Some Family Fun

With the kids in school, football games on Saturdays, and life in general in session, it was a busy week, but we found a few hours for some fun family time. We met Dad in Lehi at the Trafalga and enjoyed the rides and arcade games. We are trying to soak up as much sunshine as we can before the weather gets too cold.

Lexi's favorite thing was the carousel. She loved when her horse was up and mine down so she could tell me that she is bigger than me.

Dillan loved the roller coaster. He wanted to ride by himself. Getting too big to sit by mom!

Lex was pretty excited to ride the roller coaster, but isn't too cool to sit by her mom!

Dillan wanted to ride the horse by himself as well. "Mom, don't sit by me, I'm not a baby."
Lex, on the other hand, wanted me to hold her hand the whole ride. I guess that is the difference between 4 and 5.

Derrick rode with Dad the first time, and mom the second.

Another of the kid's favorite rides were the planes. They could move them up or down at will, and shoot at the other riders.


This was after the boys soaked us in the bumper boats pool. We were laughing that we bothered doing our hair because the boys got it so wet we just pulled it up after. Stinking boys! haha
The boys rode in one boat, and we road in the other. Brett and Dillan steered, and Derrick held the button down to shoot water at us. He did a good job, we were soaked!

This is on the roller coaster before the ride. Lex got scared and didn't want to go on it again. Derrick LOVED it.
These last few pics are from a birthday party we went to as a family. It was butterfly themed. They painted faces, decorated cupcakes, made cacoons, and more. This is Dillan helping to cover one of the other kids in a toilet paper cacoon.
Brett was the caterpillar getting ready to turn into a butterfly.
Brett and I at a 4 yr old birthday party, competing in the "caccoon making" challenge. I think we won!

This week was great, we used our passes to Trafalga to enjoy some family fun time. That is not always easy to do. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of fun as a family, and tend to do a lot every week, but there are days when I ask myself why we bother. It seems like someone is always needing a nap, or would rather be somewhere else. Most outings involve a lot of fussing, and then me being in a bad mood because I expect better from my kids when I am taking them out to do something fun. But sometimes you have a good week where the kids behave, and you have so much fun that you can't help but be grateful that you took time out of your day to do something together. This was one of those weeks that make the other times worth it. Just thinking about how much I love my family today, and how grateful I am to be a mom of three fantastic kids.

First Day of School

After I blogged this morning I realized that I never took any individual pictures of Dillan on his first day of school. Nor did I really express how I felt about it. I am not one to get overly sentimental about things. I love holidays and birthdays, but mostly because I am social, and it is a good excuse for a party. However, about school I have mixed emotions.

I was so excited for Dillan and Lexi to start school today. Mostly because it gives me a few hours that I can work without so many interruptions, and less chance of the house being destroyed in the process. However, I am also sad. I almost feel a sense of loss. Not loss at having my kids home, but for their real childhood.

They have now entered the world of structured learning. They are now legally required to be at school. We can no longer pick up in the middle of any month and head to California for a surprise trip to Disneyland. We can't stay up late on a Wednesday eating junk food and watching cartoons just because we feel like it. We have to have a schedule. We have to meet requirements, get shots, and behave in classes. I personally love(d) school, enjoyed all of it, from grade school through college. However, it is a long process, a big journey, fraught with social perils, self esteem issues, worries, responsibilities, and of course, learning. So, am I ready for my kids to go to school? Yes. But am I ready for them to grow up? Not really.

School will be their reality for the next 20 years, so as anxious as I am to have them out of the house for a few hours a day, and have someone else help with answering their endless questions, and fulfilling their thirst for knowledge, I can't help but feel sad for them. A part of their life they never had a chance to value is now over. I wish I had a way of helping them understand what a gift it is to not care what you look like, to get to nap whenever you want, to just play because that is what you want to do, and you don't have other responsibilities keeping you from it. I wish I could help them understand how to appreciate the time they have had to spend at home doing nothing, being with the family, and doing things on their time. But I don't know how, and I know that school is a great place for them to be. So, I smile, wave, and celebrate after dropping them off. Trusting they are in capable hands, and hoping that their teachers will take the time to get to know them and appreciate the things that make them such an important and vital part of my life. Then I go back to the realities of that life, and thank the heavens above that Dillan and Lex aren't home to whine at me while I clean, cook, work, and run errands. Hahaha



This is Dillan with his teacher. When the school called and told us who is teacher was he said, "Oh man, I didn't want a grandma teacher." Haha I thought that was funny.

