I stole some of these pictures from Mama's blog. Ha! :) So these first ones are a little out of order, but I like them, so here they are. Plus, Joshua doesn't like me to take his picture, so I pretty much took no pictures of him on the campout, but Grandma got one. Yea! :)
So Badger Family Re-Onion 2018 - it was great!
Jeremy and I like to have a book that we read together. Sometimes that means we read some on a trip and then it just sits waiting for a month or two until we go somewhere again. Ha ha! But anyway, this book was Jeremy's choice. It's called Vagabonding. I liked it. It kind of changed my perspective and made me want to get rid of stuff. And then I came home and got rid of nothing. Ha ha! Still, it's a good book for people who want to travel.
So here's before the campout - Bubby helping out in the kitchen.
There's Bubby in swimming lessons again. He's in the white shirt with blue sleeves. I had to take a picture. This is how they start every class - laying on their tummies kicking their legs. And then they do the same on their back. Bubby did not like that part at first and wouldn't go to his class until they got up and walked around to their side to do the actual class. But this day and always after that he actually participated in this part. Yea!
More of Timmy's artwork. He's so clever. And the best part is that most of what he draws is drawn because he thinks it's funny, and then he shows me and laughs and laughs.
Henry taking pictures of our legs and Bubby again
I let Henry use my phone and I read a book. Not a bad setup.
Benji made this for Jill's birthday. Turned out great!!
I took my hair down one night and it looked gorgeous, so I took a picture. :)
Jill said she wanted meatloaf for her birthday dinner. Her birthday was the day we arrived at the campout. I paid Hyrum to make all the meatloaf the day before, and all the cake layers. He wanted to earn some money anyway. That was a lot of baking, though! And then when we got there we warmed up the meatloaf on the griddle and made fried shredded potatoes to go with it. (Yea for frozen potatoes!) In this way we made sure Jill got the meatloaf she asked for. In the end, though, she told me she only asked for meatloaf because she wanted the mashed potatoes we usually have with it. No way was I going to make that many mashed potatoes! Oh, well.
Jill made a little cake topper with her name on it. She wanted a rainbow cake, so Hyrum dyed 6 layers of white cake different colors.
Then we made whipped cream frosting. Easy peasy. No fancy decorating. That frosting really is the only way to go. So much yummier than buttercream! And we got rainbow sprinkles to put on top. :)
I forgot we'd need something to stabilize the cake, so not only was it heavy, it was also wobbly! I thought we'd leave it in the kitchen right where I make it, but Jeremy said no, he'd move it. It was a little scary, but he did move it successfully.
It came out pretty! :) After a while of Jeremy cutting it was looking like it was going to fall over, so I just grabbed the yellow layer and up and took it off and put it on the pan. That worked. :) That was a lot of cake!
Grandma brought Jill lots of fun presents in that bag! :)
Henry
Timmy
Jill
Sami
Henry again
Michael
Hyrum
Benji was the one who broke it open. Not sure where he got the fancy trident, but OK. :)
Timmy, Henry, Lynnette, and Kelly
I think this was when we were watching Coco. Such a cute movie!
Jill got sidewalk chalk from Grandma. It's been put to good use. :)
Taylor, Bubby, Timmy, and Henry
Grandma and Taylor
These are Bubby's and Aunt Deon's pictures. :)
Water balloon time!
If you look close you can see a pale green water balloon Bubby just threw.
A fun time was had by all. ;)
Taylor and Jill are good buddies. :)
Jeremy and I did this puzzle that Aunt Barbara brought.
Timmy liked it. He helped too.
Carrie with Brody, Kelly, Jennifer, and Lynnette
Paul and that guy who Michelle is married to. XD (I can remember his last name is Scott, but Scott is a first name, so I can never remember what his real first name is. Ha ha!)
This is Michelle's little Avonlea. I had fun watching her. So cute!!
Tricia and Sami demonstrated a cultural dance, and Henry insisted that Avonlea drink her bottle. XD
Daddy got everyone a head lamp, and we went on a little hike at night and then had a short talk about our ancestors and where we come from. Then everyone played games. Our kiddos have loved those head lamps!
