because it is funny-cute

A Little Christmas Cheer

Storytime at the library. Gotta love it.

snow day

We went and played in the snow on Saturday.










It was awesome. And for your viewing pleasure, watch Jeff and Leah slide down the big hill really fast.

Grinding me down

The other day I was at Lindsey's house cuddling with my new baby, Julia Joi, she totally loves me. And I was feeling all tired and sad and I heard myself tell Linz that boo hoo we were out of bread and I was going to have to go out in the garage and lug the big heavy bucket of wheat and open it up and scoop out a bunch of wheat then get the grinder out and put it outside to grind it because it sprays flour all over, then I could make more bread. Oh poor me. So this morning I finally got my act together and got it done and I was laughing at myself for being such a big baby. I have a garage! I have a big bucket of wheat! I am able to open that bucket of wheat (not without lots of grunting though)! I have a wheat grinder! I have power to operate the aforementioned grinder! I know how to make bread! Life is pretty good. I need to shift how I look at things and be happy.

Murder Most Fowl

Last night as Ryan and I were headed to bed, I was already tucked in warmly and Ryan was on his way down the hallway when I heard him exclaim, "Oh no, Cuddles!" And I could tell from the tone of his voice that she had done something terrible. I said, "Did she poop on the floor?". Because that is the worst thing I can think of doing and I was not at all excited about getting out of my warm bed to scrub poo. But to my surprise Ryan said, "No, she has something in her mouth." That was not what I was expecting, Cuddles isn't really a chewy dog, she chews on the kids toys or a carelessly laid toothbrush but nothing worth the bad vibe Ryan was throwing off. So I said, "What is it?" And he said, "Not what, who."

Then it slowly became clear. "How did she get him?" I said. Because I knew, she had somehow managed to get Dr Coconut. Dr Coconut, the pleasant little bird we have enjoyed these several months who flies freely around the living room. We knew Cuddles was interested in him as a plaything, but we figured he was safe because he always flew so high and he only alighted on the top of the blinds or his cage, neither of which Cuddles could reach. I searched my mind for the last time I had seen him alive, it was right as I came home from a meeting that night at nine. He was flying around and Ryan warned me to close the front door quickly in case he managed to fly out. I knew he never would, he likes us.

But that was a little over an hour ago and sure enough. Here came Cuddles into our room and quickly hid under the chair. We called her out and told her to drop her victim. She relented and poor Dr Coconut dropped to the floor looking a bit rumpled but intact. I knew there was no chance he was just faking but I still hoped he would pop up and fly away chittering angrily.

"What are we going to tell the kids?" I said. I was worried about the kids. I knew they would notice as soon as they were up that he wasn't in his customary spot singing, but I still hoped I could put off telling them the bad news until they came home from school. I didn't want that weighing them down.

I didn't sleep well that night. At some point Peter ended up with us in bed. I hate sleeping with children, they kick and I end up either squished between them and Ryan or teetering off the edge of the bed. But morning eventually came and Ryan went off to work before the kids were up and I tentatively went out to the living room to help them get ready for school and do our regular morning routine.

Sure enough, Tessa was the first to notice. She looked at his cage and said, "Where's Dr Coconut?" I didn't reply, hoping she would get distracted by something else, I watched her closely and she did seem to have a thought or two flit across her face that were not Dr Coconut related but a second later, she looked up on top of the blinds and didn't see him there and she locked in. I knew the ruse was up then. Pretty soon, Jeff was in on it, "Yeah, where is Dr Coconut?" I said, "I will tell you about Dr Coconut when you are all in here, go get Leah out of bed. You might as well get dressed for school while we wait."

Of course they didn't they just sat there and shouted for Leah to get out here. It took her a long time to come out and as soon as she did she said, "I know what happened to Dr Coconut. Cuddles got him, I already heard." I wondered if maybe Ryan had told her before he left for work, it seemed a stretch but I wasn't too surprised, Leah has a tendency to know exactly what is going on always. She was the first to crack our secret talking codes, we quickly learned that spelling words didn't work around her when she was very young and she became fluent in pig latin really quickly. We had to revert to simple spanish for a while but that didn't work either, we just didn't have a sufficient vocabulary.

