Lazy, lazy, lazy.....

I know it's been a pretty long dry spell on this blog, lately. And it isn't because we haven't been having fun this summer. On the contrary. We've had a lot of fun. I wish I could say that we've been having so much fun, that I just haven't had a moment to blog! Alas, that isn't so either. Frankly, I'm just being

LAZY.

See, my computer is upstairs in my room. And as I sit here and look at everyone else's blogs, I think of all the pictures I have on my camera and all the blogs I should be blogging. Here's the lazy part. My camera is downstairs. That means, I'd have to go downstairs and get the camera and then come back upstairs to download the pictures. I know.

And it's not like I'm not up and down those same stairs all day long! But I never remember the camera those times! So, there you have it. I'm LAZY!! I'll get over it soon. Maybe.

4th of July

Every other year, we have a big vacation with Scott's family. We always have a great time and we've had some pretty memorable times. Glennwood Springs, anyone? We laughed about that one quite a bit this time round. It just seems that every time, there is some sort of drama with our family. This time was no exception.

We had only been there a few hour when the drama started. Emma was standing in the doorway of her trailer and started to shut the door. My brilliant son decided that even though he was about 10 feet away, he could make it through the door before Emma had it closed. He launches himself towards the door and smacked his head right on the corner of the door. He starts crying and mean mom didn't even get up out of her chair. I'm so used to him doing something that I never really take it seriously anymore. So, I'm telling him to come to me, thinking I'll just kiss his head and he'll be fine. So, he comes over with his hand pressed to his head. He takes his hand off and it's covered in blood. Then the blood starts to gush! The last time I saw blood like that was when I was a kid in the emergency room getting stitches and they brought a kid in who had been hit by a car on his bike. But that's another story.

I quickly stood up and yelled for Scott, who rushed over with some paper towels. It took a while to get the blood to stop, but it did. When we finally got a look at the cut, it was so small! Not even the width of a dime. Crazy!


I know. He was still upset and I made him pose for a picture. What I'm willing to do for a blog. At least, I didn't make him pose for one while he was still bleeding! Although, I must admit I thought about it.


We went to Flaming Gorge this year and stayed right on the lake. It was beautiful! Too bad it rained on us pretty much every afternoon. I love my trailer. Have I ever mentioned that? When it wasn't raining we did manage to hang out at the beach. The kids LOVED that!

Mike and Amy brought their boat, which was so much fun. Jeff decided one day that he would take Taylor and Porter out on one of the tubes. They pulled them really slow and the boys loved it.
One the way back, though, they had four kids on, Porter, Taylor, Hali and Emma, and Dave decided he wanted a picture of them looking nervous, so they sped up the boat and made the boys not so happy. Mean, Dave.

I loved hanging out at the beach and wished we could have not had the rain, so we could have stayed longer. I was able to just relax while my kids had so much fun, playing with cousins and splashing in the water. It reminded me so much of the years we spent at Lake Powell with my family! Yes, mom and dad, that's a big old hint.

One afternoon, we took a little tour in the boat. It was Scott, Jeff, Lori, Dave, Natalie, Zoey, Porter and I. It was so beautiful and peaceful and I love it. Zoey loved it when we went really fast! She giggled and smiled and said Whee the whole time.
Awful picture of both Porter and I, but it's the only picture taken of me the whole trip, so I felt obligated to put it in.
Scott and Porter went for a dip in the FREEZING water.
My kids are so trained to pose for pictures. Porter was so not happy to be in the cold water, but smiled big, when the picture was taken. Good boy!
When the boat wasn't going fast, Zoey zonked. When the boat slowed down, she fell asleep. When the boat when fast again for the return, she woke right back up.
Even though it rained A LOT, we had a great time and we were sad when it was time to pack up and go. We really wanted to stay a few more days!

The Great Wall

Just had to post this picture. They are having the greatest time EVER!

The 12 Year Old Trip

My parents decided when my oldest niece turned 12, that they would take her anywhere in the world on a trip with just them and no parents. She chose to go to Paris. Well, when they had taken one grandchild, they had to do the same for them all. So, a few years later, they took another two (in the year they turned 12) to the Caribbean. A few years after that, England. And last summer Italy. So far, none of my kids have been old enough, but they have greatly anticipated their trip.

Last fall, it was time to plan the trip that would include Regan and two of her cousins, Ian and Avery, whom she adores. They were looking at the Adventures by Disney, because my parents had done the Italy trip through them and thought it was such a fantastic trip. Disney really knows how to take care of people. So, my mom called one day to have Regan look at the trip to China that they do. Regan couldn't believe how awesome the trip looked and since Ian and Avery had been the ones to point it out to grandma in the first place, plans were set into motion.

