Surprise Evening

I love it when something spontaneous happens. We experienced this last week when we decided to go to the park in the evening. I was outside putting away some projects I was working on and Dawson and his mom Heather walked by. They were going to the park. I thought, hey, why not? Let's go with them to the park. Rinar had gotten all the little kids ready for bed, but an hour at the park wasn't going to hurt anything. 

When we got there, to our sheer delight, there was a huge water slide and a whole bunch of friends already there having a great time sliding down this thing. Darcy and Jason were the masterminds. So naturally, with my kids in their jammies, I let them slide down the slide. It was great.

I mean, look at that face. Pure joy!

Then on the way home, I ended up visiting with some neighbors and the kids went in the house. Unfortunately, Rinar didn't get to see the cool slide and the impromptu fun all the kids got to experience. All he saw was five sopping wet, grass-covered kids who needed to get bathed and ready for bed AGAIN. Poor Rinar.

Still, dad was a good sport and it ended up being a very nice surprise evening.

Evenings of Fun

It was great to be able to go to Salt Lake City for the week. We were able to catch up with friends and family. On Monday night, we went with my sister Catye and her husband Mike, Jamie and Leah, and Melanie, Halle, and Caleb to Seven Peaks water park for a fun night of swimming and sliding.

We got a sweet deal. It was free!  Catye is working there right now. It was a lot of fun to go with kids and a lot of adults. There were plenty of grown-ups to help with all the little ones.  Melanie, Jamie, and Zach made a good trio because they are all very daring.  Me...not so much, thank you.  After the water park, I went with my family to The Pie for some delicious pizza.

Tuesday night was a blast as well.  We headed to American Fork to catch up with Lindsay, Justin, and their crew. They just moved into a complex where there is a community pool.  The kids were in heaven, catching up on old times, and swimming like crazy. I love all of these kids so much.

Kinley girl.

Ali

Melanie put Taryn in the pool with a regular diaper. Then the poor girl walked around, looking like she was going to give birth to an exceptionally large soggy-bottom nappy.  It was quite funny.

Taryn and Malaya

Jump in kids! Weeeeeeee!

These two are buddies. They have always been the best of friends. We miss them so much.

I was also able to babysit for Melanie so that she could go to the temple. It was a nice morning. We took a walk to the playground and the whole time we were walking, Caleb read to me from his Time Warp Trio book.  So stinkin' cute.

By the end of the week, Caleb told me that Zach and him used to be worst enemies, but now they are best friends.  Aaah.  Zach also seemed to make amends with Breken and they are now on better terms.  They are no longer worst enemies as well.  Zach can now officially mark two more names off of his Worst-Enemy List. Whew. Thank goodness.

Standing in front of their house: Caleb, Raef, Ava, Zach, Halle, and Taryn

Friday night was great also because we were able to see Catye, Mike, Jamie and Leah one more time. We did dinner at Cafe Rio and then went back to Jamie's apartment for some Wii action and football pointers.

Catye and Mike stayed over so that they could catch the Saturday finale concert at the school.  It was a fun week and I am glad I was able to do it.

Back To Life

It has been a busy week readjusting to normal life around here. I still have a lot of unpacking to do and projects, projects, projects. But I have been quickly slaying to "project" dragon.  I have been painting tons of stuff and loading it up into rooms.  Raef and Zach's room is looking totally awesome. I can't wait to put it on the blog. It is almost done.  Julia's room is coming together as well, and Harry and Eli now have a colorful and happy place to call home.  Thank you Goodwill and Home Depot.

We are going to Lazy 5 Park today up in Spanish Springs. I thought I would take a few pictures of the little ones to capture the moment. These guys love posing for the camera.

This is Julia's pose.  Supermodel in the making. Don't you love the hand action on the cheek?

Lazy 5 Water Park

It was a blistering 80 degrees today, so we went to the water park. It was in Spanish Springs and they actually charge you a small fee to use the facility. It is kind of hilarious to me, because in Las Vegas there are water features at about every park in the city. But then again, it was only 80 degrees today, right?

I met my friend Yvonne there with her little ones.  Raef and Eli played in the water, Zach played on the regular playground, and the babies whined at my feet the whole time, pretty much. It was about what I expected.  Julia didn't want to have anything to do with the water.  When I was able to get her mildly interested in it, she ran away in fun and fell down and smacked her head.  Sheesh.  Harry had fun in the end, running on the outskirts of the water.  

Yvonne doctored up Julia and she loved all of the special attention she was getting.  Yvonne's daughter Alyssa is in nursery with Julia and loves to baby her and take care of her. It is really cute.  Yvonne's kids didn't want to get in the water either.  Then the wind changed right before we left and the water was misting our way.  Julia was really unhappy then.

It was still nice to be able to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful day.  I took the boys directly from the park to their violin/viola lessons. They did really well. I took the little ones to Costco and they did a lot better than the last time we went. Then Harry and Julia fell asleep in the car.  

Now, it looks like Julia is a little bit sick, so I guess her crankiness at the water park was justified. Who knew?

San Antonio!

Here is the crew: Zach, Dad, Raef, and Uncle Nordel...on the tram at McCarran, going to their plane.
These boys look like they are ready for an adventure.

On Thursday night, they ate at a true Texas BBQ house...I think it was called Ray's or something like that.

The Wild Life Safari Park. Doesn't this look super-cool? You stay in your car and the animals come right up to you. Totally awesome!!

We learned about camels a few weeks ago. Did you know that a camel that has two humps is a Bactrian camel, like the one shown here? A camel with one hump is a Dromidary. How can you remember this. If you turn a 'B' on its side, it has two humps, and a 'D' on its side only has one hump. Now you will always remember. The kids were excited to see the camel, especially since they knew the difference.


There was also a little goat farm. The kids loved it so much, that they went to it 2 times.



Rinar said that zebras can be kind of mean. They use their teeth to get their food, so you have to be a little bit careful when feeding them...and stay in your car!


There was a snake farm as well.

Look at those boas.
After the farm, it was movie time. But, you have to play some video games while you wait.

Then, you cap it off with miniature golf. Zach got a hole-in-one.

When they got back to the hotel they went swimming and then went to bed. It took about five seconds for them to fall fast asleep.

Saturday! The water park! It is open!!!! Yeah!!!



This is the best part of the trip. Rinar wanted to take the boys on the sky coaster. You know those extra rides at an amusement park that cost a lot of extra money to do? Well, Zach was gung-ho! He couldn't wait to ride it. However, Raef did not want to go. Rinar offered him a $1. Nope. $5. No way. $10. Uh...no. Final price...$15. Rinar paid Raef $15 to go on this crazy ride. Once they were harnessed in, Zach was enjoying the view as they ascended to the top slowly. Raef was trembling and holding on tightly to Rinar's arm. At the top, Raef decided that he changed his mind and he didn't want to go. Zach pulled the rip cord and had a huge smile on his face as they plummeted towards the earth. Raef still held Dad's arm very tightly. After the second pendulum swing, Raef started to enjoy the ride.

He said he would do it again. Plus, he had $15.

The rental car...


These boys look beat as they wait for the airplane to return home.

What an adventure.