Wrapping up Summer 2011

It was a good summer.

We went to different parks to climb and swing through the summer. Jenna did an art class on Thursdays in Lindon at a great place. We would play to kill time while Jenna was in class on this grassy knoll. Here is Trevor cheesing it. I love this picture!

Our babysitter, Kristi, has been with us since February. She is very creative and the kids love her. Truly! This is a pic of the treasure map she created for the kids to find treasure by following riddle-type clues. They did lots of these creative type adventures this summer including hunting in the rainforest to rain and thunder music with bamboo spears!

 This picture is just a day at lunch this summer. Disheveled and enjoying no "have-to's".

The big kids did swim lessons. We went to the Lindon pool this year for lessons. I thought that last year's lessons in PG were better, but the kids had fun and did well. Zac is not quite deep-end bound, but they are very comfortable in the water!

 We like Geocaching, but this day was a busted trip. We were in Blanding in the mountains, and I entered the coordinates in wrong on the GPS and well, it was a wild chase. We ended up finding jumping cactus and no treasure. We thought we would bomb the GPS unit in the Reservoir, but come to find out it was operator error, that and a jiggly battery.

Jenna and Thomas feeding the ducks

TR and the Goose

Zac, the Farmer

Jenna, forever the animal lover

Nathan, Tommy and Zac- fun boys

Zac feeding the pygmy goats

My good friend from NV came up to visit family (and for Jenna's baptism), and we were able to hang out for an afternoon at Wheeler Farm. I had never been there. It was a good trip. Of course, it was good to see my friend and her kids! It was a great place for the kids to see animals and enjoy the outdoors and enjoy their fast friends. They had fun.
A couple of weekends ago we went up to Strawberry Reservoir to play in the rocks and water on a Saturday afternoon. The kids threw rocks and the dog swam.  Zac swam too because he couldn't resist despite the freezing water. Trev stripped down and lost his balance and went under, so I went in too. Later he said, "Mommy you rescue me? Thanks!" It was a wet ride home.

Crawdad- dead on the bank, still cool to see up close.

Nearly Naked

 

 

"It's freezing!"

It was a good summer. I think we sprinkled in a lot of fun in with work. There is so much to do!
Now on to Fall. I love fall. Farmers Markets, Pumpkin Patches, jeans and T shirts, changing leaves, carving pumpkins and more birthdays!

Back to School Fall 2011

Monday night was back to school night. Steve took the big kids while Kristi stayed with the little guys because I was at work. When I got home, Steve, Jenn and Zac arrived shortly after. They were so excited and had McDonalds hot and ready. I swear that I was almost as excited as them. I liked school, except 6th grade, and so I was excited for them. Plus, I have to say that getting them into a routine, especially Zac, does wonders for him.
 The first morning of school was quite different than last year for me. For starters, I am not pregnant! Also, Steve is now home until 7:40ish before he heads to work. But besides those things, the sadness wasn't there. In fact, I was just very excited for them and almost giddy after they left. I thought that having just 1 was hard and each additional child was harder, but when you go from 4 to 2, it feels like cake. As a matter of fact, I have been a little lost. I made a list of stuff to accomplish while the big kids are away. We may even tackle story hour tomorrow for the first time since moving here. Plus a McDonalds run just got significantly cheaper for lunch!
Anyway, last year, it occurred to me that they were really growing up...riding the bus and all, but this year I was just happy to send them on their merry way. They are confident and love school. Zac's K teacher moved up to First Grade this year, and so he has her again. That is really great! She loved him and was very accepting about his perpetual motion. Jenna has a new teacher, of course, and likes her. She said that she made a new friend too, Olivia, and was thrilled that she was able to play with Robyn at recess even though they aren't in the same class.

I am excited for this school year. I get a little nervous about keeping up with their spelling words and homework each night (yes, people, 1st and 2nd graders have homework!). We did OK with this last year, but Jenna had her fair share of failed spelling tests because of lack of practice.  Jenna is a smart girl, but she has to work harder at it. Zac picks up things lickety-split but hates to sit down and write anything. It usually is a frustrating time when it's time to do homework. Steve and I have to trade off be we lose patience. I have a schedule in place that may or may not work, also I am just going to be working M/F and then Thurs nights, so I will be home more to keep things running somewhat sane at the homestead. It always looks good on paper, I am often times lacking follow through!

So here are Jenna and Zac just before school. They were both already up and at 'em at 6:30am.They were already dressed including shoes. They hardly ate breakfast because of excitement and nerves, Zac basically bounced to the bus stop. They both had a great day. I hope they continue liking school!

