Bear Lake

Nate’s parents let us rent their cabin for a couple of nights last weekend. We hadn’t been up there since Abby was a baby and the kids really wanted to go. It was a fun little getaway for our family.

We got up there Thursday night and headed over to the pool. Apparently the boiler hadn’t been working right, so the water in the pool was COLD. The kids still played and Nate even braved the cold pool a few times. I was a wimp and hung out in the lukewarm hot tub. After the pool and dinner we watched Karate Kid 2 with the kids. We had watched the original with them the week before. It was fun to introduce the kids to some essential 80s pop culture.

Friday we decided to try out the other pool in the morning. It was slightly warmer and we had fun. After lunch we headed down to the beach. The girls were so impressed with the quantity of sea shells . . . “way more than at Willard Bay!” Their cups were full long before they were ready to be done collecting, so they each filled another cup with shells for their cousins. I helped the girls with their shell collecting while Nate did fun things like towing the kids out to the buoy on a tube and making sand fortresses. He and Ben even tried out our snorkel gear and found out there’s not much to see in the shallows of Bear Lake. We picked up some pizza and had another movie night at the cabin. (Spy Kids . . . 4/10 on Nate’s rating scale.)






We spent Saturday morning at the park. Merry-go-rounds and giant swing sets are rare these days and the kids were super excited about playing at a park with both. The girls had a blast. Ben was ready to leave after ten minutes of playing and felt a little persecuted when we wouldn’t just let him go to the pool or to the beach. Poor kid to have to spend a whole hour at the park! :)









We left in time for lunch and then finished up our trip with more pool time. Luckily the boiler had done its duty and the pool was tons more fun. Nate spent some time teaching the kids how to dive. Emily took to it really quickly and was doing some pretty good dives by the time we left. Elise gave it a lot of effort and entertained us with some hilarious belly flops. Ben was easily frustrated with diving and mostly just stuck to doing flips and his own special version of the aerial running man. Abby was content to play in her floatie tube going back and forth from the pool to the hot tub . . . until she had a meltdown and cried herself to sleep on a lounge chair. I even stopped being a pansy and got out of the hot tub and into the pool a few times.











Nate and I cleaned up a bit while the kids watched Ever After and then we headed home. Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped in Logan at Firehouse Pizzeria for dinner and picked up some yummy shakes from Arctic Circle. We listened to Fantastic Mr. Fox on the way home. (We had listened to The Twits on the way up.) I’m a big fan of audio books on long drives.

Ben the Bear

Ben got his Bear badge and his religious knot last week at pack meeting. He is funny because he’ll go months without doing much of anything for scouts and then all of a sudden he will catch the scouting spirit and start kicking out requirements one right after the other. I’m just glad that he has the ability to self-motivate (even if it comes in spurts).


I decided that my least favorite part of scouts (besides wearing my ultra-flattering scout shirt) is sewing on patches. When I put Ben’s Bear badge on his shirt, I realized that all of his arrow points were too high and there wasn’t room for his Webelos badge. By the time I was done unpicking and then re-sewing those (twice . . . I’m a bit of a perfectionist), my fingers were pretty sore. Ben was thoughtful and said “maybe you could take it to someone who is really good at sewing and ask them to do it.” Thanks Ben.

Swimming Party

Heidi invited us to go swimming at her parents’ house last Saturday. We had loads of fun. The long term plans for our backyard include a pool just like theirs and every time we go there it makes me more excited to start that project. Nate, Aaron, and Heidi’s dad are all just boys in grown up bodies and kept the kids entertained with their cool tricks.

Rediscovered

We have a full under-bed storage bin dedicated to Perler beads. I was just joking with Nate a few weeks ago about how “I’m glad we bought those so they can take up space and collect dust for the next seven years since the kids never use them anymore.” I guess I spoke too soon. We’ve had a major Perler bead revival at our house this week. After gifting our coolest creations to date (Mario and Luigi) to Will Kinney, the kids set out to make some bigger and better works of art. They (especially Ben) spent hours working at the kitchen table and Nate had to stop at the craft store two days in row to pick up more beads, but they turned out some awesome projects.

We ended up with a whole family of astromech droids. Ben made a massive R2-D2 following a pattern I found online. That inspired Emily to make up her own pattern for a scaled down version of R2. Elise wanted in on the action too, so she made a mini, mini R2. Then they each decided to make an R4 . . . R4-P17 to be exact. (Should I be worried that Ben’s head is full of useless Star Wars trivia like that?) The girls didn’t want to wait for Nate to get home with more red beads, so they opted for creating “battle damaged” R4s with rust colored beads.




Here are all of the other projects they made last week (minus a few that were MIA when I took the picture):

And, Mario and Luigi . . . just in case we ever want to recreate them.

New Hampshirites

The Kinneys are here from New Hampshire for a couple of weeks. We were glad that they squeezed us into their busy vacation schedule and spent a couple of days at our house. They got here Sunday night and stayed until Tuesday afternoon. We haven’t seen them for two years, but three minutes after they got here it was like they’d never left town. The kids hit it off immediately and had a great time playing together. The girls played dress up and all kinds of imaginative games. The boys mostly played Star Wars . . . chasing the girls with their clone blasters. They all stayed up way too late talking in their bedrooms.


We spent the day boating on Monday. The weather was perfect and the water is getting so warm that it was like being at the pool (with a boat). We had a fabulous time. The kids were remarkably happy and cooperative after getting so little sleep. Hurray for friends to make you forget you are tired. Abby didn’t forget. She fell asleep in her most amazing position yet. I’m glad I realized that she was sleeping so I could hold on to her legs and keep her from doing a flip off the edge of the boat.












Nate let each of the kids take a turn driving the boat. It was funny to see their personalities come out in how they steered; it ranged from complete concentration to wild and crazy!



The kids wore themselves out playing and went to sleep lots quicker Monday night. Nate and I had a great time hanging out and talking with Sean and Gwyn. It was nice to get caught up. They are quality friends. We’re looking forward to visiting their town in four or five years.

Mowing Milestone

Ben mowed the lawn tonight. (He actually mowed it a week ago too, but I wasn’t home and Nate didn’t take a picture.) I have mixed feelings about this new development. It’s not a case of feeling sad because my little boy is growing up . . . I just really love mowing the lawn. It is my favorite chore. I’m sure I will get over it. For now he still needs my help on the edges and the really hilly parts, so at least I can wean myself off of it slowly. He was absolutely thrilled when we paid him $2.00 (for the front and back lawn).