Fourth Hangover

The kids came home after the fireworks yesterday and just crashed. This morning they were all in the same spot. Hyrum and Abi dead on the couches, Wes on the floor...

Daniel woke up during the night and I brought him downstairs, he looked like he was recovering too...

All these dead bodies in every room... Lily under the pink Zebra blanket, Natalie under the blue one?

No, Natalie was already awake, she had such a good nap the night before that she had already recovered. The rest of us slept in. It was kind of a work day, tomorrow we're going to Scofield for our annual boating day with neighborhood friends. I took Ethan to his lesson with Ray and I went to Costco with Owen while we waited to stock up on our food contribution. The peaches right now are just perfect! They are so sweet and tart, they make me feel like singing. I'm bring peaches to Scofield, I bought 5 trays - a few for Scofield, a few for Sunday when we get together with my family (my little brother is in town from Texas.) At Scofield Corey will probably bbq cause he's a social drinker meat eater. Car loaded with food, 100+ degrees outside, we went back to pick up Eth. I let him drive to the lesson and let him drive home too. He almost rear ended a car on our way. He was hungry and thinking about McDonald's fries and didn't notice the car in front of him. Luckily I screamed loud and he slammed on the brakes, anti lock brakes kicked in and we didn't hit them. Also, thankfully, the car behind us was far enough back or alert enough that they didn't rear end us, although they did look at us when they passed us on the freeway. It took a good 15 min for Eth's car to stop racing. He forgot about the fries for a little bit. Sorry, people, he's a student driver.

After we got home, we unloaded the perishable food and then we went to the park. The kids wanted to go earlier, but it has been so hot. Nicer once the sun starts setting. The sprinklers were on, which gave us a nice mist to cool us down, but Daniel didn't like it, and Owen thought the sound of the sprinkler hitting the chain link fence was super scary...

Owen! Run and hide from the big scary noise!

Daniel liked the slide. The both liked the teeter totter.

 My legs got tired after just a few jumps. Hooray, Abi came to help me out

Pretty fun.

We played at the big park while Lily and Sophi showed Natalie where the little park is that she'll be going to with her kindergarten class. I'm gonna miss my Natalie when she starts school. Just two little boys at home, what will I do with my time? Lol.

4th of July 2018

We had a fun 4th, as always. We enjoy the tradition in our neighborhood and community of a 3k fun run, pancake breakfast, parade and carnival. I left my phone at home, but thankfully Mel took some. She and Wes pushed Owen and Daniel in the fun run, ...or maybe Wes pushed while Mel took pictures?

After the fun run - did you guys survive?

Daniel, you are a funny character.

The little girls are proud of their medals!

Enjoying breakfast.

Pancakes, ham and eggs but none for me or Hyrum, we both ate fruit before we came.

(The peaches at Costco are perfect right now!) After breakfast, I walked home to drop of the little boys to get my phone so I could document the fun too. Melodie painted faces again this year as we waited for the parade.

A line of customers, ready for a free face painting.

The parade started at 10. They threw out better junk food this year - like not just taffy, but swedish fish and sour patch kids. Abi was on the front lines ready to grab goodies.

She scored a lot of treats and the girls all came home with a bag that could almost rival a toddler's trick or treating loot. Two of my favorite parts of the parade were a family that seriously put on a whole Greatest Showman performance - all the characters were there, even a big dark haired dad as the bearded lady, so funny. Another one was a neighbor who had the biggest pink flamingo pool floatie I've ever seen up on a trailer. Corey was impressed. I said Corey is just like him - that dad and Corey both make ice rinks! Corey said that Jon has much better execution. It was really fun.

The boys slept over at the church to set up and then watch guard the tv and food and stuff. Unlike last year, they stayed and ran the 3K. Ethan ran it on 2 hours of sleep and a tank engine full of Joritos, KitKats, and Airhead candy. He said it sucked and he doesn't know how anyone enjoys running. A neighbor always challenges the boys and says he'll pay $50 to whoever beats him. Ethan blamed his performance on lack of sleep and a poor breakfast, to which Jim replied "If only you'd had a bowl of Fruity Pebbles..." We all laughed at that - Jim knows Ethan well from the high adventure trip. Lol.

So Eth came home and crashed, Hyrum and Wes came home to play the new Xbox that Corey bought that they've been dying to play.

The little girls didn't express interest in going to the carnival, and I didn't remind them about it, cause I was happy to go home too - it was a hot July day. So they watched movies in the messy basement while I exercised.

Later that evening, Corey took kids to watch the fireworks - Ethan, Hyrum, Wes, Abi, Lily, Sophi, and Owen. I stayed home with Mel who was practicing, and Natalie and Daniel. Natalie took a really long nap after getting up early for the fun run. She ran almost the whole thing!

Except for one part where I gave her a piggy back ride for 20 seconds and the end, when Corey met us, and carried her on his shoulders the rest of the day. I'll update here after the fun run pics are posted online.

