An Unexpected Trip Way Down South

My baby sister Cassie is getting ready for her first year of college! I can't believe that she is so old. She has been working at Rue 21 in Lehi and her manager was able to transfer her to the St. George store so she could have a job while she goes to Dixie State. Her new manager wanted her to start work a week before school started, so the night before she had to move down, Alex and I took Cassie out as a "sister's date" before she left for school. We were actually going to go laser-tagging but there were only two other people there, and they were little kids, so we went to dinner instead. It was so fun to talk about Cassie's plans for going to school, and living away from home for the first time! It took me back to when I was just a college freshman and everything I went through in those last days of summer back in 2006.

After dinner, Alex and I decided that we wanted to go with Cassie and my mom to St. George to get her set up in her dorm. I hadn't planned on going to St. George, so I had nothing, no toothbrush, pajamas, nothing, but we did it anyway! We had to run over to Alex's apartment to get her stuff, and while we were there, I had to illegally park next to this awesome sign. I love the addition of the word "absolutely"... like that makes a difference to people. Ha!

We left early the next morning (and only had to turn around once to get Cassie's medicine), and made it to St. George by lunch. I drove with Cassie, and taught her how to use her cruise control- definitely an important skill if you're going to drive back and forth from Salt Lake to St. George. My mom and Alex drove the Tahoe with Cassie's stuff and, most importantly, her cute bike! That was her graduation gift from my mom and Jeff, and I thought it was so cute! Can't you just picture Cas cruising around St. George on her sweet bike?

Cassie has her own room in a dorm with five other girls. It was fun to set everything up and look at all the stuff she bought for college. I fear that the shelf in her closet is going to fall down with all the clothes she hung on it! After getting her room all set up, we went to the grocery store to fill up her refrigerator and pantry too.

After all the shopping and running around picking up stuff for Cas (we also went to the Dixie bookstore so we could all have something with the Dixie name on it), we were pretty exhausted and going a little crazy from the heat in St. George. We were trying to take a good picture of all the girls together, and ended up with some of Alex and her "lightsaber" (really the roll that the rug was rolled around). Alex wouldn't let us throw it away because she needed it. Being a Star Wars person myself, I understand. Notice the presence of the lightsaber in the next few pictures...

Finally we did get a good shot. Not too bad considering I had to balance my camera on the roof of the Tahoe and set the timer, right?

We were able to spend the night in a hotel and take Cassie out to breakfast all together the next morning before heading home. I was so happy we got to spend some time together, just girls, and be with Cassie as she gets started on her exciting college experience! I am so excited for her, and I know she is just going to love being in college! It also gives us a reason to head down to St. George too!

Park Day Swimming Party!

I've posted before about our weekly adventures on "park day" each Tuesday of the summer, but this was by far the biggest adventure of the summer! Jenny hosted "park day" in her backyard and it was the most well-attended of the summer. In the picture you can see that there were three swimming pools, three shade canopies, and about a million people! The moms spent a few hours sitting in the shade and talking, while the kids spent their time running from pool to pool, squirting each other with squirt guns and just playing! We had a big BBQ and everyone had a great time!

This summer we met the Shields family, who has a six-year old named Lindsay. She and Claire were fast friends and spent the whole day playing together.

The squirt gun boys! This turned into quite the war! The kids tried to hide behind the moms so they wouldn't get squirted!

Reagan didn't want to drink water! Diet Coke is much better!

Harrison saw the kids getting water from the cooler and had to try it himself

Popsicles!

That's a lot of kids!

Freaking cute Wyatt with those big blue eyes!

And the chair fight begins.... This chair was the best purchase for the summer! I hauled it everywhere I went, and by this time, the babies figured out that it was the perfect size for them. Harrison and Reagan fought over it all afternoon. Notice Reagan trying to get a drink of my Diet Coke after she had finished off her mom's drink.

After the party was over, Melissa and Jenni Shields were still hanging out with Jenny, Kamie and I. We looked out in the yard and could not find Wyatt anywhere. All of a sudden, he pops out from underneath the pool that he had turned upside-down! Soon the girls thought that was a great place to play and had to join in the fun hiding under the pool.

Chair wars continue... By this time, every cup in the yard had turned into a water toy

That evening we had another BBQ for dinner. Nate Shields joined us, along with Tim and Randy, and we all had dinner. We had some chips left over from the BBQ and the kids sat on the back porch grazing until it was time to eat. Brad sitting with the two-year-olds, Harrison and Carter Shields.

We even had some baby sharing going on... Reminds me of the picture I took of Harrison squirting water in Reagan's mouth while we were at Bear Lake for the fourth of July, only this time, Reagan is sharing her drink with Harrison!

This was the last park day that I could go to, and it was so much fun. All the best parts of summer rolled into one afternoon: swimming and playing in water, BBQ, chatting in the sun with the women, watching the kids play until they couldn't play anymore! Great day!

