All alone, now our fun filled summer has passed!

The house is silent, except for the ticking of the clock!  Not so sure I like this.  My sweet Kaden went to school today. Colton went last Wednesday and Austin last Friday, so grateful I still have 2 Guinea pigs and Meow Meow here, although Meow Meow can't be counted on lately.  I love being alone but not really.  I have so much I could do, but don't want to.  I think I will eat the rest of the brownies I made that should do it!  Then of course I will feel guilty and have to go run it off, then I am exhausted, kids come home and I want them to be gone again.   Oh the cycles.....what to do what to do! 

Summer is not over yet, I will NOT let it leave until the first day of Autumn, my next favorite season.  But there is a chill in the air and that means that after my fall comes that awful season which in my opinion should be cancelled.  I am already starting to get (Meow Meow just showed up, she must be feeling guilty too!) a bit anxious about the white crap.  I am not going to talk about it!  Change the subject.
Campinland was frequente often this year, we had lots of great fun weekends with friends, boating, hiking, swimming, relaxing and of course on the motorcycles and ATVs. 

Colton went the real salon to get his hair done and thought this contraption looked rather cool, so we encouraged him to give it a try for blackmail purposes later in life.

Riding home from baseball each week!

The Eccles Dinosaur Park made our list this summer.  We went with Kiki and the boys had a great time.

Kaden thought he had talent, he stuck two raisenetts up his nostrils...I laughed so hard stuff came out of mine. 

Yup, just what it looks like....shhhhhhhhhhh he has no idea I documented this.  It was too precious, he didn't even have on his shoes...we were at Bridal Veil Falls and nature called!  No bathrooms close by so we headed for the woods.

Summer with my boys this year was awesome....we ran and ran and ran and camped and had the best time.  This is truly to document for myself since I am an uncommitted journal writer. 

We are up to 3 pets in our home now...and Steve said he never wanted any!  How do you tell a kid he can't have any pets, that is wrong in my opinion, pets teach kids responsibility, nurturing, love, well those are the good things...there are many downsides but I am going to focus on the positive as I always do anyway.  Each day we had a quiet time about 4pm so they could read, relax, play videos games in their bed, something so I could really have a break.  It turns out that the pigs (Chocolate and Fauxhawk) both needed some quiet time too!  Steve and I could NOT believe that they fell asleep in their arms, but these animals are really great for kids and Kaden packs Chocolate around like its his baby!  He even talks to it like he is the Dad.  That boy is going to make a great father someday, just like the one he has.

The Heber Rodeo was so much fun this year.  This was the first year that I took the boys and they were in heaven.  As you can see they dressed up like what they thought to be cowboys. 

The weather was perfect, the boys had made their own front row seating. 

My adorable sweet niece, Cassidy, came with us, we had front row seats! 

Boy this blog post is a long one!  Maybe I should have made a few posts instead.  Well your near the end now, for our weekly date night, we each take turns planning the date, this week Steve borrowed his friends Jeep and we had a blast jeeping up the mountains were we live.  It was so much fun, but even more beautiful.  I do love Heber in the summer, spring and fall..but winter it sucks!  I am such an outdoor girl, that when I have to be confined inside, it makes me bitter.  I know, I have to be patient, it will happen and I will have my sunshine home. 

My boys are in school and I have lots of time on my hands now, but I truly miss them being here.  Until next summer, for more fun adventure, thanks for the memories.

St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Boys

I am behind on the blogging as usual.....but our summer has been jammed packed with so much fun there has been no time to document it! Baseball season was busy this year with all the boys playing and on the same nights....and with Steve coaching the little ones and wanting to be at Austin's games it was a juggling act for sure. We managed and it was fun. Although sometimes it was painful to watch the little ones not mine of course but the other kids play or attempt to play baseball, I have good memories.
Steve was such a great coach, he truly has a way with children, much more patience than I could have had...I am too competitive and they frustrate me with their carefree pick the clovers in the grass out fielding!

