July Pictures

It is July.  And we love America!

First ponytail!

Happy birthday, Ruby!  Ruby l ikes to wake up to presents on her birthday!

Mom made these matching outfits as a gift.

We love donuts instead of cake!

Being 9 is just fine!

We were invited to go swim at the Sessions' grandma's house with some neighbors.  It was a great time!

Simon wore himself right out with swimming!

How many security objects does one baby need? 

Love these sunsets.

Ouch!  Simon crashed his bike at the park.

Salt Lake Connect Pass:

Visit as many venues in one day as you can for one low price.

Great way to celebrate our summer birthdays.

Tracy Aviary

Look, Baby, see thebirdies?

Hogle Zoo Dinosaur Days

Awesome tongue tricks!

Children's Discovery Museum

Planetarium

Hello, Chris.  Porter family reunion at Cherry Hill.  We got eye masks and earplugs for everyone since the campground is so crowded.

What a big helper! 

Such a cute little bottom!

Cousins are the best!

Millington Family Reunion at This is The Place Heritage Park.

Love this sweet, chubby little crook.

Just chillin with the ba-bas

Simon fell in love with this penguin Ruby got for her birthday.  He was always begging to play with it.

I made these outfits when the boys were little and Ruby was a baby.  So fun to get to use them again.

Busy, Busy Week

I am exhausted.

But in a contented, full, happy sort of way.

We had a busy, busy week.

Monday was our Connect Pass day.  Everyone got up excitedly and worked together to get out the door (almost) on time.  Our first stop: Tracy Aviary. 
I really love the amazing variety of birds here.  Dallin and I both agreed that South America wins the prize for best birds.  Sarajoy was thrilled with the owl forest.  She has seen lots of owls in books, our favorite being "Wow! Said the Owl", but seeing them in real life was a real treat!  My favorite was the tiny bird nest in the corner of the building that had the bathrooms.  It was not an exhibit, but a real little nest.  I think it was a Robin's nest.  In it sat 5 little birds who were learning to fly.  It was comical to see them trying to still fit in the nest that was barely big enough to hold their feet.  I was also impressed with the mud nests the flamingos were working so hard on. 
Next stop:  Hogle Zoo
I have always loved zoos.  I love to watch animals.  My favorites are elephants and giraffes, and I also love the apes.  It is fun to have little ones who are so thrilled with their first real-life encounters with these amazing animals.  We were excited to see 5 tigers.  The tigers are usually asleep and hidden from view.  They were still asleep, but at least we could see them.  We watched a giraffe wrap his tongue around a pole and tug.  I was amazed at how long and strong it was!  They had some fun dinosaur exhibits throughout the zoo that were neat for the little ones.  We had to kind of rush through the zoo, but we did take time for the zoo train.  It cost us 12 extra dollars to ride the zoo train.  I think the  ride lasts maybe 3-5 minutes.  It is a total rip-off, but such a thrill for the little ones to ride a train that we do it every time.  Somehow the $12 melts away when the 2-year-old starts saying, "WOO-WOO!"  "WOO-WOO!"
By now we were a tad behind schedule, and starving!  Good thing our next stop was:
Lion House Pantry
