August 2009

I have been a total slacker when it comes to the family blog...  I blame pregnancy and being far too busy to keep up with everything but really that is just an excuse when it comes right down to it.  So, I will now attempt to catch up a bit.  Consider it in lieu of a Christmas card from us since I am not getting them done for sure this year!

August marked the first day of 2nd grade for Erin - the exact same day we left for Girl Scout camp.  So, she went to school in the morning for about 4 hours and then I checked her out early to head for three days of camp.  What a spoiled girl, huh?

Brooklyn and Erin, BFF's for life!

Brooklyn, Erin and Kylee

Girl Scout camp was a first for Erin even though this was her second year of being a Girl Scout.  When we first signed up, we did not have a local troop and Erin was a bit leery (as was her mother) about going away all by herself.  So, we found a "Just the Two of Us" camp where we could go together.  We had a blast and now I wish I had been a girl scout when I was a kid!

Face painting

 

The finished product

Why is it fun to mop at camp but not at home?

What? Creatures in the bathroom?  Yuck!

Our bunks - boy was it cold at night!

Manicures

The chow line

Science is fun!

Hiking back to our tents

"Mom, I don't get it!" not one of our funnest activities...

Making goo is fun!

What a ham

New friends

Night-time fun with homemade suckers... yum!

Horseback riding - the best part of camp!  Our horse Roanie wasn't very cooperative but Erin was still able to get the hang of controling his movements and even got him to gallop with her.  It was fun for me to learn how to saddle and help Erin get him around the arena.  My cousins taught me well except they always did the saddling part.  (Thanks, Angela and Katie!)

Good times together!

All these months later, Erin still talks about how cold it was in the mornings in our tent (you could see your breath! brrrrr) and the horseback riding.  I am just glad that even though I was pregnant I was able to keep up with all the activities and have a great time making lasting memories together.  We are taking a hiatus from Girl Scouts this year since the troop meetings conflict with dance.  I'm sure we'll be back because Erin sure loves being a Girl Scout!

A couple of weekends later, we took a camping trip to Fish Lake.  We didn't do very much camping this year and many folks thought I was crazy to attempt sleeping in a tent - on the ground! - at 4 months pregnant but boy did we have a blast!  We rented a boat on Saturday and spent the day floating around and hanging out.  It was the perfect ending to a great summer!

 

The best camping trips are when there is a lodge with a restaurant and no cooking required!

 

Fishing on the lake

 

Erin LOVED getting to drive the boat!

I loved having nowhere to go and nothing to do but read a good book!

hiking around the lake

Pooped out on the ride home.

Random Thought of the Day

Saw this on my sister-in-law’s Facebook status today and thought, “that’s good enough to share!”

“Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater.  If you give her groceries, she will give you a meal.  If you give her a house, she will give you a home.  If you give her sperm, she will give you a baby.  If you give her a smile, she will give you her heart.  She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.  So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.”

Couldn’t have said it better if I tried! 

End of Summer with Daddy

One of the great things about Clint's crazy schedule is that he is home 4 days a week. Erin had so much fun the last part of the summer with Daddy on night shift. They could both sleep late (she's truly a night owl after my own heart!) and play all afternoon while I was at work. Clint probably won't admit it, but Erin has him wrapped pretty tightly around her little finger. All she had to say was "Daddy, I want to go swimming!" and he was asking which friend she wanted to invite. (Of course they were always so busy having fun that he would forget to document any of it with photos!) Most often, it was Erin and her BFF Brooklyn at the pool riding around on Clint's shoulders and having a blast.

This is their last trip before school started - a bike ride down the Jordan River Parkway. I tease Clint that he is "Disneyland Dad" because he's always the one who has more time to spend with Erin doing fun things. In truth, I am jealous that he can work 12-hour shifts and have a full time job that only takes up 3 days of the week. And I am SO GLAD Erin has so much time to spend with her Daddy.

Sassy hair is back!

