It's What Fun Is

We spent the day yesterday at Lagoon.  We had a blast.  Here are some pictures as proof.  Addy and I spent most of the day together riding rides while Steve took the older 3 kids on all the rides Addy was too short to ride. (It had nothing to do with the fact that I'm getting old and have no desire to spin at ridiculously high speeds.  And don't even get me started on how claustrophobic those restraints are!)

We all met up for a little lunch on the lawn.

  Then the girls and I decided to beat the heat by going to Lagoon-a-Beach.  We couldn't have timed it better.  Just as we were getting in the water, it got very cloudy and windy and FREEZING!

After our jaunt in the pool, we met up with the boys and rode some

 rides together that we could/would all go on. 

Addy had been begging all day to play a game so she could win a prize.  She really wanted one of these big giant scary looking things.  Since we were all alone again and I didn't have to fork out enough cash for all the kids to play a game, I gave in and let her play.  Unfortunately she didn't win and we were not able to bring such a lovely prize home.  But she wasn't going to give up.  We passed a horse race thing and it said, "The first one to get their horse to the finish line wins a prize!"  There was not another soul in sight so I thought, SURE!  I'll let her play that game for $2 and win a prize.  But the girl in charge said that we couldn't play with just one player.  I was like, well, if there's no one else that wants to play your dumb game...But I said fine, I would play too.  I could waste $4.  After I said I would play she then informed me that since it was just the 2 of us playing, she had to raise the price to $3 a person.  SAY WHAT???  This is why I so strongly dislike carnival people.  So I forked out my 6 bucks and received an assurance from the carnival chick that one of us, Addy or I, would be taking  home a dang prize.  So we played the game.  One of us won.  She pulls out the prize which is this little frog, but she doesn't give it to us.  She says, "This is your prize for playing this round.  If you want to play another round (and here she pulls out a giant koala bear and places it next to the tiny frog) you win this".  Oh, you evil little carnival spawn.  I know you are just doing your job, but how can you sleep at night?  I said, "We'll take the CUTE little frog, thanks..."  

 Addy was happy with it!

 A visit to Lagoon wouldn't be complete without seeing a few old and dear friends there.  

We saw our friend Collin and his son.

Aubrey saw her friend Indigo

And Emily found her BFF from our old neighborhood, Rylee.  

Unfortunately they didn't find each other until about 20 minutes before the park closed.

It was an awesome day, we had a blast and we made some fun memories.

Summer Fun And Painting? Those Two Things Just Don't Seem To Go Together To Me.

It's back!  I'm back!  Life has been moving at a million miles an hour around here.  No time to do about 1/3 of the things I need to do.  And when that happens blogging gets moved way down at the bottom of the list.  But I'm going to try and do better.  

So if you have been around these parts (my blog) for a while, you know I do a summer fun chart every week in the summer.  I actually had decided NOT to do a chart this summer.  I kinda get on my nerves a little bit and I thought that maybe we should try a summer without a chart.  I don't know.  I just like to have everything planned out.  I like to know what to expect.  I like everything to be in order.  Which is kinda funny to think about if you've seen my house any time in the last year.  But anyhoo.  I just thought maybe I should try and be a little less rigid and a little more spontaneous with our summer this year.  But when I mentioned it to my children, they got upset.  It would seem that, with the exception of Zac, my children really like my summer fun chart.  Still, I went the first two weeks without one.  That was about as much unstructured spontaneity I could handle.  I woke up yesterday morning and whipped up a chart.  And I tweaked our summer chore charts.  So we are all armed and ready to have a little order going on now.

I know.  This chart does not look like much fun.  I mean- clean up rooms?  Paint?  Paint?  And more paint?  I know.  It doesn't sound much fun to me either.  This is the deal.  Pickle.  We have lived in this house for 3 1/2 years.  And we have yet to actually decorate it.  When we were building and picked out paint color, we painted pretty much every room the same color, with the exception of a few colors.  You see, we had to pay extra every time we changed a color.  And by that time we were plum outta money.  I promised the girls we would paint their rooms a different color after we moved in (because I just love painting so much).  And, well, here we are, 3 1/2 years later and their bedrooms are still the same boring color as the rest of the house.  With the exception of Aubrey's room.  Two summers ago I did have a plan for painting and we started with her room.  That is also where we ended.

