Baby, you're a firework!

Our Fourth of July was pretty typical. Starting with the balloons at 6:00 am...

Followed by breakfast and swimming at Colleen's...

Food, naps (for the babies), a rousing game or two of water volleyball, and then home to shower quickly and get down to the field for the fireworks.

With all the festivities on one day, we missed out on the parade and I didn't get to see Jeff's family at all. I liked it so much better when we spread things out over a three or four day period. Also, because of all the fire warnings, we didn't do any fireworks ourselves (except for a few sparklers).That was a bummer. I love the Fourth of July. I wish it lasted all week long!

Damon's 10!

I'm so behind. Sheesh,when will life slow down so I can document how busy we are?

Damon turned 10 on July 2nd. I've been a mom now for a decade. 

He opted for a friend party this year, and we decided on Nickel City. He invited 7 friends and 3 cousins and only one boy couldn't make it. Tara was in town with her kids, so we also had 9 extra party-goers, which made for a very busy party (and one sad reason I don't have any pictures).

The kids played games with their nickels and one big game of laser tag before Tara and I took the little kids to the park for pizza. Damon and his friends stayed with Jeff for pizza and cake in the party room, and Jeff didn't take any pictures either. We probably need to hire a photographer for our next party, haha.

It was a lot of fun and WAY less stressful for me to have the party at Nickel City and I think all the boys had a great time, too. 

The next night, the rest of my family came up for the Fourth and we celebrated again. Damon shares his birthday with my cousin, Kevin, Jonny's birthday is July 3 and Kenya's is July 5, so we had a combined party for all of their birthdays (plus America's on the 4th: who would name their kid America? haha, inside joke).

Damon is a great kid. If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you probably have a good idea what he is like. But here are a few things I want to remember about Damon at 10 years old:

1. He just finished his second year of ALL (accelerated program at school) and is a good student. He's not the smartest in his class, but he works really hard and is responsible for doing his own homework and basically taking care of himself. He is finishing a summer program this week called Bright Ideas, which is sort of a fun summer school put on by the Gifted program, and comes home every day telling me how much he learned and how much he loves it. 

2. When he turned nine, my mom challenged him to read the Book of Mormon, and promised him $100 if he could do it before he turned 10. He read it in 9 months and made us all really proud. 

3. He plays soccer and will play on a competition team this fall. He also plays baseball, but the league is in is not challenging at all, and we'll probably have him try Little League next year to see what his skills actually are. 

4. He wanted "spy equipment" for his birthday and has been using it to spy on us. 

5. He loves the show The Great Escape on TNT, which is a reality show where three teams gather clues and try to escape from locations such as Alcatraz, a battleship, a missle silo, etc. He put together a Great Escape for his sisters and cousins, complete with clues, maps and patrol guards. He's the one everyone looks to for good ideas and fun.

6. He has been playing the piano for almost two years and is making slow progress. He is really good at sounding things out, which has hindered his ability to read music. But he's working on it and is getting better all the time.

7. His favorite TV shows are: Ninjago, Phineas and Ferb, Avatar the Last Airbender, Storage Wars, The Great Escape, Once Upon a Time and old Heman cartoons.

8. He is a bit obsessed with the quail. He rescued two babies from their families (one would have died, so that was fine, but the other he stole from the parents after he chased them off) and added them to the ones we hatched last week. 

9. He and I have been running in preparation for a 5K we are participating in this weekend, and it's been fun (and hard) running with him in the morning. He is doing well, but he complains a lot. We are constantly working on positive attitudes rather than negative, and we'll see how the race goes.

10. He is currently loving the 39 clues series of books, and is memorizing the states and capitals so he can get a jump start on fifth grade. He is such a good boy, with such a good heart, and I am so lucky to be his mom. 

Family Trip 2012

Last year, with a one year old and a newborn, we decided to forego a big family trip and instead opted for a stay-cation in Park City for three nights.This year, though, we're all grown up and back out there.  We left Tuesday morning and drove to Vernal, where we got out at the temple to have lunch before driving to Dinosaur National Monument. We had with us Daisy, our pet quail, because she is such a good bird and follows us around like a dog, but isn't nearly as messy and/or needy.