But that is beside the point. I told the kids what happened, just like I told you, and they were devastated. Tears welled up. They couldn't decide if they were mad at Cuddles or not. Leah scolded Cuddles. I told them Cuddles probably just wanted to play with Dr Coconut and that she was probably surprised that he was so fragile. I think that made them feel better. They were relieved it was simply birdslaughter and not pre-meditated. We talked about getting new parakeets and about what color they might be and if they would let us hold them and so on. They were still pretty sad but we still had to get ready for school and get out the door so we moved it along and I distracted them a little more by us opening the scroll for today (we do an advent calendar in December and every day it has something different). They were pleased that we will be going to the temple to see the lights tonight.

I talked to Leah separately and asked her how she knew, she said she heard us talking last night and from her bed she watched Daddy carry Dr Coconut outside to the garbage. I asked her if she cried last night, she said she did. I said I had a tough night too. I guess the whole thing went pretty well, considering. Peter asked for a while where Dr Coconut was, we explained over and over that he was dead, no he is not in Cuddles mouth now, yes he was in there but we took him out. It is a sad day at our house. I miss that bird, he was a good bird.

Oh Christmas Tree

We decorated the tree last night. All year I've been excited to put the tree up because it was going to go up on the loft thingy that the kids are unable to climb up to and touch! Ha ha! So last night they climbed the ladder one at a time and Ryan helped them put their ornaments on the tree. They loved it and it turned out great. Now I don't have to worry about broken or missing ornaments and three year old tree friskers. I did take pictures of the project but of course I can't find the camera cord or the card reader thing and besides the pictures didn't turn out super wonderful. I think I might be being reluctantly photographically educated by my sister and Arnon. Argh. That is annoying, I was blissfully and inexpensively unaware. . .

Thanksgiving Festivities

We got together at Whitny's house on Wednesday night for the traditional mexican food feast. We figured out that we've been getting together the night before Thanksgiving for chimichangas and enchiladas for about 30 years. We used to go to GG's house, I remember all my boy cousins and uncles and Lindsey used to wrestle in the garage. It wasn't good times until they had all injured something and been crying. I never understood why they needed to beat on each other every year. But this year all 13 boy cousins were out on the trampoline bashing each other up and some of the 6 girl cousins ended up in the action too, they have yet to learn about boys and their feats of strength. I guess it is a boy thing.

The food was yummy.
Leah found an ROUS.

This is my kind of cousin play.

We were looking at a midget throwing stuffed animals over the balcony. He was a cute midget.

That's my new baby. I will steal her.

That's my new brother and nephew. Aren't they so cute? The wedding is in two weeks!!

I am thankful for my big crazy wonderful family. We spent Thanksgiving with Terry and Arnon in their home and it was lovely. The food was delicious, and the company was fun to visit with. Thank you to our Mothers, Fathers, Sisters and Brothers both far and near. We love you.

P.S. not only did Whit throw the party, she also took all these great pictures and I promptly stole them. Thanks Sis!

Funnies

So two of my nephews turned 8 in the past few weeks so I sat each one down (well, as best as an 8 year old sits down) and I gave them a bunch of info about being a Wolf Cub Scout and how much fun it would be and the patches, arrow points and belt loops they would earn. It was exciting for all of us.

Phil got his Cub Scout lecture today in anticipation of his first den meeting this afternoon. A lot of funny things were said during our interview, that's just how talking with Phil goes, but this one stuck out for me. I was showing him the first achievement in the book, "Feats of Skill" and he was showing me that he totally knew how to do most of them already and he was trying to do the "frog stand". A picture is worth a thousand words.

What Phil said was, "Why do they call it feats of skill? That doesn't use your feet at all." I tried to explain but I was laughing too hard. He is adorable.