Our Timing Always Seems to be Bad

As many of you know, Matt and I have been getting ready to build a house. We are pre-qualified for our mortgage and have been working with an architect on our floor plans. We even have put an offer on a lot in Richmond that we like. We have been planning everything, even getting ready to put our stuff in storage at Todd and Melissa's house and move into Randy and Jenny's basement while we are building. But, as we learned last year, you can never plan for anything and have it work out the way you want it to!

Last weekend, Matt was driving to Bear Lake to work on Kamie's parents' cabin and just as he dropped over the mountain coming into Bear Lake, he heard a loud explosion and lost compression. He pulled over and looked at his engine and there was oil everywhere. He thinks he blew a hole in the motor. Luckily, he was in cell service range so he called Tim and got a tow to the cabin. Matt doesn't think there is any way for him to fix his car, so we'll have to buy a new one. Exactly what we need while we are getting ready to build a house, right? Not to mention that we have no way to get his car back to Logan ourselves and will have to wait until someone has time to help us get a trailer and tow it back. And Matt has been working in Wyoming and has been to busy to deal with checking out the car.

Luckily, Matt has a motorcycle. So while he is in Logan, he could ride that. Well, the motorcycle hasn't been registered for a month. We have been waiting to go to Salt Lake to register the bike, and have not had time. When the car died, Matt talked Randy into registering the bike while he was in Salt Lake for work. Randy did, and Matt was able to ride his bike. However, three days later, Matt was driving home from camping to meet with the architect about plans for the house, and the tire on his bike was flat! So he met one of our neighbors who helped him repair the tire so he could ride it to a shop to get the tire fixed. Well he gets about a block down the street, and the tire is already flat again! So he starts to walk the bike back home, and someone helps him fill up the tire so he can get home. In the two minutes that it took for him to get home, the tire went flat. He looked closer and there is a big tear in the tire, so it will definitely have to be replaced, rather than just fixed. Are you kidding me right now????

So now we have to buy a new car AND put a new tire on the motorcycle. Until one of those things happen, Matt has no way of getting around.

I hope our luck improves over the next few months, or we will be in some real trouble!

My Busiest Week of Summer

The great part about summer is that I literally have NOTHING to do. People think I am crazy for loving that, but really, I love it when someone invites me to do something and I can do it because I have nothing else to do! This week was a lot like that, I had nothing to do, and then suddenly I was super busy!

Of course it started off with park day on Tuesday... We went to the park in Trenton where Jenny got eaten by mosquitoes and the kids got covered in mud playing on this:

When I was a kid, I would never have gotten on that thing! Later that night, I got to babysit the kids while Randy went to Young Men's and Jenny was at work.

On Wednesday, Jenny and I took the kids to Salt Lake to go to the Natural History Museum. This plan did not come into existence until about midnight on Tuesday night and we left at 8:00 the next morning! I love having no plans ever! Jenny had just gotten off work so I was the chauffeur for the day.

If you haven't been here, seriously you need to go! It is the coolest place ever. We took our fourth graders on a field trip here and I could have stayed all day. As part of the fossil/dinosaur exhibit, there are some glass floors with fossils below and Harrison was terrified to walk on the glass! At first he would try to stay on the beams between the glass panels but then he just started screaming every time we tried to get him across!

There are so many hands-on activities throughout the museum. The kids would hurry from one to the next without even looking at any of the displays, which Jenny and I couldn't get enough of! They may need to make the display tables a little shorter so little people can see! Harrison wanted to touch everything just as much as Brad and Claire.

Even the little kids have to try everything out!

Cool weather observation platform on the roof. I think everything in the museum ties into 4th grade science and social studies in some way.

After a couple hours at the museum, we went to Shivers for lunch. The kids had a blast eating on the train. Even Harrison, who had a fever and wasn't feeling good, wanted to be on the train.

Ice cream always helps when you are sick. I love how his whole tongue came out when he was licking his cone!

After lunch, Jenny and I dragged the kids to a bunch of D.I.s looking for Harry Potter books for my classroom. I still need over 20 copies of the first book so if you find one (or more) for cheap, call me! We took Harrison to see the doctor and even stopped for slurpees and chocolate doughnuts. Can't come to Salt Lake without getting a real doughnut!

That night, I went out to dinner and ice cream with my dad and Laurie. Cassie met up with us and we spent the rest of the night getting a blog started for her so she can document all her adventures at Dixie State! She is leaving this week, so it was especially fun to spend time with her.

On Thursday, my dad and Laurie and I went to a couple more D.I.s looking for books. In two days, and five D.I. stores, I found one book. Lame! Then I went to lunch with my friend Rachel, who I used to teach with. I sure miss my friends from my first school. We had a great teaching team and I miss the way we used to do things! She and her husband have recently bought a home in Lehi and it was fun to see her new house.