I think it is so cool that they include this in the connect pass.  Down in Brigham Young's old basement, you get to sit in a quiet atmosphere and eat home-cooked food.  They gave each of us a $10 voucher.  Since the kids meals were only $5, we had $20 left over when we were done.  Just before we left, I went back through the line and bought 4 more kids meals to use for dinner. 
We were full and happy as we headed to:
Discovery Gateway Children's Museum
We could have spent an entire day here.  I love this place!  They have a machine that sucks up balls (like the things at the bank window) that entertained all of us for the first little while.  Then you enter a little play town.  It has a house with a kitchen and livingroom, all kid-sized.  Sarajoy spent lots of time in there making dinner and caring for the babies.  They also have a construction site, a farm, a grocery store, and a water-play area.  Simon and Sarajoy both loved the water-play, and Simon spent a good while at the construction site.  Upstairs are more creative toys to play with, a newscasting station, and other exhibits.  Simon and Daisy loved the giant foam dominoes that you could build forts out of.  We stayed there until it closed.  We could have spent more time there, but the 2.5 hours was enough to have a lot of fun.  Across the street was the:
Clark Planetarium
This is a cool place by itself, but the Connect Pass also included tickets to 2 shows.  We bought our tickets and looked around at some of the exhibits.  I was disappointed that the show wasn't the one that showed the stars and constellations.  It was about Egypt and the myths related to the stars.  Interesting, but also nauseating to go through all of those buildings with a dome-shaped screen.  Simon kept saying, "Mom, are we flying?    We are flying, Mom.  Are we locked in?  I'm ready to go, mom."  Sarajoy would not leave her seat, even though I could tell she was terrified.  I kept trying to pick her up and comfort her, but she would not budge.  She just held on to my finger with all of her might.  After about 15 minutes of this, Ruby came to me and said she had a headache (her version of motion-sickness).  I'd had enough, too.  We went out in the lobby and looked at all of the neat displays.  By this time, I was pretty well exhausted.  I would try to wrap my brain around some of the scientific descriptions, but I just couldn't.  I was too tired. 
After Dallin and the boys came out of the show, we went out to Gateway to eat dinner.  I was SO glad we had the Lion House food.  We found a big rock by the splash pad and set out our chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, and fresh fruit to enjoy together. Simon was the only one daring enough to brave the splash pad.  As soon as he got out on it, it shot up and splashed him directly in the face.  He loved it!  I was really glad I had thought to bring a change of clothes for the 2 little ones because we needed it!   It started to rain while we were eating, so we took shelter under a kiosk.  It wasn't letting up, so we braved the storm and headed back to the car.  We decided to pass on the Pink Floyd laser light show that we had tickets for.  It was the only other thing being shown, but we were just not up to another show on that screen (not to mention the music!)
It was a great day, and we feel like it was a bargain.  It is always great to do things with just our family.  We dropped the boys off at Dallin's sister's house for a sleep over.  That is always a treat for them. 

