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.

Happy Independence Day!

We had a wonderful 4th of July. We got up early this morning for our neighborhood Fun Run and Pancake Breakfast. It was great to see everyone. I went with Melodie, Ethan, Hyrum, Wes and Abi to the race at 7:30, Corey stayed home with the rest of the little girls who were still sleeping. The kids love being back with all their friends!

After the race, I went home to help Corey get the girls ready, then back to the church for breakfast.

We think Natalie is still so cute in her pig tails. Hyrum was amazed at how thick the plastic plates were! They really were amazing quality, something they wouldn't have ever noticed or appreciated without our trip to Brazil.

Enjoying pancakes with syrup, eggs, and ham with juice and chocolate milk.

Natalie showing us she's a big girl and doesn't need any help.

After breakfast, I went home with Natalie and Corey stayed with the rest of the kids to watch the parade. I just wasn't up for it, seeing as I hadn't come prepared with chairs or anything to park my 36 week pregnant self. Plus it's hot here!!

After I got home, Corey called for me to come and get them because Wes was having an allergic reaction to some cats he was playing with. I went and got them and Wes' eyes were all swollen. Corey ran to Walgreens to get him some medicine and Wes took a shower and changed his clothes, and Lily, Sophi, and Natalie ate some ice cream. Then they had fun watching a deer that came in the back yard.

Pretty cool! Natalie called it a doggie.

We spent the rest of the day at home, kids still playing legos, I spent my time reading "The American Covenant" by Timothy Ballard. Later that evening Corey took the kids to Holladay to watch the fireworks with Grandma and Grandpa and all the cousins. Holladay always has a great firework show.

They have a fun new playground there which the kids loved!

Lily and Wesley got to open some belated birthday gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.

I stayed home with Natalie, it was just too hot and I just wanted to sit where on a soft couch and not sweat. So I gave Mel my camera and she took the pictures for me.

I was thinking I'd read. But instead I finished unpacking our luggage as I watched a special on BYUtv that was excellent - First Freedom: The Fight for Religious Liberty. It made me feel better about the future, since I've been in a "give up on this country/world" mood since the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage last week. I don't like how it was done through the courts after so many states voted and made their voices known. It makes me feel like the country is falling apart, but after watching that documentary, it reminded me that the people of history didn't live in the past, they lived in their "present" and living in the present always means you don't know what the future holds and what will happen next. But so far, I think things have turned out okay. I also mentally hold on to the hope I feel from this quote by President Harold B. Lee -

"Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail. This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the New Jerusalem. This is the place that the Lord said is favored above all other nations in all the world. This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple. This is the favored land in all the world. Yes, I repeat, men may fail, but this nation won’t fail. I have faith in America; you and I must have faith in America, if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are living in a day when we must pay heed to these challenges.

"I plead with you not to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. This is the favored land. This is the land of our forefathers. It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through."

-President Harold B. Lee ( Source: Ye Are the Light of the World 350-51 )

48 Hours

Some of our neighbors threw us a little "see ya in 4 months" party last night. Corey wanted to take one last crack at a Brazilian bbq before we head out. 

They really pulled out all the stops, with fireworks to boot! Just kidding, the fireworks were there, but were part of Brighton's "customer appreciation" day gig. Still, we pretended they went over the top with their party preparations. Lots of good food and visiting among the adults. The kids watched movies, had a pillow fight, and enjoyed playing games on their new "Tornado" Foosball table.

Corey and a neighbor Jim like to talk smack about each others' foos skills, and Corey's complained last time when he got schooled more than he liked by Jim. Corey blamed it on the tabled, it just wasn't up to par, and he can't play with faces on the players, it's too distracting...

This time with the Tornado, Corey didn't beat Jim every game, but he was satisfied (Jim teased that Corey needed every advantage he could get). So that was fun.

We spent the night and now are back home with two days to go. I was ready to have the kids be my personal slaves all day long, but had a change of heart. This is their last day to play with friends, so we've had an easy day, just enjoying time with friends and feeling very grateful for our life here. Melodie said good bye to her guinea pigs.