We were walking around the temple grounds, getting ready for a family picture, and Daisy was following behind, 5-6 feet away from us, on the grass. Suddenly, I hear Jeff gasp and look over to see a large bird on the grass, where Daisy was standing, take off and fly away. It took a moment to process that this large bird (a hawk, Jeff confirmed) had landed on the temple lawn and flown away with our pet quail. It was unbelievably surreal, like a nature show come to life. It was all over in 5 seconds and Daisy was no more. 

No one was in the mood for a pic after that, but Jeff snapped one anyway. Note the girls' hysterics and Carter's shock. So funny. And sad. But most of all, crazy.

Dinosaur National Monument was awesome and definitely worth seeing (the Utah side, where all the dinosaur fossils are). We then drove around to the Colorado side (Dinosaur, CO) and on this steep dirt road down to Echo Park. We set up camp near Steamboat Rock (seen below) and started getting worried that the wind was going to ruin our night. A couple of our poles on the tent broke and we were a tad worried the tent would actually blow away.

We took the kids on a hike (supposed to be one mile each way) where we would get a great view of Steamboat Rock.We started at Picasso Face (the kids called this Witch Mountain) and scrambled up to the top of the hill. Then we proceeded to hike in 90+ degree weather and the beating sun for over a mile with no end in sight. The kids were good sports, but started wearing down, faces looking more like tomatoes than peaches. Jeff went on ahead while we sat in the shade, trying to get them cooled off a little. 

After some panic from Damon (he thought Jeff was going to die--maybe he's seen too many survival shows), Jeff came back to tell us that he hadn't found the lookout either and we headed back down to the water, where we cooled off a little.

Carter and McKay loved throwing things into the water and we spent more time doing that than anything else on our trip. Seriously, they were in love with the water.

That night, after eating our soup in a bread bowl in the van because of the wind, we got into the tent and everything just died. No wind, nothing. In fact, we were a little warm. But grateful we didn't blow away.

Wednesday morning we got up and drove to Rocky Mountain National Park, a few hours away. We stopped and had lunch in Steamboat Springs, which reminded us all of Park City. We played at this park and were glad for a little cooler weather.

We drove all the way through Rocky Mountain National Park, which was a 1.5-2 hour drive on windy roads that go up to 12,000 ft (above the treeline). Jeff was getting a sinus headache and the kids were BEYOND done traveling, but we kept going to Estes Park. It was raining, and we got there way later than we planned, but we found a two bedroom lodge that had room and stayed there. That was a lot of fun, although the gas stove accidentally was left on and I stayed up extra late after everyone else had gone to bed to make sure there wasn't anything fishy going on. 

The next morning we went back to Rocky Mountain National Park and tried to do some cool hikes. But there was so much construction on the roads to the trails, and so many people wanting to go, that we ended up doing one short "hike" (.2 miles) to some waterfalls. Again, we spent quite some time throwing things into the water. Pure heaven for my boys.

We took off a little earlier than we planned (the park was beautiful, but not any more so than a lot of places in Utah. Not a must-see if you live in the mountains here) and drove down to Denver. We ended up staying at a Hampton Inn there. Jeff wasn't too thrilled when he found we had to pay for parking, but once we found that we had scored a handicap accessible room (with PLENTY of space, including two queen beds and a couch bed), I was redeemed. The kids swam in the pool, we got takeout Qdoba and played games. 

The next morning after a hearty breakfast (one of the best things about Hamptons), we went to the Denver Museum of Science and History, which was awesome. We didn't even have enough time to see everything we wanted to see there, and I would love to go back someday when the kids are a little older and their attention spans are a bit longer. 

We then drove out of Denver back toward Utah on the I-70. We stopped about an hour outside Grand Junction at a place called Rifle Mountain. We took a slight detour (GPS on my phone was not working), and ended up going about 30 minutes out of our way, but finally made it to the campground. It was gorgeous. We walked around, threw things in the stream, and took a few pics. 

