Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Family Fun (Page 6 of 25)

A very merry unbirthday!

October 1, 2012 / / 5 Comments

When Natalie said she wanted to do a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party for her birthday, I thought, “That sounds like fun. Not too hard. We can do that.” Hmmm. Well, I wouldn’t say it was easy, but it turned out to be so cute.

It pays to have an art teacher for a dad. He told me a while back that he had make a bunch of Alice in Wonderland decorations for a ward party, and that they were just sitting around. I decided to take advantage of his creativity and borrow all those decorations. Wow! There were so many, I could hardly find enough available wall space.

(GRRRR–I had this whole post almost done and when I went to save it, something went wrong, and now I’m back to this point. Well, I guess you get the shorter version, then.)

When the ladies arrived for the tea party, Natalie escorted them outside to play croquet. It seems the rules of croquet were cramping their style, however, so they just ended up whacking the balls all at the same time, running willy-nilly after balls.

You may notice that John seems to have bunny ears on. He made a night before costume decision that he wanted to be the white rabbit, and Larissa actually made those ears for him from tissue paper and a headband. It’s nice that Natalie didn’t shun her siblings and let them enjoy the party. John’s friend showed up right before it started, and I told him in order to participate, he would have to have a crazy hat, too. So, they went down to the costumes and found a wizard hat for him to wear.

Inside, the preparations were continuing. We had lots of cookies and small sandwiches. We wouldn’t want our guests to leave hungry, would we?

After the girls played croquet for all of 15-20 minutes (I had planned for that activity to last at least 45 minutes. Silly me), the girls came in and opened presents. While they were opening the presents, the Queen and the Mad Hatter arrived to officially welcome them to the party.

Oh, and the white rabbit was there, as well.

Now before you get all impressed thinking that I rented or bought these costumes, let me tell you the back story. On my way home from bells on Wed night, I mentioned to my carpool that I had this Mad Hatter’s tea party to do on Saturday and I needed to put up all these Alice in Wonderland decorations. My friend Janeen said, “You know I have the that Red Queen costume, right? You could borrow that.” WHAT? Why didn’t I THINK of that? She mentioned that she also had access to a Mad Hatter and an Alice costume, if I wanted to borrow them, too. No WAY! When we discussed some bell music that I could use, that clinched the deal, and I made a trip to Spanish Fork the next night to pick up all these things. Sadly, we don’t have a full shot of my in the costume, because with the skirt and the hoop skirt and all it’s pretty amazing. Don’t you agree? So, thank goodness for talented and generous friends!

Anyway, enough about me and how lovely I look in my fabulous costume….

Let’s talk about our birthday girl! Natalie looked pretty dolled up, too.

I thought it was fun how her friends came dressed up, as well. If they didn’t dress up in a skirt or dress, they at least hat on some kind of hat, which is the point of a Mad Hatter’s tea party, right?

After they had eaten their fill, the ladies retired to the family room to play Natalie’s favorite party game, Truth or Dare with the fuzzy Toss it to me game cube. And the party ended with a showing of Mirror, mirror.

I think it was a huge success. Of course, here it is, two days later and I haven’t returned the tea cups or put away the many tea pots.
Maybe I’ll have the servants do that, since I am the Queen after all.
Right.

Snippets of Fall

September 27, 2012 / / 7 Comments

Could it really be fall?

With Larissa here, we want to be sure to show her some of the beauty that is Utah, so we took off for a Sunday afternoon field trip up Provo Canyon. We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls and did some climbing up the falls. Boy, that water is cold!

We drove up to Deer Creek Reservoir and then up to Sundance to see the beauty of the fall leaves.

(How would you like THAT house? I would like to go to a party there, in case anyone knows who lives there and could get me an invite)

It was a beautiful day. Not too hot, not to cold. We weren’t really dressed for hiking, so we just kind of strolled, but it was a nice invitation to fall.

