Soggy

It's been a flurry of busy-ness the last several days around here.

Yesterday I spent much of the day trying to get back on top of my laundry and get my house cleaned - well, trying to get my kids to help me clean it. I think I spend more time working with them to clean than if I just did it myself. I always feel so driven to have them pitch in and help especially when they are home from school for the summer.

Then I spent several hours in the afternoon shopping for food for when Laren's oldest sister comes later today. It will be her and her 7 kids. Add my five kids to hers and that will be a dozen kiddos around here for a few days! My kids are really looking forward to playing with more cousins!

At Costco, the first store I stopped at, a middle-aged man got out of his white truck about the same time we were getting out of our van and going in. He asked if you needed a membership to get in the store. I said yes. He was obviously disappointed. He seemed affluent enough to buy his own membership so I was a little surprised at his reaction.

Then he explained that he lives in Loveland, which is an hour away and has no Costco, and there was some great stadium seats with blankets that he was hoping to get. I asked him if he'd like me to purchase it for him and bring it out. Then he asked if he could accompany me into the store. He seemed safe and he had a teenage girl, that looked to be his daughter with him.

So I agreed and we went in, we found what he wanted and he was surprised at the selection of color options. He said he needed 10. I asked if they were big CSU fans or something and he said no that they had some big 3 day conference down in Pueblo. He knew of somebody else that got these great stadium seats at Costco and decided that is where he needs to get his too.

He must have thanked me 2 dozen times for letting him make the purchase with me. I told him I was just happy it was a way that I could help somebody out. I think with having kids my time and money are more limited in helping others out more. I would like to help more often but it is not always feasible.

He offered to pay me for helping him out, I declined. Then he was insistent that he buy us something at the Food Court. Again I declined. But then he asked Rilyn and Alyssa, who were both with me, if they would like something to eat. A-hah, he found a way to pay us back. He told them to order whatever they wanted. Rilyn got a Churro and Alyssa got a Vanilla Frozen Yogurt and then he got a smoothie for him and his teenage granddaughter.

I was worried about my kids seeing me just letting this strange man and girl come in the store with us and what they might think about that or do about that in the future. So I explained to them that the man seemed nice and it was a public place with many other people around and he was not alone and neither was I.

Anyway, it felt good to help someone even if it was such a small, easy thing to do. After they left, we rushed around and filled our cart with things like Eggo Waffles, Raspberry Lemonade and Rolls - enough to feed a small army. Then we hurried to Walmart for a few more things and stopped off at McDonald's for a couple of movies.
Our final stop was Safeway where I picked up some roast for Sunday dinner.

We got home and I had just enough time to put everything away and throw a frozen pizza in the oven for my kids for dinner. I had a date planned with Laren to go to the Rockies Baseball game and I was supposed to be meeting him at his work so we could go there together.


It started pouring rain on my way into Denver. Laren had called me in advance so I was prepared with rain gear. He talked me into parking at his work and walking to the 16th Street Mall to take their free shuttle and then walk a few more blocks. I was opposed to the idea all along but finally gave in.

It was a bad idea. The shuttle never came and we kept walking. We walked 2 miles to the ball field in the pouring down rain. We got there and of course,there was a rain delay. The field was soaked. We peeked at our great seats and lamented the game being cancelled.

We had to wait it out until the game was "officially" cancelled before we could exchange our tickets for a different night. We didn't get quite as great seats, but they should be decent. And back we walked the 2 miles in the rain, watching for the shuttle as we walked. The shuttle finally got close just as we veered towards the direction of where we were parked.

If there was any consolation in the matter, we did stop off at The Cheesecake Factory and got a piece of Mixed Berry Almond Cheesecake that we shared on the way home. It was almost worth the long walk and the 30 minute wait in line for it.

On the way home, we listened to a book on cd that I checked out at the library this week. It is Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston. It is a riveting story about a young man in his 20's who lives here in Colorado who took a trip to the slot Canyons near Moab, Utah.

After biking and hiking for 7 hours he ends up getting his hand stuck with a boulder on top. After a number of days there and being near death, he amputates his hand in order to save his life. It really is an intriguing story. I recommend it. I only wish I had it uploaded to my mp3 player instead of having to drag the cd player and cd's with me from room to room as I clean.

