August

My reading obsessed heart soars when I catch cute kiddos looking at books. This is Weston and his little friend, Everett. Or "Eberett" as Weston calls him. 

The Thursday before school started, we took a spontaneous day trip to Farmington. My friend, Brinn, went too, with her 5 kids. We spent the whole afternoon at the Bloomfield pool. Like 4 hours. Between the intoxicating sun and Costa Vida, I was in 7th heaven. The life guards were awesome sauce and let the boys go down the huge twisty slides by themselves. Bless them! That entertained them for hours. I didn't know it either, but that was the day I got to meet Lisa! Lisa is Rachel's friend from Florida, and also happens to be sisters in law with my friend, Kristy, in Farmington. Got that?? :)  Lisa's husband just got a job in Farmington so they are in the process of moving there. I have heard so much about her that I nearly squealed when I saw her walk in with Kristy!

Olive finally fell asleep in her stroller for the last 45 min. or so. I feel so lucky that she's a good sleeper that way.

Me, Kristy, Lisa and Brinn.

 I tell ya, good friends are what life is all about.

The weather has been great. I love going on walks with the kids. The boys are crazy. You'd think throwing rocks would get old. We usually follow the same pattern and walk to this house with a water fountain in the yard, then turn around and walk home. About half way there, is a yard with a huge rock on the corner. This is the "pirate ship". We always have to stop for them to play pirates for a couple of minutes. 

So, fun fact: look behind the boys where that brown fence is. Last Saturday, we were on a walk as a whole family when we witnessed a drunk (or high.. not sure which) guy, run his car into those rocks, stopping an inch from the fence. Seriously. We had actually taken a different route that evening and were headed down the street in the picture that is intersecting the main one showing. All of a sudden, this grey Ford Focus comes flying down the road and doesn't stop at the stop sign, or even brake, but still tries to make a right handed turn. He lost control and flew across the road where oncoming traffic could have been and crashed into the side of the yard. A big rock stopped him or he would have crashed into the fence. A boy and girl hopped out the passenger side doors (maybe early 20's) and tried to push the car out, when it wouldn't budge, they took off down the road. I had grabbed Travs phone and was talking pictures, then called 911. The driver tried to reverse, then got out and tried in vain to push it. When he saw me on the phone he started calling out, "Don't call the cops! Don't call the cops! Help me push my car out!". It wasn't worth chastising him, but I did anyway. I mean, he drove his car right into a place that I regularly go on walks with my kids!! Idiot! Well, it was a whole ordeal. The police came and ended up arresting him. I filled out a witness report and was told I'll probably be subpoenaed to testify in court. Great. The boys thought it was awesome, watching a guy get arrested. We tried to use it as a teaching moment. Don't know if it landed. Wasn't too thrilled with our neighborhood, finishing that walk home.

This picture is overexposed because it was so dark by the time the tow truck came, that I had to brighten it a ton to show what's happening. 

Well, while I'm annoyed at Gallup, I'll share another fun anecdote! Last week, I met Brinn and Megan at the park to let the kids play. We had just laid out a whole Wendy's spread on my picnic blanket when a group of at least 11 SCARY men walked up and settled in at a table next to the park. Now, hear me out. We are used to scroungy men. They are everywhere. We hardly blink an eye at smelly, homeless transients anymore. These guys were different. We were certain they had to be a gang. And they weren't quiet either. They walked up loud and obnoxious and continued to laugh in the most evil manner, being crude and leering at us. I noticed one who's face was seriously mutilated. They started up a grill with some hot dogs and Brinn got on her phone calling the police to come check them out. The police finally came, seemed to talk to them, then left. Then we did too. It was such a bummer since we had just gotten there. I can't even imagine what I would have done if I was there alone!! I couldn't have gotten in my car fast enough! Here are my super non discreet pictures I took, pretending I was just taking them of the kids. You can't really see anything, but mark my words, those were some nasty creepsters in the background. Oi!! Gallup!!

OK, on to more pleasant topics. Friends! It's good to have friends. Especially ones that will play all afternoon in the rain with you!

I told Weston and Ruby we could make Jello jigglers. #FAIL! How does one even mess up Jello?! Is there a different recipe if you want to cut them out with cookie cutters? It was the saddest affair, but they really couldn't have cared less that their hearts and snowflakes were piles of crumbly slop. They slurped that red goo up like it sugar. Oh that's right- it is. :)

We have some pathetic little tomato plants in the back yard that the boys love more than life itself. They came in with this tiny tomato and all wanted to share it. 

To say that Lilly loves Olive is the understatement of the year. Megan took this picture of her combing her hair at their house. I love the colors. This also happened to be the time that Megan took my kids for an entire day as part of her birthday gift to me. Priceless! I worked on blog books the whole day and it felt so good! What a friend!

