Lots of cooking this week! July 30 - Aug 5

Another busy week.  I've been teaching my Sunday school class almost every week because my partner has been out of town.  But she will be getting back soon and will teach on the 6th and 13th so that will be a nice break.  I like the material for my lessons, but I haven't figured out how to engage this age group.  They just play on the phones and talk the whole time and show no respect to me or their peers.  

Monday we had my friends kids over all day.  She is in Hawaii so she needed some friends to help her out.  She just has two right now (expecting their third) so it wasn't a big deal.  They kids played well all day.  Doug helped by taking the boys to their swim lessons so that I could stay home with the others.  Their little boy is quite a picky eater, but we finally got him to eat some mac and cheese - he didn't have much breakfast.  I ended up watching another little boy for a couple of hours too in the afternoon.  Their family is moving and the mom was trying to pack without help from her 2 year old.  The dad of the other two got off of work a bit early so he came and got them around 3:30, I had invited them over for dinner - thinking that he could just stay and eat when he picked them up.  But it still worked out, they just came back over for dinner later.  I made Parmesan chicken with bow-tie noodles, fruit, broccoli, salad, and bread sticks.  Chris had asked for chocolate cake yesterday for FHE treat so we had some of that with ice cream for dessert.  

I also made this cheesecake on Monday because it said that it needed to chill overnight - and I was serving it for Book Group on Tuesday.  It was super yummy- coconut lime cheesecake.  And book group when well.  We discussed The Gravity of Birds.  I think most people liked it and we discussed the relationships in the book.  It was a fun night. 

Tuesday - Thursday we had swim lessons of course.  The boys have done so well.  It has been fun to watch them improve and learn new things.  Chris is a natural in the water.  I am thinking of putting him in a swim team next summer.  On the last day Damon passed off his BSA swim test that he needed to pass for his 1st class rank, so that was great!

We did hair cuts this week.  The boys of course and I tried to trim the girls a bit.  I cut more on Jenna's than Kaylee's.  Jenna would like her hair short I think, but I told her not yet.  I don't think I'm ready for their hair to be gone yet.  

Jenna

 Kaylee

Wednesday we went to a funeral for a father in the ward.  It was a sudden thins and quite a shock to everyone of course.  We think it was due to complications from a surgery that had taken place a week prior.  He left behind his wife with a 10 year old son and a 5 year old daughter.

Thursday I made dinner for this family going through this hard time.  They had a lot of family in town so we were asked to prepare dinner for 14 people, mostly adults.  That's quite a bit of food - especially when you add in my family.  So I made a double batch of chicken rice casserole, a double batch of bread-sticks, and a quick batch of peanut butter balls.  I also brought some watermelon and a bag of salad.  The bummer was that the family actually ended up eating out that night to celebrate a birthday, but they had it for lunch the next day.  Oh well, at least it got eaten.  The mom was still appreciative.  She gave me a HUGE basket of flowers from the funeral to take home.  I divided it into 3 vases to make it more manageable.  It was nice to have fresh flowers throughout the house.

Friday I watched three girls for another mom who is having a hard pregnancy and we went swimming with them and then had lunch.  It's interesting to watch other kids eat.  You just get used to your own and their quirks.  It reminds me that I do have really good kids and I need to appreciate them more.

I think we went swimming to splashtown sometime during the week - I can't remember.  We have been just enjoying summer and trying to be nice to each other at home.  We are getting on each others' nerves and no one has much patience.  But we are hanging in there.  The girls are counting the days until school starts.  They are so excited.  

Utah trip #1 June 25- July 1

Sunday, the day before we left for our trip, Chris lost his 4th tooth.  He has some cute holes in his mouth now.

Monday June 26th I got ready for our trip by doing some laundry and finished packing up everything.  It always amazed me how much stuff we take on trips.  I was grateful that we didn't need to pack camping gear though.  We left around 4:00 PM.  Doug was able to take a quick nap before we left.  The car trip was ok.  We ate dinner in the car when we got hungry and we stopped at a Walmart to change into pjs when it was around 10:00.  I drove for awhile then we switched again.  We stopped at 2:00 AM to get gas and all of the kids woke up.  They had a harder time going back to sleep, especially Jenna.  I drove for another short stretch in the morning.  Jenna threw up in the morning and we stopped outside of Denver to change clothes and get ready for the morning.  We hit some bad traffic in Denver which made our last 45 min. twice as long.  We pulled into Firestone around 9:00 AM MT and said hello to our friends the Reynolds.  They were so nice to let us stay with them.  I showered and got ready to go to the park.  Doug helped me make lunches and then he went to sleep.  

