Independence

Here are my favorite shots from July 4, 2009:

From the watermelon seed spitting contest:

Our winner, accepting his prize.

From the Sunbowl, where we watched the fireworks:

What is a holiday without a special hairdo?

Such cute matching redheaded cousins! Max scooted across the blanket to give him this kiss.

I was worried the noise would bother Max. Not so, he loved the show, and danced to the music the whole time.

Roughin' It

Our Family Camping Trip, June 22-25, 2009

For our family vacation this summer we ventured out camping at the KOA campground in Glendale, Utah (between Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon). It was a great adventure, not the least because I had a stomach bug Sunday night, the night before we were to leave--Father's Day, no less.

Monday morning we had planned to pack up and leave after lunch. Because I was still sick and weak from the night before, Adam had to do all this on his own. It was a huge job, and we didn't get out of town until around 5 in the afternoon. We drove through Zion on our way, and the kids were much more interested in the scenery than I had anticipated. They loved going through the tunnel and seeing all the amazing arches and waterfalls. Our first night at the campground we set up camp and roasted hot dogs for dinner.

Tuesday morning dawned bright with a dutch oven blueberry muffin cake and eggs and bacon and sausage cooked on the cookstove by the resident camp chef, Adam. We decided to go in search of a petting zoo we had seen a sign for on our drive to the campground the night before, but when we arrived at the trout farm/petting zoo, we were told the animals hadn't arrived yet since they'd opened only three days prior. Instead, we fed the fish in the pond, then Isaiah and I each caught our first fish.

The fish jumping for their food.

Don't I just look like a pro?

Okay, maybe not. But I felt so brave to touch the slimy thing!

It cost a bit to catch these fish, but it was really easy and they cleaned them for us. For an extra fee, they also fried them up. Here's Isaiah trying his own fish. He was so proud of it, he ate quite a bit. It was pretty good, if you didn't pay attention to the fact that it was still looking at you. Or, you could just try eating it's eye, like Adam did, and then it wasn't looking anymore. (He said it was about like eating a grain of rice . . . yum!)

Katie was terrified of the fish, and refused to touch a fishing pole or go near a fish alive or fried. She ate a couple of bites of this apple for lunch. She looks pretty chipper, eh? That didn't last.

After our impromptu fish fry, we ventured toward Kanab, looking for another petting zoo and some tennis shoes for me (mine had been left at home in the packing chaos). We found some tennis shoes, but the closest thing to a petting zoo was the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, so we stopped in hoping to see some animals. They informed us that we had to schedule a tour, and we could do that, but it would be a wait. We weren't sure the kids were up to waiting around all afternoon, so we watched their video thinking we'd see how everyone was at the end. Right about the end, Katie started puking. Copiously. We tried to clean up the best we could with the two paper towels the lady there gave us, then gave up and instead cleaned Katie up in the restroom, stripping her down and wrapping her in a towel for the 30 minute drive back to the campground.

It was a quiet afternoon and evening, Katie alternating between sleeping and puking in our cooking pot (the one bowl-like thing we had with us). I took Isaiah and Max swimming in the KOA swimming pool while Adam made dinner. It was advertised as heated, but "heated" in the mountains means "not frozen," apparently. Despite the heat outside, it was a little too frigid for me. And even Isaiah didn't get in for more than a few minutes. It was nice to have an excuse to not be wearing a lot of clothing, however.

Dinner was delicious. Pulled pork (yes, made in a crockpot--our campsite had power) and dutch oven potatoes. Then, Adam and Isaiah played kickball in the field behind our campsite and were soon joined by a couple of boys close to his age. After a few minutes, their father and I started talking as we watched the kickball game. It turns out he is in Shane's carpool, and they ride to work together every day! We got to know their family a bit over s'mores at their campfire that night.

We spent Wednesday morning around camp. After some delicious breakfast burritos (made by Adam, of course), Katie took a nap in the shade of a tree and Adam and I sat and read while Isaiah played with his new friends and played video games. We had sandwiches for lunch, then went for a leisurely hike on a trail by our campground. You can see the "Mini Bryce Canyon" formations behind Adam in the first picture:

Max loved being in the front pack. He was bouncing and kicking and laughing. He thought it was the best.

As hot as we were after our hike, we decided to give the pool another shot. Everyone spent at least a little time in the pool except for me (I waded a bit, but man, it was cold--my feet got numb).