It was the middle of July when I realized the summer was coming to a close and we had yet to have even one BBQ in our newly grassed backyard!! (That's a verb, right?!) So we called some families we wanted to get to know better and had a BBQ. It was tax free weekend, so I woke up at 5:30 to grocery shop and get things ready. We worked on the house all day and then at 3pm it started pouring rain! I was so mad!! I cursed the Gallup gods and it actually stopped in time for the BBQ. Hallelujah! It turned out to be a really fun night with friends!

We've only held Cubscouts once a month for the summer. It's been a nice break. Our last all combined activity was a water one. The boys (and leader's daughter) had a blast. Although there were two crying episodes. I'm not sure I'm ready for it to start up again in September! These boys are CrAzY!!!

Weston casually mentioned one day something about his "Zumba" shirt. 

"Huh?", I asked. Then it clicked. Ohhh, Puma... Zumba. Ha! Anyone's mistake. ;)

I couldn't find the boys one afternoon, til I opened the garage door and found them kickin' back in their camping chairs, shooting the breeze. When Collin looked up at me, he chirped, "Hi Mom! We're just sitting here, talking. About that time I fell in the fire." Then Weston solemnly adds... "Yeah, that was suuuper scary." With such a serious face. I could have died!

Cleaning out the pantry of old chocolate. 

"Will you accept this rose?"

Here's where I share my Olive obsession!!

A girl at Trav's office made a headband for Olive. Preshhh. :)

Oh why does this have to be blurry??!!

I was carrying in groceries when she came cruisin' through, wearing Collin's hat. Got it on, all by herself! Little fashionista.

 All in a dither, with no fabric in sight, she grabbed desperately at my shirt and yanked it to her chest- thumb stuck in mouth and finally content. 

I walked into the living room to her giving short bursts of "Ah! Ah!". She needed rescuing from her perch, haha!

Seriously, someone pinch me. I could just eat her face off.

I can never decide which outfit of hers I think is the cutest, but these next two are clear favorites. Blue always brings out her already gorgeous blue eyes! 

This little white skirt is so dang adorable though!! I just love the way it tufts out like a tutu.

Some moments I can't explain, but this one just had me laughing. There were men working on the ceiling in the dining room, and she kept crawling over to peek at them. I just thought she looked so funny, resting up against the wall, staring at them.

Collin had his first soccer game last Saturday morning. He started practices a couple of weeks ago, but they've had to cancel a few for rain. The first practice I went to was absolutely comical. It was like watching "Little Giants", but soccer version. The kids had no idea what they were doing. Total chaos. Just kicking the ball out of bounds and running until they were halfway to Arizona. With the coach running after them, waving her arms and shouting to come back. Well, his first game wasn't so much comical as embarrassing. For some reason he was super emotional and kept crying every time the other team scored or he missed the ball or fell down or ANYTHING! I really thought Travis was going to kill him. He's not even our emotional one! We could not figure it out! I wanted to shake him. He finally scored a point and things got a little better. I just had to put my camera away and pretend this wasn't happening! Hopefully next game he won't take everything so seriously and just have fun!

How do you like that uniform, eh, eh??! :) That is as PINK as pink gets. Haha. Go Speedy's! 

California Take 2- Evans

Well after we bade farewell to my family, they headed home and we drove 2 miles north to meet up with the Evans and start THEIR vacation! It was nice adding on a few extra days to our trip, but not so nice packing up all our stuff just to unpack it again. And this time, Trav was a veritable pack horse, lugging EVERYTHING up to our 6th floor room at the hotel. We stayed at the Wyndham right across from the pier in Oceanside. It was a two bedroom suite type place that we shared with Reddin and Karen's family. The M&M's and Neus' stayed across the hall from us. Trav's parents and Gretchen, Trevor and Aubrey were in another hotel. 

Right after we unloaded and put Olive down for a nap to be watched by Grandma, we walked down to Mary's for a late breakfast. Didn't disappoint!

There were lots of pros and cons when comparing the beach house to the Wyndham. One big con about the latter was the beach situation. We were on public beach, in a popular, crowded area. That Saturday seemed especially crazy! People everywhere! And certainly a wide mix of "types" of people. Maybe a bit more on the trashy side, if you will. Still, it was the beach, and I was grateful to be there! Olive was still sleeping when we got back from brunch, so Trav stayed with her and I went down with the boys. That was another con... not being able to put the baby down for a nap in the house and still be on the beach. I hauled two beach chairs, the huge duffel of toys, and our beach bag of towels down. Luckily, Collin was able to hold the boogie board. 

Aunt Aubrey sure was nice to play ball with Weston! Both their favorites I think! :)

Baby Elinor was only 7 weeks old. Megan was a trooper to come! Travis commented to me at one point how different my sisters in law are from my sisters. Me and my sisters revel in the sun! My sisters in law hide from it. ;)

We got Johnny Mananas for dinner that night, and then Reddin, Karen, Trav and I walked down the street to get some really yummy frozen yogurt. That was a pro to this location! We could easily walk to many restaurants. Then we played Lucky Unders with them and Trevor, Gretchen and Aubrey. 