Then we headed back to our camp, had some pasta and spaghetti sauce, and tried to talk the kids into going to bed. Instead, we listened to music, played more PIT (a new family favorite with the kids) and finished the candy we had brought. Good family memories.

Saturday morning we got up and hiked (not much of a hike at all) to the falls and caves, which was really cool. And except for a run in with the world's smelliest latrine, it was a great day.

We then headed home, stopping in Grand Junction for a last picnic lunch and a Redbox movie. We made it home in one piece, having driven 1200 miles in five days, with five kids. We rock. 

Father's Day and Lasik

A quick word about the middle of June. We celebrated Father's Day by making breakfast for Jeff (he preferred to eat with us at the table and not in bed) and giving him some ever exciting gifts. Shirts and ties (two shirts I took back because he is a picky, picky man, but I bought four shirts, so the two he kept made me feel very pleased with my decisions). We did manage to take a quick pic before church and I must note that Carter picked his own tie out, although he doesn't have any that really match his brown outfit.

FHE usually turns into dancing as Jeff plays his repertoire on the piano. McKay is usually an unwilling participant.

I also had LASIK on both my eyes. I had to find a pair of glasses to wear for the two weeks I needed to let my eyes return to their normal shape, and I haven't worn any type of glasses in at least four years. So, I found these babies at zennioptical.com for $12 (including shipping). Not half bad, and I enjoyed my "hipster" look for two weeks.

The morning of the surgery I was pretty nervous. Although you never hear of anyone having a bad experience any more, it's still nerve racking to think about what is going to be done to your eyes. They gave me a valium to help me relax, but I should have taken it four hours earlier, as I didn't really feel it kick in until later in the day when all was said and done.

The procedure itself was quick and not painful. It took about 5 minutes in the actual operating room and except for the panic I felt that I might lose my eyesight, wasn't bad at all. I had to wait around for 30 minutes so the dr could check the eyes and make sure there was nothing under the flap (like a mote or a beam) that would cause complications in the healing process. There was nothing. 

I went home and tried to sleep the day away, per the doctor's orders. My eyes felt itchy and irritated and really they felt the best when they were closed. Plus, the valium was really making me feel relaxed so it was easy to rest. I started on the major drop regiment (steroids, antibiotics and a couple other drops) and was constantly squeezing something into my eye.

By the next morning, I felt about 80% better. And I could see! Amazing. Probably my biggest complaint would be the burst blood vessels in my eyes from the suction ring (an unavoidable side effect). Pretty, huh? And the ones in the left eye are just now fading away, three weeks later!

I had to wear these fashionable goggles for the first couple of nights so I didn't wake up aggressively rubbing, and the kids thought that was awesome.

Like I said, it's now been three weeks and I couldn't be happier. My eyes are still a little dry, but I am really loving my new eyesight! 

June Funnies

Lots to write. But today here are the funnies from June:

Mom: "I kinda like you."
Carter: "I kinda wuv you."

Allie: "I want to help you scrape the cucumbers!" (peel the cucumbers)

Found written on the table in Allie and Kyla's room: Goldelox was here.

Allie: "I want to do the boinga boinga at swim lessons." (bobs)

Kyla: "Carter! Your shirt says Lover Boy, but you're not being very loving!!"

(Everett Davis and Carter in the Lover Boy shirt)

Babysitter, who had just walked into the house: "Hi Carter!"
Carter: "I tooted."

One morning during scripture study, we were talking about 3 Nephi 12 and I asked the kids what Jesus said we should do to our enemies. Damon said, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

Kyla, watching the NBA finals: "Are there any white man's that play basketball?"

Jeff was talking on the phone to a guy in our ward and the kids asked who it was. He said, "Brother Carter." Carter got very mad and said, "Not brother me!"

Allie, after getting an appliance in her mouth (to widen her palate so she will have room for her permanent teeth): "I used to have such a lovely voice before I got the expander."

Kyla: "Hey, you bird over there, are you a Wobin?"

Carter: "Damon is a bum crack!"

Kyla, playing with some toys: "Get back in jail, little fella."

Finally, Carter, upset with the hawk that took off with our pet quail: "Spank! That! Bird!"