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.

I Love This Land

H and W slept up at Pineview on Thursday night. Yesterday, Corey headed up with MASNOD. He came home last night with HNOD, but MWAS stayed up there. I went to pick them up MWAS this afternoon and I took NODP with me. I called when I left around noon and told the kids to try and be packed up and ready to go, but they weren't. I got there shortly around 1:20. Pineview is a nice place, we live in a beautiful state and country. There were lots of people out camping or spending the day at the reservoir, good for them. Even with a worldwide pandemic going on, the world is a beautiful place and life is full of blessings. It was such a pretty drive up along the Weber river and past Huntsville. Life is good. We all got out and Mark made lunch - sandwiches, a few hotdogs, and MnM's. View of the table facing North - that's our tent, the kids are going to pack up then we'll take that down.

Looking to the East - 

facing south -

Facing West.

After I took those pics for documenting here, I helped them kick it in gear. It didn't take too long to pack up and we were on our way shortly after 2, which was good, cause Mel worked at 4 and wanted to shower before. Back at home, we had ice cream drumsticks to celebrate the 4th. 

 "It's what the Founding Father's would want." - Gaffigan

Ethan's recovery is going great, his cheeks haven't swollen up at all! He's been keeping them iced big time, good job Eth. He also has eaten solid foods already and is chewing, so hopefully he doesn't mess things up for his teeth's holes. Ethan and Hyrum played Battlefront most of the day as E continued his recovery. Corey took SNOD up to Park City again, We talked about being busy and what can help us get things done that we'd like to get done and how we can reach our goals. We might write up a new Nazarite vow. So, they left, and I played with Peter in the backyard.

We sat on the grass underneath a play structure thing, the one we use to get on the trampoline. Peter's cute. 

He can walk right under the trampoline without bending over or hitting his head. 

I also spent a fair amount of time killing our pesty bugs. I got on the roof, spraying them everywhere. Yesterday I found what I thought was their main colony, in the big log post beam in the front yard that attaches to the house. It had some big cracks in it and I sprayed and sprayed in there and they all ran out to their deaths.

The windows are covered with Raid and I'll be getting up there to wash the windows later, after I give the spray a few days to hopefully fend off the pests. I googled a lot today and I think I found the bug that it is! It's not the squash bug like I thought last week, I am pretty sure it's the Elm Seed bug. Stupid bugs.

Mel worked until 9 and then came home to get people to come with her to Provo to see fireworks at Lavell Edward's stadium.

So they were the official fireworks representatives for our family.  

Wes can't take a serious photo.

Listened to this BYU Devotional talk by David McCullough. One of my favorite stories from that book and of the Revolution is of the retreat from Brooklyn on August 29th, where there was the miracle of the wind and fog that saved the American cause. Pretty amazing. I'm so thankful and humbled to be an American. "There ain't no doubt I love this land. God bless the USA."

Summer Monday

Good morning. Happy Monday. Today started off with violin for Sophi. I actually like having the lesson on Monday, it helps to get the week started of on a productive foot. Owen was awake and came with me. He played with their train the whole time.

Peter came too.

Other than that it was a low key day. Iveth took some of my kids to the library, so I'm going to count that as our outing, ha.

Abi, Sophi and Natalie went. They made catapults or something.

And when I took Sophi to violin, I dropped off Wes to do yardwork for Corey's parents. After he was finished doing chores for them, I was aware that his cousin and friends had wanted to surprise him and take him out for a snowcone or something for his birthday (tomorrow). So he was gone all day. We went to a park over there in Holladay after picking him up. The little kids loved that.

They love going to this park in Holladay.

It is by the field where we usually watch fireworks on the 4th of July.

Eventhough we go to the fireworks here almost every year, I have never walked over to the park before. I'm usually just chilling in a folding chair heavy with child.

So this was my first time seeing it up close, and it is a really cool park! I can see why the kids really like it and often ask to go there. Daniel climbing up the ladder to the slides -

Daniel was so cute, he invited me to go up with him - "It's really fun!"

We'll come back again now that I know how cool it is. So we headed out once it was dark, Wes had a long day, it was a good day. More party-ing tomorrow with another birthday!

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.

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.