Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Family Fun (Page 11 of 25)

Better than one post, it’s a bunch of mini-posts!

October 28, 2010 / / 3 Comments

Busy, Busy.

I’ve got a BUNCH of pictures that I meant to do blog posts around, but instead, I’m going to just lump them all together and tell you a little bit about them. Think of it of a bunch of mini-posts!

My good friend Lisa just posted about our fun time at Witches Night out last weekend. Since she used my pictures, I feel perfectly justified in sending you over to her blog to read about it. So, go HERE for the fun details.

Natalie finished up her volleyball season. They even had a tournament this year.

This is my favorite picture. She’s the one ducking away from the ball. Love it! But in her defense, that was just one time. She’s actually pretty good, and she’s got a wicked serve.

This one is a little dark and kind of blurry, but she JUST bumped it. Can you see that blur that is the ball there?


The girls and I went to see Thriller by the Odyssey Dance Theater. It was, as usual, AMAZING! I enjoy it more every time I see it!


I spent a day with my parents making and bottling applesauce. They have the apples, the know-how, and all the proper equipment, so it was much easier to go to their house and do the work with them, than to bring the apples here and do it myself.

They’ve got the operation down to a science, and it’s all set up outside! Which keeps your kitchen from getting totally stickified from apple juice and sauce. Jenna was home from school that day, so she even helped. Here she is with my dad.

I ended up with 26 quarts of applesauce and about 13 quarts of apple juice. Yum!

Every where you drive in Utah County, there is construction.

And every road that gets to my house is torn up. My friend Tammy wrote about the ongoing headache or the construction on her blog HERE.

My kids have been working on entries for their schools’ reflections contests. “Together we can” is the theme.

I’m relieved to NOT be in charge of our school’s reflections program this year. I have scrounged around and gotten prizes, but I’m not in charge. Happy Dance!!! But the kids are still entering, and since they are due today, we got 6 entry forms, 6 media release forms, and 6 entries ready last night (and this morning. Who am I kidding?)

We picked up our Japanese exchange student, Kuzuki, on Tuesday night.
(Sorry about the sideways picture-erg. — Fixed)
He seems like a nice kid. Yesterday he went to a farm with his school group, then had sloppy joes (we want to give him the American Experience, right?) and then played Wii with the kids. Tonight we plan on taking him out to dinner. We’ve also got carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating on the agenda. He won’t be here long, so we’re trying to make his stay enjoyable. Too bad it got so flippin COLD here all of a sudden! He and the other boys were playing in the snow yesterday, so I guess they don’t mind.


This picture just does my heart good. For any of you who have had little boys who hate reading, you’ll understand my frustration. All of my other kids are very advanced readers, and were reading well by the end of kindergarten. Two of them were reading before Kindergarten, actually. Then, my youngest is all boy, with no interest in reading or any of that school stuff. But he’s finally getting it. He can actually put words together and he told me the other day “I love reading, Mom!” Thank you Mrs. Barker!


Do you ever feel like you are “up to your neck”? Well, here’s John in the sand.
He let his sister and some random boy bury him while at Thanksgiving Point’s Dino museum the other day.

So, there you have it. A bunch of random mini posts! Stay tuned for pictures and the run down of all of our fun Halloween activities!

Le Bard Bus

October 5, 2010 / / 4 Comments

A few weeks ago, I won tickets to the Utah Shakespearean festival, but when Ryan went to go pick them up, they couldn’t find them. They promised they would mail them out to me. Well, days came and went and I had assumed that I would never see those tickets, and really, when was I going to use them, what with the trip to Atlanta and all? On the day I was leaving, I got a call from Laura Bedore, asking me if I’d like two seats on the “Bard Bus” instead of just the tickets to one show. Wow! Of course I would. Three plays and hotel room instead of just one show? You bet. Of course, that only left me a week to find someone to go with me. I set out to find a friend who could drop everything for a Friday and Saturday and come with me.

