A FHE Fire

Even though the weather was very warm, we decided to put our fire pit to work and roast hot dogs for dinner. Gavin is quite the expert roaster, Greg too. The rest of us muddled along. Hot dogs taste so much better when roasted and charred. They are almost worth eating - almost.

After dinner we had FHE around the fire. It was so nice! Gavin gave a great lesson on the First Vision and the Martyrdom of Joseph Smith. He reminded us that today was the anniversary of Joseph Smith's death. How thankful we are for Joseph and everything he did.
After FHE we stoked up the fire with seven years worth of bank statements and check registers. Yes, we had quite a blaze. The boys loved it. It took a while for the fire to die down - enough time to bath everyone.

It's nights like this that I love about summer. Family, outdoors, good feelings.

I couldn't help but laugh!

Parade & Planetarium

We love the Lehi Round-Up parade. We attend both the Friday night and Saturday morning parades. This year was great. All the mini floats looked great, the bands sounded good and the politicians threw a bunch of candy for the kids.
We brought our sun shade and it was a life-saver. It really cuts the heat. We had breakfast before the parade started. We ate donuts, juice and bananas. It was so fun to be with the family (minus Jarom, who we really miss).


After the parade, our family drove to Salt Lake to visit the Clark Planetarium. We had a Groupon that expired at the end of the month and this was the last day we could use it. Turns out, we couldn't use it anyway because the movie for our Groupon wasn't playing that day (even though their website said it was). Oh well.
We still had a lot of fun. We wandered around the exhibits and tried all the hands-on things we could. The kids were memorized by the ball track. Enoch stood in front of that thing for minutes (a long time for him!).



We visited the moon and Mars and had a great time. Even though we couldn't see the movie, we still had a wonderful time. I love it when things are educational and fun.

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons - the rite of passage for kids during the summer. I was so excited when our neighbor, Bailey, brought over her flyer for lessons. I signed up Enoch and Kate the next day. How great is that - convenient and a fun, good teacher.
With class sizes and timing it worked out that Enoch and Kate were in the same class. They are obviously not on the same level, but Bailey made it work with some help from her mom, Kristen.
The kids had such a great time. Enoch did a great job and by the end was doing strokes with his face in the water.




Kate struggled a bit more with putting her face in - she does not like that one bit. She also has a habit of blowing bubbles and then gasping for air before she lifts her face out. Kristen said she drank quite a bit of water. Poor thing! But, she does seem more comfortable in the water now.



On the last day of class, Bailey promised the kids they could go down the slide. Enoch kept saying how nervous he was to do it, but did it fine and had a great time (maybe some leftover apprehension from Disneyland?).

When Bailey announced it was time to slide, Kate ran right over there, climbed up the stairs and went down. She patiently waited for everyone else to have their turn and then she climbed the steps again. This time she just sat at the top. I'm not sure if she was scared or what, but it took a bit of convincing to get her to go down.



The kids had a great time. I already have then signed up for another session at the end of July. This time classes are at 8:30 am so we will see how that goes!

It must be summer

Do your kids legs look like this? Good grief, what has this girl been doing?

Scattered Thoughts on Enoch

1. Ever since we have gotten home from Disneyland, Enoch has been obsessed with hills. We drive down into the hollow on our way to gym class and Enoch will always ask if I am pushing on the breaks? How big is this hill? Is this going to be like a roller coaster? Every single time we drive down a hill. I have tried to explain to him that roads are not roller coasters, but he still seems concerned.

2. Enoch has officially entered his Star Wars phase. Don't all six-year-old boys go through this? He spends times every day working on his Star Wars legos, making up stories about Luke Skywalker, planning his next birthday party which will be a Star Wars theme, playing the light saber app on his Dad's ipod, and trying to talk Kate into being Princess Leah so they can play. He usually has his light saber tied to his belt. He is planning on being Luke Skywalker for Halloween (we will see if that sticks) and is trying to talk Gavin into being a Storm Trooper (I hope I'm not making that costume!). He loves to watch the movies. It is definitely more entertaining to watch Enoch watch the movies than to view the actual movies. He jumps, smiles, cringes, hides under his blanket, is completely engrossed when they fight, makes speeder and Ewok noises, laughs, and asks a ton of questions. As I'm typing this, Enoch, very seriously, walked up to me and whispered, "Darth Vadar is Luke Skywalkers father! I can't believe it!" He nodded his head sagely as if he imparted some great secret to the universe.

