. We started with some friends here on the west side of town for a BBQ with the most colossal burgers you've ever seen, topped off with yummy, not to mention healthy, red, white, and blue fruit parfaits. Our next party was with our friends on the east side of town for a little more BBQ at their beautiful house. Christian and Jake played a few rounds of redneck golf in the backyard while the girls chatted it up around the food table. I also must mention the not only delicious, but fabulously fancy 4th of July cake that Jill made, complete with red velvet, blueberries, and raspberries. It looked like something out of magazine- yum yum! The fun night ended with the exchanging of ghost stories and childhood fashion memories. It was soooooo fun!

The theme of these pictures is how scared Oliver was of the sparklers...?!

Family pic- Oliver's still scared.

Jason, Steven, Christian, Jake, and Eric, after a grueling round of redneck golf.

Oliver wasn't really interested in the meat- he's kind of a carb guy.

Brittany, me, and Rachel.

Brittany, me, Jill, and Rachel, chatting it up.

Can I get a light?

Oliver was pooped after all that partying! He loves his Uncle Jake!

Recommendations

I'm doing a challenge with the Jewkes Family that involves doing a set of things every day (involving health, spiritual routine, etc) and one of the things is writing in a journal/blog, so you might see some more blogging out of me for the next couple months. Here's one of many to come:

For you political types looking to challenge your conservative orientation, let me recommend a great book and a very informative documentary. The book is The One Percent Solution, by Ron Suskind. It covers the Bush administration's war on terror. It's amazingly well documented (I don't know how he gets so many inside sources) and, I think, very fair.

The documentary is Why We Fight, and it's about the history of the U.S. military/industrial complex. Very well researched and presented. Being a military history buff, I was surprised by everything I didn't know about the industrial side of our military's history. This documentary makes me question previous beliefs about the wisdom of certain military engagements and the mammoth size and spending of our military at all times in general.

If you read/watch them, let me know what you think.

"Family: Isn't it about time?"

It wasn't until I was in the MTC that I finally figured out the double meaning in the Church commercials that said at the end, "Family: Isn't it about time?" Well, we made the time this last month, to attend TWO family reunions/vacations. The first, with the Jewkes, was in Breckenridge, CO, and the second, with the Bells, was at Wolf Creek, UT.
It all started with some buddy passes, given us so generously by a friend, and then we were on our way to The Mile High City. We rented a car and made the almost 2-hour drive to Breckenridge where a beautiful, impossibly huge cabin, parked right at the intersection of two rapid rivers awaited us. The name of the lodge, aptly so, was Two River Ranch. As we spent the afternoon waiting for all the Jewkes families to converge on this place (Keep in mind that there's 11 kids and we were coming from all around the U.S.- Florida, Georgia, Texas, Colorado, California, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico), we played in the rivers, chose which of the 10 rooms we wanted to sleep in, and unloaded a huge trailer full of food for the week. We started the festivities out right: with an "animated" production to introduce us to the weeks' activities, including rules to the "candy shop" overseen by Jake which basically meant that there was free reign to whatever candy was left over after Jake got his hands on it. I'm not going to go on about every little thing we did, but just to give you an idea: We shopped the quaint little town of Breckenridge, went on an amazing bike ride from Vail to Breckenridge, Christian made his way down the rapid river by our cabin on a deflated raft from Wal-Mart, we held a "world cafe" at one of our nightly discussions (if you'd like to know what that is, well, you'll have to hire Gary Jewkes as your consultant and he will gladly take you through the process), and last, but not least, we went on a short, but sweet hike on a cliff with 20 kids in tow, overlooking a picturesque lake, surrounded by mountains, (who ever said anything about scared of heights???), stopping off to feed an enclave of chipmunks living there. WOW!!! Does it get any more action-packed??!! The only bummer of the whole reunion was that Christian and I had to leave a few days early. So, we made our way back to the Denver airport, dropped off our rental car, and listed ourselves on the buddy pass standby list. Only AFTER we checked our bags did they mention that we were seventeenth on a list of standby passengers on a flight was oversold and would be for 2 days! After contemplating a couple night stay at the cushy Denver airport, we called and amazingly got a ticket on a flight out that night. Whew!

Christian was, of course, the adult spearheading the kids playing at the river.

Oliver was perfectly content to throw rocks in the river all day. And, if we tried to pull him away, we got major protests. Like Father, like Son.

