Eating

 watermelon

makes

  me

 HaPpY!

(But I should probably add a face of me scowling at the end for how sticky it makes my floors!!! Somehow, even when it's only an "outside" treat. Kids are magical that way.)

Shaheens

For 6 weeks this summer, Collin went to a "Preschool in the Park" program that the city put on. I would drop him off at a park close to our house and for two hours, 4 days a week, he got to play on the playground, make crafts,  listen to stories, and do other activities. It was WONDERFUL!! Maybe even more for me than for him. He looked forward to it every day (minus the one day that Weston split his head open) and was always upset when Friday rolled around and he had to wait through the weekend for it to start again. For 4 of those 6 weeks, his friend, Lily, was there too and we carpooled with her. On their last day when I went to pick them up I was so mad when I realized I forgot my camera! Bug! So here we are at home with their last creation... rock faces.

*Side note: Since this was the first time I've left Collin in the care of someone that I didn't know personally or wasn't church related (and I know the previous qualifiers don't always mean "safety", but for the most part it helps), we decided it was time for Collin to get a bit of "the talk". While he was taking his bath that night, I talked to him about private parts and how no one should touch them except Mommy or Daddy, and only when cleaning in the bath or using the toilet, etc. There was more, but you get the gist. Well, when I picked him up after his first day, he excitedly got in the car and announced, "Mommy! No bad guys touched my pee pee!!!" My jaw started to drop a little when he continued, "But if they do, I hit them and kick them (all while making karate chop moves), and say "YOU DON'T TOUCH MY PEE PEE! And I go and tell Mommy!" 

"Uhhh....ya, right, OK son, but that probably isn't going to happen. And we don't actually talk about it with people. Did you say that to anyone??!!"

He gave me a slightly perplexed look and responded in the negative. Man, I hope he was telling the truth! But he still came home every day that first week, proud to tell me that no bad guys had touched his pee pee.

Guess I may have not gone about it in exactly the right way, but he seems to have gotten the point. Chalk it up to new parenting! I think I need to go find some books. :)

 The last week of "preschool" was also the last week the Shaheens were here in Farmington. Sadness! So we had Lily over for a couple of hours after preschool each day so Megan had one less child at home while she tried to pack. We also had her over on Saturday and ventured over to the bounce house place for them to get some wiggles out.

On Friday, Megan and the girls came over for some pizza and funnel cakes. I had never tried making them before, and they didn't turn out exactly right, but we still loved them! I'll be doing them again for sure.

On Sunday, we were able to snag Bron too and had dinner together one last time! The kids were so cute together! I just love both their faces in this picture. At one point, we looked out the window and saw Weston and Ruby just pushing the empty swimming pool all over the yard. Just for kicks. It was a joint effort. I couldn't help but think of that famous Funniest Home Video's clip of the dog pushing a rock with his nose and Bob Saget's voice over "Pushin' a rock, pushin' a rock, pushin' a rock"

While blogging this, Collin walked in and saw this picture and said, "What's that picture of Lily and me showin' our cool moves?!" 

He remembered! They were having a good time dancing for us while we watched the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. 

The next day we got just a few more hours with Lily, and went swimming at the Bloomfield Aquatics Center. Then, that night we drove over as they were throwing the last of their belongings in the car to head out. 

I hate saying goodbye! Especially to such good friends. After the fun week we had with Lily, I think Collin thought his sister was moving away. :) Just yesterday, I asked Collin who his friends were (Lily has been gone two weeks now) and he quickly replied, "Gavin. And Lily." And then he was out. Looks like I need to find this boy some friends!

Driving home from their house, I already missed them and felt a little lonely. I wanted to get on Facebook and post something like, "Well we might as well have been military for how often we seem to be saying goodbye to people!" But I didn't. I don't know about you, but daily I think of things I'll post on Facebook, then decide to not bother the world with my thoughts. I'll just bother those willing to read my blog. :)

Needless to say, we miss the Shaheens. At least they are just 2 hours away and we could still potentially entice them to go camping with us! :) 

And with that, I realize it's time for me to reach out to some other people in our neighborhood and ward. But I really just want to go hermit on this place. And I don't know why! I just have no motivation to make friends. In all honesty, it's exhausting to always be hosting things and organizing play dates and get togethers. Its fun to socialize, I just have no desire to initiate. Someone please come kick me in my lazy bum!

29 is Fine

And I don't mean {fine}, like "Hey, baby, you're fiiiine". More like, "The potatoes taste fine", kind of {fine}. 

