Dive was a little easier this year because 1, we carpooled with Brayden Niesen and 2, I would just drop them off or pick them up instead of waiting for them. Weston's lesson was at 5pm and Collin's was from 5:40-6:30pm. Meets were Thursday evenings. That's when we melted. I was usually by myself for Weston's at 5pm and Trav would meet us after work. I'd bring our big umbrella and blanket and see how long I lasted. Most meets, Tanner was a mess after the first hour so I would miss Collin's meet. I feel terrible that I don't have any pictures of Collin diving!! They both improved this season, although Collin never did figure out a gainer. I guess I can't blame him... seems pretty scary to me.
I almost NEVER go to Wal-mart. I use the grocery pick-up, but that's where it ends. For whatever reason, I had to go inside this time and it happened to be National Donut Day! They were handing out free donuts and the kids didn't mind one bit!
Met Shelley and Marcie at Stapley pool one Friday! Shelley brought a huge bag of Cheeto Puffs and Della dominated. Hand over fist, that girl was code orange all afternoon! She cracks me up!
Poor Fox seems to generally be in a foul mood. Makes me grateful for my happy baby! This Sunday they were sporting the same overalls so I had to snap a pic. I feel like Tanner's looking at Camilla like, "So, what's his problem?"
The week before dance recitals was crazy town. Collin and Olive were required to be at rehearsals at different times on Monday and then again two other times that week for pictures and class rehearsals. You couldn't miss any of it, or else you couldn't dance in the recital. It all took place at Chandler Center for the Arts. We spent LOTS of time in the hallways, trying to keep Tanner entertained. Crawling up and down this long corridor, then sprinting back was all they did for at least an hour one night. Tanner.was.filthy. I wasn't sad to see this week in our rearview mirror.
Olive's performance was in the Saturday, 10am recital. She was number 14. She's been in a combo class this year (ballet, tap and tumble) and they did a tap dance at Christmas so this time they did ballet. It was to the song, "How Far I'll Go" from the Moana soundtrack. I had been practicing with her for the past couple weeks and knew the whole thing by heart. She knew it too, but I was afraid she'd freeze and look at the teacher in the curtains the whole time. But she did great! They placed her right in the middle and oh my gosh, if she wasn't just the most adorable thing!!! I think the whole auditorium "awwwwed" when they came out. Darling little girls in tutu's. I was such a proud mama!! Then it was over and we had to sit through the rest of the numbers. The whole recital was THREE HOURS. Yes, you read that right! There were almost 40 numbers. And you couldn't leave early because they wouldn't let you check your kid out until the end. No exceptions. My mom came (bless her heart!) and stayed for the whole thing. I was ready to poke my eyes out! Never mind that it also cost $18 a ticket, so I got a babysitter for the other kids.
Collin was in the Saturday, 5pm recital. (They have 3 recitals total) After Olive's marathon, I took her to Scarlett's princess birthday party and Weston to another friend's party. Travis went to the leadership meeting for stake conference. Collin's dance was scheduled to be #34 out of 40 numbers, so we knew it wouldn't be until close to 8pm. I dropped him off to check in at 4:30pm like you were supposed to, but we didn't show up until 7pm. SO MUCH BETTER. We got there with about 30 min. to spare before he went on and it was so much more enjoyable to only sit for 1 hr. instead of 3! My mom came late too. She's a champ! I thought Collin did awesome! He's been in this hip hop class for a year now and come a long way. He was still about 1/2 a second behind in most parts, but I hadn't worked with him at all so I was impressed! He's really liked dance and wants to continue, but unfortunately I told him this was the end of the line. He'll be in band next year and combined with fall soccer, spring baseball and Cub Scouts, plus 2 other siblings in extracurricular activities, I just can't swing one more thing. I feel bad.
We were going to go on a date after his recital so we decided to take him with us and give him a special night out. He wanted "China food" so we went to Dragon Wok. He basically polished off this entire platter of orange chicken.
