For those who want to know: update

 Our place in Kaysville is just down the street from Cherry Hill, a water park with a couple of pools, splash pad, water slides and lazy river. Rather than buying a couch for the basement (do the boys really care?) I bought season passes for me and the kids for Cherry Hill. Definitely the right decision. We've had so much fun playing at the pool and Sommer has even learned to swim. I need to get a picture of Massimo's tan lines. He's usually just in his swim diaper and he looks like the Coppertone baby.

And I have to say that people in our neighborhood have been so welcoming and neighborly it has been almost unreal. I didn't know communities like this still existed. Not that the places we've lived before haven't been great, but this neighborhood has been over-the-top, in a great way. We feel really lucky to have found this house to rent.

 I've been to a couple of writing conferences, one in May and one in June. At the June conference, WIFYR, I had the chance to have morning class for a week with Cynthia Leitich Smith. Such a helpful, exhausting and encouraging week for me. I've been working as much as possible on the rewrite of my YA novel. I'm hoping to query agents next month. In May I went to the LDS Storymakers conference and pitched my book to an agent. She requested pages but I haven't sent them to her yet since I've been revising since then. The day before my pitch I went to a critique group session associated with the conference and got a lot of good feedback, but also saw a lot that I needed to change. I told the agent that I'm revising based on the critiques and she told me to take my time. I was hoping to be done with this rewrite sooner but since writing isn't my full-time gig, its taken longer.

 This handsome boy turned 9! His birthday was on Sunday and that made him very sad because he wanted to do some family things around town so we celebrated on Saturday. He scheduled the day out -- first thing he opened his presents then he scheduled playtime knowing that he'd want the time to build his new Lego sets. We miniature golfed at Cherry Hill and ate dinner at Wingers restaurant. It was a fun day celebrating Cannon.

 Just a picture of a baby sitting in the sink. I think we had to wash him off because he was such a mess. He would have played in here for an hour.

 My parents, Lark and her kids came to visit around the 4th. That was great fun. And I'm so glad we had some time together because she's moving to Baltimore in a month.

 This is the basement. Ridge has taken to building forts with the empty boxes that I'm afraid to throw away. I hope we don't have to move again for a long time but what if... The basement is huge and unfurnished. The perfect place for box walls.

And here's Massimo, running down the empty street during a parade. Just because.