Bring on Summer!

I remember being a young girl and waiting for my dad to come home from the farm and holding a tall glass of ice water for him. For some reason we always stirred our ice water with a butter knife to chill it. Odd memory, I know.

But I also remember coming home from school on the last day of the year, being welcomed home with a nice fun water fight.

I've carried on the tradition to my kids.

This year I spent the day filling up water balloons. I had a whole ice chest filled with 'em. When the bus rolled up in front of our house, Jake, Abby and all the neighbor kids got soaked! The water balloons were gone in a matter of minutes, and then the war continued with Super Soakers, the hose, sand pails and whatever else the kids could think of.

Noe, Colton W. and Brenton refilling

I'm not sure why Hannah looks so pouty

Abby and Noe (man, it was good to see her again, even though it was only for a day)

Jake soaking Bronson

The kids laughed, got soaked and got a proper welcome to summer.

Now it's time for the fun to begin. I told my kids that I'm excited to have my little slaves back for a few months. I hope our summer is to be filled with lots of swimming at Stapley Pool, a bit of house work, fun vacations and a relaxing, good time.

GNO

When the boys are away, the girls will play.

Jeremy and Jake went to Fathers and Sons Friday night, so I planned a little Girls Night Out for my girls. The evening didn't quite go as planned, so we dragged it out to be a girls night out and then a girls morning out, but they didn't care, they had a good time. The pedicures that we were set to get on Friday night (really just toes painted at the beauty school) didn't work out, so we had to go Sat morning. But what's the next best thing to a pedi? Yeah, you guessed it, dining IN at Taco Bell. I get a teased from some family members when they hear we've actually eaten IN at Taco Bell, and not just driven through, but it was well worth it on Fri night as they were celebrating customer appreciation. We scored a few free burritos and a taco, thanks to my girls big skills at ring toss.

Then it was off to Walmart to pick up some popcorn and whoppers for our big Redbox movie night of Scooby Doo- the prequel. It was quite entertaining and the girls really enjoyed it. Then they got to sleep on their little beds we made in the living room.

We got up Sat morning and went to get our favorite breakfast - donuts! As we were standing in line at Bashas' we saw the Ricedorff clan come in, so once again, we dined IN for breakfast, but this time with the Ricedorff's in the Bashas' deli. That was a first for me, the joint smelled quite chickeny, but the girls thought it was cool.

Then we were off to get the pedi's at the beauty school. I figured I got what I paid for. But the girls didn't seem to notice how inefficient the workers were or how slow they worked or how very mediocre their toes looked, they thought it was cool to be sitting on that chair being pampered and being able to pick out any color of paint they wanted. Then we just had to go to Grandma/pa Goodman's to show off our awesome toes.

What a fun weekend we had. I've never considered myself a very good girl mom, but after weekends like this, I think I just might make it.

(notice we're all wearing tank tops with skirts - one of the girls started it and we all followed suit).

You're crazy in the coconut

My kids new favorite saying is,

You're crazy in the coconut!

Well I'm here to tell you I think my kids can be a little nutty. Where do they get their wacky ways? Not me for sure.

********

They give themselves makeovers

They put bathing suits over their pj's

They wear mine and Jeremy's clothes.





They switch outfits


They play midget baseball

(I kinda feel like this post is like in People or US magazine where they say "Celebrities, they're just like us" and then they go on to say how they're supposedly so much like us, such as, "they take their kids to the park" but last time I checked, I don't usually have loads of paparazzi snapping pics of me and my kids at the park. I'm not sure which magazine does it, but after that long tangent, it was the wording that seemed the same - the paparazzi didn't take these pic, I did.)

I'll never know how they all got so crazy in the coconut, but I do know that I love the silliness.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I know it's a few days early, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to wish my wonderful Mom a happy day. I was just talking to her this morning about how it's been almost exactly a year since her stroke. Wow, what a morning. Getting a phone call that Mom had a stroke was not expected to say the least. Not only that, but no one seemed to have any info about the severity of the stroke. Prayers, panic and fear all overwhelmed me. I'm so glad that a year later she has hardly any lasting effects. Oh wait, there are some. Sometimes when you ask her to say words like Toyota or Railroad she sputters out things like Tiyota or Ray-road. Don't worry, Mom, with some intense therapy, those words can some day be conquered.

My mom has always been such a great friend and example to me. I know whenever I think I'm going through the worst possible crisis I could ever experience, she always makes me feel better and gives me the confidence to endure the crisis, telling me that I'm special and good and that Heavenly Father hears me and I'll be okay. So far, so good. I've eventually made it through all my trials.

A year later, I'm so glad you are still here and doing so well. You are a rock.

Happy Mother's Day.

I love you.

(ps - I know I've used this pic before, but I can't get my scanner working and the pic of me and her that I wanted to use needed to be scanned in)

The 2010 Texas Rangers

Jake's baseball season has been very different from those of years past. I'm his coach. It used to be that I'd go to the games and hang out with all the moms and catch up on all the gossip, but now, I'm the one yelling at the boys:

Quit picking dandelions!

Quit digging holes at short stop!

Watch our game!

Nice hustle - way to run all the way through first base!

Where's the play?

Squish the bug!

Tag up!

.....

And so on and so on.

But it has been so much fun. I wonder if the boys have learned a single thing, sometimes I think our fundamentals are regressing, but they keep showing up, so I guess that's a good sign.


I love coaching Jake. I worried when I signed up to coach if he would ever listen to me. He has a tendency to think everyone is smarter than me. He's for sure done the most push-ups for arguing with his coach, but he is always learning and he has done pretty well over all listening to me.