Adam took the kids for a drive to watch a DVD and to put Max to sleep for a nap while I made pork chops on the cookstove and baked potatoes in the campfire. I also attempted a cobbler in the dutch oven, but must have forgotten something important in the four years since I last made one, because it didn't turn out. Adam made the kids some JiffyPop popcorn on the campstove to eat while they finished their DVD, and then they went to bed while Adam and I had more s'mores and read around the campfire.

After some delicious sausage and egg sandwiches on English muffins Thursday morning (made by Chef Adam, of course) we struck camp and headed to Zion for a hike. It was cloudy and windy and threatened rain, but it was nice enough once we got through the park. We rode the shuttle up to Weeping Rock. Here's a picture from the window of the shuttle before my camera's battery died:

So, no pictures of Weeping Rock, but it was beautiful, and such a nice hike. Very steep, but not long at all. The kids thought it was great, and were disappointed that it was over so quickly. We took them down to the river to look at tadpoles before we got back on the shuttle.

We stopped in Springville at Blondie's Diner for a late lunch/early dinner (it was really yummy, and almost worth what it cost) and checked out the elk in the pasture next door. Then it was home to Santa Clara to wash the campfire smell out of everything!

Father's Day

June 21, 2009

We love Dad and Grandpa!

(Don't mind the crazy boy in the middle.)

A Special Day

A few shots from Isaiah's 6th birthday, June 18, 2009:

Thanks, Aunt Anne!

The new bike is a little big . . . he has to get started on the curb.

But he has no trouble once he's started; he's a maniac!

Argh, Mateys!

June 17, 2009

This year, exhausted from 8 months of not sleeping through the night, moving, and trying to sell our house, plus anticipating three children's birthdays a year for the next 20-some-odd years, Adam and I decided to go small for birthdays. I know, pigs are probably flying around some farm somewhere.

Isaiah was the first to try out our every-other-year plan for big themed birthday parties. He had a great attitude about the whole thing. And, surprisingly, I enjoyed "small" much more than I thought I would, and not just because it took less prep, money, and energy. More time was spent actually celebrating Isaiah and less time was spent running around like a crazy person, grouching at anyone who ruined my plan (not Isaiah's plan, of course, because why would his birthday be about him?!).

We told him he could choose a special place to go, somewhere we don't go all the time, and invite three friends (the actual number changed from one to three when it became too difficult to choose just one). He chose to eat dinner and play arcade games at Pirate Island Pizza. Here are the swashbuckling boys (and Katie) enjoying their giant pizza and handful of tokens:

Hang in there . . .

Big update coming soon!!

P.S. We've been really busy with summer. How about you?

Summer Hair

Summer means more time to spend doing hair in the morning!! Here are some fun 'dos we've been doing.

Cousin Hair
I watched my nieces and nephew two weeks ago, and was so excited to try out different colors, textures, and lengths with hairdos. Here's what I came up with.

Katie's hair that day:
K: (Such a fun blondie, but it's been so long since I've done shorter hair, I had to be creative. I remembered how much easier it is to do messy buns on shorter hair, though. I've linked to how to do these knots farther down in the post.)

R: (Oh, the beautiful red hair! I thought her hair would be coarse and difficult to work with, but after doing it, I wanted to do it every day! It was so soft and stayed where I put it. So fun.)

Park Hair
We were going to the park for a family birthday party on a warm evening, so I wanted to have Katie's hair up and out of the way. I didn't intend to take pics of her hair, but since I had the camera out, I snapped some shots. You can see how fuzzy it gets after a nap. Anyone have ideas on how to prevent that?

Top View

These knots are super easy and quick, and actually helped with parting the hair for the french braids. Theres a tutorial for them here and there's a video for them here. I got the idea for this 'do here.

Back View

Side View

Up 'Do

I'm afraid of up 'dos because they always fall out after about 30 min to an hour. This one didn't. I looooooved it, too, because it was so cute. I just parted her hair in three horizontal sections, ear to ear, and french braided across, braiding down to the ends. Then I twisted the three braids together and into a bun, securing it with a rubber band. Added a fluffy hair tie, and voila! Easy peasy and stayed all day. This is a simplified version of this 'do. I really had fun with the "Frenchbraids with Flair" series she was doing.

And our new favorite hair tip, for all those rubberband-heavy 'dos, like the first picture I had in this post: a seam ripper. I got the idea from Jess. Awesome!