Halloween

Peter's costume got finished yesterday. I made him Lightning McQueen, it's just cardboard, paint and tape. He likes it a lot. Oddly enough, I am not fussed at all about the bigger kids costumes this year. They can do what they want! I remember being that way as a kid too, my mom would make us elaborate costumes and we didn't appreciate them either. So the darlings have access to all kinds of dress up stuff and they can just go to town on it and do whatever they want.

But, since Peter has yet to not appreciate a costume I worked hard on, he gets one.

The hood lifts up to reveal a candy holding compartment of my own design. Too cool. It will likely be destroyed by the end of Halloween but that is fine with me.

Also, I don't know why the pictures are so yellow, I think there is something on the lens. . .

Sisters

Last night my sisters, Whitny, Amanda and Lindsey took me to dinner at Siam (yummy, spicy, mmm). And we had a great time. Then Linz ran away because next we went here;

And Linz said she would rather be shot. I absolutely loved it loved it! There was a full orchestra with all kinds of interesting instruments and a fabulous chorus and a boys choir too! There was a soloist, and it was lovely. Whit doctored the picture I took at intermission. Can you see who joined the audience?

Hiking

The kids have Fall Break so we went hiking this morning at Shaw Butte. Alana was mad in this picture, there always has to be one. The glasses are the girls' newest fashion accessory, they have no glass in them, they are just for the look. Weirdos.

We weren't the only ones out enjoying the lovely cool weather. We found this little rattler slithering near the trail. We watched him slither for a while then we hiked on. The kids took it as their duty after that to tell every hiker they met that 'there is a rattlesnake just ahead!'. It was pretty exciting.

greed

we had all the kids with us in the car on the way somewhere and ryan was meeting someone from craigslist to sell something. he did the hand-off and was coming back to the car, jefferson said, "look dad has $40, maybe he'll give us some! act good!"

Kiss Your Brain

So today I've been totally accomplishing stuff. I did dishes, laundry, went hiking with Pete and Tess who is home from school today, swept the pool, swam with kids, and made bread. While I was waiting for it to rise I sat down at the computer and for some reason or another went back and read old blog entries then I couldn't stop reading them. I just love that I've kept this blog up for the past three and a half years, I love the pictures and the videos and the stories that I would have absolutely forgotten about had I not written them down. But while I was reliving the past I forgot about the bread, it rose too much and now it will be all kind of flat-ish and ugly. Boo.

Tessa and Alana's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Pulido, used to have the kids "kiss their brains" when they did a good job on something. They would kiss their hand and pat their own heads. Too adorable. So today I kiss my brain for doing the blog all these years and also I kick my brain (figuratively, not enough yoga for that maneuver) for allowing me to become distracted and forgetting the bread. Argh.

Dr. Coconut

We are pleased to introduce Dr. Coconut, our new parakeet, thanks to Pat. Thanks Pat! He is very nice and the kids have enjoyed looking at him and introducing themselves to him.

Please show some respect people, he didn't attend eight years of Coconut Medical School to be called Mr. Coconut.

No More Loaners!

So last week there were a couple of fun events. Amanda took Alana home with her and Oliver after school to play one day and they stopped off at Walmart on the way home. Pretty soon I got a text from Amanda that she had broken Alana and she was returning her. Apparently the girl got into a fight with a shopping cart and lost.

There was blood, tears, a band aid and now her nickname is Scarface.

Then the very next day Ryan went over to help his brother with some roofing. A couple of hours later I got a text from Lindsey saying that Ryan had fallen off the roof but that nothing was broken. I called right away of course, all these dumb alarming texts were beginning to get on my nerves. What had happened was, it was quite warm outside and as they were finishing Ryan realized that asphalt singles heat up a lot and he was in a hurry to not be on the roof anymore, so he quickly and unsafely tried to climb down the ladder without touching anything, became unbalanced, knocked the ladder down, tried to grab hold of the roof, scraped off lots of skin and landed on his side on the ground. He is fine, just a bit scraped up.

But I told my sisters that they aren't allowed to borrow my people any more unless they can keep them in the same condition they were received.

Idaho Trip

Last week my sisters and I drove up to Idaho for my uncle's funeral. It was about thirty hours of driving packed into three days and it was a little too much fun.

