THURSDAY
Thursday was kind of a rest day. We sat around a lot of the morning and then Sarah brought Aria by around 3:00 so she could photograph a wedding. She slept until 6:00 ish, then we ate dinner, took Sarah some Fiiz and ibuprofen, then spent the rest of the night trying to console Aria :). Brad miraculously laid her down to sleep around 9:00 while I was rocking Sadie and she was out! Sarah chose to spend the night downstairs with her rather than waking her up! Kinda cool that it worked out the way it did! She slept really well. 7-1-21
JACK
My cute Jack really struggled with the decision to go to Ross's birthday party because he wanted to spend time with his family!! Melt my heart! As hard as it was to see him sad and help him choose to go- it made my day to know he wanted to be with his family. 7-2-21
WATERFIGHT AND CHILIS
We needed to do something fun Friday so we chose to have a three hour long water fight in the backyard :). So much fun! Nate's versions of capture the flag and "the trampoline game" were a lot of fun. When Jack got home we finished watching Alone and headed off to Chilis for some dinner. Nate let me choose where we went :). Then we came home and watched MIB my choice :). The big kids took off for the movie in the park. Fun day!! 7-3-21
INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS
The 4th is on Sunday this year so Saturday was our big celebrating day. We watched the parade from our usual spot by Kung Fu Gourmet (It's called Buddha Belly now, but we still call it Kung Fu Gourmet), but we had the Maughans with us this year! Their parade was cancelled so they risked it and came to the Kaysville one :). It was fun to have them there with us! It's funny how much we love this parade. It's just a good fun tradition. Charity even joined us which was so nice! It was super hot, we remembered the squirt bottles this time. We had the umbrellas. I loved reminiscing about the last time we went to the parade- I was very very pregnant with Sadie. It sure was nice to have some more normal back. I loved it. We grabbed some slurpees, then our tacos from the Sanchezes and then came home and crashed on the couch. We watched Independence day which was interesting. I don't think anyone really loved it. Then dinner and then off to Smith's for goodies for the fireworks show. I love that we do this now instead of the crazy mad dash we used to do when they were up at Davis. We got treats and then went over to Barnes Park found THE PERFECT spot, set up camp :), reparked the car to a better, closer location, played some cards, frisbee, football, the kids all walked around over to the food trucks and the playground and ducks, bathrooms, lots of fun! Then Grandpa showed up! Then the Maughans showed up also! This was a fun night for us! We had plenty of entertainment leading up to the show. I really feel like this makes up for our road trip to Manti we used to have every year. Not exactly the same, but same idea. This year's fireworks show was AMAZING!!! I absolutely loved it!! It was super long! I almost got bored with it toward the end :) not really, that was a joke, but it was LONG! Probably used last year's budget :). It was a lot of fun though! Even Sadie did okay during them! I was covering her ears for a little bit and then she was okay with me taking them off so I let her just lay on me and watch. It was pretty fun! Molly came over with her fingers in her ears when it started getting long for her, she had a cut on her lip that was bugging her. But it was super cute to hear her belting out the music when they played the Frozen 2 song and the Greatest Show song. I loved how Sadie started trying to get grandpa's attention with all of them and would tap his arm and then point up at the fireworks. Super cute. She did that with Bubba a few times too. Super cute. And can I just say how much I loved my kids that night! I mean, I always love them, but this night went really smoothly! They were all so good, so helpful, made things fun for themselves and each other, it was perfect! I loved having them all there and with happy hearts. I can't thank them enough for the times they jump in and distract Sadie or take Molly to the bathroom, or just goof around together so that I can take fun pictures of them. They are such good kids. I could NOT ask for better. So blessed to have them. Even the slow not-drive out of there they didn't complain at all! It was amazing. And I will say that it was a much quicker drive out of there this time as opposed to three years ago when it took us two hours to get home- we were done, out of there and home in a half hour. There was about 15 minutes of sitting in one spot that got kinda long, but other than that it was smooth sailing. That was a blessing. We parked on the road between the park and the sportsplex. Smart move. It was a fun night! We missed Nate and Charity, but such a fun night! 7-3-21
Sadie keeps talking about the "Dahdoh-wuh" (fireworks) and adds "Niii" (nice) everytime she talks about them. So funny.
BARBECUE AT GRANDPA HATCH’S HOUSE WITH THE HATCHES
We met up with Steve, The Hatches and Heidi and her kids for
a fun little 4th of July barbecue with my Dad. This was a really nice time. We played inside for a while, watched some
old YouTube of Charity and Kelly and then some of Sarah’s art lessons- super
cute! Then we went outside for grandpa’s seven course meal. The kids have been joking about this all week,
how grandpa kept announcing new food- “Who wants a hot dog? Who wants chips? Who wants a hamburger? Who wants another hot dog?... Who’s ready for
dessert?” Super funny. He kinda force feeds you lots of food. We loved it.
The kids all had fun together.
Molly was super anxious for the water fight she had planned for
grandpa. We brought all of our guns and
had them parked on the side of his house so the kids could go grab them and do
a surprise attack on him. Molly has
loved the water fights we’ve had the last couple times- can’t get enough of it
I guess. The funny thing was Steve
thought the guns were planted by Grandpa so he put them in the downstairs
kitchen to throw him off, not knowing he totally confused our kids! So funny.
