Another Camping Trip

Than is a real outdoorsman. He's spent plenty of nights backpacking through the mountains nearby. But, to be perfectly honest, the whole camping thing is new territory for me. I've been camping plenty of times in my life, but mostly when I was a kid. Or when I acted kid-ish. This camping thing as a real adult is some serious work. It seems like the whole week before I am planning our meals and all the things we'll have to bring. And then there's laundry to do. But who knows why I wash clothes just to take them camping where they get REALLY dirty. Then we camp for a few days, which is great fun, and then we come home and I spend a week doing laundry and putting everything back that we HAD to take with us.

This was our 4th camping trip of the summer. Although the preparing process is still time-consuming, I feel like I'm getting a handle on all of this. I think this was our smoothest trip where we didn't forget anything and we felt truly relaxed. It was wonderful!!! 

We traveled to Palisade Lake State Park. It's a place that we have been before plenty of times for a day trip. This was the longest time we have spent there and we had plenty to do.

When we got to our campsite, Aaron spent some time balancing. He believes it's always good to wear your bike helmet when balancing. Sara honed her jump-roping skills. Than got the trailer all hooked up. I sat back and captured these amazing events.

Later we headed to the water to do some explorin'. There must have been something extremely interesting in that water. The kids loved running on the dock and I said silent prayers that they wouldn't fall in.

Near the water is a playground. We go camping to be close to the nature that surrounds us and what the kids really want to do is go to the park. Go figure. But I think when I was a kid, I would have wanted the same thing. Aaron was fond of the twisty slide, especially because he could practice his pull-ups. It's very important for a 4-year-old to develop those biceps. Sara wanted to show us her mad monkey-bar skills, and Than showed her that her old man has some skills of his own. Sara and I felt pretty groovy flashing dad the peace sign and then it was back to the lake to skip rocks. Sara got her rock to skip 2 times--for the first time ever. It was a very big deal. Really. I mean it.

The next day we woke up, ate some yummy breakfast (pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream) and then headed off to visit grandma and grandpa who were staying at a little house they have nearby. The kids were excited to ride the four-wheelers. At least Aaron was excited, Sara's face says otherwise. But when they came back they were both all smiles and thought they had done the funnest thing ever.

Of course, we played on the water. The freezing cold water. Aaron liked it for a few minutes and then he occupied himself with playing in the sand. We brought this boogie board thing that we got last year in California and Sara spent most of her time laying on it and pushing herself around with her hands. She was really adventurous, drifting far away from the beach.

After we were sufficiently frozen, we decided to go for a paddle boat ride. We thought we were up to the challenge, seeing how Than is strengthening is legs by mountain biking a few times each week. Turns out, we are pretty wimpy. The kids kept complaining that we weren't going fast enough. But I don't think those things are meant for speed anyway.

That night we got to doing things and lost track of time. Before we know it is was LATE. Bedtime late. The kids were adamant that we make s'mores. Since there was no time to make a fire, we improvised. Giant marshmallows cooked on the trailer stove are actually pretty good, just as Aaron.

On our last day, Sara and I spent some time making button bracelets. Then we went for a nice walk/bike ride.

We have a history of taking not-so-great family pictures when we go places. So often times we opt not to take a picture of all of us. This time I made sure we go a picture and I think it turned out to be our best (not professional) picture so far. Yay us! That's why it's got double exposure on the blog.

Then it was time to clean and pack everything up. We left excited for our next camping adventure. Hopefully that happens sooner than later. 

The girl likes her music

This is the story of how Sara's first CD lead to her first concert.

It all started about a month ago when I took Sara out to buy her first-day-of-school outfit. We went to Target (the best store EVER) and found absolutely nothing for her to wear. But we did find Selena Gomez's newest CD and Sara wanted it soooo bad. We bought the CD, headed over to Red Mango, got some yummies, and sat in the car eating our treats and listening to the CD.  It was a great night. Ever since then, we can often find Sara in her room listening to her very first CD. Or talking about Selena Gomez. Or asking to watch Wizards of Waverly Place.

I knew that Selena Gomez was coming in concert and thought that it might be a fun thing for Sara so I looked online for tickets. Stub Hub = $70 to $180 for tickets. Yikes!!!! There was no way that we were gonna do that.

