Ohio Trip

My Mom has been in Ohio almost two years now, so I decided it was time to visit her.  I have never been to Ohio, so I was not only looking forward to seeing her and where and how she lives, but also to see Ohio itself.  The girls and I flew there, and the boys stayed behind with Ben to do fun things like golf, go to the beach, and Magic Mountain.  So I didn't feel bad at all for leaving the boys behind.  There was hardly enough room for the girls and I in my Moms apartment, so there was no way I could bring all of them.  It was fun to have just a girls trip, for sure!
Before we got there, the temps were in the 70's and it rained for several weeks.  My Mom prayed it would stop, and it did.  Of course, the hot weather always follows me.  The temps were in the 90's and with humidity that is no fun!
The first day we didn't get  in until 5.  They picked us up from the airport and took us to dinner.  After dinner we took a drive through one of the cute towns close by.  The towns are so pretty.   They have old houses and buildings, and they have beautiful flowers everywhere; in planters on the ground, in planters hanging off the street lights, etc.
We spent a week there, and my Mom found things to keep us busy.  We went to beautiful parks, the zoo (which was incredibly hot), the Easton mall (where we bought a ton of American Girl doll clothes), and an Art Festivial.  We also ate A LOT of ice cream.  Graeters was our favorite.  Their chocolate chips are basically chocolate chunks.  Their Black Raspberry and Banana nut were my favorite.  So Yummy!   My favorite day was when her brother Fred drove us to Amish country.  It was a long drive, but it was worth it.  It was so beautiful!  We stopped at this one market, where they had a petting zoo.   Aubrie was in Heaven.  (Sophia too).   They got to see all kinds of chickens, pigs, bunny's goats, and horses.  Sophia had a pony ride and Aubrie got to ride a Draft horse.   We also got to enjoy the some baked goods.  I bought some rhubarb fry pies, and yummy homemade bread.   I could gain a lot of weight living next to Amish country because their stores full of baked goods!  All such yummy stuff.

Amish Country (Who Mows this??)

Big Ben

Chicken Mariachi from Donatos...YUM!

Three Generations of Feet!

This is what 90 degree humidity all day at the zoo will do to you!

Baby Gorilla..2 months old

We were so intrigued by these....Hummingbird Moth

Catching Firelies...an evening highlight!

Graeters ice cream chocolate chips!

Because of the three hour difference, we were up late for most of the trip.  The girls had fun catching fireflies, and watching TV shows they never watch, including Lets Make a Deal, in the mornings.  Since we always got a late start.
We also had an opportunity to meet Fred's daughter and her daughter.  They are great people.  It's crazy how there are so many people on my Mom's side of the family I still haven't met.   That's what happens when your Mom comes from a family of 16 kids.   I only met Fred when I was a baby, so basically I have never met him.  He is so great!  Funny, nice, outgoing, and thoughtful.   I enjoyed getting to know him, and its great knowing my Mom is in such good hands.   She has nice friends there!
It was a great trip!

July Fourth 2013

Ben flew in Tuesday night, which was the most hectic day of them all.  After I picked the kids up from soccer, I noticed that my car said something about low air in my tires.  I called Ben and he said he would check them when he flew in.  I had a lot of laundry to do so the kids would have enough soccer clothes for the next two days of soccer, so I decided to get that done, before I took them to Boondocks. When we finally got out to the car, I had a flat tire.  Luckily I called my service rep from Infiniti and he gave me the number for the Infiniti Roadside, and they sent a guy out to put on my spare.  Then my service guy, Matt, called around to find out who was by Boondocks that could replace my tire, if it needed it.  So I raced to Boondocks, and paid for the kids, and than ran over to Discount tire.  Luckily it just had to be patched.  I was out of there in an hour, and then I picked up the kids just in time to head over to the airport to get Ben.  After we picked up Ben, we headed back, since Boondocks closed at 11:00 and we had day wristbands.  The kids had fun doing more laser tag, and go carts, and then we finished up with a round of Golf.
   The next day was more soccer, and then we spent time at BYU and went and saw the Lone Ranger. The moviwe finished in barely enough time to get over the OWLZ baseball game.  Our hotel was giving out free tickets, so we got a few extra, and we invited Hans and Priscilla.  It was fun catching up with them, and seeing their daughter Bianca, who I had never seen.   Our tickets came with free meal vouchers, so it was a sweet deal!