It has been too many years to count since I lost my hair girl - the one I trusted implicitly since college and who always had me taken care of in the sassy hair department even with my crazy natural curls. She moved to Hawaii before Erin was born (OMG, that means we are going on 8 years!) and a couple of years later she moved to Vegas. I seriously made several trips to Vegas just to get my hair done - of course they were under pretense of family vacations and spur of the moment trips but my real intentions were for the hair do! Then there were a couple of trips after she moved back to Northern Utah where my sister and I would drive a couple of hours to have her do our hair in her kitchen when we would get desperate. Finally her life just got so crazy with new kids, new jobs and all sorts of other drama that even those trips were not an option. My sister found us a new "curl expert" and we made our first appointments - together. We were not disappointed at the recommendation and she is INDEED a curl expert. My sassy hair is back and hopefully Sandra isn't going anywhere! (She's been at the same salon for 15 years so we are hoping that trend continues!) Just the thought of not having to color my own hair in my bathroom anymore is enough to make me overjoyed. Add to that, I have someone again who knows just how to treat my curls right and I'm in heaven!

Clint's handywork

I am so lucky - and also so cursed - to have a very handy guy for a husband. I say lucky because I get to enjoy the handy work in our yard and home without having to pay multiple arms and legs for someone else to do the work and get exactly what we want. And I say cursed because it seems there's always a project (or 10!) taking up his time. His latest two projects are our new mailbox and a new easel for his oil painting.

So talented! If you were to look closely at the photos of the easel taken in the garage, you might get an idea about all the projects he has going on. That's a 3-car garage folks, that only has room for my one car because of all the other things going on! Maybe someday he'll build his shop in the back and we will use our garage for the cars it is intended to hold. Of course, our backyard is still a "work in progress" but someday it will be as nice as the front yard...

"Mommy, I want a pony!"

Erin has been hearing about our neighbor's horses for a year now and finally got to meet them in person a few weeks ago. It was her first experience with any horse and she was so fun to watch. I didn't realize how great I had it as a kid because my aunt and uncle always had horses and every time we went to visit we would get to ride them. I'm no equestrian but I'm comfortable on them for the most part - especially knowing that I have already lived through falling off one running at full speed as a teen. Because horses were a natural thing to me, I hadn't even considered that it might freak Erin out at first. She was in awe of their size and at one point looked up at me with these HUGE eyes and said "can I touch it?" When she did, in the side, the whole horse twitched like they sometimes do and she jumped back like she'd been shot. I took a picture but she was so freaked out it came out blurry....

After we collected both of the horses from their homes in the stable and took them to the arena, Erin got her first ride. She was on Jamaica with Ace because she couldn't fathom riding alone - it totally freaked her out. By the end of the trip, she was a pro and rode Cedar all by herself while I led them around the arena.

It got dark and windy and time to head home and Erin was so sad. As we bid farewell to the horses, she said to me in this forlorn little voice, "Mommy, I want a pony!" I'm sure I'm not the first mom to ever hear those words but man they were so sad and funny to hear from her. I just laughed and agreed, "I want one, too!" Unfortunately, we'll both have to wait a while since owning horses in the city isn't a very easy task. In the meantime, she is looking forward to Girl's Scout camp even more because we'll be at the camp with horses. Now that she's had a taste of what that means, she's hooked! Ace, thanks for the great spur of the moment outing!

The July Holidays

Because we live in Utah, we get two holidays in July... yippee! Clint calls the bonus one "Polygamy Day" but most locals know it as Pioneer Day since it marks the day the Mormon settlers, escaping persecution from Illinois because of their practice of polygamy among other things, decided that THIS is the place.

The 4th of July was marked with a family BBQ with slip-n-slide action for the kids at my sister's house on Friday (since no one had to work) followed by neighborhood fireworks the next night on the actual holiday after we had eaten at our favorite Mexican food place. One of our neighbors pointed out how kind of ridiculous that is to eat MEXICAN food on the holiday marking the birth of our nation - we hadn't really given a shit since the food is killer and we don't care what day of the year it is!

