Easy and Cute

I'm really not any good at coming up with my own cute ideas.  My sister-in-law, Melanie was nice enough to let me copy her idea and even helped me out with the sanding painting, and cutting!

This is the other fun project I picked up last week at the Wood Connection.  As I wandered through the store I realized the possibilities were endless...  I thought it turned out darling.  Thanks for the help Melanie!  (And for keeping me company on my weekend alone!)

Home Alone

My mother-in-law and her husband have a tradition of taking the grand kids to Disneyland the year before they start kindergarten.  This year was Kaitlyn's year to go.  The only problem was that Andrew and Jared never got their trips since we lived in Iowa when they started kindergarten.  So my awesome mother-in-law decided to take all three of the kids to California.  When she told me I was thrilled and started planning a weekend getaway for Jason and me.  After all, how often do you have someone ask to babysit your kids for several days?!

The problem....  I found out she scheduled the trip the same week Jason was going backpacking with his brothers.  So much for a second honeymoon... I was going to be home alone.

I'm not the type of person that enjoys being alone.  I always like having people around.  However, it has been at least 12 years since I have had a significant amount of time completely to myself.  I've spent the last month scheming what would be the best use of this time since it probably won't happen again for another 12 years or so.  There were plenty of projects to get done but the problem was that every time I started thinking about how much I needed to do I thought it wasn't fair to work the whole time everyone else was on vacation.  No matter how much I tried to look at this as an opportunity, I couldn't help dreading the week.  In fact, I cried tucking the kids in bed the night before they left thinking about how much I would miss them.

My first thought when I got back to my house was how quiet it was!  Too quiet, to be honest.  There have definitely been some nice things.  I've eaten what I want, when I want.  I've gone to bed when I want, gotten up when I want.  I've gone for some nice trail runs in no hurry to get back.  I went to dinner with a friend.  When I pick something up it actually stays put.  I had a nice phone conversation with my brother in Germany with no interruptions.  I worked in my garden which if I have to say is doing quite well this year.  Yes, that is work; but it is work I enjoy!

I did a lot of shopping.  (I thought about taking a picture of all the bags I came home with today but I think I'm going to have to slowly bring everything out so Jason doesn't realize how much I got in one trip!)  My sister-in-law told me about this neat store in Salt Lake, The Wood Connection, that was probably slightly dangerous for me to find out about because it had a lot of cool stuff.  I've been looking for a side table for months but haven't been able to find one the right color.  Their furniture is unfinished so I found the perfect table and then brought it home and painted it black.

I also picked up a more crafty project that I will post pictures of when it is done.  That's tomorrow's project.

I got a few jobs done around the house but I really didn't get around to any deep cleaning that needed to be done.  I could have a month all to myself and not get caught up on everything.  But as nice at it is to do whatever I want, I'm really ready for Jason to come home tomorrow!

Cousins

Every year when Jason and his brothers go backpacking we have a fun week of activities getting the cousins together.  We didn't get in as much this year but here are some pictures of a couple fun outings.

My sister-in-law found out about this water activity sponsored by Radio Disney at the Gallivan Center.  Here's Kaitlyn going down the water slide.

Of course like anything in Salt Lake there were lots of people and long lines for two minutes in the bounce house.

The petting zoo there was lots of fun for the kids but I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the animals who must have been totally overwhelmed by the amount of kids!

Just when the kids thought all the fun was over we spotted the fire truck at the bottom of the stairs.  At first they were just letting kids climb inside the truck to see it but the best part of the afternoon started when they turned the hose on!

We loved having Vance's daughter Daniel visiting from Louisiana!

The next day Jana and Melissa and their kids joined us too and we went to the splash pad in South Ogden.

The pictures aren't the greatest and I didn't get half the kids there because I found it awfully hard to photograph kids moving that quickly.  There aren't any pictures of Kaitlyn because a lady at the park offered her a bag of pretzels and a jar of peanut butter and she wouldn't stop eating the whole time we were there!  I'm sure the lady must have thought I never feed her!

4th of July in Southern Utah

Monday holidays are perfect since Jason has most Tuesdays off work.  The 4th of July fell on a Monday this year so that meant we had a four day weekend.  We decided to head to southern Utah and show the kids some of our favorite places from when we were in college.  Unfortunately I waited until the week before to plan the trip and found out that most camp grounds and hotels were reserved.  I found a couple hotels that still had rooms so Friday afternoon when Jason got done with work we drove to Torrey and got there just before dark.  While we were checking in I noticed a sign for a 5K the next morning.  Jason decided that since he had to get a workout in anyway he would run the race in spite of having done some really hard workouts that week.  Andrew decided to run too.  It was hot and a tough course so neither of them broke any time records but they did both win ice cream gift certificates so we got ice cream every day we were in Torrey!