Christian decided it would be a good idea to carry Oliver across the ragin' river. This was after all the kids had been thoroughly instructed by their parents not to get within 3 feet of the river.

I had the honor of being the MC for the night's production of, "This week at Breckenridge."

There were some pretty funny mini-plays put on by these girls.

The "candy store."

Christian and Dave braved the river. They started with a raft. They ended with scrapes and a deflated raft.

You like our reunion shirts?

On Father's Day, we had the men do a sort of Father's Olympics and Q&A contest. I'm proud to say that Christian was the winner!

Story time with the kiddos- Dave was telling them the story of David and Goliath.

And guess who Goliath was???

On the bike ride from Vail to Breckenridge.

Oliver got to ride with his cousin, Jonah, and they dozed off together.

Thus starts the Bell Vacation (I've been instructed to call it such, as it was not a full-blown reunion). After a few days to relax in Farmington with the fam, including an obligatory trip to Cafe Rio, we headed up to Wolf Creek (That's up the Ogden Canyon and for those of you that have never been, it's probably one of the most beautiful places west of the Mississippi.). We rented condos up there and Christian and I got the privilege of bunking with two of my favorite people, Greg and JoLynn (Christian's parents). As soon as dinner was over, we headed straight to the pool where Christian showed off some of his amazing high-jump tricks for the kids. We ended each night at Wolf Creek with the traditional stay-up-as-late-as-humanly-possible Bell family discussions. The next day, we headed out to Pineview Dam for the much, much-anticipated boat/lake/wakeboard/ski/tubing day. And yes, even with 29 people, we all got a chance to do all that. It was seriously one of the funnest days I've had in a long time (and that's a big deal since there was sand and a baby involved). Oliver loved the boat, though, and he LOVED playing with JoLynn in the sand (Thanks for taking that duty off my hands, JoLynn!). We headed back to Farmington the next day, but not without a stop at a local park to play a mean game of soccer. The rest of the weekend was filled with chatting, chatting, and more chatting with each other. Oh, and we took some family pictures.

The uncles took all the kids to the Farmington River one afternoon.

JoLynn taking kid duty in the sand- thank goodness!

Ready...

Set...

Go!

"5 little monkeys jumping on the bed..."

You just know these three are up to no good.

JoLynn, taking over kid duty again.

Not the greatest pic, but you get the idea.

JoLynn gave Oliver this hat and he wouldn't take it off for the entire day. He even slept with it.

Now- do I get an award for the longest post EVER????

Happy Belated Father's Day Part II

I am almost embarrassed to write this. Ok, I AM embarrassed to write this. I mean, it's been a month already and I haven't even written a really gushy, overly-dramatic, roll-your-eyes-out-of-unbelievability Father's Day post for my #1, Christian. I'll be honest, I dislike writing these posts just a tad bit more than I dislike reading them (Ok, ok, I'm a cynic, I'll admit. I mean, let's take off the rose-colored glasses, people, or at least stop making others believe their marriage is on the verge of divorce b/c they have had an argument with their spouse in the last year!!!), but since Christian won't get off my back about me never writing "anything nice about me on our blog, like the other wives do," I guess I don't have a choice. Otherwise, I might not get my $20 clothes allowance this month, right???
That out of the way, here it is. I really do love Christian and most importantly on this occasion, I think he is an amazing dad- possibly one of the best out there. Oliver loves, loves, loves him and gets so excited when he even hears the lock on the door turn in the evening. He makes a mad dash towards the door, tongue hanging out, slobber rolling down his chin, barking (oh wait, that's Christian's dog fantasy playing out again). Ok, so Oliver really does bolt to the door, screaming all the while, "Daddy! Daddy!" And the scene usually rolls out something like this: Christian grabs him, tackles him to the ground and plays with him until it's Oliver's bed time. Only after Oliver has gotten his fill does Christian make his way over to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat after his excruciatingly long day at work in the roasty Albuquerque sun. And, when it is finally time for Oliver to hit the sack, Christian is always more than willing to change a poopy diaper, brush the little fella's teeth, read a story, and pray with him. Considering the loooonnngg hours that Christian works, he could probably be justified in coming home, plopping his non-existent rear on the couch and watching a couple hours of Comedy Night on NBC, but he doesn't. In fact, he really does make the most of his little time with Ollie at home. And I love him for that and for many, many other amazing qualities he possesses.