The next week, we planned a trip up to Snowbird. Or, rather, I planned a trip, and tried to get everyone to accommodate my planning. I had won a two night’s stay in the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird from a radio thing. I figured that with 7 people, we were better off using two rooms and staying one night. So, I asked everyone to keep their schedules clear for Friday and Saturday. Sadly, one child had to work on Saturday at noon, and couldn’t find anyone to trade with her. It didn’t feel right to just leave her at home, so we planned to go as soon as we could on Friday (the day of my big WALK-A-THON event at school, by the way), and we could do some activities there on Friday night, then get home by noon on Saturday.

Can you believe I’ve never been up to Snowbird? Really. I grew up in Cottonwood Heights, a mere 20 minutes (or less) away, and I never had been up there. We always went up Big Cottonwood, and we weren’t skiers in my family, but still. It’s beautiful up there.

We planned to hurry and go do the Alpine Slide and possibly the Zip line before things closed at 6. What? Those things only run on Saturdays? I wish that information had been updated on their website. Erg. The only thing running was the tram up to the top of the mountain. Sign us up!

It was quite a sight! The tram moves quite quickly, and it’s so great to watch the beauty of the mountain as you are rising up above it. We watched some crazy mountain bikers ride up the tram with their bikes and then take off down the mountain. It was a bit colder up there, but not terrible, unless you are the 9 year old who forgot to bring a jacket even though Mom expressly told you so. No worries, Dad let him wear his sweatshirt.

We played around on the ski lifts, and marveled at how high up we were.

I don’t think John liked being up there, he says he’s afraid of heights. We could not get him to climb on a ski lift.

After we came back down, we ate some dinner at a little pizza counter, then got right to the much anticipated…swimming. It’s the highlight of any hotel stay with these kids.

I didn’t swim. Seriously exhausted by my day, and they were outdoor pools and it was getting cool. I did stay out there with the kids and soak my feet in the hot tub for a while, but after about 8 pm, it was just too cold for me. I went back to the room and asked hubby to go out with them for a while. Armed with his sweatshirt, he went out to read by the pool and watch over them.

The next morning, we decided to skip the fancy overpriced breakfast at the lodge, and went down the mountain to eat breakfast at Denny’s.

Even though it was a short getaway, it was nice. Fun to have two rooms and be able to watch project runway, nice family time.

It’s hard to believe that on MONDAY, just two days after we were there, this picture was taken.

Even though that snow probably won’t last long, I’m glad we went when we did!

Enjoy your fall!

(Linking up to Alphabee Thursday at Jenny Matlock’s)

Superhero Party

September 12, 2012 / / 2 Comments

Our son turned 9, and that warranted a party.
We decided that a superhero party would be “Super!”.

The boys all dressed as their favorite superhero.
When they first got here, I had them draw their own superhero, as kind of a filler activity before all the kids got here.
Of course, some kids are just super even without a costume, and they are welcome, too.

Since the party started around dinner time, we decided to jump right into the food. Besides, do I want a bunch of superheros around who are hungry? I don’t think so. We had superdrinks,

chips, breadsticks, veggies, and lots and lots of pizza.

I actually over planned on the pizza, but that’s ok, we don’t mind eating leftover pizza.

The super heros gobbled up their fill of food, and were ready for some activity.

We had a few training areas set up, where they were to practice throwing small objects (sponges through a hula hoop), jump over buildings (cardboard boxes) and shoot bad guys.

They also had an obstacle course (around the playground)

They seemed to lose some of their secret identity and stick with their regular clothes as the activities wore on. I mean, who really wants to run and swing in a cape? Once they were all limbered up and trained, we did some races.

I always seem to forget how quickly these kids plow through all the planned activities, but that was no problem. We let them just play. They got out all the scooters, did some balance work, and practiced their flying on the trampoline.

As it was beginning to get dark, I herded them into the house, and we did some present opening, cupcake eating, and watched a little Spider Man.

