The Last Hurrah!

This last weekend we took the kids to Utah for one last Hurrah before school starts in a week and a half. We spent Thurs. night and Friday with Mary and Clyde. On Friday we went to Maddox which was most delicious!!!! After dinner on Friday we headed to Salt Lake where the kids were jumping around all over the place in the hotel. We took them down to the pool, which was quite possibly one of the coldest pools in North America. (Second only to the pool in Laramie, Wyoming where Andy and Clyde suffered from possible hypothermia after taking Carson and Garett down the waterslide once in the hotel we stayed at during our horrific move from West Virginia.) One family came in and said, "Hey, let's go across the street and use the Little America pool. It's warmer than this one." We are not sure they were even checked into the hotel as we didn't see them again during our stay. We suspect they are just local residents who enjoy hotel pool hopping. The kids didn't seem to think it was cold at all (despite the intense shivering from Jaxon). They said, "you just have to keep moving around and then you are fine." The next morning we tanked up at the free breakfast and headed to Temple Square. We thought the kids would like it seeing as we really haven't taken them there recently. You would have thought we were dragging them through boiling oil by their toenails with the amount of complaining and whining and crying that ensued. "I'm hot! When are we going to the car? I'm tired of walking! My feet hurt! I'm tired! I'm hungry! This is boring! When are we going to be done?" Looking back it probably didn't help that all of the kids had way too little sleep and way too many treats the night before. I should clarify that Carson was great and Garett was mostly good. It was Kelsi and Jaxon that did not seem to be enjoying our attempt at creating some great family memories. I guess we did create some memories...just not the ones that I envisioned. After a tour of the conference center (which Jaxon did a boogie dance throughout because he really had to go to the bathroom and for some reason our tour guide seemed to believe that the ONLY bathroom was down on the first level), a trip to the Chistus statue (which we heard in Spanish), a quick trip through the South visitors center, a tour of the Beehive house, and a family "touch the temple" photo (above) everyone had had enough. We then went to the Mayan to eat. That's the restaraunt where the divers come out and do a little show and dive off of cliffs in the restaraunt. We thought the kids would be thrilled with this. We get there and Jaxon says, "Why is this so dark? Why are there trees all over in here?" So I say, "It's supposed to make you feel like you are in a jungle. Do you feel like you are in the jungle?" To which he replied, "Not really because there are tables and seats in here." They actually really did like the diving show. The divers even came over to our table to talk some jibberish (made up Mayan language, perhaps?) So Carson gave them each a french fry and then they went away. The food was sub-par I thought. I'm not sure why a Mexican place sprinkles parmesean cheese all over ALL of the food. It's a little perplexing. After "Dunch" (Carson's name for Lunch and Dinner) we drove home and I was ready for a vacation from our vacation.
Change of subject: Carson spoke in Sacrament Meeting today and did a stellar job! He wrote most of the talk himself. I just help it flow a little bit. He told us today, "You know it's a lot better if you can get them to laugh in a talk. Then they have a happy smiley face and not a scary serious face." He made them laugh twice...so good for him. And that is our exciting weekend.

Watching cartoons in the hotel room.

Lava Hot Springs!

On Saturday we took the kids to Lava Hot Springs! We met Andy's fam there. The picture of Jaxon (top) is of him right after he went down the twisty tubes! He's saying, "That was SO Awesome!!!!!" The photo of Kelsi (top) is at the end of the day when the pool was closing and we told her it was time to go home! She was not super thrilled about that announcement, I think.

We got to Lava just in time to get changed, slather ourselves in SPF 100, set up the "sportbrella", arrange all of our many varied bags of snacks and coolers of drinks, and then promptly get kicked out of the waterpark due to lightning in the area! So we sat on the side of the road for 45 minutes or so while Andy's mom fed us chips, crackers, and squirt cheese from the can. Luckily the storm moved through fairly quickly and they let us back in. We enjoyed the rest of the day with spectacular weather. The boys especially loved the "death drop" slides...you know the ones where you shoot straight down and then you get a super wedgie at the bottom. Kelsi and Jaxon spent most of the day "swimming" in the shallow pool. Mostly Kelsi dragged me around screaming, "let go of my life jacket...I can swim by myself!" (Which she really couldn't.) All in all it was a SWELL day at the pool except for the fact that I GOT A SUNBURN!!!! AUGH!!!! After all of my precautions, I forgot to reapply! And I only got burned in splotchy spots. One spot on my neck, one on my shoulder, one on my upper arm, etc., etc. So it's not even an EVEN sunburn...I look like Splotch woman!

