Katie's Bedroom Painting Project

Moving into the new house has been a lot of work. With all the activities the kids have, my job, and just trying to keep up with the mountains of laundry, house cleaning and just the day-to-day things---well, we're staying ahead, but just barely!
It's been an adjustment for all of us. In an effort to get settled in we decided to paint Katie's room. Well, really we decided to let Vicki paint Katie's room! After much thought on the design and color we decided on something blue with some stripes. So, we went from a totally white room, to a partially blue room...













...and finally to the finished project--



It looks beautiful and the stripes add a touch of texture and class. Now Grandma can start in with the decorating, curtains and those little finishing touches that will make it all Katie.
Next on the agenda --Zhi Wei's room...
(maybe we'll let Vicki rest for a week or two before we start that project!!)

Deep Thoughts from Zhi

I talked Sunday in sacrament meeting. It was scary at first, but then it wasn't so scary after all. It was on friendship in the priesthood quorum. After I was done it felt so good. All the people told me that I did a good job.
I am doing a science project on the spectrum of light. I have a prism but can't really figure out how to meke it work right. I'd better get going on it because it is due on October 10th.

Sunday Drive

Sunday evening we took a ride up Big Cottonwood Canyon just to see the beautiful scenery. The plan was to walk around the boardwalk at Silver Lake, but it was much chillier than we expected so we posed for a picture with the mountains of Brighton Ski resort behind us and headed back home. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place surrounded by the gorgeous Wasatch mountains.

Another Golf Day

Another happy day on the golf course. This time we went to Fore Lakes and tried our our luck on the executive 9 side of the course. There were moments of greatness and defeat, but we had a good time.

















This little pink ball, one of Katie's favorites (can you guess why??) took a dive in the water hazard on hole #4. After that she pulled out her Utah ball and after taking dead aim on the"U" she was able to smack the ball really hard and had some good shots. Seems like she just needed a target to take out some frustrations.

















Katie's favorite part of golf is the cart...not riding in it DRIVING it! She has had only a couple of close calls, and one slight bump with a trash can, but she is getting to be a responsible driver. Watch out when she get on the real streets in 5 years!!

















After a few good shots, some not so good shots and bets won and lost on boths sides, we declared it a good day on the golf course and went home to make "chubba burgers" for dinner.

THE SHOT OF THE DAY!!!

The worst game ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, that's what we thought. This is Katie, btw. Vicki and I went golfing at Mountain View Golf Course in West Jordan a couple of weeks ago. For some reason we were both playing terrible. We decided the golf course was against us, so after about 4 holes we started playing a scramble. For those of you who don't know what a scramble is, that's when we both would hit out ball and then who ever had the best shot the other person would pick up their ball and play from that spot. So we had more fun that way because we didn't care about our scores anymore.
This picture is my tee shot on hole #8--a par 3. If you look carefully you can see the ball in the air right above the bridge. It was a great shot and even went on the green...well a little bit over the green, but it was still good. I even parred the hole.
We had a guy take our picture when we were done as our golf memory for that day.

THE BIG MOVE --July 11-12, 2008

Me and the pups as we pulled up to the new house for the first time as the new owners!

The puppies were excited to have a new deck and backyard to play in...and to escape from!

The POD arrived with all of our belongings in it. The POD-ZILLA got it off the truck and settled onto our driveway for unloading.

Our new kitchen!

The big day finally arrived and we were able to move into our new home.
The dogs, the POD and I arrived on Friday afternoon ready to move all of our belongings into our new home in Murray. The kitchen, which was so empty on Friday became "Moving Box Central" on Saturday morning.

We had lots of help from Mama, Papa Dean, Jessica, Karen & Randy, and Michael & Melanie. Vicki and the kids were a big help, too.

Jessie and the kids found the perfect climbing tree in the backyard and couldn't help but take a break for a photo op!

How many people does it take to make a queensized bed???

After a long exhausting day of hauling our stuff in the house we took a break to rest and get something to eat.


Saturday evening the kids couldn't wait to go out exploring the neighborhood, scouting for new friends. They hopped on their bikes (something they couldn't do at our old house) and rode around the block a few times. We found out the Mayor of Murray lives a few houses away from us and Katie and Zhi went right up to his door and introduced themselves to him. They reported that he was really nice and welcomed them to the neighborhood. They also both found some new friends that are in our new ward so they were excited to get up and go to church on Sunday.
We still have a long way to go to get settled in, but we've had several new neighbors drop by (with treats!) to welcome us into the neighborhood.
Zhi Wei will be going to scout camp in a couple of weeks with the ward, and Katie is already getting invited to Activity Days and to play with her new friends, as well.
We feel really blessed and happy to be here in this new area. We hope you will all come visit us often!!!

Happy 4th of July!!

A bunch of Muscle-Bound Hotties!

Here we are with our cousins enjoying the 4th in style--in the creek!

We spent the evening of the 3rd with our friends, Gay and Stan Jones, having a BBQ, setting off fireworks in the street and then climbing up the backyard to the golf course to watch the North Salt Lake fireworks show. Needless to say, we had a late night not getting home until 11 PM so we had a kick back morning today. I let the kids sleep in, then we went over to Vicki's pool to cool off before heading down to Vivian Park with Uncle Randy and Aunt Karen and their kids. It was a hot muggy day but we had a great time dipping our feet in the ice cold creek. Jackson told me, "The water is as cold as snow!" Boy was he right, but it felt good on our tootsies. We've got the countdown clock going on our new house in Murray. We close on Monday and will be able start moving in on Friday afternoon. Although we've all had a great time at Vicki's condo we're anxious to get into our own space and get settled into our own little routine. I'm mostly looking forward to the 2 mile commute to work! We're grateful for our blessing of living in a free country.

Here we are taking a dip in the pool at Vicki's condo.