   The Fourth we had big plans, that DID NOT include the Provo parade. This year Grandma and Grandpa didn't go, so most of the family didn't go either.  We wouldn't have gone anyway.  I'm not a big fan of small town parades...looking at school band, after school cheer teams, followed by cloggers, and police and firetrucks.  Instead, we slept in and watched the famous hot dog eating contest on TV, until we headed to Dave and Marilyns for the 4th of July BBQ.   Within minutes of being there, Boston got stung several times by a wasp, as he was trying to get a basketball out from under a truck.  The old truck had a nest in it, and Boston was their victim.   He was pretty tough about it, and soon he was out swimming, and having fun again.  The kids had fun with their cousins in the pool, playing basketball, and the little ones had fun diving and swimming with Aunts, Uncles, etc.
After a few hours, we left to get ready for the stadium of fire and dinner.   This year the Stadium of Fire included a performance from  Circ-du-soleil, Carly Rae Jeppson, and the main performer was Kelly Clarkson.  All the performances were great.  We really loved Kelly.  She was so friendly on stage, and her voice really is amazing live!
Friday the kids had one more soccer day, and I forgot to set my alarm, so they got there an hour late.  They were over at noon, and after Ben walked out of there with a huge amount of BYU soccer clothes for the kids, we rushed back to the hotel, so Aubrie could get ready for her patriarchal blessing.   Steve and Lorriane took the other kids mini golfing, while we stayed with Aubrie for her blessing.  It was a beautiful blessing, and some of the things in there were things I had recently been telling her.  She mentioned that to me afterward, and I told her the Lord uses many venues to relay personal things to us.
After the blessing we picked up the kids from Trafalga, and headed over to get dinner where Hans is the chef. The food was really good there.  I had some delicious Salmon, and the pies there were very good!   Hans was so nice to pick up the bill.  While there, Ben recognized one of the guys from Kid History having dinner with his wife.  After he was done eating, Ben grabbed him and asked if Boston could get his picture with him.  He was super nice about it.  After dinner, we headed to the mall to try and see Despicable Me 2, but they were already sold out.  We walked the Mall for a bit, and then headed home to  pack up for our early departure the following day, but not before we got one last scoop of BYU ice cream:)   It was great trip!  I love Utah in the Summer!

BYU Sports Camps and Beyond!

This year Aubrie and Boston both signed up for a week sport camp in the dorms.  Instead of driving  back and forth from Park City every day, I decided not to sign Ethan up for a camp that week, and hold off until the next week and sign the older three for the soccer day camp.  That saved me a lot of driving, and also gave me time with just Sophia and Ethan.  I drove up with the kids on my own Sunday morning.  The drive wasn't bad, and I took a new route through the 89 Alternate, which I really enjoyed.  We stopped for lunch at a small cafe at Jacobs Lake, a camping area at the top of the mountain that 89 goes through.  The service was slow, but it was a nice break.  The rest of the  drive was nice and smooth, with no traffic, and no stops for gas until Provo.  I made it on one  tank from Flagstaff till Provo.  I couldn't believe it!   When I stopped for gas, I picked up a few groceries, and got some fast food for dinner.  We arrived in Park City around 8, and enjoyed our lavish hotel/resort.  Ben wasn't kidding when he said the place was huge!   It had 4 bedrooms, 3 kitchens and 4 bathrooms.  We only used two of the bedrooms.   Ethan enjoyed having his own area, the first night when Boston was there, but after that he slept with Sophia and I.  So basically only one room was used.  

Monday morning we headed to Provo to drop Aubrie and Boston off at the dorms.  Aubrie was in Chipman Hall this year and Boston was in Taylor.  When I was checking Boston in I hear "Rachel?"   I look over and there is Ben's cousin Jen with her son.  I haven't seen her since before Aubrie was born.   Boston and his cousin have never met, and there they were at basketball camp together.  After we got the two settled in the dorms,  I took them to get some lunch, and then dropped them off for their first workout.  I then went to buy more groceries, and then I headed back up to Park City with the kiddos.  We spent time in the pool and playing ping pong (their favorite pass time this trip) and spent some time in the arcade.  

The following morning (Tuesday) I took the two kids to Boondocks.  We got a late start into Salt Lake and I stopped off at Chick-filet for lunch.  I ran into an old college friend, and it was great to catch up while the kids played.  After lunch, we headed to Boondocks, and lucky for us, Tuesday was wristband day.  Which meant that you pay one price and everything was free, except the prize games that give tickets.  The kids had a BLAST!  Endless go carts, golf, laser tag, etc.  Laser Tag became a favorite of Sophia's.  It was funny to watch her run around getting people.  After a full day there, we headed back to Park City for more swimming and ping pong. 

Wednesday we stayed in Park City.   Amber was coming up in the afternoon with Olivia, so we took a ride on the sky tram that Sophia was begging to do since the day we arrived.  The sky tram took us over the mountain where there was a restaurant, and several hiking trails, a lake for fishing, and ziplining.  We didn't have time for the fishing, and Sophia couldn't do the ziplining, so we took a nice hike down from one of the slopes.  It took us by the fishing lake, so we could see what it was like for next time.  The lake also had paddle boats.  Definitely a lot to do up there.  The ride on the sky tram was really cool, and we also got to take a lift to the top of the hike.  

