St. George x 2

Wow! There is so much fun wrapped up in this post I don't know where to begin.  I guess the beginning is a great place to start.  Back in May my dad approached me with an idea, he wanted to do something special for my mom for her 60th birthday. I was pretty impressed because her birthday wasn't until September and here my dad was planning in advance.  He's not much of a planner, every Christmas Eve you would find my dad at the mall trying to figure out what to get Mom for Christmas. Dad thought she needed a big celebration so I started brainstorming ideas and, as usual, Dad listened and then said, "I was thinking of taking everyone (my whole family: brothers, sisters, etc.) to St. George for a surprise party."  Well, why didn't you say so in the first place!  It was a great idea.  I became the party planner and started making arrangements for Labor Day weekend. 

About a month into my planning, some friends started planning another getaway.  A girl's weekend in St. George.  What are the odds?  What was even more crazy was that they wanted to go the weekend after Labor Day. That would be two back-to-back weekends in St. George for me. I tried talking them into another weekend because I wanted to spread out my fun but it was the best weekend for everyone else so I went with the flow.

Needless to say, my September so far has been awesome!
Sept. 1st, we headed out for St. George.  We met up with my brother and his family, who drove down from Colorado. It was just us that first night and then everyone else showed up on Friday for the big surprise. My amazing cousin Mindy rented us her fabulous condo and we were able to rent another one next door so we could all be close together.  

The surprise was the greatest.  Over the course of the summer, my dad had to give my mom some details about the trip to make sure everything would work out.  First he needed to tell her something so she could get the time off work, so he told her he was taking her to Las Vegas for her birthday to shop and see a show.  Then he had to tell her they would be staying in Mindy's condo in St. George for a few nights because she gave him such a good deal and it's close to Las Vegas.  So the surprise by the end was just us.  She had no idea that all her children and grandchildren would be spending the weekend with them.  The moment we all jumped out of our hiding places and yelled surprise was priceless!  I have never in my life seen my Mom so happy or scream quite so loudly.  We had so much fun together.  We swam and ate and golfed and ate and shopped and ate and swam some more.  So fun! 

Thursday:

Friday:

Surprise! 

 Here are the kids waiting to jump out and surprise Grandma.

Here are the adults waiting to jump out and surprise Mom.
 

 Allison planned this?  Well I helped.

Fun with seashells

Just chillin'

 Rocket launch

Looked like so much fun I wanted in on that

 Yeah, almost out of the water.  Still fun.

Synchronized swimming anyone?

 

Swimming sure works up an appetite

And makes you really sleepy

Saturday:

The boys golfed

Nice form JayDee

The girls shopped but no pictures.  We were also treated to an amazing dinner at the Anasazi Steakhouse and then dessert... Yum!

Saturday was also mine and JayDee's 13th wedding anniversary.  I thanked my dad numerous times for paying for our anniversary getaway. :)

I made a video for JayDee to commemorate our special day, it was super cute and I'd upload it here but I barely am tech savvy enough to make the thing let alone upload it.  I did try, and I kept getting error messages so I just quit trying. If you'd like to see it let me know and I'll send you a DVD.  :)

Sunday:

We went to church and then after Sunday naps...

we visited the St. George Temple and Visitor's Center

 Joey had to go home Sunday after church for work on Monday.

So BriAnne was a single mother. :(

After dinner we got the kids involved in making their own dessert.  Ice cream!

Monday:

 We got one more swim in and then packed up and left with smiles on our faces.  Thanks Dad for the great memories!

I almost forgot! We did have a very cool pet/mascot on our little trip.  This guy built his perfect web right outside our door and we'd look at him every time we came and went.  

It was like having our own little Animal Planet show.  He was so cool.  He didn't move an inch for 2 days and we thought he was dead or digesting something he'd eaten but then when we were leaving for church on Sunday he was off to the side of his web hurriedly wrapping up a tasty snack.  I had never seen a spider in action in real life before.  He was hanging onto his web with his back legs and using both front legs to wrap up his snack, then he held onto the bug with two of his front legs and crawled with his six other legs back into the middle of his web and settled back in.  It was amazing.  Then when we got back from church he was still there but no bug.  He must have sucked it dry and dropped it. We loved our little pet and were very upset when we found out some hoodlum kids had come along our pathway and thrown a rock at our spider.  We don't know if they killed him but his web was destroyed.  Darn kids!

