Stimulating the Economy

(Eric picked the title for this post)
I think buying the car right now was taking advantage of the economy, but it worked to our advantage and that is what you have to do.
Eric is a deal shopper and we can't buy anything unless he thinks it is the best deal he can find. He has been shopping around for awhile and we went into the dealership so I could just look at the car and test drive it, but you know car salesmen, they are a little pushy. So we went inside with them and talked and talked and talked. Eric finally told them a really really low offer that I thought they were going to laugh at. Instead they decided to take it. We now have a new 2008 Nissan Armada. It is taking a little getting used to driving a bigger car and it barely fits into our garage, but we made it fit. Eric is paranoid about keeping it clean, so i have to make sure the kids don't make a mess, but overall it is very nice.

Garden

I keep meaning to post these pictures. I love the summer when the flowers are in bloom, but I hate the weeds. Usually I do good on picking them weekly, but it seems this year they have gotten out of control. Oh well, the flowers make up for it.



Our garden is growing by leaps and bounds. We have enjoyed beans, zucchini, crook neck squash, and raspberries. Eric can't wait for the tomatoes.

My roses are a little small because I transplanted them from the front to the side and it took them awhile. Eric thought I was killing them, but they have all bounced back and most of them have started to bloom. I love roses!!

Dave and Doris

We keep having parties at our house this summer. I love having family parties, and hope that the clean up before and after are not too bad.
Last night we were able to get together with Eric's Aunt and Uncle that live in California (his dad's brother). They came to Park City with some friends and we got Eric's whole family together so we had about 25 people at our house. Luckily the weather stayed nice and we were able to eat outside on picnic tables in our yard. We love salmon at our house and when we have parties in the summer we get the fresh sockeye salmon from Costco and cook it up. It is soooo good.
We had a great time catching up with the family and the kids had a fun time together. Eric's uncle reminds me so much of Eric's dad and it fun to remember his dad and how much he made us laugh.

Happy Birthday Bryson

I can't believe my little boy is 5 years old. He is growing up so fast.
Even though today is really Bryson's birthday we always seem to celebrate his birthday a day early and he doesn't seem to mind. Because Utah celebrates the 24th of July and Eric has the day off we celebrate Bryson's birthday when we can get the most people, which is usually a day early. Yesterday we had a fun day. We were able to borrow our neighbors boat and go tubing, wake boarding, and have a day on the lake.

Carley got in the tube for the first time and had a lot of fun. She also fell asleep in Grandma's arms because she didn't have a nap before we left.

We also were able to get Grandma on the tube and Eric pulled them around for a little fun.



Eric taught me how to drive the boat so that he could play on the wakeboard.
After some fun in the sun we came home and had dinner, opened presents, had dessert, and watched fireworks. Bryson has fun thinking that the fireworks are for his birthday.


We must have tired the kids out because it is 9:30 and both of my kids are still sleeping and they normally wake up around 6:30-7:00

Goodbye, Farewell

After 8 good years of reliability we have sold my car. I bought it used in 2000, right after my freshman year in college. My brother and I shared the car at BYU that year. I then was married the next summer. It has served me well and I have many fond memories in the car. It did great in the snow and up in the mountains. Eric took very good care of it. He made sure everything was always working and I always felt good driving it. It was still working good, but we have decided to get something bigger that can hold more people. Especially now when not many people are buying big SUV's hopefully we can find a good deal. Luckily Eric's mom has an extra car that I am using until Eric finds a good deal.

Camping

We had a fun time this past weekend when we went camping with Eric's Mom, Sarah, Bryan, (eric's sister and brother-in-law), and Lauren and Braden (Eric's brother's kids). We got off to a rocky start when the engine in Ann's truck overheated and Eric had to coast back down into Heber to get it fixed. But before he did this he took a load of kids and supplies up to the campsite. So I was left at the campsite with three kids for 6 hours. Good thing I know how to set up a tent and start a fire. I was so proud of myself when I started the fire with 1 match.

Everybody else showed up around 8:00 and we finally were able to set up camp.
Saturday we went canoeing and tried to fish, but we didn't catch anything.

We then went hiking up to Current Creek peak. Only Eric, Sarah, Bryan, and Carley made it to the top, (Carley hitched a ride up and down) but we all had a fun time.



Bryson and Braden loved playing in the dirt and playing with the wood. (Such boys)

Lauren and Carley loved to pick and smell the wild flowers (All girls)

We all had a fun time around the campfire with yummy food in the dutchoven.

Eric and Bryan had fun shooting Eric's guns and the boys loved picking up the shells


Carley loved camping


lauren and Braden

Would it be camping if my kids were clean and thier hair was perfect?

Or what fun would it be if you came home and you didn't have to do laundry for the next three days to get rid of the fire smell in the clothes.
WE LOVE CAMPING!!!!!

Boating

On Saturday we went boating with our neighbors boat. We had so much fun. Bryson wanted to go on the tube so Eric went slow at first, but he was having so much fun that he went faster. Bryson loved it!! The tube is a four person tube, so it is really hard to make it flip, so Bryson never got in the water, but he loved the ride.


Also I was able to try wakeboarding again and I finally got up. I tried about 10 years ago and couldn't get up and then I never got the chance again until last year, but I couldn't get up. When I tried on Saturday I finally got up. I was excited!!

4th of July

We had a great weekend. On the 4th of July we had about 25 people over to our house for a bbq. Some friends of Eric's family that live in California were driving through with their motorhome and stopped and spent the night. It was great to see them. Because they came over we then invited the whole Anderson clan. This included Eric's brother Scott and his family who just moved to Utah from Michigan a week ago. It is great to have them close and let the cousins play together.

We ate dinner, played outside, and Grandma decided she would jump on the trampoline with the kids.
Good thing she didn't break it!! We then had cake and ice cream because it was Bryan's birthday and then did fireworks in front of our house. Midway then does fireworks off of Memorial Hill so we went and watched those. Both Bryson and Carley love the fireworks and have so much fun watching them.



Also Sarah, Eric's sister, announced that she is pregnant and due march 9