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Here in Utah it’s the 24th of July–or better yet, it’s Pioneer day!. Well, I guess it’s Pioneer day (as well as the 24th of July) in other areas, too, but maybe they don’t celebrate it there.
We had a fantastic ward breakfast this morning; sponsored by the Elders. It’s usually a great and fun event, but this year it was ramped up a bit by including a primary activity. After the breakfast, the primary kids were all invited to walk in the “pioneer parade”. By parade, I mean walk around the track that surrounds the 1/2 acre or so that is the front yard of the neighbor’s house (no, this one was not at my house). They actually have a little bike trail built in. Along the way, they had to go through “winter quarters” (which was a little sign that said Winter Quarters and there were some blocks of ice on the ground), 
and then cross the “Sweetwater river” (which was a little kiddie pool filled with water). But if they didn’t feel like walking through the “river”, or if they had a handcart or something like that, they could just go around. 
Eventually, they reached the Salt Lake Valley and there was a sign that said “This is the place”, and they all got a cute handcart shaped sugar cookie.
I don’t think the real pioneers were greeted with sugar cookies when they arrived, but that would have been nice for them, wouldn’t it? 
Hello, Brigham Young! We understand you’ve had a long walk and lost some of your travelers along the way to disease and Indian attacks. You are tired and sick and have no supplies, and this dreadful desert with nothing but scrub oak and a bunch of tumbleweeds is your new home. Have a cookie!
Some of the kids dresses up in pioneer clothing, and my kids and Robin’s kids (with a little help from Robin) even made a “handcart” from the bike trailer/jogger and some cardboard boxes. It turned out very very cute, and John enjoyed riding on it and waving, just like in a real parade! 
I thought it was funny that a lot of the boys didn’t want to participate in the parade, saying that it was just for little kids. They would rather play basketball. I made a comment to one of the other parents that it was too bad those boys didn’t make the trek to the Salt Lake Valley. He said, “Yep, they joined the militia back in Nauvoo and played basketball instead of crossing the plains.”
The grand finale of the event was when the Lone Peak Fire Fighters showed up with a huge truck, 
and sprayed all the kids with water. 
Those hoses really put out a LOT OF WATER! It’s so much more impressive seeing one in action close up, rather than on the news. They watered the kids and whoever was in the path of the water until the grass was so wet and splashy. They won’t have to water their lawn for a few days! There was not a dry kid in sight. 
It was so much fun! (look here for more pictures)
Tonight we have a family barbecue. We are making devilled eggs (Megan’s specialty), baked beans, and chocolate chip cookies. The rain clouds are moving in, however, and I hope it doesn’t rain on us. No, actually, I just hope it doesn’t rain in Spanish Fork, and I hope it rains and rains and rains here, at my house, from now until Thursday afternoon. What? A girl can hope, can’t she?
Happy Pioneer Day!
Oh, and did anyone else by any chance hear the Gold’s Gym Radio commercial? The one with “Arnold Schwarzeneger?” The one where he sings, ‘Pioneer children walked to Gold’s Gym, Gold’s Gym, Gold’s Gym, GOLD’S GYm’? I’m still laughing about it!
Note: This Contest is now closed. You can go here to find out if you’ve won.
Shannon had the bright idea to host a bloggy giveaway bash, and you know I can’t resist a contest, so I’m in.
I have several “prizes” for you, and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment. I’ll draw the winners on Friday, July 27th. How simple is that? And since these prizes are very random and different, let me know in the comments which prize you would like to be considered for. OK? So, on with the show….
1 and 2 – Two beanie babies. They have their tags and are in good shape. They haven’t even been played with, as far as I know. I found them in my craft cupboard in my office and decided they needed to go to a new home. A home where they will be loved. They are “Valentina” 
and “Princess” 
.
3- 
A CD! I’m pretty sure I must have won this in a radio contest or something. I’m not really sure. And although I’m sure I would love the music if I had seen the show, I haven’t yet seen the show and therefore don’t have much interest in the music. Are you a fan? Would you like to win this copy for your very own?
4 –The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot. 
My book has a different picture on the front, and it’s in paperback, but it’s the same book. Like the movie, only in book form. This is a brand new book. It’s spine is still tight and no pages have been dog-eared. It even smells new.
So, there you have it, folks. If you are new here and just came over for the contest….welcome, and I hope you’ll visit again! Just leave a comment to enter, and for more contests, visit Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer. She’s got links to LOTS more!