We came back and got some lunch, and then headed to the pool to meet Amber.  We swam and played ping pong (of course) and then headed back up and made dinner.  Amber stayed till about 7 and then she headed home with Olivia.   We had fun hanging out at the hotel the rest of the evening.  

Thursday we had to check out of the resort and move over to the Marriot. We headed to the pool early, to get one last swim and ping pong session in.  We were able to check out late, and left around 1:30 for Provo.  

Stop at Granny's on the Way!

 I didn't realize that the Marriott had bigger rooms and ended up with a room with two Queens and two chairs (no pull out).  So once Aubrie and Boston were back, this became Sophias bed.  She actually liked it.  Anyway, once we got settled in to the hotel, I ran to get some more groceries, and then we went to the pool after dinner. 

Sophia's bed at the Marriot!  Perfect Size..and she loved it!

Friday I had to pick up Boston early.   He was actually done Thursday night, but he was allowed to stay until Friday morning.  That worked best since Aubrie was done then.   There were a few hours between the time Boston was done and Aubrie was done, so we headed up to the BYU bookstore to kill some time.  We picked Aubrie up around noon, and headed over to Fat Catz.  They had summer dollar games again, and also had dollar pizza and drinks.  So they got their pizza and I got my Costa Vida, which is connected. Such a brilliant idea, whoever that of that!  The three older kids decided to play without bumbers (especially Aubrie and Boston after they took that bowling class for school).  Ethan was getting frustrated at first, but then he ended up doing pretty well.  Boston was stoked to break 100 for the first time without bumpers!  Afterwards. we played some video games in the arcade, which included air hockey.  After, we   headed back to the hotel for some swimming, and I had to get some laundry done.  The kids had a great time at their camps.  Boston made friends right off the bat. I could tell he was having fun from the start because he never called, except to tell me one of his friends was Mitt Romney's grandson.  Aubrie struggled the first day because she didn't know anyone.  The second day I didn't hear from her, and I knew that was a good sign. She made some really good friends, and her Counselor was really cool, and took them to do fun things after their work outs.  Aubrie is hoping to see the same girls next year at camp! 

Saturday was a full day.  It started off with a hike up to Donut Falls, in Little Cottonwood.   The hike was an easy hike, but the parking was awful.  It was all backed up and very hard to get a spot.  Once we got parked, the hike  up was only about a half an hour.  The problem was hiking up to the falls.  you had to climb up wet slippery rocks to get there.  The boys took off on their own and figured their way up, but getting Sophia up there was a chore.  I told her she didn't have to go, but she kept changing her mind when she saw her siblings doing it.  Then when she would fall or get dirty or wet, she would start crying and wouldn't move.  It was about an hour of this, just to get to the top.  It was quite rewarding once we got to the top.  But then we had the hike down, which had it's own challenges.  By the time we got down, Sophia was a basket case, and we were all very dirty.  So much so, that Aubrie basically sat in the river to get the dirt off her pants, shoes, and skin.  When we got to the car, we all had to take our shoes off and throw them in the back. 

 When we got out of the canyon, we stopped at the 7 eleven there, and got some drinks!   It was a fun stop for the kids, but we also looked so disheveled.  The bad part was that we weren't going home.  Our next stop was  to Taylorsville for a Fourth of July celebration at the town park.   They had food vendors,  rides, and a huge firework show lined up.   Luckily when we dried up, we didn't look so bad.  I didn't have a lot of cash on me, (I left most of it in the car, which we parked a mile away to avoid traffic on the way out) so we had to figure out how to eat dinner and ride the rides.  The kids all got about three rides each, except for Sophia.  They did get her to go on this, and she was not happy about it!  

Sophia not loving this!

 They also got a balloon ride in, so we made our money stretch a long way!   While we were waiting for them to start the kids had fun throwing those Pop-its on the sidewalk as people walked by.  We also had fun playing games while we waited.  The fireworks show was really good.  I'm glad my friend recommended it to us!  We got home close to midnight, and we all crashed.

Sunday we met at Amber's church for sacrament, and then we headed up to the Elcocks for Dinner.  The kids had a blast, as always with there cousins.  They played spider in the basement, played basketball and volleyball outside, and we even made a trip down the street to see this huge pig one of their neighbor has.  We took him some watermelon and watched him go to town.  He ate the rinds and all. 

Time always goes fast when we are there. We left around ten.  The kids had an early 8:00 am start for soccer camp the next day!

Monday the kids had camp from 8 to noon.   They had fun for their first day, but it was hot.    I don't know why I can't remember anything else we did that day:)  Oh, we did go to Bridal Veil, and after that we went to  Brick Oven. We actually ran into the Livingstones.  Sophia thought that was so cool to see Jordan there. After dinner, we headed up to the movies to see Monster's Inc and then we got Ice cream!  The next day Ben was coming..we were all excited to see him after 10 days.   