Regan has looked forward to this trip for probably 8 months and yesterday Scott put her on a plane to California to meet up with Grandparents and cousins. I didn't get teary eyed until I watched the car drive away. She'll be gone for 17 days! That's really long time. But I just know she's going to have the adventure of a lifetime.

First thing this morning, Porter asked when Regan was going to get home. I told him not for a long time. And he gave me the sweetest look and said "I really miss Regan." Me, too, buddy. Me, too.

School's Out For Summer....

Friday was the girl's last day at their elementary school. Next year they are going to a charter school. I really didn't think much of it, until both of them came to the car with big tears running down their faces. They had just said good-bye to their friends and were so sad! I guess I just didn't think it would be so hard on them. I felt so bad. They are still going to the new school, though.

Porter had a better last day of school. His pre-school does Circus Days for the last day of school and they encourage the kids to dress up. At this point I've had two other children do circus days, and if I added up how many I have done of these, Porter's would be the sixth time I've attended. So, the morning of the party, I was scrambling around trying to come up with a costume. Hali, the last of them to go, had been wearing dance costumes for a tight rope walker. And I really didn't think that Scott would be happy to see his son dressed in an old dance costume. I remembered that one year, Regan had gone as a clown, but I wasn't sure whether we still had the costume. So I dug through the basement and found the main part of the costume, but the hat and the neck ruffle were long gone. We could live without the ruffle, but he needed something on his head. I rummaged through all my craft supplies and found enough to make him, I must say, a really cute clown hat!

Zoey was so not going to be left out of the fun of dress up, so we just put her in a princess dress and a crown and she was good.

Porter and his teacher, Miss Shanna (yes, Shanna, this one's for you!)

It was a really cute party and a great way to end the school year. It even cheered the girls up!

My Son Is FIVE!!!

I know I'm a slacker. Porter's birthday was actually on the 9th of June, but I'm just now finally getting around to blogging about it. I'd also love to add a bunch of baby pictures of him, but they are still on some old computer and we just need to get around to getting all the pictures transferred onto a CD.

On the day before Porter's birthday, he was the spotlight child in his pre-school and I got to go see him in class as the kids learned about Porter (I filled out a form) and saw some pictures of him that I had. It was kind of fun to see the scrapbook pictures and remember certain things that I had forgotten! I really wish I had a picture to show, because Porter would always sleep with his hands behind his head. Like he was totally relaxed, calm and cool. It was the funniest thing! I'm so glad that I did take pictures of it to remind me how cute he is!

Porter's vocabulary is getting huge and some of the phrases he uses just crack me up. He has calmed down a bit. He's not as destructive as he was, regardless of the previous post. I guess when you go from two to three disasters a day to maybe one a week is a big improvement.

We went to the Mayan (like we do for every birthday) on the day of his birthday and just had fun being together.

Happy Birthday, bud.

Mani/Pedi

Saturday, Hali and I decided to give ourselves a little manicure/pedicure. We have the whole works, with the foot bath and lotions and all sort of good stuff. I even painted Zoey's fingernails. I guess she figured it wasn't enough.

I put the fingernail polish up high, so I won't have to scrub polish off of tables/floors/carpet, but Zoey has been learning from the Master! She's figured out how to push/pull anything tall, in this case the garbage can (don't worry it has a lid) over to the counter and climb up to get what she wants. Nail polish. She gave herself a pedicure...

painted her knee....
and I think I interrupted a little bit of lip gloss.
Luckily, the nail polish was confined to her body and didn't make it to the floor or the counter. Got to count your blessing where you can.

Amy's Annual Birthday BBQ

Every year, Scott's sister, Amy, has her birthday celebration in one of Utah's beautiful canyons. We bring tin foil dinners and something to share with everyone else. I apologize for the picture, Amy. I was standing on a bench and my camera is not the greatest.


Amy's son, Nate, did a little fishing in the river and even caught a fish. I'm not sure if the fish survived. Everyone wanted to take a picture and see the fish and that fish wanted nothing more than to return to the river. He broke the fishing string and landed on the ground. They did get him back into the river, but we're not sure how long he lived.
The kids were so fascinated by the river. Luckily, there was this fairly shallow place that the kids could put their hands into the water.
The little girl in the pink is Avery. She two and Porter decided that she was his little friend. He followed her everywhere. Porter LOVES little kids! He's drawn to them. He just can't help it. Ladies, Porter will make a great father one day!