Midsommar and Birthday Bash

Note: Midsommar pictures to come later.

Hello, blog followers. Thanks to things finally slowing down at work over the last few weeks, I (Jake) am able to contribute to our blog. Hopefully it's captivating enough.

Last Saturday Faith and I went to the annual Midsommar celebration with the Petersons. More information can be found by following the link, but if I understand it correctly, it is an annual shindig celebrated in Sweden (where Faith's dad and brother Tyler served missions) that welcomes the summer soltice. Essentially, a maypole is constructed and is decorated with random greenery. It is hammered into the ground and people gather around the maypole and dance around it, singing traditional Swedish tunes and generally having a good time.

From an outsider looking in, it looks like some kind of freaky cult ritual, but that's exactly what it is not.

After dancing around the maypole, we ate delicious Swedish open-faced sandwiches prepared by Ann and Tyler, as well as some Swedish meatballs and various salads. Amazing. We also had some delightful chocolate-dipped marshmallows for desert before we had to jet and go to the Empress for that evening's performance of The Sound of Music. It was attended by a good chunk of Faith's family, and my grandparents, who were visiting from St. George. (Review, by the way, can be found here.)

Then! Last night (Tuesday) the Clark side of the family went up to Ogden to visit with the Logan Clarks and celebrate a few birthdays (Travis, Brad, and Grandpa Lightner). A good time was had by all. We ate at the always-delicious Golden Corral. After stuffing ourselves silly, a balloon animal maker guy came up to our table and made some delightful balloon hats for the birthday folk, as well as a balloon flower for newborn Aveline. He was a hoot. Faith was dying from laughter due to some stylized wordplay from the gentleman making the balloon creations. On that note...happy birthday to Travis, Brad and Grandpa Lightner!

Great-Grandpa Lightner with Baby Aveline

Grandpa Lightner sporting his balloon hat
Travis, with his stylish balloon hat, and Baby Aveline

That's it for now! Until next time...

Penny and catnip

We finally got Penny something she could scratch on (we have no carpet in our house, so she's been concentrating on our furniture...) This cardboard scratcher thing came with a little packet of catnip to put on it. It's fun having a cat that actually cares about catnip for once.

Recitals, birthdays, and plays

It's been a busy couple of weeks!! First, here's an adorable picture of Jake holding his month-old niece Aveline:

Now, on with the updates. On June 4th, we got to go to Emma and Abbie's piano recital, where they both did a wonderful job (it sort of made me miss my piano recitals, but not enough to want to do them all over again).


That same day we got to go to Jade's second birthday party! She's getting so big, and far more advanced in her methods of transportation than the army-crawling stage that Jake knew her in. The birthday party was so cute, what with the farm theme and everything. It may be a tad early to say, but I doubt I'll have the ambition to make my kids' parties as themed as my nieces' and nephews' parties always are.

Jade playing with our ever so expensive birthday present. :)

Garret held the frosting-covered end of the "2" candle from her cake. How was she to know that she wasn't supposed to eat it!! Looks like a music note from this angle...

Adorable baby goat

Ridiculously pregnant goat

On the 9th, Jake and I got to see Abbie play the Scarecrow in the school's 2nd grade production of "The Wizard of Oz." It was so fun! I miss doing plays in elementary school. I think that was when it was the most fun. Something about lower expectations and simpler staging than when you're an adult. :)

"The Sound of Music" at the Empress opened last Friday. We have about another dozen performances to look forward to. It's a fun play, but it is exhausting!! We hope to have some pictures for you sometime soon. The Clarks and most of the Petersons have already gotten to see it. Even the Logan Clarks got to see it on Saturday!! We got family pictures taken on the 11th with the Clarks, and got to spend a bit of the evening, including a dinner at the Arctic Circle, with them before heading to the theater. It's too bad they live ever so far away!!

Our cat has been caterwauling up a storm for the past few days, so we think we'll have some pictures of kittens to post really soon!! At least we hope so... I don't know how many more nights of stuffing tissues into his ears Jake can stand, and it gets a little awkward when she's crying in our echoey house while I'm on the phone with a possible partner. On verra bien!!