I am just wondering what Kaden was thinking.....
"should I look up at the ball or keep my eyes on the bag?, what did Dad say again?, Mom, I am thirsty, when are we getting treats? Oh here comes the ball I think!"  

He sure has a hard act to follow with his older brothers and he wanted to take on that challenge with his hitting.  He pounded that plate at least 3 times and cleared off all the dirt prior to any swinging action.
Colton and another neighborhood boy were on the same team, they both have high school age brothers who play baseball and it showed, these little boys played ball very differently than the other kids.  They were in the car on the first game night and I could hear them chatting in the back, Riley, "do you like the Red Soxs? Colton, "No they are WEAK, I like the Yankees"....WEAK, that is not a word in the vocab of a normal 7 year old!  All the boys were dressed to the nines with their gear, from batting gloves to sliding shorts.....if Colton could keep the cup in his pants, he would have worn that too!  Until next year.....I will miss baseball season.  

All work and no play?

My little boys are sure workers, just like their Momma! Our friends, Danny and Toni, own The Stew Pot in Heber and the boys think that they
should be able to work there since we are friends with the owners. They showed up with their aprons on and ready to of course, eat before they worked.

We needed a screen door put on the garage man door since we live next to a farm and lots of flies.....Colton basically installed the whole door with instruction from me. Seriously he has talent in this department.

Kaden's talents lie in the lawn care business, he wants to edge, spray weeds, mow and cut the bushes whether they need it or not.....Oh and no matter whose yard it is either. He starts the equipment himself, reads the instructions on the machine and gets them going, even when I can't.  The other day he weedwacked our neighbors back yard area, well maybe 1/4 of it, then knocks on their door asking for his money.....Some business strategy he has going on there. 

Occasionally we let them wash the car...well attempt the car, themselves get most of the washing ! Lots of yelling going on too...."he is spraying me" meanwhile, one whole entire bottle of car wash is used up and my driveway has turned into a slippin slide.

Bear Lake 2010 Good times for all!

We took the ATV's on the beach, it was so cool to ride them on the sand and in the water.  Kaden is a super driver, I mean that, he is very cautious and we just let him drive us all around, he of course loves it.  Cotlon drives us around too and believe it or not he is not the crazy boy he is off the machine.  He tells us to slow down and Kaden tells us to go faster. 

Austin doing what he does best, relaxing! 

Kaden took the challenge and decided he would let the cousins bury him.....Colton took the opportunity as a good one to tickle Kade's toes!

The boys rented these super cool bikes, and the boys and I went for a bike ride. 

The Hallows' beach spot!  We spent 2 days at the beach there.  It was blissful, I love the heat and was soaking it up all day!  Bear Lake is so gorgeous, its the Utah Carribbean.  This is our 3rd year in a row that we have gone. This year we went with the entire Hallows' clan, in celebration of Koze and Andrea's 50th Anniversary which was in January, but since they were on their mission, we waited for them to return and suprised them with this camping trip.  

Even the big cousins were in on the sandcastle building, it was a great time for all the kids big and small!

"Tres Amigos" AKA Austin, Brennan and Mason  They are all so tan, tall, but most importantly great young men! 

Happy Anniversary 50 years is a long time, they are wonderful examples to us all and we are proud of them.  

Ashley and Kaden helping with the sandcastle building.  

All in a day at Bear Lake!

What has been keeping us busy this summer......

olton wanted to have a lemonade stand, I finally allowed it to happen...although he wasn't satisfied with just selling lemonade. He started to bring out items of his that he was going to sell to earn more money. He had some old sneakers, a water gun, bike pegs, and some soccer gloves. It was hilarious, I thought for sure he is my son! Earning a buck or two! Not a bad trait to pass on if I might say so myself.

He has quite a consumer crowd, it was a lucrative sale he thought with $12 earned!

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One Sunday afternoon we went to the lake by our house and Austin went for a canoe ride, he sure has had some fun in the water this summer as you while soon see. I thought this was hilarious...he borrowed Colton's snorkling set and too small life vest! He has a great sense of humor.

