July 2011

Keepin' It Real
What can I say that I haven't said before about July in our desert home?  July 2011 was: busy, fun, HOT, and it went by in a flash.  I think part of the reason I felt like it went by so quickly was because I spent so much of it driving kids around: to and from swim practice twice a day, swim meets for the boys once a week, allergy shots for the boys twice a week, swim lessons for C-sta three days a week for four weeks, Cub Scouts, swim parties here and at the town pool, movies, and play dates.  Somewhere in there we managed to sprinkle in the rest of our life.

Summer

We began the month with J-rod and I driving up to Girl's Camp for a day to be with the YW in our ward for Bishop's Night.  We got to participate in some fun and uplifting activities with our girls while we were there.  J-rod and the five other bishop's in the stake showed the girls just how silly they can be when they were pitted against each other in a fun and friendly game of "Minute to Win-it."

~Bishops: N, H, H, C, P, and J-rod~

J-rod got his "groove on", "shook his tail-feathers" very well, and won two of the three rounds.  In the process of J-rod "letting his hair down" during the last round, he got a bit too competitive, lost his balance, unwittingly did a backwards somersault, landed funny on his "good" knee (made lots of us cringe as he did so; I was CERTAIN he blew his knee out!), tried to stop himself with his hand, and still managed to win the round! Landing on his wrist however ultimately sent him to urgent care the next afternoon after church because it felt like his wrist was broken.  Though it was painful, it was not a break but rather just a really bad sprain. Ouch!

1. Trying to roll an Oreo cookie from his forehead to his mouth.

2. Knocking Dixie cups off the benches 

and water coolers with bells tied to his back.

3. Trying to empty a Kleenex box filled with Ping-pong balls.  

The box was also tied to his back.  

This picture was taken right before the backward somersault...

missed the actual trick!

After the competitive silliness, we got to enjoy a yummy meal with our girls and then a very uplifting program where the Spirit was very strong.  The camp theme was "Happily Ever After".  The evening program was called, "The 100 Dresses".  In the ramada where the program was held, a hundred different dresses were hung up all around.  There were dresses of all types, everything from baby blessing dresses to wedding dresses and everything in between: prom, graduation, dance performance costumes, etc.  A few of the YCL's, myself, and another bishop's wife were asked to bring a dress that had special meaning to us, display the dress, and share the story of our dress.

~Happily Ever After and 100 Dresses~

I brought a red bridesmaid dress and told about how I got permission from a dear non-member friend to have the dress altered so that my garments would be covered when participating as a bridesmaid in her wedding.  I shared my testimony of how it's not always easy to do the right thing, but that we will be blessed for our efforts to be obedient.  I then told the YW that the day my friend got married after we walked out of the church, one of the groom's aunts came to me, hugged me, and thanked me for "standing for truth and righteousness." It turned out that this aunt had joined our church many years ago and was trying through her example to help her family understand her choice to leave the Catholic church.  She mentioned that by my upholding my beliefs and asking to have my dress altered that her family had come to her with questions about our faith and that as a result they were able to have some good conversations.

After the program the camp leaders gave each Bishop a children's picture book for them to read to their ward called, "My Wedding Day".  After story time each bishop held a question and answer session.  We surprised our girls with cheesecake which we ate during the Q & A session.  Afterwards J-rod and I drove home feeling uplifted and inspired by the experience and fortunately to be surrounded by wonderful people in our ward and stake.

~Story time with the Bishop.~

Family Fun
On the fourth of July we packed up and headed to a near-by resort for a few days for a summer "stay-cation".  After dropping off our belongings to our room we headed over to the largest firework show in the state.  Since this year was the 60th year anniversary of this firework show, the show was extended by 5 mins. (which may not sound like a lot, but when you are talking fireworks...it is a lot). It was a really fun show and we were glad we could take our kids there.

~Happy 4th!~

Pool Fun

After the fourth we spent the next few days enjoying a couple of the many beautiful pools at the resort that were surrounded by lots of neat waterfalls.  

~Can we get in and swim now?~

~Li'l J loved this fountain!~

~C-sta had such fun swimming with her Daddy!~

One of the pools had a 138 ft. enclosed water slide that the boys enjoyed numerous times.  Our first day there Li'l J was too scared to go on it, but next morning it was the first thing he did and was so pleased with himself when he finally tried it and discovered that he LOVED it!

~M & J-rod sure enjoyed the water slide.~

~"That was SO cool! Can I go again?"~

When not swimming at the resort we did other favorite vacation time activities we enjoy together: played the Disney edition of "Apples to Apples" and watched movies, Superman and Superman II.  Our boys keep reminding us that we still need to watch the rest of the Superman movies...one of these days.  On our way home from the resort we took the kids to see Cars 2--as sequels go, we actually enjoyed this one!  Other new releases we saw this summer: Kung-Fu Panda 2; Zookeeper; Captain America; and the final installment of Harry Potter.

