The end

Tonight is the last night we can officially call it summertime. Tomorrow Ruby starts her first year of preschool and it can't come soon enough. She is ready. I am ready. That child is flirting on the edge of my patience most days. If I remember correctly, so was Stella before we sent her off to Pre-school. I'm hopeful a little space and someone else enforcing the rules will be helpful. We will see. Fingers crossed.
Stella has fallen in love with school. And she is working on loving the school bus. The morning ride is ok, but we are working on getting her switched to a different afternoon bus. One that will drop her off 30 minutes sooner than the other. She is so hungry when she gets home she is like Uncle Hunter after swim practice. I remind her she will be hungry as she is eating her breakfast, but she doesn't want any more cheerios. Sometimes it's just to hard to eat breakfast when you have places to go. Plus she isn't a breakfast person, and neither am I. So I guess I can't really blame her.
Gus got sick last week and we are still struggling. When the poor kid gets sick, he gets real sick. He keeps puking up all forms of food and crying. Lots and lots of crying. And his new favorite thing is to flay his body in every direction. So that's pretty fun. I think Kevin was really excited to go back to work this morning, just for the peaceful office. I never have to wonder why he doesn't work from home.

And now for the iphone photos...

All in all this has been a great summer. One of the best ones actually. I'm a little sad to see it go, but sort of thrilled for fall. Life starts over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

love love

The Last

Oh my goodness, how has the time just flown past? Anyone else wondering how it is June 11? But really, seriously? How is already summer? How is my baby brother leaving tomorrow? for 2 whole years? How is Gus already 7.5 months old? And he waves? How is any and all of this possible? Darn you time and always moving forward.
Last week ended up being a whirlwind and I should have know it was going to be that way. I should have been more prepared for it. But I wasn't. And I'm paying the price this week. The month I have been scheduling with Kevin for the last 6 months is now up on the calendar and there isn't a day on it that isn't scribbled on. And by "scheduling it" I mean I have been laying it in front of him telling him all of the things that are going on, on this day and that day and what I need to do for it here and there. All while he smiles and lets my jabbering go in one ear and out the other. Regardless of his retention of my jabbering, it makes me feel better.
We ran away to Tabiona  with some of the Brimhall's on a Wednesday. And as I laid in bed watching the quakies turn gold as the sun rose, I agreed, again, that this stay at home stuff is sometimes pretty awesome. There it was a Wednesday and I had just up and left, and it was ok. I snuck downstairs, made a batch of cinnamon rolls and watched the mountain side welcome the daylight. That Tabiona, regardless of the shenanigans of the quick retreat, is nothing but goodness for my soul.
Unfortunately the girls don't do as well as I would like with a quick trip, in the middle of the week. I go messing with their routines- ya know, lucky charms, jake and the neverland pirates, aerobics, sprinklers under the tramp, jam sandwiches for lunch, a NAP, bike rides and wrestling matches with dad and a chapter before bed. Their life is pretty hard. It's a good thing my soul gets all nice and healed up before coming home, because dealing with a combustable Ruby is exhausting in any and all circumstances.
We came home, did some more laundry, they napped for not long enough and then it was the last weekend with H. Is anyone else tired of saying goodbye? And we haven't even said the last one. He leaves tomorrow morning and I'm sad, and proud. It's the most happy of sads you can have. We spent Friday night at the temple with him. Saturday, I kicked his butt on the golf course (but really) and then we dined out with the peacocks on Saturday night. Sunday the girls snuggled next to him at Stake Conference and then I stood over a pan of frying chicken for dinner. It was loud and chaotic and peaceful at the same time. The way it needed to be.
Now to distract myself from the official looming goodbye I'm gearing up for the next part of the calendar, the part where I'm scheduled out of town until what feels like the middle of July. But really the middle of July. Again, this stay at home life is pretty fantastic. :)

 I swear I wash the "snoopy shirt"

 We take National Donut Day very seriously.

 Look at those cute faces?!

 I beat both of them, at Red Ledges none the less. And now I'm done playing golf. To end on a high note and all.

 Micall, will you come home so Brian can photobomb your pictures?

 Stella asked if Hunter would go get a snow cone so they could say goodbye. She is very sad that they can't FaceTime for two whole years.

