Lake Powell

Home for a bit and now it's back to traveling! This was our last big trip before school starts but it was a great one--we spent 3 days down at Lake Powell. 3 days of fun filled with swimming, eating, boating, eating, exploring, eating, wave-runnering (I know it isn't a word), spending time with fmaily, more swimming and more eating! We all had a blast! And no, we didn't throw Joey overboard... thanks to Katie and Mat who so graciously volunteered to watch him for us. It made for a much more enjoyable time!

Doing some swimming in the perfect-temperature water...
Although I can't seem to keep Maggie away from the water everyhere else, she did NOT want to get in the water at Lake Powell unless it was right along the shore. Luckily we found a great campsite with a shallow pool where the little ones loved to play. Here is one of the rare instances Aunt Jessica managed to cajole her into the water.
For those who haven't been Lake Powell scenery can't be beat--most of the Lake is bordered by sheer cliffs--it is awesome and gorgeous! For a little perspective, here is Eric and Kaylee and Ashley swimming toward one--the cliff goes another 100 feet up!
Jake having a good time...
Tubing and "Hot-Dogging" (Maggie loved the hot dog--and Mom loved riding it wither her since Uncle Cory couldn't go too fast!)
Here is the little shallow pool by our "campsite" (we were lucky enough to have a houseboat for luxury thanks to the Hiatts). The kids loved to pretend to ride on the wave-runners. After sitting on it and pretending to drive Jacob turns to Eric and asks, "Does this have missiles?"
Kaylee and Tyler were great explorers--finding all kinds of fish bones and building a cool fort from driftwood. They even set up a Lake Powell museum and play for us all!
I had to put this picture in since it is pretty much the only picture with me in it....pretty sad huh? But it does show the cool canyons...
Cliff jumping was a favorite of the trip--Jacob and Tyler are awesome jumpers. It took some convincing to get Ty to jump but once he did he wouldn't stop--and he just got braver and braver as you will see.
Let's make it a family affair...
We did have some TIRED kiddos!
Maggie finally decided she would get in the water as long as she had her "tube."
So Tyler got pretty brave jumping--braver than me or Eric! Look at him go!
Just for a little perspective this is him before jumping at the top of the cliff--INSANE! You are probably thinking I am a terrible mother for letting him jump this high....and you are probably right.
Taken the last day of our trip just exploring and enjoying the general splendor of it all.
Overall a great trip with great people--a winning combo!

Tyler's Baptized!

It's official, I now have a child at the age of accountability! Tyler was baptized on Saturday. It was really nice--my mom was able to come out and see it and most of Eric's family was there too. We tried to get a family picture...this is the best we got...Look at those two handsome guys!
And Maggie was being so cute--she has this little closed mouth coy smile that is so adorable.
One more shot before the big event. Tyler was a little nervous but he did great. Although he said he didn't feel different after being baptized, he just "felt wet."
We had a little lunch at our house after where apparently we got everyone in the family sick...oops. Sorry everyone! It was a great day for us all. Well, one down and three more to go!

World Travelers

Okay, maybe "world" travelers is an overstatement, but we have been traveling a lot! Eric's been traveling back and forth to California for a training course several times. While he was gone, I took the kids up to the Lee (Sharee's family) Family Reunion in Idaho. It was actually pretty fun (I only say that because, let's be honest, most family reunions are a bit lame). There was more candy there than in Willy Wonka's factory, and that combined with the plethora of blow-up water playthings made sure my kids had a blast. Joey enjoyed his very first sucker, under the watchful eye of Aunt Hillary...

The trip was a success. Soon after, or before--things have been a blur--we had Tyler's birthday party--LEGO themed. It was all things LEGO, LEGO chopsticks, building LEGO cars, LEGO candy towers, LEGO races, even a LEGO cake.

The cake didn't turn out quite as cute as I pictured it in my head, but the kids didn't care so neither did I.