So why now, you ask?  And why are you trying to kill yourself and make all your kids hate you by painting everything in a week?  Well.  Those are very good questions.  The answer is this.  One - I just wanna get it done and over with.  I don't want to drag it out all summer long.  We can have one awful painting week and get it over with and enjoy the rest of the summer.  And Two - "Schmid Hotel" will be opening it's doors in just a few weeks and I would really like to have the rooms done and decent looking by that time.

Next month is going to be a fun month for us.  We are going to have 3 sets of company over a 3 week period.  And for 2 of those weeks, we will have a little company on top of company (our nephew is coming to stay with us for 2 weeks and work with Steve).  So you see, it just needs to be done.  And it needs to be done now.  

Aside from the two reasons I said I wanted to paint, I also feel the need to put my home in order.  And if a promise of paint and a decorated room will help the kids to clean up their rooms and get rid of about 1/2 the stuff in them, well then, so be it.  I don't know if we are actually going to be able to get all those things on  the chart done this week.  We are already a little behind because we didn't have anytime to finalize room ideas and paint colors yesterday.  And we should already be on our way to the store to buy paint this morning and all the kids are still in bed and I still in my pjs.  But!  Em's room is clean!  And that, my friends, is a pretty big feat in and of itself.

So!  Wish me luck!  It will be a busy, crazy week here. I'm just hoping we can hunker down and get it all done so our next week's summer fun chart can have a little more fun in it.

Back 2 School 2011

Last Friday was the last weekday of freedom for these children for the next 9 months or so. HA!Who am I kidding? They get a million days off during the school year. I was just writing the days off on my calendar for the next year and it's crazy. They go back from the Christmas break and then a week and a half later BAM! 2 days off. What's up with that? But I digress. Last Friday. So I decided to let the kids have a few friends over to roast hot dogs and marshmallows around the fire and enjoy their last day of summer. They did and they had a fun time.

Zac and Gus who graced us with their presence long enough to stuff their faces and then make a quick exit to play video games.

And then came Monday. The first day of school. Zac started 8th grade. He survived his first year of Jr. High and is ready to go back for more. His friend Gus' brother passed away in a car accident last month and everyone at Zac's school wore pink the first day to remember him and his pink Van shoes he always wore.

Emily is in sixth grade. Her last year in Elementary School!

Aubrey started third grade. This is her fourth year in the Spanish Immersion Program. Hola chica!

Little Miss Addy. She still has one more year at home with her momma before she starts Kindergarten.

Making our way to school for the opening Flag Ceremony

And the moms celebrate by going out to breakfast!

I must say, this year was different for me. I feel like the summer just flew by us. I was both ready and not ready for the kids to go back to school. I wouldn't have minded a few more weeks of summer. But alas, they are in school and it is back to regular life.

Summer Ketchup

Here is this weeks Summer Fun Chart. I didn't even make one for last week. Zac was at Scout Camp all week and Steve was there with him for 2 days. Emily and I were pretty much invalids all week long. Emily because of the huge hole in her foot. Me because I am stupid. The Saturday before last I bruised the ball of my left foot. The next day I decided it would be a good idea to wear heels that put all of my weight on the balls of my feet. By the time we got home from church my foot hurt so bad and I could not walk the rest of the week without a limp. Yesterday is the first day it wasn't killing me and I am now limp free. You would think that without being able to walk, I would have some extra time on my hands and I could get a post or two done. Well, think again. So here is a little summer catch up.

On 6/15 we took Zac to the orthodontist. His orthodontist is near our old house and so we went to the park by our old house and had lunch. Here is a picture of the kids playing in the willow tree at the park. They could not leave the park without paying it a visit. They played in this tree every summer day for I don't even know how many years.

On 6/16 the girls and I went on a hike. Zac wasn't with us because he went to see the new Pirates movie with a friend. The girls and I were a bit overdressed for the occasion, we found out. Before we left for our hike, we were at home with all our windows open and a cool breeze was blowing through our house. It was pretty cool in our house so we were all wearing jeans. And two of the girls were wearing long sleeve shirts. I tried to get them to change those before we left but they refused. Well, by the time we got up on the side of this mountain, we were all very, very hot. And by the sounds that were coming out of my girls mouths, you would have thought they were on a death march. It was one big complain fest. So I found a shaded spot and we sat down and we had us a little chat.

