Pioneer Day

We celebrated Pioneer Day on Saturday with a BBQ and fireworks at Holly and Shane’s. I love potluck BBQs. The food is always so yummy (and I always eat way too much). They had a waterslide and a slip ‘n slide set up, so the kids spent a lot of time playing in the water. Ben played basketball with the boys. Nathan was on his team and was a very nice (and patient) cousin. The girls all got in line for their turn to get glitter toes done by Taylor. Shane and Jamece put on a fancy firework show at the end of the night. It was worth staying out late for (although I questioned that when I was dragging the kids out of bed at 8:00 in the morning to get ready for church).

We forgot our camera, so I stole a few of Holly’s pictures:




We had a few boxes of sparklers left over, so we used those for our family home evening activity on Monday. It was pretty much a repeat of the fourth with sparklers becoming wands and the kids shouting Harry Potter spells at each other. I sure love those silly kids.

Latest Chore Chart

We’ve tried to make the most of our time this summer and we have played lots. But, life isn’t all about playing. We have to work too. It seems like every year I implement a new chore system to keep the kids motivated to help out. I put together our latest version at the first of the summer. I got the basic idea from another blog, and adapted it to fit our needs. I made cards with just about every job I have the kids do and the wage they can earn for doing that job. (There is an “extra job” category for the odds and ends that come up.) I busted out my cool laminator to make it fancy/durable and recruited Nate’s help to make the card holder. It is easily the prettiest chore chart we have ever had. More importantly, it has been very effective. Every night after the kids are in bed, I put their assignments for the next day into their job pockets. When they finish the job, they can move the card into the “done” pocket. We pay up each night at bedtime. The kids know that they have to do their jobs before they can play, so lots of mornings I have woken up to the sound of someone taking out the garbage or emptying the dishwasher. It is lovely. The real secret is for me to have their jobs waiting when they get up in the morning. They’ll do seven jobs without complaining as long as they are in their pockets first thing in the morning. If I wait until later and ask who wants to sweep the floor, I hear “not me” in a four part chorus.

Boating

We spent Friday afternoon boating with the kids. At the first of the summer, we had big plans to take our boat out eight or ten times this year. So far, we have only gone twice. Life is busy! In spite of the gnats, a dead battery, a bit of choppy water, and a fairly grumpy mom, we had a good time. Elise was brave and tried skiing. She got up on her first try, but only lasted about 30 seconds. Luckily Nate managed to snap one picture in that time because after falling she wasn’t too keen about trying again. Everyone but Abby took a turn skiing and Nate, Emily and Elise tested out our new kneeboard. The kids were super impressed with Nate’s kneeboard tricks. I should have taken pictures, but it required my full attention to keep the boat speed between 15 and 18 mph. We spent some time skipping rocks and playing in the water at the rocky beach and finished up the day with rides on the tube. The kids (especially Ben) are getting lots braver about taking “wild rides” on the tube. It was a good day. Hopefully we’ll be able to squeeze in another three or four boating days while the water is still nice and warm.

Cousin Fun: Homemade Ice Cream

We got together at Jody’s house this week to make homemade ice cream. The kids got to make their own individual serving in a Ziploc bag. They put on their winter gloves and danced the Hokey Pokey to shake up their ice cream in big bags of ice. It was great fun. We ordered pizza for lunch and let the kids play for a few hours. The favorite part for all of my kids was playing kickball at the end of the day. They thought it was so cool to have Aunt Holly and Aunt Jody play a game with them. The funniest part was when Ben got the ball stuck in the apple tree. Or maybe when Andre (Jody’s dog) tried kicking the ball. Good times.

Bounceback Day at Lagoon

We had such a great time the first time around that we decided to take the kids back to Lagoon on Wednesday. We got there before the park opened and stayed until closing again. It was a long day, but it was tons of fun. It seemed lots less crowded than the week before and we managed to hit loads of rides with very little waiting in line. We spent a few hours at Lagoon-A-Beach in the middle of the day. The big kids loved going down the slides and Abby was in heaven in the little kids’ play area. The rest of the day was all about the rides. Elise and Abby had a frustrating hour when Odysea broke down right when we got to the front of the (very long) line and then the lines for their second choice rides were super slow. Other than that (and Elise feeling sad that she was too big to ride the baby boats), it was a good day.

