Summer Vacay...

I keep putting off blogging because I know this post will be so stinkin' long...Alas it will not write itself and I do want the memories....SO here we go...If you want to just scroll to the end and see the trip by picture I will understand.

Salt Lake City-
So Brent has been having our friend/brother in law/we love him do some work for him on a project and he wanted to meet up and chat with him. So we drove up to salt lake area on Thursday night. The kids actually did really great in the car and grandma deserves a special shout out for the DVD players she gave us for Christmas.
Friday we-my sister Rebekah and her gang and my sister Sarah Jane and her gang-met in down town salt lake. We went to a kid history museum and the kids had fun with all the hands on stuff. We then went to Liberty Park (or maybe Pioneer park??? it is late) and we were going to ride the Ferris Wheel. It was closed but we picnicked and splashed instead. It was a great way to spend a day. On the way back to Rebekah's we drove the kids around the capital and avenues (I love the big Catholic churches up there-it reminds me of my nursing school days).
That evening the boys had business talk and we went to a cool restaurant that was polygamy themed and we laughed a lot. It was fun to be able to see the sisters in their own element. Usually when we go to northern Utah we are visiting Brent's family so it was good to have a little change up.
Saturday we made the trek to Yellowstone-well a cabin in Idaho close to Yellowstone. We stopped in Pocatello to see Papa Weights old house and stomping grounds and grabbed a little McDonald's-a highlight for our girls since it isn't a place Brent and I would normally choose. When we got out of the car in Pocatello I thought I was going to freeze my nuggets off. It was soooo windy and cold-It was like 53 degrees with tons of wind. We left St George when it was over 100 degrees and blue calm skies....I digress. So we made it to the cabin and froze on Saturday.

Yellowstone
Sunday we went to church and it had snowed probably 3-4 inches...We had sandals and again it was exciting and cold. Luckily before we left home we had seen a weather report and I scavenged to find warm clothes for Creed...They didn't fit but he was warm enough.  After church we went on a drive and tried to feed fish then went back to the cabin and had family time.
Monday we drove into  the park and Jocelyn saw her first buffalo. I wish I had recorded her saying buuf-ah-low...She is such a cute kid. Brent's sister had done A LOT of work before hand and had mapped out stops for each day and made activity books for the kids for each day. It was awesome and kept the kids really engaged.
Tuesday we did relays and more cabin time. The kids had a great time doing crafts thanks to their aunts again. Wednesday we went back to Yellowstone and checked out the lake and the grand canyon side. I discovered I was very out of shape going down and up the stairs...I laughed at Taryn and how she wanted to stop every ten feet and take a picture-with her fake camera... Creed was such a trooper with sleeping where ever and eating when he could and basically no schedule for a normally very scheduled boy. On the way home we got to hang out and have a picnic in the road because a heard of Buffalo decided to take a nap on the road for like an hour....Finally a park ranger guy came and herded them away-yelling at the lady next to us get in your car NOW...as the buffalo were making their way towards us. We didn't need to be told twice...
Thursday we had another day and the cabin and the kids did skits and played twister on a ginormous twister board and painted toe nails and made penny rockets thanks to Brent packing an air compressor all the way up there.
Friday we decided we couldn't make Creed do the park again so we went for a drive and fed some fish/birds and got eaten by mosquitoes and just hung out with cousins again. Good times.
Saturday we packed up and trekked all the way home...13 hours...(read here killer drive). By the last few hours Creed was done being in his car seat and Jocelyn was a little out of control (chucking her shoes right in Creed's face-maybe why Creed was done being in his car seat right next to her)...Anyway the best thing that I can say is we all survived the car trip home and we were safe.
 So we owe a big thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Weight for all the lodgings and help with the food and Aunt Carolyn and Aunt Michele for all their planning and work. We owe them big for great memories!

Salt Lake with the cousins

Yellowstone the whole gang...

 Playing at the cabin-Creed is such a ladies man...especially with the cousins...

 the relay where I am glad no one lost an eye....

 More Yellowstone

 Taryn and her fake Camera...

 YIKES!!! This is not zoomed. He came REALLY close.

 Jocelyn show her mad twister skills....Brent and the girls made this board one Saturday and it was really fun.

 Jocelyn getting her groove on with Elmo...

 Because it was too stinkin cold for the annual Brent vs everyone water fight Brent decided to have a marshmellow fight....

 Once the kids were attacked they ran off into the woods to plan a counter attack and this is how it started...

 I love this cute little Shepard boy...this is how he woke from a nap....

Piano Baby

Cami had another piano recital at the end of the school year and she did great! She seemed a lot less nervous this time. She even had both songs memorized.

Grandma straightening her new dress making sure she was ready to go.

