Summer Vacation Part 2

Part two of my oh so long summer vacation blog. I will try not to be so long winded this time. When you think summer you think bar-b-que and we went to a few this summer. The first was a neighborhood one. We closed down one of the side streets put out a bunch of bar-b-ques, some tents and chairs and that was that. Even number houses brought sides and odds brought dessert and we all brought our own meat. It was lots of fun and a good way to meet more of our neighbors.We also went to one at the park for my friend Callie's little girl Jordan's 2nd birthday. It was great because all the kids played and we adults got to sit back and relax a little and no one's house was being destroyed in the process. Blake found this little pink scooter and was occupied for the rest of the night until the birthday girl wanted it back and they fought over it and she fell and got a black eye. I think we apologized about million times and that is when the party broke up.
This last bar-b-que was at my friend Tiffany's house. Cameron was called as the Sunday School President during the summer so we had a bar-b-que for all the counselors and their families. Tiffany's husband Mike is the second counselor and they were nice enough to let us have it at their house because they have a great deck area and their yard is shaded in the afternoon. It was fun and good way for the guys to become better friends since us wives already know each other pretty well. The top picture going clock wise starting at the bottom: Darren(Secretary), Cameron (1st counselor), Candice his wife, Mike(2nd counselor) and Tiffany and then the bottom is me, Blake, Cameron, my mom and Grace.

One fun place that my kids really like to go to has all these blow jump houses and slides. This is a great place in the winter when you can doing nothing else and they need to run and play but they begged and so I gave in. We went with my friend Chalan and her kids Blythe and Creed and my friend Jodi and her kids Gracie and Sander. I didn't have my camera on me but Jodi was nice enough to take some pictures of my kids for me. The picture to the left is Grace at the top of the giant slide trying to decided if she was brave enough to do it. Blake went no problem but Grace went up and down three times before she would finally do it. Once she did she was so proud of herself. I told her to just close her eyes and go. The pictures below are of first bottom to top:Blake, Sander, Blythe, Grace and Gracie and then on the side Blake and Grace.

These pictures I threw in for fun. Grace had the best Sunday school teachers and one Sunday they sent her home with an apple seed. She would not rest until we planted it, so we did in the backyard. Now I know nothing and about planting anything so I am sure I should have done this another way, like starting it in a cup which my husband so kindly pointed out but I didn't and I am sure it is dead but it is the experience right. For the first few days after we planted it Grace looked out the window every morning to see how big it was. When she could see nothing she would ask when it was going to grow and she could pick apples and I would say in a long time. I am very glad she has finally forgotten about it.

Of course we also made time to go to the park and ride bikes, which is a favorite of my kids. Grace got her bike for Christmas and growing up with no snow I never really thought about how hard it is for a kid to get a bike for Christmas and not get to ride it until spring, so we have tried to make up for all that time she couldn't ride it. Also as you can see from the side picture I am not a big fan of pushing my kids on the swing for like an hour so I tell them that I will push them for ten minutes right before we leave. When they start begging for me to push them I ask if they are ready to go home, if they say no I say go play some more and when you are ready I will push you. Blake gets tired of waiting and always gets Grace to push him, it's great for him because he gets extra time but poor Grace doesn't because he won't return the favor. Anyway that was our summer, hope it wasn't too boring and now on to my favorite time of year Fall!

Georgia Bar-B-Que

For a while now I have wanted to do a bar-b-que with a bunch of people I grew up with in Georgia that now live in Utah too. After some debating we decided to do it last night September 20 at our friend Josephine's house, we decided to go with her house because it is about the middle for everyone and it is the biggest. It turned out well and only a few people couldn't come. It was really great to see everyone, eat and hang out. I took pictures of everyone with their families and have put them below. I am going to put a G by the person from Georgia. I wanted to take a picture of just everyone from Georgia but it was too dark by the time everyone showed up. Anyway the picture to the left is obviously my family.Josephine-G David and Ainsleigh(she also has Michael, Victoria and MacGergor who are not pictured)
Josh, Joslyn, Jaxon and Beki-G
Rachel-G Audrey, Mike, Dorothy, Cameron and Mikey
Gracie and Rachael-G(Ryan her husband not pictured)
Jonathon-G(her wife and daughter where not able to come) Leah-G

Venna and Blake-G
Jonathon again and his sister Jenny-G
Merrill-G and Lauren-G
Donna-G and Grant-G
Melanie-G, Steve, Christian and Brooke