Is this one of those posts where you just keeping thinking #firstworldproblems? I am.

love love

Friday Afternoons

How do you spend your Friday afternoons? We gathered up the kids and a lunch and spent the afternoon splashing around the splash pad. It was so fantastic. Great friends, great weather, a cold Diet Coke and napping children when it was all said and done. Henry was a big fan of the small stream of water. And mostly flapping his Popeye arms up and down in excitement. That little boy is pure excitement. 

 

I plan to make a weekly trip to watch the kids splash to their hearts content! Thank you summer for joining us, it's so nice. 

love love

Proud and Exhausted

This week has been one of a funk. The seasons seem to be changing, the leaves are turning, the night air is crisp, football has started and deer hunts have begun. Except the earth is still burning hot here. I do not love the heat and am so ready for it to go away. I am ready for jeans and boots and this baby to be done growing.
That perfect toddler I had last week ran away and left me with a whiny, combustable two year old. One who is darling one second jabbering on about one thing or another and then the next second is laying on the ground crying. For no reason. You should stop by sometime, its super fun around here.

Mostly though, we've been spending our time outside in the cool mornings and evenings watching Stella ride her bike. Last year she figured it out, then got scared and wouldn't do it again. So we put training wheels on the bike and she did it for a while earlier this summer. After a weekend with her dad though, the training wheels came off and she refused to ride it again. I was over trying to teach her, over the fight, over the dramatics it was taking just to get her to straddle the whole thing. But after one more weekend at her dad's and one final melt down she figured it out.

She Rides from Vimeo.

She has never been more proud of herself and neither have I. She arrives at my bedside at 6:30 in the morning with her helmet on waiting for me to go outside and watch her ride her bike.
She is hooked. Even after a skinned up elbow and knee she still is riding it all day long.

Now if we could just get Ms. Red Dress to calm the hek down we would be in business around here.

love love

Traveling Help Wanted.

Kevin made me go to the carnival. Yes. He made me do it. I did not want to go, not one single bit. Then he told me that I could have some candy afterwards and I decided that I should go, nobody wants to miss out on candy. I'm not sure why Kevin likes to do things like go to the small town carnival where the rides are about to fall apart and the carny's are all staring at you. Then again, I don't really want to go to Disneyland and he is dreaming of the day that he will take the girls. So maybe it's just me but my sanity is worth way more than the children's happiness.
But for one afternoon Kevin won, tickets were bought, rides were ridden, carny's were stared it; was everything they all hoped it would be.
The only saving grace was that I did get to document the afternoon.

Classy right?

 I'm trying to teach them to wave with their hands not directly in front of their faces... It's not working out so well.
And yes, we have clearly converted Kevin to riding bicycles.

I'm pretty sure there were pieces of the ride falling down on Kevin's head...

love love

Over Ruled

Last week I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner AND I even set the table. Something we never do, we are usually just sitting at the bar coaxing the children through their dinners.
As we sat there and discussed our day, (super exciting stuff I'm sure...) we were deciding what to do after dinner. As I glanced at the clock it was already after 7. Apparently setting the table means we eat later than normal. Obviously my ideas include bath time, story and bed time. Kevin trumped my boring idea with the most exciting of ideas. Sprinkler underneath the tramp! Who pulls that one out of the hat at 7:15pm? The girls were thrilled and I was stuck being the boring parent. (Why am I always the boring parent?) Within minutes everyone was in their swimming suits slip sliding away.
Well I wasn't because the trampoline just makes me pee my pants. So I documented the entire event.

Indulge me in a dozen photos of my children soaking wet will you? Thanks...

love love

The Rooftop

I was delaying some very blog-worthy posts because they were stuck on my camera with no space to put them anywhere. 

Then that darling, amazing, most fantastic husband of mine bought me a new computer. And he wasn't settling on anything but the best. Hello Macbook Pro! The only thing he did request was that he start seeing more blog posts. I think I can do that. 

So after a day of tinkering and playing I downloaded all the photos, nearly a thousand of them, and realized we've been having a lot of fun the last few weeks. 

We went to support the Rooftop Concert in Provo the beginning of August. Kevin's good friend from high school hosts them and they really are pretty fun. We took the girls and they had the most fun running around. The people watching, food and music is all fantastic. I highly recommend it!

Seriously this guy in front of us was wearing his Youth Conference shirt. I love Provo. LOVE IT.

