Hi everybody! This is Ethan. And it's been a wong wong time since we've done any blogging and we've been doing wots of fun things, so we better show you some pictures. Here goes:

First, and most importantly, I got a big boy bike with training wheels and a super cool dinosaur helmet. I am so fast!!

We had a really fun trip to Utah and Idaho a few weeks ago to visit both sets of grandparents and lots of cousins. Mom also got to go to a music conference while we were in Utah and she loved it.

Daddy made homemade root beer on the 4th of July for old time's sake,

And we hung out with our cousins! This is Jacob and Isaac, who are just a few weeks apart.

Mom and Dad even got to go to the Rexburg temple. They told me it was REALLY REALLY NEAT.

This is mom and me in June of 2006, in front of the temple under construction. We used to go bike up there every day to see the progress and be inspired by the process of it all. (Well, I actually just thought the big cranes and loaders were cool, but mom really found the building process meaningful to watch and be a part of.)

So anyway, here are mom and dad in front of the finished temple! What a beautful place.

It took a long time to recover from such a long trip and 2 long days in the car each way (sadly, this picture was about 2 DAYS after we had gotten home...which just shows that groceries and a few other necessities were a higher priority than cleaning up)

But we did it! And it was totally worth it. We had soooooooo much fun.




Here at home, Jake and I have all kinds of cool brotherly adventures. I like to take him for rides in my blue jeep (which doesn't actually drive unless mom pushes it, but we rescued it from a kid who was throwing it in the dumpster and I absolutely love it)...



And we help mom go around and collect the garbage in my really high tech garbage truck.

Jake stands up all over the place now and I am pretty much the greatest big brother ever, except for when I kick him or push him or get frustrated that he touches my stuff. I miss when he would just sit and only play with things I gave to him, but I also like to play games and crawl around with him so I guess it's okay that he's growing up.

We had a pretty incredible "saucer olympics" competition a few days ago where Jake did a really neat stunt called the "crawl between."

But the judges gave me first prize for my "saucersault..."

...which bloomed into a full headstand. Am I amazing or what?!

But don't worry about Jake feeling bad for getting second place because he completely pinnned me in the wrestling match.

And he was pretty proud of himself, too.

Well, thanks for tuning in to this week's edition of what we do to entertain ourselves at the Ricks home. Love you all!

Love Ethan