Luckily we got to the bottom of it before Grandpa had figured it
out. Finally I gave Molly the go
ahead. She had some helpers and they
just completely ambushed him! Sarah had
seen them coming and jumped up and ran in the house- that was funny! Grandpa was SO SURPRISED! Totally caught off guard, but being himself
was right on it and had the hose in his hand within milliseconds! Nobody had unscrewed the hose as
planned. This was a major detail that
obviously got overlooked. He had the
hose and was just hosing all of the kids down, again. It was funny that he retaliated and with such
gusto, the kids loved it, everyone was soaked.
Molly was in heaven. This was a
lot of fun. I was glad everyone played
along. I think it was a little annoying
for Sarah unfortunately since we were going to her sisters later for Charlie’s
recital and she had to get extra clothes for her kids, but still a lot of
fun! Thanks for the fun, grandpa! 7-4-21
CHARLIE’S RECITAL
After the BBQ at Grandpa’s we all went and watched Charlie
perform. He did a great job! Of course!
Most of the kids did great with this- Jack and Molly played downstairs,
Sadie got restless and ended up outside with Bradley. But it was fun to be there to support Charlie. The kid is going to be famous someday. 7-4-21
MAYNES FAMILY INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION
Grandma Ruthie planned her activities for the day AFTER the
4th so that Nate could be there.
We were so glad since we were with the Hatches on the 4th and
other plans on Saturday. For the Maynes family
celebrating we went to see the movie Witnesses.
This was a great movie! I only
saw the first 20 minutes or so since Sadie wasn’t too into it, but the kids enjoyed
it and it sounded like a good one. I felt
a little pressure for everyone to enjoy it since I had been the one to help
Ruth choose a movie/time and reserve seats.
Hopefully everyone liked it. After
the movie we drove up to Day Break for some food at Tios. This is one of Grandma Ruthie’s favorite
restaurants. She knows the lady who owns
it or works there or something. This was
not our favorite part of the day. The wait
was way too long for our hangry children- I think it was a whole hour. The food was fine, it’s just not a super
kid-friendly restaurant. Which is a bummer. We spilled the two large cups full of soda
that Jack and Molly were given- that was unfortunate. But it was fun to visit with Meg and if you
ask any of the older kids, they had no idea the wait was so long, they were
having a great time! So that was
good. A highlight: Charity and Isaac
came! This was a fun little bonus that
we all loved. 7-5-21
PINEVIEW WITH THE HATCHES
Tuesday was our Pineview day! This ended up being so much different than I’d
pictured. Starting with the fact that we
didn’t get up there and get all set up until about 11:00. We only had until 3:00 so this was a
bummer. The kids all got in the water
and had a lot of fun. Sadie liked
throwing the rocks in the water. Molly
and Jack made their way over to the beach across the inlet- not my favorite but
they survived. Noah and Erika had a lot
of fun with Alvin and Charlie. Luke
brought Jaxx so they did their thing.
Brad and Brandon found a log and played with that almost the entire time
I was there. I got to sit and talk with
Grandpa and Sarah and Heidi and my mom for the short time I was there. Because while we were there I finally got a
call from Kelly’s doctor and I was able to talk to him about the sarcoidosis a
little. So he told me we could bring
Kelly in that day after 1:00 to have a chest x-ray. This was exciting news, but I felt so bad
ditching everyone up there with the cleaning up and everything. Well, things went all crazy when Nate had to
leave. Grandpa then had to deal with the
jetskis and all the chaos that they caused with just the help of Brad and his
friend, Brandon. Tipping the jetski was
not Grandpa’s favorite part. I don’t
even know how to describe all the things that happened and I have only heard
them second hand, but everyone survived, everyone came home and we had some fun
with the Hatches for one last time that evening. 7-6-21
PACKING FOR CAMPING
This needed it’s own post because it went so well! I mean, it still took us forever, as it
should, but we decided to just do it all on Wednesday instead of spreading it
out, but planned on getting up to the campsite much later than we usually
do. This was a huge blessing because we
had been so exhausted the night before.
So we worked hard all morning to pack, then spent some more time
cleaning. We were out the door right at
2:00 as we had planned! That almost
never happens!
MAYNES MAUGHAN CAMP
This year’s camp was a huge success!! We did all the things we set out to do! Spent the first day setting up camp and exploring. This was the same site we were at last year
and the kids loved that. We had our
hammock grove, the perfect spot for a squirrel tree house, the perfect deer
viewing spot, etc. It was exciting as
usual. We had the Maughan’s yummy Philly
Cheesesteak Sandwiches for dinner the first night- so delicious! Most of the kids slept in the hammocks that
first night. It was just Nate, Sadie,
Molly and I in the tent!
Wednesday I loved that Brad got up on his own and went fishing
and that spiked Noah’s interest so he went out as well. we played around in the campsite for most of
the day- lots of board games, squirrel watching, Spike ball, then down to the
lake for some fun in the sand. The kids
got right back on their waterfall creations like it hadn’t been a whole year
since the last one. Brad reconfigured
the stream so that the kids could ride down it on the tubes- Molly loved it. That was fun. I can’t help but wonder what
kind of damage we do to the eco-system when we change things around, but
whatever. There was a sand castle
building contest, Erika, Jack and Kate took out the paddle board, Brad and Nate
fished a little. It was a good time! I sat and played with Sadie, threw LOTS of
rocks in the water and watched the sticks sail down. I really enjoyed watching all the kids
getting along and having some fun together.