Saturday we spent the day in Capitol Reef National Park.  It was the one national park I had never been to in Utah.  It's not as popular as some of the other parks and it was nice to get away from the crowds.  We didn't get started on our first hike until about noon and it was around 100 degrees that day.  We found a beautiful slot canyon to hike into but unfortunately there was no shade in the middle of the day.  We got about a mile in and decided to climb up the rocks to see some water holes.  Kaitlyn was having a hard time climbing over all the big rocks but we finally made it.  When we turned around to head back she said "I can't go another step!"  I looked over at her and she was beat red!  We haven't had heat like that yet this summer and I was really worried about her.  I sent Jason and the boys ahead and hiked back slowly with her and had her sit down and drink lots of water whenever we could find a small spot of shade.  We eventually made it back to the car and decided the rest of our sight seeing for the day would be from the car.

Hiking in Capital Reef National Park

At last!  A little bit of shade!

Sunday after church we left Torrey and drove over Boulder Mountain.  Jason loved reliving the memories of his summer working on Boulder Mountain for the Forest Service.  I think if he could have made enough money to support a family doing that he never would have gone to medical school!  He was really wishing he had a truck to go exploring on the dirt roads again but since we were in our van we stuck to the highway.  We enjoyed a picnic in the cooler air in the mountains and then headed back down the other side into the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  We wanted to hike to Calf Creek Falls but when we got there it was 102 degrees and we discovered it was a 6 mile hike.  It was beautiful but we didn't want a repeat of the day before with Kaitlyn so we decided to save that hike for another trip.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Instead we stopped at the petrified forest and went for a short walk.  The kids thought all the petrified wood was great!

Yes, that's really petrified wood we are sitting on!

Sunday night we arrived at Bryce Canyon and caught up with all the crowds.  We learned our lesson and got up early Monday morning to go hiking.  We were also at 8,000 feet elevation, which made for much better hiking conditions!  Bryce Canyon has always been one of my favorite places!  We did a three mile hike with about a 1,000 foot climb at the end and the kids did great!

My favorite picture from the trip!

The never-ending switchbacks we climbed at the end of the hike!

The kids loved doing the Jr. Ranger programs at each of the parks and monuments.

The kids working on their Jr. Ranger booklets.

Jared loved the Jr. Ranger t-shirt!

Tuesday on the way home we stopped at Panguitch Lake and Cedar Breaks National Monument.  As Jared put it he was "sick of looking at scenery" by that point so when we got back to the not so scenic I-15 he was delighted to watch a DVD the rest of the way home!

Cedar Breaks National Monument-The kids were tired of posing for pictures!

Like all vacations, it was too short and we played too hard.  We came home exhausted but hopefully made some fun memories for the kids!

Scouts

Andrew was so excited to move into boy scouts when he turned 11 and start going on overnight camps.  Along with the 11 year old overnighter this summer, Andrew also got to go to the week long 12 year old camp since Jason went along as a leader.  Since the 11 year old camp was scheduled for the weekend before the 12 year old camp, Andrew spent 8 out of 9 days at camp.  I was surprised how hard it was for me to have him gone that long.  It's the longest he's ever been gone from home and I really missed him!  When he got home I gave him a hug (he was all dirty and holding his fish!) and told him I missed him.  I asked him if he missed me at all and he said "no"!

I am glad he had fun but it would be nice to be missed a little bit.  They went to Camp Bartlett in Idaho.  He was so excited to tell me when he came home that he had earned 7 merit badges at camp and he was 1/3 of the way to his Eagle!  He practiced his swimming really hard before going to camp so he could pass the swim test and had a fun time working on the canoeing merit badge.  He was also thrilled to catch the longest fish at camp that week!

While Andrew was at camp Jared had his cub scout rain gutter regatta.  Here he is so excited to take his boat to pack meeting!

They put the boats in rain gutters filled with water and blew the sails to race the boats.  Jared had a really close race with a boy a lot older than him.  When he pulled the boat out of the water we realized the paint we used wasn't intended to get wet and was washing off the boat!  He was excited to earn 6 more belt loops and put them on the new cub scout belt we bought.