Summer Livin'

The end of June, we had Megan's 3 kids for a couple of days while she was at girl's camp. Bron had them at night though. Mr. Steel here is all boy! It was interesting to watch him interact with Olive. He was all about throwing things, pulling her hair and banging on her head, haha. I'm sure they'll be best buds soon, but for now it was a constant game of keeping them apart! 

We don't have a Relief Society pianist in our ward... just not enough people to fill callings like that! So whenever the two women who play are gone, the poor counselors walk around importuning anyone to play. I've turned them down before, but a few weeks ago, they were just so desperate. She was practically begging me to just play the right hand. I have not played the piano in years, let alone for people to sing to!!!! I was TERRIFIED. But my guilt made me do it. Dang guilt!!! So I plunked out the right hand to Sweet Hour of Prayer. It was rough. So the next day, I got myself on Amazon and bought a keyboard. Now, I'm bound and determined to at least get a few hymns under my belt!

Our air conditioning upstairs went out a few weeks ago. Misery! It reminded me that I should probably change out the air filters. Thank you, YouTube videos that taught me how! Eesh. These were some nasty buggers. I was glad the problem didn't turn out to be linked to the filters. Like all things, it took our landlord nearly a week to get someone out here. We were never so grateful for cool air!

Collin and Lilly did a week long "Vacation Bible Camp" at the local First United Methodist Church. It was every morning for 3 hours. Praise the heavens. I was just about to strangle Collin! The boys have just been AT IT, since summer started. Constantly fighting. He loved this and even learned a fun new song... "Pharoah, Pharoah! Ohhh, babyyy let my people go. Uh! Yeah yeah yeah yeah." ;)

The popcycle stick cross was a nice touch too. We're so glad Collin is getting a well rounded, Christian experience out here! :)

Time for Father's and Sons! It was only 30 min. away, which was nice. I realized that this was my first Father's and Son's accompanied by my daughter! It sounds silly since she obviously can't do much, but I still thought it was fun getting take out and watching "trashy" TV. Cough Bachelorette. What?

The only snag was when I went upstairs to try and open windows because the A/C was still out. I cranked the handle on our master bedroom window and almost the whole pane fell out, then swung precariously from one corner. I nearly had a heart attack! I tried my best to get it back in place, but no luck. And wouldn't you guess it, our landlord has still not addressed the issue. 

Saturday morning, after the guys were back, we headed to Albuquerque. A friend told me to try Dions. We still have a long list of places to eat there!

We bought a year membership to the zoo last winter. This is the second time we've used it. #winning

This gorilla was too funny. He was sitting serenely, looking off in the distance while the boys were going nuts, making faces and loud noises at him. Then, without changing his gaze, he calmly leaned forward and rapped his knuckles on the glass at them! I swear it was like he was saying, "Ok already, keep it down you hooligans."

Obviously, I'm obsessed. 

It wouldn't be a trip to the "big city" without a run through Target and Costco. It was a two cart kind of trip. And apparently Olive needed another finger to suck on. 

Finally, we ended the day at a new sushi place. It seemed sketchy from the outside, but Urbanspoon vouched for it, so we went in! It was tasty! Collin has become a devout sesame chicken lover. As you can see. :)

Bad picture, but any guess as to what this little, sacrament meeting treat is?! 

I'll help you out. 

That would be a fruit snack, vanilla wafer sandwich. Nummy. Collin will make quite the chef, I'm sure. 

Life is just better with the tongue out, I guess. Only, it stays out for extensive periods of time. Not sure how it doesn't dry out. Either way, I think it's pretty adorable!

Sweet sleeping pictures are my favorite. Weston has always been unusally attached to stuffed animals. 

That's my kind of sleeping pose!

Well, until all our friends skedaddled for the summer, we had lots of fun, swimming playdates!

I hadn't been in to the office in a while, so that guilt factor was working on me again. I've heard a lot about the to-die-for "Swig" sugar cookies from St. George. It was time to give the recipe a try. They really were super yummy. And we made them patriotic to boot!

Everett and Weston were the only kids to have the honors of frosting their own. Have a little cookie with your frosting. 

On July 2, my parents and two youngest brothers hit the road in an RV for a 9 day trip to Nauvoo and back! We had the honors of their first stop! (Well, except for McDonald's in Fountain Hills. Cuz, I guess those first 20 min. are a B!) 

My mom was so excited to see Olive! I wish Olive's memory wasn't so short. :( She seems to have forgotten all their bonding moments from a couple months ago. We'll just have to keep working on that!

I made homemade bread for sandwiches, thinking they'd be here around 11am or noon. Nope, it was 4:30pm by the time they rolled in. I felt bad only having lunch stuff for them! The boys were in Grandpa heaven. 