My favorite things from round two:

• The whole family getting drenched on Rattlesnake Rapids. They must have turned up the water shooting out of the waterfall since last week because there was nowhere to go without getting soaked.

• Going on Wild Mouse with Ben. I forgot how much that ride freaks me out. I screamed/laughed the whole time. The poor teenage girls that were sharing our car must have thought I was a crazy lady. It was pretty much the same story with Emily on the Blast Off side of the The Rocket.

• Watching Emily and Ben ride Cliffhanger without us. I love that they are brave and independent kids.

• Hanging out with Elise and Abby in Kiddieland. Abby literally ran from ride to ride, and Elise is still young enough to think the little rides are cool (note the aforementioned disappointment over the baby boats). I’m pretty sure this will be our last Lagoon trip where Kiddieland is a prominent feature of the day.

• Cramming in rides on Jumping Dragon and Bombora right at closing time. It was a fun way to end the night.

• Listening to the kids relive the whole experience the next day. It is fun to see things through their eyes. Sometimes I freak out about how fast they are growing up, but family days like this are lots more fun now than when they were little.

Cousin Fun: North Shore

The weather was finally good enough last week to take the kids to the pool. Nathan, who most wanted to go, ended up being sick that day and had to miss it. Poor kid! The rest of the group had lots of fun together. I was a bit of a pansy about spending much time in the pool for the first few hours because it was breezy and I was freezing, but I did get in for the last hour or so. My reward for spending the day at the pool with the kids was a big fat sunburn on my back. Oops.

Lagoon: It's What Fun Is!

Holly’s friend hooked her up with a killer deal on Lagoon passes. She was generous and shared with us. Even better, her family went the same day so we got to hang out with them while we were there. We did a few things all together and did a lot of divide and conquer so everyone could hit the rides that they wanted to. It worked out great. This was the first time we have been to Lagoon in three years and Abby’s first time ever, so we didn’t really know what to expect from the kids. We found out that they all take after their dad. There was no ride too wild or crazy for them to try. They each went on every ride that they were tall enough for and loved almost all of them.

Here are a few of my favorite memories from the day:

• Riding any ride with Abby. She would squeal and laugh the whole time and as soon as the ride stopped she would say, “I want to go again!” Her favorite rides were Bombora and Odysea.

• Getting soaked on Cliffhanger with Nate, Ben, Emily, Nathan and Rachel

• Listening to Elise and Abby recount their adventures when they were with Aunt Holly (the most exciting was Elise being in charge of the whistle on their train ride)

• Going on the “big rides” with our three oldest kids (my favorites: The Rocket with Emily and Ben and Wicked with Elise)

• The looks on the kids’ faces as they came out of Terroride (most notably the terrified looks from Rachel and Bryton and the three boys coming out laughing hysterically)












Last week was the 125th birthday of Lagoon. Nate distinctly remembers going during the 100th anniversary year when Centennial Screamer and Turn of the Century were the cool new rides. He was 13. We are old!

Angel Moroni

They put the Angel Moroni on top of the Brigham City Temple on Tuesday. I thought it would be neat to take the kids up to see it. They were supposed to start at noon. We got up there about an hour early and found a good spot on the lawn at the Tabernacle. We sat through the rain for an hour and then waited another hour for them to get started. Around 1:00, lots of people started leaving and a bunch of people around us were on their cell phones talking to people who were “in the know” that said it wouldn’t really be until 3:00 or 4:00. I didn’t want to just waste that time, so I decided to leave our chairs there and take the kids to Walmart to pick up a few things and stop at Wendy’s to get lunch. As we came out of Walmart, I told the kids to look and see if anything was happening and they all said “It’s already up!” Fabulous. In the half hour we were gone, they had lifted the angel off the ground and moved it to the spire. Oops. We made our way back to the tabernacle and hung out for another half hour or so while they lowered it into place. It was still cool, but I felt bad that we had missed the best part. Maybe we’ll do it all over again when the Ogden Temple is done.