Another Try

My Parents were in town last week for my cousin's wedding so we gave visiting my Grandma's another try. I am happy to report that no one got sick.

The kids loved helping my Grandma dig up her corn and feeding it to the horses.

















After the horses were fed they enjoyed an Apple right off the tree. We even picked a few to bring home for a pie.

We spent the whole day there. The kids worked and played hard and can't wait to go again.

Boy They Are Fast

1 Box of Markers....2 Boys.......Mom in the other room for 3 minutes.

Any Questions?

First Day of School

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

The Kids were all excited for the first day of school.

They finally got to wear their new clothes and Emily was happy to see all of her school friends again. Her friend Samantha came running up to say hi. Emily and Lindsey are in the same class this year. They are a little disappointed because they did not get the teacher they wanted, but they are happy to be with each other.

Emily's first day of 4th grade


Joe's first day of Preschool

We met Joseph's new teachers on Friday. He was being really shy then, so I walked him into his class today. His teacher said hello and showed him where his cubby was and then he turned to me and said, "By mom I will see you after school." Then he ran off to play. I wonder if he is going to tell me what he does at school this year or if it will be his secret again?

Josh was sad when he realized that he was not going to school, but he got over it when he got home and had the place all to himself.

Summer was lots of fun, but I am enjoying a little bit of down time myself.

Good Intentions

I always have good intentions when it comes to visiting my Grandma and Grandpa, but I don't get out to see them as often as I should. They only live an hour away, and my kids love going to their house. This last year it seemed like every time I even thought about going for a visit one of my kids would get sick. As summer started flying by I decided it was time to pick a day and go for a visit. My brother Jon and I decided to go together because he was also due for a visit. (not as due as I was)



I love going to my Grandma's. The best description I have for her house is Better Homes and Gardens. She is always redecorating, Making handmade crafts, her gardens are always beautiful, and there is always yummy food to eat. (Even if it is warmed up leftovers.) The past few years she has had to slow down a little because of her Arthritis, but she still has her projects.


That morning the kids ate a big breakfast, got dressed and then we headed to Grandma's house. She always has a few jobs for us to help her with and Emily is always excited to do them.


This time we helped her cut back her flowers that were done for the season and weed in her garden. Joshua and Joe helped by putting the cut flowers in the garbage.


Emily was able to find a few good daisies and made a bouquet out of them.




The kids were doing great when we got there, but by lunch Joseph was not acting like himself and didn't want to eat. I touched his head and it was burning. I realized that as hard as I tried to only bring healthy kids to visit, Joe was sick. Hoping that I did not already infect everyone. I hurried and got my kids in the car and headed for home. The good news is Joseph never really had any other symptoms but a fever. I don't know what it is with my kids and my grandparents, but maybe next time we will be able to visit without illness.

Miracle

When Ryan and I got married I was very aware of his feelings about camping and I knew that we would never do any camping whatsoever. Camping for Ryan is a Motel 6. I was fine with this. I like to go hiking and the outdoors, but sleeping in a tent is not really my idea of fun either. This was working fine for us, but Emily loves nature and as she has gotten older she has started to ask to go camping. I kept telling her that when she turned 12 she would be able to go to girls camp and that would be great. She still kept asking and Joe joined in the chorus also. We continued to tell them that they would have plenty of opportunity to camp when they were older.




Then the ward camp out was announced. Ryan was still very against camping, but the idea appealed to me a little. We would be able to give the kids the experience of camping and only have to do a portion of the work. All of the food and campground activities would be provided. All we would have to do is pitch our tent and roll out our sleeping bags, and it was only one night. So I decided to talk to Ryan about going. He said no. Camping was not for him. A few days passed and I talked to a couple of my friends who were going with their family. Emily really wanted to go and I was willing to take her. My friends offered to help me if I just wanted to bring Emily and go. I knew Ryan would not be excited about his girls going camping "alone" even if it was with the ward, but I thought I would give it a try. So I told Ryan that I was going to take Emily on the ward camp out. That was all it took and suddenly the whole family was going. We began finding camping equipment. Luckily we have family who camp so we were able to borrow most of what we needed. (Thanks Jon and Ron).


Last Friday was the camp out. We were a little worried about rain, but it ended up staying dry and we had a great time. We ended up taking two borrowed tents to fit our family. Ryan Josh Joseph and I slept in one and Emily and her friend Lindsey slept in the other. Lindseys family was also there, but we thought it would be fun for the girls. The activities committee did a great job with all of their activities and the kids loved running around in the trees.

They had a campfire around 9:00pm and the kids got to roast marshmellows. Then they told a few stories. after the program the leaders took groups on a cat eye hike. The committee had gone around and put reflecting stickers on trees around the camp so when you shined your light on them they looked like cat eyes. The storey teller told the kids that we needed to get all of the baby cougars back to their mother so that the cougars (BYU ) could have a good season. Our Bishopric are all BIG U of U fans so as soon as that was said the bishop almost cancelled the hike. On the hike we did get close enough that you could see the eyes were stickers. I liked that because Joseph was really into the moment. Emily was having fun with it too.

After the hike we got the kids in bed and visited around the fire. When we finally climbed into our sleeping bags I asked Ryan if he was glad we came. It was a miracle. Ryan said yes and that we need to buy a big tent for our family so we would have it for "next time."

