Weekend Celebrations

Last weekend we had a ward campout. This is the first one we've attended, as we're not big group campers. But the girls cried enough that we gave in. It was actually scheduled for the weekend before, but the rain and mudslides kind of got in the way so it was postponed. We were hoping for much nicer weather, and it was nicer just not a whole lot. It only sprinkled a little, so at least we stayed dry. We went to Anderson Cove up by Huntsville. It felt like we were camping in a park, but I guess that's what you get nowadays.

On Sunday we got to go to Tooele for Archer's baby blessing. We had a nice little brunch beforehand. Then we came home. Sheri and her three boys came and stayed with us. We got to go back to Tooele on Monday. We were supposed to have a family picnic that day, but due to conflicts of trying to meet somewhere central and rain we settled on just eating at Jason & Shalee's again. We also threw in a little bday party for my mom. It was rather subtle, but she got her ice cream cake and we all pitched in for a webcam so she can visit with her grandkids more often.

I did take a bunch of pictures, but I think I accidentally deleted them. They're not on my hard drive and I cleared my card in my camera before double checking (uh oh!) At least I had all the important ones. Shalee had asked me to do photos of Eli & Elsie for their 4 year and 18 month shots. I guess I'll post those since I have nothing else to show from the weekend.

And Tuesday I took a bunch of pictures of little Harold before they left. This was the first time we met him so I had to get pictures. He has this great comical grin. When he smiles his mouth gets so huge.

Crazy Economics

So, Brandon got a new (new to us) car a year ago. It was much needed and has been great for him, except for one "minor" problem. The gas pedal started randomly going out. Ok, that was a very scary problem. We took it to the mechanic right away, but they couldn't find anything wrong with it (of course, it wouldn't do it when they had it). The second time it did it we tried a different mechanic. We took it there, only to find out they were closed -- in the middle of the day?? At this point Brandon had just fixed one problem it seemed to be having (the oxygen sensor), but the check engine light was going off and on. Since the mechanic wasn't there and the light seemed to be staying off we decided to just go home. But then the next morning, right after picking up his car pool buddy, the pedal went out again. The car pool guy sure didn't want to be driving to work in a car that may or may not have acceleration, so he went alone and Brandon just decided to take it to the dealer. That turned out to be the blessing we needed. Upon walking in and hearing what the problem was, the dealer was a bit freaked out, but he quickly diagnosed it and confirmed that it was a factory recall. It needed a new computer, but we got this $800 repair for free!

Now this is where the story turns weird. They had the car fixed in just a couple hours, we went back and picked it up. Then later that afternoon Brandon got a call from the dealer. They were offering to buy his car from him -- for $700 MORE than we paid for it a year ago. They said they are having a hard time getting this model, especially in as good of condition as ours is. I don't think we're going to take the offer since we can't find a comparable one for the same price, and B really likes his car, but it was a strange offer. So, our car is worth more than we paid and we have a house that is worth less than we paid for it. What a mixed up economy!

Lagoon

We had two field trips in a row this week! On Friday we got to go to Lagoon. Maybe not the most educational, but we deserved a break. We spent the morning hanging out with some friends and then we did our own thing in the afternoon.


Sophie's favorite ride was the Ody Sea. She liked getting wet. She would have stayed wet all day if I'd let her. She was a pretty big chicken at first and didn't want to go on much, but by the end of the day she was doing pretty well and even went on The Bat (a roller coaster that you hang from).

Chloe wanted to do just about everything. Near the end she said she wanted to go on a ride that went upside down, so I told her I'd go with her (even though my stomach wasn't doing very well). I was very impressed with her, and I hope it was worth it because right after getting off the ride I puked! Chloe kind of hurt her back on the ride as well, Sophie came home with a sore neck (she said she got it from the bumper cars), and I was sick. I'm not sure if you'd call that a good day, but I think we had fun. I don't think I'm ready to sign up for season passes anymore, but maybe once in a while I can handle.

Archaeological Dig

On Thursday we had an amazing opportunity to go to a real archaeological dig. It was out near Goshen (about 80 miles from here). A professor from BYU has a team doing a field study out there. This is their third year working at this spot, so they had done a lot of work they got to show us. It was really interesting, and I learned quite a bit (don't know about the girls). You could see the adobe house they had dug out, plus several other structures. They had also located a lot of artifacts. Just that day they had found several arrowheads we got to see. Sophie really enjoyed sifting through the dirt to find objects. The team was made up almost entirely of girls. I asked the professor if that was representative of his department and he said yes! In fact, in the 7 years he has been there he said he's seen a big shift. So, girls, I guess archaeology is your field now (smile).

Mother's Day

Since we're not doing gifts this year my kids really didn't see the point of Mother's Day. They really don't think I deserve a holiday, and if there's no excuse to go buy something than what's the point? Sophie did get something at an activity day to give me -- some hand soap (laden with chemicals). I was a little surprised at her choice until I realized she hadn't picked it out. Chloe went out that morning and picked some tulips for me. They were beautiful, but she forgot to ask her dad first! Then she put them on the table and sat and drew me a picture of them.


Brandon and Sophie made me breakfast, pumpkin waffles and scrambled eggs with onions, peppers and potatoes. Yum! We try not to eat eggs anymore, so that was a special treat. My husband is very good to me. He tries really hard to make the day special for me.

April

Did you know that other than Chloe's birthday I didn't take a single picture in April with my camera? Sad, I know. But I do have a few photos from my iPod. This was actually back tracking into the end of March, but here are the girls at a "Wild West Extravaganza" put on by the library. We got to go as a family and we all had a good time, but it was pretty obvious that we were on the older end of the attendees. I guess I didn't even think about the fact that we might outgrow these kind of events some day -- and luckily, so far my girls didn't either. I don't even think they noticed there weren't a lot of participants over the age of 5. We just had fun.


