Pics from our little Utah adventure

Here are a few pics from my trip with the kids.

This is what kids look like when they see a t.v. with cable after a couple of years.

I forgot......I've been busy!

OOpps! Someone brought to my attention that I have forgotten to mention that we are moving!! Chris is being transferred to Texas with Lockheed Martin. He is starting on October 6th. Hopefully our house will be sold soon so I can move along with him. The market is slowwww here, but thankfully not half as bad as other areas of the country. We had an offer the first week , but the buyer didn't qualify for our price range. ):

Having a 3600 sq ft home for sale with 6 kids and a HUGE yard is VERY STRESSFUL! I like to be organized and relatively clean, but I am in NO WAY a perfectionist,baseboard cleaning,smudge wiping, crumb catching clean freak!!!! I can't wait 'til this is over. It has only been on the market 2 weeks yet it feels like a year. I really want to do some canning. We have a ton of tomatoes and jalapenos to make salsa, but I just cannot make that kind of mess right now! Tomorrow a.m is the Weber County Realtor's Tour with a ton of people walking through. I have a showing today at 3pm and last night we had one, but the buyers son threw up in the car and they had to cancel and go back to the hotel. Bummer.

Wish us luck! Chris and I are going to Dallas tomorrow until the 15th for a house hunting trip. Yeah....a trip..... minus the kids! SueZan will be the lucky one here with 8 kids and a house for sale to keep perfect!

Boys on Bikes

Adam and John helped Daddy get their training wheels on so they could learn to ride big boy bikes now.

No Screen Week

If anyone is wondering why I have not made an entry for over a week it is because first we were on vacation and then our Stake President asked us all to have a "No Screen" Week....... no t.v., computer etc. Today is the first day back on the blog, but I am so busy that I have no time to write at this moment. I'll update you all later. (:

See ya!

Rita

A Great Internet Movie Seen Today

I was forwarded the link below in an e-mail and felt like this was well worth sharing. Enjoy!

http://www.findingjoymovie.com/

Chris Goes to the Bahamas

After getting a few questions about the Bahamas thing, it's time to finally tell the story behind the trip and some details about the trip itself. I will also put some pictures on this, so check back on this particular post from time to time as I'll add them when I get them uploaded!

Brett is a good friend of mine from back in 1995 where we served together in the military. He asked Rita if I could take this trip with him to the Bahamas since he was not yet married. It was pretty stunning, to say the least, because when he asked Rita about it, I did not know that he was going prior to that!

Not wanting to let my good buddy down, I grudgingly packed for the trip. After all, that's what good friends are all about right?

Well, we had a tolerably good time dealing with the white sand beaches, the warm water, the biggest resort in the Bahamas (literally), water slides, snorkeling, and sailing an America's Cup sailboat as crewmembers! We probably spent 3 days out of 4 covered with either sand, water, and sunscreen pausing long enough to eat and then jump back in the water. We can safely say that you can indeed go in the water directly after eating. There was excellent food provided for almost all meals and money for the times not covered. We even hit the beach and went swimming at around midnight on our last night there...it was a fairly decent trip with minimal injuries.

Brett did hit his head diving on a shipwreck using fins and a snorkel. He was about 25 feet down, going through the wreck (for a photo) and hit his head when the current kicked. He ended up getting some antibiotics put on the scrape and might need to get some follow on stuff here in the States. All in all, for all the activities that we did, that's not too shabby. I've seen worse injuries when Brett and I played some basketball with the mechanics in the Air Guard unit we were in together!

Besides the bump to the head, we had a great time! We were able to do everything we had wanted to do out there and made some plans for 'the next trip.' One essential detail: women. It has been decided that we have done these trips too many times without (two weeks in Panama with the military...not really a vacation per se, and a short trip to Yellowstone last winter to snowmobile). We also thought about getting dive certified before going out to the Carribean again.

Such a great trip and a great time all kidding aside! I'll put up some pictures as soon as I can get them from Brett.

Our Little Adventure in Utah

Well, since Chris was gone to the Bahama's and there was no one "coming home for dinner" I decided to pack up the kids and go on an adventure. We left the house Thursday a.m. and didn't come back 'til noon today(Sunday). First we headed to Antelope Island. It stunk...literally, but was amazing and we learned a lot. Then we went to Salt Lake and checked into the Plaza Hotel. We hopped into our bathing suits and hung out at the pool. It was awesome because I could lay in the sun and watch the kiddos and see the west side of the temple right in front of my face.
For dinner the kids wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe @ Trolley Square. We got on TRAX and rode it over there. We sat by ZZ Top's guitar. Yippee. I was so glad when the meal was over. I NEED more silence, LESS rock in my life. (: We then decided to get some groceries for the hotel since all of the downtown hotels have a restaurant instead of the free continental breakfast.(greedy misers) So we get out of the supermarket and have to walk 4 blocks to the TRAX station on busy streets. WOW! I don't think many big families would choose to live in a city where you have to hop on public transportation instead of into cars. It was kind of hairy keeping everyone together and safe while holding groceries. I cannot imagine going "full" grocery shopping without a car. I am a TWO cart woman when it comes to groceries and there is no way you could carry multiple gallons of milk, canned food etc.
We made it back to the hotel and chilled out and watched Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?. Steven of course blew the doors off me in answering the questions. He is too smart!(:
Since we only had two queen beds in the room I offered $5 to any "floor sleepers". Ryan was the only one who was richer the next morning.
Next morning we laid in bed, watched cartoon network and went to the pool before checkout. It was so nice to not have any schedule!!! We packed up and off we went to Kennecott Copper Mine. Wow! That place is amazing! The kids loved the gift shop of course. While we were out there looking down into this HUGE hole they announced that they were "blasting" in 30 min and everyone needed to evacuate. So off we went. We stopped at the gas station and got soda which is a MIRACLE for my kids. I am Water Lady and Daddy is the Soda Man. We drove through a few towns that we have never been in. We walked around Kaysville and saw some Victorian houses and were gonna go to the Dollar Movie, but just missed it. SO we headed up to Perry to see what play was at the Heritage Playhouse. No luck there. We did stop at the Air Force Museum. Katie and I went over to the Roy Museum and had so much fun while the boys explored all of the old air crafts.
Then we made our way to Brigham City, checked into the hotel and of course headed straight for the pool. We had Mexican food delivered and watched cable all night....then went swimming one last time before 11pm when the pool closed.
We came back today just in time for church after what my kids say was the AWESOME breakfast where you get to make your own waffles. Ryan and Alex were very good at working out on the exercise equipment at both hotels.....especially when there was a t.v. in the room.(:
It was just so nice to get away from the phone and schedule and CLEANING!!!!!!!!
Chris should be home by 2am this morning. We missed him so much.