The crazy cousins posing for photos

Erin doesn't like to actually "slide" on the slip-n-slide... what a princess

In line for the slip-n-slide
I had to include this photo of my brother in a never-before-captured-on-film moment... witness the "Ruoti Belch"

The 24th of July was kind of low-key with Erin dragging me to a neighborhood breakfast (while Daddy worked on a stucco project) at the ungodly hour of 9am - ON SATURDAY - so she could ride her bike around the block with her friends in the kid's parade. I guess it beats her wanting to go to the ACTUAL parade which would have taken much more effort on my part. The first person to actually inform my child that such a thing exists in our city will most likely get shot so be forewarned! After the rest of a leisurely day, we did more fireworks with the neighbors.

Me and Ace - making root beer floats in folding chairs... what talent!

The men... and their adult beverages quietly enjoyed while the 12-year old performed the annual pyromania show

Erin, right before her smile was wiped off her face because she couldn't have a sleepover

The kids toting the fireworks to the road

The Finale!

The Making of a Big Sister

In case anyone doesn't already know... you know, in case you are ONLY following us on our blog and you haven't found me on Facebook where I practically LIVE these days... We are having another baby. It kind of explains why I have been a total blogging slacker - I am, of course, blaming most of the shortcomings of my recent life on the first trimester exhaustion and accompanying queasiness. In short, for the last 10 weeks I've either been napping or trying not to puke while I wait for it to be time for another nap or bedtime. If you want to read the whole diatribe of the saga to conceive, check out "my other" blog entry here http://dontyouwishyouhadacrystalball.blogspot.com/2009/07/social-experiment-in-review.html since I am not about to write that stuff twice!

Erin can only be describe as ecstatic at no longer having to be an only child and is gearing up for big sisterhood. She is on constant baby-bump watch and tells everyone - and I do mean everyone! - the news. She fluctuates between wanting a baby brother (because she won't have to share her toys with him) and a baby sister (because that way they will be sisters together). I am glad it isn't up to her as the poor fetus' anatomy would be constantly changing to keep up with her.

I am 12 weeks pregnant, over the exhaustion and (knock on wood!) the queasiness and am rolling into the second trimester in full energy. I am still running - for the time being anyway - when I feel good and am gearing up for the next great adventure. Next milestone: getting to find out the sex in early September when the shopping and preparing can get into full swing! Before we know it the months will have flown by, it will be February, and we will be welcoming a new little one. Stay tuned... it is sure to be an adventure!

Cherry Hill Reunion 2009

My extended family on my Mom's side goes every year - typically the same weekend every year even - to the same spot for our reunion - Cherry Hill in Kaysville. We've been doing it since I was my daughter's age. This year was no exception although as Fate would have it (she's so smart sometimes!) we couldn't get reservations for our normal weekend and instead of the end of June, we were there in mid July. Of course I lamented it would be too hot but Fate knew better since late June we would have been totally rained out the entire weekend and our July weekend was before the real summer heat rolled in for the year. Since Erin was out of school, we didn't have to feel guilty about going up on Thursday night to get an extra day of pool time in and the cousins got to come with us. Although this year we were missing a couple of my cousins from southern Utah, we still had a great crowd and great times. Can't wait for next year!

Erin loves the pool... when will she learn to swim without a life jacket? Oh yeah, when her already-over-booked parents get her into swimming lessons!
Cousins clowning around in the pool
Hey girls - what did you find for the scavenger hunt? Looks like winning bags to me!



Relaxing in the evenings for adult chit chat and all around antics. At least this year there were no 2am phone calls to others who were sleeping with taunts of ice cream!
Kerstin and her crown of glow sticks.... she was the envy of all the little princesses in attendance!
Hanging at the water park with part of the swimming and water-sliding crowd


Erin, did you get any of that ice cream cone actually IN your mouth or is it all over your face?
Communicating with "base camp" to coordinate dinner activities.

What a couple of crazy camera hams!

One last float down the lazy river