She has such great posture when she plays...I wish I had such great posture anytime.

Cami invited her school teacher to her recital-she tried to invite her to all her extracurriculars...and her teacher being the fabulous teacher she was came to everything. If you ever need a great 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Hummel is it.

Eclipse and I don't mean the book or the gum

Sunday morning we got a text from our friends seeing if we wanted to go watch the eclipse with them. Since we had only vaguely heard about it we were up for it but unprepared...Luckily they came prepared with eclipse glasses. The sun was incredibly bright which surprised me. I was ready for the cover the sun darkness but you never hear about the precover total intense direct sunlight...Sunday afternoon we drove up the freeway a little ways to get to the place where the solar eclipse was supposed to be the best. We hung out on the side of the road for a few hours and it was really an amazing site...

The view of the road....There were TONS of people and TONS of traffic....

This is just the beginning of the eclipse...There are better pictures of the whole ring of fire thing but this is the only one I could find downloaded...

And this is how we do eclipse...I know it is not as exciting as the book or the gum but it is us...

Dance Recital X 2

Tis the season of recitals and programs and a billion things to do and places to be...This year we got the pleasure of attending two separate nights of dance recitals. Long story on why two nights vs on but in the end it was OK because each girl got their own night to shine..And I mean literally shine with a lot of glittery make up...Cami is in ballet and Taryn is in ballet and tap and begging to be in jazz and hip hop too... The younger kids we good sports about all the time at the recital especially considering they missed bedtime by a long shot both nights. Jocelyn passed the time trying to dance in the isle and Creed was just happy to bounce and snuggle to the music-he is seriously a good sport!

Cami post dance recital...She is not sad even though this looks like a sad face...It is a hide braces smile...

There we go-that smile is better....

I know she is my kid as so I am totally biased...BUT even if she weren't I would still think wow what a beautiful child!

Taryn occasionally lives in her own world and striking poses is the national past time there...She is such a passionate funny kid...This is her ballet get up...She was a swan in swan lake...

I said hey go stand over there so I can take your picture and this is what I got....

and this....She is just so in love with make up and stages and feather foofy stuff...

And she's off ...no time for autographs now.....

Good sport in action...Not really sure about the lights off and loud music and flowers attacking him in his car seat but he rolled with it....

Cami doing the usual...reading....waiting for Taryn's show to start.

Brent being silly and gearing up for another night of dancing...

Taryn in part of her Tap Costume....She had all ready taken off the Spanish fiesta fringe stuff...And the following are more of what I get when I say Taryn go over there so I can take a picture of you in this outfit....Have I said I love this girl yet? I do. She makes me laugh every day...Sometimes with her and sometimes at the funny things she is doing...

Mother's Day

Mother's day is great when you have the best kids on the planet. Just look at those mostly angelic faces. How could life not be great?! They do have their moments and they don't always pick up after themselves BUT I love them more than chocolate -and Sarah McLaughlin...

Anyway, Sunday morning I woke up to French Toast in bed, with strawberries and chocolate milk. I then showered without anyone joining me in the bathroom (a rare treat). I got to take an hour nap totally uninterrupted. 

At church I was totally mostly surprised when Cami gave a talk in sacrament meeting. They had called her 2 weeks ago and asked if she would talk. If you know Cami you know she would rather pull her own fingernails off with pliars than have any attention. Speaking to a crowded church is more painful than death to her. BUT she told Brent she really loved me and wanted to do it for me. It was truly a gift from her heart..

She wrote her her talk herself-wouldn't let Brent help. He took her over to the church via home depot on Saturday to keep things on the down low so she could practice in the chapel. He got up with her every morning that week really early so she could practice telling it to him. I kind of had an inkling that something was going down when she asked for a new dress to wear on Sunday and if she could barrow some jewelry. I of course obliged since I was worried that she might be doing something painful and wanted to help her be successful. 

In the end she just stood up there and went for it. I was really proud of her not just for the kind things she said but for the courage that it took for her to do that for me. 

After church we made delicious molten hazelnut nuttela cupcakes and had dinner with my sister, mom, and grandma. When we got home I took a bubblebath and read a book I got. It was the perfect ending to a great day!

I did get some great gifts but the one that made me laugh was the decorated toilet paper. Brent had unrolled a roll and written love messages on it every few sheets. I didn't notice it til half way through the day but it is a gift that kept on/keeps on giving....Talk about a pleasurable bathroom experience! :)

The Great Brain Project

I really love the school the girls go to because it does a great job of providing extra projects for kids who need them. This year both girls were given the opportunity to do a "great brain" project. Basically it was a full blown research project on any topic they wanted. Cami started the project but it was long and she got too busy reading good books...Taryn however totally surprised me with her perseverance to do the whole project. She worked so hard that it was amazing!-She is only in kindergarten remember.

