Happy 25th Birthday Michael!

Happy 4th!!!

We had a wonderful 4th! We spent the night before at my parent's house so we could go to a flag raising that morning at 6:30 in Parker. Now, I know that sounds crazy to get up that early, but it is a tradition that my family has done ever since we moved to Idaho. There is a short program and then we eat breakfast. It was a lot of fun!

(Samantha was tired after a long morning)

(Samantha and Great Grandma Burt)

(Now here's a good lookin' guy!)

(Grandma and Granddad Burt)

(Aunt Susan and Samantha)



Next we went to the parade in Ashton. Ashton is a really small town, so the parade was pretty short. In fact, they turn the parade around and go back the other way so we got to see both sides of all the floats.

Michael had his last assignment as an intern on the 4th. He helped man a booth after the parade. We both got State Farm Baseball shirts and hats (they actually looked like baseballs) to wear while at the parade and for the booth. I felt a little funny that we matched, but that's okay.

After all the festivities in Ashton we had a barbecue out at my parent's house. They bought 60 hamburger's for the occation, thinking that would be oodles, and they ran out. There was just enough. We had a ton of people there. Some family from both sides came, some neighbors came, some friends of my dad's came, and a ton a college students that my sister invited. I think I only knew about half of the people there. We ate lots of food, played Settler's of Catan (Mike's favorite game) and Pinnocle, and lit off some fireworks.

By the time we got home Samantha was out! She'd had a long day being the life of the party. It was fun to show off our little girl and spend the day with family and friends.

Another Thing to Check Off the To-Do List

Now that Mike has a job we decided it was time to go apartment hunting. We decided to rent for at least another year so we can have a bigger down payment for a house and get somthing a little better than we would get now. Apartment hunting proved to be harder than we thought, but at last we found just what we were looking for. The apartment we found it right in the price range we wanted, it has 2 bedrooms, and a garage! And best of all, it is in Rigby (Theresa thought we visited her a lot now, she'll soon be tired of us)! We are super excited, now we just have to find out if our current land-lord has someone who wants to move in soon, or if we have to wait until the end of the month.

Also, just to update you on the play...I have ordered three scripts to read and hopefully pick a play from among them. I ordered Pirates of Penzance, The Pajama Game (thanks for the suggestion Suzie), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown. I did like the idea of Bye Bye Birdie, Beth, but they unfortunantly did that just a couple years ago. Anyway, if you have anymore suggestions about plays, sets, costumes, etc..., please feel free to let me know!

Mike Got a Job!!!!

Mike was offered a job this week at Modern Woodmen Financial. We are very excited about the job. I guess technically he has to pass all of the certifications before the job is his, but that should be doable. The job is in Idaho Falls so that means I can also take a job that I have been offered in St. Anthony. South Fremont High School wants me to direct their musical this fall. I'm really excited. Now I have to decide on a musical. Any suggestions? Things are working out for us; we knew they would! We have been very blessed!

Lots of Babies!!!

I started a lunch group with some sisters in my ward a few months ago. We meet at noon every Wednesday for lunch. We take turns hosting and making the main dish. Everyone else brings something like a salad, dessert, etc... All of us have young babies ages 8 months to 3 1/2 months. One afternoon Cassie, one of the girls, took a picture of all the babies that were there that day in order of their age (Oldest at the left). Sometimes we have more than the seven pictured. It can get pretty crazy with that many babies in our small apartment living room, but it is nice to get out and talk to the girls. Anyway, it's a pretty cute picture so I thought I'd share. Thanks Cassie!!!

Also, just an update about our job hunting. Michael didn't get either job. Knight did some restructuing and didn't hire anyone and Kaplan offered the job to someone else. I thought I'd be more disappointed, but neither of us are. We feel really good about things. In fact we applied for a bunch more jobs last night and got two calls today. He had an interview in Idaho Falls with a financial planning company called Modern Woodmen of America. The interview went really well and he has two more interviews with the same company next week. He also has an interview in Rexburg with Pinnacle Business Coaching. We are excited to see where the Lord takes us. Michael still wants to get his Master's degree and will start working on it as soon as we know where we are going to be with a job.

Two More Interviews!

Job hunting continues! This week Michael had two interviews. The first was on Tuesday in Idaho Falls with a company called Knight Refrigerated. It is a trucking company and he would be working in the office. The second job interview was in Salt Lake. The job is actually in Provo with Kaplan University. That job would be working with students who are going to take different tests (like the MCAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, ACT, etc...). We really like both jobs and his interviews went well (he thinks) so we are hoping! We will hear from Knight by the beginning of next week and Kaplan somtime within the month. Hopefully we will have a job before the month is over!

Like a Good NeighBear State Farm is There!!!!

Today was the annual Fisherman's Breakfast held in St. Anthony. It is a huge community event where everyone comes to enjoy a free pancake breakfast. There is a long wait in line (I waited an hour and a half at least) and along the way there are booths set up by local businesses. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why it is such a huge event. It's really not that exciting, but everyone goes. People even let their kids skip all or part of school for this.

Anyway, Michael sighed the State Farm agent he is working for up for a booth, and, lucky him, he was chosen to come help out. His coveted position was that of the State Farm Good NeighBear! I guess since he's the intern he gets to do what nobody else wants to do and he gets to do it for free! He had to leave at 4:45 this morning so he could be to St. Anthony with their booth set up by 6:00. He has some pretty funny stories. He said he had never been huged by so many different types of people in his life. He was not allowed to talk the entire time he was in his costume; he didn't even talk to me!!! He said there were kids following him all the time. He had a group of kids that wanted their picture with him, and then they tried to push him over; he said he could have taken them! He had another little kid that followed him around for a few hours. He kept tapping Michael on the arm and told Michael he was doing a good job, then would hug him. This kid just kept following and hugging Michael for a long time. Michael was asked several times if he was a real bear. Of course he always shook his head yes, but one kid did not believe him. The kid said that bears don't stand up like people, they bend over on their paws, so Michael curled up his paws like a bear for the kid.

The hardest part of the whole experience was trying to walk around without tripping over people (especially small children that would hug him without him seeing them coming), his own big bear feet, and other obsticals that were not in his contract or line of vision.

Needless to say, it was quite a fun experience for Michael. He got to be a bear and now will be in the photo albums of half the children who attended the Fisherman's Breakfast (including Samantha's).