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. . .