When we came home Val had moved his bag (Hallelujah!), leaving all the dirt that collected there for almost 10 months. (Boooooooooo!) He was in the process of moving out, and he finished that evening when he got home from work. He'd been waiting for Hyrum to drive him and big stuff.
Val has been working in the produce department at Bashas'. Sounds like he's moving up, which is good. After he'd been working there few of weeks we told him, "OK, time for you to find an apartment. You have until the end of July." That gave him 3 or 4 weeks. He came a bit unglued at that, but I think he's happy to be gone.
So in all honesty, I'm happy that we were decent people and helped him out. But it wasn't always a happy thing. Val liked to tell the kiddos what to do and what not to do, and he'd even threaten them with punishments with Jeremy and me sitting right there. It got really bad right after his baptism. I think he was frustrated that he was still there and had no job, despite trying for months. *(cough, cough, not trying hard enough, cough, cough)* Anyway, it grated on my nerves really bad. So finally we confronted him about it, and he went into what he says is a phase where he was just reading all day out in the garage, but what I really think was him sulking. And then when he was done with that, things were just never really the same. He acted like he didn't want much to do with us at all. He wore his headphones and sat at his computer all day. And when he wore his headphones he was pretty much unreachable. He couldn't hear a thing. So I just mostly left him alone. And that's also when I started noticing how he always makes things about himself. If we said anything about Arizona (and sometimes even if we didn't) he'd tell us how Pennsylvania was better because blah, blah, blah. And he was a know-it-all too. It's fine to know lots of things, as long as you don't be snooty about it. If anyone accomplished something, whatever he accomplished was better.
So yeah, I was ready for him to move out. We haven't heard from him much at all since he moved out. I saw him at Bashas' once, but that's about it. He said he's doing great. I'm glad. But he still pretty much doesn't respond to us at all. He's still my friend on Facebook, but he doesn't reach out to us, and he doesn't seem to want anything to do with us. What really gets me is - you know how Lilly and Os came for his baptism? Well, for some reason I guess he's mad at them too, because he ignores them now too. Such a sad, lonely way to live - snooty and ungrateful. Still, I wish him well, and I don't regret helping him. Hopefully he'll eventually get his act together. Also, no, he's not going to church. He's only gone once that I saw since he moved out. I know he works on Sundays a lot. That worries me. I also know a few of his church friends moved, and he was really sad about that. He probably needs some new friends.
Moving on.
Timmy drew this. He's so clever!
We went to the splash pad for a birthday party for Timmy's friend Charlie. Charlie is the son of a girl who grew up in Globe, so we've known her for a long time. Charlie is just the right brand of crazy to be Timmy's good friend. They're not in the same class this year, which makes me sad, but at least they can see each other at recess. I'm glad we got to go to this party too. It was a nice little party.
I took this picture to post on the ward Relief Society page and see if anyone wanted it. I figured there was someone who could use a free toddler bed, and there was. It was a great little bed, and I bought it used for like $10. I put the mattress from our crib on it because it was nicer, but we don't really need a crib mattress anymore, so we gave that away with the bed.
This was part of our moving people around. Running the cooler and heater in the garage was costing too much. We never did get those doors sealed off. We'd eventually like to do that. We'd fill in one door and make a door and window in the space where the other door is. Anyway, we never found the money to do it. So we eventually just moved everyone back upstairs. We moved Jill back into the little boys' room. She doesn't like sleeping in her own room anyway. 9 times out of 10 she'd curl up on one of her little brothers' beds anyway. She just didn't want to be alone. We moved Benji up to Joshua's room in the winter. It was just too cold for him down there. Hyrum and Michael stuck it out and were a little sad to leave the garage, but Michael missed being upstairs near everyone else. Anyway, so we have the four little ones in one room, three boys in another, and Hyrum by himself in the small bedroom. It's a little more cramped, but I'm happy to have everyone up there again.
I don't remember what they were watching on Papa's phone, but I guess it was amazing. Ha ha!