We mostly just watched the girls run around and tried to keep them from running backstage. 

love love

The First Date

Nearly two years ago I was set up on a blind date. My divorce was final, my hair was working for me, I had a new pair of jeans that fit like a dream and I was in a really good place. People were setting me up on blind dates left and right, and my only pre-requiste was they had to be grown ups and tall. Some people would be wary of dating again, but I was looking at it like, hey it's a free meal and something to do when my girls were gone. My best friend Ash assured me she had this really great cousin who was a total grown up and like a giant and divorced, and that we would go on a double date. Total win win for me, dinner with Ash and a reason to wear my new pair of jeans. So he called and we had what one would expect to be an awkward conversation. Except it wasn't awkward. And I didn't realize it until a week later when someone else did the same thing and it was totally. "Hey, so um, I think we should go out on a date... wanna meet me in Salt Lake cause um... Heber is kind of far away... ... ... ..." how much the phone call with Kevin wasn't awkward.
It was like a really great easy phone call. "Hi, this is Kevin, Ashley's cousin? I was wondering if we could go to dinner in Park City this weekend? Could I pick you up on Saturday night at 6?" And of course I replied with charming answers and he was prompt to pick me up at 6:02pm that Saturday. I invited him in and grabbed my purse. I remember him wandering around looking at the pictures of the girls and him asking all about them. He opened my door and his really old car was clean. We drove to Park City and talked all about essentials. I was in charge of picking the restaurant. (I hate picking the restaurant.)
Dinner was fabulous, we wandered the lights of main street, sipped hot chocolate on a park bench and talked and talked like we had forgotten how to breathe. When the temperatures dropped to shivering he walked us back to the car, holding my hand. He opened my door and we drove home. As we approached the Heber Valley he asked, "what can we do next?" (I couldn't exactly invite him back to my place, I had standards) and Heber isn't exactly a hopping night time venue. But there was a metor shower that night so we went to the golf course were we could watch. Of course he had a blanket in the trunk of his car, apparently he is an Eagle Scout. We found our way to #10 Fairway and watched the shooting stars. So romantic right?

Except I had to pee.

Like cold sweats, shaking, I'm going to pee my pants kind of pee.
As we watched the stars and I thought about my options. I could try and make it back to the car, but there wasn't a guarantee that I could, especially since the closest gas station was in town.
Or.
OR...
 I could walk across the fairway behind the trees to the sand trap and make him turn around. So I weighed my options, but didn't have much time to decide, I HAD TO PEE.
I went with option number 2.
My next obstacle was to break the news to this man that I had only met a few hours ago and had the best first date one could ask for that I was about to walk 50 yards away into a sand trap and pee. My grandma would be so proud. So I did. And the look on his face was priceless. He was a little shocked, a little grossed out, a little charmed, and not opposing my game plan. So I harnessed myself enough to walk across the fairway, thinking, "well, I guess if my bladder is going to be a problem for him, now is the time to be aware that I often have to pee." It was the new Walk of Shame.
To my suprise after returning from the sand trap he was still there, and acting as if nothing awkward or strange had happened. First sign he was a keeper.
We stayed until the sprinklers turned on and he took me home. He walked me to the door, waited for me to open the door, only to find it locked. And I didn't have any keys. Then he hoisted me through an opened window so I could get in.

I AM SO CHARMING.

He gave me a hug good night and asked me out right then for the following Thursday. And we've been dating since then.

(I have no idea what prompted me to write this down, or even publish it. Except that someday I want to teach my girls when dating, make sure the young man picks you up, opens your car door and to pee at the restaurant before going home.)

love love

Camp Ivanhoe pt 2

At first I was rather skeptical of craft day at a 72 hour family reunion. I mean really crafts? Like are we making dream catchers and boon-dongles? So I harnessed myself for that part... I mean I don't know these people yet, I needed to harness my sideways comments until, ya know, at least they got to know me.
Guess what craft day means? Endless ways for the grandparents to entertain the children because their parents have taken off on the four wheelers for hours on end. And since we've already discussed the reasons why I don't four wheel, I was there for the crafting. Sort of. I was hiding behind my camera.
Apparently tying a quilt is necessary...

Play-Doh...
Bubbles...

Then the adults came back and they played this game... I was unsure what was going on. But there were tennis balls, cheetos and oreos so who really knows.

Next year I am totally bringing boon-dongles. I was a little disappointed that there weren't any there. But really happy that people brought stuff to entertain my kids with. I could only watch them play in the dirt for so long.
Luckily next year I won't need to stress out so much about camping, cause this is the type of camping I can get on board with.

Love Love