Well, even amid our financial difficulties, the summer must go on. Thursday I took the kids up to Payson lakes for day one of the Coleman family reunion. It was fun and exciting. If you call having a major wildfire in the next canyon exciting. Ash was falling from the sky on us all afternoon even though that fire was a good 30 miles away. And our ranger friend kept coming and telling us they might evacuate. We swam, we ate, we did some crafts, and we roasted marshmallows. The kids and I had a great time. They wished to stay longer, but I was happy to be leaving when it was dark. We drove down the canyon and met a police officer who was stopping people and warning them, if not totally turning them back so they couldn’t go up. We got home about 10:30 dirty, tired, and smelling of ash.
Today was Ryan’s company party at Boondocks. It was fun fun fun, but WAY TOO HOT! We took Sarah and Jacob with us and fun was had by all.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to carry up a sleeping 3 year old and put him in bed, and I’m going to bed, too.
p.s. Stay tuned for a contest announcement on Monday.
It was not a good day for the Erickson family yesterday. Don’t panic. Nobody got in a car accident or anything like that and our house is still here, but we did have a few other things pile up on us.
First, I had taken the van in on Monday to see if they could fix it. It’s been running really rough the past few weeks (and that darn check engine light has been bugging me) and I worried that it was going to stop running altogether. They told me they would “start with a tune-up” and see if that takes care of the problem. Well, even though a tune up sounds like a simple adjustment of a few car gadgets, it’s really at least two hours of labor to practically get the entire engine out to check wires, spark plugs,etc. The tune up (which it honestly needed at 136,000+ miles) itself was about $300. But that didn’t solve the problem. They tested a couple more things and I think it was the fuel injector that was causing all the trouble. Anyway, the total came to just over $500. Gulp.
Next, my dishwasher hasn’t been working very well, and this week I finally figured out a day I could be home for a few hours, so I called the repair man. He came yesterday and took apart my dishwasher enough to tell me that there was a problem with the main valve, and it wasn’t filling with water properly. He could order a new part, and for a mere $226 he’ll come back and install that part (on Monday). Gulp. Unfortunately, since he disconnected things, the dishwasher that was limping along but still worked, now doesn’t really work much, so that means we’ll be hand washing our dishes. Yes, I should have waited until I didn’t have 10 people living in my house before making this decision, but who knew?
Later, Ryan went to pay for the van’s mini-makeover and take it back to his work. As he was pulling out, he realized that the tire was flat. He pulled back over to fill it, and the repair guy came out and said, “I filled that tire earlier. It shouldn’t be flat already.” Shouldn’t be, but yet it is. Luckily, there is a tire place just around the corner, so Ryan went over there to see if he could get the flat repaired. It could not be repaired. Of course not. And the wear indicators were showing on the other tires to let us know that, “Dude, you’re driving on bald tires,” (my quote, not his). Gulp. Let’s plop down another $400 something on tires, shall we? (The good part of the story is that Ryan was actually the one who dealt with the tire problem, as I’ve already mentioned my claustrophobia and panic that comes from hanging out in repair places, let alone my total lack of knowledge when it comes to all things automotive. Or I could have been driving home late at night and had to deal with a flat tire. Hello? Triple A?)
Now I understand that repairs happen. But must they all happen in the same day?
After I got home from rehearsal last night, I sat down and opened the mail. Hmmm. What’s this letter from the IRS? . What the….? We’ve received a notice that informs us that we owe the IRS aprox. $3900 for a mistake in our taxes in 2005. Gulp. I handed it all over to my tax man (Ryan) and managed to not scream or swear or hit anyone. I think I handled it pretty well.
Meanwhile, I’ll be canceling all of our fun plans for the rest of the summer. And maybe selling all of my children’s belongings on ebay.
This is my first time to participate in Works for me Wednesday, but I’m game for new things.
My tip is to reuse those swiffer dusters. I just love those dusters, especially on ceiling fans and hard to reach places. But they can be expensive, right? Once they are all dusty and gross, just toss them in the washer. Don’t put them in the dryer,as they will get all shriveled and shrinky and won’t be so useful. If you use them when they are just a bit damp, they pick up all that dust the next time you are dusting. And you don’t have to pay all that money for more dusters.
For more tips, check it out here.
I think I might have forgotten to mention that my girls were in a show. Natalie and Jenna have been working hard for 6 weeks of classes for their mini musical theater workshop. Saturday night was their big show. And it was so fabulous!
They sang and danced to a whole bunch of songs that were worked into a little play. They even had a solo!
I’m so proud of them!
And of course, they were the cutest ones up there performing (totally unbiased here).