Not long after that we headed to California to visit my mom. It was great because my sister and her family were down there as well so it was like our own little family reunion! Of course a trip to southern CA isn't complete without the beach...

Diving in waves...
Getting sand EVERYWHERE (picture me sighing and rolling my eyes...I mean really, how do kids get sand in places I didn't even know existed...plus you find it for weeks afterward...I think if there were ever a nuclear holocaust all that would survive would be sand sand sand...)

Finding cool treasures along the shore...(the highlight was a lobster tentacle)
My feeble attempts to get Joey to like to sit in the water...it was a "no-go".
Bathing in the warm sun....(I couldn't see Maggie for a moment then found her sun-bathing in another kid's sand pit).
We did lots of other fun stuff, like Pretend City kid's museum and playing in grandma's hot tub. But of course I didn't get any pictures of those things. We also took our little family (me, Eric and the kids) to San Diego for a night. We spent the first day at Sea World then the next day Eric had to go to another conference. You will be very impressed to hear that instead of going straight back up to my mom's house I braved an adventure with the kids all by myself. There is a "retired" aircraft carrier in San Diego called Midway. I have always wanted to see it and thought the boys would think it was cool so I decided to give it a go. Aren't you impressed? It was a relative success, all things considered, but little did I know I would be climbing up and down what they call "stairways" despite the fact they are as steep as ladders. Talk about nerve wracking watching Maggie climb up and down the million stairways with me trying to be prepared to catch her if she fell, all the while having Joey in the carrier sling on my hip. Phew! More than a few beads of swear fell from my brow that day--and not just from the workout! But it was pretty cool. The boys loved it. And you will be even more in awe of me when you see that I actually took a few pictures to boot!

Here the boys are trying their hardest to get the ship to move--and yes, that is Maggie's leg sticking up at the bottom. She decided it would be more fun to breakdance at the controls rather than steer. Remind me never to get on a boat with her in charge.
The boys loved sitting in the fighter jet cockpits.
Here is a view of one of the "stairways". This is not just the angle of the camera--they really are that steep.
We spent over 2 1/2 hours there and still didn't see the whole thing--it just kept going and going! But by the end Joey was kaput and wouldn't stop screaming no matter how much I jingled my keys in front of him. So we called it a day (morning) and headed back up to my mom's for one last afternoon of hot-tubbing (kid style of course). And left the next morning to come home.

So here we are back in real life for a couple days, then my mom comes out here for Tyler's baptism in a few days, then it is off to Lake Powell, then not too long after that school starts. Phew! I am worn out just writing this! But I love it--a summer crammed full of fun-ness is the best way to go!

Summer Fun

Did you know that I live in a castle? It must be a castle because there is a princess who lives here. I can prove it, I got a picture of her eating Goldfish crackers in her Cinderella ball gown...On to more annoying things, when we first moved in there were some sparrows building a nest above our porch. They were working so hard and were almost done so I decided to let them be. Biggest mistake of my life. Little did I know they would have 5 babies, who would then grow into birds themselves, and all 7 of them together would create the biggest poop factory anyone has ever seen. It is truly a shame bird poop isn't worth anything--I'd have been a millionaire. I caught a pic of the little rascals before they flew the coop. Mom and dad aren't home right now...
You can bet that nest was knocked down the day those birdies could fly! I won't make that mistake next summer!

For the fourth of July we went to see the hot air balloon show in Provo. Eric was running a race so we decided to get up early and go with him. While he sweated blood and tears we sat enjoying the show, but unfortunately right as the balloons were getting up the wind picked up and they had to take them all down. A bit of a let down.
But we still had a good time hanging out. Plus we went out for breakfast after and anytime my kids get pancakes and bacon they are happy campers.
We also took a little day trip (day for us, overnight for others) up the canyon. The kids had a blast exploring and riding in the Rhino. Maggie was particularly cute, as always.
She loves the Rhino so much she spent most of her time climbing up into it and buckling herself in even though there was no one to drive her.
Back to home, I was upstairs and happened to look over the balcony and saw this...
Now what do you think could possibly be so enticing as to entertain all four children at once? My iPhone. Best money I ever spent! Even Joey was in on the action. It was so cute.

