Priorities

Sometimes, my kids and I have totally different priorities. Totally. Different.

For instance, family peace. My goal is for a happy home with happy kids playing together with periodic shouts of glee and giggles. Their goal is total and utter chaos with the decibel level of the vacuum and a freight train combined. Their goal is to find as many ways as are humanly possible to make the others cry. Michael is the resident expert and uses his ability like a sharply honed tool. Josh can be pretty heavy handed about throwing his age and size around as a weapon. And I would like to say that Ben, at least, is innocent of this behavior, but some days he is actually the main perpetrator. That child is wicked fast with a lightsaber these days.

Pioneer Day

Last Saturday, we headed up to Marriott Ranch with Dad and Diane to attend their stake's Pioneer Day activity. The event started off with the youth returning from their trek (brave, brave souls wandering around the outdoors for a few days of 100 degree temps and their selfless leaders who volunteered to join them). Then, everyone headed over to the picnic tables under huge, shady trees to have a picnic. Did I mention it was hot? However, with the shade and slight breeze, the 100+ heat index felt like a cool 98 degrees. But, even though it was hot, we had a great time.

Of course, with hot dogs, hamburgers and chips (and water - lots and LOTS of water - did I mention it was hot?) on the menu, the kids were more than happy with the food.

Ben discovered golden Oreos, and all was good.

Josh finished his food first and waited patiently for someone to do the stick pull with him.

He got to check out how heavy the handcart was.

Jason played a hoop toss game with Michael and Oma played with Josh.

Ben found the battery operated fan in my purse and thought it was fascinating. (Did I mention it was hot?) He didn't ever really use it to cool himself down, but he loved stopping the blades.

We had a great time and were so glad Dad and Diane invited us to join them. The older boys really loved playing the pioneer games. These sort of events always remind me that my kids don't need crazy electronic games or over scheduled activities to have fun - sometimes the simple things are the best.

Happy Anniversary

As of today, Jason and I have been married for 7 years.

And what did we do this evening to celebrate? Sent Michael to bed crying, forced Josh to eat the cookie part of an Oreo and scraped the double "stuf" off of Ben. Yes, we really know how to celebrate.

And then, Jason killed me at Scrabble. Killed. Nothing says "I love you" like 176 point trouncing in Scrabble. I would be lying if I said that my ego survived that unscathed.

Next year, maybe we should go away somewhere.

O, Canada!

We have returned from our exotic, international vacation with nice tans (or excessive freckles) and wonderful memories of Canada. Here are some pictures of the things we did during our 10 day break from the oppressive Virginia summer.

The Beach

Love, love, love this beach. Obviously, right? Otherwise we wouldn't have driven 12 hours to get there! The sand is wonderful and the freshwater lake is, well, refreshing. If you think about a tub of ice used to keep sodas cold at a summer BBQ, let it melt for a little bit and then jump in it you have a good idea of how cold this lake can be during the summer. One day Josh's entire arms and hands turned blue. Brrr. But once your body became numb, it felt great. Luckily, the sand is wonderful as well, so the kids could play in it while they warmed up to go back in the water. Ben, however, decided to be mini-Josh and decided that he didn't like the sand, water or sun. The only exception was when Jason would hold him with just his (Ben's) toes in the water. So, he spent most of the beach time in the sun tent or, when he was feeling super adventurous, standing safely on a towel.

The Yard
We don't really have a yard to speak of at our house and the weather in Virginia in the summer, well, sucks. So, to have a yard and gloriously cool and dry weather was a perfect excuse to spend time outside. We played soccer and introduced the boys to badminton. There was a pile of rocks just begging to be climbed and lots of bugs to catch. And of course, we brought our lightsabers so the boys could duel in the front yard.

