Fun things.

Prepare yourselves for a long post with lots of pictures. It's been a busy month at the Archibald residence.

On May 31st we celebrated Carter's birthday. Actually, on May 30th he had his friend party and on May 31st we had family dinner and gifts, so really it was Carter's birthday weekend. So spoiled.

The friend party went well. Only two friends out of the five showed up, and they were both girls. Did Carter care? Not a bit. Pizza, ice cream, cake, toys, presents, a water fight, and a pinata. Not bad for two hours on a Saturday.




Sunday we had spaghetti with all the fixins, more cake, more ice cream, and Carter-man got to open all his gifts from us: "Cars" games, model cars, a Nerf football, and various other little stuff. Grandma also got him an easel with markers, chalk, and paper. So far, the easel is the best gift EVER.

This last week has been crammed with summer goodness. On Wednesday, my sister-in-law Angela and her two kids Will and Chelsea picked us up and we all headed to Bear Lake to stay for a day in a condo my in-laws had reserved. It was a welcome break, and though Garden City, UT will not be deemed a metropolis anytime soon, it had all we needed: sun, water, food, and a place to sleep. We had a great time. Even Carter, my sometimes-over-cautious kiddo, looked up at me while we were playing at the beach and said, "Mom, I love Bear Lake."







On Friday, after being miserably sick with the worst. cold. ever. for about three days (It started the morning we drove to Bear Lake. Yeah.) I needed to get out of the house. I'd been promising Carter I would take him to the open house at the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple of the LDS church, so I went online, reserved some tickets, and off we went. Carter's first temple experience was at the Draper Temple open house, so he was really excited to go inside the new one. Yes, I know I'm a cheesy Mormon mom when I say I am so glad that my son loves to be in the temple.

Afterward, we took some pictures. Carter was happy to sit for them.




As long as he got to do what he really wanted to do in the first place, which was play in the fountain.

And yes, Moroni really did get struck by lightning.


Last but not least, on Saturday we connected with our inner rednecks by attending the demolition derby at the West Jordan Western Stampede. We went with Randy's twin Dave, his wife Alicia, and their boys Aiden and Evan.

As you are probably aware, Randy is obsessed with cars and he has passed on this obsession to our son. When Randy cut the ad for the derby out of the paper and showed it to Carter a few days ago, Carter was so excited he could barely stand it. He carried the ad around with him, ate breakfast with it every morning, and had every detail of it memorized by the time Saturday rolled around. He even had a running countdown, and informed everyone he met that he was "going to the demolition derby in __ days." And yet, despite all his excitement and macho toughness, the little boy in him came out in the end and he watched the entire derby like this:

I know he's my kid, but I swear he's the cutest kid this side of the Mississippi.