Even Molly and Rachel totally bonded while building a castle
together. Kelly relaxed which was a very
good thing. I felt bad making her walk
all the way out there on the rocks and such, but I think she did okay. Fun stuff.
We watched for Charity and Isaac while we were at the lake, worried a
little too when they didn’t show up at the time planned, but were so happy when
they drove up to the campsite while we were eating our Sloppy Joe dinner. They were a very welcomed surprise! They stayed for about an hour eating,
teaching the kids to play the stick game, and then saying their goodbyes. I said a lot of prayers about their driving
that day. I’m so grateful they made it
home okay. I still feel bad I even
suggested the idea though. Although, it
was really nice to have them there.
Thursday, we made our tie dye shirts! Molly was very excited about this. She didn’t remember much from last year still
so it felt all new and exciting. I was
so grateful for Kelly and Erika buying all the stuff the day we packed, they
had gotten a few extras for Molly’s size so she got to tie dye two shirts and
then drew cool pictures on two! She
would have done the fifth one, but I made her save it to be a white shirt for
later. Everyone still seems to enjoy doing
the tie dying. Although, Kelly didn’t
even get herself a shirt. But I think we
want to try to do bleach pen shirts next year.
Shake things up a little. We didn’t
have water this year so we had to wait until we got home to rinse and reveal
the shirts. The rest of the day we sat
around camp playing board games and spike ball and then made our way to the
beach for one last swim. We were on the
west side of the lake this time, on the rocky part. It was the perfect shady spot. Almost everyone got in the water for a
swim! Even me! This was a highlight, well, minus getting out
into the crazy wind! SO COLD!! Nate and Sadie had stayed dry on the beach
until she wanted to get in with me and that only lasted a few seconds before
she was back at Daddy’s side. Funny girl. That night we roasted hot dogs and ate grape
salad. Then hot chocolate before bed. Nate
and Travis took Will and Jonah fishing that night while the older kids played
Spike ball some more and the rest of us sat around the fire. It was so relaxing! Just what I needed. We had a great time. It was a bummer to have to pack up and go the
next day. We did it in record time
though! Then had time for a really
exciting Marshmallow War! This went
really well this year. It felt like we
had fewer casualties and tantrums. I was
glad. Sadie wasn’t too happy but she and
Kelly stayed together at the table for most of it. I loved it this year- I had a lot of luck
with my gun and the cool spots I found to hide… pretty fun! We drove home in complete silence- everyone
was asleep except Nate and I. With all
the hammocking and go go go we did- they were all exhausted! Even getting up to go rinse off tie dye
shirts after we got home felt like a lot.
It was a great time though!
Another great Maynes Maughan Campout in the books! Here’s to next year. 7-8-21—7-10-21
OPTAVIA
I’m starting this new thing this week. I don’t know what to call it. Healthy lifestyle? I don’t know.
Kiera Ferguson is my coach. I’m
super nervous! I have heard great things
though and am very optimistic about the results- hopefully this can get me over
the hump I’ve been struggling with. I
would really love to get back down to a comfortable weight again. Feels impossible right now, so I hope this
works. Wish me luck! 7-10-21
SADIE’S SECOND BIRTHDAY
Just typing that out feels so bizarre! I can’t believe my baby is 2!! She’s growing too fast. We have all been really anxious for her birthday though and really excited to see her reactions to it all. She was so sweet when she woke up- played with Jack for a bit and then came in. We sang happy birthday to her while she and I cuddled. She, Erika and I (and others later) made her sign together since we’d completely spaced it the night before. Hard to feel bad when we know she can’t read and wouldn’t miss it if we didn’t do one. But she LOVED coloring it with us. So that was a fun activity. She loved opening her presents, a stuffed bear- so soft and cuddly it went right up to her cheek after she got it out of the wrapping paper, and a ball which she actually really enjoyed as well. So fun that little kids are so easy to please. She has been pretty sick all week with this dumb cold (me too unfortunately), so we stayed home from church, but she has been enjoying the extra attention. She is getting so old. I feel like she has grown a lot just in the last couple weeks, maybe mostly with her language. She is a smart little girl. She doesn't seem to have a favorite food- she likes to pick out snacks and open them and leave them sitting around half eaten. Chips, fruit snacks, granola bars... she doesn't eat much. She has been known to devour a whole bowl of mac and cheese though. Not every time it's placed in front of her though :). She loves Nate's KETO food/snacks. The dehydrated cauliflower... she LOVES those. She likes her routines. She LOVES being outside and out doing things. She gets pretty pent up pretty quickly, we have to break up her day with trips outside and to the store or she gets cranky. She loves her shoes. She cannot get enough of playing in the water- any sink, tub, swimming pool, hose, lake... you name it- she loves it and screams bloody murder if she has to stop. Every time she hears me doing the dishes she comes running into the kitchen and pulls the chair over to the sink to play in it. She's really good at running and does more of that than walking. She likes copying her older sibs and tries to do what they're doing. She was shooting hoops wanting so bad for the ball to go in. So cute. She is not easily entertained. She just learned how to open the front door and makes a break for it any time she's bored. She is talking so much now. She started saying "Mah-LEE" this weekend for Molly instead of the weird sound she was doing before. Sounds a little like mommy when she speeds it up though. Didn't realize we had done that when we named Molly. She can ALMOST say Luke. That has been the hardest one. Charity is Seppy, Kelly is La-la, Brad is Bubba, Luke sounds a little like "glue". Noah is Nano, but she's also gotten his name right a few times this week. Erika is still "duh duh", not to be confused with Dada (Dad), Deedee (Sadie) or Dodo (drink). Jack still sounds kinda like she's doing a Daffy duck impersonation, but she's getting there. She was talking about the "duddy"'s which sounded a lot like "daddy" which