In-N-Out Picnic

The In-N-Out family picnic was held at a water park in Provo. It was pretty good, but a little chilly for my Arizona blood. A big drawback was that they did not have the cookout trailer; instead we ate food that was there at the park, which wasn't nearly as good as a double-double would have been. Hopefully next year, with more stores, they will send the cookout trailer. Only four stores wasn't enough to warrant one this year.

The kids had fun, and especially liked the all-you-can-eat ice cream and cotton candy. Westley and Corey went on a few rides together. I went on one ride with Caleb and then Caleb and I spent time in the wave pool. Jamie was there with her guest and they spent some time watching Eliza and Travis in one of the kid pools. The toddler pool was out of order, closed for repairs, so that was a bummer to have the zero depth pool designed for kids Eliza's age completely closed. Next year we will bring her life jacket.

We were bummed that we forgot to take advantage of having the company store there to buy some things. But it was fun. I liked how it was smaller--there were only four stores and only half of that go on the same day.

Starcicles

Not too long ago, the kids and I made "starcicles". We made up a fresh fruit smoothie, using strawberries, bananas and orange juice and then we poured the smoothie into a star-shaped ice cube tray covered with plastic wrap and toothpicks poking out and froze them. The kids loved them and, for a little while, I even tricked Eliza into eating fruit. Didn't last long until she was onto me, though. They want to try something sweeter next time around.

Splash Pad

We have gone a few times this summer to a splash pad near us. It's a nice way of cooling off that doesn't cost any money--kind of like running through the sprinklers without getting grass all over your feet!

However, the water is really cold here and the wind doesn't ever stop in this part of town, so you can probably tell the kids are freezing. Eliza wouldn't even get wet--she doesn't like being splashed on. But she looked cute sitting on her towel.

Nine Year Anniversary

So our nine year anniversary came and went. We didn't do too much celebrating. Corey worked the day shift and that night was FHE, since it was a Monday. He bought me flowers and a card and the rest of the Percy Jackson series that we are currently reading. It was just a low-key, no-stress day. We did go out to dinner later in the week and we have plans for a little anniversary retreat later this year. I also gave him a card and some new cologne--he ran out, so I bought him another bottle of the same stuff.

Little Helpers

Eliza loves to set the table. She's pretty good at it too.

I finally set up a chore system for the kids--they rotate through four chores: table setter, laundry/garbage, dishes, and dog duty. The kids rotate once each week and they change seats at the table based on their chore. I borrowed that one from my parents. It works, since the kids kept fighting over who they got to sit next to, I finally started this rotation system, and now they don't complain about it nearly as much. Of course, Travis and Eliza can't really do the dishes, so they help me clear out the dishwasher. And the laundry/garbage job mostly means helping sort the laundry on laundry day and gather up the smaller trashes from the bathrooms on garbage day. Dog duty involves feeding Snoopy and as they get older, picking up the poop in the yard on a daily basis and even walking him once they're big enough.

They all love helping and are excited every week when we change the chart and they change seats. I know someday they'll hate it, but I'm loving that they love it. Oh, and I also made this chart that shows where to put the plate, utensils, and glass at the table, so they know how to set it properly. It's great.

In Secret

One day, I discovered Travis hiding and found that this was what he was doing:



I guess he was curious to see why Eliza likes wearing these shoes so much. As soon as I snapped the photo, he chucked the shoes across the room. Guess he was embarrassed to be trying on his little sister's dress up shoes.

The Season Ends

The boys' baseball season ended the second week of June. Unfortunately, there was bad weather in those last few weeks and not all of the games canceled got made up. But we were ready to be done, so nobody really cared, which was probably why the games were not rescheduled. Two games a week is a lot, and if you have two teams that have two games per week each, that keeps you busy. The week or two after the season, it was weird to not have a game every night.

Here is Travis at his last game. He was excited about getting a trophy.




Corey was able to take the older boys to the batting cages before their last few games to get in some practice.




Now here are Westley and Caleb at their last game.




We will have to wait until next spring to decide if we'll do all this again. Next year we won't have the luxury of having two of the boys on the same team. Westley will be too old to be on the same team with Caleb and Travis won't be old enough. Juggling two teams was hard, not sure if we can handle three, but we'll see.

Maybe I need to have each boy in one different sport that have different seasons. Hmmm, something to think about...

Big Messes

On the same morning that I woke up to find this:


This also happened:



In case you can't tell, the top picture shows how Eliza dumped baby powder out all over her room. The second picture shows the mess made when the vacuum fell down the stairs and came apart.

The best part was that I had just vacuumed the baby powder up when it fell, so the baby powder was everywhere again, along with all the other dust and junk in the vacuum.

It was a busy morning.