July stuff

cutie girls on the 4th

me and the girls

the float in the parade

gorgeous gramas
Our July 4th!
So this year was quite the adventure for the 4th. In fact, I am still recovering from it! I drove the girls and our foster baby to Utah for the Price family reunion. (My mom's side). It was my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. Anyway, we had 5 jam packed days that were great fun indeed. On the first day, I met up with my sister and mom and went to my granparents house. We visited for a few hours, then most everyone went to the temple. My mom and I didn't feel up to it, so instead we babysat 50 million kids. I'm not sure we got the best deal! Just kidding, actually it was fun, grama's house is the perfect place to run around wild, and all the kids did just that, plus they were all filthy, so it made for the perfect summer day. While babysitting, one of my cousins kids, I won't name names (Neveah) took off her diaper 8 times. Vita's sister claimed that last time she taped it and she still got it off! So we came up with a brilliant plan to literally use the tape to make diaper suspenders. We took the tape around the legs, and up over her shoulders. I do wish I had a picture, but it worked and it was the funniest thing I've seen in a really long time. You know you're a bit tired when you're laughing maniacally at that. Later that day after the temple, we went to Golden Corrall. Yes, yes, I know, at least it wasn't chuch o rama. But I must say that actually the food was great, and the company was awesome. The next day, we were in the Plain City parade. I was a little skeptical about this, but it ended up being great fun. The announcer made a big deal about the float which said something like 60th wedding anniversary, 143 and counting! 143 being the number of people in the clan. No we are not polygamists. I am number 19 respectively.
Then we spent the rest of the day playing games and eating. Loved that. Next, I took the girls to their birthday suprise... Stadium of Fire with special guest Miley Cyrus! I almost started crying, I was so excited for them. Now, noone told me how amazing stadium of fire is! It was unbelievable, and so worth the money, I will try to go again for sure! It was so cute to see the girls shrieking for Miley Cyrus. And I must admit, she was fantastic! Then we watched a full 40 minutes of fireworks, and were covered in ashes by the end. (We had great seats, thanks Uncle Doug, and aunt Barb for the help) I do have a picture, but it is the most disgusting picture of me I've ever seen, so it wont be posted. We also didn't get back until 2 am, that was painful!
The next day, it's off to Lagoon. I'd like to thank everyone who DIDN'T TELL ME that Lagoon is truly the worst form of hell. In fact it was five million degrees with millions of little demons everywhere. Well, Jim did tell me but I didn't listen. It was so fun to see my cousins, and the girls had a blast. The best part of the day was being with Tom and Amy and laughing until tears rolled down my cheeks. Oh and second best was squeezing onto the log ride with Tom. That wasn't awkward at all. I still laugh out loud thinking about it, that and the lovely "zoo"they have there.
The next a.m was my cousin Jenna's baby blessing, it was so lovely and a great way to end the reunion.
So, it was a fantastic trip, I am still so tired though. Then, my sister drove home with me, and we were lucky to have her and her kids for almost 2 weeks, it was great fun, and I loved having her here!!
So, this was our July 4th, it was great. Sorry about the travel log, but at least I didn't do it in testimony meeting.

This is just cool

I am so proud of my brother Erik, let me explain.. In Seattle, there is an annual bike ride called the STP (Seattle to Portland). Thousands of people take two days and ride their bikes 200 miles from Seattle to Portland. I remember my brothers riding in it a few times as kids. The Scouts always did it etc. Well this year, my brother rode the entire ride in ONE Day! He received the coveted one day patch and everything. I am just so impressed with him, I had to brag on my blog. His two biking buddies were 50 and 70 years old respectively. He kept up with them for 85 miles and then had to slow down! Truly impressive. Way to go Erik! The first picture is of Erik riding into Portland!

More July updates to come!

Just had to add this one

Mean Girl in training

here is Abbey mad about something... This is not posed
And her on a happier day, such a cutie!
Let me just say that Abbey is the sweetest thing in the world, but I believe she could be a mean girl in training. When she was a baby, people would come up to me and say how cute she was, and she would give them these awful dirty looks! Quite suprising coming from a cute little baby. Fast forward 5 years.... Yesterday at the pool, we were talking about which swimming lesson level she is on. (level 2 for the 3rd time). She was telling me that she didn't want to do level 3 because she wants to play water polo instead. I explained to her that she has to swim really well to play that. Then she said she wants to be on swim team, so she doesn't want to do level 3. Again, I explained that she has to take level 3 to be on swim team. I asked one more time why she didn't want to move up. (shouldn't have) and she said "Because the teacher is a boy and he has braces and they are disgusting!" There are so many things wrong with that statement, but I couldn't help laughing hysterically. She has such and innocent little pixie face, and to hear that coming from her! So it looks like I've got my work cut out for me! No mean girls!!

last post, I promise

Just a note on my playlist... In middle school, we spent many hours listening to the radio and calling in 50 million times to request and dedicate songs to people. I was always impressed with the power the DJ possessed, and was fascinated with the idea of being able to put whatever song I wanted on the radio. So these songs are dedicated to certain people, I'm sure you'll figure out who. I will reveal soon!

Hillbilly fun

While in Utah, we went to visit our dear friends the Janiecs. We have known them since we were newlyweds. They adopted us and we've spent many Sunday evenings with them and had lots of adventures with them. Their daughter was Kimrie's first babysitter! So anyway, Gordy is fully prepared to be a grandpa, and he's had lot's of practice with our kids. We hadn't been there 2 minutes, when he had the 4 wheeler out pulling kids on it. We couldn't stop laughing at the contrast in our kind of fun versus the $100,000 boat across the street! Cherie said "They go boating for fun, and we play with the tractor!"
So here's a pic of Gordy pulling all the kids.


You'll notice that there are more than just the 3 girls, we have 2 more kids now. We are foster parents to Danny and Emilie. I would love to post more about them, but because of confidentiality and safety issues, I can't. But we actually have 6 kids now, including a 3 month old baby boy! Yes, we are insane, but happy. I guess if you're insane, you're too crazy to be unhappy.

our trip to Utah

So we went to Utah for a few days to pick up the girls who were visiting Jim's folks. They always have such a great time there, Tom and Shirley take them to do many new and fun things there. They went to the dinosaur museum one day and we get a call asking us to talk to Abbey because she is hysterical thinking the dinosaurs are real. Grandma tried to explain that they were real bones but not alive. Once you get Abbey going though, it's hard to calm her down. She is our little fraidy cat. We also went swimming with everybody at a fun pool. Mallory and Kimrie both went off the diving boards low and high. Kimrie went off the lowest platform and said she wouldn't ever do that again. Mallory being her crazy self, tried to go off the platform, but she couldn't pass for over 8!
So here is a picture of Mallory jumping off the high bouncy diving board, and Kimrie contemplating her plunge.