We laughed and laughed all the way there. For some reason it was way funnier taking a wrong turn and ending up in California and adding about two hours to the trip than it normally would have been. And almost running out of gas in the middle of nowhere was hilarious, it was okay, there was a town right over the next hill after we realized our mistake. We were mostly laughing thinking how displeased our husbands would have been with us and we were giddy thinking about how we didn't have to worry about it, ha! Everything worked out fine, we got there and we had, well, lots of fun.

Here is a video of Whitny's attempt to climb over the seat to take a nap in the back. There were all three boys strung across the middle seat making it difficult to get over them without stepping on people. They yelled a lot when you stepped on them. I would put video up of Amanda climbing over the seat but Peter was trying to help her over by pushing on her bum and it gets a little uncomfortable with his hand placement. So that one is just going to have to remain unseen by the masses. But you can take my word for it, it is fun times.



The funeral was very nice. We got to see cousins and family that we hadn't seen in about five years. Everyone loved my Uncle a lot, he was a good man. Whitny and I sang a couple of songs and my great uncle George sang a song which I secretly recorded part of, I wonder if I could figure out how to put it on here. . .

Nope, can't. That is sad. Maybe I'll have Ryan take a crack at it sometime.

Daddy spoke about Uncle Steve, so did Aunt Sandee and they did a great job. They really liked their big brother. It was good to see Mom and Dad, they've been hiding up in Idaho and Utah for the past month or so, escaping from the heat down here and I don't blame them. It is icky.

We spent about seven hours total in Idaho, about four of them were spent at the funeral and cemetery but we managed to play with some new found third cousins who let us ride their quads. Amanda, Whit and I drove around for about 20 minutes and in the first minute of my drive I was stung viciously by a murderous horse fly on the neck. It hurt real bad and I grabbed my neck thinking I'd been stung by a bee or something and begged Amanda to fix it (she was on the quad with me) but she couldn't stop laughing at me long enough to fix me properly before the dang thing stung me five times. I made her drive after that while I nursed my wounds. We didn't turn back though, we drove on and had fun. My neck still has big itchy welts on it.

Here's what it looked like where we rode around.

On the way up we stayed with a dear friend in Layton, we've known the family since they lived around the corner from us when I was a little little kid, they moved when I was 4 or something and we've been staying with them on our way to Idaho ever since :). Amanda and I shared a queen sized bed and had an interesting experience involving a touch lamp that was right above the bed and I kept accidentally turning on in the night. I was sleepy and disoriented and couldn't turn it back off without a lot of struggles and difficulty. But don't worry, it only happened about five times thru out the night. Also, at one point Amanda grabbed my hands, then let go and went back to sleep. In the morning she asked if she saved me from falling out of bed. I told her she did but I was lying. I felt like she needed a win. It was fun at Marcy's house. She fed us a delicious breakfast, her monkey bread is to die for and I think I ate half of it. We also had tomatoes out of her garden and they were heavenly, seriously, so good.

On the way home we stayed at Kate's in Spanish Fork. Dear Kate is always such a gracious hostess and seems honestly happy to see us and let us mess up her house. There were 11 of us at her house that night and we were littered all over the place. Amanda ended up on the blow up bed with Peter and she got soaked in the middle of the night, and it wasn't by water, if you know what I mean. I was grateful that I chose the couch. Good times! Amanda was a good sport and Kate and Kent were wonderful to let us stay with them. It was so nice to get to see them and Justin and Bailey too.

Here are some more pictures I took on the way up there. I used my HDR app on my phone. I totally won the photography contest I was in with my photography nerd sister Whit! Also, they were taken out the window of a speeding car. It was hard to get an ugly picture up there though, it was lovely out.


If you look closely you can see a tiny little rainbow in this one. So pretty.

Brothers Don't Shake Hands...