And more pizza, too. Had to break out the pizza just in case some of our super heros hadn’t eaten enough, or were hungry from their intense workout. And some of them were hungry again. One young hero ate 4 cupcakes, I think.

We then went to the basement for some pinata power. Unfortunately, our pinata couldn’t hold up to the weight of the candy and the hitting, and promptly broke from it’s holder after about two hits. I tried to string it up again, but it met with the same demise. It didn’t break open, just fell down. I ended up just shaking all the candy onto the floor, and the kids went wild.

Those kids don’t really care how the candy is delivered, so it was all good.

Even though they wore me out with all their super-ness, one little boy was very pleased with his party!

The great bedroom migration

August 10, 2012 / / 1 Comment

It’s the great bedroom migration of 2012. Oh, yes it is. It’s that time again, and while I would love to say that we were moving a couple of kids to their NEW bedrooms in our wonderfully finished basement, that is not the case. I am currently waiting for the insulation guy to come and give me a bid, though, so we are making progress. My super talented hubby fortunately has a JOB and other family obligations that prevent him from working full time on that darn basement, but he surprises me with the things he got done while I was asleep, or gone. The other day it was a new doorhandle (with a lock and keypad) on our storage room door. Now when the kids go down to get a new box of cereal AGAIN, they have to use their code to unlock the door, and it magically sends a text to alert us to who is opening the door. How cool is that?

Anyway, we’re moving practically every bed upstairs.
John’s bunkbed is moving to Cole’s room.
Cole’s queen bed is moving to Natalie and Megan’s room.
Natalie’s twin bed is moving to Cole’s room.
Megan’s twin bed is moving to Jenna’s room.

Whew!

And don’t forget the dressers and the crap that has to be moved along with that.

So, since I don’t want to spend a whole day doing that myself, I have enlisted the help of my able bodied and willing (?) helpers. Natalie, Cole, Megan and my other two kids (not really) Sarah and Jacob are hauling beds around while I try to find the proper bedding and vacuum. What a mess! Oh, and I promised them Pizza.

Is this thing on?

July 30, 2012 / / 14 Comments

Tap, Tap. Testing 1..2…3..

I don’t think there’s anybody out there.

I’m feeling a little lonely thinking that only my mom is reading my blog posts. Is it just July? Is it too hot to read blogs? Is it just too hard to comment? I guess all those things, right?

Or is it me?

I promise I showered this morning, and I brushed my teeth even.

Sigh.

–Well, speaking of teeth, Cole got his wisdom teeth out last week. He’s doing quite well. His pain doesn’t seem that bad, and I haven’t given him but one of the narcotic pills they prescibed for him. I took the camera all set to record his out-of-it ness, but he seriously wasn’t that funny.
–Marie left on Saturday morning. We had a good time with her here, but I always feel so much pressure. Are we having enough fun, is the house clean enough, are the kid well behaved enough, are we nice enough to her, is she bored? The other times we have had people here, they have always had some kind of program or school to go to, and we’ve only had to entertain them during the evenings and weekends. This time she was here ALL the time, and it kind of stressed me out because there wasn’t really a way to hide all our crazy. Hopefully she doesn’t think worse of Americans after her visit here.

But we WERE busy. While she was here, we took her out to The Bingham Canyon Mine, had a big pancake breakfast for Pioneer day, went swimming, went bowling, out to eat, played games and puzzles. We even made jam (she helped). There were also concerts, movies, camping, fishing, 7 peaks, laser tag, 2 plays, parties, (take a breath), she went boating with the youth, horsebackriding (twice) with a friend of Megan’s, another friend made Paella for her, we went to church all three Sundays, saw Temple Square and City Creek, she went to WalMart to get Marshmallows and went to the mall, and we even “adopted” a cat for her.

I won’t speak more of the cat, but let’s just say it’s a sore subject around here.

