This year for the Fuller Family Reunion we went to Palisade State Park. I didn't know where that was either before we went, but it's just a few miles away from Manti. It's a nice little place with a lake and a golf coarse, and it was a great place for a reunion. It was pretty low key. There wasn't much planned, but we just did our own thing, fished and canoed and swam and visited. It was really nice.

For my birthday we went to the Mormon Miracle Pageant on the temple hill in Manti. (okay, it wasn't really FOR my birthday, but it was on my birthday, so I'm counting it:)

I haven't been since I was a little girl, so it was fun to take my kids and let them experience it. Things have changed a lot since I was little. There are booths and bathrooms and a food court - and a lot of anti mormons which I didn't remember before. In fact, we sat down and had a really good discussion with a few of them while we were eating dinner. It wasn't a bible bash, they were very respectful and so were we, and I don't know how they felt at the end of it, but it strengthened my testimony a lot and made me grateful to have the fullness of the gospel in my life. I was also really proud of Ethan who was able to bare his testimony to some other, more abrasive people, and I was thankful for his courage and conviction:)

There were fires raging all around the area, and while my heart goes out to the people who were effected by the fires, it did make for some stunning sunsets.

I am not a water lover, and while I did go out in the canoes once, and also went swimming, I was grateful to my dad and Sean for taking my kids out on the lake any time they wanted to go.

It was a really great time, and as always I loved getting to visit with my family. Can't wait for next year!

My little man...

At our reunion (which I promise I will write about soon) we have an auction to raise money for the next years reunion. It is one of my favorite things, especially now that we have small kids again. The kids all go wild bidding things like $200. 49 as the parents of those kids frantically try to keep them under control. It is so funny (even though I'm one of those frantic parents now:) Anyway, my aunt is a major Avon rep, and always brings fun grab bags with products in them. Ethan was the lucky guy this year and got a set of "Little Wild Country" grooming supplies complete with bubble bath, shampoo and cologne. As much as I hate to admit it, he's growing up, and the stinky boy stage is just around the corner, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try to get him excited about hygiene in hopes that it will stick when puberty comes around. And so far it's working. We had a good long talk about "a little cologne makes you smell good, and a LOT of cologne makes you smell super bad for miles around" and he seems to get it. But he is very excited to shower now, and he cracks me up every morning when he comes to me and asks "Mom, is it okay if I smell like a MAN today?" He's so funny.
He also has a little crush on the snow shack girl. We aren't really big fans of snow cones really. I think they are too sweet. But Ethan doesn't skip a beat every afternoon during free time to ask if we can go to the snow shack. It puzzled me for a while until one day I finally relented and we all headed down the street for a snow cone. As soon as we got there, we were greeted by a darling little girl who runs the snow shack to earn money for college (really, she's ten, what a go getter, right?) She was in Ethan's class last year, and she was always super sweet to him. As soon as we walked up she said excitedly "Hi Ethan." and giggled and smiled at him. He blushed and responded appropriately. Then he asked how her summer was, and who's class she was going to be in this fall, and she gave him extra juice on his snow cone and let him choose the color of straw. (ps, Adia and I did NOT get the same treatment:) On the way home he kept saying things like, "I think she got taller, don't you?" and "don't you think she's the best snow cone maker EVER?" (though he did dump his snow cone in the sink when we got back home, because as I said before, we don't actually like snow cones...:) I have to tease him just a little bit, because I'm his mom, and also because teasing is the way I show my love, and it's super fun to see him blush and duck his head and smile. Even though it scares the pants off of me, it is kind of fun to see my little guy growing up.

But no matter how old he gets he will always be my baby - and look how excited that makes him...

Lucky Day!

I just wanted to share my exciting news. One lady whom I love is Mrs. R from The R House. Her blog is great and so is she. Every Sunday she features someone who shares how adoption has touched their life, and guess who the lucky one was today?! Me, that's who! I have to tell you that I feel pretty star struck and honored to even be mentioned on her blog - I know, I'm kind of a nerd.:) So click over and read why I love adoption.

(and don't judge me because my son is sassy sometimes, math is hard when you have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and no short term memory:)

Pictures of the 4th

 These aren't exactly what you might be expecting, They aren't pictures of parades or fireworks or flags or any of the things that come to mind when you think of independence day here in the US. These are just cupcakes, but it's the best I can do. Every 4th of July we go to my sister's house in Moab. Her father-in-law built a beautiful fish pond up on the rim above their house. It has thousands of fish, and beautiful rocks and plants all around it. It has a stunning view of the entire valley below, and it is straight across the valley from the rim that they shoot fireworks from, so we have the best view anywhere in town. We take pizza, watermelon, and desserts up with us and watch the fireworks all over town while we wait for the city fireworks to begin. It's one of my favorite things we do all year long. And this year, I made these fabulous cupcakes to take along. And they were beautiful...

... until Ethan had a meltdown and tossed the container that was holding them into the trunk of the car and they all got smushed against each other and created an unappetizing mess. (in his defense he hadn't slept in about 72 hours, holidays are hard for autistic kids, and the entire week before that had been totally out of routine for him as well. He had reached his breaking point on that day) But that's part of life, and they tasted just as good after I scraped the frosting off the lid and put a big dollop back on top of each cupcake. But in my initial grouchiness I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures of our super fun night. Oh, well, there's always next year, right? Happy belated birthday, America!