Collin started a summer school program at Red Rock on July 2. It's a full day, from 7:45am-2:45pm. I felt really guilty having him go, but it's actually worked out great. And at least I only have to take 2 munchkins to the grocery store! Notice something special going on, on Olive's head??!! So fun! Just wish she'd hold still for half a second while I try to do it!

Sunday Nights

We've had some fun Sunday nights lately. I heard Bron was craving a funnel cake, so we made some and invited friends over to share them with. Topped with ice cream and homemade fudge, these suckers induce a sugar coma! Totally worth it.

A different Sunday, we invited the stake president's family over for dinner. Travis spends so much time with him, and I feel like our families have gotten to be pretty good friends. They are neat people. And, I was super excited when they said they liked to play games!! I've been dying to play games. Which makes me sound like the lamest person ever, but it's true. Their oldest two daughters are on a mission and at college, so we played with their next oldest son, while the youngest son played with our boys. It was so nice to have them preoccupied while we got some "grown up" time in! :)

Then, last Sunday, I remembered that we hadn't watched our wedding video yet! We always try to watch it once a year, on or around our anniversary. We've never watched it with out kids though. It was fun showing them our baby pictures and pictures of when were were dating. They paid pretty good attention too. It was really a special experience looking at these three kids and watching how it all started. It's crazy to think back when you're a teenager and now see the "end" result (obviously not the end though!) of a lot of hard work and time and choices. It made me so happy to think of all the blessings and experiences I've had because the boy down the street and I fell in love.

It had a been a long day at home, when I decided to take the boys down to the church parking lot to ride bikes after dinner. Travis was there for his calling, so I text him when we got there to let him know we were stalking him. :) The weather was gorgeous. It's monsoon season, so just about every afternoon/evening, the clouds roll in and the air gets cool. Most times, it rains. 

The boys found a bouncy ball in the rocks and kept throwing it across the lot, then screaming "Sandlot! Sandlot!" and running after it. I had to laugh. They've been in love with that movie lately.

We had to say goodbye to a friend this week. Finn's dad's sudden job change is moving them to New Hampshire. They lived right behind us, so we're sad to see them go!

With putting in grass this summer, I decided I didn't have the energy for a full blown garden. So we just planted two tomato plants and a jalapeno. They are sorry plants, indeed. One of these days I'll get my green thumb. The boys are completely stoked about it though. When our first tomato turned red, you'd have thought candy was raining from the sky! It made for a pretty tasty sandwich too! Maybe if we cross our fingers we'll even get two more. 

Party at Lindblom Resort!

Well, it was a bummer to have to say goodbye to Trav, Sunday night, but work calls! So I spent our real anniversary, lying poolside all day with my kiddos. Caaaaan't complain. I don't think we left the house all day! Leah came over in the afternoon with her crew and that's when we decided it would be fun to hit up Cheesecake Factory that night. I found a babysitter for my kids, so it all worked out great! Lisa was available too, so I picked her up and we had a great time chatting the night away. The orange chicken dipped in ranch was pretty darn good to me too. :)

Tuesday morning, we found another sitter for the baby girls and Shelley and I took the boys to the IMAX on Signal Butte for a free summer movie! Too bad the movie of the week was Escape From Planet Earth. Borrrring. Of all the cute, kids movies I've been wanting to see, it had to be the weird, alien one that I actually sat through! Oh well, popcorn and Sprite helped.

That evening, Shelley and I got grinders from Nielsen's for dinner. This ragamuffin got her first ride in a forward facing car seat, picking them up! Weirdest thing, I love pastrami sandwiches now. Super yummy.

Then, Casey installed the new mop sink I bought at Home Depot that day!

 Can we all say EWWWWW!!!! This nasty sink has been here for 19 years. Dripping for probably 10. I couldn't handle it another minute. I thought I was going to have to pay a plumber to install it, so yay for Casey!!!

 

I can't believe I've bathed this girl almost 11 months in an infant tub. I just hate our tubs at home. They're the shower/tubs with sliding glass doors. So she was having the best time splashing in Grandma's tub! (And after a week of living "the life" I finally bit the bullet and started bathing her the normal way at home. :)

Ack. On the last night, my mom had some garments draped over the side of the tub. In the blink of an eye, Olive snatched them, then had them caressing her cheek while she sucked her thumb. I had to cringe and laugh all at the same time.

On Wednesday, Shelley had a FANTASTIC idea. We swapped kids so we could each run errands without our munchkins. I spent a good chunk of time at Sam's club, finally turning in all my home video tapes to be transferred to DVD's. Side note, if you need to do this, go to Costco instead! They give you two DVD's for the price of one from Sams. Plus, Costco mails them to you, but at Sam's makes you go in to pick them up. Then I had to go to my two favorite places... the temple and local soup kitchen. 

Jokes.

