The Ultimate Musical Dream Team... David Foster, Andrea Bocelli, and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

If only I could have been there!

Harvesting the Bounty!

We are having fun harvesting fresh produce from our garden. We had planted tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, parsley, basil, and cilantro. All but the cilantro sruvived and we have been enjoying the fruits of our labor! We have made yummy pickles with our many lemon cucumbers and had loveley salads with the tomatoes and cucumbers. The basil and parsley have come in handy for all sorts of cooking projects and we have even discovered new ways (at least for us) of using them.

Isabella loves going out and picking the tomatoes. We took the camara out with us the other day and got a few shots of our little wannabe farmer! You can't see it but there are a few toamtoes and cucumbers in the princess bucket she is holding.

Here is a close up of Isabella mastering the art of tomato picking.

It's not much but we have had so much fun with our tiny garden this summer. It will be sad when we are done but with this warm weather we still ahve a few tomatoes left to ripen. For ideas on what to do with some summer produce still needing to be used up, check out my helpful hints blog.

Isabella's Gymnastic's Fun Meet

Last saturday Isabella participated in her first gymnastics meet. She was so excited! We got her a brand new leotard (a leo for those in the know!!) to mark this special day. We did her hair up just like all of the big girls complete with clips all over the back of her head. 

I also took her to the drug store and got her glitter to put in her hair. And to complete the look, we painted her toes bright pink to match! Isabella loved the attention so much. After all of the stuff that has happened around here I think she really needed a day that was all about her.

Here she is posing for the camera. One of her favorite past times!!

Let the games begin! Most of the pictures were really dark and I have not had a chance to edit them all but here are some of the best! This picture is of Isabella vaulting!

Safe landing!!

At the end of the meet all of the kids got to stand in the first place spot. The all recived a metal, award and a tee shirt.

First Place goes to

 ISABELLA GIFFORD!!!

More posing!

She is so proud of herself

This is a picture of Isabella and a fellow gymnast. Way to go girls!

Even Iyla wanted in on the fun. Here she is trying to get on the balance beam.

6 more months until Iyla is big enough to start gymnastics too!

After the meet was over we took the girls to McDonalds for a well a deserved ice cream cone. Isabella too no time in making as big of a mess as possible.

This one was a 10 baby wipe job!!!

Iyla got the enjoy the spoils of victory as well and had her first ice cream cone. Let me tell you, it was a

BIG HIT!!!

We topped off Isabella's big day with a trip to Long Lake for some swimming time. We had a great time that day and I am sure we made memoried the will last a lifetime!!

The Circus!!

(Blogger is changing the way you edit postings. I can not for the life of me get the picutes to line up. Grrrrr. Also the spell checker dissapeared so if the spelling is horrible I am sorry)

This past thursday we went to Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. The greatest show on earth!! And we had a blast!



 We were a little late but we still caught the main attractions. First up is the High wire. These guys were so cool! In this picture the guy walk right over the other guy who is laying on the wire!

Here he is on a bike balancing a woman!

They shot two women out of a cannon!

Now before I tell you about the animal pictures I want to share my opinion about animals in the circus. In the past there have been valid instances of animal abuse and neglect among  the traveling circus of the past. But from what I say while we were there we far from it. The handlers were so gentle with the animals and you could really tell the animals really liked the handlers. The tigers even licked the guy in the ring with them. I am sure there is much more to this debate but we still enjoied ourselves. 

So, on with the show!! This is the tigers. the two on the far right are all white. SO pretty!! They kind of look like a tiger choir!! 

I took a TON (no pun intended!) of elephant pictures but picked my favorite ones to share with you.

This is the Grand Finale!! TA DA!!

Isabella had such a good time. She was just wiggling the whole time! We are so glad we went. A thanks to Melisa for the discount coupon!

Update...

I am so sorry that I have not done a better job of updating you all on what has been going on around here lately. So here it is.

• Iyla is healing up WAY faster then expected. Her foot is healed. He Elbow is healed. The burns on her head and in her hair are healed. Her Thumb, 1st and pinky on her right hand are healed. Also her wrist is healed. We only have 2 more fingers to go and she will be out of all the bandages. At that point we will be able to see if she needs additional treatment. Wednesday is going to be our last trip to the burn unit. Also, Iyla is off all medication!!

• My back is doing fairly better. It still gives me fits but I am doing physical therapy along with weekly massages and it seems to be helping.

• We met with the grief counselor but it was not exactly what I had in mind. I really don't think you can figure out what is going on inside someone’s head by taking a quiz.

• We are starting to figure out Iyla's birthday party. Details to follow.

So as things get back to normal around here, I will be returning to our normal blogging about family fun times. Up next ... Our trip to the Circus!!