This is Lexi with her teacher. She was mad at her in this picture because she had to have a red sticker instead of a pink one. What a brat!


We walked home from school, and Dillan jumped from square to square the whole way.

Miss America Birthday

The Miss America party was a lot of fun. We had three segments, we had the part where you explain your costume choice, and give some facts about your state. We then had a talent portion, which was a lot of laughs, and so much fun. Last we had questions and answers. We had a bunch prizes, from Miss Congeniality, to Miss Sweet Spirit, and more. We also had some great food, a chocolate fountain, chicken salad sandwiches, caramel popcorn, etc.

This is Christa, Miss Hawaii, answering her questions. Great answers!

This is Miss Oklahoma (Wendi), and our lovely judge Kristian!


This was after the party, Brielle, Me, and Ambre catching up and laughing about old memories. I had taken off my costume by then because I was covered in chocolate from cleaning the fountain.
This is during the talent portion, everyone laughing and smiling at the funny talents. I did magic tricks, Rachel reenacted a hilarious scene from "The Proposal" We had dancing, singing, and impressions. It was so funny.

Here is Ambre, or Miss Maine, giving a demonstration on how to pick blueberries, and crack lobster tails--two foods Maine is well-known for.
Here is Becca, Miss California, giving her commercial impressions. They were spot on!
This is Wendi, Miss Oklahoma giving a fantastic clog routine to a county folk song. Good thing she didn't do cow pie throwing, a state holiday competition favorite.
Yee Haw!
And more great dancing and singing from Miss Hawaii. Will you be at the hooki lou? (Spelling?)
The ultimate dance with instructions from our very own Miss Connecticut, Jen
Brielle was too shy to participate, so she just enjoyed the food!
While our judge could have been biased, as he is my favorite Nephew, he felt that I won the contest fair and square and took home the title, Miss Nevada wins the Miss America title!

End of Summer, Start of endless journey

We had such a fun summer, not as busy as some of our previous summers, but fun none the less. I wanted to kind of show some of the highlights of summer, and then the first day of school pictures, but of course, I loaded the pictures on the wrong direction, and don't want to go back and fix it. So, here we go:

This was Dillan's first day of Kindergarten. We all went over, and waiting in the mess of people to figure out where he was supposed to be. He was pretty excited, and picked out his own outfit this morning. He let me know he thinks he will be one of the smartest kids at school.




While we were waiting we talked to the other kids he knows. This is him with his best friend Blake. Blake lives right behind us, and the boys constantly climb the fence to play with one another. They aren't in the same class this year, but having different teachers might just be a good thing.

All the kids wanted in on the picture taking.


Brett gave the kids their back to school blessings this morning before we left. Lex had a hard time holding still, but there were all pretty good.




Yesterday we took the kids out for one last day of fun before school starts. Morbid right? Haha, not exactly, just that school will be a big part of their life from here on out so we thought we should celebrate it.

We took the kids out for dinner. And to some fun activities, Chuckee Cheese, TP gardens, etc.
I was showing Derrick where the frogs were. There was one that was just huge!

There were tons of fish at the Thanksgiving Point Lilly Pad Pond, and the kids had tons of fun feeding them.


During the summer we went and saw the great grandparents.
We went on road trips and saw tons of rainbows.




We got to play with puppies!

Dillan and Lex tried to learn to Hoola Hoop

We saw a lady with a pig on a leash.
We fell asleep in some awkward positions.
And we played outside in the yard and pool.

It was a great summer, and we look forward to a great school year!