she says more now. A lot of her words are interchangeable. But I love how she talks. It's going to be sad when she stops asking for her "biddee" (blanket) every night. "Shishy" (fish), "doh" (go). "Hi-lo" (hello- every time someone's phone rings). "Hep me" (help me). "Nanny-do" (another one- she still says this a lot, but not as much as before- so adorable!) She's a sweetie. She still hugs and kisses a lot! I love that about her! I hope she never grows out of this. Her sweet cuddles, even the ones that end in a nose wipe across my arm or pant leg, just melt my heart! She could really get away with murder if it ended in a little stray kiss. She really doesn't seem to care where she kisses, just that she does it and does it a lot :). Super cute. I don't think I have the words to express how much she has impacted our family for the better. We spend so much time just watching her and enjoying her latest quirk :). Everyone just loves her still and she is still just the star of the show most of the time. Especially this summer where we all have time to just sit around together and play with her. She loves the attention, but pretends to be shy sometimes :). One thing she did that was totally impressive, I was folding clothes and she was wanting to help me, so she was handing me an article of clothing every time my hands were empty. I wanted to quiz her and see if she knew whose clothes were whose and she started just shouting out the name of who the item belonged to each time she handed me something. It was pretty cute! She was getting almost excited about it, especially when it was one of hers. She got most of them right too, which was pretty amazing. Even some that were inside out! Smart little chick. I couldn't get enough of it :). Made doing the laundry more bearable too. She's getting really good at doing new things on her own. She will try a lot of things if I tell her she can do it herself. She still loves to have someone there, holding her hand through it all, but she will try occasionally. She is such a good listener. She almost always stops doing what she's been told not to do. Especially if you can tell her why- she does really good at that. Minus the hitting and pushing. For some reason she's gotten into this habit of pushing babies (or kids smaller than her) over. Just random shoving! It's so strange. It's like her one flaw. We're working on it, hopefully it just phases out of her system, but it wasn't nice when Aria and Alyssa were around a bunch last week and she just kept pushing them both over. Stinker. It's really so unlike her that I just keep wondering where she got it! So weird. But overall, Sadie has been such a good girl. We're really excited to see what she does next. There's no way we would be the same family without her. 7-11-21
KELLY PHYSICAL THERAPY
Kelly had her first physical therapy appointment today. We're both not sold on this idea I don't think, but trying to have an open mind. It seemed like the therapist struggled to find things she could do without too much pain. He must have been so baffled. She did fine- it was pretty painful, hopefully she can stick with the exercises, but most of all- hopefully this can help with her pain. 7-12-21
ERIKA'S TOOTH
Erika needed a tooth pulled for her braces so we took her in Monday. She did so good! She's such a tough girl! Got her free Fiiz drink to top it off, so it was all good. I haven't heard a single word about this since then- that's how tough she is. I'm sure it was sore for a while, but she pushes through the pain. Cool girl. 7-12-21
TENT ASSIGNMENTS
Keeley and I got together to make tent assignments! This was kind of fun- mainly because Keeley and I got to talk a lot. We felt like it was okay to put two tents with two YCLs each and then two with just one. Kelly was one of the ones that is on her own. I think she likes it that way. I hope we were inspired and that these will be good arrangements. We're not telling the girls until we get up to camp. 7-12-21
SADIE'S PUPPY CAKE
Sadie's cake was so much fun!! I guess it technically wasn't cake, I did rice krispie treats because it was so much easier to shape that way, but it was so much fun! It was quick, simple, looked really good in the end- I loved making it! Sadie was by my side through a lot of it asking why about everything. That's one of her latest quirks- she learned the word "why". I think hers has a couple more y's at the end. So cute really :). She loved her cake. 7-12-21
SADIE'S FAMILY PARTY
We had wanted to have her party at Barnes with the new playground, but of course they had just dumped wood chips, so it was all closed off. So annoying. So we Plan B-ed it over at Gailey Park. We had so much fun! Sadie walked around like queen of the world. Her little squeal as we pulled up to the park made me realize it's been a couple weeks since we went to the park. We had to peel her away from the playground several times to do candles and for presents. She's so funny! She did really well with all of the over-stimulation and was still smiling by the end. She LOVED her puppy cake that she and I made her :). Didn't care much about the cupcakes, which is fine. She got a glow worm from grandpa, a cute soft monkey and necklaces and fruit snacks from Aunt Meg and a cute little wagon from grandma Hatch. She was a little scared by the candles so I helped. She loved getting spoiled and being able to pull her little wagon around all over the park with her bear, monkey and glow worm in tow. Then putting them all down the slide, one at a time while Molly helped her was pretty fun too :). The Taylors came, Grandma and Grandpa Hatch came. Even Brad's friend Brandon came and gave her some fishy crackers. He's obviously trying to win her over :). She's a tough one to crack. She seemed like she had a good time. I still can't believe she's two! 7-12-21
ACTIVITY DAYS
Jack got to go swimming again this week for activity days. He's so adorable about these things he does on his own :). Cute little guy. 7-13-21
BACKPACKING TRIP
Nate noticed some leave we hadn't before, and planned a spur of the moment backpacking trip with the boys and Erika to go do together this week. It was kind of a mad dash Tuesday to get everything and have it all packed up and ready to go before he left for work and then Wednesday morning as soon as he got home, they all loaded up their packs and headed out. They looked anxious and excited for the trip- I hope it ends up being better weather than they anticipated and that they all have a safe, good time. I can't wait to hear about it all. 7-14-21--7-17-21
GIRLS WEEK!
