ode to the annual pass

We love Thanksgiving Point and use our annual pass all the time including twice in the last four days. Last Friday, the older three kids were invited to Seven Peaks with their aunts so I took Sawyer and Anne to the Dinosaur Museum. Sawyer wasn't all the interested on this excursion. He had just come recently with Dave and it was crowded since it was Pioneer Day. We just walked through at his pace which was rather quick. Because we have a pass, it didn't matter how long we stayed. We went over to the Ice Cream Shop for a cone afterward and then walked around the gardens in that area.



Tonight, for Family Home Evening, Dave suggested that we go to the main gardens for our activity. He had never been there. We arrived after the Monday night activities (though luckily still in time for the popsicles). We just walked down to the first open grassy area and then played.

Tag

Mother May I

Red Light Green Light


Hold hands and run so Mom can take a picture (I love that game)


Just thirty minutes of fun before we had to hike back up the hill (and roll down a few times too). We paused to take a pretty picture, eat a few TicTacs and pile in the stroller.

To end the evening we got kid cones at the Ice Cream Shop. Cost: one dollar. Oh yes, we love Thanksgiving Point!

three years in zion

We made the great trek west three years ago. With stops in Nauvoo, Kansas City, and Ft. Collins, we drove from Virginia to Utah. I shared some feelings about living in Zion back in 2007. My feelings are still pretty much the same. I would probably choose to live in Colorado or Virginia in a heartbeat, but I am trying to focus on the positive things about life here. Especially since it looks like we'll be here a long while yet.

sunday snapshots

With nowhere to go and no one coming to our house, we almost don't know what to do with ourselves. Trying to give the kids something to do other than screaming and running through the house, I covered the kitchen table with paper and set them all to painting.



Half an hour down. Six hours to go....

six for saturday

1. Emma is participating on the Pleasant Grove swim team this summer. Dave and I both swam on swim team as children and also in high school. We both were excited to have one of our kids have that experience. Emma very nearly let her fear get the better of her and almost gave up the experience. At try-outs, after one length of the pool in warm-ups, she decided it was too hard. Fortunately, her Aunt Katie is one of the coaches and she agreed to let Emma have one more shot a few days later. Emma, along with her friend, both were able to get on the team. Since then, Emma has shown remarkable improvement. She has discovered that she likes freestyle and breaststroke best. While it isn't always fun to have the whole of Saturday morning occupied with a swim meet, I think she is rather enjoying the whole thing.


2. With June being unseasonably cold and rainy, we hardly used our pool pass. The temperatures began to heat up in July just in time for swimming lessons. I managed to get Emma, Slade and Nathan all in classes at the same time. Well, I thought I had managed that feat but the first day of lessons, I discovered that Slade was put in the following class time. Oh well. We went to the pool M-Th from 4 to 6ish for two weeks. I've decided these swimming lessons are a total waste of time and money. Of course, that opinion is a result of very limited observation since I spent most of the time at the pool trying to keep track of Sawyer while attempting to keep Anne out of the sun.

photo from Jill

3. Anne is four months old. Her recent accomplishments are rolling over, holding onto toys, and standing up in the exersaucer. She is a fantastic sleeper at night but not much of a napper. I'm totally loving having a little girl in the house again. Girl clothes are way more fun!


4. Dave and I are both trying to eat healthier, exercise more and lose some weight (well actually a lot in my case). Dave as been running in training for the Las Vegas Ragnar relay which he will be doing with his siblings. I have chosen Body for Life as my method of torture. I used this program very successfully after I had Emma but obviously not since then. This week I managed to get up early and work out every day. This is huge for me. I don't do early. As for the diet...let's just say that I ate better. My muscles have been extremely sore all week. Now that its Saturday, I can finally walk and bend a little more easily. Losing weight is a completely daunting task. I am going to have to dig deep for some motivation. I've got a long way to go.

5. My neighbor introduced me to the food storage seminar of Wendy DeWitt. I have been fully converted. In my efforts to follow her system, I have purchased a solar oven, a Food Saver, and a pressure canner. My sister in law Heather came over to help me get past my fear of pressure canning last week. Since then, I have successfully canned 48 pounds of meat. Only 317 to go. The solar oven arrived this week. I'll have to let you know how it goes when I finally get around to trying it out.

6. Dr. Lorscheider is our dentist and he is totally awesome. Not only is he nice and has an office just down the street but each year he does a patient appreciation day. Last year, we went to Jump On It. This year he bought out two theaters for the latest Harry Potter movie. We are totally too cheap to go see movies before they hit the dollar theaters so it was fun to go see Harry in its first week.

sweet land of liberty

We had a really great Independence Day. After a long morning/afternoon filled with running errands, house cleaning and decorating, food preparation, etc., we hosted the Daniel clan. I made it to bed at about 11:30 which is a fairly normal (even early) bedtime for me but it felt like 1:30 a.m. I was exhausted by a really great day.

party details:





backyard water fight:


a couple of crafts:


pictures on the porch:


fireworks to end a long but but very happy day:

God Bless the USA!

a few posts I didn't write

I didn't wish my fabulous father and most amazing husband a Happy Father's Day.

I didn't wish Colin a Happy Birthday.

I didn't wish my husband a Happy Anniversary. 11 years.

I didn't write about some of my recently-found favorite blogs:
Bakerella
Life
Our Best Bites
My Insanity

I didn't write about how I've started couponing and had my first great success--$60 of food for $5.