I must say I am saddened that my friends are all so over-scheduled that they couldn’t come. They all had valid excuses, to be sure. A husband running a marathon, friends coming into town, school obligations and work. I know, I know. I was just lucky that it happened to be a Saturday that I didn’t have too much going on. I’ve had extra bell rehearsals on most every Saturday in September, and next Saturday have a bell choir commitment, as well. So I understand! We live busy lives. But this was SO worth taking the time.

Since I couldn’t find a friend to go with me, and my dear sweet husband has been out of town for about 50% of the last 8 weeks, and we just took a trip together, I asked him to stay home for this one. I took my 14 year old daughter, Megan. Actually, she was my second choice. First I asked Natalie, since it was her birthday weekend. But she actually didn’t want to miss school on her “birthday” and didn’t want to miss her volleyball game. So I asked Megan, who had NO problem missing a day of school. “That will give me more time to study for my test!” she said happily. Although I don’t think she got much extra study time in.

We met the “Bard Bus” on Friday morning.

As we got on the bus, it was pretty obvious that Megan was by FAR the youngest person on the bus. There were a few people younger than me, but most of them were older. But we didn’t care. We said hi, picked out a seat, and got comfortable.

We stopped in Scipio to stretch our legs and get snacks, and there was a little petting zoo right there off to the side of the road. Well, isn’t that random?

When we got back on, someone suggested we watch a movie on the bus wide DVD system, so we watched the Prince of Persia for the rest of the ride. Not a bad way to get to Cedar City.

Once we arrived, our hotel rooms weren’t ready to check in, yet, but we walked over to the nearby Subway restaurant and got lunch.

After lunch, the bus driver took us over to the Randall Theater for our first show, Greater Tuna.
Such a funny show! It’s a two man show where the two men play ALL the characters. So funny! It reminded me of my friend Kevin, who in High School did a scene from Greater Tuna as a humorous interp back in our drama days.

After that we had a couple of hours to rest, and I went back to the hotel and took a 45 minute nap while Megan watched tv. Then we headed over for the literary discussion about the new show The Adventures of Pericles. It’s not one of the Shakespeare plays that I was familiar with, so I was glad we attended the discussion, where we learned the basic plot of the show, and some interesting things to look for. While not my favorite play, it was interesting, visually beautiful, and well done. Very enjoyable!

The next morning, we had a FABULOUS breakfast spread at the Crystal Inn. And by fabulous, I mean that I wish I could have just eaten more breakfast and then not had to eat anything else for the rest of the day. After my Belgian waffle and hash browns, I was pretty much full up, and I hadn’t even had the biscuits and gravy or the scrambled eggs. I did manage to stuff down a piece of watermelon and a mug of hot chocolate.
But alas, I had to stop eating or I wouldn’t have been able to move. We checked out of our rooms in order to be over to campus for the 10:00 and 11:00 seminars. The first one was sort of a question and answer, where we discussed both Greater Tuna and Pericles. The next seminar was with the prop master, and that was SO interesting. Those prop guys work very hard scrounging, borrowing, buying, finding, adapting, making and changing those props. He said that in The Diary of Anne Frank, he’s even in charge of the food. They have soup, bread, and a cake. And wouldn’t you know it, in the cast of 12, there’s a diabetic, a celiac and someone who can’t have salt. So he had to find a salt free, wheat free, sugar free cake that they can eat 4 times a week. Megan came out of that one wanting to work in the prop shop.

During our lunch break, we decided to walk and explore a little bit. After sandwiches, we shopped a little in town. I decided I wanted this here chicken. Wouldn’t he look great on my porch or in my yard? I know! We also played with the hats for sale in the gift shop. I SO wanted to buy this Medusa hat, or this crown, or this mask, or this wizard hat but they were all a bit pricey.

The afternoon show was the Diary of Anne Frank
We went to a discussion before hand about the history of this adaptation. Originally they took out a lot of the “Jewishness” of the play to make it more relatable for everyone, but this version has a lot of that put back in. It was touching and beautiful. Yes, I cried. I knew I would.

After that show, we stayed to watch the changing of the sets. It was so interesting! Since they have three shows going on the same stage, they have to get the WHOLE set and all the props OFF the stage, and bring in the next set. The set manager talked to us while they did the whole change over thing. It took them about 20 minutes to completely change the stage. I loved these little extra learning experiences.