Seeing 29 on a birthday card is weird. That's way too close to 30. And 30 is old. In all seriousness, it just is. 

I can remember my own mom at this age. I was 8 for heaven sakes! And ask any child... their parents are old. 

I may not have wrinkles, but I have gray hairs. 

My memory is not great, but my hearing is even less so.  (Thanks, Dad.)

When we eat out, we eat with the seniors, at 5pm.

I have no problems with going to bed at 9:30pm.

I just now realized that I think some clothes in the "misses" section are cute. And lots of clothes in the "juniors" section are not.

However, I still like to bust a move to some mean {rap}.

 I still prefer to listen to the "trendy" music on the radio. (When will I give that up?)

I will always scream my {dead animal} scream on roller coasters.

Hmmm, my "I'm old" section is bigger than my "I'm young" section. I need to think of some more to add to the latter.

But you know, in all honesty, getting older is not that bad.

A few months ago I walked into Ned's Crazy Sub just after Mesa High let out for lunch.

I walked into the high school "cafeteria".

And cringed.

The groups of teenagers scattered about, flirting and trying to act {so cool} was a bit nauseating. 

And made me SO grateful to be 28 and far from any high school clique. 

Being an adult brings it's own set of problems. But I'll take those any day to the ones facing a hormonal, insecure 16 year old.

(Cuz being a hormonal, insecure 29 year old is way better. :) Why? I don't know. But I think my super cute, really awesome husband has something to do with it.)

So back to the big day.

It was on a Saturday. Following a really bad week of the flu bug hitting our house. 

It's OK to cry when you're sick on your birthday, right?

So it was kinda a {crappy} day. 

Pun intended.

TMI?

We did get to go out to dinner the night before with Bron and Megan, which was really fun.

And I did get to sneak over to TJ Maxx to score a couple really cute outfits. 

And getting a sitter for 3 hours so Trav and I could go see The Dark Knight Rises, was pretty relaxing.

(Really good movie, btw.)

But the best part was.... my gift!

On the way to the movie, Trav told me he booked my tickets to go to California for a few days to be with my family on their annual summer vacation!

We had talked about this being a possibility, but then waited too long, and the airfare went way too high. The day I saw the prices, I went to bed depressed. There was no way I could go now.

When Travis told me, I didn't believe him. I had told him not to spend the money. He never spends money like that unless we have mutually agreed. But he did it anyway. And when I realized he was telling the truth, I just sat in the car and cried. I couldn't help it. It meant so much to me. I am so grateful for him!! It's so hard being away from my family and especially at times like this. I could not ask for a better husband!! He is too good to me. Have I mentioned how much I love him? More than FRIENDS, shopping, and ice cream combined. That's a dangerous kind of love. :)

That evening, our stake was having a pioneer activity at a park. We went, because what else do you do when you turn 29? Collin was so excited to get his cheek painted.

I don't know if Weston really knew what was happening to his cheek.

Well, then there was a tarp that the kids were sliding down like a slip 'n slide. 

Collin BEGGED to go on it. We didn't bring a suit, so he was fully aware he would get all wet and soapy and gross. There was no talking him out of it.

He got to the front of the line and froze. 

Now, there was no talking him down it.

Instead, he threw a royal tantrum and had to be pulled off.

Just look at that face.

Trav was pleased as punch to be the dad of this kid.

I didn't get to eat all day. OK, does a fly covered roll at the stake activity count? (Ya, I was THAT hungry by then.)

I said no cake.

But donuts had been bought that morning so I got my song and candle in one that night.

And Trav even grabbed the camera. 

(Bonus points are adding up for this guy!)

Hooray for 29!

29 is fine. :)

I have to add....

Rachel sent a package earlier in the week that included the cutest birthday gift AND a surprise for the boys.

I got it on the {crappiest} day of that week... Wednesday.... a day full of bathrooms and Weston throwing up multiple times on me. And me feeling like I had been hit by a truck. And also the day that Trav was at work the latest he's ever been. I wanted to die.

I read her card and cried. It was so sweet. And there was a cute brown bag all tied up with string... full of my "favorite things"! Adorable. Thanks, Rach, you are completely the best!

We had Skyped with them a week or two earlier, and Collin caught sight of Gavin wearing a really cool, super hero cape with matching wrist band. Collin was obsessed. And asked for one daily after that.