Then last week, Than and I went to the Heart/Def Leppard concert. As we were there I kept thinking about how much Sara would absolutely love to go see Selena Gomez.  It just wouldn't leave my mind. So Than and I talked and he went to the box office the next day and got us the last 4 tickets in the arena. On the back row. But hey, they were only $25 each. Soooo much better. My friend Allison and her daughter Hannah came with us. Sara and Hannah have been friends since they were infants (if that is possible). That was all planned last Thursday. I had almost a whole week to wait. I could barely take it!!

Yesterday, Wednesday, when Sara got home from school, I told her that she had to get all of her stuff done because when dad got home we were going to go on a Mommy-Sara date. So she did her homework, s l o w l y. She kept asking me if we could go roller skating for our date. My answer: maybe. She asked if we could go get her a new book. My answer: sure. I stealthly got the video camera set up and when Than finally got home we sat Sara down and I told her we wanted to give her something. She was weirded out by this point. I handed her the tickets and asked her what they were. She said, "Tickets to a basketball game?????" I said, "READ IT!!!" She looked closer at the ticket and then just got up and gave me a giant hug and said, "Thank you, mom." No hysterics, no screaming. Turns out she was saving those things for the concert.

Us before we told Sara what we were really gonna do on our date.

Sara and Hannah outside before the concert.

Me and Sara on the steps.

Sara's reaction when we sat in our seats and she saw all the people and the stage.

Funny girl.

The camera flash was a bit much for her.

Yay!!! That little speck of people to the left are Selena Gomez and her dancers.

Selena Gomez

Sara really got in to it. She doesn't like really loud things so I brought some earmuffs. They definitely came in handy.

Hannah and Sara dancing like crazy.

Now I'll take a moment to explain our seats. Like I mentioned before, we were on the last row. When we got to our portal we saw that the last row was row 22 but our tickets said row 23. Hmmmm? So I asked the lovely lady at the entrance to the portal where we were to sit. She pulled up 4 folding chairs right there and set them behind the railing. So we got padded seats and no one directly in front of us to block our view. Notice how the people right in front of the railing were so much lower than us. They were the perfect seats. Sure, we were far from the stage, but hey, that's why I brought binoculars.

More dancing.

Look at the cool stuff we got! Sara got a t-shirt (that will fit her until she's 12) and a necklace, Hannah got a bag and a necklace.

We had a fabulous time! Sara wants to do it again, but next time she wants to be on the front row. We'll see about that.

We Went On A Hike

Last weekend we had a great time going camping. It was just a short trip (2 nights) but tons of fun. This year we have decided to be a serious camping family and planned 6 trips. Six camping trips in one summer? Yikes! I am still getting used to the whole camping thing and hopefully next time we will be more efficient with our planning and packing.

The only time I thought to take out the camera was on our hike. Silly!

We saw this really neat-o tree that had grown sideways for a little bit. It was the perfect photo spot for the kiddos.

And for the grown-ups too!

It was no suprise that Aaron's legs got tired and he needed a little ride from Dad. This happens all the time and it wears Than out but I love to look at my guys like this. Is there anything more precious than a dad giving a kid a shoulder ride?

We saw so many different kinds of wild flowers on the hike. Sara made herself right at home in the middle of a bunch of pretty yellow flowers.

And then it was time for a family photo. Maybe next time Than should hold the seven-year-old and I'll hold the four-year-old!

The perfect way to end the hike was with kisses for dad!

Dressing Up

 Why is it that kids love to dress up so much? I used to love it and now that I've got some kiddos, they love it too.  I remember being a kid and going to this awesome daycare (as awesome as daycare could be) where they had tons and tons of dress-up clothes. I remember having special treat days when we would go to a thrift store and buy the most beautiful dresses. Fancy polyester dresses.

Sara began her love of dressing up at a very young age. It seems like soon after she could walk, she was experimenting with fashion. Pants on head? Awesome! Socks on hands? Beautiful!

 Then Aaron came along. When he started getting fun, she started dressing him up. Of course I have some pictures that can be used as blackmail when he starts dating. Here they are in some gender appropriate clothing. You can't tell, but they are double-y dressed up. Sara: BYU Cheerleading outfit under Princess Belle dress with her faithful unicorn. Aaron: BYU shirt, Superman cape, riding his stallion.