Then it was time to grab some dinner to go, and start the drive home. Megan and I had picked up Letters to Juliet on Redbox, so we put that in and it made the drive seem a little faster. By the time we got home, our legs were stiff, but we had had a wonderful time.

Now–friends who couldn’t pick up and go at a moment’s notice, next year I will find out way in advance when the Bard Bus is going, and WE ARE GOING! It’s such a bargain. Granted, this trip was free for me, but if it hadn’t been free, it would have been SO worth the $149 they charged for the trip. You pretty much pay for the play tickets, and the bus and the hotel are free. Think about it!

A good time was had by all.

Why I hate flying

September 29, 2010 / / 3 Comments

I do not enjoy flying. Do you? My husband can just fall asleep on the plane, and after the flight he’s just ready to RUN through the airport, grab the bags and find the car. Not so for me. Flying makes me anxious, to say the least. Even though I take dramamine, I must always made sure there’s a barf bag in my seat back pocket, or that I have a big old ziplock bag in my purse. Hopefully both. I have thrown up on a plane, haven’t you? More than once. Not every time, thankfully.

To make the flight more bearable, I come prepared with a few snacks, a water bottle, a book and an MP3 player, yet it still doesn’t make it a pleasant experience. My flight to Atlanta had just started, and then we hit a MAJOR pocket of turbulence. I actually hoped for a moment that I would just die instantly. I did make it through, and the rest of the flight, while less jumpy, was still not very fun.

My little touchpanel on the back of the seat in front of me wouldn’t work. I KNOW how to work a touch panel, yet it won’t DO ANYTHING. People all around me are watching in flight tv or a movie, yet my dumb screen is stuck. When the flight attendant came by with my choice of beverage, I asked her about my faulty touch screen, and she said, “Hmmm, those things are pretty touchy sometimes.” Why thank you so much. And, I’ll take the peanuts and that tiny cup of diet coke, please. My batteries in my MP3 player were waning, I couldn’t really read because it was kind of bumpy, and I really just wanted to distract myself with some mindless tv. Ugh. The sweet lady who was sitting next to me took pity on my. She saw me trying over and over to get my screen to work, and said,
“Would you like to use mine? I’m listening to my book, and have no need for it.” Oh, the sweetie! I plugged my earphones into her plug, and then I got to watch at least one hour of tv. Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers, right?

When we arrived, I found my way to the shuttle to take me to baggage claim, and there was Ryan waiting for me. I was so happy to see him! He had driven the company’s rental car in to pick up another guy whose flight arrived before mine, and after he picked him up, Ryan gave him the car and he circled around waiting for us to call and have him pick us up. So great! While driving through the city at night, I was a-starving, and b-nauseated. But I knew that once we got to the hotel, I could eat something and then sleep, so that would probably take care of both problems.

Our return flight was better. I was traveling with Ryan, so even though our seats were not together (I was in the VERY back of the plane), I got to board with the special people because he’s a gold medallion member or something like that. I settled into my MIDDLE seat and waited for the seats around me to fill up. For a moment or two I thought that the window seat might be vacant, but no such luck. I don’t think airlines fly with very many vacant seats these days. On one side I had the old guy wearing shorts who fell asleep immediately, and at one point he had his head just about on my shoulder. He startled and woke up and apologized. I got a chuckle out of it. On the other side I had a bearded guy who was quietly talking to himself from the moment he sat down. I wondered if I had some kind of crazy next to me, but then I looked a little closer at his book and realized it was Romeo and Juliet, and he was probably memorizing. I asked him if he was memorizing, and he told me he was playing Lord Capulet in his local community theater production next month. We chatted a little bit about theater and then he went back to his memorizing and I tried to read my book. Even though I knew he was memorizing, it still felt a little like I was seated next to a crazy person.