The next morning we all met at the Oceanside 1st ward for sacrament meeting. I didn't get a picture, but sitting a few rows in front of us were the entire LeSeueur family! Again... you can't run from Mesa! ;)

Right after church we drove straight into San Diego. It's crazy to me how the I-5 is packed any day, any time. It started pouring rain and took us nearly an hour. All the kids fell fast asleep! Karen had told us about this place called the Donut Bar that is supposed to be crazy good and popular, so we were going to meet there for a healthy lunch. ;) Well, popular is right! It was sold out at 11am! The whole front of the shop was plastered in awards. I guess it's supposed to be the 6th best place in the country for donuts. Whoever decides that! We were bummed to miss out, but our next stop was the Crest Cafe. 6 months ago we were watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and saw this place featured. So, knowing we'd be in San Diego this weekend, I put an alert in my phone to remind us to eat there. Hehe. Well it worked! No way I'd have remembered otherwise.

I regret what I ordered. The Cubana. A bit too much meat for me. Should have gotten the Butter Burger like Trav. Collin and Weston shared the Creme Brulee French Toast. Theirs was yummy too!

Oops, got everyone with full mouths!

From there, we met up with everyone else at the temple and walk around the gardens. It was mating season for snails or something because they were out in abundance!

I noticed Matthew's scar for the first time! We have our own Harry Potter!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole week. Just a moment in time to remember how blessed I am with this sweet family of mine. Let me add to that ... this forever family!

 

This picture captures her luscious cheeks so well!

Next we visited the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center and had such a good time! I had heard how awesome it was, but had no idea how modern and interactive everything was.

We went on a tour that started Harry Potter style... with moving and talking pictures on the wall. I almost felt dumb with how amazed I was. It was like something you'd expect to see at Disneyland!

You move from room to room, watching a movie about the Mormon Battalion and learning facts from the missionaries. The boys stayed pretty entertained. At the end, I found my ancestor and brother's name sake on the roster! By the end, I also turned to Travis and said, "I lied. I do NOT wish I was a pioneer!" They had such difficult lives!

Outside they had a pump to try, a "brick kiln" to practice making bricks in, and a little river to pan for gold!

Monday morning we tried out the hotel's hot tub and pool. Olive took a really long morning nap so I got some quiet time watching TV while everyone else was at the beach. After she woke up, I snagged Johnny's for lunch for the last time (shed a tear) and headed to the beach. Wayne had come up to the hotel right after Olive woke up and offered to stay with her for a while, so we could be at the beach without her. Fabulous! She is not at a great age for the beach! Lots of whining and eating sand.

When Travis brought her down for the last hour of the day, we didn't have any swim diapers, so she went commando. Haha. Her bum cheeks were cracking me up!

That night, we split up the kids and put the babies to bed and the oldest granddaughters watched the rest them while us adults went out. I was a little apprehensive at first, but with locked doors and a movie and popcorn to occupy them, it shouldn't have been very hard to hold down the fort. Everyone else wanted Ruby's, but we were feeling like sushi, Specifically, Miso Harney, sushi up the street. Yes, I'm dead serious. We ordered the Flaming Lip and the Miso Harney roll. We called it in, so I had the pleasure of choking on that phrase to the waitress. ;) It was worth it. We picked it up and walked down to the pier to eat with some of his siblings. The wait at Ruby's was pretty long.

The next morning was pack up and go time! I had to run into The Closet one more time, then we stopped in to Phil's for lunch before really hitting the road. Collin was all over the chicken wing. The M&M's met us there.

We didn't want to drive all the way to Gallup in one day, so we spent the night in Mesa and got some errands done on Wednesday. That included school shopping for Collin! I was SO excited for this! Then we spent 10 min. in Target and my hopes were dashed. We walked through the shoe department and Collin exclaimed, "MOM! Go back so I can show you what shoes I want!" To which he held up these beauties. 

*Should slump*

I tried to explain, "Um, Collin, those are girls shoes."

"But I LIKE SOPHIA!", he wailed!!

*Face palm*

From there it was tantrums over all the most hideous clothes, hats, watches, what have you, in the boys department. Taking kids shopping is the PITS! :) For the record, I did let him get an Avenger back pack and a pretty terrible Batman shirt!

And then I had to take Weston afterward so he didn't feel so left out.

After shopping, Shelley came over to give me a much needed trim (1 1/2 years in the making!!) and we snuck one final swim in with our cousins! I will miss the glorious sun!

This is what Olive looked like when we finally pulled into the driveway. It will be nice to move her into a forward facing car seat soon!