Camping

We leave tomorrow for our family reunion camping trip. We are heading down home near Emery County and camping up above Joe's Valley. I was up early to finish work stuff and I've been doing laundry and cleaning all day. I just got home from the grocery store and loaded the food in the trailer. I still need to pack our clothes and we have to finish loading the trailer. Our goal is to leave home in the morning by 9:00am, which I don't think we will be able to do, I think I will be happy if we leave by 10:00am.

The kids are so excited to see their cousins and go camping. Last summer we didn't camp at all because we sold our trailer and didn't buy a new one until this past spring. They claim they are fishing first thing, but I think they will ride the 4wheelers first thing. We all are bringing crafts and games but the kids spend so much time on the 4wheelers. Z espeically loves to ride his 4wheeler and now that he has his license is can't wait.

We will be home Sunday night and I am happy to be out of reach from work for a few days.

TBall

S had a TBall game tonight and played in the yucky heat. She had fun and it always so excited the nights of her games.

Making Ice Cream

This is pictures of the kids making Rootbeer Float Ice Cream last week. We played games as we shook it up to get it to freeze. The ice cream was yummy and of course there wasn't enough, the kids wanted more.

Saturday Things

Z's baseball team came over yesterday for a swimming party. The kids had lots of fun jumping off the wall and swimming. Z has had a great coach this year in baseball and improved alot. R and I have been extremely grateful for the amount of work the coach put in to teach the kids the game and we feel that Z has benifitted greatly. His coach has talked about a sports center he is starting up in the fall and he wants the boys to be part of the training (I don't understand a whole lot about it).

The coach picked Z and his close friend to try out for the allstar team today. R took them over this morning for the tryouts. He said Z his 2 of the 5 balls they pitched him and didn't so so great fielding. Z didn't end up making the allstar team although his close friend did. I was a little bummed for Z but it makes our week easier since we have the family reunion and it would have meant him missing some of it or us driving back and forth.

R found a new trailer today and speant a few hours deciding if we should purchase it. It's more of what we want long term with more storage and more space for our family. I haven't seen it yet but I trust R's judgement. We now have 3 vechiles to sell so I hope we get our smaller trailer and the gray van sold quickly. The older suburban will probably take a while to sell, but hopefully the other 2 won't.

Wednesday

Fun day, Patty came down for a short visit. I felt bad that she had to leave earlier than normal since we were going to Z's baseball game. She had to get back to milk the goat (:. It's been a while since we've seen each other, our visits seem to be fewer and far between, so I'm glad she came down.

Z's team lost their baseball game. It was a bummer, but they had fun and played a good game. The team is going to come over Friday for a team swimming party. The coach called last night and he is submitted Z's name for the league all star team. Tryouts will be Saturday. I'm not sure when the all star team will practice and we have a busy week with the Family Reunion next week but we'll make it work. If he makes the team the 1st game will be a week from Saturday. The soccer coordinator alos called and they start with their group practices next week. I'm looking forward to getting a schedule so I know what to expect for the summer.

Besides our Family Reunion we don't have any trips planned for the summer and I feel like it's already half over. We need to get busy planning some camping trips.

Tuesday Tidings

We had a good Father's Day on Sunday. I don't think R had a great day since he worked most of it, but he came home for a little in the middle of the day and we opened gifts. We gave him a giant super soaker, and T-shift and hat that said "World's Greatest Father" and we gave him Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker for when we go camping. When he came home from work we made rootbeer float ice cream and BBQ'd steaks.

Sunday R also took Binks to a vet since the dog had hardly moved since the mean dog attacked him on Saturday. We were worried since Binks would eat, drink anything or move. The vet kept him overnight. He has a broken leg and some puncture wounds that are healing. Poor dog has to hobble on three legs and is slowly starting to come out of the kennel and join our family.

My dad had a doctor's appointment at the VA Hospital so he stayed to watch Z's baseball game. It's dad's birthday and so it's been fun to visit with him and spend time. We took him to Lonestar for dinner and they sang a birthday song to him and brought him out a huge brownie sundae that we all shared.

This week is Z's baseball tournament. His first game was tonight and they were close in score for most of the game. We were tied at 10 and 10 with 2 outs when Z got up to bat and I was so afraid he would strike out but he didn't. He hit and brought a runner home so we won the game!!! Yay Z!!! Anyway we have another game tomorrow and if we win that game we will play agian Thursday night. It's exciting to watch the team play and see Z improve.

I'm going to go spend time the my dad while the kids swim.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Happy Father's Day

Sunny Saturday

We've had a fun fun day today. The kids started swimming about 10:00am and finally closed up the pool about 6:00pm. The girls were all sunburned. After my sisters left I ran an errand with the girls and S cried the entire time her sunburn and how tired she was. When we came home I threw the girls in the tub for a quick bath and S laid on my bed and was asleep within 2 minutes. A had 2 short naps today so of course she isn't tired and is wide awake. I need her to give me a break so I can work on my YW lesson.

R and Z are at the Bees game and Z has called me twice to tell me how much fun he is having. I guess the Bee signed his mit and I had told him when I was young my dad would take us to the Phoenix Giants games and buy us ice cream in a bowl shaped like a baseball hat and Z found the same thing at this game so he called to tell me.

The down side of the day was that our dog Binks took off this morning which is normal. When Z walked up the hill to pick him up a dog in that neighborhood attacked Binks and he has some bite marks or puncture wounds and lots of bruising. He has just been laying in his kennel and hardly moving. I feel so bad for him and Z has been really worried about the dog. Actually one of his phone calls from the baseball game was to check on Binks.

