Boxelder Bug Days 2024

Elena's year of being Boxelder Bug Day royalty went by faster than we expected. She had a blast going to all the parades and events, but she says she's looking forward to not having to wear the crown anymore!

One of the funniest things was at the Parade, when the Captain Jack Sparrow impersonator came by. Every year he comes and he typically makes some joke asking for rum. Seth was ready for him this year and had a couple of mini bottles of rum to give him. "Captain Jack" got a huge kick out of this - he said in 20 years that has never happened and it really meant a lot to have someone go that extra mile to interact with him. He stayed by our group for quite awhile interacting with Elena, the kids and Seth. After the parade, we met up again downtown where he got a few more pictures with Elena. 

     

Captain Jack wearing Elena's crown

Old and new royalty together

With Father Tanner!

Joining the marching band for a bit

Milestones (and a few quotes)

This summer has been full of milestones for Olivia - most notably that she learned both how to swim and ride bike. Once she started to get the hang of both, she insisted on practicing with every spare moment she had until she had mastered each task. By the time the pool closed, she could go off the diving board without a life jacket and get back to the edge, and she goes on bike rides daily. Every time, she proudly yells "I'm riding without training wheels!" to any pedestrian within a 100 foot radius of her wherever we go. I didn't take much for pictures of her biking or swimming, but here are a few pictures from the fair. 

And now for the quotes!

We were recently visiting friends on a cattle farm, and Olivia wanted to go see the cows. Seth took her to show her, and she had lots of questions. She started asking why they had so many cows and what they were for. He explained that they would become things like hamburger and steak. She was a little taken aback and said, "They're going to kill them??? That's rude!!"

Last week, the boys watched a TV show in which someone was hypnotized. The next morning, Frank came downstairs to breakfast and said, "Mom, I think Charlie tried hypnotizing me in my sleep last night because this morning he clapped twice and said, 'Who are you?' And then I just didn't say anything." A minute later, Charlie came down, clapped twice at Frank and again asked him who he was. "Charlie, did you try to hypnotize Frank?" I asked. Charlie responded in mock surprise, "Whaaaaaat? I would never try to turn Frank into Luke Skywalker?" He followed this by quickly clapping once again, asking Frank who he was, and then quietly muttering "Dang it!" to himself. 

Olivia put on her cowgirl boots to wear to daycare the other day. Seth put on his sandals and they were ready to go. As they were leaving, Seth said, "Let's go, cowgirl!" To which Olivia replied, "Ok, sandals!"