3 Randoms

#1 

A few weeks ago Will's company had a "family day" up in Park City.  I have to admit I wasn't expecting much.  I mean, they gave us tickets to Lagoon last year and Jacey still talks about it. (Mom, when can we go to The Goon again?)  So I didn't think that the Alpine slide was going to impress her much.  I was wrong!  Jacey loved the both the slide and the coaster, and Londyn was in heaven on the old rickety carousel they had.  The attendant on the carousel left us on there for 20 minutes at a time.  No joke.  Will finally had to ask her if the ride was about over before she would finally turn it off.  All of the adults were turning green, but the kids had a great time.  Jacey also jumped on the trampoline with the bungee cords.  She kept trying to do a back flip, but the cords were just a little bit stronger than she was.  So she mostly just back-flopped.  Nathan jumped too and that was rather amusing.  (Sorry Nate, but you looked funny.) 

I was excited to get to go on the zip line - I'd never been on one before.  Nathan and I went up and got in line, but when we were about 3rd in line they had some trouble with the little mechanism that returns the harness to the top, so they shut it down.  I was bummed, but they said they'd reopen in later.  Well we waited and waited and finally just before they closed, we saw some people going down.  So we ran back to the lift and made in on just as they were closing.  We were the last ones up for the night.  It was a RUSH!  I thought that since you go so fast that it would be over really quickly, but it seemed to just keep going and going.  I loved it.  It may have helped, however, that it was dark so I couldn't really see how far away the ground was. 

Anyway, I'm rambling now.  The girls got their faces painted like butterflies.  Londyn kept wiping hers on my pant leg.  Grrrr.  These are about the only pictures I took - I took my camera back to the car when I had to change Londyn's diaper so that I could ride the zip line without worrying about it. 

 

#2 

If you have to do an "all about me" poster or project or something for your kiddos this year, you may find this useful. 

Last year my sister called me and asked me if I had any pictures of Natalyn swimming.  I said sure.  Then she asked if I had a picture of peanut butter.  Huh??  Apparently Natalyn had to do a poster for being the spotlight student that week or something, and Marie was looking for pictures of her favorite things.  Well, I didn't have a picture of peanut butter, but I knew how to find one.  On this website you can download high-res photos of all sorts of random things.  (There are other websites - just Google "free stock photography".) 

Jacey had to do an "all about me" page to share at preschool, so we found pictures of pizza, ballet shoes, roller coasters (see above reference to "The Goon"), crayons and waffles.  I had them printed at walmart, along with a few others that I had of her doing things she loves like swimming and reading stories.  Jacey told me what pictures to search for and then she glued the printed pictures down on the poster.  I thought about having her write captions, but she's just too young - her writing skills are . . . still developing.  Anyway, easy peasy.  Way easier than digging through old magazines.

#3 

Speaking of preschool, can you believe I almost forgot to take a picture of her first day???  As I was getting the kids in the car, I saw my neighbor taking photos of her kindergartner.  Doh!  Pictures! 

Jacey LOVES preschool.  I am so glad we ended up signing her up.  I asked her after her first day if she made any friends.  She said "Well, I almost made friends with a girl playing in the kitchen, but then I didn't."  I didn't really get that - I mean how do you almost make friends?  I thought maybe something happened - somebody said something mean or something?  I didn't get it.  Well yesterday she came home today and said "Mom!  I made a friend today!  Her name is Zoe."  I said "That's great Jacey, how did you make friends with her?"  And she said "She was playing in the little kitchen and I went over there and said 'Hi!  Do you want to make friends?' and she said 'Sure'!"  Funny girl. 

Bring on September

As much as I love summer, I am really looking forward to the Fall.  For several reasons.

1.  Because I love September.

2.  Because I love college football.

3.  Because my folks are coming to stay with us.  And I am really looking forward to that.  They'll be here in just over a week!!

4.  Because Jacey is starting preschool, and she is almost as excited as I am.

5.  Because I am hoping that the extra structure and routine that comes with school starting will snap us out of our we've-forgotten-there-are-any-rules-at-this-house funk.

I am a person who really clings to a routine for dear life.  When it gets thrown off, I feel like I'm treading water - panicky and unsettled.  And so starting next week, I am hoping to put my house back in order.  Starting with an FHE devoted to just that - laying down the schedule and a reminder of the rules.  I've been sitting here planning it out as I have my lunch.  I just really feel like we need a clean slate to start over on a lot of bad habits we've developed this summer (mostly too much TV).  I love that FHE gives me a little forum to talk about stuff like this without making the kids feel like they're getting in trouble.  Well, hopefully that's how it feels to them.  I guess we'll see.

A picture to leave you with:  after getting ready for church on Sunday.  (Notice the curlers still in Londyn's hair.  Oops.)

My 2₵ on the Twilight series

I liked it.  I didn't love it.  I've been waiting a few weeks to post this because I didn't want to spoil it for you die-hards out there.  But there ARE spoilers in this post, so be ye warned. 