Austin and I went to Youth Conference with our church this year, it was such an amazing experience, we both felt so spiritually filled but I guess that wasn't enough for Austin.  This video is of him jumping of a 25 foot cliff in Flaming Gorge. 

Happy Birthday Kaden the big 6!

 

 

 

 

Kaden and Colton had their combined birthday party last week on Kade's actual birthday...selfishly it was more for me as 20 kids at my house is enough to stress me out fully! Its over, we are all happy and the kids had a blast! We rented a 32 foot waterslide and they played on that thing and jumped on the tramp for hours. The kids are so cute, no one was afraid of it either, which suprised me as it was a bit high when you are only 2-3 feet high yourself.

Colton picked out the cake, but Kaden enjoyed it the most as you can see from the picture.

Kaden has been such a blessing to us, he is the sweetest one in the family by far...he loves to be the peacemaker, the tattler, the one that wants to go to church, the one that will break down and share, the obedient one...we sure came to us, we love you sweet boy!

We asked Kaden if he could please not turn 6? I said your 6 now on the morning of his birthday and he said, "no, I am not 6 until after I eat my cake!"

Schools out for Summer....

Kaden with his kindergarten teacher, Miss Dahl, he loved her.  One day he told me, "I am going to marry Tessa, since she doesnt' have a dad yet!"  Then the next day he said that he was going to move to China with her.  I said how will you support her, get a job at a bank.  How sweet is that? 

He has an animal report to do the last week of school, so he choose a snake to do it on, we borrowed our neighbors snake, RAY.  It was a hit, Kaden loved the attention and getting a chance to use the microphone was a hit for him as well. 

 

It was the first official first day of summer vacation today, I am not sure how I am going to get through summer if it is anything like today.  Chaos, chaos, chaos......Colton refused to do the homework book that last week he was estatic about.  He told me I am the worst mom in the world, he left his report card and water park pass at the baseball field.

Kaden of course was all excited, he couldn't wait to do his homework book, did his chores without me asking and he told me how much he loved me....talk about polar opposites! 

We are babysitting a snake for the weekend, I HATE snakes and so does Steve..if that thing gets out, I am moving.  Maybe the cat will get it instead.  No she won't......Colton has it in the closet with the door closed and the light on, he says it needs warmth or it will die....great idea, I think I will put it outside tonight!  Its only going to be 39 degrees tonight, sure hope the garden makes it since winter hasn't left Heber yet. 
I was at the nursery yesterday and was asking the attendent what vegetables have the the shortest maturation time.....he was like does it really matter???? Yes, when your season is 45 days long.  I have come to the conclusion that you need just freakin buy the veggies at the store to avoid this.  I keep having to return the plants as they are turning up dead often from the cold! 

Enough complaining about the weather and the pea size hail we had on both Sunday and Monday night, its Summer vacation and we are going to enjoy it to the fullest.  I have us packed with trips, camp outs, days trips, and much more!  I love the summer time it really invigorates my spirit like I need any more invigorating.  I love to wake up and have nothing specific going on that day too, so that is what we did today.....until the boys wanted to go to the local skate park.  It was a windy cool day, but that didn't stop them..they had a blast with the skater dudes as they call them. Colton said, they think I am so cool mom!  Yeah Colton, I bet they do!  What a role model, NOT!!!!  Tight purpleskinny jeans...who manufactured those things?

Playing en Playa!

As you can see by the absolute lush green landscaping...spring has arrived somewhere in the world and we had to go there to get at it!  For our honeymoon 9 years ago we went to Cancun and on one of the excursions we took, we were in Del Carmen and said one day when we come back, it will be to here!  It is much more private and remote, yet less Americans here....we for sure were the minority!  We had a great time to say the least! 

We relaxed, ate, slept, ate, ate again, slept and repeated for 6 blissful days! 