I have been thinking about brothers a lot lately. You know, I didn't get to grow up with my brother around, he lived far away as long as I can remember. It was always fun when he came to visit because he would toss us around, I love him a lot. We always used to bug Mom for a little brother. I don't think we fully grasped what a pain he would have been. My first real experience with brothers was going and playing at my friend Margie's house. She had seven brothers. The one close to my age threw me in the pool and the one older than that teased me. I was pretty sure they hated me and I remember crying about it but then Margie told me that they did it because they liked me and that confused me even more. Why would they do and say mean things to me if they liked me? Turns out, they did like me and we are still friends (I actually got to see four of those seven boys last weekend, good times). I am thankful for the experience they gave me because when I met my Ryan and he threw me in the pool every time I went to his house, I knew it was love.

I love my brother Nathan who got to marry my big sister Whit. He has the driest sense of humor and he balances my wacky sister really well. He is a lot of fun to hang out with. It is one of my goals to make him genuinely laugh some day. He is cool and he is a great dad to all those boys.

I am so glad I married my Ryan because he has a full set of brothers that are mine now. I love Chris, quiet kind Chris who has wonderful stories to tell if you push the right buttons.

I love Jake. You know I worried for a long time that Jake was just too weird to find a wife but then he met Cory and about two minutes later they were married and it has turned out perfectly. She is exactly the right girl for him. They are here in town now, he is on leave from the Army, he has been in Afghanistan living in a cave and growing a horrific beard. He looks like a homeless person but the Army told him not to shave or cut his hair so that he blends in with the natives and they will be more likely to trust him. He doesn't look particularly trust worthy to me at first glance but I am not a goat herder so that's that. I am grateful for what he is doing over there. He is good at it and it needs to be done. I am amazed at the strength of Cory and how she handles him being gone all of the time, leaving her with their four small boys. Again, perfect for each other.

I love David. I love how much he loves food and getting together as a family to eat the aforementioned food. He is a wonderful husband to my dear sister Lindsey. Plus they are wonderful parents.

I love Kent and Mitchell, my newest brothers. Kate and Jess did a great job finding them. They are the right men for the job and they fit beautifully into the family. I love it when Mitch sends me texts just because my phone buzzes during church and he thinks it's funny that I'm being irreverent but he is the only one who notices because I'm too busy listening to the lesson and I don't hear it, but I read them all after church and he is silly.

I love Justy. When I met him he was 7 and sort of obnoxious but it turns out that was just how 7 year olds naturally are. Now he is technically all grown up and he has brought home a girl from the Y. A beautiful girl named Bailey and he plans to make her my sister. She is staying with us while they are here visiting and we like her. She just woke up and is watching Word World with Pete. He is in love with her too.

A couple of days ago my Dad's big brother died. Whit, Amanda and I are going to Idaho for the funeral next week. What with all the saturation I've had with brothers being around for the past week, I'm especially sad for my Dad. He loved his brother a lot too. Uncle Steve shot him in the forehead with an arrow when they were kids and playing Cowboys and Indians. He still has the scar. What's not to love? That is one of my favorite stories, by the way. Daddy was on the roof of the garage, ducked down on the other side of the peak. Uncle Steve was on the ground and knew Dad was up there, he shot a warning arrow over the garage and just as it was clearing the peak, Daddy peeked over to see where Uncle Steve was. Head and arrow met. Blood, trying to explain it to their Mom, good times.

Now both of my parents have lost a brother and it is sad. Now that I've finally got loads of brothers I would be very sad to loose any of them. My biggest brother far away recently had a heart attack, Nate likes to golf and we all know how dangerous that can be, especially if Whit thinks he is gone too long... Chris does fairly dangerous work, Jake does very dangerous work, David is a magnet for car accidents and house fires, Kent lives in Utah where it is cold a lot (he could wander out in the night and freeze to death, you don't know), Mitch wants to take up quad racing again and wind up a smear on the track, Justy has to drive back to Utah soon and last time he did that he slid off the road and crashed a little, this time he'll be distracted by beautiful Bailey...

Morbid. They will be fine I am just too much of a worrywart. Life is good and happy. I am grateful for the blessings I have and my wonderful, big, noisy family is a huge blessing :)

So, who knows what the rest of the quote from the title is? And what movie is it from?