Here's my ranking of the books:

1. Twilight
2. Eclipse
3. Breaking Dawn
4. New Moon

I actually really liked Twilight and would still recommend that one.  Just not 100% sure about the rest of the series.  I can honestly say that I did NOT like New Moon.  Just too much of the same thing over and over and over again.  And ohhh the whining.  Enough already.

I like a good story, and Stephenie Meyer is obviously a good story teller.  She's no JK Rowling in my mind, but still, I liked the story.  So of course I read Breaking Dawn when it came out a couple of weeks ago.  And over all, I guess I liked it.  I didn't love it.  I liked the beginning and middle more than the end.  I didn't really feel like it was "The End."  There are so many splinter stories that could happen.  And some things I felt were a little forced - like Charlie's reaction and role in the whole thing.  And the fact that the final battle wasn't exactly a battle didn't really build up to a climatic ending for me. 

But here's my real beef. 

I realize that these books extend well beyond an LDS audience.  And I am sure that Ms. Meyer has editors and publishers who perhaps have an agenda to push as well.  But I was really disappointed with how she handled the whole sex thing. 

She created a charming, likable character who wanted to go about things the right way.  He insisted that they be married before being intimate to protect her virtue.  I dug that.  I appreciated it.  I liked the fact that, if my daughters read these books when they're teenagers, they would take that message away from it.  But I think that she ruined it in Breaking Dawn.  Instead of finding a way to say "This is wonderful - I'm so glad we did this right," she basically said "Wow- sex is really great.  All of you good teenage girls are really missing out."

I guess I wanted her to be a little more explicit with the moral - to somehow find a way to say "Wow- sex is really great when you're married.  All of you good teenage girls will be so glad you waited."

And I realize that the whole sentiment was kind of important to the storyline, but I just wish she conveyed the message that "This is really great because I am so in love and so committed to this person that I married him," not just because all of her senses were so acute and what not.  I came away thinking Well, she's just dangling a big juicy carrot in front of the noses of millions of curious teenage girls.  Or if they weren't curious before, they are now.  I felt like she was in a position where she had an opportunity to really make a statement for marriage and waiting and all that, and (in my mind at least) she didn't do that.  And that bummed me out.

Maybe someday we'll get the whole series in Edward's point of view and we'll get the moral then.  Who knows.  I know Bella didn't want to be married so that obviously would have been a little tricky to get her to say "I'm glad we waited."  But a good story-teller can always find a way. 

Just my opinion.

Teeny little super models

Do you remember this guy?

I've had his song stuck in my head for nearly a week now.

I got to take some photos last week for a friend of a friend who wanted some photos for her business. She makes and sells hair bows, so she brought her 3 daughters to model the bows for us. Oh my heck, these girls were stinking adorable. Seriously. I kept getting distracted by their FACES and I had to keep reminding myself that I was supposed to be taking pictures of the bows. Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of my favorites. You'll see what I mean.

I am SO glad that I did this - I was really nervous about it because I've never taken pictures for anybody but friends and family. But I am learning that practice is really the best way to improve, and I really do want to improve.

I also got to take some photos recently for a friend/neighbor of her new baby girl. You can see some of them on her blog here. The whole time I was there I kept thinking to myself "Wow, I really should stop referring to Londyn as a baby." You forget how tiny they once were until you hold a real baby again.

Okay, on to other topics. Sorry if I bore you with all the photo-talk.

We took a super-quick trip down to Vegas on Thursday. We headed down after work so we could help with the packing/moving. This was only phase 1 - there's still phase 2 to be done at the end of the month, but scheduling isn't going to let us go down then. So we thought we'd go help bring up the first truckload. Everything is going into storage for now while my folks house-hunt.

Will would probably disagree, but I think I held myself together quite well. We were busy the whole time, right up until we ran out the door Saturday to drive back to Utah. So there wasn't a ton of time to get emotional about it all. We played games on Friday night around the kitchen table with a bowl of M&Ms and I had to really try not to think about the fact that it would be our last time. But I did kind of choke up when we left town.

I have a confession to make - I've never loved Las Vegas. It was always just, you know, where I happened to live. I don't mean that I didn't like living there - I liked my schools, and I liked my ward - but I didn't ever feel any real sense of attachment to the city itself. And in recent years as Las Vegas has more proudly touted it's evil image, I have liked it even less. (The whole "what happens in Vegas" thing - don't get me started.) But as we were driving away I really surprised myself by realizing that I was going to miss Las Vegas! Who knew? I guess there is enough history there now that I really feel connected to it.

Anyway, so that was that. And now my folks will load up the 2nd truck at the end of the month and will be staying with us for a while until they find a house they want to buy. Which we are very excited about. And Jacey is going to freak. We're selfishly hoping they don't find a house for a loooong time. :)