When we landed, I was pleased that I had not thrown up, or even felt the extreme urge to throw up. It took me forever to get off of that tin can, however, since I was way in the back. Ryan had time to go use the bathroom and was back in time to meet me. It was with semi shaky legs that I made my way to baggage claim. Unfortunately, I was trying to keep up with hubby, who was off like a bat out of…well, you know. When we finally made it to the safety of the car, I said, “Don’t you feel sick?” I asked. Nope, he feels fine. I, on the other hand felt completely wiped out and slightly sick for the rest of the day. Worth it? I guess. But I still hate flying.

ps–I think I left my whole makeup bag there in the hotel somewhere. I remember trying to stuff it in one of our bags, but they were pretty full by then. I fear it didn’t make it into a bag, because I’ve unpacked and can’t find it anywhere. No, I don’t have expensive cosmetics, but those were my favorites, and now I have to use the “what’s left”. I may have to go out and buy a new mascara and some makeup brushes. grr.

Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine.

September 17, 2010 / / 3 Comments

September. It’s a month of changes, isn’t it? Kids go back to school.

We try to adjust to the new schedules and be efficient with the time we have.
The garden rewards us for our hard work during the summer.
The fruit trees also.
The air starts to cool off and the weather is beautiful.

With all the changes, I realized I needed to change it up, too. I went for a haircut–it had been WAY too long since I’d visited my friend, the stylist. I asked that she put some red in my hair. We had tried to do a little bit of red last time, but it didn’t take, so she went bolder this time. Since I’m not really one to do BOLD in any way, the end result was a bit of a shock to me.

I’ll show you some pictures, but please understand that this is just me, taking one handed pictures of my head while sitting here in my office. Nothing portrait worthy or anything, ok?

Here’s the basic cut. It’s a bit shorter than I was expecting, but nothing I can’t live with. I like how it’s stacked in the back, and I LOVE the color variation in the back.

I don’t know if you can see the different colors, but there’s some pretty strong reds in there.

My 14 year old said, “Mom, those are not natural colors. You would not be allowed to wear your hair like that to school.”
“They ARE natural colors, my dear. It’s not just all MY natural color.” Take that, know it all teenaged daughter.

Anyway, I think it looks really cool, and I love the red underneath, although you can’t really see it in my high quality self portrait.

Speaking of portraits, my sister needed models for a music and the spoken word painting she was doing, so I conned two friends to come and POSE with me. She needed some soccer moms for this story:

Three mothers were sitting together at a school ballgame. Two of them were gushing about their children’s talents and latest achievements. One’s son had just won an athletic scholarship, and another’s daughter had just been chosen as valedictorian. The third mother’s son had no such accomplishments, but she seemed unruffled, even happy about the success of the other two. She almost sounded as proud of those children as their own mothers were.

Later, when asked why she hadn’t felt jealous, she simply explained that it was much easier to celebrate than to compete. She certainly wanted success for her child as well, but she knew that victories for others don’t mean failures for us. She felt confident that her son would excel in his own way and in his own time.

The ability to forget oneself and praise another’s achievement is a key to contented living. It’s natural to feel pangs of envy at another’s success—as if their success cancels out our own. But, in reality, life is a roller coaster, and we each have our ups and downs. When we remember and cherish our own values and growth, we realize we wouldn’t trade places with anyone else. When we are confident in the motives of our own hearts, we can then reach out to commend others for a job well done or good fortune that comes their way.

It was fun, although I think I ended up looking kind of like a spaz. I was not chosen to be the serene mother happy for her friends. If you want to see the finished product, that Music and the Spoken Word will be rebroadcast on KBYU this Sunday at 8, I think.

I also went last week and gave my wedding ring a makeover. When we were getting married, everyone got gold wedding rings. I don’t think there were that many other options. Gold. But I don’t really wear gold jewelry. My watch, my earrings, my other rings are all silver. So for about a year, I’ve been looking for a nice ring I could get as a replacement. Then a friend told me I could just go and get my ring “dipped” or rhodium plated. So easy! I took it to the jewelers, waited 3 days, paid them $36 and got my ring back all shiney and sparkly in white gold.

Again, I apologize for the quality of my pictures. You can’t really see the silverness of the ring, or the sparklyness of the diamonds. But trust me, it’s beautiful. I love it because it’s still my wedding ring, but now it’s silver. It feels like a new ring, and I’m happy with it. Now if I could just keep those diamonds shiney ALL the time. Avoid hand lotion? I don’t think so.

