House Update

It has been awhile since I have posted any updates on the house so I thought it would be good to do that today.

First, I want to acknowledge Wayne and Boyd and all their hard work. They came up here from Pinedale on two different weekends to help to all the electrical. They were amazing. We are extremely grateful for them and for all their help. I was happy that they got to squeeze in some time to go fishing during their 2nd trip here. Wayne has always been Gerry's favorite fishing buddy. We all got to reap the rewards and have Walleye for breakfast.

Boyd, Wayne, and Gerry

Kitchen and dining room / Front Door

Azurdey's Room / Kyle and Talon's Room

Master Bedroom

Laundry room / Gerry's Office

Journee's Room / Playroom and Allie's Room

Karlee's Room / Downstairs Bathroom

Family Gathering

Last Saturday we were fortunate to have the Hyde family together. This will be the last time for awhile, so we took the opportunity to take some family pictures. We also had a picnic in the park and enjoyed some time together. We played some aerobie, horseshoes, and botche ball. It was nice to just hang out for awhile.

Mark had his farewell Sunday and entered the MTC yesterday, where he will get the training he needs to serve his 2 year mission in Sendai, Japan.

Our family with Mark.

We are excited for him but we will really miss having him around. He will be a great missionary and we are proud of him.

Uncle Mark with his nieces and nephews.

15 Years

July 9th, Gerry and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.

Even though it is a bit late I still wanted to make note of our special day.

Putnam Family Reunion

After Azurdey and Sydnee's birthday party we joined the rest of the Putnam clan at the old rock church for the annual Putnam family reunion. That evening we had a potluck and program for Grandma and Grandpa. Then we all went to Deb and Ron's for fireworks. With all the contributions we had a pretty good show. The kids were also all lit up with glow necklaces and bracelets. Those who wanted to stayed to kareoke. The next morning we had a pancake breakfast. The kids had a blast with all the water fun, lots of slip and slides and a big water slide. There was also an bouncy air mat that the little ones loved. Other activities included horseshoes, patriotic puzzles, cookie decorating, slime making, a treasure hunt, and raffle. There was also a silent auction for a 'jar' quilt that Keri made. On it were jars from Grandma, Grandpa, and their ten children. Listed on the jars were their favorite preserve (jam), something they have kept or keep in a jar, and something, if they could bottle anything, what would it be. It was a beautiful quilt and it was really fun to see everyone's answers. John made us yummy dutch oven chicken, potatoes, and cobbler for lunch. (and there was much rejoicing ;-) Then we played 'Family Fear Factor'. It was so fun. Our family got to team up with Paul's bunch. Some of the events included a backwards tossing ring toss ( I wish I could remember all the clever names for them), a quiz about our parents, bobbing for onions, picking clear marbles out of icewater with our toes, digging in a dirty chocolate pudding diaper with gum and rolos with mouths only to pick out a piece of bubble gum and blow a bubble first, digging in worms to find a key to unlock grandma and grandpa, and a relay sliding down the slip and slides filled with oatmeal at the bottom to pull out flags to spell Putnam. Everyone got to participate and most were really good sports which always makes it funner. You should have seen Allie's face when she first opened the diaper. I don't think she was convinced it was pudding. It looked way too real. Kyle actually enjoyed digging through the worms and Gerry not only was able to get all the onions but ate bites out of them as well (extra points). Karlee really got into it and did 4 of the events. That evening after the games we had hotdogs and nachos, then the raffle and a name the candy to win the candy game. Then they showed 'Little Rascals' on a big screen in the park. We always enjoy these reunions, especially getting to see everyone and visit. Thank you Keri and John for all of this years fun.

Azurdey's Birthday

Azurdey turned 3 on the 4th of July!

I think you can see how excited she was. I think she was singing the birthday song for a couple months before her big day. Besides Uncle Sam, Azurdey also shares her birthday with her cousin, Sydnee. Sydnee turned 6.

In trying to come up with ideas for her birthday cake we pulled a bunch of random pictures of birthday cakes off the web. She saw one with the Littlest Petshop toys on it and was hooked. She was thrilled with the idea of having a cake that had toys, too! This was only my 3rd time working with fondant, but I think I am hooked also. It is really fun to work with and it creates so many new options and possibilities for cake decorating. Karlee would come in every few minutes while I was decorating it to give her notorious 'sweet!' comment and Azurdey would follow her lead with a few 'sweet's herself. It was quite cute.
Gerry was still feeling a little under the weather and so I drove to Star Valley from Logan and he held the cake on his lap the whole way. I was happy the only damage it received was getting a little dried out from the AC blowing on it.

My aunt Debra and her husband Ron were kind enough to let us crash their place for a party. They were very helpful and we sure appreciated their hospitality.

We had quite a bunch for the party. Besides having the party with Sydnee, we also had Greg and his family, Deb and Ron, Mark, Mom, Grandma and Grandpa, and Vicki and her kids. Vicky and Warren joined us a little later for cake.





With all the people there, it was like Christmas for Azurdey and Sydnee.

Azudey got some Littlest Petshop stuff to go with her cake, a birthday Ariel baby, a Furreal bear, a Scooby, a new outfit and charm for her bracelet, a love dollar, a sticky snake, and a pirate ship book. She had so much fun opening her presents.

We tried to light the candles outside but it was just a little too windy so we had to move back inside.

My mom and her parents with the birthday girls.

It was such a special treat to have so much family there to celebrate with us. Thank you all!

July 2nd and 3rd

We drove to Logan Tuesday evening to spend some time with Gerry's mom and Warren. On Wednesday we enjoyed a picnic lunch at the park and then had a nice walk around the zoo.

One of the highlights was feeding the ducks. Here they are buying the duck food.

I tried and tried to get Talon to look at me to take a picture. Little bugger has already gotten camera shy. I had a hard time the whole week getting him to look and smile for me. You could tell he knew exactly what he was doing. He would get this funny little smirk.

After the zoo we did a little shopping for Azurdey's birthday cake and to get Sydnee a present for their Fourth of July birthdays. We ended up having to get a couple belts replaced on the suburban and the kids and I hung out at the store while Ger got that taken care of. It was nice to get back to the house. I baked the 3 round cakes I needed for Azurdey's Littlest Petshop Cake that she wanted. The kids watched a movie and we all just relaxed for a bit.

The next morning I got up and decorated Azurdey's cake. Then we got ready for Teri and Justin to come. We rode with them to Salt Lake City to go see Poison in concert. Journee, Vicky, and Warren watched all the kids so we could go. (Thanks again, we really appreciated getting to have a date night.) We met up with Pam and Darren and my friends from High School, Torie and Shaun for dinner. We had a fun time visiting. The food was another story. I don't know if Gerry will be able to eat lobster again for a long time. Part way into the concert Ger got a pretty bad case of food poisoning. Kind of ironic, isn't it, go see Poison, get poisoned. Poor thing.

Dokken opened for them and sounded fine but were pretty boring to watch. Poison on the other hand put on a good show and were a lot of fun. They played all their hits so we could all sing along. I hope Pam, Darren, Teri and Justin all had a good time, despite Ger's set back. After the concert Pam and Darren headed to Pam's cousin's house and we went back to Logan. We headed to Star Valley the next day for the 4th and a Putnam family reunion.