Natalie woke up around 8pm, and didn't notice that everyone else was gone or that she was missing out on a family activity. She's a cute little girl. I'll update later with pictures that Corey took at the fireworks.

4th Of July

It was the 4th of July breakfast this morning, yay. But things are not the same... I went and did have a bite of pancake and then fed Daniel the rest of my pancakes. No eggs or ham or milk for me. The kids kinda eat whatever is put in front of them, so they ate stuff. Owen liked the chocolate milk.

Sophi's got a smile on her face, her stitches behind the pink bandaid aren't bothering her at all.

The only older kids that made it to the breakfast activities were Joseph and Melodie. Ethan, Hyrum and Wes were all home feeling sick, after spending the night outside at the pavilion guarding the breakfast set up. I ran the fun run with Lily. I took the little boys back home after breakfast and Corey stayed for the festivities. Abi, Lily, and Sophi were in a kazoo band float in the parade!

Then they went to the community carnival, which had a new twist this year: it was all free! Melodie brought her paints and did some face painting for all the little kids. When she got home, she continued her work on her little sisters: Natalie wanted an Ariel on her foot...

And a fairy on her hand...

And a Rapunzel on her other foot!

...and a fairy for Sophi's hand too.

Here was an experiment that Abi volunteered for: turn your nose into the Liberty Bell!

And a fairy for Sophi's hand too. :)

This was another experiment, Wesley's idea I think. The eyes aren't looking in the same direction, so they'll have to try again another time to make it look more realistic. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get Owen to accept this new version of his big brother.

So a funny story... Joseph has been talking a bit of smack with his friends about which of them would get a faster time at the fun run race this morning. Joseph trained a little bit, but he's like me and thinks running hard is kind of a horrible and unnecessary experience. Still he can crank out a good sprint if he needs to. So he was ready to just kill himself for 12 minutes. Unfortunately, the night before the 7 am run, he had volunteered to stay over at the pavillion to keep watch over the breakfast set up and supplies. So he was up late with all his friends. And he was eating ice cream at 1 am. And then they went to bed. Then they woke up when the sprinklers went off where they were sleeping! So then they were awake until 3 and did another grocery store run for some Jarritos drinks, which I had never heard of before. Most of his friends went home sick when the sun came up. Ethan and Hyrum, who were amon the volunteers, came home and slept. Joseph got up and ran the race. He didn't win. He thinks he did great though, considering he was running on no sleep and no good nutrition in his body. Just think of what you could have done with a good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast. Kids...

So Joseph came home after the race and after breakfast and crashed. We had a pretty lazy day, and then went this evening to the Holladay Fireworks with Corey's sister and her girls. Corey went and bought some fries. Natalie had a meltdown at the restaurant's ordering counter cause she wanted cookies.

For how scared Owen is at things (like dogs and my mother) I thought he would probably be a bit startled by the fireworks. But he enjoyed them and was just chillin in Corey's arms.

I guess he just needs his daddy nearby.

Btw, it's hard with my phone camera to take a picture in the dark. I accidentally turned on the flash for a brief second and about blinded everyone around us. So then I had to wait for the fireworks to provide lighting. So I took a video and then did still shots from that. Captured the moment pretty well I guess.

Daniel did great too, not a peep of concern or boredom. See him sitting up and mesmerized by the show?

Cute baby, love my kids

After it was done we headed to the cars. There was a long wait in the parking lot to get home afterward, and these two cars in front of me were about to have road rage in the parking lot, pretty pathetic. Listen, neither of you is getting out of here quickly, just relax! Easy for me to say with Daniel screaming his head off in the back seat? Another car who could hear Daniel through our open window, called to me "Mother!" and I looked, and then he signaled for me to go first ahead of him. That is the right way to get out of a jammed parking lot. Be courteous, let others go first, accept when they let you go first. Don't keep inching your car ahead of the other and risk getting bumped and then honk and swear, that's just really dumb. Thank you to that nice man for letting us go first. Very kind. I like kind people.

ps. 3 Oct 2017: Hyrum would like to submit this correction:
CORRECTION: Ethan and I stayed home that day because of the junk we ate the night before. Wesley was guilty and probably bribed you into posting that the far left kid wasn't him. Well ha! I know that's him, because he told me the kazoo band was way worse than he anticipated, with a bunch of 5-9 yr old kids blowing into these kazoo's as hard as they can, sounding like a class with Ms. Taylor. Ha!
-Hyrum 

Happy Fourth!

Happy Birthday, America! We started off our annual independence day activities with the 6th annual Fun Run. One new thing this year - Corey and his little musicians were asked to play the national anthem before the run. It might have caused Joseph to start the race a little winded. Plus he said it made his mouth super dry.  

Still, Joseph's competitive juices were ready to go! Here he and Ethan were right as the horn blew!