Tomorrow we’re hosting the first ever “day of birthday parties” here. I’ve rented a velcro wall

and we’re having John’s party in the morning and Natalie’s party in the afternoon. So, I just need to go and buy large amounts of food and snacks, and hopefully the kids will entertain themselves!

What I’m doing with all my “free time”

August 30, 2010 / / 1 Comment

School started last week around these parts. So far the kids have attended 3 days of school. All day school, I might add, none of this 1/2 day or three hour stuff for my first grader through high school junior.

I will admit that even though I’m sad to see them go, sad to have to say goodbye to the fun and spontaneity of summer, and sad to jump into the planning, the scheduling and the homework, I have been looking forward to having some time without them to get things done. Think about it. It’s been 16 years since I’ve had a little one at home with me for all or part of the day.

I have plans. Yes, I do. I’m going to work out, clean the house, get myself organized, take care of all my PTA responsibilities, manage the Primary stuff, paint, etc. But it’s amazing how quickly the time goes from the time the last one goes until the first one gets home.


Lest you think I’m a slacker, let me tell you what I got done on the first day of school.
*I took my kids to the back to school breakfast at the busstop
* I went to the Gym. Yes. The Gym. Ahem. I DO know what a gym is. You over there..Stop snickering. I kicked out 30 minutes on the bike, 10 minutes on the eliptical thingy, walked 10 minutes and did about 5 minutes of arm weights. Exhausting.
*I came home and took a shower and got dressed.
*I organized about 6 weeks of coupons that had been waiting for me to organize them.
*Then I took all those newly clipped and organized coupons to our local Smith’s store, where they are currently running their big coupon event, where any coupon that is valued and $1 or less is equal to $1. I saved $50 with my coupons. Yeah, I love that!
*I had time to bring my groceries home and put them away, and then BOOM, the kids were home.

The other days were even less productive, unless you could presidency meeting and visiting teaching as productive. But I am enjoying the time without the kiddos. I get some cleaning done, get myself organized, and then hopefully I can be on my game when they come home and the chaos begins.

Why I love living in Highland

August 12, 2010 / / 3 Comments

Last weekend was our town celebration, the Highland Fling. It’s one of our favorite activities as a family. Last year, however, we missed it because we were taking a family trip to Yellowstone, and several family members complained about missing the fling. Seriously? It was a vacation, guys. You are not allowed to complain about what you missed while on vacation.

On Friday night, we went to a “so you think you can dance” type competition. It was a blast to see so much good and great dancing. After the competition, one of the judges, Gev Manoukian, came up and did his own performance. It was amazing!

And then they had a “Moms and Dads’ dance off”. They invited all the parents to come up and compete. I am not a dancer, nor do I pretend to be one, so I didn’t go up, but our good friend Sherry was not afraid to get up there and shake her stuff. That’s her there in the jeans, white dress and green jacket.

She danced her heart out and even did “the worm” up there. She ended up winning a Cricut from Provo craft. It was a fun activity!

Saturday morning we got the gang up and out of the house for the wonderful pancake breakfast. Our Chinese girls must think that we have a big outdoor pancake breakfast EVERY week, since two out of three Saturdays that they were here, we had our only two big breakfasts of the year. We even sat by and talked to the mayor! (he’s in our ward, so it’s not so rare to see or talk to him.)

After breakfast, the kids went exploring before the parade started. Megan came and told me that they were giving away free Webkinzes for the first 200 people in line. So we got the kids together, and went to stand in line. We had to wait about 40 minutes, and were hoping that they really were giving away Webkins animals, but we had nothing better to do, really, so it wasn’t a bad wait.

They were indeed giving them away, and we were in the right place at the right time. Every one of the kids, even the Chinese girls and the boys, got a free little animal.

Then we settled in to watch our favorite small town parade.

We went back to the park later to check out the shops and booths set up, and also for Cole and Megan to compete in the burrito eating contest. When I signed them both up for the eating contest, the guys at Barbacoa didn’t actually laugh at us, but they kind of smirked in a “really?” kind of way. But when we got to the contest, there were only 5 people total at the table. I thought their odds were looking up.

