Halloween

Amelia is standing next to her pumpkin that she picked out from Grandpa Willford's garden. What a pumpkin. We later did the dinner in a pumpkin and it was of course excellent. Here is a pic of Amelia's preschool. The teachers for the day were dressed as witches of course and made a cauldron of treats for the kids. The kids loved it.

My mother was holding Lauren at Rupp's and it was just so cute so we took a picture.

Here's Amelia with Great Grandma Evans at Rupp's Diner in Blackfoot, Idaho.

For Family Home Evening Amelia gave the lesson and it was on why families are important. So ask Amelia when you get a chance what she thinks about families. She drew a picture and everything. Needless to say it was a very short lesson, but sweet.

Amelia and her cousin Wesley at their Aunt Katie's soccer game, which she won!!!

So here is Amelia with her preschool group at the Swore Family Farm just north of Chubbuck. They did the corn maze and had a blast. The corn maze was an Idaho Agriculture Quiz. If you answered the question right at each intersection then you were led on to the rest of the maze otherwise you were led to a dead end and then had to return to the intersection where you made the wrong choice. Cute.

Here's some pics of just Lauren.

Here's a photo of my Grandpa Archibald and his new bride Sylvia.
Oh and Daisy the dog we picked out from...I think it was Commerce City, Colorado for my Grandparents before Grandma passed away. Daisy is a Pappy-Poo (Pappillon-tea cup poodle mix). The breeder does this on purpose. Apparently there is really quite a community out there of people who like little dogs. Daisy is a character.

Here's another. By the way this is up Buckskin Road in Pocatello.

And these are a few photos of us taking advantage of yesterday since it was such an amazingly beautiful day.

We went to the Idaho State Fair and this is the food competition section...we just thought it was a funny photo of Amelia. Jim and Julie entered a couple of their canned goods in the fair and did quite well. Jim got second place for his pickles. I like their pickles a lot so I think they should have gotten first, but Jim says that the person who got first had put a red chile in with theirs and I guess they did that last year as well and so he's been cheated out of first by a chile.
In China the pickles that we would buy didn't use dill, but they would put a red chile along with a baby carrot in with the pickles. Go figure.

This was taken at someone's house in Inkom, Idaho. Really I don't know whose house this was. The evening started out as an activity that Julie and Jim (Chris' twin brother) had invited us to. Jim is a counselor in the Bishopric of a University singles ward and so they and the Bishop are the only married people there with kids so they asked us to come. Well the activity got moved to another place (this person's house) and they had the coolest horse swing made out of a tire. And the lighting was just right so it was great. Christine (Kent's wife) was the photographer so the picture is much better than my usual fare. Enjoy.

Okay so it has been a bit since we have posted last. What can I say...been a bit busy. Anyway this first picture is of Amelia with her Uncle Kent's race tag that he had for the Hood to Coast relay, which took place near the end of August. His team did pretty good although I can't remmeber what he said their place was...sorry Kent. Well anyway, imaginative Amelia made the most of the tag and her cousin Ian's baby food wrappers.

Our time at Island Park and Yellowstone National Park. We were up there for a week with my family having a blast. These pics are of course in Yellowstone Park. Then Amelia with her cousin Quinn and then one with Quinn and Ian. The picture of the lone falls is the lower falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. And the last picture is of Amelia in her tutu that her Uncle Kent and Aunt Christine gave her. She insists on wearing it nearly everyday since they gave it to her. She is so fun to watch dance around. I am so glad that she gets so much joy out of everything.

I forgot to post this one as well.

Then on August 5th we went down to Salt Lake City to watch the Joseph Smith Restoration movie held at the Joseph Smith Building and then afterwards we went to a reunion for the Beijing Branch at our Branch President's home in Provo. So we had a lot of fun and unfortunately I have no pictures from the reunion, but when we were on Temple Square we played the part of tourists.

Then at the end of July we had the Willford Family Reunion up at a place called Rock Springs Girls Camp. Here is a picture of Amelia and Chris at the "Fishing Game" during the carnival fun time for the little kids. Chris' family was in charge of the reunion for this year and it seemed like the kids had a lot of fun doing the different activities that were planned. And the picture on the far left (l to r) is of Katie, Nick (Amy's husband), Amy and Amelia just sitting outside of our A-frame cabin.

Actually these pictures should have gone before the birthday since they were the weekend before. But anyway it is at a Sod Farm out in a small town called Raft River, which is on the way to Boise. Anyway it was loads of fun. We all went several times down. Amelia had a bit of a love/hate time. She would want to go and then scream the whole way down and then want to go again. And her screaming wasn't the "I love this" kind.

On Pioneer Day they had a festival of sorts at the fairgrounds and here is Amelia at the petting zoo feeding a goat.

Here are some photos of the second birthday party that we had for Amelia. The first one we had with the Archibald clan, but it is on video. So on the Friday before Amelia's real birthday we celebrated at the Willford house along with Ethan Randall (Amelia's cousin), who turned 7!

So now we're back from China and having a good time although there are some things we miss. We found out we are having a Girl and no we don't know what we'll name her yet. But here are the pics.
I'll post more later, but Amelia needs to take a nap so off I go.

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Tiananmen. Amelia is sitting at a lamp post. The monument to the people is the one cut off so I'll re-paste that since it won't let me delete it. And lastly the square shaped building is Mao's mausoleum.

National Day Celebration. Peking opera actors.

trying again

Wow so it has been awhile since we have been able to successfully post pictures with words so here it goes. This photo is of a man hanging out of the window next to our building installing an air conditioner.