But when she was leaving, I wanted to get her a cute stuffed cat. I looked in 3 different stores and all I could find was a webkinz that sort of looked like this 3 legged cat that she loved. But to make it authentic, I had to amputate one of it’s legs. Yes, I did. (Like I said, we’re just a little bit crazy)

We also got a little journal and all wrote notes to her, and when she opened the box with the presents, she said, “It’s Fox!” (that’s what they named the cat) and she started to cry just a little bit.

So, now she is gone. We’ve sent her back to France (where she was going to go to Italy with her family), and we hope we will keep in touch.

Whew!

It’s coming up on August, and there’s less than a month left of our summer before school starts. So, to make the most of it, I am going to finish painting my bathroom.

Did I not mention that I was painting my bathroom?

I painted the whole bathroom “dover grey” which some people think looks blue. Oh well. I was tired of the grapevine pattern we had in there and it was time to move on. I’ve got some more to do in there before I can reveal the before and after pictures, so you will have to be patient. The problem is, there are no air vents in there, and it gets HOT!

So, I hope you are also having a wonderful summer.

And do a girl a favor, would you? Leave a comment so I know SOMEONE out there is reading this.

Camping

July 15, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Thursday-Saturday it was our Coleman family reunion. We had plans on Thursday, so we couldn’t go up until Friday, but Friday is when most of the activities are, and when most of the family shows up. For the past few years, we have gone up on Thursday and come home on Friday because of our summer theater activities, but this year there was no conflict with a play, so we planned on Friday and Saturday fun at Payson Lakes. Ryan couldn’t go up with us until later on Friday because he had a business trip to prepare for, but since we couldn’t fit all 8 of us AND all our stuff and sleeping bags and tents, etc, in the back of the suburban, he was just going to bring some of that stuff in the truck later in the afternoon.

Once we got up there and ate our picnic lunch, we went to the lake, where my brother’s family and my parents and my cousin’s family were already having fun playing.

John went out in the canoe first, with his cousins Bryce and Danny.

Cole and Megan took out the smaller, inflatable canoe.

Natalie and Jenna went out in the canoe with their cousin Kaylee.

Bryce serenaded us with the ukelele.

We even convinced Marie to go out in the canoe. It really was the perfect weather.

Until Cole, Marie, and Megan went out in the canoe, that is.

I don’t know if you can see the raindrop ripples in the water in that picture, but that was about the time it started to rain.
Within minutes, the rain was REALLY coming down, and the whole family was huddled under my parents’ canopy that they had put up to shield us from the sun.

Amy’s son Jacob was the last one out in the lake. I guess since he was already wet, he didn’t really care about the rain. But we called him in, just to be safe.

The wind picked up and even under the canopy we were getting wet, so we had to put that down, haul our stuff back to the cars, and run for cover. Everything in the camp was wet, including our tent, which I had taken out of the car, but not set up yet. We all changed our clothes, or at least put on jackets, so that we wouldn’t be cold. The rain stopped and we started our craft time.

I had brought up all these cans, along with hammers and nails for the kids to make their own lanterns.

John was exploring, wearing his orange jacket perfect for outdoor activities. I love that I can find him easily when he’s wearing that jacket.

Pretty soon Ryan got there, and he could soon be found holding the babies.

Marie had really wanted to go fishing, and pretty soon, off she went with my Uncle Keith to fish in the lake. As we set up for dinner, it began to rain again.

We ate in the rain, happy to be there with our cousins and relatives. Soon Marie came back, and she had caught a fish!

I offered to bring it home and cook it, but she shook her head at that. I guess she doesn’t like trout, which is a good thing, because I didn’t want to have to bring it home and cook it, to tell the truth. My sister said she would take it. They had caught three or four and they do actually like to cook and eat those things.

The rain did NOT stop, but the kids still played in the fire.

As the rain continued to fall, we decided that we would NOT tough it out. The tent was wet, and not yet set up. The sleeping bags were probably wet. We packed everything back up and came home. While I was sad to have missed the ‘camping’ part of the camping experience (not really), we made the right decision. Ryan wasn’t going to stay over anyway (something to do with breathing and his c-pap machine), and my mom told me it rained again that night and again in the morning, so it would have been miserable.