I told them to remember how long it takes us to drive from Missouri to Utah. I told them that the pioneers, they walked from Missouri to Utah. I also told them that the pioneers hardly had any food so they walked all day long and were starving the whole day. I told them that if they think they are hot, the pioneer girls had to wear dresses with sleeves that came down to their wrists and skirts that came down to their ankles. And a lot of them didn't have clothes to change into so they had to wear the same stinky dress all day everyday and by the time they got to Salt Lake their dresses were all worn out and they probably would have loved to have the clothes my girls were wearing. We also had some complaining about shoes hurting feet so I told them that some of the pioneers didn't have shoes and the ones who did didn't have very good ones and they were probably full of holes. I also showed them the nice clear road carved into the side of the mountain that we were able to walk on. I showed them all the growth on the part of the mountain without the road and told them when the pioneers had to go over a mountain, the just had to go tromping through all that stuff with their shoeless feet and their big old dresses getting tangled on everything. I also told them that the pioneers had to make that long walk because if they had stayed where they were, they would have been killed. And I told them that even with all those hardships the pioneers hardly ever complained. I told my girls that they were lucky because they were walking up the side of that mountain for fun but with all the complaining they were doing, they were making it anything but fun. After our little chat, they walked the rest of the way up the mountain and then back down complaint free!

On 6/19 Steve's Aunt Callie and her family were in town from Colorado. We had them over to our house for dinner along with his Uncle Harold and Aunt Connie who live here in Salt Lake. It was fun visiting with them and getting to know them. The last time we saw them was at Steve's grandmothers funeral and that was right after Steve and I were married.While they were here, everyone was entertained by watching Addy trying to catch an escaped chicken. After a while, she looked up and saw everyone watching here so she really started putting on a show.
On 6/21 we went to the library for the most hilarious reptile show. Usually when I take the kids to things like this at the library, I sit and read a book. But this guy was crackin' me up, so I watched and enjoyed the whole show.

Addy holding Goldilocks after the show

Em and Goldie

Aubrey and Goldie

On 6/22 we took my mom lunch at her work and ate and visited with her

On 6/24 Steve took Emily and Aubrey and their friend Ellie to the Blaze game.

That same night my mom and Addy and I went to the airport to pick up my sister Kristy and her kids. They have been living in Russia for 2 years and they are moving back to the states. They will be with us until August and we are so excited to be able to spend time with them. They were only here for a few days and then on Monday Kristy flew out to Virginia to look for a house and her kids went to visit their other grandparents. They will all be back this weekend though. Along with my sister Farrah and her family from Dallas, my brother Sam and his wife Teresa and my Granny Snow. Next week will be a SUPER FUN TIME around here. Here is a picture of Kristy and the kids at the airport after more than 24 hours of travel. Kristy, you are the bravest person I know! I can't imagine making that journey by myself with 3 kids.

The kids all sitting together in a rare moment of calmness. Zac had just made it back from Scout Camp and he was a little sunburned.

6/25. Last time Kristy and her kids were here, we roasted hot dogs over the fire in our back yard. Tia wanted to do that again so we did. It was fun, although a little warm for a fire. But that didn't stop the kids.

We also had s'mores, because what is a fire without s'mores? Somehow a chicken got a marshmallow and we had quite the entertainment watching them all fight over it.

On 6/28 I was outside and I noticed a dead bird in our backyard. I called Steve and told him about it so he could take care of it after he got home. I have killed, skinned, and cleaned a chicken with my bare hands, but somehow the thought of scooping this bird up with a shovel and disposing of it was more than I could handle. Later that day I was in the kitchen and heard a knock on the window and this is what I saw when I looked out. I guess she wasn't bothered by the thought of going anywhere near the dead bird.

That same night we headed back to the old hood. My friend Julie was in town and we had a backyard BBQ with our friends from our old neighborhood. It was fun getting together and seeing everyone again.

As you can see my garden is growing. And that black stuff I put down (twice) is really doing a GREAT job of keeping the weeds out. I really have a strong dislike of yard work and gardening and being outside when it is hot. So I think I am just going to pretend like I didn't plant a garden this year and if any fruit actually springs forth from this tangle of weeds, it will just be a happy bonus.