More From Utah...

Man, I don't want to get behind recording our trip!  I am tired, but this trip has been so great!  I have seen some serious blasts from the past... here is more from our trip.

Thursday July 25
Lynette got Mads off to her first day of school while the kids and I slept in.  As she got home we started changing around her front room.  Before I came out she asked if I'd help choose a paint color and help her with her house.  That is super fun and exciting for me, we started moving furniture around and talked about all sorts of possibilities!  I totally took pictures and told her I wanted to take an after photo when she is done!!!   I'll post our process on a Thursday.

L's good friend cuts hair for a living so I asked if she could squeeze us in.  I normally cut the boys hair, but I don't have stuff and quite honestly this would be the perfect time to have someone else do it and see how they like it!  They still complain when I cut their hair and when you go to someone else there doesn't seem to be as much complaining!  It's true!  They were nervous and kept quiet!

Here are the girls' toes.  Super glittery!  Totally doing this when we get home.

Here we are waiting for Heather to arrive...

I like O's hair short and spikey.  He is quite fun and doesn't mind me doing his hair all different ways.  Mohawk, nice cut, long... he's pretty easy.


Oh how I love that face!  He looks good and felt good sporting his new do!


Look at that face, it was like this his whole haircut!  He didn't love the experience!

But, he did like the new look.  He asked for spikes like O.  Now I just need to get gel!  Still haven't done that!

Love this wee face!


 G is super particular about his hair.  He doesn't love his forehead and despite all our our lady reassurance he still wants it long in the front.  I'm ok with that as long as it isn't in his eyes.  I have a hard time thinning out the front and top of it so I was glad to have Heather do that.  It was a little shorter than he's used to, but we all told him he looks good and now he seems to be ok with it... as long as it grows back by the time school starts!

I could see the anxiety in his eyes and she continued to cut!!!

Look at those handsome boys!  Love them!

When we came home we let the kids play outside.

First they looked for rolly- polly's.  E has been very into these little bugs.  He was holding something carefully in his pocket as he was coming inside and I asked him what he had.  He looked at me and hesitated, then got a big smile on his face and said a rolly polly!  I told him they had to stay outside!  He totally was smuggling them in!  They found a bunch and made a little home for them!

L blew up her little pool and they had a great time, even though it was a bit cold!  They made up all sorts of games, going from the tramp back into the pool, running and sliding or diving, they loved it!


When Mads got home they added shaving cream into the mix!  I thought Q would like this the least because she doesn't like to be dirty, but she had the most fun with it!  The girls put together a little spa with the shaving cream.  It was cute!  L and I continued to work on the inside!







L and I left for a while to get paint and look for some inspiration.  She found a great pillow that she loves and I showed her how to use that to pull colors for her room.  We bought some stuff to bring back then stopped to get dinner from Cafe Rio!  Yuuum!


It was a DEEEElicious dinner!  The kids did some movie time that night while I did laundry and L worked out!  We also chatted w/ Joe about our visions for the house!

Friday July 26
L went to work, was home by 10ish.  We hung out at home, had breakfast.  The kids went back out to the pool and played with the shaving cream, that had to be dug out of the garbage, now that is love!  While M was in school we went to look for curtains, get some wall putty to fill the huge holes left from the shelf, I got a Jamba Juice.  We bought a little bench for the front room, love it.  I'm excited to show you!  The kids played the computer and watched a show.

M was in school so when she came home we went to 7 Peaks again.  The kids were great in the kiddie area, perfectly content going down the slides over and again, playing their little games.  You don't have to ask me twice to just sit and enjoy the sun... love it!  L took some fun pics of the kids jumping into the water... I didn't bring my camera this time.  I love that she takes photos... it's a nice break for me!





The Watts had a birthday dinner to go to so I took the kids to the Pizza Factory then to the store to look for shoes, the boys have grown out of their crocks!  We also went to Seagull and I got Q and G a special gift, along with some church music and activities.  

Excuse the crazy hair... I told you we'd just been swimming right?


These massive bread sticks are such a treat... yuuuummmmm... and do you see that ice in that diet coke?  Pellet ice, the best!




The kids had pizza and I actually had some yummy pasta.  Then we all shared a big brownie/ice cream thing.  Loved treating my kids to some good dinner!



A 'must do' every time we are w/ the Watts is Geo Caching.  The kids love doing this, it is a MUST!!!  We hadn't done it yet and this was our last night together, so after we got back home at dusk we went for it. 

Prepare yourself for a funny story, because this was quite the adventure.  In the past we've driven to the different caches, O remembered that last year we got rained on as we finished up our last one.  This time we did some that were on the Legacy path/trail.hurried and changed out of my skirt into jammy bottoms and threw on my flip-flops, we weren't going very far.  L outfitted us all with bikes!  We put Izza and E in a trailer behind L's road bike and there was a seat attached to her mountain bike for O.  Q rode M's bike, who was a little upset she was demoted to her old bike.  G was too big for the last bike so we tried him on a scooter.