At Creamistry, I was a bad example and ordered my favorite... the Quantum Explosion. Which is coffee flavored. It was crowded, busy and loud and I hoped he wouldn't hear me order it. Or care what I ordered. Or be able to read the menu clearly enough to match what I said to what was in it. It's like I didn't know my son at all. OF COURSE he heard. And noticed. And saw what was in it. Immediately, he started interrupting me order. "Mom. Mom. MOM. MOM!!! MOMMM!!!" I tried to brush him off. Travis tried to calm him down. "No, Mom, that has coffee in it. MOM that has COFFEE in it!! Mom! Coffee!!" Travis is shushing him. Trying to tell him it's not real coffee. It's just flavoring. He was NOT to be deterred. "No. It's real coffee, Dad. It's REAL!"
Oh mylanta.
He was on a mission. A mission to save his mother from a tragic, unknowing mistake. I should be ashamed of myself. This very moment of justification will come back to bite my caffeine loaded behind, I'm sure.
But man, I love my coffee flavored ice cream. :)
My dear, sweetest friend, Camilla invited us to her in-laws cabin for a few days. She was SO excited about it. I was... well, I was dreading it. Vacations are not really vacations with little kids. Plus it was 3 1/2 hrs away in Pinetop. We left on a Wednesday morning and caravanned together. Tanner is usually amazzzing in his carseat. I almost forget he's behind me as I run the kids to all their lessons and run all my errands. But for whatever reason, he was not having it this time. He was hysterical before we even hit Gold Canyon. And that was how it went the entire time. It took us 4 loooong hours of him crying 94% of the time. Me constantly reaching behind me to hand him food, toys, a sippy cup. It was AWFUL. The cabin was old and sort of small. There were two bedrooms and a loft for the kids to sleep in. But the first night was a total nightmare. Camilla's 3 year old, Everett, hates bedtime and isn't quiet about it. It kept everyone up. Just trying to get them all asleep took 2 hours. I wanted to put my head through a wall. Tanner had a hard time napping with the kids running around, being noisy, so we were always shushing them or keep them outside. Camilla is also a really strict healthy eater so I felt guilty making my kids' lunches with heathen potato chips or letting them have licorice. Her oldest child is Olive's age, so there wasn't anyone for the boys to play with which made for the usual fighting. It's SO much work to keep a family functioning when you're not in your own house and I just didn't have the energy.
We tried going on a walk to a pond Camilla thought the kids would like, but it ended up being a pretty long walk. And I had forgotten a sling or stroller so I huffed Tanner along on my hip. She also failed to mention this lake was on a golf course. We could tell we were making the golfers mad. After maybe 10 min. a worker came up to tell us we couldn't be by the lake. Well there goes that!
They did see a snake which was "huge" and "probably a cobra" though. Sooo, redemption.
We drove over to a playground at the Wyndam for a bit.
Dirt and ashes were found.
Rock collecting was THE sport. You should have seen the tears when I told her she couldn't take home bowls full of her precious rocks.
Bed head at it's finest!
On the second day, we got everyone ready to go swimming at the community pool. Aaaand they wouldn't let us in. Camilla's name wasn't one of the six on the "list" that her in-laws gave them a decade ago. No budging. This list was non-negotiable. Made it stone. You would have thought we were trying to get into the Ritz.
The next closest public pool was in Showlow and it was closing in 15 min. So Camilla suggested we sneak into the outdoor Wyndam pool. I shrugged my shoulders. Why not? There were maybe 5 old people pruning up, poolside when we brought our loud, unwelcoming crew to the gates. We fumbled around as though we misplaced our keys. Then I reached my arm over and opened it from the inside. Don't mind us crashing your geriatric flirt fest! Collin was ALL in a tizzy over this latest infraction. "What if we get caught?! What will they do to us?! Are you sure this is OK?"
Hush, child.
There are important rules to keep and unimportant rules you don't have to keep. It's a fine line. Just trust me. (I know I'm parent of the year.)
I have to say, this was probably the highlight of the trip. Sad as that sounds. We had a great time! The water was warm, the kids were happy, and we even saw a squirrel!
One morning, in trying to let Tanner have a quiet nap, Camilla took the kids on a walk. They played games and had races and took lots of cute pictures. I should have said it before but Camilla is the perpetual optimist. ALWAYS cheerful. ALWAYS smiling. ALWAYS looking at the bright side. I love her and feel bad that I've complained so much because she carried us on this trip! The sweetest hostess and accommodating in anyway she could be.