Ode to Jo(e)y

Poor Joey...he is so neglected as far as picture taking goes! So I am dedicating this post to him. It's not that I don't mean to take pictures of him, my intentions are good, but to happen upon those cute moments, when the rest of the kids are not in my hair, when I have the camera close...well, it's like the stars need to align. Not to mention the fact that picture are almost always disappointing since they rarely capture children's cuteness. But I will try to be more diligent about capturing Joey's adorable-ness on camera so that he can't hold me accountable for all his problems when he's older because he was a neglected child.

Joey can be a little ornery at times...but usually as long as he is the center of attention he is okay. This sad face is because he is sick. Doesn't it make your heart break? Poor little guy.
Joey is growing so fast it makes me nostalgic already--he is almost a toddler and not a baby anymore. Boo hoo.
His favorite new pastime is showing off his skills at stair climbing. I keep finding him trying to climb up my big flight of wooden stairs--not very child friendly. Twice I have found him all but two or three stairs from the top--can you say HEART ATTACK! I swear I am not a neglectful mother, but he is fast! You can see that look in his eye here at the bottom of the stairs thinking about how excited he is to be climbing up the stairs!
He is such a sweet little chunk of a thing. I just want to squish him.

Anyway, there is my tribute to Joey, a sweet, attention loving, people person baby, soon to be toddler. You gotta love him.

A few new things

I have been such a slacker about taking pictures lately. I don't know why but life seems so much busier in Utah. Before I know it my days are gone. But busy is good, I'd rather be busy than bored.

Maggie looked so cute for church the other day and I tried to get a cute picture but she refuses to be still so this is the best I got. The image I had in my head of the way I wanted it to look was better, but this one is okay too!
Doesn't this look like a dangerous shot? Tyler's legs are through the railing overlooking downstairs. Looks like he is about to jump off!
We went to the park to feed the ducks at Salem Pond, but to my surprise and the kids' disappointment there were no ducks to be had. Well, I guess that's not entirely true--there was a mama ducks with 4 ducklings but they didn't want anything to do with us or our stale bread. Oh well. The kids played at the small park there (did I mention it was small? and old--it still has a metal slide--those of us born before 1980 remember those burned bottoms!) and Tyler was my swing pusher!
Joey had fun watching the kids play. Luckily he was happy in his stroller for most of the time. He is such a fun little chunk. I just love to squish and squeeze him!
And Jacob showed us all his penchant for the monkey bars--I had to watch him every time he went across--which was many many many times.
My kids had some so-called "washable" colored bubbles that they have been waiting to play with once the weather warmed up. They decided to get them out the other day and I agreed thinking it would be fun and keep them occupied while I tried to sweep away some of the dirt from our sod laying party. Well, I was thinking "colored bubbles" would just be lightly tinted or something along those lines. Boy was I ever wrong. Look what happened...

They were absolutely covered. In blue, green and orange. And so was my driveway--oh, and the "washable" claim? Untrue. I even had my brother-in-law spray off the stains with a power washer and they are still there. Lighter, but there. Ugh. I even made sure to read the bottle first and it said, and I quote, "Rinse off asphalt and concrete with a garden hose." Ummmm, sorry Crayola--I should sue them for false advertising. What a mess. Plus I had little orange handprints all along the wall in the garage. Ugh again.

With all the business going on, we've gotten creative with Joey. Here he is playing in the back of the van while I sprayed (tried to) the bubbles off the drive.
And just yesterday the boys were in charge of watching Joey while I was cleaning up and I came upstairs to this.....
They had put Joey in their laundry basket (it was empty of dirty clothes, thank goodness) with some toys to keep him happy. And guess what? He sat in there happy as a clam for a good half hour at least. He probably would've stayed in longer if I hadn't gone and gotten him to change his diaper. Who knew?