I mean, they should be able to beat out a little girl and her grandma, right? There were a few last minute recruits, so the eating pool looked more like this when they started.

They gave it their best. Trying to hork down those three pound burritos.

But this guy had them beat from the start.

In about three minutes, this guy finished his. Cole made it about 1/2 way through his burrito, and Megan ate maybe 1/4 of hers. We took their leftovers home and Ryan and I split Megan’s burrito and ate them for lunch the next day. They had fun, and got free food out of it. I’m proud of them for actually entering the contest, and giving it their best shot.

We also introduced our Chinese girls to cotton candy. I didn’t think they would like it, but they did. They each bought a bag of cotton candy.

Later that night we went back to the park for our favorite fireworks program. It’s not a long show, but we sit with friends, it close to our house, and we love it. We could actually watch the fireworks from home if we didn’t feel like going to the park, but we love actually being there.

Pioneer Days

July 27, 2010 / / 3 Comments

Things just keep on happening around here. Yes, the play is over, but that doesn’t mean that we’re winding down. I mentioned that we had houseguests, right? We had fun with them all week, and are so glad they made the trek up to Utah to play with us.

We played, we swam, we hiked, they hiked some more (Robin took four kids up to the top of Timp–the mountain, not the cave), we had our toes done, we ate, we had fun.

Then for Pioneer Day we hosted a Relief Society Activity where we met at the John Rowe Moyle house in Alpine. If you are local and have never been there, you should.

You’ll learn about pioneer times, and an amazing man who never stopped doing what he should.

On Friday we picked up our two exchange students from China.

They go by American names so that we can pronounce them. Daisy and Vivian they are called. When I asked how they got their American names, they said that they picked them out themselves. I’m a fan of picking your own name, so I can understand. I’m hoping we can actually learn and pronounce their real names correctly by the time their visit is over.

On Saturday, July 24th, which is Pioneer Day, we met for a ward breakfast/primary activity. After eating, the kids walked around the track and heard a few pioneer stories. Then it was time for the big event. The firetruck!

For little boys, nothing is cooler than a firetruck. And cool it was. They hooked up to the fire hydrant and sprayed everyone who wanted to get wet.
Here’s an action shot of Megan’s friend. Can you see the force of the water hitting the grass?

Eventually, the goon squad started grabbing people and throwing them in. They even went so far as to pick Ryan up and CARRY him into the stream of water. That’s Ryan there in the center.

After that, my friend Lisa and I knew we were not safe, so we linked arms and walked into the mist voluntarily. We thought that would be enough for them, but NO, those bullies grabbed us and dragged us into the direct stream of the firehose until we were soaked.

We walked home (squish, squish, squish) and changed our clothes, dried our hair and got ready for the day. Again.

Then we headed out with the family and guests to Park City.

We ate at the train diner in Heber, and then it was off to the Alpine Slide. My own kids had never been before, so we thought it would be a fun activity for all of us. And we were hoping to escape the 100 degree heat. While it was a little bit cooler up there in the mountains, it wasn’t that much cooler. We did have fun, though.

Our girls didn’t go very fast. Maybe you can see the line of people behind them. Oops. But they had fun. John, however, told me he never EVER wanted to go on that slide again! That’s what you get for riding with DAD, who went as fast as possible.

We had thought we might go to Butlerville days with my parents, but the idea of sitting through a parade at 4 pm and then all those games and stuff in the heat was just too much for us. We ended up coming home. Everyone was pretty wiped out and I think the girls took naps before dinner.

On Sunday, there was a family occasion, as Ryan’s nephew came home from his mission in Peru. We went to their church and then there was a big family lunch at Ryan’s brother’s house. The girls, even though they didn’t know anyone except us, held out pretty well. I was remembering how long and boring church can be when you don’t really understand the language, let alone the church service. I think it was good that we only went to Sacrament meeting, instead of all three hours of church.