Kelly, Molly, Sadie and sometimes Charity and I got to play this week while the boys were away. We've had a lot of fun- just doing whatever comes to mind :). We started at Petco of course :). Then went down to Mrs. Cavannaugh's for a tour, dinner and movies and lots of board games... it's been a pretty fun time. Thursday we went up to Logan to play with Charity before she had to go to work. We went to her spot on the river and fed the ducks, then up to Sam's Club to redeem our new membership and get Charity some foods she was wanting. Then to the Red Balloon Toy Store for an hour and a half! That was a fun little store! I could spend hours and millions of dollars in there. Kelly loved the Warmie wall. We need to go back and get some there. Then Costa Vida with Isaac and his mom and siblings. We loved having charity to ourselves for a bit. Kelly had to work and then play that evening so it was just Molly, Sadie and I so we spent a lot of time in the backyard and then watching movies. It was pretty nice. I was also able to get some cleaning done. We've had a lot of fun watching some chick flicks that Kelly hasn't seen before. And Molly likes telling us when people have crushes on each other so I think she even enjoyed the movies a little :). Friday we went to Seaquest which ended up being a really fun hour. Molly and Sadie had never been there. Sierra came. I think Molly said her favorite part was the tickling fish- the ones that exfoliate your skin- she loved that and spent a lot of time with her hands in the water :). Sadie loved putting her hands in the water too :). She didn't care as much for petting things or even feeding things- although she did develop a pretty good arm throwing pieces of food into the water, but she LOVED splashing in the water :). She was in a pretty good mood for most of it and had a lot of fun. She was so brave for the first minute or so of feeding the birdies, but caved after a while. That was really fun for me to watch her with the birds. Her tiny little hands with the bird seed in them. Super cute. We had a lot of fun. After that we went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch. Everyone did well here. It was fun to sit and talk with Kelly and Sierra. Sadie was so funny with her food- got so excited when the waitress brought her mac and cheese and then couldn't get enough of it! I think she ate more of Molly's food than Molly did- Molly wanted to bring her portion home in a box. Then we wandered around Target for a while. Molly was excited to look at the toys because I told her she could maybe pick out a toy, but she only picked out $50+ ones so she wasn't too happy with me. Once we changed her mood and added some humility to the situation, she was able to pick out a cute coloring book. Funny girl. We came home for about a half hour- I slept! How boring am I! This new way of eating is kinda kicking my butt, I hope I feel energized soon. But it was a nice little power nap before driving up to Logan (yep, second time in two days) to get Charity. She had a date with the Fergusons to go see Newsies. We got back just in time to tell Elise Nielson where everything is and introduce her to Sadie before heading out late for our Black Widow movie! This was a highlight for me- I loved this movie, loved the time with my girls, and loved that I used my self control to not eat the popcorn! I did it! The movie was great- even better were all the funny comments from Molly. I hope I never forget her: "What did she say?" Me: "It's a swear word I don't want to repeat." Molly a few minutes later: "What does bull ship mean?" HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! She's hilarious. And dumping popcorn behind Kelly's back... she obviously wasn't totally into the movie. But so cute. We were all happy to see Sadie when we got home- she gave me the hugest hug ever! So fun! Elise did a great job. Saturday was our last day, we went to Kneaders for breakfast out of tradition :). Then played some games and went out to play in the kiddie pool until Kelly had to go to work. The backpackers surprised us with their earlier arrival! I had just put Sadie down for a nap, Molly was at the Maughan's and Kelly was at work, so it wasn't a grand welcome, but so happy to have them home and in one piece! Everyone looked great! No cracked, bleeding lips, no major sunburns or bruises. They actually even looked pretty clean! It was fun to hear about all their adventures and watch their videos and stuff. So fun! I'm always a little bummed I didn't get to experience it with them, but I'm glad they had fun! 7-14-21--7-17-21
BAILEY SHOWER
I was glad I was able to go to this shower even though I never got invited :). It was a fun time! I love baby stuff of course, so I can never get enough of the gifts. I was extra excited to see what Nancy had found for her- she always picks out the cutest stuff! I won the diaper derby- no surprise there. Then had a lot of fun talking with every one afterwards. 7-17-21
NATE HOME
Sunday was really nice because we got to have Nate home! Well, after all his meetings and stuff at church that is. It always feels really nice to have him there in the evenings. 7-18-21
Monday, he took Erika and Noah to their teeth cleaning! That was super nice too. I was able to take Brad to his ortho appointment and we found out that he's only got about 10 more weeks with his braces if he can do his elastics really consistently. 7-19-21
CAMPING IN LOGAN CANYON- GUINAVAH CAMPGROUND
This camping trip with just our family was just what we needed! It was heavenly! I think we had enough things go wrong to make it memorable too. When we pulled up we were a bit surprised to learn that we were going to be camping about 10 feet away from the freeway! HA! If we thought our front yard was noisy with freeway sounds, this was... about 5 or 6 times louder! Kinda crazy at night. Most of the kids acted like it wasn't a big deal, which is kinda cool. Even if it was, it's cool that they didn't want to dwell on it. Good kids. So some of the highlights of this campout were:
Learning to cook biscuits in little tinfoil bowls! Luke's favorite thing!