Plus, the kids had a ball. They were so excited for this trip and were pretty happy the entire time. Probably just thrilled to be out of the house.
And just look at how dirty these feet are. Happy and filthy.
On Friday, we drove about 40 min. to a creek by Sunrise Ski Resort. We were going to go on a little hike, but when we got there it was much colder than we anticipated and we were unprepared with enough jackets. It had been super hot previously, so it was weird that suddenly we had grey skies and rain! We spread out towels and ate lunch, letting the kids go wild, running up and down the banks of the stream.
We joined them after lunch and saw several people fishing. One, older couple had a bucket with a large fish in it that they had caught. As we walked past, they made small talk with the kids so we all gathered around to admire the fish. Collin and Weston were so impressed. Everett (who, btw, besides his tantrums is super funny. He has a wide vocabulary and the cutest personality) was the last one to walk away from our new friends and upon parting, turned around to matter of factly shout, "Bye! Take care of that fish!"
I just about died. The rest of us obviously knew the fate of that trout. But innocent, little Everett, assumed this nice, older couple had just caught themselves a pet. "Take care of that fish!"
I still get the giggles thinking about it.
Along the same lines of taking care of fish. Collin was fascinated by this dead fish they found. Gag.
Then, they found another fish, that they claimed was "stuck" between some logs. I assured them it wasn't. But darn it, they saw a need and were there to help that fish. They grabbed sticks and were poking and prodding, exclaiming when they thought they had freed it, then becoming somber when it didn't look they had succeeded. After quite some time, they jumped up shouting! The fish had swam free! They had saved the fish!!! They were SO proud of themselves. Later, as we were recounting our favorite parts of the day, the boys reminded me how they were heroes. I said, "Oh, yeah, you think you really saved that fish, huh?"
Collin promptly replied, "Yep! ... well, maybe it wasn't really stuck. ...And we kind of accidentally poked it a lot..... um I think we might have hurt it.... Yeah, we didn't save it."
Ha.
Forgive us, wildlife.
Tragedy struck when Camilla became violently ill Friday afternoon, throwing up. Brandon and Travis left work around 3pm to come up, planning on doing something fun with us on Saturday. Instead, Camilla was in the fetal position all night. We watched Wonder and went to bed. I started packing up and cleaning in the morning. Camilla tried to rally, but she was still so sick. Plus it was raining. I felt sooo bad that Travis had driven that far just to turn around and go home. But I was also elated to finally be going home. Such relief to be in our own space again!
Father's Day!
Us kids pitched in and bought my Dad a really nice camping pad for Father's Day.
This was the card I printed out for us all to sign. :)
We found the perfect card for Travis at Target.
It was cute watching them all laugh together. I bought him bowling shoes (I don't know... I figured it would take the cost down, next time we go. I could tell he didn't love them though, so they got returned. I guess golf shoes are a thing, so we're switching them for that.)
I also bought him this shirt to go with Tanner's onsie. It's an Office joke. I love it!
I made crepes for brunch. Their favorite. And we had dinner at my parent's house.
These kids don't know how lucky they are to have their Dad! He is one of the good ones. Through and through.
Marcie organized this game to play after dinner where all the guys answered these questions and we had to guess who said what. Christopher and Jefferson did it too! I thought Travis's answers were funny. #6. But he crossed it out! And #10.
Uh huh. Do you see this?! Now it's not enough to stand on it, he has to stand on the BACK of it to get higher! I'm so afraid I have a dare devil on my hands!
The evidence is damning.
OK, side note about me. I have been EXHAUSTED lately. Not your typical tired. All moms are tired. Most grown-ups are tired. That's nothing new. But this is different. I keep telling Travis, "something is WRONG with me." I HAVE to take a nap every day. There's no way around it. And I don't just doze lightly, I conk out for hours. In a deep, deep sleep. There have been a few times when I napped TWICE in one day. What gives?! I finally contacted this lady named Shari Goodman who specializes in natural medicine. She has me on a bunch of supplements and told me to go off dairy. I take Biocidin, Methyl-mate, Intesti-mate, Adrena-mate, B-6, Chelated Magnesium, probiotics and a digestive enzyme pill with most meals. I also went to see my doctor to have blood work drawn to test my thyroid, hormones and basic blood levels. I was shocked when it came back in normal range. They just said my B12 was a little low. At any rate, it took about two weeks on my new regimen but I'm feeling sooo much better. I don't have to nap anymore! I feel like I'm getting my life back!