Well one day we went into town, which was absolutely lovely of all the towns we have gone to in Mexico and there have been plenty, it was very classy and clean.  We had massages in a very nice spa, shopped or should I say hunted for our list of treasures..hammock, swing chair, PURE vanilla(no corn syrup crap added), Oakley sunglasses for Austin,and necklaces for boys!  We did it in record time and even got a chance to relax in this open air bagel cafe that was upstairs and so cool, not literally of course but I wasn't complaining!

 

Why the picture of the salad, one might ask?  Well not to mention the food was like eating in a fine dining restaurant for every meal....well they were fine dining restaurants but, even the buffet food was the best we have ever had...better than some cruises even.  Hence the 3 pounds I added to my body! 

On night we were eating at the Mexican restaurant and Steve had some potatowith his entree and he asked the waiter for some sour cream....ok the waiter came back with this salad as fast as he could and was like here you are sir, I almost lost it, I spit some food out both sides of my mouth I laughed so hard..they obviously noticed something was wrong with my lack of ability to control myself..he comes back to table and I try to say with my 4 years of high school Spanish, "crema de blanco por el potato"....oh, si si....now there are 3 of these cute little Mexicans working on getting the sour cream.....they return with a bowl of green soupish stuff maybe????? I am really having a difficult time trying NOT to embarrass any of us...but its not really working well... so at this time I think the entire staff is navigating this extraordinary request, so a busboy or some other helper thinks he knows just what we are trying to convey to them, he proudly comes out with a bowl of some creamy dressing like ranch and we are satisfied as one more episode might get me locked up somewhere.  Steve is SO composed throughout this event, I can't fake it even an ounce....we have some good laughing material for the balance of our trip.   

 

This was Iguanadona as I have affectionately named her....I never really did get that close though, but she was out every morning same place, same time, as I went to the gym each morning, said hello, walked past her as freaking fast as I could then said hello on my way back.....she was faithful!  There were some other critters too that were around as the resort was tucked in a forest and I mean a dense, thick forest....that opened up to the Gulf, it was lovely.  The lemurs were out eating in the palm trees, all the time and there was this bird that whistled it sounded like a guy whistling, I talked to him too and said thanks every time I heard him give a holler. 

I was in the sun as much as possible, Steve on the other hand got sunburnt in the shade with his shirt on!  I went from walking the seashore, to reading, to the water, to the bathroom, to the restaurant, to putting on Steve's sunscreen, to soaking up the sun, all in a day!  Boy my decisions were many but very easy to make each and every day.  I noticed that I really am a creature of habit myself, Iguanadona!

As you can see it was beyond perfect, I think that heaven might be like this or it should be~

There was a full moon on the last night, it was hard to get a picture but it was picture worthy to say the least.  I had a wonderful time, thanks honey for a great birthday present~

Baseball bliss

Today was a surreal day for some reason, watching my son play baseball, looking at him as a young man, had me reflecting back on the life that has lead him to his successes on the field, in school, in church, as a friend, and as a son. I know that it was not all nurture but, nature too that helped to shape him into the fine boy he is!  I am so proud to have my children, they bring me such happiness and such stress all within a minutes time too! Today was the last regular season game and of course they won both games...I believe they are 13 wins and 4 loses, not too bad. I will be glad when the summer baseball games begin so that I don't have to wear snow boot and a winter vest in May.

Austin playing first base!

On the mound!

There is something about watching your children playing sports, on stage, giving a talk, whatever it is, that brings you such a sense of pride and that was ever so present today watching Austin on the field.

After the game, I had to rush home, so did Austin, to attend a church fireside. Well, that feeling of pride and that I am in the right space, doing the right things theme continued to overwhelm me. I have never been to a fireside before and the speaker was the producer/writer of the movie, "The Other Side of Heaven", a fantastic LDS film. It testified to me that I am in the right place,  at the right time for the right reasons. Not that I was questioning it today in particular or anything...but there are days when I wonder if all my hard work
is worth the sacrifices I am making and yes it is, don't give up, get up and do the best you can each day, because one day the reward will be another moment you will be proud of as a mom, as today was for me.