This week just flew by.  Monday we swam at Grandma's, Tuesday we swam at Lori's, Wednesday our friends from Victoria came into town (if anyone needs a watercolor painting of their children, Leslie does a beautiful job), Thursday we went to Lagoon-A-Beach, Friday we hung out with friends and tried to blow up our water slide, but I think it's been blown up for the last time.  Hannah and Grant hung out and chatted the entire weekend and Ethan and Blake were also attached at the hip the entire time they were here.  

This is the water color Leslie did of my beautiful children a few years ago.  Love it.

Happy Birthday Troy

Hey, Troy turned 38 on Wednesday.  Still lookn' good!  As a birthday present Hexion decided to bring a lawsuit against Huntsman and Troy got to work until midnight on his happy day.  It worked out and we were able to BBQ and have Ice Cream Sundays (Troy's pick over cake) for his birthday on Thursday.  His parents and little sister were in town and so we had a little Keller reunion that night.

After the zoo

Everyone came over for some pizza last night, Kim and Sheree were in town and joined us for the evening.  We did our best to find some shade in the yard, in a couple more weeks we could use the other side of the back yard -- we're tearing up flower beds and moving trees right now.

So I didn't get any pictures of my own kids, but we got Ruger and Whitney going down our patched up slide.  It took Ruger a few attempts before he couldn't resist the call of the water any longer and had to go down the slide.  It was pretty cute, that grin never left his face.  Also, a big shout out to Grandpa K. for helping me set it up, patch it up a little more, and take it down yesterday.  

Day at the zoo

Yesterday we went to the zoo with Grandpa, Tiffany, Ruger and Sawyer and Brady and Jamie met up with us a little later.  We saw all the animals, rode the brand new Marry go round and watched the Bird Show.  The Bird Show was probably the highlight.  Ethan got to feed a dove and an eagle skipped it's regular performance to attack a peacock.  Lots of entertainment.

Ethan at the Bird Show

Father's Day Weekend

So, Troy's wish for Father's Day was to take his family fishing!  We rented a cabin at the Red Canyon Lodge and went fishing for the weekend.  Well, really Troy and Ethan fished.  We rode bikes to the Flaming Gorge Overlook, the lake was so blue and beautiful and I was so impressed that Ethan made it up and down and over many rocks along the trail.  The kids enjoyed it and kept riding their bikes throughout the day.  At the lodge was a little fishing pond for kids and a lake.   Grant and Ethan both caught a bunch of fish at the little fishing pond, we didn't catch anything in the lake, but we fed the fish some bread and there were some pretty big fish around the dock that surfaced to eat the bread.   Morgan and I rented a paddle boat and took a grand tour of the lake.  We saw a big, beautiful Herin, 2 deer, lots of mommy and baby ducks, a beaver dam and one fish.

That evening Troy went off to fish and I sat on the dock with Ethan for an hour while he practiced he cast.  He didn't catch any fish in the process and may have been a little disappointed in my lack of fishing skills.  In my defense I am really good at untangling flies and line.  Grant and Morgan spent the time riding around all the cabins and the lodge.  We then had a very intense game of Trouble.  Who knew they would get so into a game, they were ruthless, continually sending each other back to home.  Our neighbors, who we had met earlier (because they had two big, golden retrievers and my kids cannot pass a dog with out learning it's name and mauling it), invited us over to make s'mores and they are the ones who told us about feeding the fish off the dock.  

The next morning we got up, had breakfast at the lodge, loaded up the car, left our bikes in the care of our new found friends and headed off to pick up our raft.  We rented a raft so we could float the Green River and Troy could fish.  At the half hour mark Morgan wanted to know how much longer.  At the hour mark an overconfident Carlin needed to rest her arms from rowing, the paddles were a lot heavier than expected.  Also at that point Troy was a little frustrated with continually untangling Grant and Ethan's line and that he hadn't caught a thing yet.  Troy ended up rowing for a bit and Carlin again helping Ethan, who again didn't catch anything with her help.  We stopped for lunch and Troy got some fishing time in, Morgan and mom took a walk along the trail while the boys got some hooks stuck in Grants shirt.  Things don't seem so bad when your surrounding are so beautiful.  The river was so clear and a beautiful shade of green and we were off in a quiet shady spot, we all were rejuvinated.  We went for a bit further and stopped again.  The kids found three long, yellowish-brown snakes slithering through the reeds and grass.  Troy got to fish again and finally caught one.  Then we were done.  Took the boat out, returned it, picked up our bikes and headed home.  Troy and the kids cleaned out the car while I took a nice, hot, clean shower.  What a great Father's Day vacation.  I'm not 100% sure Troy will ever take us fishing with him again, but hopefully it was great for him too.

The next day being Father's Day, I had seemed to have forgotten all about Father's Day until the kids woke me up and reminded me they were singing in church.  So I hopped out of bed and we made Troy his favorite french toast for breakfast.  He opened his lovely shirts, ties and cuff links and then we headed off to church to hear the kids sing their Father's Day songs.  That's always the highlight.  Then we had dinner with the Tingey clan up at Tricia and Justin's home.  It was a lot of fun, the cousins ran around, Kathryn came and played guitar, Tricia and Justin cooked, how can you pass up fun like that?

Look who's back

Morgan just can't get enough of baby Aaron.  She just loves that happy little boy.  Well, she has been in heaven and loved having Alyssa and Whitney here too.  She thinks she is Alyssa's mother and holds her hand and walks her around everywhere.   Today we went swimming at our sweet neighbors, the O'Tooles, who invited the neighbors over to swim today and we took Whitney with us.  She is a little fish and wearing one of Morgan's suits I got them (Morgan and Whitney) mixed up a couple of times.  The kids would have swam longer, but the rain clouds rolled in and it got pretty windy and cold.  We've had a pretty cool, wet spring this year.

LAGOON

We haven't been to Lagoon since we moved to Utah, 4 years ago.  But with lots of cousins and friends coming to visit this summer we decided to invest in some Lagoon passes this summer.  So, Thursday we went with our adorable friends, the Clarks, and got our pictures taken for our Lagoon passes.  Of course we had to stay and ride a few of the rides and Kris Clark, the other mom, took me some crazy spinning rides!  I'm in for it this summer, I like the roller coasters, but I get a little woozy on some of the spinning rides.  I'm going to have to toughen up or I'll be throwing up.  We did have a fun time and Grant, who was at Boys Camp, can't wait to go on Wicked again.

1K Run

The last Saturday in May our Elder's Quorum held a 1K Children's Fun Run.  The kids ran from the church to a park where we had breakfast at the end of the race.  Grant was the oldest of all the kids there.  Morgan crossed the finish line in tears saying that it was the hardest thing she has ever done in her life.  And Ethan was the fastest of the Jr. Primary aged kids.  What a party. Best activity.

So this is dinner in Dubai with members of our joint venture project team. Sitting here are several Huntsman folks and a few of our partners from Saudi Arabia. Dinner was well-deserved after two long days trapped in a conference room negotiating painfully technical bank documents. But we got a lot done, and one day there will be a sparkling ethyleneamines plant cranking out additives and curing agents deep in the desert of Saudi Arabia, thanks in part to our efforts.

A nice thing about dining out in the middle east is that the non-drinkers are in the majority--for once. It honestly makes things a good deal more comfortable to chink glasses in a toast with your colleagues when everyone else has sparkling water in their glass too! Maybe Carlin would agree to move the family out there?? Hmm.