Utah II

The Wedding

After our hike, we drove up to Provo and drove past all the places we used to live there. It's amazing we were there for 2.5 years and lived in 3 places!

This is an old house that is divided up into 5 or so apartments on 279 N. 400 East in Provo. We lived in a small yet nice one (even though it doesn't look like it) here. The front door to our apt. is off to the left of the house. The house was white at the time we lived here.

We lived in this little apt. attached to this bigger house next. The apt. is the door near the right of the picture. The address is at 397 N. 400 E. in Provo, very near to the other place. This place was a light yellow when we lived here. And it was here, that our first child was conceived.


This is our Apt. building when we stayed in BYU on campus Married Student Housing. Building 9D at Wymount Terrace, Apartment #554. We were here the longest and it was here that we brought our first baby home from the hospital.

Tyler had fallen asleep in the van and so we wanted to allow him a chance to nap so we all wouldn't be totally miserable! After driving around for a bit we went to the Wilkinson Center and had lunch at the Cougareat. Boy, has that place changed since we were there!

My favorite thing for lunch used to be the build your own sandwich. I was going to get Subway, since I couldn't get my old favorite, but while I was getting everyone else's food at 3 different places Tyler got lost. Laren had gone back to the Van because he forgot his laptop so he could do some work and I had told my kids to stay put and I would bring the food back. Apparently when Tyler saw me walk away so did he. We ended up finding him after about a 5 minute search. A BYU Coed had found him and was helping to look for his parents, bless her!

But after that, I had little interest in food. Small rant, between Tyler and Rilyn I lost 1 kid a day for 3 days last week. I can't tell you how it makes my heart stop. These kids are just so precious to me! And losing them is one of the most horrific things I can imagine.

So we had lunch, shopped in the BYU Bookstore. I always love to browse their clothes in there. I found me a cute skirt and my girls got some Down East Tanks. We got a few other miscellaneous things and went downstairs.

We took the kids bowling there. It is such a great bowling atmosphere for families. It was lots of fun.






We bowled 2 games simultaneously. It did seem to take a long time with the kids though. And Tyler wanted to bowl for everyone, not just himself!!

Then we walked around campus and went to the Museum of Art and saw some neat exhibits.



Some of my kids enjoyed it and others were bored, especially the younger ones who wanted to play hide and go seek in there.

We are trying to impress upon our kids how great and important College is. So we went into the Clyde building since it was Laren's home, pretty much for the entire time we were at BYU, to show the kids inside a college classroom.

The classroom/lecture room in the Clyde building. Laren and the kids pretending to be students!

We explained to them how college works. The professor doesn't care if you don't come to class, as in he/she doesn't take attendance. But if you don't attend class you will miss valuable information and do poorly on tests. And you may miss the in class quizzes and lower your grade in that way.

Most of the kids are excited about college, thankfully. But one, my second oldest, has little to no interest. She would rather work in a store. We have tried to explain how little to nothing she would make working in a store and how it would be mundane compared to doing a job where she could use her mind, but I think we didn't get very far. She is still just 9 and so I'm hoping we will be able to make up some ground on this topic in the coming years.

BYU isn't BYU without a stop at the creamery.

Us having ice cream and frozen yogurt at the BYU Creamery.

We all enjoyed a frozen treat and then drove to Salt Lake to attend the rehearsal dinner the night before my nephew's wedding.

At the Old Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square in Salt Lake, a family dinner the night before the wedding. My brother, Mike, picked up the huge tab for this.

It was because of Richard's wedding that we even went to Utah this year. He and his bride, Brie, are both from Montana but her dream was to be married in the Salt Lake Temple and a lot of the family was within a few hours from there anyway.

The sealing was beautiful. The sealer talked about other's being present at their sealing in spirit, including their unborn children. After the sealing we waited and waited for the bride to come out, apparently she had been seated inside while the groom had been seated outside in the lobby and both were told to wait for the other. After an hour, my sister in law Mary, the mother of the groom, went to find out what was going on and thankfully discovered this and so we were able to hurriedly get a group picture and get on with the day.

My brother Mike, Father of the Groom, taking pictures outside the Salt Lake Temple after the wedding.