Noah and Bradley fishing together. Even though it wasn't Noah's luckiest trip, it was fun to hear they were together and Bradley was helping him untangle his line over and over... good brothers.
Our Wednesday, noonish, hike up to wind caves didn't kill me! Didn't kill Jack either! Coming down was much quicker/easier! Running into the McKays was awesome.
Everyone that went around the corner at the wind caves was very impressed with what they saw. Some of us are hesitant to walk along edges of cliffs :). Luke and I to be precise.
I still can't believe Kelly did that hike! Almost 2 miles straight up! And maybe coming down was even harder for her- who knows. But she was so tough! With all the pain she was in that night, I don't pretend to think it was a good idea, but I was really proud of her. If I'd known the hike was more than a mile up and a mile back, I'd never have let her do it.
The hobbit caves that same day were a lot of fun! I LOVED the kids' reaction when we crossed the little river. It was like a little wonderland for them! Pretty cool little place!
The waterfall by the hobbit caves was my favorite part. I LOVE waterfalls! I think I forgot how much I love them until I was sitting there letting it drown out my thoughts with the crashing water.
Cute Sadie throwing rocks into the little pools as we soaked our tired feet.
The two fish Nate let Brad bring up for Sadie to see. And pet. And almost kiss :). Her reaction was adorable. We had to wave goodbye to them as they swam back to their mommies :).
Watching Nate fish. I miss doing that.
Molly's adventurous spirit and wanting to do so many big kid things with her sibs.
Charity and Isaac coming to play Spike Ball!
Our day on the beach at Bear Lake!
How far out in the lake you could go and still touch! Even Sadie was able to touch! After all the big kids came back, Erika, Jack and Molly stayed out there almost the entire time, jus pushing each other off the paddleboard for hours. Fun kids.
I got to use my paddle board for a few seconds :).
Creamery ice cream, Charlie's Shakes, and Bear Lake Raspberry Shakes.
Watching Bradley and Molly walk off to go fishing together!
Bradley yanking the fish hook out of his leg! Holy moly that had to hurt.
Nate's surprise party at Adams Park in Logan with Charity and Isaac's cake almost stealing the show.
Watching Nate play Klask with the kids and loving it just like they knew he would :).
Nate loving his Smoked merch :).
Loading up our whole camp in under an hour! Almost record time.
Our trip ended early with some fellow campers kicking us out because they had reserved that site and we were supposed to have checked out at 11:00. We were surprised, but didn't take long to realize we had only reserved it til Thursday instead of Friday. This was a low point for a lot of us. Not happy to end our family trip, not happy to miss out on Tin Foil dinners that night, not happy to have to move the location for Nate's surprise party. Such a bummer. But as we always have to point out- so much more memorable :). Now if we could have just gotten some of the fast food places to cooperate! That was another thorn in this trip. We pushed our hangry selves through it though and had a nice drive home. We totally survived it all. And had a great trip! 7-20-21--7-22 (not 23)-21
FREE DAY
Friday was kind of like a free day, with having come home a day early, it was like we weren't sure what to do with it :). We unpacked for a while. I nagged everyone to get something ready for the auction tomorrow, we admired our new girls camp hoodies that Kelly had helped design! We caught up on Alone, watched Lego movies- yes, there's an S at the end- AND Nate and I got to go on a date! First one in a while. We went to Black Widow and then Costa Vida. Good stuff. 7-23-21
OUR FIREWORKS
We did our own little fireworks this year. Nate and I grabbed some stuff on our way home from our date. Just some smoke bombs, chickens, snakes, parachute guys, sparklers and pop-its, but the kids acted like it was big and spectacular. I was proud of them for just enjoying it. Sadie struggled to enjoy it, but everyone else tried to make it fun for her. It was cute when Bradley and his friend Brandon showed up and played with Sadie with the pop-its for quite a while. They had missed the sparklers and everything else. The Maughans also showed up just as we were finishing and lit off their dynamite! SO LOUD!! It was a fun little photo session, we even got to have Charity and Isaac there for it all! Fun stuff. 7-23-21
PIONEER DAY- MAYNES FAMILY SERVICE AUCTION
We had a fun Pioneer day! Nate and I pulled off our cool Finger Food Lunch and Service Auction idea. This ended up being a lot of fun. Everyone brought things and services to auction off and everyone seemed to enjoy the bidding process. The things we did were: Nate- rib dinner. I made a shirt that said, "Finer than frog's hair", and I did a photo session and some vinyl lettering of your choice. Charity came down which was fun, she made some banana bread. Kelly offered up a big banner. Bradley did two- one hour of yard work AND a hug, which Kelly affectionately bought for 160. I loved Bradley's comment about how his hug went for more than the yard work- HAHA! Luke sold a basket of candy he got out of the cupboard a few minutes before. Noah sold a batch of his famous chocolate chip cookies. Erika painted three beautiful scenes on canvas the day before and sold those. They were a big hit with her younger siblings! Looks like she's gonna be busy come Christmas time :). Jack hurry and made one of his cute pom pom creatures in the form of a dinosaur. Molly sold one of her