That night, I went over to my grandma and papa's house with my mom. I got to catch up with them before everyone came over for the weekend. My papa has been very sick, so it was good to see him on a good day. He kept writing down notes from our conversation so he could remember things later. Around midnight, my aunt Sue and uncle Jon drove in from California with all their girls! My cousin Sam has a 9 month old daughter, who my grandparents have not ever seen (Sam lives in Alaska with her husband who is in the Air Force), and it was soooo cute to see my papa hold that baby, even though it was the middle of the night and he was exhausted. There wasn't room at my mom's house, so I stayed with my grandma and papa for the rest of the weekend.

On Friday, everyone came over to my grandma and papa's to hangout. Jon and papa watched baseball while the girls played cards in the basement. My mom, Sue, grandma and I sat outside in the shade with the baby, Hayden. I was just a baby when my parents moved in with my grandparents and Sue was still in high school, so we have a special bond, and it was fun to catch up and remember stories.

That night, we had a BBQ and then went back to my mom's for some corn hole and a fire pit. Sam, her husband Jason, and Courtney went to visit a friend, so when we took this picture, it was just Sydney, Valereigh, Hayden, my mom, and Sue and I. Can you believe how much my mom and Sue look alike! They are 10 years apart in age!

On Saturday, we set up a salon in my mom's kitchen and Sue dyed my hair and my mom dyed Cassie's hair, with Sue's guidance! I am super blonde now (way lighter than I have ever been in my whole life!) and even Matt said he'll have to get used to it! Haha! And by the way, this is my first ever "selfie"

Later that day my aunt Janet came over with her two youngest and they all went to the pool. After swimming, my uncle Scott and his wife Mandy came over with their kids, and everyone had dinner and caught up. Sue and Jon haven't been in Utah for a long time, so it was great to be together.

I stole this pic from Cassie's blog (see? It was good that I helped her start this up!). It shows Cassie and our two cousins who are close to her in age, Derek (Scott's son), and Courney (Sue's daughter). When they were all together having dinner, Cassie took a picture of all three of them all grown up!

I had to leave to get to a bridal shower for my good friend Laurel. She lived in my neighborhood when we were teenagers and went to Skyline, so we became very close. It was fun to celebrate her getting married and meet some of her new friends. I was going through my old pictures of Laurel and found a lot. She was a big part of my life and I definitely will blog some of our high school days adventures!

Laurel on my 18th birthday... I have a lot of pictures of her doing these faces!

At Kenny Chesney concert the summer of 2007

Winter 2007: Laurel was a student at the University of Utah while I went to Utah State

On our last day of school at Skyline... there is a tradition that you are not supposed to walk on this mosaic on the floor, so for three years we all walked around it. On our last day we took some pictures of us walking (and jumping) across...

I drove home late Saturday night. Matt and I have been having some vehicle problems, which I'll document later, so I needed to be home to go camping early Sunday morning. But after a whole week of not seeing Matt, I was glad for some one-on-one time together Saturday night.

On Sunday, Matt and I drove up Logan Canyon to go camping with the rest of the Fischer family. I did not bring my camera, so I took a few phone pics. I'll have to combine those I took with the ones that everyone else got on their phones, because no one had a camera! That is so unlike us! I brought Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast and we were in charge of scones for lunch. We spent the day relaxing! The boys went and shot Randy's new gun, while the girls watched the kids play. We took naps, read, Brad practiced shooting his BB gun, Claire, Harrison and Reagan played in the dirt, and we all just talked and relaxed!

Harrison and Claire snuggling with Matt... I think Claire was in everyone's lap during the course of the day- she is a snuggler!

Brad invented a game- throw sticks and uncle Matt and uncle Tim. Well Matt and Tim are really children at heart and thought it was a great game! So Matt and Tim threw sticks at Brad, and Brad threw sticks at them for probably almost 30 minutes, until a stick hit Brad in the head and he started to cry. Typical boys. It's always fun until someone gets hurt.

Harrison was so proud of himself for climbing up on the stump!

Claire and Jack. Of course the dogs come camping, so we had Jack and Rudy running through camp all day, kicking up the dust. Matt came home with dirt COVERING his shorts because he was playing with the dogs who were covered in dirt.

Harrison enjoying his s'more. He ate the marshmallow and chocolate out of the inside and then handed me, with very sticky fingers, the graham crackers. We caught him licking marshmallow off his fingers AFTER playing in the dirt for a while!

Reagan also enjoying her s'more. She had pieces of graham cracker stuck to her hands when she was done!

Matt and Diet shooting with Brad. Again, typical boys. Every time Matt could get his hands on Brad's gun (and while Brad wasn't looking) he had to try to shoot a bird. In fact, it wasn't just Matt trying to shoot birds! Tim and Randy tried too!

Harrison was resisting going to bed and getting cleaned up!

Little Kailee is sure getting big too! She was so funny! Lance would throw her up in the air, and she would be stiff as a board!

Matt and I left after dinner, but it was very fun to spend even just a day with the Fischers. And I must admit, I am quite exhausted after such a crazy, but fun, week and look forward to some quiet time!