When Dallin woke me up the next morning, it seemed all too early.  But sure enough, I had to get up and go at it again.  He was off to work, but his parents had invited us to spend the day with them at Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.  We managed to get out of the house on time.  They were having Pirate Day.  This is not the kind of thing I usually go for, but I did my best to enjoy it for the family experience.  I just don't get a big kick out of standing in line to have my kids to a little craft that I will be left carrying for the rest of the day.  And this activity had TEN stations!  It was just the right thing for my 6 and 9 year olds, so I hid my irritation for their benefit.  Ruby and Daisy had fun collecting items at each station, and getting clues to find the treasure hidden in the dinosaur museum.  By the time we got through with the pirate stuff, there wasn't much of me left to enjoy the museum.  We did it, though.  The kids always have the most fun in the sand/water area.  We missed the treasure, but found it on our second look after an extra clue.  The kids were told they would get a prize if they did all 10 activities and found the treasure.  All but Simon were a bit disappointed that the treasure was a plastic gold coin.  Oh well.  It was a fun day, and I'm glad the kids got to spend time with cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. 

These two activities left me with a couple of days to get ready for our family reunion.  I usually do laundry on Mondays, but this got pushed to Wednesday.  I managed to get some mending done and I went through my closet and got my room in good shape.  I really wanted to keep going and get the rest of my pictures hung, but I ran out of time.  Thursday we all worked all morning to get packed up.  We had a nap break (mostly for me) and finished loading the car just in time for Dallin to get home.  We had a great time. We camped at Cherry Hill.  The weather was very pleasant and the campground not as crowded as last year.  Friday morning, we ate and headed to Pineview Reservoir for a day at the beach.  The kids got to go tubing on Grandpa's boat.  Simon was pretty much content floating around the shallows in his life jacket and swim ring.  Sarajoy and I had fun playing with sand toys.  We have a set that has an ice cream scoop and cones.  She made the mistake of licking her ice cream cone and getting a mouth full of sand! 
The next day we spent at Cherry Hill.  It is such a family-friendly water park.  I love it, though I'm disappointed that the price keeps going up!  I spent the day with the 3 little ones and Dallin.  The big kids went off with cousins.  Daisy learned some confidence in going underwater.  She didn't quite get the swimming thing down, but almost.  She had lots of confidence with just her life jacket, and had fun jumping in to me.  I noticed how much fun Simon was having looking underwater with his goggles.  I decided to see how he would do with swimming underwater.  He was SO excited to get to try real swimming, and before long  he was swimming back and forth from me to Dallin.  It was pretty exciting for all of us.  He couldn't get enough of "practicing", and didn't even want to get out of the pool when the pizza came.   Dallin and I got to take him on Cardiac Canyon and the Dragon Slides.  Daisy wasn't ready to try these activities, but Simon loved them.  We had a great time, and got some more "practicing" in before the park closed.  We had a nice family meeting where we shared memories of my dad's parents Sarel and Louisa. 
The next day, we packed up camp and went to my sister's house for brunch.  She lives across the street from Cherry Hill.  After we ate, we went to church.  Sarajoy was so tired.  As soon as the Sacrament was over, I took her to the Mother's Room.  I have to admit we both slept.  I was SO exhausted.  She slept through much of Sunday School and then went happily to nursery.  They told me when I picked her up how cute she was and how much she loved helping the babies.  It is such a blessing that she likes nursery, no matter where we go!  I went to Relief Society with my mom.  Then back to my sister's for dinner and some quiet time to relax and visit.  My sister Kim is terribly sick with her 7th pregnancy.  She was only able to come out of her room for the family meeting.  I missed her as well as my sister Amy who had to stay home with her little boy who has leukemia.  His immunity level was not high enough for him to be around other kids.  I did go into Kim's room for awhile and watch some of Pride and Prejudice with her and Melissa, which was fun.  And it was good to visit a little with my sister Erin from Las Vegas.  It was hard to leave  on such a good, peaceful evening. 
Today has been a nice quiet day of laundry and crafts and puzzles. 
I feel so blessed that I have such a remarkable heritage and get to be a part of such a great family.  I hope I can live up to it and help my children recognize the legacy they have been given. 
I am a bit disappointed in myself that I wasn't better at working scripture reading into our campout.  I know it played into my being a bit grouchy and snappy with my kids.  I want to be able to rise above the exhaustion caused by family outings, but I'm not there yet. 
Today we read for quite awhile to catch up with our Stake reading goal.  We were reading in the beginning of Alma.  It talked about the rich and prideful people persecuting the humble followers of Christ.  It mentioned how they who were humble were filled with joy because they knew about the resurrection and the sacrifice of the Savior.  I was able to bear testimony to my kids that He is the only source of true happiness.  I know they will be tempted to look for happiness elsewhere as we all are.  I hope I can keep His message of love and hope in my heart and home and help plant it in theirs. 
I have felt that this summer has been a gift for me.  We have had lots of neat experiences as a family, but it has also been a time to regroup and gather courage for my upcoming commitments.  It has been such a blessing to have time to exercise, rest, and study.  I know I need to be prepared for the things we all need to learn in the next school year.  I'm excited and look forward to having more time as a family and less time spent on outside commitments.  I'm also excited for our co-op and leadership opportunities in the home school group.  I know the Lord has some special things in store for our family, and I am so grateful for this time of preparation.

18 Miracles

Dallin and I had the opportunity to go to the movies. 

This is a rare treat for us, but we decided to splurge since my sister's family is in the movie.

Our money was not wasted. 

Scene after scene made me weep as I watched the faith of the early Saints being tried and tested.
And I wondered, has my faith been tested like that?