I didn't write about all the photo sessions I did in the last two months. I didn't write about how May and June just confirmed to me that I really can't do more than two sessions a month and not feel crazy. I didn't tell you that you can see sneak peeks from those sessions here.

I didn't write about how much I am struggling with summer. No schedules. Fighting kids. No motivation. And it hasn't even been hot yet!

Well, consider yourself updated. I think this is as good as it's going to get.

three months

Oh, this little girl! What to say? She really is such a sweet thing. Generally happy and mild tempered. She even sleeps through the night!

The other day Dave commented about how good she is. I agreed that yes, FINALLY, we got a calm, happy baby for our fifth child. His thought was that perhaps we should be done having children so that we don't mess it up. I replied that perhaps Heavenly Father sent us such a baby just so that we would keep having children. Well, either way, we're keeping our fingers crossed that she will stay so sweet.

lagoon

We finished our vacation with a day at Lagoon. We totally lucked out with great weather and small crowds. Also, I was smart enough to invite Aunt Megan to join us so we were able to divide and conquer the rides. Emma went on everything. Slade did most of the big rides. Nathan wanted to do the bigger rides but was too short. Sawyer was happy to do whatever.

I only went on about three rides. I'm not a huge thrill seeker so it was okay. I would have liked to go on a few more but it doesn't really work out with a baby. Too bad there weren't better shows to entertain me. Mostly I just sat in the shade holding Anne and eating too many snacks.

Sawyer had fallen fast asleep in the stroller by the time we took this picture. I took the boys and Anne home while Dave and Emma stayed with Megan to ride some more. The boys slept while Anne screamed the whole way home. She had been so amazingly good the whole vacation that I quickly forgave her. After pancakes for a late dinner, it was time to go to bed and say goodbye to vacation. What a wonderful time we had.

back to boise, sweets for the road

On Monday, after a lazy start to the day, we packed up all our stuff and loaded it into the van. It was really rainy so Dave didn't want to put the luggage carrier on top. Because he was driving home with us, we had one less seat and one more suitcase. The van was rather cramped. I ended up with a suitcase and all the food under my feet. Good thing I like to stretch out with my feet up on the dashboard.

We bid farewell to the Meisters and headed to east Boise to Powell's Sweet Shoppe. I didn't bother to take out my nice camera but maybe I should have. There was a feast of color and sugar all around.


We let the kids have $2.50 which sadly did not stretch as far as it should have. Still we all left happy. Our trip back to Utah was uneventful. Thankfully. We stopped at a hotel in Layton. No family suite this time. We are big enough that we have to have two rooms now. Suddenly we are a big family! Seems crazy sometimes. After a mediocre dinner from Marie Callendar's, Dave plus children went swimming while Anne and I lounged in the hotel room. We divided up into a boys' room and a girls' room. Emma and I headed off to Walmart for supplies while the boys played video games and Warcraft with Dave. This hotel was not nearly as nice as the Best Western in Boise but we all slept well enough.

back to Boise, Slade cousins

My dad is the 9th of 12 kids. There are ninety-some grandchildren. Needless to say I could pass quite a few of them on the street and not recognize them. I've been able to reconnect recently with some of my cousins through Facebook and blogs. The internet really is awesome.

On Sunday evening, we were able to go visit with some Slade family at my aunt and uncle's house in Star. My Uncle LeGrand and Aunt Dianne live in the same neighborhood as two of their daughters, Marie and Trish. They graciously accepted my suggestion of getting together on Sunday evening. We had a delicious dinner and dessert. The kids were able to get to know one another without too much of a struggle. Emma was the oldest one there and she totally took advantage of her status. At one point, several of the other kids were interviewing her.


I'm glad that we were able to enjoy a lovely Sunday evening with family. Thanks, Dianne, Marie and Trish!

back to Boise, the Meisters

We were in the same ward in Columbia Village with Neal and Kelly. We did not know them very well. I think our attempts to invite them over never worked out and then they moved out to Meridian. In 2005, we ended up back in the same ward on the other side of the country and a friendship was born in the fire of adversity that was Manassas, Virginia. When I was planning our trip up to Boise, we were inspired to invite ourselves to stay with the Meisters. I'm so glad I thought to call them because we enjoyed every minute of our stay with them.

We arrived around 9:30 on Friday night. The kids made quick work of finding new toys and getting reacquainted. Kelly, dear Kelly, got breakfast going the next morning for my children while I slept in until 9. Despite the overcast day, we went into Eagle to the Eagle Fun Days Wet and Wild Parade. The first half of the parade is just the usual stuff (although I must lament the sad lack of candy being tossed to the crowd) but the second half is all about getting wet. On a normal summer day in June this would be a lot of fun. But this June day was only in the 60s. Emma, Slade and Nathan did wear their swim suits but they were smart enough not to get too wet.


Then we were off to watch Grant's baseball game, grabbing a whole heck of a lot of McDonald's on the way for everyone. Anne and Sawyer both fell asleep so I got to stay in the car. I got to chat with my mom on the phone so it was not all bad. After the game, we left Neal and Dave to entertain themselves with Rock Band and Guitar Hero, while Kelly and I took the kids to Planet Kid, a huge indoor playplace.

Finally, we were able to go to dinner at a steakhouse called Cool Hand Luke's while the kids stayed home with a babysitter. Everything tasted great while we were there but my stomach was really not happy with me the next morning. It ached all through church but I finally was feeling better after an afternoon nap. So beware the chicken fajitas at Cool Hand Luke's, I guess.

So yet again, the trip made it clear that I have been lucky to find some great friends in my life. Thanks so much for hosting us, Meisters! It was wonderful.