We had all the fun of the camping, and got all our clothes and gear wet and muddy, without the restless night of sleeping in a tent!

BonJour

July 12, 2012 / / 0 Comments

We now have a student from France here. Her name is Marie and we picked her up from the airport with her group last Saturday.

She is a sweet, quiet girl who speaks English pretty well, but she doesn’t really talk much unless she is asked a direct question.

Even though she was tired, she got up and was ready to go to church at 9 on Sunday morning.

And since then it’s kind of been a whirlwind of activity around here as we try to keep everyone busy and not bored.

Sunday night we went to a free outdoor concert in Pleasant Grove. It was some guy who sang and played the guitar. The only song I recognized and remember was Blackbird by the Beattles.

But it was still something to do and it got us out of the house.


( I am not sure what happened with these pictures, but the settings must have been off. Apologies.)

Marie got comfortable in a camping chair and fell asleep.

Monday Megan had her art class, then we went to Trafalga where the kids played laser tag. It doesn’t help anyone’s energy that it’s 100 plus degrees outside, so anything we do we fell sluggish and kind of grumpy. But it cooled off enough to enjoy an outdoor show that night at the Scera Theater. We saw ‘All shook up.” Fun show, by the way, and I think everyone enjoyed it (once it started).

Tuesday I took Marie, Jenna and Natalie to the summer movie, which was “Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2”. I had to run a few errands so I let them go in without me, and joined them about half way through the movie. The temperature was perfect! The movie was pretty hokey. Oh, well. That night our friends the Adams came over, and they brought Martin, their exchange student from France. Martin and Marie are friends, so it was fun for them to have someone to talk to in FRENCH. We had a fun night with a barbeque and frisbee and lots of playing with the chickens.
Sadly, I didn’t get a picture of Marie and Martin together, but here’s John and Jared playing battleship.

Wednesday I took the kids to the Dino museum at Thanksgiving point. So sad I forgot my camera, because it was the museum’s birthday party, and they had all kinds of extra fun stuff! My kids always enjoy the dinosaur museum, and any time we have guests, we try to take them there. It’s such a fun place for kids and adults, and a nice way to stay cool on a 100 degree day. Wednesday night I went to bells rehearsal and the four teenagers all went to a youth activity swimming party. I think the bishop encouraged some of the more outgoing girls to go and talk to Marie, and they all wanted to hear her speak in French. “Say Paris!” they would say. “Pari (silent s you know)” she would say. “Oh, that’s so cool!”

On Thursday John had cub scout day camp, so he and I were up early at 6 to get him ready to go by 6:30.

He was very excited. After he left, I do admit that I went back to bed. Yes, I’ll admit it.
Once the rest of the kids got up, I encouraged them to get ready quickly so they could all go to Seven Peaks Water Park. With John gone, Cole could take all of them in the old Camry, and I wouldn’t even have to go. I do not enjoy going to seven peaks (or any place where you have to wear a swim suit, for that matter, really) and so this was my chance to send them off to the waterpark and me not have to go. I had many things to get ready for a campout and a party and general cleaning of the kitchen, but I must say I really enjoyed the few hours I had to myself. John came home around 2 and he had a GREAT time. Thanks to his awesome scout leaders!

Then, at night, Megan and Marie went to a concert in Salt Lake. It’s Demi Lovato, and while Megan was NOT thrilled to go, Marie seemed excited when I showed her the tickets and asked her if she would like to go. Luckily, a friend was taking some of her kids, and she agreed to drive them, too. Hooray! I don’t have to make another trip to Salt Lake and wait around while they go to the concert. Instead I went to Home Depot with Ryan to shop for a bathtub.

Friday is a family campout at Payson lakes, and Saturday night we have a party with the Bell Choir.