I watched people giving their all, burying their little ones and dear sweethearts. 
If they were lucky enough to be able to dig a grave.
And I wondered, am I giving my all?

I saw a woman who sat on a rock and refused to go on because she had suffered so much privation and weakness.  A miracle helped her choose to go on.
And I empathized with her weakness and feelings of being overwhelmed.
And I wondered, how many miracles have helped me stand back up when I've faltered?
How many more will I need to get to Zion? 
Can I, like her, remember the past miracles and be grateful when I am tempted to despair?

I saw people suffering beyond imagination for what they believed in.  The world would have called them fools.
And I wondered, am I listening to the wisdom of man more than trusting in God?

The movie was called 17 miracles.
The 18th miracle is the one going on inside of me. 




Here is a link to my sister's comments about having her family in the movie.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/note.php?note_id=2070075348465

Summer Birthdays

We have 3 of them.  They are all over now. 

Nathan is 13, Sarajoy is 2, and Ruby is 9. 

I asked Nathan to count how many more birthdays we will celebrate before all of the kids are out of the house.  (I was feeling pretty exhausted after Sarajoy's party when I asked him this)
The answer was something like 78. 
Wow.

Nathan's birthday was celebrated mostly on Saturday since his big day fell on fast Sunday. 
Sausage, Eggs, and Pancakes for breakfast. 

Then the memorable Squaw Peak hike.  Lunch and dinner didn't quite happen how we'd planned.

His lunch choice of ravioli got cooked sometime during the following week, but we had steak for dinner on Sunday.  We quickly cleaned up and made a cake.  Yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  This is so good if the frosting is homemade. 

We took it across the street to share with our neighbors during our weekly Sunday afternoon get together. 

He wanted an ipod for his birthday.  I have my reasons for not liking ipods, the main one being that I don't want my kids off in their own little pop culture world.  I did, however, shop around just to see.  I have a really hard time not granting my kids' wishes.  The price was just WAY too out of our range.  Even on ebay or in the classifieds.  I told him beforehand because I think he was kinda counting on it.  He had walked in the kitchen the day I was looking at them online.  I told him I could get him something else or give him some money to save up to buy his own ipod.  For his present, we bought him a bunch of his favorite treats and wrapped them in paper and made an awesome Calorie Castle out of them.  I sort of forgot about the money thing until the other day when he said he'd like a wallet.  I was happy to pay for that over an ipod!
Brandon was excited to find a hat on sale for $3 at Wal Mart.  It was the exact hat that Nathan had almost paid $15 for several months ago, but decided against.  Brandon was so excited to give it to him!


Our baby girl turned 2! 
Now when my oldest turned 2, he seemed like such a big boy!  How come she still seems like such a tiny baby? 
My plan was to get the kiddie pools out and have a little family water party for her.  Unfortunately that afternoon and evening were very stormy, so the pool party had to wait a couple of days.  She loved waking up to her balloon boquet in the morning.  She got to play with her best friend Adella.  One of the things she loves to talk about most is Adella.  She names her dolls Adella.  She loves to look at me with bright eyes and say, "Mommy!  wa-wa!  'della!"  And we talk about the time we got to go swimming with Adella.  The other thing we always talk about is the bee sting she got at Grandpa's house.   
Dallin came home from work and straight to a Court of Honor.  I made sure everyone had a late nap that day so we could still do the party after he got home.  I sort of forgot about the cake thing, but thankfully Nathan had made a cake for his friend that day and kind of botched the frosting.  He was kind to donate it to the cause.  Just as we were getting the candles out, I remembered that all of my other kids got an elephant cake on their 2nd birthdays.  Ugh.  I took that crumbly mess and cut and mashed it into an elephant.  I ran down to the service station and bought some spray whipped cream and made it a white elephant! 
Even though there was no water, she loved the little water animals and nets she got.  She also got an adorable little push-cart from Ikea.  She is so cute driving her gorilla and her little babies around in it. 