Other events of the week: The boys have officially taken over the job of cleaning the office all by themselves. Which translates into three hours every night of me saying, "Come on boys, I'm not paying you to mess around!" They have gotten slightly faster as the week has progressed so there is a glimmer of hope that I won't be spending all evening, every evening at the office training the boys in the art of janitorial services. One more story: One night during scripture study Garett was reading about David and Goliath. He read about a place called Ephes-dammim. Jaxon looked at him and said, "Ephes-dammim? Ephes-dammim?????? I KNOW HIM!!!!!"

THE END!

Our summer in a nutshell!

Hello! Hey, my second post...and not in seven months...still no photos! So for those of you that I've left completely in the dark, here is our summer in a nutshell. June was spent at the cabin with Andy's family. It was a great time and the kids loved being with all of their cousins. We went to Yellowstone where we ate lunch with a giant herd of Mama buffalo with their new babies. We also got thrown up on by Old Faithful. It was fairly windy and when Old Faithful erupted all we could see was a big cloud of steam coming our way. We must have been mesmerized and hypnotized because we all just stood there watching the steam ball getting closer and closer. The steam finally got to us along with a shower of sulfur water...YUCK! The rest of June was spent getting ready for girls camp. That was stress!!!!! Camp went well. There were no tears, no fights, and really not any drama (that I know of). So I consider that a HUGE success. I did only get 6 hours of sleep the entire time we were there and the belt on my tire burst on the way to Playmill. Thankfully we were near a gas station with a garage with a priesthood leader who works at a tire store who knew exactly what to do (like which air hose was the right one to use--I was trying to use the one you blow up inner tubes with). Ten minutes and ten bucks later and we were on the road....blessings!
After girls camp, Andy headed off to Scout camp with Carson and Garett. That was Stress for him!!!!!! Half way through camp Garett barfed in the tent! Andy and Clyde had the sheer pleasure of cleaning up puke while camping (one of my nightmares). Garett ended up coming home early...poor kid. Oh, I almost forgot....right before girls camp Andy was called to be the first counselor in our bishopric...more stress for him. So far he does NOT enjoy conducting! After camps were over we had a week to recover then Brett, Kim and Tyler came to our neck of the woods for his 20 year high school reunion! We went to Yellowstone with them and after SIX years of going to Yellowstone every summer we finally saw a BEAR!!!!! Yes a real live bear in the wild...not even at Bear world. Unfortunately my camera was "processing" and then I was yelling at the kids to calm down because they were screaming at the top of their lungs so I didn't even get proof of the event. I think Brett got a photo but then he said it got erased somehow. You'll just have to take our word for it. We got to spend a week hanging out with Brett's family...it was terrific!!!!! Tony, Jenna and cutie pie Ari came to Idaho next and we had like a mini reunion, complete with a smokin' game of soccer in the backyard (none of my flowers or lights are the same) and a fast paced Uno competition (the only kind Tony will play--the other kind is too boring). We also played a couple of games of laser tag, went to Twizzleberry twice, and saw The Sorcerers Apprentice (a pleasant surprise) and The Last Airbender (totally lame...in my opinion).
This last week was spent trying to catch up on all of the cleaning I've been neglecting all summer long and laundry....EXCITING!!!!!
Oh Yeah, all three boys are playing soccer this summer too. They each have two games a week, same day...sometimes same time...different places.
We only have like three more weeks until school starts! Wow! Where did the lazy days of summer go?
Today I poured boiling water on my hand so that was really dumb and now I have a big burn on my hand....Youch!
O.K. so there you go...If you can read through that crazy, disjointed post...Kudos to you!