Joke Books. I was going to have Sadie make the banana bread with me, and then with Charity, but that never worked out. Nate was our auctioneer. He did a great job! I loved watching him the whole time. Our kids are ruthless with the bidding. They all got way into it too, which is fun. Molly bought like the first six things- a bunch of Grandma's pillow cases and Luke's candy basket... she was on a roll :). And she had lots of points which was cute. I thought it was really fun to watch her. She was so happy, "Tell me when to put my hand down!" and "there's not going to be anything for less than five". We all loved what we got! Lots of 3D printed stuff. All the food Noah and Luke got. Projects. Kelly's outing with Evan will be fun. I can't wait to taste Lynn's Keto fudge. I'm looking forward to my floral class with Becky that I'm sharing with Erika. The FHE bag with bubbles for Sadie :). Fun stuff. 7-24-21
CRUMBL
I'm mostly documenting our trip to Crumbl to brag about my self-control! They had the yummiest looking cookies this week! Carnival themed of course. Cotton candy, apple pie, indian fry bread! berries and cream... this was like MY WEEK!! I still wish I could have one, but I've gotta stick to my journey here. They did look delicious though, and I did have the self-control to not even sample any!! Go me!! We all went up to Crumbl together- watched Kelly work her magic with her 50% off and points so that the whole dozen only cost $3.00!!! Amazing. It was a fun little outing and then the hour long detour to grandma Hatch's (construction in that neighborhood was brutal) to take Heidi her mail was the cherry on top, kinda. It was just fun that everyone wanted to be together. 7-24-21
MY HEALTH JOURNEY
So I lost another 2 lbs. I'm pretty happy about that. This is only my second week and I am breaking barriers that I haven't in a while. It feels good to think that I might actually reach this goal of mine and come out on top. Had a nice Zoom call with Kiera and Carol while waiting for my prescription in Walgreens drive thru. I think I can do this! 7-25-21
NATE'S 42nd BIRTHDAY
Nate's birthday fell on a Sunday this year. Which meant we didn't get to see him much. This was a huge bummer, but we were glad we had celebrated on Thursday. We did get to give him his gifts in between his meetings in the morning. Then I tried to send him some nice birthday texts when he was at work that evening. The poor guy. I don't know why he doesn't just get his birthday off :). I think he liked his paddleboards. I got the idea that he and I need to go break them in one of these days, just the two of us, on a date... we'll see if that can ever happen :). Happy Birthday, babe!! 7-25-21
NURSERY
So Sadie isn't a huge fan of nursery yet. This week as we got closer to the nursery room door she started squirming out of my arms to get down, so I put her down and she just started screaming! In horror! At the thought of going in there. It was so sad! I had already been wrestling her all through Sacrament meeting so I basically gave up and didn't even try to go in there. I wish I knew why she felt that way. I've been in there with her almost every time. So she and I stopped in the library to hang out with Rishelle Pearce. That was the highlight of Sadie's day :). Rishelle had her sit on the counter and then proceeded to draw pictures for her the entire time. It was so funny. So cute. Sadie loved it and kept telling me how nice Rishelle is :). "Niiiiiiie" In her cute little voice. I need to buck up and just endure the nursery time and help her get used to it though. We'll do better next week. 7-25-21
BRAD'S HIGH ALTITUDE CAMP
This was Brad's week! He was pretty excited but I could tell he was a little nervous too. I had volunteered to drive, so both of us loaded up the van, Sadie too, and headed off to Marsh Lake Campground. It was fun to drive those boys up there. Fun boys. Singing Party in the USA like the Lax girls used to :). Funny stories and conversations. "Muhlin" (Brandon) throwing fish crackers up and into his mouth to entertain Sadie. Sadie was SO SHY almost the entire ride! She finally opened up to Brandon who she knows really well during the last half hour or so. She did look at Ethan too, the other guy next to her that she didn't know. Brad broke my debit card when he went into Walmart in Evanston the little stinker. I didn't love the LOOOOOONG dirt road the last 20 miles or so. But the van made it. I felt bad that we were at the front and kind of held up the entire group. The campground looked really fun. I loved that the kids all just jumped out of the cars and helped unload the uhaul. These are really good kids. I am really impressed. Sadie and I headed right back home and did so uneventfully, which was a huge blessing. I really wanted to get home to my kids. Sadie did cry herself to sleep a few times. I had volunteered to pick them up on Friday as well, so I headed out bright and early. On my own this time, and made my way back up to Marsh Lake. It was so good to see Brad! He looked so tired though!! He and his friends tried so hard to stay awake on the way home, but once we'd eaten at Costa Vida, there was no chance. Brad totally konked out. It was fun to hear all of his stories of rain and sleeping in Jami's car and the other "fat nap" in someone else's truck. The lack of sleep, the mannequin head, the amazing hamburgers and unevenly cooked pasta. The girls stealing their shoes from their tent and leaving it open so that everything was soaked. Bottoming out Jami's car because there were 22 kids in there. The fact that he ran a half marathon, plus two miles!! Sounded like he had a lot of fun, more than last time, and that he is really looking forward to next year- minus that the Seniors, who are the fun people, won't be there next time. His poor ankle is super swollen, but he says it feels fine. It was a good time. I'm glad. I felt bad that I accidentally took the long way home, didn't realize it til we got to Park City. 15 minutes out of the way- oops. But we got home safely and Brad was able to finally get some sleep. 7-26-21--7-30-21