3. Enoch's favorite TV shows are Wild Kratts on PBS and Magic School Bus on Qubo. That is pretty much all he watches since he isn't much of a TV watcher. I figure 30-60 minutes of educational TV a day is fine.
Enoch's mind is such a sponge. He is constantly reciting facts about animals or science that he picked up from these shows. Random facts being repeated at random times to random people. If you have been around Enoch you have probably learned something new about some animal. The other day at Target, he walked up to a woman and started telling her about ostrich eggs. I walked in on him the other night pretending to be a pigeon and using his tummy muscles to fly because pigeons don't have muscles in their wings.
Not only is Enoch entertaining to be around, he's educational as well!

NWR parties at the Zoo

Have I mentioned before what a great company Greg works for. I'll do it again. They are incredible.
This year the company party was held at Hogle Zoo. Northwest Research rented the zoo - the entire zoo. We had unlimited access to the train and carousel and a private bird show. It was so much fun. They provided a yummy dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, pasta salad, watermelon and ice cream bars. It was great to see all the animals without the crowds. It was the perfect summer party.
We saw a lot of animals - some of them ours.




The bird show was great. Not quite on par with Sea World, but we enjoyed it all the same. Enoch loved it when the birds came flying down right over your head.


We only made it on the train once, but Kate adores the carousel and we went a few times.






They have a new feature at the zoo with dinosaurs. Scattered around the exhibits are mechanical dinosaurs that move and make noises. Gavin was unimpressed (remember, he is 13 - not much impresses him these days). Enoch thought they were way cool! He really like the ones that sneezed water on you. Kate was terrified of them. Every time one would make a sound she would run for Greg and hold on tight.



NWR sent out an email earlier in the week saying they would have grab bags for the kids at dinner. I was thinking a cellophane bag with some Oriental Trading toys in it. Uh, no. I was shocked at what the kids got. They had the bags divided by gender and age.
Enoch got Star Ward Legos, R2-D2 key chain, Toy Story 3 on Blue-Ray, The Sorcerer's Apprentice on Blue-Ray, Up, and some travel games.

Kate made a complete haul. She got a Tangled dress-up dress, a princess umbrella, Tinkerbell, Princess and the Frog, Toy Story 3 on Blue-ray, princess panties, a princess Thermos and a pink bouncy ball.

Needless to say, the kids were very happy. Mom and Dad were very happy as well. It was a great party!

Sleeping Beauty

Kate is my early bird. Kate is my night owl. Kate is my child that is not getting enough sleep.
Most of the time she does fine on her schedule of getting up at 6-6:30 am and going to sleep at 9-9:30 pm with no naps. She does fall asleep every time we are in the car, but she is generally happy.
I think our busy summer schedule is catching up with her. She now has gym class twice a week, the tiring swimming lessons all this week, plus the extra running around. She has taken two naps this week! For Kate that is unheard of. I still am surprised. But, she really needed it. She has been cranky. Kate is not cranky - but this week she has been. Thank goodness for naps.
I found Kate this afternoon asleep in my bed. She had fallen asleep while watching Wild Kratts with Enoch. Isn't she sweet? I love to watch my kids sleep - so still and peaceful. I love her so much!

Happy Father's Day

I never know quite what to write about Greg on Father's Day. Anything I write seems very inadequate. To say that he is a good father and husband is hugely understated. The best thing I could say is our family couldn't ask or want for better.
Greg has an infinite amount of patience, humor, wisdom, love. He trusts his children to do right and they do not want to prove him wrong. He is full of compliments for us and a desire to serve us. We adore him and we genuinely enjoy being with him. When I asked Enoch what his favorite thing to do with Dad was, he said, "I just wish I could be with Dad all the time. I don't see him enough."

