Preston's 9th Birthday

Today was Preston's big day. He turned 9. He specifically asked for an American flag cake. He loves strawberries and blueberries. He did insist on having the cake be chocolate though. It was yummie!

Miscellaneous July activities

I took the 5 oldest kids to Placerville, Idaho, an old gold mine town 20 miles from our home.
In 1863, this town had a population of 5,000 making it the biggest city in the Idaho Territory...today, it has 30 residents.
Melanie and I at the Boise Hawks game for the Fourth of July.
Preston REALLY likes cotton candy.
Natalie and Luke, getting ready to enjoy the fireworks after the game.

A summer day on the Payette River

Me and the Three Amigos before plummeting off the rock.
Joel "Evil Knevil" Flake diving into the Payette River.
Grandpa Flake in his sweet beach attire (long sleeve shirt, slacks, and Derek's airwalk shoes)
Savannah, our dang-dest cutest baby ever.
Is this gal 12 years old, 22 years old, or 32 years old? Kind of looks like Feivel Mouskewitz.

Emery's third Birthday Party

Emery had a great third Birthday party, complete with spaghetti and meatballs, two kinds of salad, homemade bread sticks and two different cakes. We had Grandma and grandpa Flake (even with his poor broken shoulder), Cassidy, Dillon, and the Kramers all in attendance.


Every time I asked Emery what kind of cake he wanted (ie. chocolate, strawberry, vanilla), he would say, "I want a Spiderman Cake" (probably because I'm always letting him check out the cakes in the deli department of Walmart while I get my lunch meat). So, I went online and found a good idea for the cake above. I was pretty fun to make and I used a lot of frosting... so it was a hit with the kids.
Emery could not figure out how to blow out the candles. He tried and tried. We all told him how to do it, but he just couldn't get it. He never opened his mouth enough.
At one point he got one of the three candles out, but it took so long that the other candles caught the third one back on fire and he had to start all over. He never did get it, so we gave Luke the opportunity, but he saw how difficult it had been for Emery, so he said 'no way.' We finally had to have all of Emery's older siblings blow out the three candles for him. Poor guy, maybe he'll figure it out next year.Savannah thought that the cake was delicious!
Jensen had a good time with the cake too, until he started rubbing black frosting all over his face.

A day at the Black Canyon beach

Wesley, always the one to make friends with everyone, borrowed someones wake board and was "surfing" on it.
All of the kids (Grace, Clancy, Tag, Riggin, Hyde, Ammon, Preston, Wesley, Natalie, Emery and Savannah) were busy moving sand, making swimming pools, and castles. No one wanted to leave.
Preston, skinny as ever.
Emery loved the fact that he could eat constantly and play constantly... a great combination.
Savannah just sat and watched us all, until she got tired. Then she took a nap beside Clancy on a blanket in the shade. What a life!

a stop off at the Malad Gorge

On our way back from visiting Stephen and Britney for their baby blessing we stopped to look at the gorge. It was so amazing, and hot.

Cousin time and one wierd kid

We had a lot of cousins here in HSB for about a week, so we did a lot of fun stuff together. We had a fun picnic and then visited the animals at the zoo. It was perfect weather and good times.Then Sarah had a great idea for a bunch of crafts (unfortunatly they were all girly), I loved it! We made bracelets and flower clips.
One night when I went to tuck in the kids I found Emery asleep on the floor. I guess he fell out of bed, but was so tired that he went right on sleeping.