Ruby turned 9 today!  I came into the kitchen this morning and the music we listened to during her birth was playing.  Such a sweet, wonderful experience that was! 
For breakfast she chose a few special breakfast cereals that we don't usually buy.  Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, and she also chose Life and Honey Bunches of Oats which we buy regularly. 
She unwrapped her outfit at breakfast, and was so excited!  I'm glad she likes it.  She dressed up her American Girl to match, and Sarajoy just couldn't get enough of that doll. 
We were in charge of the knot-tying class for Activity Days today.  Ruby and I ran to the store to get some licorice ropes for treats.  Then we picked up Nathan and headed to the church.  Nathan did most of the instructing.  He did a great job.  We made friendship bracelets at the end.  Things like that are always so exhausting! 
When we came home we made homemeade pretzels for lunch.  Lots of fun! 
Then we all had quiet time, and I took a nap!
This evening we had the BIGGEST storm we've seen up here, and we've seen some big ones!  Our whole driveway and front sidewalk were under inches of water.  Our drainage system we put in last year was maxed out.  Our shed floor was covered in water, and I cleared the drain in front of the raquetball court in the nick of time.  Dallin was a little disappointed to come home to a driveway full of mud.  We looked around at that for a few minutes before coming in for dinner. 
She wanted me to make a chicken salad she had had at a friend's house.  It had lettuce, carrots, celery, tomatoes, cheese, and cooked chicken.  Then you cover it with Ranch Dressing and mix it all together.  It was delicious!  Even the little kids ate it all gone. 
She opened her presents.  She got some snacks and a Fur Real newborn penguin and a tiny plush kitten.  She was very pleased.  Instead of cake she chose donuts. 
We stayed up with Dallin and watched the footage I took of the storm. 

A few years ago, we decided to quit doing friend parties and do family birthday activities instead.  Since all of these birthdays are close together, I suggested we combine and do a Salt Lake Connect Pass.  For one price, you get into all of Salt Lake's main attractions.  As many as you can fit into one day.  We'll do that on Monday.  We're planning to go to the Hogle Zoo, The Gateway Children's Museum, The Planetarium, and we'll get a free lunch at the Lion House restaurant.  We're all really excited!

Happy Birthday to my Summer babies!  I am one lucky mama!

Summer Schedule?

I think not. 

I thought we'd have a summer schedule.  We have in the past.  I keep thinking it will happen, but I just can't bring myself to do it. 

My 3 girls are playing outside with sidewalk chalk right now.  It is nearly 9pm.  I have no desire to put them to bed. 

I spent ALL DAY yesterday sewing an outfit for Ruby's birthday tomorrow.  I had so much fun I made one for her American Girl doll as well. 

I went Visiting Teaching today for the first time in YEARS.  It was great!


Honestly, I'm just loving the ability to think through my day in the morning, make a list of priorities, and then tackle as much as I can and enjoy as much as I can. 

Whoever is awake when Dad is almost ready to leave joins in for scripture time.  I usually have the kids do their chores, and then they just play or help me with projects. 

I'm still getting stuff done, just different stuff.  Stuff like cleaning the grime off the washer and dryer and FINALLY cleaning my sewing room. 

Stuff like lying on my bed for awhile with my 2 year old and playing ponies with her. 
You know how fun it is to kiss babies on the neck? 
Well, she has figured out how to do it back.  She tilts up my chin and lays some juicy ones on me, and it just gives me the tingles! 

I was just changing her diaper, and I looked out the laundry room window.  How blessed I am that I can see that incredible view of the sun setting over the valley and the lake.  I am so blessed!

Trying to exercise more is making me super tired!  It makes for grouchy evenings, but its okay!  I got to veg out on the computer for awhile, and the girls ate cereal for dinner.  Brandon's out with friends, they just ran in for a permanent marker to "fix" the grafiti on the street sign.  Dallin took Simon swimming with the Scouts. 