I was scared right from the beginning because 1- I didn't have my bike and 2- these two options included little people as part of the equation... I've not experienced that sort of riding yet!  Both options scared me, but I decided to try pulling the trailer, that scared me less.  I started and realized that indeed just a couple of inches in height makes a huge difference in a ride!  I had to shift from side to side because I could barely keep my feet on the pedals the seat was so high for me!!!

We started down the road and poor G was just trying to keep up on the sidewalk surface on that blasted scooter.  The sun is going down, this just isn't good.  L called a neighbor and she went back to the friend's house to get a bike... a girl bike, which G didn't love, but a bike, which was way better than the scooter.

So she could ride faster, she took my bike.  While she was gone I thought I'd try her mountain bike which had O on the back.  I got on, which is a little tricky, there is some weight on the back right?  As I went my cute boy was cheering for me and encouraging me... mom, see you got it!  You're doing good mom!  I felt good enough to stay on that bike and we rode off into the dark!!!  There were fireworks going as we rode, pretty cool.  O loved it.  He said he felt like he was on a 'real' bike, that he was going so fast!

We got to our first location and as I got off the bike I held the handlebars, thats how I always get off my bike.  I didn't know I'd need to hold the back too, well because there is 40 lbs on there.  Those 40 lbs of cute boy fell right to the ground!  I tried to grab him and the pokeys on the bike went right into my foot.

O was scared, but safe, thanks to seat belts!  We went to grab our first cache.  We had to run across like .25 miles of grass... O shouted to me it was like a marathon!  Cute!  We found it then moved right on since we had no more light.



G loves to hold the satellite and direct us all where to go.  Of course Q wanted a turn next.

As we got back on our bikes O headed straight for the trailer... why?  E hadn't seen what had happened so he was excited to get on the back of my bike... his mistake!!!  I buckled him in and we headed off.  We were just getting on the path again, gearing up for the overpass right in front of us, L took off so she'd make it, then G, then Q.  Mads foot slipped off her pedal and hit her calf, as I was watching her asking if she was ok I felt my pant leg catch on the chain.  I tried to yank it, but couldn't.  I did 2 full rotations, then couldn't anymore.  Of course I couldn't get my leg away from the chain to step on it and of course the bike was leaning in that direction.  Down we fell!!!  I was totally stuck!  I unbuckled E, he was scared.  I untangled myself from the bike.  I checked on Mads, yelled to L, who was long gone!

We waited for a minute.  E was so scared, and said, mom now we're never going to get home!  I reasurred him we'd head home in a minute, asked if he was ok.  As if the bug bites weren't enough now I was scraped up!

L came back to us, then went back to get the big kids.  They did see that second cache.  I was done!  I promised E we wouldn't fall again, that he could relax.  We headed home in the dark and he was so quiet.  I asked if he was ok.  He said to me in almost a whisper, 'Mom, I'm kinda freakin' out!'

I hate to find joy in others pain, but that really made my night!  It was adorable!  As we got home, safe and sound he was relieved and said, 'See mom you kept your promise, we didn't fall!'  Thank heavens!  It was quite the adventure!  We rode 3 miles and I have a great story to tell!


Speaking of cute things E says... he was upset at something this week and said... I just want to go back to Chasewood Lane.  I like that he didn't say home, but the name of our street!  Cute!

We got the kids to bed then L and I put together her gallery wall.  We laughed, were tired, and had such fun!  Love, love, love this girl!


Working it out... love how it turned out, and unified these two rooms.  I'll show you the full post soon!

Saturday July 27
Up and at 'em, time to move to our next house!  I packed us up and we drove south for Allie's baptism.  Mom and D and Kendal were there from our side, then all of the Crockett's were there.  I haven't seen many of them for years.  The baptism was wonderful, so happy to be here for that, then back for lunch.  Most of the family headed home after hanging out for a while.  We went over to Monica's to swim.  My kids love that pool and I'm so glad she is so generous to let us partake!  


My little boys love Joe!  O wanted a picture with him before we left!  This is my small camera, I'm much less artistic with it!  Do you love that I captured the beautiful garbage can!?  Love talking Super Man w/ Joe, he's easy going and funny!


Oh PS, L made all of these felt dolls... A.MA.ZING!  She bought the pattern off of Etsy, but made them herself.  They are amazing!

These programs were my vision.  I got them started and the Crockett girls finished them up...


When we walked into the church Monica was actually standing there and O gave her a big hug!  She's like family!  My kids learned to swim in her pool!




O is my little thrill seeker!  He could not get enough of being thrown across the pool!  Damon and Scott both got a great workout tossing children!


We grabbed some dinner at Panda Express, the kids actually ate pretty well.

One of my favorite Utah-isms are the snowies, or Hawiian Ice... we went ahead and got one of those after dinner!




Sunday July 28
Oh mamma, I must have had something bad for dinner because I woke up a couple of times during the night!  I felt a bit sick.  Cand is still at the hospital with Chelsie so I felt like I should go to church to help Scott, and of course for myself and family, but I just felt too sick!  We stayed home and watched church movies, I rested, then we wrote letters to Matt.  We miss him!