What We Did on Summer Vacation

I decided that I wanted to do a post about all the things we did this summer. Because of Cameron's job we can't take a big family vacation during the summer so I tired to plan fun things for the kids so they wouldn't got to bored, mostly Grace with no school or gymnastics. I am going to do this in two parts so it isn't to overwhelming so here we go. Once a month my sister-in-law Katy and I try to get the kids together for a play date since we live 45 minutes away from each other and the kids do not get to see each other often. The first thing we did for the summer was with them. We went to this children museum called the Tree House Museum in Ogden. The drive was long but worth it. The museum is so much fun and not very crowded since it is so far away. The kids loved it since it was lotsof hands on things and crafts, it even has the oval office as you will so with Grace and Maddi as Commander and Chief. This is a most do and I would love to do it again. It is ranked as one of the top 50 children's museums in the US and with good reason.

We also had the chance to go with Maddi and Preston to the zoo. The kids had lots of fun and loved looking at the animals but their favorite things were the Merry-Go-Round and the train(we had to do that twice). Also Miss Utah was there and since Grace loves everything to do with princesses she had to have her pictures taken with her. I hope that doesn't inspire a desire to be a pageant queen. I guess if it does oh well, there are worse things.

Another play date we had with Maddi and Preston was to Seven Peaks Water Park. Last summer the kids and I had passes there and they liked it so much that I decided to get them again. We went one or two times a week all summer, sometimes with Blythe and Creed who also had passes. Katy and I thought that for our July play date we would go there since it was so hot. The kids always love playing together and adding water to the mix made it even more fun. Katy's little sister Sarah also came along and poor girl got roped into taking the kids on the water slides over and over but I do think that she enjoyed it.


Seven Peaks offers swim lesson in two week sessions so since Chalan and I were already going over there to swim we decided to sign Grace and Blythe up. We took turns taking them and then the other of us would bring the boys over and we would then swim with them for a few hours. I will say of Seven Peaks swim lessons that I thought they were a waste of time and do not think my kids will take from there again.

Along with Seven Peaks we also went to the Scera pool with my friend Callie and her kids Kailey and Jordon. It was a fun pool and the kids love playing together.

The primary in my ward tries to do weekly activities for the children that cost little or no money so the kids have something fun to do at least once a week. One of the ones I went to was in a neighbors yard with lots of different water activities. These are just a few of the pictures I took.Another activity my ward did was to go bowling and since my kids love to bowl I took them. Can you imagine seven kids and three adults. Two where babies but still it was crazy, they didn't really want to take turns. Blake also decided one of the lanes wasn't clean enough so he turned on the lane cleaner. I guess that wore him right out because after that he kept laying down all over the place like he was sleeping, even on the ball return. Grace decided she needed a picture laying down too since Blake had one. It was a lot of work but fun. Good thing we were the only ones in there. The picture to the left is of all the kids who played and doesn't it capture the personalities of children well.

The last thing I am going to post today is the Animal Farm at Thanksgiving Point. Obviously from other posts I love Thanksgiving Point. I had never taken the kids here before so my friend Britti and I decided to go one day. This is probably my least favorite place but it is cheap and the kids get a free pony ride. The picture is of Blake, Jackson, Grace and Max. Below is all the kids on their ponies. Of course Grace had to have the biggest one. She also told me that next time we come she will bring her cowgirl hat for the ride. Well that's enough for now, I will finish summer later and the next one will not be this long.

Thank You

Last Thursday was my birthday and Cameron had already told me that he would not be home in time to do anything with me to celebrate, we would have to do it on the weekend. I said whatever and planned on taking the kids and me out to dinner and then to the BYU Creamery for ice cream because they have the best hot fudge sundays. Anyway a couple of days before my friend Callie asked what we were doing and I told her. She said that there was no way I was having a birthday and no cake so she made me one. And not just any cake but a German Chocolate one with homemade frosting my favorite. She even had all the kids(hers, her nephews and mine)sing to me and I got to blow out candles, not by myself of course. I am glad she got numbers and didn't put all those candles on there or we could have been there all night. She even took pictures for me. Anyway I just wanted to tell her thank you for the cake and being such a great friend. A couple of weeks ago she totally took pity on me because my husband was hunting yet again and invited me to a family bar-b-que at her sister and brother-in-laws house. It was lots of fun. They have a great kid friendly backyard complete with an in ground tramp, huge sandpit and a fire pit. I almost forget I had to spend Labor Day weekend alone. Anyway thank you again Callie you really are a great friend!