24

Here are some pictures of our 24 hr drill

Wow! This Sunday afternoon our neighborhood had a surprise disaster preparedness drill. We were instructed to live as if a natural disaster had happened days ago and we were still without power, gas, and water and the food in our fridges had gone bad or been consumed. It was a test to see if we could survive with what we had in our food and water storage and 72 hr kits. Well, we made it! I actually had to leave the house for a doctors appt 3 hrs prior to the 24 hr mark, but, oh well. We had a good time. It was hard work. Luckily our water storage was in good shape. It tasted fine. We limited the bathrooms to 2 toilets from 4 so we wouldn't have to carry buckets all over the house to flush 4 of them. Our emergency candle holders were so awesome. They came in handy.Some of the kids camped in the yard. Cooking lunch and breakfast was a painstakingly slow process. We only had the propane grill. We should have had firewood and charcoal to dutch oven cook. I had to boil water to make this certain type of powdered milk to make pancakes. It took 45 minutes to boil water and cook pasta. I am so thankful for power and running water. I definitely need to store paper plates,bowls, and cups.

It was great to not have t.v. and computers, though. We enjoyed the weather outside and the kids were playing games by lantern light. The worst part was not taking a shower!!!!!! A few of our neighbors were cranking up their generators. Chris had to set his cell phone alarm to wake up for work and he had powdered milk on his cereal after finding his clothes by candlelight.

As we were doing this drill we were making note of all of the things we had wished we had so we can better prepare for a real disaster in the future.

Here are some pictures we took.(Oooopppps! Chris has the laptop with him in the Bahama's, so I will not be able to post pictures until Monday the 25th) Sorry.

No entry for Sunday or Monday morning...

We are having a disaster-preparedness drill from 7pm last night (Sunday) until 7pm today. Rita and the kids are having to pretend that there is no water, gas, or electric service and that all items in the fridge are 'off limits.' It was a challenge put to us yesterday to experiment on our food storage, water, and other items that we should have on-hand in case of natural or other disaster.

So there won't be any blog entries except by the person who 'gets to' go to work!

We'll resume regular blogs when the power comes back on tonight. ;-)

Sunset

Steven took this beautiful picture in our front yard while the sun was setting.

Nature Boys

I was in the kitchen and saw my sweet boys out back observing a butterfly. They were out there for a good 30 minutes quietly watching it. I just had to take a picture. I love these precious moments. These are the times I wish I could "pause" time and keep them young forever. I love that Alex (14) will play with John (4).I have LOVED being with them this summer. School starts in two weeks. ):

Family Home Evening

Adam was in charge of the treat on family night and he chose "dirt with worms". It was so messy,but he was so proud to make it with the help of Stevo.

I swear, my kids do own shirts. I guess Ryan was hot after a crazy game of "Stinger" that Alex taught us how to play. He got the idea from EFY (Especially for Youth)

The Roof

John and Adam had their first trip on the roof. They are not afraid of heights because they both went up and came down without hesitation. That is every boy's desire...to get on the roof with Daddy when he is fixing something.
I am sure that my safety conscious in laws and sister in law are cringing at this post as soon as they lay eyes on it. Am I right Amy, Dana, and John????? (: Sorry for freaking you guys out.

Sticky Kids and Jam

Making freezer jam and apricot fruit roll ups with kids was a very messy, but fun experience. We made a ton of fruit roll ups and they were gone in 48 hrs. We had a great time together. I love being with our kids. I feel so blessed to be home with them full time.

Games

Daddy having fun with the boys.

RED

Red cake batter for Spiderman cupcakes looks different on everyone. (:

Bday Boy!!

Spidey!

Johnny is 4!

We now have two 4 yr olds!!!! John turned 4 on August 2nd and Adam will be 4 until August 30th. John woke up to a Spiderman Bday. Katie and Steven decorated the table and spun a "web"on his bedroom door. He had a scavenger hunt to find his present. He was so cute and excited. Even our big kids LOVE to be covered in balloons and have their door decorated shut so they can rip through it in the morning.

Train Ride to Salt Lake City

Last week I took Alex and Katie down to SLC with me to meet up with my sister, Emily. She was in town for a convention. It was great to see her. We had fun riding the commuter train. It is so much cheaper than gas and much more relaxing.