PICNIC WITH THE FERGUSONS
When I got home from driving Brad and company up to camp, I was able to squeeze in some laundry folding and then it was time to get back in the car for our trip to Logan for a picnic with the Fergusons. This was a lot of fun. We all got our own food and went up to Adams Park. It was nice to get to know them a little better and spend that time with Charity as well. Everyone had a great time! 7-26-21
KELLY AND DR. TEW
We finally made an appointment with Dr. Tew. This was much anticipated and I was very hopeful afterwards. He listened very closely to all of Kelly's concerns and how she is doing. He had several ideas of things to look for so he sent us with an order to get more bloodwork done on her thyroid, a celiac disease test (for me), and an ultrasound on her thyroid. This gave us a lot to work on and a lot of hope. We went right down to the IHC in bountiful to get the blood work done and schedule the u/s for the next morning. We always get this surge of hope when we are able to look into something else, it lasts for a day or two and then we start to sink again. Kind of how this visit went. We didn't find out anything until Friday and by then it was too late to follow up on the things he was referring. The bloodwork and u/s came back fine, no problems with her thyroid, nothing on the celiac test yet, he wants her to go see a Rheumatologist. Of course we can't get in with one of them til October. So we will get on some cancellation lists and see what we can do in the meantime. I so wish we could find things out sooner! What is wrong with our medical field that we can't get answers sooner? I am still waiting to hear about the celiac test and I will be calling around for a sooner rheumatology appointment, but man! It gets really depressing for Kelly to keep hearing that everything is fine. That's only good when you're not in constant pain for some unknown reason. 7-27-21
CHARITY AND KELLY'S APARTMENT
After our really quick appointment to get Kelly's thyroid u/s, we loaded up everyone (minus Luke, Jack and Nate-- and Brad of course) including Meg, Sierra and Matt, and drove on up to Logan for the second time this week. This time we were going to get the ever anticipated tour of the apartment! I was perfectly content with the girls doing this on their own, but somehow it evolved and we all went together. Which was fine too. I just want them to know I have complete confidence in them and all of their hard work to arrange this apartment. They went in first while the rest of us sat and eyeballed the "yard sale" in front of the office door. They came back happy and let us go see it. I really liked it! It looked a lot nicer than I had anticipated. The rooms are meant for two people in each, so there are two beds, not too big a deal, but I can't help but think that they would save about $190 a month if they had roommates. But anyway. It is a great apartment. I'm excited for them. They seemed relieved to know what to expect and it was fun to get to this step in the process. After the tour we bargained with the landlord for some of the yard sale stuff (I got two nice corelle sets), we went to get some lunch. Two places, to keep everyone happpy- Arby's and Panda- then up to the park with the ducks (we brought a loaf of bread to feed the ducks). This was a fun little trip and I enjoyed talking with Meg the whole way there and back. It was great to see where they will be living in the fall. It's hard to watch them grow up and move out, but I am really proud of them. They are doing big things. 7-28-21
DATE NIGHT
Realizing it could be two or more weeks before Nate and I get time to ourselves, we wanted to go out Friday. This was a nice break and fun to spend time together. I think it's only been a week, but it felt longer. We went to dinner at Olive Garden and then to see Jungle Cruise. That was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the time. We got home really late and Sadie was still awake so that was the end of that date :). 7-30-21
CLEMENS'S MOVING DAY
It was moving day for the Clemenses. I was so happy for them to be getting into their own place! I was also glad she accepted my offer to help them move! I loved seeing Julie and being there with them. They had a lot of people there so it went really quick! We loaded up the uhaul and our trailer at the storage shed, grabbed some stuff at her mom's, then out to Tooele to unload the uhaul at the house and then at a new shed. Only took about three hours! Pretty remarkable. I just love Julie. The fun thing, on the way to Tooele, I looked at my fb memories and there was a little message from her to me, exactly 11 years ago that day, that said, "Just thinking about ya, wanted you to know!" Just the perfect example of what a great friend she is. I probably needed that so much too! Very cool. It was Nate, Brad, Noah and I who went, we had a nice time together and had fun serving. It was great to spend that time together. We stopped at Walmart on the way home so Brad and Nate could get some shoe insoles and some more gear for their backpacking trip next week. Noah and I slept in the car! Good times. 7-31-21