(I still think they are the perfect pet for families of "my kids want a pet but I don't" types like us.) My mom is taking care of them for us while we're gone. Cute pinny pigs (that's what the kids called them when they were little.

Took another load to donate at the thrift store, including a box of "vintage" clown toys like these, some toys from my youth.

Before I could get rid of them guilt free, I felt I needed to document their existence. I googled to try to find them before I took my own pictures. Happily there are a few lots of them on ebay, so I don't have to get out mine from the donation box. I've had a box of these clowns kicking around for probably 2 years - my mom gave them to me when she was clearing out junk. My kids don't play with them though, so although they are part of my childhood memories, I'm letting them go. These are Mego "Clown Around" toys, made in Hong Kong, and I really think they are quite ugly. I don't know why my mother bought them. One of the lady figures (possibly an opera singer?) is showing her plumber's crack

I did break this one out of the donation box... This is the one that made my own children wonder what life was like for me as a child, with toys like these?! "What's up with these toys? Why would Grandma buy you such an inappropriate toy as this?!?!" When my mom gave me the old toys and my kids looks through the box, they were quite intrigued. I think my mom got them because I liked and collected unicorns. Maybe I was the one who saw the little clown unicorns on display at the store and begged my mother to get them. But yes, interesting toys. And we're going to go say goodbye to them now. Adios, clown around clowns.

So the kids played, I did this and that and just kept cleaning, and I've made great progress on the laundry room dump area. If I get that cleared off and organized, it will be a great accomplishment that I have not been able to do during our 4 years here. Yes, I'll be at peace and be able to board the plane with a clear conscience if I pull that off. Time to go clean more.

Holiday Weekend

We had a great holiday weekend. It started off with the 4th of July Fun Run, Joseph got 2nd place. Watch out for him next year... I got like 5th among the women. Maybe I'll try for next year too.

followed by a delicious American breakfast. No, not cereal.

Then we watched the community parade. I had Wes and the 4 little girls to watch. They did great and I wasn't stressed out at all! Go USA!

Corey and the other kids were playing in the band in the parade! Natalie's ready to clap for them as they float by...

Go Granite band! So they went through the parade and then performed again at the carnival. After the parade I was going to go pick them up, ...but Corey had the keys. So my options were: walk a half mile down to the carnival with 5 kids. No. Walk a half mile home with 5 kids. No. Wait for Corey to come back. Yes. So we waited for like a half hour in the warm July sun then we moved into the less warm shade and chit-chatted with neighbors and it was a perfect Summer day. Corey eventually came, then we went home and took a nap.

Then we went to Holladay for a great firework show and Peter Breinholt in concert, so fun! We had a picnic, played games with cousins. And Sophi put handful after handful of red dirt from the baseball diamond onto her head. Nice!

The firework show was awesome!!! Works out much better since we live in the "fireworks prohibited" area of the valley. Did you like the show Hyrum?

Natalie did. Sophi and Natalie did great, they just needed to be snuggled.

Then today we went over to Corey's parent's house to watch the World Cup, Costa Rica vs. Netherlands. I think we have a future soccer player in the family She can't walk well yet, but she's not letting that small detail slow down her game, Go Natalie! Go Natalie!!!

This is what Natalie does when you tell her to focus on the ball:

The game went overtime and then to penalty kicks. Costa Rica lost, but they did good and had a ton of lucky breaks. Would have been fun if they won, but still fun to watch. Ethan doesn't like the Netherlands now, he thinks they flop a bit much and took cheap shots hitting and pushing our Tico brothers. I could get into this soccer thing, but probably shouldn't, cause I've already got more than I can do... So then at 5:30 we were headed up to the mountains to our friend's cabin, we love our neighborhood friends. Friendship is even more enjoyable in nature :) 

It's fun to see it now with all the snow gone. Natalie liked the rocks. Life is good.