I had asked my friends from the area to meet us at the park at 10:00.  Almost all of them came, and it was so fun to see them all.  A few were out of town or had moved away.  The kids had fun playing and we just couldn't get over how nice the air felt.  It was warm, but dry and the cool breeze was heavenly.  

 We just visited with the Reynolds the rest of the day.  They had this really nice massaging chair that Doug and I tried out.  I didn't take pictures, but the kids swam in their above ground pool - quite a bit chillier than what we were used to, but the kids didn't mind.  We had lots of screen time which the boys loved.

We went out to dinner at the Bent Fork with the Lori and Brian Reynolds and Ben and Claudia Ahlstrom.  We had a great night visiting and enjoyed the good food.  We came back and helped the kids get situated for bed.  We thought we had it all figured out but then some wanted to sleep with other siblings, etc.  Chris ended up sleeping in a love sac downstairs, the girls shared the top bunk, Damon was in the bottom bunk, and Tyler was on the floor next to Damon.  

 Our kids were really close to the Reynolds before we left so it was so great to see them again.  The girls had so much fun with Nathan.  He is going into 9th grade I think, but he was so good to wrestle and play with them.  They are a great family, so glad we could stop and visit with them.

 Wednesday June 28th, we  left to finish our trip to Utah.  We left around 9:00 AM and the 8 hour drive went really fast for me.  We listened to A Wrinkle in Time on CD, watched movies, played with car games, and had screen time.  The kids were pretty good overall.  We stopped for a later lunch at Rock Springs and then we only had 3 more hours.  Jenna still gets car sick, but she didn't throw up this time.

We rolled into Providence around 5:00, it was great having dinner already for us.  So grateful that we were able to stay with Mike and Arlene.  They have a great set up in their basement which makes staying there very easy.  The kids were excited to be at grandma and grandpa's and loved being to play outside on the grass with bare-feet - something that you can't do in Texas.

Thursday June 29th  We went to temple with Damon in the morning the do baptisms for the dead.  This was Damon's first time and it was pretty neat to go in the Logan temple since this is where Doug and I both went to do baptisms and be sealed.  It was a great experience and I think Damon had a good time.  There were a lot of youth there.  We brought our own names and did a sheet from the temple.  So Damon and I each did 9 names.

 We roasted hot-dogs and marshmallows in the evening and of course the kids loved the s'mores.

 Playing ball:

 Kaylee discovered how much fun it was to ride the wagon down the little hill in the back yard.  It is right next to the ravine, but they were good to steer straight and not fall over the edge.

 Friday June 30th  Some of our Logan traditions are to go to Gossner's Cheese Factory and buy 'squeaky cheese' (cheese curds).  Not all of them like it, but the girls had been looking forward to it.  Our next stop was Deseret Book to get Chris some scriptures for when he turns 8, and we picked up some other books too.  Next we went up to USU.  We had a picnic at the bottom of Old Main Hill then walked up to the Book Store.  I bought a few shirts then we all had fun running down.  We don't have hills in Texas.

Then we all took baths and got ready for the main reason we made this Utah trip: Mike and Arlene's 50th wedding anniversary.  We took some family pictures and had a great evening.  See the next post for more details.

Saturday July 1,

We got together with the Petersens in the morning at Willard Bay.  The kids had a great time playing at the beach and we also had a fun ride in the Larsen's motor boat.  Chris wanted to stay and play at the beach but everyone else went for a ride.  Damon went for a ride on the tube with Doug first.  Then I went with Kaylee, and then Jenna.  Tyler finally decided to take a turn and went by himself.  They all thought it was so much fun.  Thanks Uncle Shane for giving us a great ride!  

 We couldn't stay for too long - we had more fun things to do.  Richard and Tannie were visiting to go to Richard's 20th High School reunion, so we met them at Willow Park to play.  It was pretty warm and we decided not to go into the Zoo part.  I guess I'm a little bit cheap - it would have been $24 for our family to go in, and I'm just used to the $7 admission that it used to be.  They all had fun climbing the big trees with Uncle Richard though.