So, I would say we’ve crammed quite a bit into this week. And it’s only the FIRST week!

Almost all grown up

May 23, 2012 / / 8 Comments

It seems like the chickens are happy with their new arrangement. The big chickens’ house is attached to the 14′ by 14′ enclosure that we made from the two dog runs. The smaller chickens’ house is inside the enclosure. During the day, we open their doors so that all the chickens can move freely from house to house, and they have plenty of room to explore. I didn’t expect them to spend so much time on top of the red house, but that’s one of their favorite roosting places.

I don’t know if they just like to be up high, or if they feel safe from the big chickens up there.
(That weird looking yellow fabric draping there is my sad attempt at providing them some shade. I tied the fabric on, but then the crazy wind whipped it around so that it was just sad and hanging there. Oh, well. It’s a work in progress, right?)

While I can’t say that they are best of friends and all the chickens get along famously, I don’t worry about the big bossy chicken pecking at them anymore. She makes a move toward them, and they run away.

And since we covered the whole thing with chicken wire (oh, that was hilarious, by the way) and attached the wire at the sides, I don’t worry about them flying out or other creatures getting in. Yes, there is the occasional magpie that gets in there and eats their food, but I don’t think a cat or a hawk could get in.

Now there’s just the question of the one black chicken who looks strangely rooster-like.

The black one standing in the back is a little bit bigger than the others, and she already has her comb. I’m worried about our little Oreo (that’s her name), and I hope she doesn’t start crowing, as then we would have to find a new home for her (or him). But we’re still hoping she’s just an early bloomer and that the others will catch up with her soon.

And yes, we did dress them up in little shirts the other day. I brought home some little free shirts from a t-shirt company at the PTA convention. I thought the kids would have fun putting them on their stuffed animals. Well, even MORE fun, I guess, is putting it on a chicken. Not all the chickens appreciated being dressed up, I can tell you.

And what’s that? Who is holding that chicken and petting her like he likes her? Yep, it’s the chicken skeptic of last year. The man who said no to chickens over and over and over again. Now he likes them, and even said to me, “do you think we have enough chickens?” Shocked! I’m shocked, I say.

And just one more picture, because I think it’s so cute. When given the chance, the big girls LOVE to go digging in the bishop’s weed close to the back of the house. Now the plants are so tall you can hardly see the chickens in there. I’m not sure if they like the hiding in there, or if they are just busy looking for bugs.

Our little chicks are almost all grown up!

Jenny Matlock

Linking to Jenny Matlock’s for letter A

Weekend Roundup

April 30, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Robin- a little more than a week ago, my good friend Robin called and told me her plan to come to Utah for a few months to complete spring and summer terms at BYU. She asked, if needed, if she could stay here with us. I told her that I was sure we could work something out. But I kind of didn’t think she could actually make all the arrangements and come to an agreement with her ex about the kids, but she DID it. She arrived on Tuesday night, and stayed here until she found a place that would accommodate both her and her bunnies. My kids LOVE her bunnies, but we just can’t have such attractive allergens around here.

Women’s Conference- Thursday and Friday I traipsed off to Provo myself to be uplifted and spiritually filled with many great talks. I wish I could remember every great word I heard. I wrote so much down, and have many things in my life to examine and hopefully make better. It was really great. By Friday afternoon, though, I couldn’t sit through one more talk, so I was happy to leave campus with Robing to go look at an apartment. That one didn’t work out, but she found a great one on Saturday.

Cole’s trip- Wednesday evening, I took Cole, two of his friends and one of his advisers to the airport, so they could all fly down to New Mexico for the Academic Decathlon Nationals. They have been studying SO hard and SO long, and were ALL glad that the weekend of the competition was finally here. I got a few texts about how things were going, and Ryan watched a bit of the superquiz that was streaming live on Friday afternoon. For their first time ever at Nationals, they didn’t do too badly. Cole earned a Silver medal in speech, and we’re so proud of him. I have no idea how much money he owes from his trip, as they haven’t finished their fundraising, but if any of you would still like to contribute, Cole takes checks. He came home Saturday night, and we were thrilled to hear all about it. You can read his take on it at his blog here.
Here’s my niece wearing some of Cole’s medals.

