Summertime

At the end of May Claire and I made a trip down to Utah.  We went to a college friend’s wedding, Callie’s Dad’s viewing (sad, but good to see her and her family), visited Mom and Maddie and then went out to Vernal to stay with Grammy for a few days.  We love our Grammy (GG)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next weekend (Memorial Day) we all went up to Coeur d’Alene to visit Mark’s sister Lisa.  Neither of us had ever been that far north in Idaho.  It was beautiful.  The drive is a lot more scenic than the drive down to Utah, though a little windier.  We went for a bike ride around the lake, went up to Brad’s parents cabin on Lake Pend Orielle where Claire had her first “swimming” experience and her first s’more (that was good stuff!) and explored their now home of Sandpoint.

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In June we went down to Logan for Father’s Day.  The best part was a bike ride to the park where we picnicked and played at the park.

 

In the midst of all that, we have been doing mass amounts of painting (a rental),

landscaping our yard (mostly done now),

(what nerds, laying things out with hoses, boards and newspapers)

(I even got my vegetable garden planted, though it was a little late.)

Mark had a birthday(Pool Party!),

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Claire learned to crawl (in the grass none the less),

pull herself up, make messes (we now make sure the pantry door is fully closed, sometimes she whines as she goes by because she wants in)

and unroll toilet paper.

Letter to Congressman about Deficit Reduction

I just sent a letter to my congressman, and I thought I would share it here.  If this is a subject you feel strongly about, you can send an e-mail using a very simple form to your house representative too - https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Dear Congressman Labrador,
As someone who consistently votes for Republican candidates, and believes that government should do less and individuals should take more accountability, I am thrilled that there is serious talk about reducing our national deficit.  The interest payments on our national debt are already staggering.
I have recently learned about the proposal from the gang of six in the senate to make steep cuts in entitlement programs (although I haven't heard what the proposed distribution of cuts is between social security, medicare, medicaid).  As I understand it, this proposal would also involve some tax increases, mainly by cutting existing deductions in our tax code, including charitable donations and mortgage interest.  Unfortunately, these tax code changes would probably mean the largest tax percentage increase for someone in my shoes, a middle class individual who donates 10% of their income yearly to charitable causes and who has a mortgage on a home.  If more of the reductions could be achieved through spending cuts alone, that would be great.  However, as everyone knows, no plan is going to pass that doesn't include big compromises from both sides.  I believe action must be taken to raise the debt ceiling (and that serious deficit reductions - 4 trillion + - should be included) before this looming August 2nd deadline.
As long as the large majority of deficit reduction is acheived through cuts and not through tax increases, I am a supporter of it, even it it means I will pay more in taxes next year by losing deductions.
Sincerly,
Frank Mark Salisbury
Resident of Boise and Republican

Our Beautiful Claire

A couple of weeks ago we took Claire out and took some pictures.  Here are some of my favorites.

        
(Dad finally gave me the weed I was trying to get!)    

We love our growing girl and watching her do new things.  She now has two teeth, is excellent at sitting and getting into crawling stance, but not at the actual crawling yet, she is still just thinking about it.

Wicked

On Wednesday Mark and I got to go to Wicked here in Boise.  It was most excellent!  I remember my roommates in college listening to the music, and now I have actually seen it. 

Before the show we went and got Café Rio.  Yay for having it in Boise finally!  Now maybe it won’t be quite so novel when we go to Utah.

Here we are outside the theater before the show (the Boise River is behind us, it is super full and going super fast).

Easter, etc.

Here are our pictures from the last month or so in chronological order…

Attacking Dad.

Look at me I am so adorable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weird sleeping positions:

Helping Mom sew curtains:

 

Is there something on my face? (Eating carrots, she has gotten better, but of course still gets a messy face.  What fun would it be otherwise?)

Consignment sale shopping!  Clothes for the next six months (maybe I bought too much, oops!)

Claire has become a pretty good sitter.  She will often complain to you that she wants to sit up.  Once you help her up she is much happier.

Kirk and Jessica (Mark’s brother and his wife) came up for Easter weekend.  We went downtown and played frisbee golf.  Jessica was excited about the goslings until she wasn’t sure what the mom and dad were going to do.

We went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Yummy!

 

Here are our Easter baskets.

Claire got some very styling sunglasses.

Easter Dinner.  Kirk and Jessica are either ready to eat the ham or are scared of it, not sure which.

More random sleeping positions.  Claire is a pretty good sleeper, usually 8pm to 7 or 8am with a 4-6am feeding.

Playtime before naptime.

Fun with the mirror in her crib.

We love our sweet Claire and watching her grow.  She is currently in the process of getting her first tooth, no pictures yet but we can feel and see it. 

Mark and I are still contemplating landscaping…we’ll see what happens.