Laren and I left to go and get our kids from his Sister's house in Payson. On the way down there we stopped off in Draper at Cafe Rio to experience that. And I will just say it was YUMMILICIOUS! We didn't get there until about 1:30 or 2 pm so I would say it was after the lunch rush and the place was still packed! We shared a Chicken Burrito Enchilada Style (they are HUGE) and had some chips, salsa and this Cheesy Jalapeno sauce. It reminded me of Jenny's Creamy Jalapeno that she raves about from Chuy's.

When we got to Diana's the kids were sad to go. They had a great morning riding the horse and playing on the slip and slide with their cousins. Thankfully they were mostly cleaned up and in their dress clothes for the reception. We wrapped the gifts and packed our stuff and drove back to Salt Lake to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for the reception.

It was such a beautiful place for a wedding reception! I got to see many of people who I hadn't seen in years, including many from Mary's family (my sister in law) and other's.

They served chicken salad filled croissants, punch, water, chocolate mints, cut honey dew melon, cantaloupe, watermelon and grapes and of course wedding cake.












Then having had a busy few days of vacationing and Laren wanting to get back to work he decided we would drive back home to Colorado that night. So he started out driving, I do not like driving at night because it's hard to see and makes me sleepy. But after 30 minutes his hurt knee was bothering him too bad and I had to take over.

I reprieved him until Evanston where we stopped for gas and didn't think I could do anymore. But then I remembered the "No Doze" pill that my Mom had given me so I took that and was wide awake within 5 minutes. I ended up driving the rest of the way until Cheyenne, WY. We stopped for a gas and bathroom break and Laren took over the last hour and a half. We got home at 5:30 am!!

SPT - it's too darn hot!

SPT

It's hot! too hot to play outside, too hot to walk barefoot across the pavement, too hot to blog! the swimming pool feels like bathwater and my glasses fog up every time i step out of the sweet, sweet air conditioning!what are you doing to stay cool this summer?

We are swimming at the pool I mentioned in a nearby neighborhood! This pool is the perfect temperature too. And I love to soak up the sun as well as swim, even though I look ghostly!!

Yay! Boo!

Yay!

*We have some friends here who's subdivision has a great swimming pool and they have allowed us to be their guests! It's fantastic and my kids and I are excited for more fun times there!

*I'm getting some guts of my own in the boundary department, setting boundaries. Guts I've never had before. It's not easy, but it sure does give peace of mind to know that I'm standing up for myself.

*Our neighbor, the same one who moved dirt for us a couple of months ago, fixed our A/C for free. We didn't know what was wrong with it. We were going to hire someone else to do it. And when the subject came up, he said that he "is our a/c guy" and not to go to anyone else.

Boo!

*Laren messed his knee up about 7 weeks ago racing Kyle to the car after baseball practice. He said he did nothing abnormal other than to take off running and some how the ligament or something on the side of his knee hurts him and he has to walk straight legged with a flexible brace.

He went to the doctor and was told it was just a stretched ligament or something like that and it would heal itself. Well, it's still going on. He gets better and then he'll do something like step on it wrong or something silly and it will go back to square one.

He's frustrated and so am I! It's nice to have his help scraping up a not so willing 2 year old off the store floor when he's in middle of a tantrum!

*Now Kayla has hurt her achilles tendon in her ankle. She says Alyssa landed on it last week while jumping on the trampoline at their cousins. Yikes, I hope she's better by the time softball practice comes around tomorrow!

Utah I

Utah 2007
Part One

We just got back from a trip to Utah for my nephew's wedding. Overall, we had a great time and we're so glad we went!! We were in a rush, of sorts, because we didn't get home from our family pictures in the mountains on Friday until 8 pm. And getting ready for pictures created a mess of it's own. So we had to take care of that and then pack.

We got out of here much later than I wanted on Saturday morning and got to Utah around 5pm. We took the scenic route to get there, across I-70. Colorado is so beautiful!! I'm proud to call this great state home!

We stayed with Laren's Sister, Diana, and her family in Payson.


They were so gracious and hospitable. I felt bad that we were constantly making more work for her, with the messes and extra cooking and cleanup. I tried to help where I could but I know it was still tons of work for her. And she was always so great about it saying it was a JOY for her to do it!

We visited with them on Saturday night and Sunday morning and then went into Sandy to meet up with my Mom and Bob for lunch on Sunday.

