Boise!!!

No pictures yet... But I'll have some later of our wonderful time we are having in Boise. We got here July 20th and are getting as much family time in as we can. We've been able to see some old friends, eat some yummy food, drive by our old house, and play play play. Elliot has been cracking me up, she was only 18 months when we left, so really, she doesn't remember anyone. Yet she keeps hugging everyone telling them, "I missed you" and she can't seem to keep her Aunts and Uncles straight. But she is having as good of time as the rest of us. Really it's just great to be home at my parents house and know family is close by. Mike will join us next week then the boys all head to the cabin. I know Griffin and Miles can't wait.

A reason to blog.

I think I've mentioned before that my blog is our family journal. Which is why I try to keep it updated and FULL of details. We don't want any memories to slip by us. I'm excited to say, a few months ago I completed my first blog book. My kids have already poured over the pages for hours. They love seeing themselves and reliving all of our adventures. I'm in the process of working on 2009's book. I am using Snapfish for 2009, but 2008 was done with blurb. Here's a review of my experience with blurb and snapfish (so far).

Blurb.com gives you a program called "booksmart" which you download onto your computer. Once you have that program you simply put in your blog address and which dates you want (ex: from Jan 1st 2008-Dec. 31st 2008). Then it will auto flow your blog into a book. You then have control to add a background, change the font, colors, and rearrange your pictures. I found the whole process a not difficult but a little frustrating. I had to go through all of my Journaling and center the titles and change the size and what not. Plus there is a large supply of backgrounds and designs, but I didn't LOVE any of them. They were not very modern, or scrapbook looking. Also the program "booksmart" seemed to be the cause of my computer suddenly becoming very sluggish. In the end, I loved my book, but I won't use blurb again. Oh, and the price was around $60 not bad.










I am in the process of using snapfish to create my 2009 book. I think it has been a lot quicker, but snapfish isn't set up for blog books, which means, I am cutting and pasting all of my Journaling directly from my blog. That sounds time consuming, but really has been pretty easy. Also I had to upload all of my photos to the program, but still I didn't mind. It has really been going quicker than my other book. So the bad of going this route, my book is already up to $118, Yikes! I did go with the 12x12 book, much bigger than my blurb book. But still, yikes! I'm hoping there will be a coupon or something when I get the book completed.

Our 4th of July Celebration

We had a wonderful day, full of good food, good friends, and fun fireworks. The kids went to church in their most patriotic outfits they could find. At 6pm we had friends and the Elders over for a BBQ, then fireworks later in the evening. We were so glad to be joined by the Bishop and his family for fireworks, and our wonderful neighbor kids. It was such a good day. Relaxing and fun.

Silly poses, Elliot of course did a 4th of July dance.

We bought mostly little fireworks, but 3 or 4 at the end really shot up into the sky. Poor planning on my part, meant we were right UNDER the fireworks. Can you see the girls laughing in the center picture of the last collage? Oops!

Hampton Beach Sand Sulptres

Last Week we headed to the annual Hampton Beach Sand Sculpture contest. The sculptures were judged on Saturday, and we showed up Monday hoping to beat the crowds. They were amazing! Even more amazing is they are made from only water and sand! At the very end, the sculptor will add a coating of Elmers glue glaze, to protect the sculpture from the elements, but other than that it's good old water and sand. But the glaze won't help at all if the sculpture isn't built right. Each contestant has the same amount of sand and time to complete their creations. There were so many different sizes you would never know. The bio's of the sculptors are so interesting. They range from sweet grandma looking ladies, to your typical looking beach bum. But most of them said they all started out just like Miles, Caleigh, Griffin and Elliot with a shovel and a bucket.

Can't wait to see the works of Art.

Griffin very into castles and Dragons loved the one with a castle and dragon.

They were all Great, but my favorite sculptor is this little girl, and her works of art are always prize worthy.