Higgfarm

"You don't have very many cousins, do you?" I asked Dylan this morning. So we counted them all up, and he actually has more than me. Those Higginbothams are just a much quieter group than my side of the family. That reunion was a spaz a second, I tell you. But just because they're calmer, doesn't mean we didn't have a great time. The little cousins still did some good spazzing. Nice back bend, Liv!



Hana insisted on playing Bocci Ball, but only made it through 2 throws before she pooped out!

The kids found a huge nest of horned beetles. Eeeeek!

Gage named this one Ringo.

Nash was walking around on the grass when I heard a blood curdling scream. I rushed to save his life, and he pointed to his foot. There was a beetle crawling on his shoe.

It's become a bit of a tradition for our U of U student housing friends to get together around the 4th of July. 11 hungry kids ages 1-7 in a hotel room after long car rides. What fun!

Becca Salisbury and Nash were best friends, even through some mis-communications. The first day, she was positive Nash was a girl. That diaper change sure set her straight. The next day, she woke up and first thing asked her mom if she could go see "that talking baby". The rest of the day she referred to him as "Jojo that talking baby".

Meals were the only quiet time.


Then the pinata broke, and so did the sound barrier.
Thanks Lewis, Salisbury, and Faux families for the outstanding time. I have a surprising lack of pictures, so please send me some.

The annual Tuacahn pilgrimage took us to "Annie" this year. It was okay. In the words of Gage, "I'm getting bored of this. I'm getting bored of not seeing that dog." Sandy was only on stage for about 2 minutes. It was a hard knock.The show was postponed for rain for 20 minutes. We thought, "Oh, good. Rain will cool St. George down a bit." Wrong. Now instead of being hot, we were hot and wet. Good thing it's beautiful enough down there to make up for it.


We got to stay the night at Dylan's cousin's house. They have a gecko.


And this is their back yard. Not too shabby.

My Grandma Jake's 80th birthday was held in Nephi. If any of my relatives have pictures of my kids going down the giant blow-up slide, or of me doing flips off it, please email them to me. Granny G is awesome for renting it, and I looked waaaay better going down than the dude in this stock photo:


Who knew that Nephi had a cool old mill and a memorial rose garden? What a perfectly perfect spot for a Sunday stroll.

If you've never driven the Nebo Loop behind Mt. Nebo, you are missing out. We saw deer, an eagle, all kinds of scurrying things, and two wild turkeys with 7 turklets. Every turn brought new, amazing scenery. It's an hour detour well worth your time.

You know you are truly a grown up when the carnival no longer brings butterflies of excitement, but worms of disgust.

But the kids had a grand time, and so did all the people fortunate enough to witness the overjoyed waves and giggles from Nash as he rode boats, motorcycles, cars, and trains in unending circles. There was, without exaggeration, a 55 minute wait for the ferris wheel. Sheesh. And my favorite -the swings- was broken. Sad. The money for those rides went towards a bag of cotton candy, which shouldn't be as satisfying as it is, knowing you've just paid $3 for about 4 tablespoons of colored sugar. But it's so magically melty!



Liv rode the carousel side saddle, with legs crossed, as a proper lady should.



Gage broke out every death defying stunt he could muster.



Nash was insistent upon riding the chicken.

Gage comes running toward me with the MagnaDoodle, which he drops. “Oh, man, it un-raced,” he says. I correct him. “Don’t you mean erased.” He looks at me quizzically. “No. Because I drawed a horse race.”

He was wearing 9 shirts one day, and when I asked him why, he told me it was his coat of any colors.

Gage is tough enough for ballet. It takes a real man to wear a pink leotard and do tendu's til you're ready to fall over.

I found a BYU student willing to come to my house and teach a few kids ballet once a week for super cheap. Clearly, Liv was thrilled.
She worked hard and took it very seriously. After the lesson, she hugged me, thanked me, and said, "I felt me being a true ballerina," while patting her heart.

Unless you are the one getting revenged.

And not because I need to get Chad for anything, but simply because this is a great photo.

Since Dylan thinks he can humiliate me in front of my billions of fans, I'll just go ahead and post some about our cruise. There are two things you need to know:

#1. It was absolutely awesome.

Okay, so there's only that one thing.

Thar she be, the beautiful Navigator of the Seas, on which we did the following:

Watched Chad annihilate buffalo and other big game. Dylan thought it was hilarious.
I'm even sad about virtual hunting. Those poor digital animals.
Found that I excel at rock climbing.
Choreographed dances for the drunks.