My Mom.

We had a lunchtime BBQ so the kids could see Grandma and Grandpa and Laren and I could visit. My Mom and Bob were staying with Bob's Granddaughter in Sandy. Angela was gracious enough to host us in her home for our brief visit.

I was surprised at how downhill Bob, my Mom's husband, has gotten healthwise. He has had a series of mini-strokes over the past year and now gets around using a walker or a wheelchair. It is sad since he has spent his entire life being ultra active. He would work outside on their acreage all day long and only come in for meals. Now it is quite the opposite and that is sad to see.

Grandpa Harris and my 5 kiddo's and me.

It was so fun to see my Mom and catch up on how their trip was, etc... Of course she brought little goodies for the grandkids (Tyler loves his bubbles!) and cookies too!

We had to rush back to Payson to catch Sacrament meeting with Diana's family. They have Church from 1-4 pm and Sacrament is last. I thought our 1:30-4:30 was bad, but at least we do have Sacrament first. The kids were so done by the time that last hour of Church hit.

We went back home and had some yummy Lasagne and homemade bread for dinner. We got to visit more with Diana, Trav and their kids. Trav works at BYU and teaches some religion classes there.

On Monday morning as we were getting up I discovered that Alyssa had gotten sick in the night. The girls had slept out on the Trampoline and their big cousin Jarom slept nearby to protect them.

Then we went up Payson Canyon and hiked the Grotto Trail. It's a beautiful, short hike that ends with this great waterfall.



The hike is just the perfect length for my little ones. And then they got rewarded with their hard hiking work by getting to play in the water at the end of the hike.

It's a Wonderful Life

A few weeks ago I noticed this fuzzy stuff in one of the new pine trees we planted in our front yard. I pulled on it and was a little grossed out. Laren was out there with me and so I asked him to take a look at what it might be. Upon looking more closely we discovered a birds nest with the smallest blue eggs in it, four of them.

I wondered where the Mother was. Laren said since she was not right with the nest the eggs were probably no good anymore. I mentioned to him maybe the Mother was off getting food.

In time, we noticed the Mother bird was with the eggs in the nest a lot. And on Saturday, we discovered the nest with 3 babies newly hatched.



And then on Sunday, right before Church my kids witnessed the fourth egg hatch. They were SO excited as the watched the last egg wiggle and move and the wet baby bird emerge with hardly even any fuzz on it. Within hours the fuzz appeared on the baby and it began to look more like the others.

So now every day we have the fun habit of checking on the nest and the baby birds.




This week Kayla and Alyssa had a Double Header Softball game. Kayla was so excited she got to play catcher. They both seem to have finally caughten the "bug" and are really getting into it now, especially Kayla. It's so fun to see that occur!

Kayla playing catcher

Alyssa in Center Field

My boys, Kyle and Tyler, playing at the game.

A beautiful sunset we saw near the end of the game.

Off to get family pictures in our favorite mountain park.

A Great Visit!

A Great Visit with a Dear Friend

On Saturday my friend, Krista, came to visit for a few days after her family reunion in Estes Park. We had a great time catching up on each other lives.

We first met 14 years ago on a double date in Spokane, Washington. We have remained friends through the years as she sold the beautiful Victorian home that she fixed up and moved to Germany as a Civilian Therapist with the Air Force. I since married the great guy I was on a double date with and she was my Maid of Honor when I got married. Then we moved to Utah, Arizona and Colorado and she got married and now has been blessed with 2 children and still resides in Germany.

Rare is it that you get a friend where you can talk about anything, and I do mean anything and everything. I love you Krista, it was a great visit!! I can't wait to see you again in 3 years.

Where Do I Go to Get Away from it All?

My front porch.


I like to sneak out there when the kids can't see me, otherwise they will be out there running around and I will have to be tending to them instead of relaxing. But I LOVE to go out there and rest and relax and read the newspaper or a magazine, or watch the birds, or sit and just be.

The other place I like to go is my bedroom. But my kids can find me there easily so it's not so fun.

And lastly I love me a nice long bath.


Though I don't do it often enough. The bath is so relaxing for me. And do I dare say, once again, I have to keep both my kids and my husband out for it to be relaxing!!