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…Photo style, curtosy of my early Birthday present a digital camera. (my b-day is Thursday)
Cub scout Pack meeting rocket race. Big fun!
Cub scout Day camp with 16 boys!
This is supposed to be rafting, but it looks like a dock to me.
My boys painting with daddy.
Working hard.
The finished product.
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Oh and by the way 2.7lbs. until I hit my first goal. I can’t believe how good this feels. I’m still not even close to being done, but it’s a start.
Yesterday I got the pleasure of spending the whole day up at Cub scout day camp (I know me at day camp with the Cub scouts is pretty funny, but you can stop laughing now). Despite my fear, we had a great time and the camp is run really well. The boys seemed to enjoy themselves and were well behaved. I don’t know if having 16 young boys with fully loaded BB guns is the best idea, but we made it through with no bodily injuries.
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With two hours left to go in our wonderful adventure I get a phone call from my sister-in-law. This really puzzles me since she knows I’m in the mountains all day with 16 boys. I know she didn’t forget because I’ve got her son. So of course there isn’t enough reception up their to answer the phone so I went out to the parking lot (for better reception) and called my messages.
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Her message is a little frantic, and she is saying something about my mother-in-law (who is in the middle of chemo for breast cancer) and something about calling 911. Well now I’m totally panicking. I ran to the office and asked to use the emergency phone to call home.
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To make a long story a little shorter I find out that she had a seizure, hit her head pretty hard on the night stand, and bit through her lip requiring 4 stitches. She also had a second seizure on the way to the hospital but after a CAT scan she was cleared and headed home to rest.
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I was pretty worn out when I got home so I took a brief nap. Then had to run to my kids school for a back to school picnic in the middle of the worst storm I’ve seen in Utah since I moved here. We all got really soaked but they had fun so that’s all that matters.
We have had a very adventurous few weeks. The cousins are in town staying with us for 10 days (2 of them leave in the morning the other one is staying for another 3 weeks) and we have been showing them ALL of Utah. Not only are we packing our schedule full of fun activities, but Ash is in the middle of a MAJOR overhaul of BridesClub that is set to launch in less than 2 weeks.
Here are some of the highlights so far:
I’m worn out, but it has been fun. I had a lot of firsts this week, not only was it my first time going to Stadium of Fire, but it was also my first time river rafting the Provo river, wake boarding, and riding a level 4 trail on ATVs with children. (I don’t recommend it)
Ash decided to take us up a trail that I thought he had been on before, and for anyone that knows him you know that he is a very cautious person so no need to worry, right. Wrong.
The first part of the ride was great, normal no problem. Then we crossed a stream, still normal. I looked up ahead and I see very large boulders, and a road that looks almost impassible. I ask him if this is a good idea, and he says that its only like that for a minute and then its fine. I say ok and we head up the mountain. Well the road doesn’t get better, and I’m getting more and more scared by the minute. The trail gets steeper, and the boulders get bigger, and we have 6 kids with us, 2 of them are riding there own machines. Ash then says he doesn’t remember it being this bad, but when he came up the trail it was covered in snow, so of course he didn’t see the huge rocks under the snow. Then he tells me that he never actually made it to the top because he got snowed in and had to turn around. By the time we got to the lake at the top I wasn’t just scared, I was mad.
I’ll admit the lake was beautiful, but not worth the danger going up. All I could think about was how I was going to get down, because I didn’t want to go back the way we came. The trip down ended up being much easier than the trip up. I just let gravity work and held the brake every once in a while. Of course Ash says “It wasn’t that bad”, but its the last time I go up that trail, and next time I’m picking the trip.
Later that day we went wake boarding, another thing that I had never done. Anyone who knows me knows that my lack of coordination is legendary. I have no balance, no coordination, and a healthy respect/fear of water, so why I thought I could try this is beyond me. I think Utah Lake’s water level dropped 2 ft. from all the water I drank trying to wake board. I got up once, but the rest of the time the rope kept slipping out of my hands. (which of course is because of the intense ATV riding earlier, nice excuse huh) Even though I wasn’t great at it I had fun, and want to try it again until I get it. Ash as so sweet to tell me how good I did, even though I know the truth. I would post a picture, but you have to stay up longer than 2 seconds to get a picture ;0) Here are some pictures of our week, and a video of Ash wake surfing (he is a natural, it must be because he is from Hawaii)
Sadie, Sean, and Dallin at Ripple’s Drive in.
The whole family
This year I seem to be having a hard time swinging into summer. I just can’t seem to get into our normal summer rhythm, so last night I took the kids to Barnes and Nobles to pick out there summer reading books. Every summer my kids have a long list of daily chores, followed by about 3 hours of homeschooling, and then they can have the rest of the day to do fun things like go to the pool (we haven’t been even once this summer.)
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We had a hard time picking out books that the kids and I could agree on. My son wanted to read Star Wars books, and we settled on “Levin Thumps”. Sadie wanted to read books that were more like teen magazines than actual books. I finally talked her into reading “A Wrinkle in Time”.
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As for myself, I got “For One More Day” by Mitch Album (our book club book) and The Nazi Officer’s Wife, a biography of a Jewish women who was married to a Nazi officer, and had to keep her heritage hidden. I am a history buff, I love reading history books, and historical fictions, but I do have a weird fascination with the Holocaust.Â
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Hopefully today we will be able to get a good start on summer, and get at least chores, and reading done. Maybe I’ll take them to a movie since the sun is at a dangerous UV level today.Â
Life has been insanely busy. It has been so busy I can hardly remember what I did over the last few weeks, lets see:
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Did I also mention Ash was out of town in Las Vegas, on vacation with his brother, not that I’m jealous or anything. I’m tired, and need a break but the bathroom remodel has hardly begun.
I don’t know why I don’t seem to learn from past mistakes. I get these ideas in my head, and just run with it. The newest brilliant idea of mine was to take 9 12 year olds to a nail salon to get manicures and pedicures for my daughters 12th birthday party. Sounds fun huh. In all fairness it didn’t turn out that bad, the girls were really great. I just realized right before we left what I had agreed to.
This of course isn’t the craziest party I’ve thrown for one of my kids, I have a long track record of over doing it. One of these days I’ll come to my senses, and have a simple home party.Â