He definitely has a high sports IQ. It has always come naturally to him. Even in New York at age 2o months he would sit and watch an entire Yankee game with me. He gets tagging up, he gets how to run bases. He always knows where the plays are and he definitely knows how many games we've won or lost even though there is no score keeping in coach-pitch. In fact, miraculously he has won every single game he has ever played during 3 years of coach-pitch. Even when the other team has more players and makes more outs than us (everyone bats every inning in coach-pitch).

I love my only boy and over the years I've loved watching his intensity and his natural knowledge and abilities in sports and anything active. It is what has always come natural to me and I love seeing him love sports as much as I do.

Thanks, Jake, for making the 2010 Coach-Pitch season great and for being such a great player and son to coach.

A work in Progress

So I'm trying new things with my blog. It is definitely slow going. I've been experimenting with Picasa and Photobucket as you can see from the collages. Yesterday when I posted them, the pictures were all clear and now they're all blurry as heck. Anyway, to my five readers, sorry for the messy blog. It will hopefully get better.
P.S. In the previous blog of us camping, Jeremy wants everyone to know that he isn't really going to the bathroom on the fire. He had a water jug he was using. I just took the pic because I thought it was funny that it looked like he was going. Now I can't figure out how to take that one pic off the collage.

Below are some scenic pictures from our trip. Jeremy loves to take pictures of landscape and it can drive me batty. Our camera isn't real sharp for things like that. The pictures are very pretty, they just don't do any justice to the view we were experiencing.

We came what may and loved it

Wooeeee! What a weekend. So I planned what I thought would be the perfect family getaway this weekend. We got the Ricedorff's to come with us and I was ready for a good time, the only problem was, the weather wasn't quite on board with my plans. We had to put to good use the title of my blog. In fact, at one point we jokingly told the kids, "That they WILL come what may and love it, dangit!"

I asked each of my kids their favorite thing of each part of the trip. So here's how it went down.

Friday morning we left at 12:15 for our 2:45 reservation at the Temple open house in Thatcher. We rolled in with about 3 minutes to spare. No surprise, but the temple was absolutely gorgeous.

Favorites:
Jake: Everything
Abby: Looking at the baptismal pond and looking at the crystals
Hannah: Angel Moroni
Annie: I give Jesus hugs
Jeremy: We were there as a family
Karrie: Same as Jeremy, of course, and for sure, the chandeliers.

After a few pics we were off to go camping. Only problem was it was so freakin windy and cold that it just didn't sound like much fun. The Ricedorff's threatened to back out and go to a hotel, but I was standing tough. We got to the campsite with a lot of snow on the ground. Oh no, flashbacks of our family camping trip were pouring out from 2 years ago when we went camping on Memorial Day weekend and woke up to a few inches of snow and the kids were hysterical. I could not have a repeat. What to do, what to do.



So we packed up and headed down to the mountain to warmer weather and found a spot to hang out and build a fire. We stayed there a few hours.



The Favorites:
Jake: Eating chocolate
Abby: Me as a hunter for footprints and following them with a flashlight
Hannah: Hot dogs
Annie: Give her (Kate) loves
Jeremy: All the bears the kids kept finding and the tinfoil dinners
Karrie: The tinfoil dinners that were "Oh my gosh" good, and lots of laughter.

After much discussion we collectively decided that we were all on board for being wimps and headed to the Quality Inn in Safford with the indoor heated pool. When we got there I realized my kids never stay in hotels, so this was a real adventure for them.


Favorites:
Annie: Party in a hotel (Jay knocked on our door around 9:30 pm and invited us to a party in their room. The kids literally bounced all around and ate all the camping junk food until they all crashed together), and fwimming in the hotel.
Abby: Swimming and Exercising (the kids would run down the hall, down the elevator, and then run up the stairs to the 3rd floor and then repeat over and over and over again)
Jake: Same as her (Abby)
Hannah: swimming, and exercising, and party
Jeremy: The Ricedorff party and Kate's stash (she kept stashing all her food- string cheese, oreos, fruit snacks... in the AC control thing
Karrie: The party, the free hot breakfast and watching the classics - Dirty Dancing and Legally Blond

The next day we headed off to the EAC campus for a picnic.


Favorites:
Jake: Catch with Ricedorff's and the 1st inning of the EAC baseball game
Abby: Drinking soda and going to the bathroom, and playing Duck, Duck Goose
Hannah: Drinking soda and watching the game with Daddy holding me
Annie: playing hide (whatever that means)
Jeremy: The Weather and Reminiscing of the good ole days
Karrie: The memories from 15 years ago that kept flooding through my mind, and the warm sun

Then it was off to the Red Knolls to visit where Jeremy and his friends had their terrible accident 15 years ago (that's for another post)


Favorites:

Abby: Going in where there were tunnels
Annie: Flaying duck duck goose (just a little off, but that's ok)
Hannah: Going in the caves
Jake: The caves and going where Dad cut his head open
Jeremy: That the kids didn't fall in
Karrie: I couldn't really enjoy it for fear one of the kids would take a tumble down a cliff or down a hole. I just kept thinking about how lucky Jeremy was that fateful day 15 years ago.

This is where we parted ways with the Ricedorff's. They headed home and we headed back up the mountain to our original spot. The snow was melted and the temperature was much warmer. We enjoyed our little campout.

This is where I would put pictures if I took any here, but I didn't.

Favorites:
Jake: hiking and Go-Fish
Abby drinking hot chocolate
Hannah: Hiking and Seeing the world (it really looked like you could see forever)
Annie: Flaying Go-Fish
Karrie: Laughing as I figured out that whenever Annie said, "I want coca-pella" she really meant "I want hot cocoa". Coca-pella became our new favorite word for the weekend.

On our way home we took a drive up to the top of the mountain and had a killer snow ball fight.



We really did "come what may and loved it". It could have been a total bust, but we had ourselves a lot of fun, and I'm pretty sure that's how my kids saw it too.