I know that soon we will need to be back on a schedule, but for now I'm content to let Summer be Summer.  I want my kids to know how wonderful it feels to be outside at twilight.  I want them to appreciate the intoxicating mountain breeze that blows through our neighborhood each evening. 

And they need time to just be bored and play and rest.

And I need time to read and tackle projects that I can never get to during the school year. 

What wonderful, nourishing, revitalizing things are seasons!

Brandon's Big Month

We spent two fabulous weeks of June in Idaho at my Mom's. 

It has been many, many years since we've been able to break away for that long. 
And it wasn't even planned!

My parents came through on the way to a class reunion in Vegas, and I decided to ride back with them. 
Since Nathan and Dallin were staying behind for Scout Camp, we all fit in Grandma and Grandpa's van.

One big reason I wanted to get away was that I was having a bit of a struggle dealing with the constant competition from the wonderful neighborhood kids.  They really are wonderful, but I was having a struggle creating what I wanted with my own family when there was a constant distraction.  No matter how great our family plans were, playing with friends always seemed more fun.  
I needed to get away from it for awhile. 

How happy I was to wake the first morning to my dad's riding lawnmower going.  I went outside to find Brandon contentedly driving around the lawn. 
It was just what I had hoped for him to experience. 
Summers with my dad are wonderful.  He is so knowledgeable and patient.  He can do lots of things.  He loves his grandkids.
And it's pretty special to go get a "mug" of pop with him after the work is done. 

Since this post is about Brandon's adventures, I'll quickly sum up what the rest of us did.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather in my parents' beautiful yard.  We helped Grandma with projects.  We went to Cherry Hill with the cousins.  I read a couple of books.  I had nice, long study sessions each morning.  I read scriptures to the kids each night.  We enjoyed delicious meals and treats from Grandma.  We got some sewing and shopping done.  It was a REAL vacation.  I didn't feel like I needed to recover afterwards.
Well, except for the fact that Daisy and I got walking pneumonia for the last few days of our break.  But even that was tolerable with my mom there to make chicken noodle soup and give lots of TLC.

Brandon, on the other hand, had the "best two weeks of [his] life!" 
Besides learning how to drive the riding lawnmower, Grandpa hooked up his small trailer and taught Brandon how to back up a trailer.  He let Brandon work alongside him as he tended his large apiary (honeybees). 
Despite getting a few bee stings, Brandon stuck it out.  One of the most amazing experiences was going along with Grandpa to collect a swarm from somebody's yard.  We have pictures of Brandon with his hand COVERED with honeybees.  When they swarm, they are very calm and gentle.  You can stick your bare hand right into the big blob of bees hanging from a tree without getting stung.  (I've actually never done this, but Brandon has!).  Dallin and Nathan came to stay the last weekend and bring us home.  Monday morning, they all went fishing with Grandpa.  Ruby and Simon went along as well.  Wouldn't you know it, but within the first hour, Brandon caught a 4.5 pounder!  Dallin also caught a 4 pounder.  We had a lovely fish dinner before we headed home. 

We thought Brandon had had about enough excitement for one month, but not quite.  I have to add a story that happened Saturday, July 2nd. Dallin took Nathan and Brandon hiking with his brother Aaron and his oldest 2 girls. They were trying to climb a mountain right by our house that has a big tower on it. They have never climbed it before, so they had no idea how long it would take, etc. They took a wrong turn on the path and ended up having to walk through some brush to get back on the main road. At one point, Brandon was leading the way, looking at the GPS. He felt a squish under his foot and then heard a rattle! 
There were some very tense moments as they watched the huge rattle snake slowly slither away without striking. We're all really thankful that nothing worse happened. Why would that snake not strike after being squished like that? Dallin got some footage of the snake. He wishes now that he had killed it, but I think it deserved to live after sparing Brandon.


We're so thankful that Brandon got to have such a special month of growing and learning experiences.  We're especially glad he came out of the snake experience unscathed!