I did spend the day watching my sister’s kids. They took the baby with them, so it was only 7 kids. But I brought Jenna with me, so it was up to 8. And they were all very good. Seriously. They are easy kids to watch. Other than the short outburst the two year old had when she woke from a tiny nap and I was STILL HERE, and she proceeded to scream “No! No! NO!” over and over again, we did ok. I just sent her sister over to see if she’d like a drink or a snack or anything, and stayed as far away from her as I could, and then eventually she happied up again. In order to keep my place as the “fun aunt”, I had to be prepared. I brought movies that they hadn’t seen (Pete’s Dragon, while pretty annoying to me, keeps kids attention if they’ve never seen it before), made sugar cookies and let them each choose 3 cookie cutters to use to cut out the cookies, and took these little perler activity beads, which are plastic beads that you form and then iron. 
  
If you’ve never tried them before, they are worth every penny (especially when you buy a whole quart sized ziplock bag of them for $1 at a garage sale. I just had to buy more to replenish my supply though, after 6 kids doing 2 or 3 each). They keep kids occupied for a while, and they can make all kinds of designs on the little molds. They were a big hit. In fact, when their mom and dad came home, they yelled, “No! You can’t be home yet! I’m not done with my design!” But I stayed long enough for them to finish up.
Here at home, the kids are having a blast. Today we were going to go to Seven Peaks water park, but with a forecast of thundershowers and no refunds on your day passes if it rains, we decided to go another day. But I don’t think the kids are too devestated. Robin took my two oldest and her two to a smaller water park/splash pool in Provo, so I’m sure they’ll be excited to tell us all about it. They’ve been watching movies, playing video games and playing outside. Even the younger kids who don’t have a friend their own age are enjoying having guests here. We let them stay up late, they get ice cream and lots of games. Why wouldn’t they love it?
We also went for our traditional Robin and Paige splurge of a pedicure, and now my toes look fancy and my feet are soft!
It’s not quite a hotel we’ve got here; it’s more of a bed and breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner.
My brother’s family left on Saturday. It was about 11:30 by the time they packed everything up and pulled out, and started on the long drive to Arizona.
Robin and her kids arrived at about 3:00.
NO, we didn’t get the whole house cleaned up, but I did manage to wash and change the sheets in the “guestroom” and get that whole room cleaned and vacuumed. And we got all the dishes done and some of the other bedrooms cleaned up. For some reason I had about 25 towels to wash, and they’ve now been washed, but are not folded. But you get what you pay for here, people.
On the bright side, it’s kind of nice to be a vacation destination. That way we get to see friends and family and we don’t have to do all that annoying driving to get there. And I’d rather hang out at my house than hang out at their houses in Arizona, except maybe in the winter.
Today we’re doing a little parent swap. Robin’s going to watch my kids and her kids, and I’m going to go and watch my sister’s kids. My sister’s 8 kids. I’ll let you know how that goes.
I haven’t written much about the fun we’ve been having with our cousins here because I’m kind of waiting for pictures to go with it. But we’ve been having a blast. Jenna and Kaylee 
disappear for hours playing happily together. John had been running around, playing on the playground and playing with cars and trucks with Danny.
Cole, however, is in cousin heaven. He has two cousins, Brenden and Bryce, 
who are just about his age. They’ve played countless hours of monopoly, magblast, risk and phase 10. Yesterday they broke out the laser tag, and they’ve been shooting each other all hours of the day and night. The three boys were also my landscapers this week, and while Cole mowed the lawn, the other boys sprayed the morning glory, pulled some weeds and dug out two junk trees I needed removed. They’ve gone on bike rides and hikes and they even went horseback riding. Even though Megan is not technically a boy, they’ve allowed her in on a lot of the fun, too. We set up the little pool, 
and had all the kids splashing about and running in and out of the water. Away from home, they’ve enjoyed American Fork canyon, Cabella’s, and the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point. 
Since it was the Museum’s 7th birthday, they had lots of birthday festivities all this week, and even had cake! The kids had a blast.
Of course, no family outing is complete until someone is put on time out, and it’s made even better if there’s an “I hate you” muttered venomously through clenched teeth. So, in this respect, it was a huge success. Here are my two girls on time out at the museum. 
I had to pull them both toward me and make them say two nice things about each other. Notice that I’m the only one smiling. But other than that it’s been a wonderful week. 
We also celebrated another cousin’s birthday last night, so it was even more of a cousin fest.
What fun we’ve had, and we’re so glad to have our family visit!
(If by chance you didn’t see enough pictures and you’d like to see even more, click here.
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