As Sara has grown up, she has become more sophisticated in her tastes. I swear she is 7 going on 18. The other night they begged and begged and begged to get dressed up in our clothes. Sara is sporting my slinky black top and black boots while Aaron is drowning in Than's shirt, tie, and shoes. 

I had forgotten how fun it is to dress up. I guess it's time to take a trip to the DI and find some fancy polyester dresses (and ties too!).

Monster Madness

The thought of doing a Christmas post is weighing on me like a ton of bricks. I think I have to write about Christmas before I can write about anything else. Well, forget about it!! I'm not gonna write ANYTHING about Christmas and I'm not gonna share even ONE picture from December. Wow, that feels good!

Here's what I want to write about: MONSTER TRUCKS!!!!

One evening Than and I were watching TV and we saw a commercial for the monster truck show. Well, Aaron just loves his little cars and monster trucks so we thought that this would be a blast for him. Sara hates loud noises so we thought she would not be so happy about the adventure, but just maybe she would have some fun. So we bought some tickets and set out for our big day. We brought earplugs but we were still woefully unprepared for the level of loudness at this thing! Sara was scared at first and had to sit on my lap with earplugs in and my hands over her ears, but she really got into it.  She was cheering at the top of her lungs for her favorite truck, Rockstar.  Aaron loved it all! It was cool to see these big loud trucks smash cars and stuff. We had a really great time, but maybe this is an event to participate in once every 5 years? Every 10 years? We'll see. If we ever go again, we're gonna need those big earmuffs that they use at airports for the people who are outside with the planes.

A little truck stuck in the mud.

Some nice lady let Aaron wear her earmuffs cuz he wouldn't keep his earplugs in.

Sara's number 1!!!!

This is her favorite pose of the moment.

Blue lips

This place is LOUD!!!

November

November is always a busy month at our house with our anniversary, Sara's birthday and Thanksgiving. This year we celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss!!! Sometimes I am amazed that we have been married this long. These have been the most wonderful years of my life and I am so grateful for an amazing man who loves me despite all my crankiness and laziness. And he honestly NEVER complains! In addition to putting up with me, he is so loving, caring, and hard working. Gosh, I really lucked out!! To celebrate this year we stuffed ourselves silly at Red Lobster and then went to the mall to walk it off. It was perfect!

Sara turned 7 this year on her birthday. At our home we only do friend parties every 3 years and the 7th birthday is one of those years. We had our family over for her real birthday and then the friend party the next night. She got tons of stuff from the family. We splurged this year and got her an American Girl doll. She has been wanting one for a few years. We told her she couldn't get one until she was 8 so she was way surprised. She also got her first pet--a betta fish, clothes, some jewelery and toys.

Yay presents!!

Beautiful betta fish.

Look at that happy face! I love it!

And now for the friend party. Since we only do this every 3 years I thought I should go all out. You see, I'm not a great hostess and parties really stress me out so this is a big deal for me. She wanted a horse party so that's what we did. I made horse tails for all the girls to wear (all 13 girls!!!) out of yarn. We played stomp the fly and pin the tail on the donkey; we made pony wands out of painted dowels and silk flowers; we ate pizza and cupcakes, opened presents and finished with a cowgirl boot pinata. The girls were crazy loud and hyper but Sara had tons of fun and after it was over I locked myself in the bathroom and took a nice long hot bath.

The happy girl with her cute cupcakes that my friend made.

 I made this awesome banner!!

 Here are the kids playing "stomp the fly". They each had a balloon tied to their ankles and had to try to stomp on eachothers balloons to pop them. It was wild and crazy and so fun!

Getting ready to open presents.

Oh my sweet Sara. I just love this girl so much. I can't believe how she is growing into being a big kid. She is so happy and fun and a great helper.

Then there was Thanksgiving. We first went to Than's folks' house to say hi to Andy and have some pie because we were eating with my family later. But we ended up snacking on some turkey and potatoes and such. We hung out there for a few hours and then headed to my sister's house. We ate tons of yummy food and desserts and then we got to talk to my niece Jain who is in India for BYU study abroad. She has been gone since August so it was great to talk to her.

I know that lots of other things happened in November, but I have no idea what. Really, no idea.