Dear Friends and Family,

This week I finally turned my attention to the backyard and got the weeds up. If you hadn't seen our weed garden in one corner it may be hard to believe but we filled the back of our truck with weeds to take to the dump. The good part is that when you're pulling weeds that are waist high you really feel like you're accomplishing something. The bad part is as you struggle to pull the suckers out you are mentally kicking yourself for letting it get that bad. So for a few days our yard is looking pretty nice! I had the truck for a few days this week as we had to have the brakes replaced in the van (very necessary before a downhill trip to CA!) - so figured we might as well put it to use.

This week was a fun week. On Monday was Jeremy's work day at Lagoon. Meredith stayed with Taylor and the rest of us went up to Lagoon for the day. We went swimming in the morning. It was an act of parental love. Our kids didn't seem to care that it was cloudy and the water was only 70 degrees but we sure did! Spencer got brave and did all the tall water slides with me and ended up loving them. The girls were happy to stay on the swings. We really had a split of ages on this trip. Allison didn't want to try any of the bigger rides but was very happy to help out Robyn do all the little kid stuff. Spencer after trying out the little kiddie pirate ship ride went on to drag Jeremy onto the adult pirate ship ride. Afterwards they sat green-faced on a bench for a while. Jeremy decided to stick with the girls after that and Spencer went on some of the roller coaster rides with me. There was one that said you "might" get wet. There was no might about it - although Spencer got splashed, I got drenched. It was almost 1000 degrees by then so soggy wet clothes felt pretty good. There was one ride called the bat that Spencer loved and convinced me to go on three times with him. The next day I couldn't turn my head to the right and I was quickly able to realize why - it was all the head banging back and forth.

Tuesday two of my roommates from college Jen and Emily along with their kids came to visit. It was wonderful to sit and visit and catch up. Emily's kids and mine are all exactly the sames ages and gender so our kids had a great time. It was a day for catching up as that night we left the kids with Meredith and took Lauri up to Bountiful for Jeremy's cousin's step-sons wedding reception. We haven't seen them for a few years and Jeremy and Lauri enjoyed reminiscing. Jeremy got invited to plan a trip to Sturgis next year so he is going to see if he can work it out.

Thursdays we have been doing a field tip each week. Since nothing else was happening that day we went on one of our bigger outings to the dinosaur museum. Kids loved it. Taylor walked for 2 hours willingly (not always the case), Robyn wanted to keep digging for bones and we found a prehistoric fish named a Robin fish which we all thought was cool. It was a fun afternoon and air-conditioned! With temperatures ranging from 100 to 105 this week air conditioning has been very important!

On Friday night we had a neat opportunity. We had a date scheduled and then on Thursday Donny Osmond's drummer asked Jeremy if he could bring a disk of pictures up to him in SLC. He got tickets for the two of us to go to the pioneer concert at the conference center with the Osmonds performing with the Tabernacle Choir. Seeing the Choir sing "she's a little bit county, he's a little bit rock and roll" was unique as was seeing President Monson with strobe lights flashing in front of him as the Osmonds sang. It was a lot of fun to go to.

Taylor has been doing good. He went to summer school for the first part of this week and now he is out for the summer. His seizures seem to be a bit harder than usual lately. So in August we are going back up to Primary's to check out his VNS and discuss some med changes. Over all though he is still in a really good place.

Spencer is starting to have some struggles. Most of the time he is good but then a change or some event will set him off for a few minutes where he reacts wrongly - out of proportion anger, fear, etc. A small taste of what it was like last summer. We had run out of fish oil so we got some more and started that back up to see if it helps. So he goes in after vacation as well to discuss changing around his meds. Its not bad yet but we want to not let it ever get that bad again. If you stop him, a minute later he knows that he reacted wrongly. We're trying to teach him to stop and think before he reacts - hard to do. He is really excited to fly on a plane by himself tomorrow to visit the grandparents. On Friday the kids and I went to the mall to find shirts for the boys for the family picture. Spencer found what he assures me is the coolest shirt and wanted Taylor to match him. On Saturday we convinced him to get his hair cut. The hair stylist knew all the code words "if we add some layers on top, it will look even more shaggy". He thinks Grandma won't recognize him now that you can see his eyebrows! Today he is very worried that he looks dumb with shorter hair but I think Jeremy convinced him that yes he does look a lot better. It amazes me how much appearance means to Spencer and Allison when things like showing your underwear or having a dirty face means nothing.

Allison has really taken off reading lately. I'll often find her curled up with a book especially a comic book. She gave a talk today in Primary that Jeremy helped her with. If she is not nervous she can read the whole thing by herself. She is still very easily moved to tears/whine. Not sure how often she is actually hurt and how often that is just her pre-programed response now. She has been trying to convince Rocky to sleep with her at night which he is happy to do but Robyn freaks out. Every night finds Allison at our bedside around 2 am with a bloody nose or a nightmare and needing to sleep in our chair. A habit we need to break. I find little snippets of bloody tissues everywhere lately.

Robyn has picked up the tissue thing by shoving pieces up her nose. And then she comes to find me asking me to use the tweezers to get the pieces out that get stuck. Spencer went through that phase as well. Hope it passes soon. Robyn has learned the "royal we" i.e. "don't touch the Bobyn, (she can't say her r's), give Bobyn a snack please, Bobyn not go night night". She is still very opinionated. I tried to show her two dresses for church today, of course she asks for the pink one that she has worn for several weeks now "its in the closet mom, go get it please". Robyn talks almost constantly lately. We tried watching Nancy Drew as a family last night. Jeremy hates people talking during the movie. Robyn is there as some form of punishment for him as she only stops talking if there is an action scene. Her other habit lately is to say "what?" whenever you tell her something. I won't post pictures of her dancing this week as that is what she spends most of her day doing - always in some form of tutu and high heeled princess shoes.

Jeremy and I keep going amidst the chaos of our usual life. Jeremy got some dumbbells for downstairs so we should all be buff soon. I have been shredding and freezing zucchini a ton. We picked Spencer's cabbage that he was so proud of this week and everyone discovered that coleslaw is not their favorite! Allison picked all our peas so the girls have been busy getting all the little peas out to eat. Jeremy took a bunch of family pictures for some friends yesterday. He has been getting some flash equipment that has made a big difference in the quality of picture.

I am very excited to see my family this week. I went yesterday to get everyone their own shovel and bucket for the beach (thought that might be a good idea to prevent disagreements) and Target was all out. They said all their summer stuff was over. I had to laugh when its a 100 degrees outside! Love to all, Heather