Chicken enclosure- For a while, now, I’ve been trying to figure out the best configuration of dog runs and coops for our chickens. Well, Saturday we took two separate 10′ x 4′ dog runs (both acquired for FREE, I am proud to tell you) and made one 14′ x 14′ enclosure.
It took almost all of us to get everything moved. One chicken coop in enclosed within the fence, and another is attached to the side. So I can let the chickens out, and they will hopefully have enough space to not pick on each other. I am not quite to the point of just letting them all roam with no chaperone, there is no cover over the run, and we have lost chickens when they were scared and flew up and over the fence, so we really need to get that covered. We’ll work on that this week.

Mom’s birthday-Saturday was my mom’s birthday, so I invited the whole family over for dinner on Sunday. I think we had 32 people over here, and they created quite a cacophony of noise! It wasn’t quite warm enough for everyone to go and eat outside, even though we had worked to get plenty of outdoor seating ready. I did eat my dinner outside and it was so much more peaceful than the chaos inside. But I think my mom appreciated having everyone together, yet not having to have the party at her house. My sister’s little boy started having an allergic reaction to the birds (who live in the corner of the kitchen), so that wasn’t fun. I was just so impressed that they had come, and brought all 13 kids. Yes, I mentioned that it was crazy, right? Between me and my sisters, we have 22 kids. I was outside trying to make sure none of them wandered off. I will admit that I didn’t totally clean up after everyone left. Our family just settled in to watch the Amazing Race (so sad that Mark and Bopper were eliminated) and I put it off until the morning. Messes will ALWAYS wait for you, I have found.

It was quite a week, and a wild weekend. I am personally very thankful for a boring Monday when I can get a little caught up. Well, until the kids get home from school, that is. Then I need to find a tux for Cole, take the kids to piano lessons, help with homework, make dinner, have family home evening….

Vacation memories

April 19, 2012 / / 10 Comments

I’m trying to get myself out of vacation mode, after our trip last week. But there are so many things I want to remember, so I keep writing about it. Of course if the pile of laundry takes longer to get through than the actual vacation, you know you are in trouble.

Things I want my kids to remember from our vacation this year

*Our family is fun! We can have a great time together, even if we don’t have friends with us

*We come from Pioneer ancestry, and those pioneers were amazing people. They worked hard, were inventive and industrious people. They also sacrificed much and left their homes, even, to protect their religious freedoms.

*Grandma and Grandpa love them very much. They would have to, to come on vacation and spend 8 days with us. They even love them enough to let two of them sleep in their hotel room, if needed. Now that’s love!

*Joseph Smith was not only a great man, a dynamic leader, generous and loving, he was also a prophet of God.

*You don’t have to have fabulous adventures to have something to say. Mark Twain wrote about his own hometown.

*It took courage, skill, ingenuity and determination to build the St. Louis arch. And in the building process, not a single man died.

What they will probably remember..
-Cutting our block of cheese for our sandwiches with dental floss because we didn’t have a knife
-Trying to find a place to eat on Easter Sunday and having to resort to gas station food because nothing else was open,

-Caves are dark,

-Mom is a goofball and makes us dress up in all kinds of costumes and clothes,

-Singing “Willingly; because we HAVE to….”

-Playing Rockem Sockem Robots and Flippin Frogs,

-Mom let us swim in every hotel pool.

-That arch is REALLY high, and it was cool to go up and take pictures.

-Playing cards in the airport.

But whatever they remember or don’t remember, I hope they remember all the fun times and laughter we shared on our trip to Nauvoo, Hannibal, and St. Louis in 2012.

Linking to Jenny Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.
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