Wahooo!

OK, another catch up blog. I have so many things to say so that I can feel caught up before my kids come home from school. (Be prepared, this is a long post, it took me two days to create.)

I have been intending to post this sunflower picture for a while. Many of you may know that Peter and I suck at weeding. We do it once or twice a summer and we usually just use a shovel to dig up the dirt and flip it over so the weeds are on the bottom and the dirt is on the top. We should probably invest in a sod cutter but we haven't yet. To emphasize the point let me show you a few weeds. These are in the FAKE grass that I put in a pot with some dirt. Apparently our dirt has plenty of weed seed. Anyway, our lack of weeding paid off. We saw a "weed" growing by the corner of our house for quite a while but of course I didn't want to walk way over to that end of the house to pull it. So we left it and it turned into that awesome sunflower. I must admit, we get volunteer crops in our garden (Peter started a "compost" pile that frequently just sprouts its own plants(yes the picture is of our compost pile, not our garden.)) but we have never had a Anyway, said flower is dead now and we still haven't pulled it but I thought I would post the pic.

In other news, Julia and Brigham finished up their swimming lessons at Shinsell swimming. The lessons were great. They teach the kids how to dive and they had Julia swimming across the pool (where it is 10' wide) via freestyle, backstroke, and elementary backstroke. They also got to go off the diving board twice at the end of every lesson. I can't wait to put them in again next year.

This is them jumping off the diving board (not diving) on their first day. They loved it.

All of this is great and exciting but now I'm caught up, I can tell you about my trip! I got to go see my sister in Wisconsin! LeShel has been gone almost a year now and I have been waiting to go visit her since the minute she left. It was totally worth the wait. Here is a list of what we did.

Thursday

I left home at 5am and Peter drove us to the airport where I had the fun experience of watching the TSA jam their stupid x-ray machine with the jogging stroller I was taking LeShel. Pity they didn't listen when I said it wouldn't fit. Then we got on the plane where I met a lady (the gender is the end of the things we had in common) who was against any type of war. I wanted to tell her that it is so great that we have people out there putting their lives on the line so she could sit on her butt and say how stupid it was to fight instead of have beer with the people who believe we should all be slaughtered, but I was dealing with Martie. She was also telling me that she loved her new bag because it said "peace rocks" on it and it was completely all natural. She was so proud it was made from; here I almost finished her sentence with the phrase butterfly dung but fortunately she said, organic cotton. I love organic cotton. I mean, why put pesticides on it? It would be cruel to put pesticides on a plant to keep the bugs from eating it before we come along and tear off the part we want. Nut case. Anyway, the flight was fine though I have a hole in my tongue from biting it the whole time, and here is a picture of Martie and me on the plane.

Anywho, after I left the duck (if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck. . . ), I got to see LeShel. She drove in with Isaak, Nic (who insisted that the hour long drive to the airport was longer that the drive from Utah to Wisconsin) and baby Mathias who is way cuter in person. He is darling on his blog, but when you see that little old man in person it is just something else. If I ate meat, I would have had him for dinner. Fortunately, LeShel took me straight to Dunkin' Donuts

on the way home so I wouldn't eat her baby.

Later that night we went grocery shopping. This is more exciting than you would think because they have two aisles just for cheese, and one just for the bratwurst. YUM!

Note: I realize that every detail of this trip may not be that interesting to everyone else but it was heaven to me because LeShel was there for all of it and I want to remember every detail. So if you are bored, read someone else's blog.

Where was I?

Friday

Clayton and Anthony are now old enough to stay at home without an adult so Friday we took the babies, and Isaak, to JCPenny where we got the cutest pictures ever! We took some of them together and some separate. Here are a few of my favorites.

Stinking cute I know.

After our fun with the pictures, we got pizza, went to the library, had another run to Dunkin' Donuts, and then spent the night at home watching movies.

Saturday

In the morning we headed out and first thing, came across a yard sale! Boy howdy, it was a good one. LeShel got a jogging stroller for $20. Since mine wasn't good enough she figured she would sell it on Craig's list and make a bit o' money. (If you are interested, she can fly it to Utah for you in a few months. The TSA would love to see it again. :) And I got a slew of great VHS movies. I know, we are the only people on the planet with a VHS player but boy do we have some good movies. Here is a list of what I found (.25 a piece btw):

The Trouble with Harry, The African Queen (Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn), All the President's Men, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Schindler's List, White Christmas, The Paper Chase, Gettysburg, Singin' In the Rain, Casablanca, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, three Indiana Jones movies, Christmas Vacation, Les Miserables, and Jaws.

