The Belated Party

We were going to go to WA for Esther's birthday (the actual one) but we ended up not being able to come at that time and the poor little thing's birthday passed without a birthday cake SO when we went up this week we had a belated party for the Esther-loo- with a long-anticipated LADYBUG CAKE. Ok, so the cake is pretty much the center of the party. Here are pictures of its production and being devoured!Esther getting a taste of frosting

Grandma frosting the cake- hurry up!
Ah, the finished product!
Eve helps Esther blow out the candles- yes, I know there are only two- but it's more of a design element than an indication of accumulate years!
Lighting the candles.
Waiting so very patiently
Eve is ready
The cake in its natural element
I think Esther looks more delicious than the cake!

Three Years of Esther-Loo-Who!

Esther looking at an ant.

Esther at the 4th of July parade





Ok, so I've been a little on the belated posting side lately. . . . So I thought to myself, "Hey, it's been two months, let's celebrate!"

Three years (and some change) ago, a tiny person came into this world. Nobody knew if the baby was going to be pink or blue- but the parents were ready for all contingencies. If the person was a girl her name would be Esther- a boy would be called Shaddrach. Luckily, Heavenly Father didn't want to curse a manchild with such a name so he blessed us with our tiny Esther.

She was born with a TON of hair which her mother enjoyed styling in various creative ways- which led to her being called Esther-Loo-Who. (Well, the stripey outfits helped with her Who-ification as well.)

Esther Loo was such a happy little baby- always smiling. . . and drooling. hee hee
She is still quite the happy little camper- very enthusiastic and with a great sense of humor! Our faithful readers my have noticed references to "monkies" on this blog- but if you know Esther you know that I do not say it wrongly. Esther is a climber, and explorer. She has a great sense of curiosity coupled with great intelligence- a very dangerous combination! You can't hide anything from her and I am constantly answering her questions. She learned to walk and speak with lightening speed- trying to keep up with her big brother and sister. Ah, there's just so much about Esther that is wonderful. She loves her big siblings and follows them around like a faithful puppy. She loves her parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. . . and, well you get the idea!
I am so thankful to have such a special, precious daughter!
Happy Birthday, Esther-Loo!

Proof that Darbys CAN dance!

Ok, yes, we all know that Emily can dance. That's why I married her. We needed some musical/dancer blood in the family.

Here is proof that I, Patrick, can also dance. I competed in the BYU Summer Dancesport competition on saturday. I danced in Bronze Quickstep & Samba and Silver Waltz and Rhumba. I had three different partners and basically danced for two hours straight.

Rhumba didn't go so well as we didn't make it past the first round. 

Waltz was a horrible mess. Even though I thought that my partner and I were competitive, during the first round we got cut off and ran into so many times that I was sure that we weren't going to be called back. To my surprise, we made it to the semi-finals.

Samba & Quickstep ended up being the best as we placed fifth for Samba and fourth for Quickstep. Yeah for me. Here's the proof.

p.s. Emily's show on Friday was awesome. She finally got the chance to do some solos and she blew everyone away. If you haven't seen her dance yet turn off the computer right now. Go get in your car and drive to UVU. Wait outside the theater until her next show. Yes, I know her next show isn't for several months but you don't want to miss it.

Recipe: Two drops sunshine and a little bit o' rain

Hot summer days made for a little bit of family bonding as our apricot tree and our plum tree both had ripe fruit ready to pick. We decided to try our hand at making some jam. Emily's first batch was combination apricot-plum...and it was so good! But our little apricot tree doesn't pack on the fruit yet but luckily our neighbor's tree was loaded. On our way we decided ask our other neighbor if we could pillage their plum tree. (last year they just let all the fruit fall to the ground.) We got a huge bucket and didn't even make a dent in the amount of plums still hanging.

Then we attacked the apricot tree. The apricots were so ripe that every time I reached for one, two would fall off. Luckily, Isaac had brought the butterfly net so we held the net under and caught the little apricots that were trying to get away.

Isaac was a trooper. He was a willing picker. Esther made a token attempt on the plums but Eve had better things to do.

Emily became the master jam maker. All the jars were beautiful and set quickly. (unlike last year's grape jelly which is still very sweet juice.)

And the masterpiece!

Tall Tales

Patrick says:

Eve can be a little tattle-tale once in a while and she definitely will pass the buck if given the chance. So, tonight when she came to me with a giant bowl filled with graham crackers and corn chips and said that Isaac did it, I was a little suspicious. But I gave her the benefit of the doubt and called Isaac. When he came into the room I asked him if he did it. He immediately looked sheepish and I expected him to pull a politician and deny everything. What I wasn't prepared for was his answer.
"Isaac, did you do this?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied. "It came out of my ear."
I was sure I didn't hear him right.
"What?" I said.
"It came out of my ear."
"Are you telling me that this bowl of chips bigger than your head came out of your ear?"
"Yes." He timidly responded.
I was too boggled at this outlandish tale to even begin to be mad, so I decided to play along. "How did it get there?"
"I was born with it." He said without pausing.
At this point I had to call his bluff, but man, do I really look that stupid?

England Mania

Ok, here we have it, the long-awaited England post! I started out with the definite highlight of my trip- seeing "Wicked" at London's West End. It rocked. I bought a shirt.

Here is me at the Picadilly Circus stop in the underground tube system. It was interesting to see all the stops with the different themed decoration. The ones at this stop were my favorite- huge tile mosaics of hot air balloons.
Here are some of my girls from the team at Hyde Park. It was kind of dark the first time we went there, but really beautiful!

This is my friend Natalie and me on the tube, going I don't-remember-where, most likely Buckingham Palace. . .
This is me outside of Buckingham Palace. The palace itself isn't that impressive. I must be a palace snob now, but really, the palace in Sevilla is WAY cooler-looking than this, so I opted to take a picture by the humongous statues/fountains in front of the palace which were really awesome.

Natalie and me down the street from Buckingham Palace at a plaza with a few war monuments and this awesome arch. . . the name of which I must admit I have forgotten. . .

Well, it was fun, it was awesome, it wasn't long enough, but I am so glad I went! Thanks for all your help!
Oh yes, I have no pictures of the actual competition, let me just say that we won second in our Standart medley and fourth in our Latin medley. It was a great experience and so awesome to see professionals competing and to check out the other formation teams around the world!

Sun, Sand, and Bocce Ball!

What do you get when you get Patrick, Emily, Isaac, Eve, Esther, Mom Darby, Ryan, Sarah, Aaron, Dine, Jenny, Alyson, Joseph, and Kirsten together for a weekend of AWESOMENESS!!!!

---SUNBURNS!!!!

We all got together this past weekend for a family campout in Snow Canyon,  near St. George.

View Larger Map

If anyone wants to camp out in a way more personable location than Zion's National Park, go here and choose campsite 16a.

 

We all drove down on Friday and spent Saturday hiking around. Here's the overview.

Everyone, except for Emily who was suffering from jet lag, climbed all over the big rock you see on the right hand side. It was a lot of fun.






Saturday evening was loafing and bocce ball around the campsite.

 and then the drive home. Esther found her own ways to amuse herself and Eve just adopted the thousand yard stare.