I took this picture after my doctors appointment. Genuine Fresche is across the street from their office so I always go get the raspberry pecan acai bowl! It's amazing! And maybe I also go to Boca to get a couple fiesta bean and cheese burritos. MAYBE.
Hey, I was sharing with two kids!
Karen Tobler turned 50 and had the best birthday party at the Art House in downtown Gilbert. I was one of the lucky ones who got invited! I adore Karen. She's stylish, funny, REAL, caring and so much fun to be around. She was just changed from being my visiting teacher and I'm SO cranky about it! I've never had such a great VT! She took care of me and it was such a nice change to not always have visiting teaching be a one way street.
Back to the party! There were about 15 of us there. They had an open bar (get all the diet Dr. Peppers you want, haha) and a whole spread of brushetta, hummus, dips and cookies from the best restaurants. We had a personalized art lesson, painting cactus on a canvas and it was SO FUN. I'm not artsy. Not creative. But if you guide me ever so carefully, I might be able to make something resembling the example.
"Your art, is the the best art, of all the art"- Roy, from The Office
Another fun night...
Paddleboarding bootcamp at Mesa High!
Shelley told me about this and I invited Camilla to come along!
You swim laps for 20 min., do yoga on paddleboards for 20 min., then swim upstream in the lazy river and do weights for 20 min. I loved it! Something different to mix up the usual bootcamp in the mornings.
After looong, summer days, these night activities help keep my sanity!
Olive was playing at Lindi's house so I took Rusty and the boys to KTR for the first time ever. I loved this place! Totally catered to exactly what boys need. A "soft" place to run, jump, swing and flip! I kept Tanner in the kiddie area and he was just as gutsy as his older brothers! Scaling this high, vinyl type wall. Each time, I'd let him get higher and higher, feeling nervous myself for being on it! Never slipped once. Of course, I stayed right behind him, with one hand ready to catch him if he did!
Travis had a Friday off, so we took the kids to Sunsplash! It was Olive's first time. My mom watched Tanner which was necessary and so nice of her. I spaced it and accidentally had a little bit of a protein shake made with regular milk while we were driving there. By the time we were in line, I was doubled over in pain and running to the bathroom. I felt terrible and was back in the bathroom a few more times before I stabilized. I had to take it easy the first couple of hours, so Travis was Superdad and did all the slides with the boys while I hung out with Olive at the Lily pads or Pirate slide. I did end up going down the Storm Chaser slide with Collin and that was really fun! I love that slide. Collin and Weston are finally at the age where they can go off together and manage the tubes on their own. We still stuck with them, but it was weird to realize they're getting older.
Olive was loving up on her bestest daddy.
The Lillypads were hands down, Olive's favorite. She fell in the first couple tries, but never gave up! When she made it across the first time without falling, you would have thought she'd won the Noble Peace Prize! She came running up, beaming from ear to ear, while we hugged and congratulated her. Every time she went across after that, she was back to us, for high fives, then a thumbs up, until we finally weaned her off the accolades and she would just get back in line without coming over to us.
The food is half the fun!
We stayed until 6pm, then got Carolina's for dinner before heading back to get Tanner. It really was such a fun day together. It wasn't crowded at all, so we need to make a note that the weekend before the 4th of July might be a good time to hit up Sunsplash!
I don't usually post her hair pictures on here since I have an Instagram account, but isn't this beautiful! I loved how it turned out!
We took Tanner's birthday present outside for some sun and fun! I'm obsessed with these pictures! Oh! He's so darn CUTE!!!!
Another hair picture. Her latest request is that she can turn and smile for the camera when I'm done, doing some sort of curtsy or pose.
Grandma Ann's birthday is on June 30th! We had lunch with her at this new French bakery called La Madeleine at San Tan Mall. It was such a bummer not being able to eat dairy! Boo. No cheese on the sandwiches. No lemon tarts. No cream of mushroom soup that my mom raved about. I made do with some of the other pastries and chicken salad sandwich. I love spending time with Grandma. She's always so happy and pleasant and easy going. I just wished we had more time together!