Amazing I know. Even more amazing is that I fit them all in my carry on. (Can't pay .25 a movie and then pay $25 to check luggage.)

After the yard sale, we went to Good Will (I'm a huge fan now) where I found three of the cutest shirts ever made, and to the Jelly Belly factory where you can buy "belly flops" (jelly bellies that didn't come out quite perfect). I'm not normally a jelly bean person but YUM!

Then we went to the Olive Garden for lunch, another trip to Dunkin' Donuts to hold us over for that night and Sunday.When we got home we took the strollers for a walk to the kids school.

Sunday

I got to drive 30 MINUTES TO CHURCH which was wonderful (church, not the drive). I heard a Sunday School lesson on the Martyrdom of Joseph Smith that almost had me in tears, and then a lesson on how I should be keeping my kids silent and perfectly behaved at church. Thank heaven for people who have already raised their children and can tell us how many mistakes we are making.

After church, we had lunch/dinner and then went to the beach at Lake Michigan. It was a great beach. They had a lighthouse and the water didn't stink because it is fresh water. I got a few pictures of LeShel's darling family and stuck Martie's feet in water that was so cold I was afraid she would get frost bite.

After the beach, we went back to LeShel's, played a bit of Skip Bo (a silly game of luck that I rarely win), and headed to the airport.

The airport was a disaster. When I walked in, the security line was so long, it didn't even fit in the area they had set up for it. Fortunately, I put on my most pathetic face and walked up to a TSA agent and asked if that was the line I was supposed to be in. She went and asked then brought me straight up to the front. I clearly has so much stuff and couldn't be hassled with a line.
Note: Nathan may slap people around with his wallet but I am learning to slap people around with my baby!
Anyway, I walked all the way to the end of the terminal, only to find that I had to walk back to the start, and then to the end of another terminal as they had switched gates. Martie was starting to get fussy and I knew she was tired and hungry. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to feed her because we were boarding so I put her in her 10,000 pound carrier and got in line dragging my suitcase and baby bag. She started throwing quite a fit and a lady caught her head right before she was about to thrust her body out the top of the carrier and onto the floor. I tried to put her back in the carrier and push her down so I could buckle her, but she was arching her back and there were too many blankets in the way. As soon as I began to move, she started sliding out the front! So there I am holding up the line, loosing skin off the back of my shin as the carry on keeps rolling into it, and the lady that goes to scan my ticket starts telling me my baby seems pretty upset. I agree with her and ask her to just scan my ticket so I could get on board and feed the kid. She decides to explain to me that Martie isn't sitting in her carrier and could fall out. I say, "I know just scan the ticket." Fortunately, another flight attendant saw may hands preparing to go for the woman's throat like I have seen Jack Bower do and she scans my ticket, takes my bag and carries it onto the plane for me.

Once we were actually on the plane, things were better. I decided to use my baby as a tool to get us some more space and suggested that they offer to move the man sitting next to me to another available seat. Once he saw my crying baby, he was thrilled to move. I'm a Genius. This gave me an empty seat right next to me where I was able to put Martie's carrier and she could sit on her own every now and again. Much happier. We made it home without further incident.

And what was it like to arrive home after such a wonderful vacation? Wonderful! This is what I came home to:
Peter had mowed, edged, and fixed a huge hole in the lawn.
The house was spotless just as I left it.

Peter had started the kids tree house.
The laundry was all washed so that I would be able to do whatever I needed to before the kids went back to school!

I have the best husband and kids in the WORLD. WAHOO!


Sometimes, life is just great.


P.S. If you are wondering about what Julia, Brigham, and Porter did over the weekend, they had a great time. Thursday Amanda babysat them and they painted, watched a movie, colored balloons and played. Friday they were at Katie's house and they had a great time playing with her kids. Then Peter picked them up and took them home to watch a movie outside, eat pizza, root beer, and ice cream. Then they spent the night on the trampoline with the cat. Saturday they worked on the tree house, played, barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, made the best macaroni salad in the world, and watched another movie outside and slept on the trampoline! No wonder they didn't miss me!


P.P. S. Here are the cards they had for me when I got home. Julia did the top two and Bugs did the bottom one with Julia's the help on the writing.