Take 2:  Hang in there!

So three and a half days after coming home from trip #1, I headed out for trip #2.  Same drive, different passengers.  I traded one condo for another (thanks Michelle's sister) and one kind of fun for another. I love these girls!  We have so much fun together.

On this trip there was shopping, eating, more shopping, more eating, a Tuacahn show and lots of relaxation.

Our only shopping picture...it may look like everything fit but the reason we took this picture was because the top is actually way too small.  I could barely get it down far enough to cover my rather large bosoms.  It was pulling all funny and practically busting at the seams.  We were laughing hysterically.  The picture does not do it justice.

I'm sorry Melissa...you and your body pillow 

are just too funny .  Plus, you fell asleep first.

This is where Heidi spent most of her condo time.

Oh I'm not taking a picture of you Melissa, 

I'm trying to get one of Dana behind you.  :)

 

 Work it Michelle!  

You mop that floor.

After all the fun and games we ended our trip with another (for me anyway) visit to the temple. 

 *Sigh*  Now all my fun is over and I have nothing to look forward to but it will be kind of nice to get back to regular life for a little while. . .I guess.

Kidless...for a little while anyway

Isaac started preschool on Monday!  I used an exclamation point because that is super exciting news.  It's a new experience for us because he is the first official preschooler in our family, none of my other children ever attended.   That was wholly due to the fact that JayDee refused to pay for something that I had been trained to do myself.  What he didn't understand was that I am much better at the mother role than the teacher role at home.  None of my kids ever responded well to my "teaching."  As a matter of fact, when Ethan started kindergarten (almost a year later than everyone else his age because his birthday is late) he did not recognize all the letters in the alphabet and he didn't even know the letters in his name.  He thought his name was spelled E-T-H-I-N.  Thankfully, they all caught up quickly with no trouble.

Isaac however is another issue. My current conundrum about  Isaac is whether to let him go to kindergarten next year or wait a year.  His birthday is right at the beginning of school but he makes the deadline if I want him too.  I  discussed this with JayDee and told him that in order for me to make an educated decision about what is best for our son I needed to know where he was academically and socially.  Preschool is the perfect gauging tool.  He consented and now Isaac is super happy to be in school like the big kids and with 2 neighborhood friends.

I'm excited to have 2 1/2 hours of kid free time, 3 times a week.  I almost don't know what to do with myself but I'm pretty sure I'll think of something.

Isaac and his buddies

Ready for new adventures!

Another Birthday

Isaac, my baby, is 4!  Man, I love this kid!  He is so dang cute, he's got a mischievous streak and lots of hugs for Mom.  He melts this Mom's heart.

We started the day with presents....

 Yes, the picnic table is a present. 

He really wanted a picnic table. Go figure.

This one is Toy Story 3

And of course a backpack for school.

Later that day we had a combined party with Isaac's cousin Milan.  Milan and Isaac were born only 8 days apart and they've become best of friends, so while they are young they'll have combined parties.  I'm sure sooner or later they may change their minds about that, but for now, we like it.

Everyone came over for dinner, 

a great excuse to use the new picnic table.

More presents...

Thanks Grandma for the cool remote controlled 

Lightening McQueen!

And of course, cake!

Although Isaac and Milan love each other they have very different likes and dislikes.  Milan loves cars and trucks, just about anything with a motor.  While Isaac likes really active play, swords, guns, bike riding and right now he loves Wild Kratts.  In case you're not familiar with this, it's a cartoon on PBS Kids about the Kratt brothers who are animal experts.  They have all kinds of gadgets that help them learn about animals and help animals.  Anyway, Isaac loves it.  I think more for the gadgets than the animals but oh well.

I think they're cakes are a good representation 

of both of them.

  

Close up

Happy Birthday boys!

Biding Our Time

With my 3 oldest in school all day, it's felt really different around here.  Isaac will be starting preschool next week and I can't imagine myself without a little person around.  I can't wait for Isaac to start preschool just so he'll have something great to do. He has really missed his brother and sisters and it's only been two days.  Today, however, we found something to bide our time and Isaac had so much fun.  I consider this a mundane task but Isaac loved helping.  It was jam time!