 We went over to Grandma Datwyler's and let the kids play there with their cousins.  Grandpa had irrigated earlier so the grass was still a little bit wet.  The cousins had played in the water earlier and had a fun time.  Doug and I hadn't seen Anora yet, so it was great to finally meet our youngest niece.  She's a cutie and fits right into the Datwyler family.

We only visited for a bit then went back to the Petersen's for the evening.

Day Camp June 4-10

Well the first week of summer vacation was not a vacation.  We started off with soccer camp for Damon and Day Camp for all of us.  It made for a very busy week.  Damon's soccer camp was from 8-10:00 Monday - Thursday.  I was grateful that we had a friend participate so that we could car pool.  Because of recent rain the camp was moved to a nicer turf field, but it meant a 30 minute drive to get there.  Damon had a good time and had fun with his friend Drew. 

I was the ward representative for Day Camp this year.  That meant I was in charge of making sure we had enough adult helpers, collecting paper work, and making sure everyone was trained and had their YPT current.  I also set up a car pool sign up so we knew who was driving each day and where each kid was going.   We had 12 adults help throughout the week with 5 Junior Ranger helpers (11-13 year olds), 20 cub scouts, and 3 Me-toos (siblings 3-6).  

The camp ran from 1:00-6:00 every day.  We would meet at the church at 12:00 then drive up around 12:15.  The weather thankfully cooperated most of the week.  We were afraid that we were going to get lots of rain on Monday and Tuesday, but it only rained a bit at the end.  Wednesday and Thursday were pretty hot, but not unbearable.  Friday we had more clouds so it wasn't too bad.  We were really blessed.  

The cubs were divided into Webelos in one group (Jaguars) and the Bears/Wolves/Tigers were in another group (Elephants).  The camp was a Safari theme so our stations were labeled things like: The Plains, The Jungle, The River, etc.  The program director is one of my good friends and she did a great job of organizing camp.  The sessions were fun and everything ran smoothly.  Some of the sessions were: bugs, boat building, marbles, snakes, outdoor games, musical instruments, magic tricks, coding, card games, maze building, art projects, building, and of course shooting activities.  Chris enjoyed the BB range, but had a hard time with archery.  I think it was just a little too hard for him to pull the string back.  I went around with Chris's group the whole week, so I didn't get to see Tyler do his activities, but he enjoyed archery the most.  

Damon helped as a ranger 3 of the days.  They helped keep water coolers full and assist the session leaders.  Damon was able to help on the ranges since he was 12 years old.  He went early a couple of times as well to help set up.  

The girls were in the Me-Too program and had a lot of fun making crafts, playing games, and watching movies.  They stayed home Wednesday since I went early to help set up and that was easier than trying to find someone to take them up to camp later.  

The last day was family day so Jenna and Kaylee came around to the different sessions.  That day we did a music session of name that tune, the zoo mobile, outdoor games and the range.  Then the fire truck sprayed all who wanted to get wet.  I brought a change of clothes for everyone and they watched Moana while Damon and I helped take down the archery range.  

It was a busy week. We tried to start our summer schedule.  I would wake up early to prep for my sunday school lesson.   At 6:45 those who wanted to run around the block would join me.  It's only 1/2 mile, so we go around once or twice depending on how we're feeling.  Tyler was the only one who wanted to run this week.  Then on a normal day I would exercise but this week I couldn't because I was taking Damon to soccer camp.  Then we did centers.  Everyone is enjoying these right now, let's hope that it stays that way.  Right now our stations are: piano, typing, iPad educational games, writing or math, and reading.  I am doing piano with all of the kids and so it has been fun to see the younger ones get excited to play Merrily We Roll Along.  After centers is screen time and then lunch.  The kids were good to help get ready for camp.  They all had their back packs that they would fill with their 4 snacks and get their water bottle.  After lunch we would head up to camp. After a full day of camp we would leave around 6:30, arriving home around 7:00.  Then we would eat dinner, give everyone a shower/bath and do a batch of laundry every night so our shirts would be clean for the next day.  I'm grateful that the camp was over at 6:00 though, two years ago it went until 8:00 and that was way too late.  I tried to have dinner ready in a crock pot or time bake oven.  Doug was good to help out and made spaghetti for us one of the evenings.  Then after kids were in bed I would send out emails to parents giving them info that they would need for the next day.  Anyway, this first week felt like two, it was fun but I'm glad it's over. :) 

Here are the pictures:

cockroaches on her palm and wrist.

 Weren't happy to wear protective eye gear. 

 petting an alligator