Monday, July 25, 2011

Bear Lake (again)

 Oh man how I love Bear Lake!  I was a horrible picture taker at this one though (stop cheering).  The water was like glass for most of the trip....probably some of the best wake boarding I've ever done and we didn't get ANY pictures of it.  Disgusting huh?  Guess we'll have to go back again.

Kate LOVED the sand and the water.  She would just start walking out into the water as deep as she could go and want to keep going.  If we'd try to turn her around to the shallow she'd throw a little (or not so little) fit.  She loved it!  We didn't get any pictures of that either.  Just imagine her up to her neck in water. That was Kate most of the time.
 Rach and Josh both loved the water and sand too, but they said their favorite part was playing with their cousins the whole time.  They were up until like midnight almost every night because they were having so much fun.
 We had a weird experience though.  While they were playing one day Rach came running up to me and said she got stung by a bee in her eye.  I couldn't see anythig wrong with it so I sent her off to play (yeah, I know).  A few minutes later she came back and her eye was completely swollen.  It just popped right out of there and was growing by the second.  I didn't know what to do because what do you put on an eye?  I asked my sister in law and she had heard that you should put a shiny penny on it and it will stop the swelling.  Well, we had nothing to lose so I stuck a shiny penny on it for about 3 minutes.  I pulled the penny off, the swelling was gone, she said it didn't hurt anymore, and after about 10 minutes you would have never guessed that she had been stung at all.  It was amazing!!!  So next time you get a bee sting (or a wasp) stick a shiny penny on it.  Watch the magic happen.

From this point on a little parental digression is advised.  When we were playing at the beach Josh told me he needed to go potty.  Beach=no pottys.  So I said "Josh, you'll just have to go in the lake."  I should have been a little more clear on what I meant.   This is what I saw just a few moments later......

 
We were all laughing so hard and so was the group of people right next to us.  Josh did his duty then came back to me and said so innocently, "Mom, why is everyone laughing?"  Let me tell you it was hard to keep a straight face.

One of the days we visited Old Ephraim's grave.  He is a bear as big as this rock that a guy killed back in the '20's.  Pretty amazing story.  Very big bear.
 
The view up there was amazing.  The song "The hills are alive....." just kept running through my head.
 Here's back at the beach again.  These are in no particular order apparently.

 Then the day we came home was the Bountiful 24th of July parade which we got to go see.  It pays off having a cop for a brother in law.  We get primo seating with police tape and everything.  These two look like a couple of troublemakers to me.  It's good we had an officer to keep an eye on them.
 Then another perk of having Gary as a brother in law is the fireworks!  He's the cop for Mueller Park Junior High which is where they have their big fireworks show.  So for the past 4-5 years we've been seeing the fireworks from the roof of the school.  It's a little scary getting up there.
 But once you're there the view is amazing.  Kate doesn't look to happy does she?  Once you've seen fireworks like this you just can't appreciate them from further away.  They are spectacular.  The only downside is the ash that falls on you sometimes.  It's all good, it won't kill you.  Rach hates this tradition, but I love it so we'll keep doing it as long as Gary will let us.
 
We actually got a family photo.  A miracle.  What a fun week!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

My soul

I totally forgot to mention one of the most significant things that happened on our beautiful hike up Adam's Canyon!  50 yards after we started our hike the devil jumped out, and challenged me to a fiddle-off.  Since I don't know how to play the fiddle I lost and he took my soul.  So I went the entire hike without my soul.  

Okay, maybe that's not exactly how it happened, but after 50 yards of the hike the sole of my shoe fell off, so technically I was soleless for the hike.  I hiked the entire time with no sole!  Of course if you know Trav the entire hike was full of soulless jokes.
 

I had left it in the bushes to pick up on our way back out and I'm happy to say that my soul was there waiting for me.  The devil didn't get it after all.

Oh and one more thing....Kate told her first knock knock joke last week.  Yeah, you heard me right.  Most kids can only say a couple words at her age (17 months).  She talks so well and jabbers up a storm.  Then totally unprovoked she told us a knock knock joke. It went like this
Kate:  "Knock Knock"
Me:  "Who's there?"
Kate:  "Knock knock"
Me:  "Knock knock who?"
Kate:  "Who who?"  and then she laughs
I think we may have a little comedian on our hands. 

Friday, July 15, 2011

Vacation?