4th of July

I woke up early in the morn on July 4th stressed out for people who were in charge of our little community breakfast and fun run and other festivities.  It was pouring rain outside, hard, and there was thunder and lightening.  I thought the holiday fun was going to be ruined.  It still looked drizzly when we woke up at 6.  Corey and Mel had volunteered to help with breakfast, so they headed over.  The fun run was at 7:00.  Joseph had been training and his best time during his trial runs was 12:06, then with each subsequent run his time increased.  I thought the rain might improve his chances of winning if people who were going to run bailed out.  Well, I called Corey to see if the party was still on, and it was, so I dropped off the older kids for the fun run and went home to finish getting the little ones ready (Poor Lily was beside herself, she couldn't find her fun run t-shirt).  We got Sophi out of bed and headed out.  When we came over, the crowd of fun runners was just leaving the gate.  I walked it a little bit of the route with Abi, Lily and Sophi.  We walked down the street and were at the school when we saw Joseph come around the corner on his way to the finish line.  There were 3 guys in front of him (3 tall and bookin' it teenagers, it was going to be a close finish) and then Joseph was coming with another guy.  I turned around to head back to the finish line and when we saw Joseph I asked him what his time was.  With a big and proud smile he said "11:35".  My best time last year was 13:11, his best was 13:48, so major improvement for this little up and coming track star.  SO, next year, I am going to let Jospeh take the lead, I'll let him set the pace and if I can just keep up with him, I should be able to win the women's division.  Then I'll let him keep the trophy.  Great job, Joseph, he was so happy, he said that that was the best part of the whole day "I like improved my time by 40 seconds!!!"

After that we enjoyed breakfast, then I went home, cause I didn't have the mental or physical capacity or desire to keep track of 3 little girls in a big crowd of people.

We didn't do much during the day ~ Corey took Joseph and Melodie to a movie as a reward for them being such great helpers at the breakfast with cleaning up and serving, much to the other kid's disappointment, but he asked them to help, they didn't want to.  They didn't know a movie reward was on the line, and it probably wasn't at the time, but Corey was really thankful for their help.

That night we had a little bbq with family and then hung out over at the neighborhood "Circle of Fun" - no fireworks this year since they weren't allowed past 27th east.  But from our neighbor's backyard we could see them firing off all over the valley, so I thought that was really cool.  It made me think of how it might have really been for our country's revolutionary heros, different battles and skirmishes all over a city trying to win it for their country.  We had a panoramic view of the battle for Salt Lake last night.  The kids played basket ball, had popcorn and cotton candy, and ran around with their friends throwing glowsticks.  Ethan was disappointed he wasn't able to light any fireworks and wants us to step it up next year, maybe we'll go to a big show put on by the city.  We went to the Sugarhouse fireworks a lot when I was a kid, maybe we'll do that next year.

Circle of Fun

I've said it before, but I'll say it again... I love the area we live, such an awesome community.  Yesterday after the fun run we had a great breakfast and then watched the small town parade.  Breakfast for $20 for our whole family of 10.  Doesn't get much better than that.

 

After breakfast there was a flag ceremony, then the annual Granite Parade.  Our kids voted that our neighbors, the Dahle's, had the cutest float of the parade - they turned their boat into a pirate ship and were launching water balloon cannonballs into the crowd.

The other highlight of the parade was when Mr. Ensign, who had come prepared with water ammo of his own, retaliated and fought back, it was funny to see them going after each other.  :)

Then in the evening was the neighborhood firework show.  Last year the party was called the Culdesac of Fire, named after the Stadium of Fire.  But since the real fires are putting a bad spin on the word fire this year, the neighborhood party was renamed the Circle of Fun.  The kids did have fun, with our neighbors breaking out their popcorn and cotton candy machine, we brought popsicles to share, there were doughnuts and brownies, lots of fun.  Ethan had like 12 cotton candy and as he was moaning later that night but received little sympathy from me.  I told him to remember how he felt, that's his body trying to tell him that what he just did, if continued, would slowly kill him.

Melodie just relaxing and watching the show on the grass:

Joe and Hyrum played some b-ball with his tall friend and his tall friends tall father.  I think it was kids against the dad.

Sophi didn't like the fireworks too much, but overall everyone had fun at the Circle of Fun!