Goodbye Party

Tara and the kids just finished their 3 month visit to Utah, to allow me extra time in Arizona to work on my dissertation.  I came to visit after my conference in DC and we had a short little going away party to celebrate their time there.  The kids loved playing London Bridges Falling Down.

Aria had a fun time playing with a little girl named Phoebe who lives in the apartment downstairs while she was in Utah.  Tara parents picked up some party horns for the celebration, and the kids thought they were great.  Zade couldn't remember what they were called, and was trying to get Aria to hand one to him.  Here's what ensued:

D-ham reunion

Tara, Jerry and the kids went on a hike in the Utah mountains, and finished off with an alpine slide.  

A few days later, Dane flew in after a conference in Washington D.C. for the D-ham family reunion . The whole herd went to the church camp in Heber and camped out.  

The kids got to make lots of arts and crafts.

And the adults got to do some high adventure.  Here's Dane climbing up a pole to get to a tightrope roughly 25-30 feet in the air, which he had to walk across, with a few dangling ropes to help provide balance along the way.  The reward at the end of the tightrope was a zip line.  They also had a giant swing at another camp spot that we got to try out.

Zade's Library find

I took Aria and Zade to the library last week.  As soon as we walked in, Zade saw a book with a bright green cover on one of the display cases.  It was titled, Blaming Islam. Zade immediately picked it up and began to carry it around the library with him.  About 45 minuted later, I checked out all of our 30 books and DVDs that we somehow managed to accumulate and began to leave the library, when the library door monitors began beeping.  I looked down and realized that Zade was still holding that Islam book.  I pried it from his hands and handed it back to the librarian because I had already reached my quota for checking out books, and besides I didn't think that  Zade really needed a book titled Blaming Islam.  He began screaming!  He wanted that book!  I hoped that I could calm him down, but I couldn't.  Finally, I just picked up my balling Zade, and my 30 books, while trying to usher my 4 year old, from the library to the car.  After holding Zade for about 15 minutes once we reached home, with him heaving on my chest, he finally calmed down.  Well, yesterday we went to the library again.  There was that Islam book on the display case!  Zade saw it and recognized it immediately.  He grabbed the book and began to carry it around the library.  This time I made sure that I checked it out for him.  He's been carrying it around every where he goes, ever since.