Monday their classes started up. They have classes and activities at their school in Provo from 8:15 until 5. My two oldest kids are signed up as “buddies”, so they go every day for about 6 hours. They do one hour of English class with them, then have lunch, and then do an activity. On Monday they basically played games. Tuesday Cole and Megan went at 8:15, and the activity was to hike to Timpanogos cave. I know. We just did that last week. Aside from the fact that I’ll be driving to Provo once or twice a day for the next 2 1/2 weeks, I think they are in for a lot of fun. They all came home tired today, but I think they had a good time.
Wednesday’s activity is swimming and waterslides at Seven Peaks, and so on.

We try to do something fun (that they aren’t already doing) on the weekend. We’re still undecided on this weekend, though. Any ideas?

It should be a fun packed couple of weeks, and an experience the kids will not forget. I can’t afford to take my kids to China, but I can give them some memories and experiences with our Chinese friends that will last forever.

Summer!

July 20, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Hey, it’s summertime! And we’re not ONLY doing a play around here, we’re doing other stuff, too.

Like go to the farm.

The kids love Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point, so we went there for some fun animal time. We went after dinner so it wasn’t crowded, and the kids had a blast, as usual. They pestered me about wanting to get goats, bunnies and chickens. Maybe someday, kids.

Like camping.

We had our family reunion camping trip last week, and we had a fun time at Payson Lakes. And by fun, I mean we didn’t get much sleep, got really really dirty, and spent about as much time getting ready and cleaning up after the trip as we spent actually camping.

Like playing at the lake.

The kids had a blast at the lake, as they usually do around water.

Like have visitors.

Robin and kids are here visiting from Arizona. They have to do something to escape the heat, and we’re happy to have them come. The kids have so much fun together.

Like hiking.

We decided to hike up to Timpanogos Cave
We started early to avoid the heat, and that mile and a half up is a killer! But we made it, toured the caves, and had a good time, well, let’s just say we made it.

We finished up the show.

Last night was closing night for the Wizard of Oz. It was a full house and we all did our best to put on the best possible show. It was wonderful. I’ve had a blast. I’ve made new friends, I’ve learned new songs and dances, and just enjoyed my time with Alpine Community theater. Natalie also had a very good time with the play, although it was a little sad that we were not in any scenes together. Alpine Community Theater is very professional and does a wonderful job. It’s seriously community theater at it’s best. I’m so sad that it’s over, but I’m relieved and glad to be able to have some free time back.

So, as you can see, even though my life has been consumed with the wizard of oz, we’re still busy with the summer. Stay tuned for more adventures. Things like toilet replacement, more hiking, swimming, pioneer day, and even visitors from China!

Personal Progress–now the whole family can get involved.

July 5, 2010 / / 7 Comments

Can I tell you how much I love the new Personal Progress program for the Young Women?

When they changed to the new program with the new books and the cute ribbons and bookmarks, it really helped to motivate Megan. She has been working hard on her requirements and her value projects in the last 3 or 4 months, and I love it! For her faith project she’s helping with the garden. That means that when I ask her to go out and weed for 1/2 an hour (as I do on most weekdays in the summer) she does it. She helped plant and even helped make some new boxes this spring. And when it’s time to pick, hopefully she’ll help with that, too.

Soon Natalie, my middle daughter, will also be 12 and she can start working on her PP program, too.

I also started my own personal progress book on Sunday. With the new program, moms can get their awards along with their daughters. So I started working on mine. The nice thing is that as moms, we are already doing a lot of these smaller requirements. Plan and cook meals for your family for two weeks? Check. Memorize two hymns and then lead the music in your class or at a Family Home Evening? Well, it just so happens that I lead the music in Relief Society on Sunday, and I have more than two hymns memorized. Check. Be in a play or musical? Check. Pay tithing for three months? Check. Megan was a little irritated with me that I was checking things off so quickly, but I will actually have to work on a lot of these things. I’ll let you know how I do, and how I progress.

Last week, she said, “I need a 10 hour organizing project.”
“Well,” I said, trying not to sound too eager, “you could clean and organize the pantry.” I practically held my breath with anticipation. The pantry is a DISASTER! There’s spilled cereal, jam packed shelves, stuff everywhere, and I really don’t want to spend my own 10 hours on something like that.
“Ok!” she said, and went to work.
This child really likes to organize things. And she’s a hard worker, too. It took her all week to do, and there was a lot of stuff on the counter as she was doing it, but she got it done. Besides, the stuff on the counter wasn’t that bad since Ryan was out of town and I wasn’t really cooking all that much in the way of dinners, so I could stand the extra chaos.

