Summer Solstice Edition

I haven't done a regular blog update in 2 weeks, so double the fun today! We've been keeping busy this summer with park days (A group of women from our ward meets once a week and we also do once a week with my good friend Andrya & her kids) So far this summer we've been to 4 or 5 different parks. We spent a day at Liberty Park playing in the fountains and water playground, I took some pictures but haven't developed them, so I'll have to post them later. We're also averaging twice a week at the library, and I am enjoying having the library close enough (and kids old enough) that they can walk over there on their own.
Brynn was invited to her first friend birthday party yesterday, and she was thrilled! It was a backyard play in the water party for not one, but TWO of her preschool friends.
Father's Day was a nice, relaxing day for Darrin. Callie made him a nice plaque:

And I made him some shrimp egg rolls and fried rice for dinner.
Darrin & I went out to see the space shuttle & international space station when they flew overhead a few nights ago. It was the day after the shuttle "un-docked" so they were 2 separate points moving across the sky in the same orbit. How amazing to think that there were people out there! It's truly amazing what the space programs have done.
Our ward party (the one rescheduled from a couple weeks ago) was a fun thing, too. Kyra and the other YW did face painting, and all three of my girls got it done. Unfortunately, I somehow missed getting a picture of Callie! She looked really cute with her face painted like a little kitten. Here are Kyra & Brynn:


I did get a picture of Callie with her BFF (That's Best Friend Forever) Andrian, who moved away last fall but came back for this party!

We've also tried a new thing for us: geocaching! If you're not familiar with it, geocaching is an activity where someone hides a "cache" or small box of some sort in a public place, and then posts the GPS coordinates on the internet (www.geocaching.com is the biggest site that does this). Then people like us use our GPS devices to try and find them. Each cache has a logbook that you sign and some will have trinkets you can trade. Darrin & I went out Friday evening and looked for 3 - found 2. Saturday we took the girls out and let Kyra & Callie find the 2 we found, plus we tried (and failed) to find a third. It was really fun and we will probably do it again. It was a nice way to actually USE the GPS thingie Darrin bought 3 years ago and never had any use for.
Tonight Marti called and said that there was a robin's nest outside her window and the babies had just hatched. So we piled in the van and drove over. We had a really nice view of three baby robins opening their mouths wide to the sky as their mom & dad fed them worms. We watched, captivated, for over an hour! I tried to take pictures with the digital camera, but they didn't come out very well and I accidentally left the camera there (with our geocaching pictures on it, too!) so no pictures either way.
Finally, I am really wondering if anyone actually reads this blog. I hope I'm not just speaking to an empty room. So if you're reading this, let me know so I can decide if it is worth continuing this whole thing.