I've Been Chastised

Thanks to a brother-in-law, who shall remain nameless to protect his good name, I was reminded that I was slacking in my duty on my blog. I know that I haven't been as good as I've wanted to be about it lately. I thought kids going back to school would free up some time to do everything I wanted to do. Yeah, right! I should have known better. Life is still just as crazy as when they weren't in school, it's just a little quieter crazy. Anyway, here goes.

Shane had a great birthday, at least he tells me he did! => He got to go to dinner, sleep in, had breakfast in bed, got to take a nap, got birthday coupons galore from his wife and kids, including a membership in a dessert of the month club. Unfortunately for him, it was his wife's club, so I'll be searching for yummy delicious treats to make at least once a month for the next year. I've been told that Megan's fruit pizza is the first request, so Megan, if you read this, I'll need your recipe if you have it handy. => Kaitlin had been soliliquizing (is that a word?), making videos on my camera and the battery was dead, so we have no pictures to post at this time. She took pictures with her camera, so hopefully we can rescue some.

Shane also took the boys (Josh and Luke) for a branch-sponsored father/son campout. I tried to remind him that he had two other boys as well, but he wanted to stay sane, so I kept the youngest 2 home. That turned out to be a good thing, because the campout wasn't as well planned as it probably should have been, and things were very spotty for a while. The second day was better, and I found out it was a good thing the campout was father/son, not family. Someone found a snake, and Luke thought it was great fun to hold it. Had I been there, I would have beat them home on foot. They got to fish, tour an Indian museum and old school, as well as a museum on the pioneers and the Mormon trail. Thanks again, honey, for being patient enough to take them. Just remember, I think Tanner will be old enough to go with you next year. =>

I'm not sure if you can tell, but this is the picture of Luke holding the snake, although Shane told me at one point he had the whole thing wrapped around his hand. UGH!!!
Again, I'm not sure who the girl is in the 2-piece. I'll have to ask Shane about that one, but Josh is waving from the water.
We were so excited to have Shane home for Labor Day, that we decided to make it a special weekend. We still haven't found a camping place that we really want to go to yet, so we pitched the tent in the back yard for the weekend. We cooked dutch oven tin foil dinners, smore's and popcorn (in the microwave) and ate outside and watched movies til late in the tent. The 4 oldest slept out in the tent, and Shane and I took Parker in the house to sleep. I know, what fuddy-duddies, but those silly kids stayed up til 11 or 12! I'm getting too old for that. If I stay up late I'm all cranky the next day, and that's never any fun. So, the kids camped out all weekend, and Tanner absolutely loved it. In fact, we tried to keep him inside Sunday night, because he was so tired, and he collapsed on the floor in the saddest tears I've ever seen. I couldn't help it, I caved and let him sleep out. He was really good and fell asleep before the other kids, so it turned out OK.

Saturday we went exploring to a place we've wanted to go for a while now. Aurora - a town about 25 miles away where we attend church, has a kids "explorit" center right next to a pioneer/settlers of the area museum. We took the kids to the explorit center first, where they got a chance to do a lot of hands on stuff. They had a seismograph, where the kids could jump on the floor and see the vibrations. They had a place to spin tops, that Parker really loved. Don't I look excited? I really wanted to check out the other stations, too, but Parker kept running away back to this one. He tried to climb up onto the stool himself, so I needed to be nearby.


They had a green screen where you could play games and see your self on the TV.


They had a huge "Operation" game that Tanner liked - it made small sparks when you hit the edge of the openings.


They had a life size kaliedescope that you could stand inside.

They had a bubble-blowing center that you could make giant bubbles in.



They had a water-rocket station, where Kaitlin built a rocket that went over the building. This is her second attempt. On her first attempt, it went up so fast that all of the decorations and the parachute that she attached blew right off the rocket.




We really had a great time. We went to the museum next, but had to hurry the kids through because Tanner and Parker were ready to fall asleep standing up. In fact, Shane was holding Tanner's hand, and couldn't figure out why he kept dragging on the floor. Shane thought he was goofing off, but he was so tired he could barely keep walking. Poor little guy.


Anyway, what we did see of the musuem was really neat, and it's something we both thought my parents would enjoy, especially my dad. So, Dad, when you get to come next, we'll have at least one neat place to show you. That afternoon, we decided to take it easy and play together as a family. We played Sorry, and kid and cat wrestled. I was so excited that we were able to be together as a family, and we really enjoyed being with each other. Let's hope we can do it again really soon.



Is that better, Brock?! =>