4th of July

This 4th of July was a blast!! We had tons of fun and were all exhausted by the time we finally made it into bed. We were lucky enough to have Danica, Dave, Jensen, Mom and Dad in town for the festivities.

It started with the hot air balloons down in provo. There were a bunch of theses flying around. My only question is: where do they land?


The next thing we did was to go to the scout breakfast for our old ward down in provo. We had some good pancakes, and got to see some old friends, like the men and women we worked closely with in our callings and got to know quite well.



After the breakfast we went to the big Provo parade. Some friends gave us some great seats on the grass in front of their business, but that wasn't good enough for dad. He took a blanket and Sam and went down and sat in front of everybody else right on the street, even though we got there long after everyone else. Here are some pics of the parade




Here is the float that Marcia was going to be part of, but since she is expecting, and walking for 4 hours in 100 degree weather isn't the best thing for her, she decided that is was best to participate in the parade from the side.



I love seeing the missionaries, this made me want to cry when they walked by. I thought of Aussie and Tiana, and how proud I was of them.



Of course, then came the army guys, and I thought of Don, and that made me want to cry too. I'm really proud of him too. He gets deployed to Iraq in 3 weeks!! He will definitely be in our prayers.



The next thing we did (after taking a nap) was to go to the lake. Jake invited us for a bbq and boating. Here are some pics from Utah Lake. This tube is a blast. We took Josh and Sam on it really slow and they loved it. Then the grown men got on and Jamie pulled the boat top speed swerving back and forth trying to flip us off the tube. We screamed like little girls and Jamie and the waves won, knocking us off a few times.



Sam and I love to jump off the boat and just swim around the lake, the water is like 80 degrees, so it feels great. This is a nice view of how beautiful the valley is where we call home. For as much as I wanted to leave Utah when I was at BYU, I sure enjoy living here.



Last but not least we laid down on some blankets close to the Stadium of Fire and watched the fireworks. I have to say it was the most I've every enjoyed a fireworks show. Maybe it was because of our proximity to the show, or the advances in technology, either way, it was wonderful. (I don't have any pics of the show, but Marcia did take some from the little fireworks our neighbor lit off the night before:) So just image this little guy, times 1,000)

Water Babies

In the Barrand family we love the water. So here are some pics of us enjoying ourselves in the water.

The first ones are a great pool near our house in Lehi where we have gone a few times. Marcia likes to lay out in the sun, while the boys play around in the lazy river, the big slides, and getting in trouble with the lifeguards telling us not to throw Sam so high up in the air :)




These next pictures were taken the last time we went boating with Jake and Jamie. Their boat is a blast! We love being on the lake on a hot summer day, its a perfect way to enjoy friends, family, and the wonderful world we live in. Not to mention that when Marcia gets in the sun, her skin just soaks in all those rays into a beautiful dark color. We would have had some pics of Marcia wakeboarding, but our photographer had to go. (We didn't know it at the time but she was pregnant, so maybe it is better that there is no proof of her going wakeboarding while pregnant)




This last picture is of Sam "helping" me mow the lawn. He really loves to lend a hand!

Sei What!?!?

This year for Christmas my in-laws decided to go to Costa Rica. Since we've been trying to get pregnant, when I was just about to pay for Sam's ticket, I wondered if it might not be safe to fly if I was late in pregnancy. I talked to the travel agent and she said that I wouldn't be able to go anytime in the 3rd trimester. But since I wasn't sure if I was pregnant or not, she told me that I needed to get a pregnancy test as soon as possible. (Kind of a funny advice to get from a travel agent that I never met) I got a pregnancy test as soon as I got done talking to her and then test came out POSITIVE!!

We are so excited! We've been trying to get pregnant for the last 2 months. I know that it didn't take too long but for us it felt like it took forever. Even though it would be very hard in about 8 months, we'd be happy with twins this time... At least it feels like it could be twins because I'm twice as sick as the first time.

But, if it isn't twins, we are thinking that it will be a girl.(we won't find out for a few months). And as opposed to last time when we decided Sam's name just a few weeks before he was born, we have already picked out a name. We like "Sei". It is a Japanese name meaning "pure", pronounced like the English word "Say that you love me." The Japanese character looks like this 清 (if you browser supports Japanese symbols).

We like this name a lot and are excited about giving something representative of her Japanese heritage. When we ask Sam if he wants a sister or brother, he tells us that he wants a sister. It's an exciting time for our family! Keep Marcia and baby Sei in your prayers.

A Tent, A Pond, A Salad, A Dog

Summer is just about here and we are living it up! We love the warm weather and we try and get out and do fun things as a family when we can. Here are some of the things we have been up to recently.

We borrowed a tent from a neighbor and did our own little camp-out backyard style. It was fun, we roasted mash mellows over the stove and made smores, then "slept" in the tent. We all came back in to the house around 6 am and slept for a few more hours.



Here is the little pond by our house with tons of fish in it. The first time we went fishing here I caught a little one, but this week we had no such luck... I think its because we need to use some worms instead of the little plastic thing on the hook. Anyways, Marcia got these great pics of Sam and I trying our luck.





Here is the updated picture of the garden. Things are coming along and We have already made two salads and a few sandwiches out of the lettuce. The birds have enjoyed all the strawberries :(



Here is our neighbors dog. His name is coach. Sam loves to play with him. Marcia jokes that he is our dog, because we always get to play with him. The nice part is that we don't have to clean up after him or anything, so it works out very well.

Graduation Ceremony

2 weeks ago Dad flew out for my graduation ceremony. It was a great weekend, lots of fun. On Thursday we had a fancy dinner. Friday we had the actual ceremony. Saturday we put together the garage door opener, which I got for a graduation present from dad
(thanks again!), Marcia got me Zelda for the Wii (which is locked up till I get my thesis done. Our friends Jake and Jamie just got a boat and they invited us to go the lake. We did some wakeboarding, rafting and BBQ.

Here are some pictures from the graduation dinner. Sam was a little wild man, and Dad had to take him outside to feed the ducks so that we could get some peace and quiet at our table.




This is during the actual ceremony in salt lake. At this point the guy behind me is putting on my "Masters" hood. Honestly wearing the ropes and robes and hoods was quite uncomfortable, and I was relieved to take it all off at the end of the day. Its ironic how the more degrees and honers you achieve, the less comfortable your day will be.

To be honest, I didn't feel like I deserved that ceremony because I'm not done with my thesis yet. So the whole time I had this pit in my stomach, thinking "I really gotta finish that paper". But its coming along...slowly...but...surely.



This next one is of just the MBA students that graduated with me. We were the first three MBA grads of Neumont university.




Here is dad doing his magic with the garage door opener. It only took us the whole day to get it up! It was a good manly project, even Sam, without being asked went and got his play tools and helped out.




This last picture is of us at the lake, having our bbq. Sam had jumped in the water so we needed to change his clothes.

Garden

Here is my garden! I'm really excited about eating the fruits of the earth. In the lower third of the garden there are pumpkins and watermelons. Then in the middle third there are some strawberries and lettuce. The top third has tomatoes and broccoli. Just about everything is popping up out of the ground, so things are looking good!

Sam's Life as a Model Begins

This week Sam had a photo shoot for the Salt Lake Magazine. He has also just joined an modeling agency. Since he is ridiculously good looking we thought we'd put him in and see how he does.