Summer Fun

 Our first trip after Memorial Day weekend wasn't until the third week of June, so we spent our days pool side, at soccer practices, Kumon, and enjoying a lot of Shaved Ice.  Our friends in the Ward set up shop right by the neighborhood Walmart, and that quickly became our favorite Summer stop!  We no longer have to wait for Hawaii to get our shaved ice fix, they are so good!

One night we were watching TV and I heard this crash that was not coming from the Movie.  Aubrie heard it too, and we rushed to look out the front window.  Our neighbor had a motorcycle crash right in front of our house.  He and his son were trying to jump start it by pulling it, and it fell on him.  We called 911 and eventually when things were less hectic we let the kids come and to see the Firetruck, etc.  They were super cool to the kids, and gave them these hats and sticker.  Exciting summer nights! haha

 Here are some firsts for Boston this summer.  Learning to sew on a button, and FINALLY holding Rango!

Ethan and Carson at Bryce's Wedding (It was in May, but I didn't post.  His new wife and family are a great addition!)

Rocky Point Memorial Day!

This year girls camp was early, and only 2 nights.  Unfortunatley, it ran up until late Saturday before Father's Day.  So we had to make some adjustments to our traditional Rocky Point Father's Day trip.  We turned it into a Memorial Day trip instead. This year we stayed for 3 nights.  We arrived Saturday, and left Tuesday.  It was very busy Saturday, but after Sunday it thinned out.  The resort made some changes, which included a new big slide, and someone monitoring it.  So half the time the kids were not allowed to go down together, or go down with tubes.  The new slide was super fast!  I prefer no big slide and less supervision.  Haha
The first day we were there the tide was up and there were a lot of waves to jump.  Boston, Aubrie and I had fun doing that. Eventually, we got Ethan out and he loved it, too!   I fogot that I had my new Sunglasses on, and they got swept away.  The following day I found a different and equally nice pair of sunglasses wash up  to shore.  What goes around comes around...haha
The trip was amazing as always.  We found a lot more sea life than ever.   We found an octapus, two star fish (thanks to Aubrie's mad searching skills), a cucumber fish, and a huge crab.   The thing I love about Rocky Point is  that one hour we can be walking on the rocks looking for sea creatures, and the next hour playing soccer on the sand bars, to floating the calm waters in floaties, to jumping waves, to getting massages on the beach, to rideing wave runners!  It's one of my favorite spots!  We had so much fun, I didn't take time to take pictures!  (Just refer to previous Rocky Point posts:)

End of Year Activities

The end of the school years always brings activities. That's why things are always so busy.   Aubrie and Boston chose Bowling to be their end of year project.  They had fun, and Boston got an award for highest score in his grade but wasn't even there to recieve the prize, because he skipped his last day to go to Sophia's Kinder Graduation.  (see below)  

Ethan had a Roman Feast, and this is the Costume we put together in one night.   We made a run to Walmart and got a white pillowcase, some gold ribbon, and stopped by Burger King on the way home for a crown.  Ethan spray painted the crown gold (thankfully we had some on hand) and then he made this Tridant.  (Are you guessing who he is yet?)   Then I cut holes in the pillowcase, hot glue gunned the gold ribbon around the bottom and neck and viola! A belt and wrist cuffs were a sinch, with hot glue gunned Velcro.  And the beard was Aubrie's creation.  Batting glued to white fabric...and here you have Poseidon!    Ethan is in love with  Mythology.  He reads any books with those undertones.  Percy Jackson is his favorite, and he reads anything Rick Riorden  has written.  So when he found out he could dress as a Greek/Roman God, he knew exactly what he wanted to do.  At school they played games and were served grapes, hummus, and other type "Roman" food.  They laid on blankets and were served there.   Eating grapes while laying down...a classic Roman picture!  haha  I love how they do the festivals at Candeo.  So fun for the kids!

Out of all my kids, this was the first Kindergarten Celebration.  The kids all dressed up nice.  They   called their names and gave them their graduation certificate.  I prepared a slide show, that showed events through the year, and everyone watched that.  After the slide show, the other kinder classes joined us, and they performed songs for us, that the music teacher had been preparing through out the year.  Then we ate and mingled.  It was really hard for me because this officially marked that she was no longer a Kindergartner, and going forward she would be going to school full day.  That is hard for me, because I LOVE having Sophia with me.  She is such a joy, and just her presence brings me a little more peace in my life.  She is my mobile sunshine.  Boston decided to come and watch her graduation.  That was such a sweet thing for him to do, when he could have spent his last day of school with his friends.  He is a good brother to her!