We also got an update on Sophie's expander. It is doing great, but she has to leave it on for 6 more months. That was a bit of a disappointment for her. She was really hoping to get it off soon and the doctor had been so positive about her results that I thought she might as well. Oh well, at least we don't have to go visit him for quite a while.

For one of our field trips in April we got to go to Ballet West's production of "Peter and the Wolf." That was the first ballet I've taken the girls to. I was grateful for the opportunity to expose them to something new.

I gained a new nephew this month, Archer. I got to go take his newborn pictures -- oh, so I guess I did take some more pictures! But I didn't count those because they were for someone else. I guess I better post one of those.


This month I attended a class on clay. A lady from the Redmond Clay company came to do the demonstration. I've used their salt for a long time now, and I have a facial mask that uses their clay, but I was blown away by all the other things she taught us we could do with it. I still haven't taken the plunge to start drinking it (like they recommend), but one of these days I will. It was really interesting.

I also had to go in for a little checkup -- my 2 year checkup with my oral surgeon who did my implant. I got great news, I don't ever have to go back to him! He's turning me over to my regular dentist to keep an eye on it.

For Easter this year I braved it and took the girls to the city egg hunt. It wasn't nearly so bad as I remember it. Chloe chose not to participate, but Sophie enjoyed every minute of it (I got another iPod photo of her). She had gotten a ton of coupons for free meals to Applebee's and Sizzler. Since we don't eat there she had a ball choosing who she wanted to give them to, and then running them around the neighborhood. The girls dyed eggs. They even tried to make their own natural dyes (their idea, not mine) but it didn't work too well. Chloe planned our menu for Easter dinner, which I liked. Since the girls now know about the Easter bunny they thought it would be fun to hide the eggs, so they did an egg hunt for Brandon and I on Saturday. We still hid the eggs that night, but they were just empty plastic eggs. I didn't fill them -- and they didn't care! I guess the fun is just in the finding. I did splurge and get the personalized eggs from Mrs. Cavanaugh's as a fun treat, and that was plenty.

One Year Older

Chloe celebrated another birthday this April, her tenth one.



She loves hotels. Not so much traveling, but just staying in hotels. The pool, staying up late watching TV, sleeping in the same room with mom and dad. In fact she has a "favorite" hotel, not more than a few miles from our home. It's the hotel we stayed in when we came for Jason & Shalee's wedding shortly before we moved to Utah. Who knew back then that we'd be living so close to it one day? So, the fact that we drive by it so frequently I'm sure is one reason she is so attached to it. Since we're not buying gifts this year I tried to think of a way to make her day special for her. I thought of staying in this hotel for a night, but when I checked the rates they had skyrocketed over what we paid 5 years ago. Then last minute, late Sunday night I got on Priceline and put in a low bid and actually got it! For less than I paid 5 years ago.

Now the trick was deciding how to tell her we were going. I grabbed swimming suits and pajamas and threw them in a bag (but like Brandon said, if we forgot anything we could just drive home and get it!) After Brandon got home from work I threw everything in his trunk, then asked him to back his car out of the garage so I could get the recycling bin taken out to the curb. This is pretty routine, so she had no clue anything was going on. And of course the girls like to go for a ride in the car, all the way out into the driveway, so that wasn't hard to get them in the car. So while I was dragging the bin out to the curb Brandon rolls down the window and asks if I want to go for a drive. That got the girls really excited! There's just something about driving around with no destination (if only it didn't waste gas and ruin the environment!) Chloe commented on how she loves to go for drives, only she wished it was dark. Sorry, I didn't make that part come true. So, we head down to the hotel. You have to cross this pretty busy street (4 lanes) to get to it -- unless you take the interstate. As we were trying to cross the street a car going way too fast came out of nowhere and almost hit us. It was pretty scary, but we made it across the street and now pulling into the hotel parking lot didn't seem so strange. It was just the quickest place to go to get out of the traffic. We were a little shaken up, and one of us asked, "Where should we go now?" Of course, Chloe didn't let us down -- "The hotel!" So we said, "ok" and parked the car. Well, that freaked both girls out. I don't think they actually expected us to go in. As we were walking in Sophie's telling me, "You better pay for this. It's not my fault!" I guess she was worried we would charge them for their suggestion. It was fun watching them, not sure if they should take us seriously. And then Chloe heard me tell the guy at the desk that I had reservations and she figured it all out. Now she knew it was planned.

We had a great time at the hotel. We enjoyed the pool. And the hot tub. Had warm showers before bed. The girls fell asleep watching TV. In the morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, then went swimming again. Then we headed home and it didn't take us forever to unpack, nor did I feel exhausted from a long vacation. It was a perfect get-away!

Brandon had taken Tuesday off work for Chloe's birthday, so he was able to hang out with us all day. We spent the afternoon making Chloe's cake (double layer carrot cake). She really wanted it to look like one in a book she has, but it came nowhere close. We had a lot of issues with it, but she had a cake! For dinner she chose to go to California Pizza Kitchen...



Where she ordered mac and cheese!



Then after dinner we went bowling. That had been her request for her birthday, before she knew anything about the hotel. We were fortunate that her birthday fell on $2 Tuesday!



After bowling we came home and had cake and root beer floats. All that sugar made us all sick! I don't drink root beer floats (never liked them), and the cake was so sweet I only had about 2 bites. It was nice to hear Chloe say she could feel how it doesn't make her feel good. Now if we could just remember that!