Dino Museum

Last Sunday we took a drive out to Vernal to do some bids for Cameron's work there and in Roosevelt. The drive took so long and the kids were really bored and tried of being in the truck so we decided to stop at the Dinosaur museum in Vernal. It was pretty fun and had some things for the kids to play with. Blake's favorite part was the Woolly Mammoth. He loves Ice Age and Manny the Mammoth is his favorite, he even has on his Mammy shirt. When we pulled into the parking lot there was a car there with Glynn County plates on it(that is where I am from in Georgia). When we payed and signed the visitor log the people on the list before us were from St. Simons Island. There were only four other people in the museum so I found these people pretty easy and told them that I was also from Brunswick. They said that they had heard of my parents but they did not know them. That's ok it is just kind of weird to be all the way in Vernal, Utah and met people from my home town, the world is a small place.

On the way home Cameron wanted to show me a driveway they had paved in Heber. It was like a two hour drive up to the house and then he decided to go a different way home through the Unita National Forest on a very bumpy dirt road so we could look for Elk since it was the last day of the hunt. I guess I should have been concerned when I saw him bring his bow to the truck. While we were driving along at like 5 mph Grace saw names on a lot of the trees and wanted to put her name on one also. Since Cameron had his hunting stuff he had a knife so he a Grace got out and put her name on a tree. Well this made Blake a little sad so Cameron let him do his name too, it was really cute.We finally made it home at 8 and left at 10, it was a really long day but we had a lot of fun together.

Baby Savannah

Cameron's older brother Dan and his wife Katy had their third child on August 28. Her name is Savannah Meg, she was 7 lbs 2 oz and 19.5 inches. I was able yo sneak up there that day and see her and her family at the hospital. I left the kids with my friend Chalan because they can be overwhleming in small places or big places too for that matter! It was good that they went there because when Grace found out where I was going she was pretty upset with me but at least she had Blythe.
This is their family left to right Maddi, Savannah, Katy, Preston and Dan
When I got home that day Grace made me promise I would take her up to see the baby so we where all able to go up last Saturday and take them dinner and visit. My kids where so excited they love babies. When I woke Blake up from his nap I asked him if he wanted to go see Preston and he said "No Maddi's baby". That is her name around our house not Savannah or even Aunt Katy's baby.I think that Blake thinks he is the big brother. This kid loves babies.
Grace was so happy to finally see Savannah and she was very good at holding her.

Katy says that Maddi is a great big sister, very protective making sure people wash their hands before they hold her. She loves to just hold her all day. We are so happy for Dan, Katy and their family. Congrats!

Preschool

Grace started the first day of her second year of preschool this week. Wednesday was the first official day and I got to go along with her for orientation. Her teacher had planned a little scavenger hunt around the classroom so they could all become familiar with it. We got to read a story, build with blocks, play with toys and Grace got her whole body traced. I am very excited about this school and very happy with her teacher from what I have seen so far. I learned about this school from my friend Chalan after her daughter Blythe went there last year. Mrs. Wall was a public school teacher before she opened her preschool in the 80's. They are going to be doing several field trips through out the year and I have to go in for a cooking project with the letter of the week so I will keep updating on how she is doing.
I know the picture of her jumping is not the great but I really liked it and how happy she was after going to school for the first time. Thursday morning she came in my room and asked if she got to go to school today. I had to say no and she cried. I guess that is a good sign that she likes it. In the left picture we are seeing how tall she is and she is 40.5 inches.
Grace's teacher was very specific about the type of bag she could bring to school, it had to be a certain size and have no buttons, zippers, or snaps and have her name on it. This is all to make things run smoothly and take less time at the end of the day. I thought it would be fun to make her one so we went to the fabric store and she picked out the fabric and then I made it. The making of it was not to hard. I made up my own pattern loosely based on the birdie bag I made before. The handles are a little wide but oh well. Also I decided to hand stitch her name on after the bag was finished so it would hold the in and outsides together a little better and that was hard sewing inside the bag and the letters are not straight but I think it turned out ok and Grace likes it.
I told her that I would post a picture of her finished full body portrait because she got to paint it today at school. When we got home with it and we where unrolling it so I could see what a good job she had done she started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said that's not me. We unrolled it and sure enough they had sent the wrong person home with us. She is very upset and I have promised to call her teacher today to see what can be done to get her back. When I get it, it will be posted. Also yes her hair is cut short. Last week we got her a first day of school hair cut by her good friend Leah. It is so cute but I do have to blow it dry for it to look that way so a little of a pain. Oh well she looks so cute and grown up I can hardly believe it is her.