Here's a link of some pictures a neighbor took - like this one on Joseph on the home stretch:

Our young hero came in third, right after two big time marathon runners who took first and second. Joseph turned the corner toward the finish line and was blown away to see a time of 8:21 on the race clock. What?!?! That would be a whole minute and a half faster than the record time that was broken last year... he was confused. The phenomenon was explained to him when they said the clock started 2 minutes late. Joseph was pleased to figure out his official time, a personal best of 10:49. 

I was in last place this year. Dead last. I was pushing a stroller with Owen and Natalie, and I probably could have finished it with them, but I also had Lily and Sophi walking beside me. And they were just slowing me down big time. I tried to get Lily to skip the detour into the neighborhood but she insisted we follow the other fun runners. After that loop, we were alone with no one showing the right direction of the course, and so I lied to her and told her the race continued with a right turn instead of a left, thus sparing me an hour walk with my crew as I cut off over half of the 3K distance by taking a major short cut. We headed back north toward the finish line. Lily saw the runners up there and assumed that was where we were supposed to go, phew! "There they go, let's hurry!" Glad she didn't notice that everyone was coming up from a different street than the one we were walking on. She saw Hyrum run by the corner. Then Wesley. As we approached, Abi came up behind us out of breath and with great confusion asked "HOW did you get ahead of me?!?! I've been running the whole time!!" I told her I cheated. But I'm pregnant and am pushing a stroller, so I can do whatever the heck I want. Here is how Owen crossed the finish line, it was a total breeze. 

"Yeah, I'm so good I can do the fun run in my sleep!"

So then we had breakfast, sponsored by Jiffy Lube. They did a raffle drawing and guess who won a year of free oil changes again? Woot woot, thank you Joseph for being our ears for the raffle!

I was sitting over on the grass in the shade, but just happened to walk over to get a drink of water. Luckily I heard the raffle going on, got our ticket, saw Joseph there, gave it to him, told him "912313" and he came over a few minutes later and presented me with an envelope. What? We won again?! We won the oil changes last year, wow! What are the odds?! Pretty fun. So, then we hung around and waited for the parade to start. 

Mel kept the kids all entertained by painting fireworks, bald eagles, and flags on their cheeks.

The parade started at 10, I stayed for a half hour and then headed home with Owen and Natalie. Natalie had had her share of taffy, and Owen was done, so I broke a sweat getting home and rewarded myself with a two hour nap. We had a little bbq with family after and then Corey took the kids to Holladay for the night time fireworks that night. It was a good day, we enjoy our fourth of July traditions. 

Scofield 2016

We have been down at Scofield this weekend with friends and neighbors. We've had a great time joining our friends in Scofield for the past few years: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. This year I headed down last night with a van full of kids, and Corey kept Natalie and Sophi home with him so he could work. They came down today with Joseph (he had a date last night). It was all the usual great times and fun: tubing, roasting marshmallows, lots of good food and visiting. I had lots of good helpers with Owen. It was fun to see him sitting by the fire~

"There's that red camera light... is that lady taking pictures of me again? She is like obsessed with me!"

Yes, Owen, I think you're pretty cute and I admit I can't get enough of your little round face. It was nice for me to be there with just one little kid - Owen and I chilled at the "cabin" (a double wide mobile home) and I let the other kids run loose. They were free to go down to the dock or run around in the dark without much concern from me as to whether they were safe or not. It was a nice break for my motherly instincts. No concern for anyone falling in the fire pit either.

Although Lily and Abi both did singe their fingers a bit on the metal roasters as they pulled off their burnt marshmallows.

I also didn't do a good job today with protecting them from the sun. They ran down to the boats before I remembered and around 4 when I caught them I could tell they had gotten a bit fried. "Go put some sunblock on, you're burnt" I told Ethan. He didn't heed and I didn't follow him around to make sure he did, and he's feeling it now. They got pretty red. The little kids are good, Abi got a bit red. Her and Ethan got it the worst. I told them that I really just have my brain on watching Owen, so I need them to be in charge of themselves and come to me. I'll try to do better, but it would help if they could help.

Tonight finish of a fun day at the lake, we all went out on the boats to watch the fireworks. I walked down to the dock with Natalie - here she is showing me the way~

It was my one and only time on the boat this trip. It was nice to get out on the water.

The highlight for me was seeing Owen on the lake for his first time. He looked quite sobered and out of his comfort zone.

Owen and I were sitting near the back of the boat. I let him stand up and look backward over the end of the boat to the water. Standing there helped him to be able to move a bit more in his life jacket - the same life jacket Sophi wore in 2012. She looked adorable too (actually she looks pretty funny in picture 3 there, lol!) Good memories. After the boat started going fast, Owen looked at me with great concern and as if he needed some reassurance. He looked like he could have broken into tears at any moment, but a little smile and kiss on the cheek from me helped him keep it together and he was just adorable.