Impromptu Wind Party

This morning Jeff asked if we could invite a couple of families over for dinner. It turned into a 5 family fiesta at the park instead. I loved the idea of clean-up for a park BBQ versus everyone at our house! Also the kids are busy so the parents can chat, right?

Jeff brought his portable grill (awesome gift Papa) and we tried to eat at a picnic table near the park. Well, it was unbelievably windy. Every time a kid lifted their hot dog they lost their plate. Chips wouldn't stay on the plates at all and I had a whole collection of cups that had blown my way. Everyone had to face the same direction against the wind so that the dirt flying at us wouldn't be so painful or get in our eyes. We debated moving the group into the now abandoned pavilion down the way and a few started to head that way. One mom of four was determined that she could handle the situation and was holding down three plates with her arms.
"Sit and eat she said." They begged to go to the pavilion. She said, "no! We can do this." and then all three plates promptly flew up and hit her in the face.

We all went to the pavilion.

We all laughed at the crazy wind and had a blast in spite of it. The kids had a water balloon fight, repeatedly lined up and rode the one old metal slide next to the brand new play equipment, and rolled down the giant hill. We had a blast.

Speed Golf

On Thursday this week the weather was so beautiful. I picked the kids up from school and just didn't want to go home. I came up with a plan that I knew everyone would love and we had a great afternoon of mini-golf. I laughed when I texted Jeff the plan and he told me to "make sure I looked for a coupon." I had learned from a previous visit a while back that young kids are free. Our total cost was $4 for Lincoln. I told them I wouldn't be able to actually play while keeping the baby busy and there is no way I could have carried another ball and club with all I had going on! I talked to the kids before we started about not running ahead and sticking with me and they did fairly well, but it was more of a sprint through all three courses than a casual putt-putt experience. Lincoln speeds right through those holes and Jackson does everything he can to keep up with him. If Harrison and I were distracted for a minute with a water feature or something we were suddenly two holes behind. The boys had a blast and I got some good exercise. At one point I even got them to pose for a picture by a waterfall, at which point my camera battery died. Darn.

We went in to enjoy a drink and let the kids ride on the big slide. While we were there a nice lady dropped a big bucket of tokens on the floor for the game room. Lincoln helped her pick them up and handed them right to her. She was so impressed that she gave both of the boys a few tokens to play with and wanted to make sure they knew that "Jesus loves them." They really loved playing games to collect tickets and win those silly prizes. I ended up spending 3 more dollars to let them collect a few tickets and we all had a great afternoon.

Harrison in the Hose Pot

When we were playing outside together Harrison climbed right into the hose pot and just sat there comfortably like it were made for it. By the time I got the camera for the moment he was already climbing back out, but these pictures still make me laugh. He makes a great surprised face all day long with lots of "oh's" and "ooh's."

I love watching him learn all about the world. This week his fascination is with birds. He's really listening and watching for them. And of course he's still very much interested in balls and balloons. "Ba. Ba. Ba."

Dayna

History is the best word to describe my friendship with this amazing lady. We knew of each other from a young age when her mom would come and Visit Teach my mom. I remember seeing her at girl scout camp and kind of knowing who she was. When I started going to church at 13 years old we began to do things, which turned into everything together. We were locker partners from seventh grade forward and roommates in college until she up and got married and I left on a mission. She probably knows me as well as anyone could.

We have quite different personalities and she always described us as an odd pairing, but it worked and worked well. We spent all of those formative years together so she is a big part of who I am today and I'm so grateful to have her friendship. I remember peeking at her during a sacrament prayer to see what one should do during a prayer. She taught me to dance and love dancing. I was always able to keep up with her sentence hopping. We only liked the same boy once (nickname Ken Doll) and only had one major fight that I can remember. It was all over within two torturous days once we reconnected and were able to talk it out. Mostly we laughed and played and had a ball. Don't get in a water fight with her!

Dayna is studious and organized (except for her piles!). She had her life plans all laid out better than anyone I've ever known. She planned exactly what she would do for years in advance and than things worked out just that way. I'm still baffled by that.

One of my favorite Dayna moments happened while we were getting ready to go to sleep during our college years. She always checked her alarm clock before she went to bed and this time we heard the beginning notes and both said, "oh! I love this song, let's leave it on." After the intro notes were over the beginning words came on "Lying beside you, here in the dark..." Such a funny moment.

In this picture we are at the airport. I had just finished up at the MTC and was headed off to Germany. I had an amazing/shocking group there to see me off (including my dad who flew out just for that brief time and flew right back home and my aunt Pam's family who had moved to Provo while I was in the MTC unbeknownst to me). While I was in the MTC Dayna got married. Neither of us could believe that it would happen that way - that I would miss her wedding day by just weeks. I was painfully close, but could not leave to be there.

Dayna has four amazing girls to contrast my family of crazy boys. I sure hope they all get to play together sometime soon! I'm feeling a little cheated of my Dayna time as I haven't seen her in 6 years! I miss her like crazy and am writing all of this because today is her birthday. Happy Birthday dear friend. I love you!

My OTHER Kids

When the weather is nice I get all the kids from the street at my house (ALL=these three). They are all very sweet kids and I really enjoy having them around. The group is a little unexpected as these guys are all much older than my boys, but they play quite nicely together and are actually a help to me in the crazy moments. I feel a little like a second mom to them as they talk to me about what is going on in their lives and ask me questions. I'm getting a little preview of the tween years.

Ken and Amy once made cookies with us and they said, "this is fun. We've never done anything like this with our mom." I know they do other amazing things with their parents (like learn piano, Cantonese and Mandarin), but it has been fun to share a few of our family moments with them. Raul loves to ride his bike around with Jackson. His dad is the neighborhood bus driver so we all wave to him and he honks at us and drops Ken off right at his door. Raul can be shy and I feel like we are helping him come out of his shell. He is originally from Mexico and it takes a lot of concentration to understand his accent. The kids love to play tennis or soccer and color the driveway with their neighborhood friends. I guess they feel like my home is their home too as they are comfortable enough to walk right in and join in whatever is going on inside. And I think I like it that way.

Busy Weekend!

My plan to paint Lincoln's room was thwarted in part by a crew of tree trimmers that showed up unexpectedly on Saturday morning. We had asked them for an estimate, but hadn't even chosen which company we were going to use, much less set up an appointment time. But here they were with all of their crew and equipment ready to work, so our tree went from great and glorious shade provider to tall and thinned out enough so that grass can grow. It took ALL DAY. If you can't tell from the before and after of the tree just take a look at that waste pile! We still managed to get the painting done, but had to work some on Sunday too, which I prefer not to do. We also got all new locks and handles on outside doors and a few more inside handles.

We enjoyed conference as best as we could with three kiddos and projects going and will definitely have to go back and revisit a few parts. I loved the talk about women in the church (can't remember which apostle that was), Elder Bednar's talk about revelation and president Monson's talk on temples.