Weekend in Review

On Friday night both Zac and Brycen spent the night at Nana and Papa's house. So now that Lance and I have been married for almost eleven years here is how we keep busy with most of the children gone:








I thoroughly cleaned the kitchen--including the kids' art table!



Lance prepared this dirt area for sod by fixing all the sprinkler issues. Now I must say on our behalf, that we are under a time crunch because next weekend we are having a big swim party for Families Supporting Adoption. Otherwise, we would have found less productive ways to spend our quiet time. Also notice how great the pool water looks; it is amazing what a $3500 system overhaul can do for water clarity!







On Saturday, we went to our little friend Ian's birthday party. Ian's Grandma sung songs with the kids while playing her guitar. Zac thought it was the greatest. He was very good and getting all the little ones engaged, especially the ones with special needs. Ian is one of our friends with special needs, just last month he was in ICU; no one was sure if he was going to pull through, but he was back to his happy self at the party yesterday. There was way too much sun coming in through the window, but Ian is being held on the couch on the far right hand side.

On the way home from the party Zac was explaining to Brycen that in heaven, Scott and Ian will be able to talk. Brycen response. "our Scott?" It was very cute to hear Zac explain the eternities to Brycen.






Today we played catch the water balloon thrown from the top of the play structure. A nice refreshing Sunday activity. We also went to a Pioneer Day celebration yesterday, but that post will have to wait until I get some pictures from my friends.

One more cute story; Today on the way to church, Brycen and Zac were talking about how a ship's rudder works and what it does. Zac said "a rudder tells a ship which way to go." Brycen said "No Zac, it's not the Liahona; a rudder just moves the ship when someone turns the wheel. " At least we know they are listening during Family Night.

Mamma Mia, I have a Happy Hubby!

Lance has been dreaming of a new car for over a year now. Finally after a repair estimate for his ancient Explorer came back higher than what the car was worth, Lance's dream came true. This is Lance's brand new Jetta, and his first ever brand new car (he doesn't claim my van). He wheeled and dealed and got the car for about $500 under wholesale and got twice as much as the Explorer was worth on his trade in. However, I will never go car shopping with my otherwise sweet, kind husband again. I know it is silly, but I feel sorry for the salesman. Now that it is all done though I must say I am very proud of Lance's negotiating skills. Lance sat at work yesterday staring out his window and his new car--he is one Happy Hubby!

I got to take the Jetta out on the town last night. I saw Mamma Mia with my mom and two of my friends. We absolutely loved the movie, and recommend it to all women, but leave your husbands behind. It was a great night that ended with appetizers and dessert at Applebees. Lance was a little concerned when I came home around midnight from a movie that started at 7:30. The question is was he worried about me our his Jetta?

This One's For You Mom

Due to Brycen's unquenchable love for money my mom has nicknamed him "The Little Republican." Well Mom, tonight Brycen's Democratic genes appeared out of no where! He and Zac decided to make a lemonade stand, they decorated a box, made lemonade koolaid and set up shop in the family room--not exactly a high traffic area, but then again our quiet street probably would not have been much better. I asked Brycen how much his lemonade costs, assuming I would need to call the bank and get a loan just to get a glass, to our great surprise, he said "well, it cost a dollar, but for people in our family it is free!" Even when Lance tried to pay, Brycen turned him down. A little later he informed us that if Jonas came over his lemonade would be free too because it is free to all kids. Maybe he isn't a business minded Republican afterall! So Mom, cheer up you are winning him over.

Just Dreamin'

Okay, so I guess my sub-conscious wasn't ready to leave the wildernessof Aspen Grove either. The other night I had a dream that I was going to have the "opportunity" to become a plant for a while. In the dream this was a wonderful idea, I would just get to sit around doing nothing surrounded by beauty. However, once I became a plant I was hugely disappointed, you see I had become a Venus Flytrap. This meant not only would I have to work for a living, but I would be surrounded by pestering bugs all the time. So I woke up. I think this is perhaps the funniest dream I have ever had!

Bye-bye training wheels, Hello water pup

The training wheels are gone. Brycen learned how to ride a two-wheeler this morning. We kept it a secret from Daddy all day. By the time Lance got home I had completely forgot about the "secret", but Brycen didn't just as we were sitting down to dinner he reminded me that we had something to show Daddy. I said we would as soon as dinner was over, but he couldn't wait. We left dinner on the table and we outside. Lance was very impressed! I must say I was too, I remember my dad taking me out on several occasions to learn to ride when I was little. After about 15 minutes this morning Brycen was off and going, maybe I'm just a great teacher! Tonight we gave him a gold medal for being such a good bike rider.




Little Shay has discovered the pool. Yesterday, when I put Scott in the pool she barked once then jumped in grabbed onto his life jacket and started pulling him to the side. Luckily, my nephew Jonas grab Shay and helped her to the side. Shay and Jonas both consider themselves heroes.

Today when I got in the pool Shay decided it was time to swim again. She is so funny, as she swims she tries to eat the water she splashes up--it is really quite funny to watch. The boys say we bought a fish instead of a dog, they might be right.

Aspen Grove

I think our trip to Aspen Grove was our best vacation ever! The activities were fun, the people were all kind and wonderful, tit is breathtakingly beautiful, the kids loved their groups which gave Lance and I lots of time to just be adults, I didn't have to cook, and the pool was always clean (unlike ours). Zac, being the greeter that he is quicky met all of the hundreds of campers. Everyone we passed would say "hi Zac." Brycen soon decided he wanted to be a celebrity too, whenever anyone said hi to Zac, Brycen would say, "and my name is Brycen!" I usually start feeling a little homesick by the end of a vacation, but I must admit, i cried when it was time to leave Aspen Grove. In fact, if we could live at Aspen Grove, I might even consider moving to Utah.

The next post is a slide show of our trip--I had to do them seperatly for some reason.

Our Vacation

Make a Smilebox slideshow

4th of July

The Heber Creeper train. We met up with the cousins (Lance's brother, Mark, children) to go on a train ride. When we got there Mark and Amanda realized their Bishop was the train engineer. He let the kids go up into the engine to check everything out before the ride. It was lots of fun, and very beautiful.







Happy 4th of July. Everyone had a great time watching Lance's firework show. I do think Grandpa thought we might set the town on fire, but we kept it safe and sane. Although Brycen did burn a hole in his new BYU pjs with a sparkler. Even the neighbors came out to see the impressive show.