Had a golf-off after Chad and I tied. Who won that, again?

Dylan was too busy falling over with laughter from Amber's mini golf "technique", which was chasing the ball around and whacking at it like a hunk of Chad's trophy buffalo.Ice capade. Dylan is wearing the safety gear for comedy purposes. He's actually quite skilled on the ice. I am wearing the protective gear in order to not die.
Trickery. Our table mate, Dwight, called for a celebration of our new-found friendship. He hailed the waitress, who brought us each a shot glass of some "wicked strong" rum. After thanking him for the gesture, and telling him we didn't drink, he decided he had better drink them all himself. After three shots, I was worried about him. "Should he be drinking this much?" I asked his fiance. She whispered to me that it was only water. Naturally, I picked up my glass, declared "You're only in Jamaica once!" and downed my shot glass.
Dylan's mouth dropped. Amber's eyes grew wide. Chad gasped. I laughed so hard I almost fell into my plate. Dylan grabbed my head and stuttered, "We should get her back to the room!" Amber calculated: "Okay, Leah has never had alcohol, she's 100 lbs. and some change, she's going to get alcohol poisoning and die." They were pretty panicked and it was hilarious.


Off the ship we explored a little of Jamaica, climbing Dunn's Falls, which keeps going and going and going. It was amazing. We rafted the white river, stopping to do flips into the shallow water every now and then. On Grand Cayman Island, we swam with sting rays (which suck on you like you're made of Jell-o), walked the beaches, almost died from INSANE driving, and got nicely burnt.

That's a line from a song I'm writing about Idaho. It will be a huge hit, just wait and see.

We spent a week in Idaho (aka North Utah). First in lovely Pocatello for Dylan's brother's Pharmacy graduation. Really? I don't have any pictures of that?



Next, with our crazy friends Chad and Amber (aka Chamber) in Boise. We watched Twilight, which I don't feel guilty about because we laughed through the whole thing.

Dylan: "I'm immortal, but if you'll excuse me, I'm late for P.E."


Discovery Museum, where we discovered Gage has a special obsession with chocolate syrup. He purchased 21 bottles.


We discover Nash and Liv are both A) adorable and B) adorable.


If you remember watching the movie "Abyss" when you were really young, this bubble thing might make you feel a little on edge when you remember the nightmares you had and might have wet your bed.

What could be better than millions of us?

You can make this robot spell anything! Which is dangerous if you've recently completed a 12 step program to overcome your addiction to Trying To Take Over the World.

Since Liv was nervous and afraid to pull out her extremely loose tooth, we decided to ease her anxiety by tying it to the doorknob and giving a good old fashioned SLAM. The string popped off the tooth and the slam rattled the ceiling fan with its great force. Yup, sufficiently scared Liv to death.

It was difficult to tie the string on the second time, what with all the tears and moanings.

The second tooth came out less that a week later using the same method. It went much more smoothly, thanks in part the the kick butt tooth fairy that visits our house. Liv swallowed the tooth, left a note, and still raked in the loot.

From our house

Utah Lake: 14 minutes west
Provo Canyon: 4 minutes east
Bridal Veil Falls: 9 minutes east
Mount Timpanogos: 20 minutes north
2 Temples: 20 minutes north or south

There's a reason it's called Happy Valley. We discovered another: Noni Gardens*: 3 minutes east.
If you have rocks and you have water, you have a happy Gage. This is the only picture I got of him actually in focus. He burns about 1,200 calories/minute.


The big, open space makes you want to take big, open steps - even if you only have a 6" inseam.


The wading pool is truly magic. It feels "iceberg runoff" cold to adults, but perfectly fine to children.

"Chill out, Mom! For Pete's sakes, it's not like I'm going to fa...WHOA! WHOA!"


"Don't say a word. I am shamed." (In my imagination he has a Spanish accent for that last sentence.)





*Please do not confuse my enthusiasm for the Gardens as any enthusiasm for MLMs, for which I have only disdain.

Today Olivia gave a talk about baptism at church.

She said:

Baptism is like getting a haircut. You start out ugly but then get fresh.

Personally, I don't think Olivia was "ugly" pre or post haircut!

Since Leah refuses to post pics of our kick butt cruise, I will do it.







Since Leah refuses to post pics of our kick butt cruise, I will do it.

Gage has been getting into drawing a lot lately. He really likes to draw faces on balloons. Check out the eye lashes. Also, is that person eating a rock?

Of course, Olivia got in on the action as well. The last time I saw cheeks that rosy was when I lost a slapping contest.