Blanding for the Fourth

Blanding is THE place to be for the fourth. They have a great celebration there. It's small town America.
We left after I got off work on Friday the 1st at 7:45pm. We crossed our fingers and took the truck for  the 5-6 hour drive. We needed the bed of the truck for bikes, the dog and the cooler. No DVD player and traveling while it is getting dark is risky with little ones. Trev did well to look out the window for "an-muls", but proved to be himself as he fought sleep after 8:30. Even Jenna broke down in tears because she was so tired but couldn't sleep. We stopped off the road and fed Gage that was fussy, and the kids practiced peeing in the bushes. We arrived at 12:45am.Gage and I went to the All-night softball games at 2:45am. The games were entertaining, and apparently the tourney filled up with teams quickly. Gage fell asleep, and then we went back to Steve's parents' house. That was the point of the wee-hour excursion- Get him to sleep.

 Saturday we went to Cottonwood Wash, hoping that there would be some mountain run off, but it was bone dry. It was a nice and short adventure made worthwhile by the nice scenery and the finding of a toad. I was as excited as the kids to find the toad and was too chicken to catch him. Steve caught him for Zac. Zac squeezed the pee out of him several times. No warts noted.
 After lunch, we went to Blanding's new pool The slides are awesome. They have life jackets available, so the big kids explored and had a great time.
That afternoon, Steve's extended family started to trickle in from the Lake Powel trip. That means more good food, games and visiting.
Sunday we did not prepare well for church, and so while others went top church, we went to the 4th reservoir to throw rocks. It's so very pretty out there. The weather was perfect. The dog swam and the kids got their feet wet.
 For lunch, Julene's Navajo friend, Gloria came over and made at least 50 fry-bread. I think that Julene makes great fry bread, but having them authentic was a treat. I thought the bread had a funnel-cake quality, and I loved it. Lunch was great- Navajo tacos.

That afternoon, Julene planned a version of the amazing race. We broke into groups and raced all over town, counting things at different places like, "how many picnic tables are under the pavilion at the North Chapel?". It was fun. Steve  has the advantage of growing up there, and our map of attack worked well. Steve and I won. At least in our minds.  :) That evening we went to the 3rd Reservoir to let the dog swim and we brought the camera this time. After dinner we went on a mountain ride- One if my favorite things to do in Blanding.

Monday was the fourth, and Blanding celebrates the 4th on the fourth. The day started for us with a 5K. Steve has been training/running at the gym for months now. I signed us both up in a moment of delusional thinking. So, yes, I "ran" too. Even though, I am pretty sure I did no exercising in the entire month of June aside from mowing the grass. Steve nearly met his goal for his first 5k, just shy by 42 seconds- if he had a watch on, he would have made it. I finished in 37 minutes and 25 seconds. I was pleased that I finished and wasn't last. It was a good motivator. Steve and I plan on doing another one in October. There were 12 or 14 of Steve's family that ran, some of which did really great.
 After that, we got ready for the parade. Because Liss was home with a new baby, we didn't get the traditional picture with all the grand kids on the couch with their matching shirts... Next year. The parade was fun, but seemed exceptionally hot, maybe because I was more aware with a baby this time.

 We skipped the booths this year, but still had some chicken-on-a-stick that Kevin grabbed for us. Instead, we ate lunch, played corn-hole and listened to Ryan on his banjo, which sparked my desire again to play the guitar. I took the big kids to the pool for an hour or so to let them enjoy free swim, that was shortened by a little guy that caused a pool-evacuation because he vomited. The cousins noted that of all the kids at the busy pool, Zac was the last to get out. I mean that, the very last.

Before dinner, Zac and I ran out to watch the barrel racing. I like that it feels nostalgic, and I think of home. The suppressed country-girl inside of me loves it. Lots of kids raced, and while it is cute, it is not as exciting as the adults racing. We stayed about an hour and went home.

 That night was the fireworks on  the hillside. We go just a bit early, play with glow bracelets, and listen to the band play. The fireworks are always impressive, and just when you think it's the grand finale, there are more! Our kids enjoy the other cousins (they are all actually Steve's cousins). They are so good with the kids!

 Tuesday, Steve was able to go fish with his dad and Kevin. They didn't catch much, but half the fun for Steve is just going. We didn't do much the rest of the day aside from visiting as things settled down. We stopped at Grannie's and she was sweet to give us the blanket that is on her lap that she made years ago. I love afghans. We headed out by about 4pm. On the way home, we stopped at Wingers and ate with Kevin, Anna and Hyke.
 We were again happy to be home that night.