We chose the topic of germs because she was curious about whether she REALLY needed to wash her hands as much as I made her after we had Creed. She came up with 20 questions she wanted to find the answers to. We checked out lots of library books and I made her do the reading while I took some notes. She interviewed me as an expert on germs since I am an RN. 

We got permission (thanks to Uncle Mark pulling some strings) to tour the microbiology lab at the hospital. She was totally fascinated by all the worms from poop, the pee tests, and the stinky smell....It was a cool experience for her and the staff were really nice to show her what they did with germs. She looked up articles and pictures on the Internet. She wrote a report complete with a bibliography. Then she created a TV show and a poster. She drew about a million pictures and taped them all together. We then covered a box in tin foil and made rollers to scroll through the pictures. She presented the TV show to her school class and did such a great job.

Despite her hard times with making words, she has no problem public speaking. She just stood up there with the microphone and nailed it. I was so proud. Schooling in some ways is much harder for Taryn but she does really well purely because she is willing to work hard and stick to it. I love that about her and she truly does have a GREAT brain!

Taryn got to wear a lab coat so she didn't bring any germs home and she got a kick out of it. When she presented her project to her class she insisted on wearing her dress up scrubs...

Thumbs up baby! Nothing like a nice dish of germs! We owe Uncle Mark BIG TIME!

Grandma's Annual Block Party that we annually crash...

Every year my mom's neighborhood has a neighborhood block party. It is super fun because one of the neighbors has a business with jump houses, climbing walls, dunk tanks, kiddie trains etc...It is like a carnival but free. Anyway this year my mom was in Seattle but luckily Grandma Jennings lives on the block too. Since we didn't want to flat out party crash and we thought Grandma would enjoy the party we wheeled her down for the excitement. I think she really secretly like just holding Creed the whole time. She is totally a baby/kid person and even though she is almost 95 she still loves holding and loving and listening to them. She is a great example and a plucky lady. So here are the highlights.

Grandma and Creed loving each other...

Cami made it to the top of the climbing wall for the first time. She was really proud of herself and I booked it most of the way down the block to catch a picture when I realized she was really going to do it this time.

Taryn and cousin Marceli on the spinning swing thing...I love her happy face...

Marceli helping Jocelyn slid down the slip n slide...Jocelyn did more slipping than sliding but she ended it smiling so its all good. 

Our Iron Kids!

Because St George has great weather like 10 months of the years and it is fairly scenic (smashed between the grand canyon, snow canyon state park, Zion national park, Bryce canyon, lots of lakes etc...) we get a lot of tournaments and races coming to town. The last couple years St George has hosted the Iron Man Triathlon. It seems really brutal but it is so amazing to watch the competitors. 

This year Cami came home from with a sign up form for the Iron Kids race. It was only a mile around down town but the race ended at the official finish line for the Iron Man. She begged and begged to do it telling me some people didn't think she was fast and she wanted to show them she was...So how could I not sign her up? And when Taryn heard Cami was doing it she begged and begged to do it to. 

Cami wanted to run with Taryn but knew they wouldn't be racing at the same speed...So Brent came up with the great idea of calling the neighbors and having their kids run with ours. Luckily they agreed. Perfect. Cami could be motivated to keep up with a fast 8 year old boy and Taryn could lallygag with a 6 year old girl buddy...

In the end Cami really did book it and finished at the front of the pack and Taryn finished having jogged most of the way at the back (I was really glad she finished). She said "THAT WAS EXHAUSTING!!!" afterwards as she chugged her post race drink. Cami loved it and wants to do it again soon. 

I am always surprised at how powerfully/emotional/proud I can get when my kids do stuff. It is ridiculous but I just love love love them and the people they push themselves to become.

This is the girls before the race-we borrowed the sign from the nice volunteer man.

Jocelyn cheering the girls on and entertaining her self on the temporary fences...

Carson, Cami, and Taryn after the race with the official finish line in the background.

Mommy and Creed cheering for the girls!

Science Fair

Yet again Cami did a science fair project and  I think the ribbon is her total motivation for insisting on doing a project every year...that and it counts towards her radiant roadrunner award at the end of the year....BUT whatever the motivation, she did a great job determining if ice at room temperature melts faster or slower than in water at room temperature. She won third place.
Science fair is all up to Brent. I do the daily grind with homework, but if it is extra I delegate...So he and Cam spent a Saturday about a month before the science fair doing the experiment and writing it up. The night before he said oh we need to do your poster...and I have choir in twenty minutes....So she and I got to stay up until nearly 10 working on the poster part. Next year I will make sure Brent has plenty of time to help with the poster too :)