Well, Rachel noticed and did what any favorite aunt would do. She made Collin AND Weston their very own! I wished I had video taped their facial expressions when they opened them up. Priceless. Even Weston's face lit up and was SO excited.

I told Collin to make a super hero pose. 

Hysterical.

Thank you so much Rachel!!! They play with them every day! So cute!

My two super heroes.

More Camping!

Welp, we went camping again! Betcha think that's all we do now, huh? Apparently, the people at Trav's office think so too. Now when a weekend approaches, they automatically ask him if we're going camping. If they only knew it was the second time in 4 years that we've been!

This time, the Marchant's drove up from Albuquerque to join us! Yay! Our {Buffalo} group was almost complete.. .we just needed the Shaws. They were missed!

We were able to get the same great spot we had last time. The only difference was, the weather.... bad news bears! It was a rainy, stormy night. We joked about whether we should pray for the rain to stop, but knew we were severely outnumbered in the prayer department with all those praying FOR rain, because of all the fires! Luckily, the Shaheens had their trailer we hunkered down in for a while, and when the rain let up, we were all over that camp fire we couldn't have before. 

Time for s'mores! 

And scary ghost stories. Crescent regaled the kids with the tale of the {hairy toe}. Anyone heard it? I tried to capture the looks on their faces, but this does not do it justice. They were completely entranced... not blinking, faces frozen in fear. It was kind of funny. Collin asks for me to tell it daily, now.

That night was pure misery. We didn't sleep a wink! Trav tossed and turned in discomfort and I froze! We only have one sleeping bag, and Collin slept in it, so we just had piles of blankets on us. They sufficed last time, but not that night! We arose cranky and disheveled, only to learn that the Shaheens had a big sleeping bag in their camper that they didn't even use! Cue the revised Dumb and Dumber quote, 

"Lloyd: Here, maybe you should have this extra {sleeping bag}.. my body is getting kinda sweaty! 

Harry: You had...this {sleeping bag}...all this time...and you never told me!? 

Lloyd: Duh! Yeah! We're in the Rockies! 

Haha! We had to laugh. Of course, they had no idea we were in need, or they would have let us use it. I know one thing for sure... we will not be camping again until we buy another sleeping bag!

The next day the kids played in the now, much stronger stream and we went on a little nature walk.

Just look at those mountains behind Trav! So gorgeous! This was just such a beautiful area.

 I ran up ahead to take a picture of everyone and the kids thought I was playing a game and chased me before I could turn around and get the shot of everyone!

 A snuggle moment.

 Megan has the better picture of this, but aren't they so sweet?!

We stayed all day, talking and eating, while the kids played. At one point, we caught a glimpse of the girls in the tent playing grown ups and Elsie was putting on deodorant! Hysterical!

It was sad to have the day end! We wished we could stay one more night (well, minus the sleeping part!). It was just such a fun, relaxing, little trip. The Shaheens and Marchants are more like family than just friends to us. We really love them! The Shaheens are moving to Gallup in a couple weeks and we'll all be in different cities again. Luckily, we're close enough to meet up and still go camping. And you better believe we will!

Megan is so good! Here she is, packing up her house to move next week, and this morning she hands me a disk of pictures from the trip! Amazing. I love this first one of all the kids...

Weston, Else, Mason, Maia, Lilly, Collin, and Ruby!

We are going back to this place on Sunday evening to take REAL family pictures!! I'm so excited. I've been shopping all week, haha! Trav is thrilled! :)

Better Camping Pics

When we went camping with the Shaheens on July 3, Megan took some awesome pics with her awesome camera and her even more awesome {skills}. 

Pretty sure I break the 10th commandment every time I see her camera and/or pics.

(No, I don't steal... I covet. :)

These kids could have thrown rocks into the stream all. day. long. 

Newborn size shorts, folks!

 I know Trav will love that I included this one. :) 

Can't help myself, he's too cute not to!

Some impromptu family photos... in our best attire.

I bought that shirt for Collin, slightly out of guilt. I saw it at Ross and knew he would love it.

I also knew I wouldn't.

But I decided to swallow my pride and let him wear it.

The first week, he tried every day to dig it out of the dirty clothes and wear it yet again.

 Now he just fist pumps every time he sees it in his drawer.

And wouldn't you know it... he had it on this day. Sigh.

 Clearly, we have some very photogenic kids.

 The {Taj- ma- tent}

 Lilly and Collin just played and played and played. It was wonderful. 

Yay for camping with friends!

 Spidy throwing his web.