thirty-three

finally.

old enough to wear mom jeans.

i've been waiting my whole life for this.

beach!

spending the day with friends on jetty island.

in summer

seventh heaven

afton is seven today. 

this birthday, i asked summer to say a few words about her best friend sister afton:

"afton is silly and very fashionable and artistic. afton is a very silly sister, and she makes people laugh. She has a stuffy named friendy. also she has a small stuffed bird who is named peepers. afton's favorite show is ever after high. her favorite color is lots of colors. her favorite food is probably mostly noodles. afton likes to camp and also to swim. my favorite thing about afton is that she can cheer me up with her silliness. i can always play with her and have play dates with her every day. she is very cute."

afton is a gift and a treasure to our family. like a little fairy sprite, she brings a bit of magic and sparkle to everything she touches. happiest of birthdays to our precious wafty bay!

red ripe raspberries

this was the first year i attempted our raspberry hunt without bryan (bonus: all four kids in tow). as a result, we took about twice as much time to pick about half as many berries, but we were plum out of jam this year, and raspberry jam is basically its own food group at the wheelers, so a mama's gotta do what a mama's gotta do!

what i want to remember most about this excursion is how dallin screamed and whacked me nearly the entire time because he hates raspberries.

(the real cruelty being that he absolutely *does not* hate raspberries. toddlers, amiright?)

so i plopped him down in the dirt, dug out my phone, turned on ye ol' youtube, and we serenaded the whole working field with an interesting mix of current alt rock faves and beach boys classics (a blessed relief from the aforementioned screaming and whacking).

til next year!

dallin, pictured lower right, not hating raspberries.

denny creek rock slide

per our (apparently) fourth of july weekend tradition, we hit up denny creek rock slide for some fun in the sun this past saturday afternoon. as an added bonus, we were joined this year by the cute gessel family.

le crew:

nature's original slip'n'slide:

and i was just snapping pics, trying to catch a good one of caleb and dallin playing together, when i caught this little stinker on film:

d'oh! mama shoulda seen that one coming. nothing like cold mountain water down your back to make you feel alive, eh, dallin? 

they made up about it later, though:

live free