I'm off to get the baby to bed and work on my lesson for tommorow.

Finally Friday

Last night I stayed up to late reading The Great Gathering but I had other things to get done. Of course my house is a disaster but today was payroll at work and I didn't even start on it until I had finished the book which meant I was up really late and up really early this morning in order to finish it. I paid for reading but getting very little sleep but the day is finally drawing to a close and I am so ready for bed.

When I got home from work this morning I called a friend who brought her kids over to swim this afternoon. They have three girls who S loves to play with so she was in heaven. It was fun to sit and visit while the kids swam. A wanders around the outside of the pool throwing everything in and thinks it is so fun.

Luckily after swimming S took and much needed nap and I made cookies. We have our family reunion in 2 weeks and we are camping so I am trying to get a little ready for the trip now. I baked the cookies and put them in the freezer so we could enjoy them while camping. I need to make a few more batches and freeze them so we can share with the family.

While the kids were swimming my sister Kris called and asked if she could stay overnight tonight and come up and visit. It's always fun to see family and they are driving up from Orangeville now and should be here between 10:00pm and 10:30pm. I still need to get all the clean laundry off the bed in the spare bedroom. I was able to get A to bed and the other two kids are swimming again with some of the neighbors while R watches them and watches a movie on his new projector using our white fence as his screen. My other sister in Logan will come down in the morning to spend the day. I think we may do a little shopping and the kids will do lots of swimming. Z and R are going to a Bees game tomorrow night so Z is super excited for it.

The Great Gathering

In the near future, Tad and Emma North and their children live in a United States that is growing increasingly wicked. The Norths and their extended family notice that many Latter-day Saints are being deceived by alluring temptations, and they wonder how much longer the Lord will allow American society to continue its downward spiral.
Then comes an invitation from Church leaders for the Saints to gather together. This invitation isn’t well-accepted—and even openly mocked—but those faithful Church members who trust in the Lord soon find themselves accomplishing monumental tasks. Join these humble yet heroic Saints as they embark on an unprecedented journey to build New Jerusalem.
The Great Gathering, the first novel in the Standing in Holy Places series, paints a vivid picture of exciting prophesied events that still must occur before the Second Coming. If you have an interest in what awaits the members of the LDS Church, this series should definitely be on your reading list!

I absolutely loved this book. I stayed up way to late last night to finish it. It's a fictional story about 3 families who are living through the "last days" before the second coming. It kept my attention the entire book and of course I sit and ponder being asked to do many of the things they were asked to do in the book. "Would I listen?" I like to think that I would. "Are we prepared?" We are not prepared!

The The Celestial City is the second book in this series and it comes out Monday so I am hoping to read it.

Sunday

Our church starts at 1:00pm and I feel like we can barely make it on time. By the time we got to church today I was so frazzeled and running around that I kept thinking how did we ever make it to our 9:00am church on time? Maybe part of it is that I procrastinate getting Sunday things done until Sunday morning instead of doing them the day before. Today I was trying to help Z write a Primary talk, make 2 posterboard announcements for the 2 lobbys (for our 4th of July breakfast), make dinner so I could put it in the oven when we came home and get us all ready. I just need to get more organized.

We just finished Family Home Evening. I gave a lesson on Strengthening the Family and stressed that our home should be a "safe zone". The lesson was from LDS Living and compared families to cookies so we made the recipe for "The Best Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies" and they are baking now and very yummy! We made some family goals for this week to help make are family stronger and our home safer. Somedays I feel like I am just getting through to my kids and other days I can tell they get it.

The Best Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Mix together the first five ingredients until creamy. Add remaining ingredients. Bake at 400 degrees for 7 to 8 minutes.

Busy Week

The kids first week off of school and has passed and it has been so busy. Yesterday R bought us family Lagoon Summer Passes. By this time last year we had already been several times so I hope we still get our moneys worth. The kids will love it, maybe we'll go this next week.

Last week Grandma C came for a visit so Z had sleepovers with his cousins at our house and then at their house is Ogden. My sister came down with her kids and S went home with them for a few days and then the girls came down for a night with us.

Wednesday felt like the first normal day. I need to finish up the kids chore charts so we can have a daily schedule. I bought the Summer Bridge books for the kids so they can do a page every day and of course we will stick with the 20 minutes of daily reading.

Z had soccer placements this week, 2 nights. The second night they had to play in the rain, poor kids. The soccer games don't start until the fall but they will start practices during the summer. This is a new soccer program we are trying this year so I hope Z likes it and I hope I like it. Hopefully he will also be on a team with his 2 friends in our ward and neighborhood.

Monday night is our last baseball game for the regular season. The following week starts the tournament. Z has loved baseball and has really improved. Today's game was great! I arrived late but when I walked up Z was chasing a kid back to first base but didn't tag him in time. It's so fun to watch him having a good time.

S starts T-Ball Monday night. I'm anxious to see how she will like it. She didn't really like soccer and chose not to play in the fall. I haven't decide if she will stick with gymnastics through the summer or if we'll take a break until fall.

I need to get the kids in swim lessons. I'm going to get them a few private lessons to help them out before I sign them up for group lessons. They love to swim but have to plug their noses under the water and I want them to learn correctly.

In the last 3 days we have bought 2 new vechiles. R found a black suburban at the auction and got a great deal on it. Then he bought me a 2005 Honda Odessy, which was a complete surprise for me. It's a wonderful van, fully loaded and it drives really nice. My other van was gerat also, nothing was wrong with it, but he will sell it and hopefully make money. I'll have to go into more detail about the new vechiles when I'm not trying to watch the kids while they are swimming.