South Dakota: Week 1 in Pictures

Lucy and Maja, chillaxin on the trampoline:

 Audrey, Adam, and Tayden chillaxin in the pool:

 Lucy:

 Ryan and Isaac, looking so deceptively innocent:

 Isaac building a sand castle:

 Lucy, Maja, Molly, Sarah, Hannah, and Maddie in the camper:



South Dakota: Week 1

Somewhere, in the depths of some stack of paper, I jotted down a quick outline of what we did on our SD trip.  It was to prevent the EXACT situation I find myself in, which is that I am blogging about our trip 2 months after the fact and can't remember anything.  My memory (along with my patience--see previous post) is not one of my best  features. 

So instead of going into great detail about the fun things we did (and you are all saying "thank you" profusely, aren't yout?), I'll just give the highlights so that when I print this little blog into a book, we'll know we went. 

Well, would you look at that?  I got up to just see if I could find my little outline and it was in the very first place I looked.  Who says miracles don't occur every day?

Week 1:

** In our first few days there, I remembered what exactly it is that I LOVE about dry summers: very few mosquitos.  It was hot and humid and the mosquitos tried to suck us dry every instant we were outside.  And yet, outside we went.  I spent a little time mowing the lawn in the rain while the kids played with Woody the Wood Troll in the Enchanted Forest, built sand castles at the playset, and went swimming. 

**Lucy, Maddie and Maja spent an afternoon at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead in DeSmet with Gma Tina, my Uncle Bob, Aunt Anne, and their daughter Amelia.  As the Homestead is on a Big Slough, they came back with so many mosquito bites they looked chicken-poxed.

**We joined the Brookings Ward for the annual 24th of July picnic and no sooner had we eaten than a real, true-blue, bonafied SD summer thunderstorm blew in.  And I mean BLEW!  We ran for cover under the pavilion, gathered our stuff as quickly as we could and headed home to watch the show.  There is nothing I like better than watching a storm across the prarie.  It's absolutely beautiful . . . and a little terrifying.  (It happened to be the same storm that produced the largest hailstone ever found in North America.)  FYI, a SD thunderstorm looks a little something like this.

**Dad, Dave, Ben, Spencer and Zach spent the next day helping ward members clean up downed trees after the storm.  Luckily, the tree they made into firewood didn't damage the home it fell on too much.

**Gpa Ron-the-Brave took it upon himself to sleep out in the camper with whatever children wanted to join him.  Everyone 4 and up took him up on that offer and we parents got ourselves a fantastic night of sleep.  Gpa Ron-the-Brave?  Not so much.

**I realized I'd lived in Utah too long when I thought it was interesting that the Bishop had to explain what the July 24th celebration was for (as well as what the Book of Mormon was and who the pioneers were) during Sacrament Meeting.  I love being surrounded by good people who are all striving toward the same goal as me, but sometimes I miss living where people are constantly asking questions about what you believe.  (When I shared this sentiment with Zach, however, he may or may not have told me I was crazy.)

**After our traditional ginormous Sunday dinner, we enjoyed naps, games and visiting together with the family.  Wonderful Week!

South Dakota: The Annual Pilgrimage

Patience is not generally considered one of my virtues.  For the majority of my life, this is a great disadvantage.  Ask my kids.  They could tell you.  But every once in a while--every once in a very looooooong while--my lack of patience means more fun for my kids.  Case in point: Zach couldn't leave for SD when I decided I wanted to go.  We knew Zach could catch a ride with my sister's family later, and I wanted the kids to get a few more days there, so we left on Monday, July 19 around 3 p.m.

Tender Mercies:

• My nieces, Hannah and Sarah, were a tremendous help with the kids on the drive. 
• Despite a little overcrowding, we managed to fit with all of our stuff in my little van.
• Restrooms outside of a gas station in Rock Springs, WY.  (I don't love dragging a lot of kids through gas stations with tempting, overpriced treats on every shelf.)
• Despite displaying symptoms of the stomach flu about an hour into the drive, Kye was able to take a nap and only threw up once--just as I pulled up to the hotel in Casper.
• I managed to fit all 6 kids somewhere in the hotel room.
• We only had 2 mishaps at the hotel pool: Isaac slipped as he was running around the pool and conked his head HARD, and Adam went too far down the steps and I had to go into the pool fully clothed to get him out.  But they are alive:)
• As I usually do, I was so worried about not getting enough sleep when I had to drive the whole next day, that I couldn't fall asleep till 3 a.m.  Miraculously, I was able to sleep until 8, which was way more sleep than I thought I would get.
• Because I don't usually drink caffeine, a little bit of Pepsi went a long way to keeping me awake when I had to drive 12 hours on Tuesday.
• We made it safe and sound to Gma and Gpa's house and the kids were thrilled with the extra time they had there.

I am thankful for the tender mercies of the Lord.  They may seem like such small, insignificant things, but they meant a lot to me. 

(Next installment coming soon.)

And a shout out to my little brother Dave on his birthday.  Love you!

Top Five--August 2010

It's not that we haven't had a busy month.  We have.  It's that I haven't written anything down.  And we all know how atrocious my memory is if I try to write it down after the fact.  It's a curse.  I was born with it.  (But don't tell Zach, because whenever we disagree on what's happened in the past, I tell me that I have a MUCH better memory than he does and so I'm right!)  Without further ado, our top five of the month:

5--Adam:  I'm going to turn you into a fwog.  Kaboom.  KaBOOM!  (Kaboom is his destructive word of choice.  It's what he says when he turns you into something.  And when he traps you.  And when he "shots" you.  Seriously love that kid.)

4--Lucy: If there was a piece of dynamite under the trampoline and you were jumping on it and the dynamite exploded, would you die?  (Thank you "Mythbusters."  It has inspired destructive hypotheses galore from my kids, but at least they've never actually tried out what they want to know.  Unlike a certain nephew who wanted to know if you can pull a bathroom mirror off the wall with a plunger.  You can, by the way.)

3--Kye: You're the best mom in the world!! Except, well, sometimes I don't think that when I'm a little mad at you.

2--Isaac: (When asked about his day at school, which he absolutely loathes having to talk about in the car on the way home)  Ummmmm, it's a secret. 

All righty then. 

(The first day of school definitely made it to the top ten.  The kids were so ready.  That means so was I, even though all this driving might kill me:)

1--Zach and I reached a personal financial goal much earlier than planned and feel pretty dang blessed.

Maybe Later

I was totally going to spend some time tonight blogging about the rest of our summer vacation.  But as this is the first night in 2 weeks that I don't actually have to do anything, I decided it would be way more fun to watch an episode of Pushing Daisies while laying my head on Zach's shoulder in a way that fits just right.  As much as I know this will disappoint you all, you will survive.

Oh, and I'm very excited about going to see The Lion King in Salt Lake tomorrow night.  I've managed half a dozen trips to NYC since it debuted in 1997 and have somehow still managed never to see it.  And I really can't wait to take Lucy to her first Broadway show.  It's gonna be good.