Conversations

We were kneeling down for family prayer the other night;
Peter: We made a good circle!
Ryan: It's a semi-circle.
Peter: No! It's my circle!

(If you say Ryan's part with sort of an Italian accent it makes sense.)

Summertime

I can't decide if I should call this post "Summertime Blues" "Summer Lovin" or "Thank Heaven School Starts Next Week". I have been so very distracted this summer it has been nearly impossible to string together coherent thoughts to write in the blog. But this morning I think I can do it even though the kids are currently outside having a water fight so loud I can hear every word and scream. I need to get some ear plugs. Focus, focus, focus! But the good news is that school will be in session one week from today. Do I feel guilty for wishing my children gone? No, I do not. They need school and I need them to be in school. Alana is screaming and crying and Jefferson is just shooting her point blank with the water gun with the happiest look on his face. Good times. No, they haven't done their chores yet today, they were watching Jonas Brothers on Netflix until I made them "turn it off and start their chores". What they heard was "turn it off and go have a fight outside". Whatever. I am too tired to fight them.

So here is what's happening with us lately, Ryan and I have got new callings, we are second councilors in Young Men's and Relief Society, respectively. It is good times. I really love R.S. and the only part of the calling I'm nervous about is teaching quarterly but I taught the first week of July and it went okay so I think I can stop being nervous about that now and just enjoy it. Ryan is having fun with the Deacons and Jeff gets to do double duty with the 11 year old scouts and the Deacons some times so he is getting lots of requirements done which is great.

I have been working on re-covering the cushions in the pit, it is the project that has been my nemesis these long months but they are now all constructed, I just have to put zippers in them. I hate zippers. My goal is to finish them at some future date.

We went camping last Friday - Saturday up near Prescott at Granite Basin. It was my great idea and I invited all sisters and my friend Gaby. Unfortunately one sister had to work and one sister was dying of strep throat so only Whitny was brave enough to come, and Gaby was suffering from lack of sleep due to having a cute little baby and a potty training toddler so she sent her hubby up with her girls and she stayed home to rest. Poor dear. So, Ryan was coming up after work on Friday, Whit and her fam drove up same time as me and they took Nathan to play golf with a friend there in Prescott while we went to the campsite. Granite Basin looked good online but when we arrived with our 10 kids it was all wrong so we headed back to town to get reception on our phones and find better accommodations for our party. We agreed that we were happy that our loving husbands were not with us for this part because there might have been some comments about how we weren't prepared and so on and so forth and I already felt dumb enough. So we headed up to Mingus Mountain instead knowing that Ryan was on his way and would want to know where to go, that Nathan's golf game wouldn't last forever (even though they always seem to), and that Carson would be headed up after work and would also appreciate directions. We scurried up the mountain to Potato Patch which we liked a little better but we weren't fully convinced, Tyler and I went driving around looking for somewhere better which we found rather quickly off the beaten path, no facilities, no other campers nearby (which was ideal with our 15 children) and space to run around and get dirty. Heaven! We moved in and I drove back down the mountain to get phone reception and tell our wonderful men where to find us. It just happened that Ryan was 10 miles down the road from where I got reception (whew! I was relieved that I got there in time!) and we were able to switch cars, I took the boys and tent that he had and he headed to Prescott to pick up our wayward golfer and I went back up the mountain to help Whit set up tents and keep kids from being eaten by wild squirrels. By the time the men arrived we had camp set up, dinner ready and all children accounted for! We ate, then Ryan and I walked down to the main road to see if we could find Carson who was due to arrive soon. Ryan was pretty sure he could get a cell phone signal if we just walked a little farther. . . Anyone seen Tommy Boy? We didn't get a signal but we did find Carson rather quickly which I was kind of bummed about because I was looking forward to making out with Ryan while we waited. Carson gave us a ride back to camp and we got him all set up and we made smores and nobody was poked in the eye by a burning marshmallow and the kids ran around for a while, Alana happened to look up at one point and said, "Why are there so many stars up there?" Poor kid. We got the kids in bed, sat around the campfire for a little while laughing and chatting then we went to bed. It had been a long day.