Isn't summer supposed to be a vacation?  Why is it so stinkin busy then?  So to spare you from the 80 million (yes I counted) pictures that we have here is a super-cut-down-overview of what we've been up to for the past few weeks.  

First, it started out with a family reunion at Bear Lake with the Schick's.  (The Maughan Bear Lake reunion is next week so be excited for that post too)  We had lots of fun just being together.  Here's a shot of the whole fam in our totally awesome tie-dye shirts.  We don't even have to say we're cool, you can just tell by looking at us.  I do have to say the group is getting bigger!  In numbers....numbers people, not size.
 If you can't tell from the last picture, the beach wasn't so beachy but Kate managed to drop her marshmallow in the sand all the same.  Extra protein right?
 And here's finally a decent picture of me with my dark hair not pulled into a pony tail.  That's a first.
 We glammed up our flip flops......
 And here's a shot of me and my sisters and mom.  Awwww cute....
 The day before we left on the reunion we went water skiing with a friend.  I love how Kate looks in the life jacket.
 And she brought me Joshy's superman costume and wanted to wear it.  So here's my super baby.
 
Okay, this next one is out ultimate big news......Rachel lost her first tooth!!!  Those of you that know me well probably know I have this "thing" with teeth.  It's a totally irrational phobia about losing my teeth, having them fall out, you name it.  For instance, in The Little Mermaid, you know the part at the end where Sebastian knocks out the chefs teeth with a big board?  Yeah, just thinking about that makes me want to throw up.  And The Tooth Book by Dr. Seuss?  It has taken me years of reading that to be okay with that book.  Cast Away?  Don't even talk to me about ice skates.  I don't know why but it totally grosses me out.  

So Rachel's tooth got loose and I literally would have to go in the other room while Trav felt how loose it was.  Sick.  He tried to pull it out a couple of times with no victory.  So one day while he was at work Rach was eating a popcicle and said "mom, my tooth is bleeding"  I looked in there and it was laying down flat.  I about gagged but being the brave mother that I am I said "That thing needs to come out now."  So I pulled back my hair and my sleeves, grabbed a tissue, reached in, barely touched the tooth and it came right out.  

Rach was beyond excited as you can see from the picture.  Me.....I felt like I had just accomplished something huge.  I may get over this phobia yet.  There's still a lot of teeth in my kids mouth's that are going to have to come out.  It's going to be a long 10 years, but at least I know I can do it without throwing up. 
You can say it.....I am a rock star.
 This past week the Laurels in the ward offered free babysitting for 3 hours on Wednesday so we could have a date night (best laurel activity EVER) So Trav and I decided to go on a hike.  It has been years since we've gone on a good sweaty hard hike.  We hiked up Adam's canyon, had a picnic dinner, saw the gorgeous waterfall and had the best time ever.  It totally reminded me of the old days when we used to do fun stuff like that.  We even got pictures of ourselves!  That's a miracle in and of itself.


 And guess who we found when we were there?  Can you tell?
 The fourth of July was awesome.  Centerville breakfast, parade and carnival with my family.
 
Then we did something that we've never done before...we went to the Kaysville parade.  Since we live in Kaysville we thought we better go support.  It was absolutely INSANE!  Let me start by saying I love Kaysville.  It is where I want to raise my kids.  I've never met such a wonderful caliber of people but they do not know how to handle parades!  We got a front row seat as they blocked off a road and we were so excited knowing they throw candy and have a huge water fight at the end (which is fun, by the way) but as soon as the parade started, everyone that was sitting behind us stood up and stood in front of us for the entire parade.  Stood.  In front of us.  For the entire parade.  We could not see anything!  And when they'd throw out toys people would just walk along next to the float until they got what they wanted.  It was nuts.  The kids still had fun so I guess that's what counts.  They look a little tired in this picture don't you think?
 Then yesterday (I know insane right?) my dad invited us to his work party at Boondocks.  We got to try everything which was so much fun. Here's the bumper boats(Josh with grandpa and me and Rach behind them)
 
And the race track (Josh with grandma)
 Rach with grandpa.
  My favorite was the laser tag.  The kids even got to try that for the first time.  Josh actually did awesome and got like 7th place out of 12 people and was by far the youngest one there.  Everyone else was like 12 or older.  It was so fun. 

Now I have 2 days to rest and relax before the next big adventure at Bear Lake again.  I need a vacation.