One of Greg's greatest gifts is his ability to know how to show his family love. Everyone gives and receives love differently and Greg has figured us all out. He spends time with Gavin, he wrestles and gives hugs to Enoch, he tells Kate often that he loves her and what a girl good she is. And me - he serves me - often. This summer I have been dealing with severe headaches. Many times he will come home from a full day of work and find me holding my head and staggering around the house. He sends me to bed, fixes dinner, cleans up, bathes the kids, reads to them, straightens up the house, puts the kids to bed and he does this all happily. He seems genuinely baffled when I thank him profusely the next morning. He really doesn't understand what a big deal it is to take care of everything 2-4 nights a week. He says, "That's my job - to take care of my family. I enjoy doing it." He does it very well.

Gavin's favorite thing to do with Dad: play board games - especially Dominion and Settlers of Catan.
Enoch's favorite thing to do with Dad: build Legos.
Kate's favorite thing to do with Dad: play tag.

Scout Camp at TIFIE

Day 1(Monday)-I woke up at 5:15 and showered and got my scouting clothes on and headed over to Brother Besaw's house. We said a quick prayer and off we went and were on the road for the better part of a hour. When we got to TIFIE we got the grand tour and set up our campsite then had lunch and played games, had the swim test(ugh, I was sooooooooooooooo tired), I had a senior patrol leader meeting (boring, boring and boring), signed up for our merit badges and then finally had dinner.

Day 2(Tuesday)-We had breakfast and then had classes. My classes were Frontiersman, COPE, pioneering, lunch, SPL(senior patrol leader) meeting, snorkeling archery, wood carving, free time, and finally dinner. We also had a devotional that night (best night ever).

Day 3(Wednesday) and 4(Thursday)- same as Day 2. Except on Thursday we played Sneaky Buffalo.

Day 5(Friday/make-up day)-We had breakfast and then3 hrs of free time and then lunch and the boat races (ours epically failed) and then we had a camp wide campfire and then we rolled up the tents and slept under the pavilion.

Day 6(Saturday)-We had breakfast and headed out.

Terms-SPL-senior patrol leader(me)
COPE-Team building exercises
grand tour-a short tour of the camp
sneaky Buffalo-hybrid of capture the flag and flag football on steroids
hrs- hours

Sincerely,
Gavin

TP Rolls

It's amazing what you can do with toilet paper rolls.
We've been saving up for a while. I was sick of them collecting in my bathroom, so we put them to good use.
We made some binoculars, which the kids loved. What simple joys. They've been bird watching for days.


We also made some First Presidency figures. Is that sacrilegious? Anyway, for FHE, we put together these cute guys. I think this may be the only President Eyring has worn purple shoes and President Uchdorf has sported a purple suit with yellow shoes. The kids have these set up in their rooms and I've caught Kate playing princesses with them. At least they are learning who they are.


Summer is full of time to fill. It's nice when you can fill it with meaningful activities that are free.

Day 8: Traveling

Yes, traveling. All day.
After Sea World we drove about an hour out of San Diego, stopped at Subway for a late dinner (9:30 pm) and bunked down for the night. We had a good breakfast the next morning at the hotel before we packed up the car for the final time. I'm really surprised we got everything back into the van since we picked up some souvenirs along the way.

Before we officially left, Enoch and Kate put on a show for us. Trainer Enoch and his whale, Splasher, and trainer Kate and her dolphin, Pacific, did a great job. They did twists, turn, tricks and had us all laughing. We did sit in the splash zone and we got wet!




The drive home was uneventful. The kids did great. When we reached Nephi, Kate was done. I really just wanted to push through and get home, but she looked at me with big tears in her eyes and held out her arms. I knew we had to stop. We picked up some ice cream cones at Dairy Queen. Everyone was recovered and we made it home by 9.

We are so glad that Grandpa and Grandma Randall (or mountain Grandma and Grandpa as Kate calls them) could come with us. They were such a help, support and just fun to have with us. We had a wonderful time and will remember this trip for many years.