We woke up in the morning, fed the savages and I took a dozen of them for a walk up the road to find "Coyote Springs" the sign said 1.3 miles and the party could have made it except for the part where I brought a three year old and a hand full of wussy girls with me who thought the leisurely stroll down the gravel road with barely any hills was just too much for their delicate constitutions. I had told Ryan to come after us in the truck after a little while, so I knew help was coming but the wimps and I ended up turning around before we reached the illusive Coyote Springs and I sent the hardy boys on up the path. I told the kids pioneer stories to keep their minds off their dire situation up there in the perfect weather and dappled sunlight and fresh air. I had done some research for a talk I had prepared for church for Pioneer Day yesterday (which I gave and it rocked). I told them stories of their ancestors who crossed the plains. Just as I was running out of stories Ryan came driving up. We all piled in and headed off to find the boys, they had given up and turned back too so we all headed back to camp. My goal of draining off some of their energy was accomplished and they had some fun even though we never found Coyote Springs.

The rest of the camping trip was fun, the boys made a fort in the woods, they shot guns, they fought with each other and got dirty. The girls did all of that also, but to a slightly lesser extent.

Yesterday was Pioneer Day and Ryan and I spoke in Church, it was fun and it went well. Then in the afternoon we went to my Grandmother's for dinner with my parents and sisters. It was fun, I told more pioneer stories and the kids sat still to listen for a few minutes. I am grateful to have ancestors who were faithful and did hard things.

Well, the kids are back inside now, doing art projects and whatever else they can think of to avoid cleaning their rooms. Time to crack the whip!

A Hiking We Will Go!

Last week we went up near Strawberry for a hike. It was like heaven. It was 70 degrees out, a little cloudy, it even rained on us for about three minutes while we were eating lunch. We just sat in it. There were butterflies fluttering all over the woods, the woods were green and fresh. It was peaceful and quiet, until the kids got involved of course, but even they were unable to completely disturb the calm of the woods. I just kept looking around and giggling about how nice it was and how happy I was that we came.

Peter and I entertained everyone with this demonstration.



He couldn't figure out how to drink out of the Camelback so I just spit water in his mouth. He will totally love that story in 10 years.

We are so going camping next weekend.

Father's Day

Our Mountain Man came home Saturday dirty and hairy from a week long Scout Camp. Jeff got to go with him since he is 11 and Ryan stayed the whole time. Jeff got 6 1/2 merit badges, thank you very much! Jeff was made for Scout Camp. They had a great time.

So he was just in time for Father's Day and we were very anxious for him to be home!! We made him french toast which he seemed to like a lot and the kids gave him gifts and cards and he was adored.

I think he thinks we like him.

Our California trip was lots of fun. We had good times at the beach and we had a great time with cousins.

Seaworld was lots of fun.

Ryan, Jeff and Pete had to leave partway thru so that the big boys could go to scout camp. They should be home from that later today and that is happy news because I miss them.

We went to see the Midway, a great big battleship turned museum. The tour is really quite good and the kids had fun. Here's Leah and Tessa trying out the radio room. Tessa said she is good at knobs and buttons so she could work there.

Here they are getting their mission briefings.



Here they are on the flight deck about to take off.

The beach was always fun to play at and it was handy that it was about a minutes walk from the house.

We went to the Mormon Battalion Museum and it was really cool. They have a really fun tour and we got to pan for gold after. I loved spending time with my sisters and the kids LOVED spending time with their cousins. I am totally in for next summer!

Nine!

Tessa got to celebrate her birthday out of town this year. We were staying at a fabulous beach house in San Diego for a week thanks to my talented and lovely sister, Amanda. So we ended up going to Sea World on Tessa's birthday.


I'm pretty sure she liked it. We love you Pickles! You are super fun.

There will be more about our trip tomorrow. . .

Seven!

She got big too fast for a tiny girl.

We love you Princess, Happy Birthday!