The kids all slept really well (even though I accidentally left Josh's "night, night" at home) Ryan and I have had better nights of sleep so I was worried in the morning that he had changed his mind so I didn't bring it up again.

They had lots of games and activities for the kids to do in the morning while we got our stuff packed up again.
Joe loved building his marshmallow cannon and shooting the marshmallows.
Josh was really happy to play with the bubbles. I had never thought of using a fly swatter as a bubble blower before. I was surprised how well it worked and the kids liked using it to pop the bubbles too. Emily tried out all of the activities including joining the teenagers in their game of volleyball for a few minutes. We made it home alive, and Ryan is still talking about purchasing a tent, so maybe we will camp again. I think I am for camping as long as it is a group camping trip. It was really nice having someone prepare the food, campfire, and activities, and the fresh mountain air was really nice.

Summer Vacation

Last week we took our annual summer vacation to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Washington. It was nice visit my Family and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins. The cooler weather was also a nice change.

One thing I wanted to do while we were there was to get some berries. My parents live in the best place for berries and while we were there the blue berries and raspberries were ready for picking.

We had lots of helpers in the blueberry patch and they were good little pickers. Even though the temptation was big they picked a few more than they ate.

We did not have access to Raspberry bushes that still had fruit on them so we headed to Bizi Farm to buy some. The kids love going to Bizi Farm because the animals are so fun to feed and pet. The goats were really excited when they saw the kids come to the food machine. They stuck their heads through the fence and tried to reach the food when it came out.

Grandpa took a few days off of work and helped keep the kids entertained. We took our kids miniature golfing for the first time. The older kids went on one side with grandma and grandpa and the babies went with their moms. They all seemed to have lots of fun.

Josh kind of understood the concept. He would hit the ball from the tee and then pick it up from where ever it stopped and go place it right next to the hole and then hit it in. I started off with a hole in one but went downhill from there.

Thursday we went to Lewisville Park and had a picnic with smores. The kids all got wet playing in the river and then dried off with a game of kickball.

Ryan brought his bike to the park to ride on the trails. He was having a good time but he took the path the wrong way and ended up crashing. Luckily nothing was broken, but he was scraped up pretty bad. I still don't know if he was excited or upset that he crashed because the first thing he did when he got back was take pictures of his injuries. (I will spare you having to look at those. Maybe he will post them on his blog)

We drove to Washington and were able to bring Ryan's, Emily's and my bikes with us. My mom and Amy both bought new bikes right after we arrived, so one of the main activities we did throughout the trip was go on bike rides. Salmon creek trail is right by my parents house and it was a fun trail to take the kids on. The main trail is paved and there are dirt paths that cross into it that the older kids and Ryan had fun trying out. My sister Ellen had a bike trailer so we were able to take the younger kids with us. Joseph used an extra bike his cousins had. My mom came with us on a couple of the rides, but I think we wore her out by the time we left.

When we were at Grandma's house the kids spent time on their bikes having races up and down the street. My parents live at the end of a dead end road so there is not much traffic. We thought after the 5 to 7 mile bike ride they would be tired but they just kept going. By Thursday afternoon they started acting a little tired.

Early Friday morning (12:30ish) Joshua woke up with croup. After a couple of hours trying a few home remedies we finally decided we could not avoid the Emergency room. Luckily the emergency room was not too busy and because croup comes with breathing problems they got us in pretty fast. They ended up putting us in an ICU room because the pediatric Emergency was closed. This was nice because the room was a little more private and quiet.
The doctor got Josh on the steroid treatment, but then we had to sit and wait for an hour to make sure that it was working. Josh fell right to sleep after the torture part was over and slept until it was time to go.

Josh spent Friday lying around sleeping and wanting to be held. The rest of the kids were tired from a fun week of playing so Grandpa decided to take them to the Movies. Ryan and Grandma stayed home with Josh and Bethany.(Ellen's baby) The rest of us went and saw Space Chimps. That would not have been my first choice of movies, but it was perfect for the kids, and I ended up enjoying the movie also. It went along the lines of a Saturday morning cartoon with some nerd jokes thrown in here and there but it was totally geared toward the kids and even the youngest two who are two and three sat through the whole movie and were entertained. (I am sure that the popcorn and candy helped a little.)

Friday night I finally found a worthy opponent for the Wii game Big Brain Academy. My dad is close, but I am still able to beat him every time(usually only by seconds), but Ellen was able to beat me a couple of times. We won't talk about the other wii games. I got creamed on all of those.

Saturday we made the long drive home and Joseph informed me that Grandma's house is way better than our house, because we get to do lots of things there, and have blueberry muffins.

Thanks for the fun times. I can't wait until next time :)

New Bikes

Emily had a tough time choosing the bike she liked the best. After writing down the pros and cons of each bike and test riding all of them she chose this one. She loves it and is having fun learning how to use her gears. She rode all the way up a big hill to the park the other night with her new bike. (Ryan is so proud)

Joe loves his new bike.

I have to watch him a little closer now because he thinks he is big enough to ride around the block by himself like Emily. I am waiting for the day he decides he can ride to Grandma's house like dad.

Josh has inherited Joseph's Shark bike and is excited to say that it is his. But he is not quite ready to give up his Fred Flinstone ride.