Back to Utah

June 6, 2011. Day 1 back home.
We were on our way early. It is always hard to say goodbye to mom. I see her standing on her deck waving. She is surrounded by green grass and hanging flowers. I see her with toys all over the deck and in the yard. I love her, and she loves my kids.

We drove for 130.5 miles and stopped in Mount Vernon, Illinois. We had McDonald's for breakfast and had the kids play at the playland while I fed the baby. The kids were very entertained by their new goodies from Buddy (Jenna got a Fur-real cat that was awesome, Zac got a transformer mask). Stop 2 was in Kingdom City, Missouri at 413.3 miles. The kids played at an outdoor playland. Trevor bit Zac and left a mark. Zac dumped a bucket on Steve at the playland that had some water in it. We had ham sandwiches and got some cheap gas and were back on the road. After we were back on the road, we thought, "Please nap on this next leg of the trip". Stop 3 was in Independence, MO. We went into BassPro, and I fed the baby. We all walked around in Bass Pro. It was a good stop. Finally, we stopped for the night in Topeka, Kansas to complete our 633.9 mile day.. We went I70 home almost exclusively for this hotel. It's a Holidome with a huge slide. We stopped here on the way to Utah a few years ago, and it was a lot of fun. The pool was so freezing. It literally felt like ice water, but there was also a good sized hot tub that was not that hot, so Trev and Gage and I played in there mostly while the kids went down the slide. Steve and I even went down the slide. It is pretty fun! Trev said in his deep 2 year old voice. "This is awesome. I happy!" For dinner, we ordered pizza. That night was not the best. Gage was feverish and continued to not co-sleep well. Jenna was in bed with Gage and me. At 2:40am he climbed up on Jenna and wanted to play. Trev had some trouble settling in, but ended up sleeping well. I did see him in the wee hours of the morning get up, run to the table and grab something and lay back down. I was too tired to care what it was. I was just relieved that he quickly seemed to go back to sleep. In the morning, we saw that it was a piece of pizza. We really party hard!

Day 2: Started off with McDonald's...can you tell we were getting lazy? and fatter? We were better eaters on the way. Anyway, McDonald's forgot the milk. It rained quite a bit on the first leg.Our first stop was in Salina, Kansas at 119 miles at Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure. We have also stopped here before and had great experiences. It is essentially a Zoo, but better! The weather was great. The Tram was fun. My favorite part were the red kangaroos- all excited and jumping everywhere. Jenna said her favorite was the boa constrictor. Zac said it was the giraffes. Trev said the camels. Steve liked the scary noises the lions were barking at each other. The kids all got stuffed-animal snakes at the gift shop, and I got a visor. I am glad that we budgeted for this stop, and we all had a great time.
 On the road again after a few hours. The kids all napped (small miracle). We then stopped at Wakeeny, Kansas after 241.0 miles. We got McDonald's and Gas. Zac had his first Big Mac ever.
 Stop 3 was another one of my favorites, in Limon, Colorado. It was a small town with a great playground at an elementary school. Gage ate, the kids played, and we got gas. Back at it, and stop 4 was in Golden, CO. We drove around everywhere sick of fast food and couldn't decide what sounded good. Things were not going so hot as the baby bawled, and we were on the hunt for something to eat. We settled on Wendy's and they forgot something in the order. The kids barely ate, and we even skipped the pool that night! I was up a lot with Gage that night.

Day 3. Almost home! The next morning we had a luxurious breakfast that daddy made us courtesy of the Hampton Inn breakfast nook. We were on the road by 6:51am. Our first stop was Rifle, CO 177.3 miles in to the day. We stopped at a McDonald's playland and let the kids play, and I fed the baby, and we grabbed a few Red Box movies. Our 2nd stop was in Price, Utah- 405 mile in to the day. Hooray- we are close, but had nearly 2 more dreadful hours to go. This is where we all melted down, and the kids stopped listening and started fighting and whining with reckless abandon.. We went in to Walmart and did calisthenics, bought some chips to go with the Subway sandwiches and then spent the rest of the ride home crying off and on. After 488.9 miles, we made it to Orem, Ut in one piece and grateful to be home!

The trip was a success overall. No accidents. No troubles.

 We saw 44 state license plates.
 We saw raccoon, deer, rabbits, prairie dogs, coyotes, antelope, cows and horses, skunks, squirrels, turkeys, mules, ducks, geese and tons of birds, and other domestic things and all the zoo animals.
 We used the GasBuddy app for gas along the way and loved having the technology of the GPS units, especially to find fun places to stop and let the kids stretch. Steve did a great job planning and budgeting for the trip. He thought of everything, and I mean that. He put a lot of time and research into the trip to make it a fun road trip for all of us. Love you Steve, and thank you!