It started out something like this. I can’t believe I’m showing the horrible before pictures. You must all think I’m SUCH a total slob and a horrible housekeeper.

I won’t show you all the pictures she took, but you get the general idea. Yes, we’re slobs. All of us.

And lots of people in this house don’t know how to put things away.

BUT, the mess has been averted. Now it’s all nice and organized, and we have a large garbage bag of expired, moth filled, or otherwise icky food that we will not be eating to give to our friend’s chickens. That will certainly brighten up their day, especially the bug part.

After 11 1/2 hours of Megan’s hard work (thankfully not MY hard work) it looks more like this.

and this

done by this kid.

Thank you, Personal Progress!!!

Whatchu been up to, there?

June 14, 2010 / / 4 Comments

My posts have been a little bit sparse here lately. That doesn’t mean there’s been nothing going on, it means we’ve had so much going on I haven’t had the energy to compose a string of words into a coherent sentence.

But it’s summer, Paige, the time to relax. What have you been doing?

Cough, cough. Well, for one thing, last week was concert week. So that meant four trips and about 15 hours in Salt Lake for costume fittings and rehearsal and a concert. Our concert was Friday night.

I’m pleased with how we did, although we tend to make brand new and different mistakes during a concert. Nerves, I guess. I don’t know if we are trying so hard to watch the director and smile that we lose track of which measure we are on, or what, but I heard from several people that they made mistakes in places where they have NEVER made a mistake before. That’s frustrating, because we really want the songs to sound the very best that they can, and we only have one chance to get it right.

But I am generally pleased with our efforts.

Ryan and the family did not come. Yes, he was out of town this week, but he was so kind to arrange his travel into one REALLY LONG day instead of being gone for two days, so he was back by Friday. But it was the Father’s and Son’s campout! John was so excited he wanted to pack his bags on Tuesday or Wednesday. But Friday loomed cloudy and threatened of rain. By the time I went to pick up Natalie from her week at Clearcreek camp at 3:00, it was POURING RAIN. I was seriously wet and my curly hair was no longer curly. When I got home and it was still raining, I was worried about how wet my sons and their father would be on this campout. But I didn’t have to worry about that anymore, because we got a phone call telling us that they had canceled the campout. John was very disappointed, but Ryan was relieved. I mentioned that they could now come to my concert, but since it was so late and we hadn’t planned on that or made arrangements for a babysitter, he decided to just take all the kids somewhere and miss the concert. He has been to every single other concert we’ve done in 5 years, so it’s not like he’s unsupportive.

And when I wasn’t at rehearsal for the concert this week, I was at rehearsal for the Wizard of Oz.
I know, I know. I said that there was NO WAY I could fit a play into my schedule and that I was way too busy this year to do Community Theater. But I’m going to make it work anyway. No, I didn’t get the part I was going for, but I do get to play an Apple Tree, which makes me excited. I’m also an Oz beautician. My lovely daughter Natalie is playing a munchkin. It’s fun. Fun, that is, except for these darn dance rehearsals that go on FOREVER. Oh, I’m so not a dancer, but I’m trying. This week we rehearsed Thursday night and Saturday morning for one large dance scene. Thursday night I went home and my feet ached SO BAD from four hours of learning this dance. Seriously. Four hours. Thankfully, there was yoga on Friday morning so I could stretch and hopefully help those muscles to not freak out on me. Saturday we rehearsed that same dance number again. And again. And again. Not four hours worth, but enough to hopefully learn it.

Besides these wonderful experiences in the arts, I’ve been trying to keep the kids happy. We went to summer movies, softball games (when they weren’t rained out), made cookies, and played with friends. This week we’ve got a Scout camp, more softball games, a trip to the library, summer movies, and maybe some miniature golf at Boondocks.

How’s your summer shaping up? Busy? Relaxing? Vacation? Well, whatever you are doing, I hope you are enjoying spending time with your kids and family!

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