I asked him if he wanted to help me make jam and he acted like we were doing magic.  I think he thinks that jam is just one of those miraculous foods that is just always in the fridge. His excitement level was helped by the fact that he loves jam. He turned out to be a great sou chef!  He followed instructions and kept his little fingers out of the goods until I gave him the go ahead when we were finished. Maybe baking will become a regular activity for us while we're biding our time.

 I had frozen the raspberries from our garden until I could get to jamming, so there was quite a bit of juice that I drained off and Isaac was the juice taste tester.  Mmmmm...

School!

I've got to admit that I am not one of those weepy mothers that hates the thought of sending her children off to school every year.  With every one of my kids that have started school, the first day of school was met with great excitement and dare I say joy. And those are my feelings not my kids. :)  Maybe it's because I have always loved school and I see it as a great, big, worthwhile adventure or maybe it's that I can't wait for my kids to experience new things or maybe it's because I like the break from them.  Whatever the reason...when school rolls around every summer I'm happy about it. 

That's exactly how I felt this year too until about 2 days before school started and then all of a sudden I felt very unprepared for school to start.  The school shopping was done, the clothes were picked out, nothing out of the ordinary was happening to make me feel this way.  It was quite a mystery to me and still is actually. I have yet to figure it out.  Maybe I'm becoming more sentimental with the passing years.  Maybe it's that they're noticeably growing up. Who knows? 

What I do know is that these 3 cuties left yesterday for their new adventures and had a wonderful time.  

 All of them had nothing but good to say about their new classes and teachers. In fact, after talking to them all I said, "So everyone likes their teachers then." And Hannah answered, "Like her. I love my teacher!"  Well said Hannah, well said.  I hope it lasts all year.

Water...It's What Summer Is

Summer just isn't summer without water and this last week we've had lots of it!  Thanks to our awesome Rasmussen Reunion we found ourselves at the Roy Aquatics Center for an entire sun-filled, water-filled day.  And when I say entire day, I mean entire day.  We were there when it opened at 11am and we stayed until closing time at 8pm.  Wow!  We've never had the stamina for that kind of fun before.  I must say we had blast!

When Isaac took a break from the water he had to be completely covered from head to toe or else he would be "freezing" in the blazing sun.

Sweet moves boys! 

I'd give it an 8.5.

Good solid 5.

 Ethan overcome his fear of the high dive this year and loved showing off his new bravery. Unfortunately, there are no pictures to prove this so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Just a few days after our pool day we spent another day by another body of water. This time it was with our friends at Utah's beach - good old Pineview Reservoir.  I wasn't sure how excited my kids would be to be sun soaked for another full day so I kind of prepared myself for a short trip but there was no need.  They played all day.  There were no near death drownings, no drama with friends, no sand wars, no complaining so it was quite a relaxing day for moms.  We'll take those days any day.

Out and in...out and in

 

Just over a week left until school starts and it was just this week that I finally felt like we had done something summery.  Good thing.  Now I can send my kids off to school knowing I didn't deprive them of their summer.  :) 

Emma's Baptism

In case anyone didn't know...we love our friends!  We feel so blessed to live in our neighborhood and have so many great friends that really feel more like extended family than friends.  We love them so much we think it's extra special when we get to share special days with them.  Emma's baptism day was one of those days.  It just so happens that Emma and our good friend Oliver Thompson, who coincidentally lives right behind us, share the same birthday; so their baptisms were going to be on the same day just different times.  Well that just wasn't going to work for us.  We would have gone to Ollie's baptism and the Thompsons would have come to Emma's baptism.  Why go to the church 2 times in the same day when we can just do it together?!  That's just what we did and it was great!

August 6, 2011  10:00am

On our way to the church

At the church with Ollie

We can't forget our Dads

After the baptisms at our house for lunch

We had a lot of fun at our luncheon.  It was the middle of the day so it was blazing hot. Our backyard doesn't get shade until the evening, perfect for evening parties but terrible for daytime events.  We set up one of those giant white event tents to make some shade and all the kids had a picnic in the only natural shade in the backyard.  Family and friends stayed for hours and Emma came away with lots of gifts of love for her special day.  


We love our Emma and although she still has lots to learn about making good choices and listening to the Spirit, I can honestly say that I've noticed a difference.  Hopefully she'll continue to progress and with the help of the Holy Ghost she'll become the best she can be!