The Dock
Coming right off the front yard was a dock. This was a great place to examine dragonflies, waterlilies, ducks, geese, minnows and frogs. It also happened to be the home of wasps nest. Apparently, wasps find something about Michael to be highly offensive as he was stung 3 times walking around the same exact areas as the rest of us. At that point, Jason went out there with insect spray and a very long stick to get rid of the nest. He said that was the most adventurous thing he did the entire vacation - he managed to avoid being stung, but sprayed some of the wasps down mid-flight. The egg sac (?) was as big as a tennis ball. We were all relieved to see the nest destroyed and waterlogged in the river.

The River
The cottage is right on the Sauble River. After watching canoes and kayaks travel down the river for a couple of days, we found a peddle boat and put it in the river. It was fun to get out on the river, but the boys were a little disappointed that their legs weren't quite long enough to peddle. In a couple of years, perhaps.

The Sauble Falls
Just up the river and road a bit, were the Sauble Falls. Not the most impressive falls around, but very pretty and tame enough to wade in. Jason took the older boys into the water and wandered around the falls. The views were just breathtaking, if you are into that whole wilderness of pine trees, rocks and rivers sort of thing.

Second Honeymoon? What??

Seven years ago next week, Jason and I got married and then spent a few days in Canada at a cottage on Lake Huron. It was a nice break from the craziness of the wedding and a breather before entering "real" married life (you know, the one with lots of bills).

Last week, we traveled up to the same cottage to spend 10 days at the beach. In some ways, it almost seemed like a second honeymoon, except for one (well, three) little detail(s): the three little boys who came with us this time. I tried to think of things we could do to make this trip like a second honeymoon, but none of them really seemed to work "with the boys."

Here are some examples:

-Moonlit walk on the beach with the boys.

-Candlelit dinner with the boys.

-Getting up early to see the sunrise over the lake with the boys.

-Watching the sunset on the beach with the boys.

We really had a wonderful time, which I will write about later, but our three boys definitely made this a different adventure than the last time Jason and I were there. As a preview, may I present this picture and promise that Ben didn't look like this the entire trip, just the parts that involved sand, water and sun.

Fire! (heh heh)

Our 4th of July was pretty quiet this year. Mainly because the 4th was a Sunday, and a fasting Sunday at that. Nothing says "holiday fun" like not eating for 24 hours! So, we had the fire and food patriotic fun on the 3rd of July. Lucky for us, some friends of ours invited us over for their 3rd of July party to share in their wonderful hospitality, lovely backyard and love of pyrotechnics. We had been reading a book last week about the birth of our country, but I am sure that nothing we read or discussed made the same impact on our kids as this party did! There were kids running everywhere and a table covered in food. And, most importantly, there were fireworks.

As the sun started to go down, we all gathered in the cul-de-sac.

The sparklers came out first.



After all the sparklers had died and various flesh wounds had been treated, the local and some not-quite-as-local-as-the-local guys lit the big fireworks. (Sorry, coming from Colorado, it is still weird to me that any fireworks are legal.) If it is possible, these guys were more excited about setting off the fireworks than the kids were to see them. They really made the fireworks very fun. So much so that my kids are still telling anyone who listen about the fireworks (cute) and replicating the noises the fireworks made (not so cute), several days later.

Mapquest is ________

A) a really useful online tool

B) the best map site around

C) a minion of the devil

So, whichever answer you chose tells a lot about your experience with this site. I went with (C). What could possibly have happened to cause such rancor in my soul? Well, last summer my mom, the three boys and I trekked up to Canada to go to the beach for a week (yes, there are beaches much, much closer to us, but they aren't the beach). It was supposed to have been a 12 hour drive. However, the boys being little, we did expect it to take a little bit longer.

It took us FIFTEEN hours.

And that was just the trip there.

It took us SEVENTEEN hours to get home.

Thank you very much, Mapquest.

We are getting ready to make that same trip this summer with Jason. This time we will be using a combo of Google maps and a GPS. Wish us luck. After 12 hours, our sanity may be hanging by a thread so we better be close to the beach.