TJMaxx and Target. (That was a little blasphemous, huh? I do love the temple. Promise.)

And I even ran into Jenni at Maxx! That was meant to be, I tell ya. I got to snuggle a bit on her newborn. MMMM! Love me some newborn snuggles. Especially when it's not mine. 

(Double blasphemy!! I'm Satan. I love my kids. But snuggling a baby, then still getting 8 hours of sleep that night is hard to beat.)

It amazes me how well Lindi and Olive play and interact with each other. This series of photos made me laugh. 

I'll narrate.

Olive- "Oh heyyy. That looks like a pretty sweet blankie you got there. Can I touch??"

Lindi- "Did you just grab MY blanket??? *shoulder shrug* Meh, I'm cool with that."

Olive- "Oh heyyyy. You suck your thumb too? How's that taste? I think I need a taste."

Olive- "Oh heyyy. Is that your face? Can I touch? I only touch faces I like. Uncle David is NOT one of them."

Lindi- "You're fairly amusing, and not my brothers, so I'll put up with this for now. But I'm not sure how I'll feel about it for a week in California." :)

(I'm a weirdo, just ignore me.)

That afternoon, Karen and her girls came over to swim. Then we went to the fanciest Wendy's I've ever been to for dinner. There was like a lounge area with a fake fire even. (I got Freddy's.)

On Thursday, we spent ALL morning cleaning the basement. It was very bad. Shelley invited all the Goodman girls and their kids over to swim that afternoon, so it we spent no less than 4 hours in the pool. 

Then, Shelley and I loaded up the kids to drive to Airworx in Chandler. On the way, I stopped by Merchant Square to pick up a desk I had found! It's so cute! I'm in love and so excited to finally have a permanent place for my sewing machine!

So Airworx is an indoor trampoline park that we've never been to before. It was mostly empty, so we had the run of the place! Even the girlies got to get their jump on! The boys played until they were SWEATY. Then they played some more. And Weston peed his pants. Anddd I let him keep jumping. Sooo, we were THOSE people.

Poor chica. Constantly being carted around by her overattentive, older brother.

I had to bribe Shelley out of there. :)

I have such a good sister! I told her I had been craving Gecko Grill, but wanted to go in and eat. Because, let's be honest, take out is just not the same. I need those chips, salsa and bean dip FRESH, and refilled. So she came with me! We were a bit of a circus, but eating outside made it much better. Hotter, but better. Lindi literally wore her dinner. It was actually really cute!

That night was when my family got home from their trip! I got the kids bathed and in bed... all together now in one, tiny room. Then rushed around, cleaning up before they arrived. Josie came over for a couple hours too! She's had some amazing experiences the past month and I finally got to hear about some! I think I got goosebumps no less than 30 times. Honestly, they just turned into perpetual goosebump legs. She is amazing. I'm so grateful she makes time for me in her crazy schedule! 

So the RV pulled in around 11pm. That's when Josie took off, so I transitioned from her to helping unload the massive amount of stuff out of the RV. It was a late night!

On Friday, the party continued! My dad took the boys out in the RV, to fill it up and get propane. They were in heaven. Then I picked them up from the RV park. 

After that, we picked up Shelley and her kids at the car repair and headed to the children's museum until her car was done. What would we have done without her and our cousins?! We had the best time with them all week!!

That afternoon, Uncle David came swimming with us. He was actually really good to play with the boys and go down the slide with them, all manner of crazy ways! Then, my favorite, was getting to talk to him about his life. It's been a long time since we've really talked. There will always be a special place in my heart for Davy.

That evening, we hauled our booties out to way north Mesa to pick up a new wall clock that Travis bought for me for our anniversary. (My last one met it's demise while Trav tried to change the time and dropped it.) The only plus to that drive, was the proximity it had to Tia Rosas. That dinner was a no brainer.

Saturday morning, we went to Brimhall to watch some of Craig's water polo game. I've never watched water polo before so it was fun to see how it was played. Craig played goalie! Collin loved screaming his name from the bleachers. :)

Olive was super happy to have Collin grabbing her arm for this picture. She is turning into quite the drama queen. If she's mad or wants me to pick her up, she'll literally throw herself onto the ground and flail her arms around, almost beating her head with them. Or if I'm holding her and she's mad, she throws her head backward, butting me on the chest. It really hurts! I tell ya what, I might be in for it with this one!

After the game, I put her down for a nap and enjoyed one last hour, laying out. I was sad to be leaving Lindblom Resort. ;) The drive home was fairly uneventful, minus Weston repeatedly telling me he had to poop. Olive screamed a good amount and the boys slept for a couple hours. I got to listen to my latest book, Divergent. 

We finally pulled in around 6pm. I detected that unique "house smell" that everyone has, but can't smell usually because they're so used to it. We missed our main man, most of all. It was good to be home!