~We give this stay-cation "2 thumbs up"!~

Some of you may have heard about a "little" summer dust storm that engulfed our valley on July 5th...the great "haboob"?  Well, guess who pretty much missed it?  Yes, that's right, we did!  Huh?  We were at the resort the night it happened, walking to one of the resort restaurants for dinner as the storm began to pick up.  Since the resort sits behind a mountain we were shielded from the brunt of the storm so what winds and dust we did see didn't seem like that big of a deal.

The storm apparently raged on all around while we were inside the restaurant and had passed over by the time we walked back to our room.  We weren't even aware of just how BIG the storm had been until we made it home and our friend who had been keeping an eye on Copper let us know about it.  Once she told us, we looked it up online and watched the numerous news clips on youtube.com and were floored by the enormity of it all!  After seeing what had passed over us and hearing about all the damage others in the area had sustained, we considered ourselves very lucky that both our house and yard were protected: no broken roof tiles, no toppled trees, and even our pool ended up with very little dust in it.  The entire thing was amazing!

~Sunset on our way to dinner.~

~photo from Flickr~

The Kids

Once we returned home from our little get-away it was back to our regular routine.  Both M and Li'l J qualified for the league swim finals the following week.  Neither of our boys placed in their events but since they both improved their times considerably we are calling it a success, especially since this was the first time either of them qualified for finals.  

~As Li'l J had seen this 

throughout the season on other swimmers,

he really wanted it on his back too for finals.~

~For all of his hard effort, at the end of finals

Li'l J got to enjoy a Spiderman ice cream.~

The following week C-sta finished up her second session of swim lessons and became an official swimmer who LOVES to jump into the pool, even off of our diving board!  If you ask her if she is a "little fish" she says, "no, I a mer-naid like Ariel!"

~C-sta enjoys diving 

during a youth swim party we hosted.~

Once swim team and swim lessons came to an end for the season, we kept busy with M working on completing Cub Scout achievements and belt loops.  One morning he even got to go horse back riding with some friends and earned the horseback riding belt loop.  We finished out July by attending the discounted Summer movies each Thursday morning with some friends, going to and hosting numerous play dates, and organizing and reorganizing our home room by room.  Earlier this summer M lost his DS and I lost my "newish" but very stylish and pricey glasses that I LOVED!  So in hopes that our missing items would turn up, we rearranged the placement of the furniture in each room of our house but no luck.  It would seem that the Black Hole that has parked itself over our house has struck and won again!  We think M left his DS in the rental mini-van we had when my car was in the body shop for repairs from our accident in May, and that my glasses may have possibly made it to the garbage courtesy of our little C-sta.  Sigh.

~Li'l J, C-sta, and M

--our 'little pioneers'--

at our ward Pioneer Day activity.~

At least our home got some much needed attention and as a result C-sta is now out of the toddler bed and in a true "big girl bed".  We decided that since we rarely have visitors, keeping a guest room makes little sense so we moved the full-sized bed out of the little used guest room downstairs and put it in C-sta's room.

~'Think she likes having the BIG bed in her room?~

The next project is to transform the mostly empty former guest room into J-rod's office.  Since that room is downstairs it makes more sense for the office to be near the hub of our home, especially for those times when ward members have a need to visit with their bishop at home.  Changes, lots of changes, but all good ones.

Road Trips

Ironically, just week after moving the bed up to C-sta's room we actually had some surprise guests come stay with us!  Isn't that how it always works out?  I'm just glad C-sta didn't mind giving up her "new beddie my Dah-ee got me" for a night.  J-rod's 80 year old S grandparents came to stay the night with us as part of the last leg of a long road trip they took to visit quite a bit of family.

G'pa and G'ma S live in Northern California and the first stop on their road trip was to Rexburg, ID for a granddaughter's graduation from Nursing School.  After ID they made their way through UT and NV visiting children and grandchildren along the way.  Then they made their way to see us and from here continued on to Southern California for the wedding of a grandson before heading back home.  All this they did after having been home for only a week from a cruise to Alaska.  Whew!  I sure hope that when I'm 80 I can do all that they've been doing!

~We love Great G'pa & G'ma S!~

We sure enjoyed G'pa and G'ma's company, talking to them, and watching them enjoy their great-grandchildren for a little bit.  Li'l J and C-sta were a bit shy around them at first, but once they warmed up to them they sure had fun: Li'l J played the piano for them and C-sta kept bringing lots of books to G'pa for him to read to her.  Even though it was a short visit, it was wonderful to have G'pa and G'ma S here!