Fun In the UTAH Sun!

{This post will represent 27 June through 1 July!}
And... it's REALLY long... you could spread out the reading and looking for a week!  Not really, but this is just a warning... there are lots of pictures, and it is very lengthy.  Grab some popcorn, a drink, and head to the bathroom before you start!  ;o)

After a weekend of fun and excitement we settled in to the rest of our adventures... which included a couple of days of sleeping in... a day OFF, and more traveling!

Monday we got up late, but then hurried in to town to get and deliver a LATE birthday present to Hayden.  We also dropped off our van at Gma Linda's for Uncle Seth to replace the brakes.  He was so nice to take the time to do it for us!  He even let Braeden help for the last little bit when we returned later that evening... and Braeden LOVES tools!  He told Seth, "I didn't know fixing cars could be this FUN!"  Haha!  And I have such WONDERFUL brakes now!  Good thing, since they were tested out on our road trip in San Francisco on the VERY STEEP streets there!  ;o)

Then we headed to Richfield in Gma Pam's truck to get the trailer and the 4-wheelers for the 4th of July.  It has become a tradition to use that trailer for our 4th of July float entry for the last few years!  It's wonderful because it's big and can hold LOTS OF KIDS!! 

Our trip didn't start our very well.  Gma Pam almost turned the car around several times because of my loving children fighting with each other in the back seat!  I have to admit that when Ella was screaming at me for more candy that I would NOT give her that I was laughing really hard.  I wish I had taken my video camera.  She had many different voice inflections to get my attention... plus some growling, and screeching!  And for a few minutes even Gma Pam was LAUGHING!  But that didn't last long.  I don't know really how we made it, but somehow we did.  Gma did a lot of threatening!

She wanted to stop in Beaver for cheese, so we did that on the way up, since we didn't know for sure that we would be back in time to find it open.  As we got off the freeway and into town, the kids rolled down their windows... (their FAVORITE) only to find that the stench of COW was practically overwhelming!

As we were making icky faces, Ella piped up and said, "EEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!!  I SMELL COW!!!!!"  We just laughed and made our way to the dairy where we bought a couple of bags of curd... just for Lexi, some snacks, and a giant brick of new cheese for my mom!  (It does NOT melt well, but it tastes oh, so good!)

When we got to Richfield my mom had been wise enough to advise me to bring their swimsuits since Cornell and Tamie have a pool in the back yard.  And... that was my kids first order of business!  Then lunch that Tamie made us... with EXTRA chocolate in their chocolate milk (she's a true grandma), and jumping on the trampoline!  So much fun!  "Cornail," as Ella calls him, and Tamie are so fun to be around!  My kids love them, their dogs, and Tiffy!

Cannonballs!

I'm actually surprised there was even any water left in the pool by the time they were done... :o)

Love it!  See... water... anywhere... in any amount... makes Lexi HAPPY!  If only we could teach piano and go to school in the water... hmmm.

Enjoying the shade.  My mom, Tiffy, Cornell, and Tamie

I love that my kids have such BLUE eyes!  This picture is one of my favorites from this day!  The color is spectacular!!

It must be a guy thing.  Cornell is hosing them off... even though they are already wet!  This reminds me of John during water fights at his house!  Haha!

Technical difficulties...

Oh, my!  Just watch as this all unfolds!

Ella couldn't handle all the splashing and rough housing, so... she and I took a break on the tramp with the sprinkler to keep us cool!  (See the water under our feet!!??!!

Even more??  How is this possible?

FAIL!

Boing, boing...

Frog??

Also... a major FAIL!  Haha!

Braeden helping Seth when we got back to Cedar... and amazed at all the FUN tools!

I drove home with the trailer hitched to the back... and it was slow, but the kids got in enough time in the pool that they were all sound asleep!  Whew!

Tuesday became our day OFF.  We did lots of reading.  We watched LOTS of TV.  The wind blew nothing less than a gale all day.  The kids started to dig their holes in the back yard.  Holes, you ask?  Why?  One can never know, but they just wanted to dig holes.  Lexi got one pretty deep.  And then as they were digging another, she and Braeden came running to the door with a treasure!  "Mom!!  Come look!!!  We found a DINOSAUR BONE!!!!!"  To which I responded that it was just an animal bone... and my mom questioned my mothering... she wanted me to just let them believe for a little while that it really was a dinosaur bone.  I told her that it wasn't a good idea because they would likely really convince someone that their find was real and then she would have people coming to excavate in her back yard!  Haha!  Silly kids!

I should also note that after I unloaded the 4-wheelers, later in the day I taught Lexi and Braeden how to drive them and we made a little track with a giant oval and a figure 8 in the back yard!  So fun!  Maybe not so safe, but they wore helmets, and they did very well! 

Ella

Lexi patiently waiting her turn in the crazy wind next to our makeshift track!

Eek...  teaching Braeden!

Look, Mom!  No hands!!!

I let Ella sit in front of me and TRY it out for about 10 seconds.  She just wanted to be a speed demon.  Yikes... we have some serious gray hair coming when she get a permit!

So... I quickly switched her to the back and took her for a ride!  It was so windy and dusty.  Lexi did have her turn... there just aren't any pictures.  Gma Pam had had enough of the sun and wind!

Ella's redneck shopping cart.  It's a basket tied to a baby stroller with yarn.  Lovely!  But... she used her creativity to come up with something that would work for her "shopping trip!"  Yay for imaginations!

In her little purse is NOT money!  It's all her "weeceipts" from the things she purchased in her basket!  Lesson learned:  Ella loves buttons (we already knew that... she is MY daughter, after all!), giver her some play money in a money box, a calculator that spits out "weeceipts", and a makeshift shopping cart and you have hours of blissful entertainment!!

Wednesday was NOT a day off!  In the morning we loaded up on the ATV's and headed south of town with the BB gun.  My mom had given the girls some of her jewelry, and there really isn't anything she has that would REALLY interest Braeden like that... other than the BB gun!  So... it's now his, but it lives at Gma's for the time being!  Thank goodness!  We talked all about gun safety... which they were fairly careful to follow, and then I taught them how to use the sight and shoot it!  They did really well from about 8 ft. away from their target!  Haha!  It must have been the wind otherwise.  (Still BLOWING wildly!)  By the end Lexi had hit 5 out of 6 and then 6 out of 6 on her turns!  Yay!  And Braeden... well... he was the very first one to actually hit the target!  Yay!  Ella pulled the trigger twice, and that was enough for her!  She was too busy COLLECTING things.  (Yes... I now have TWO collectors!  Yikes!)

The cacti were in bloom!  I love this picture!  NO EDITING... just BEAUTY!

Having our gun safety talk.

Braeden.  The gun was too long for both him and Lexi, so they had to come up with their own comfortable way to hold it.

Gma Pam!

Ella found another can and started stuffing it with shells she found.

Loving it... after hitting the target a few times!

I try hard not to leave Ella out even though she is OBVIOUSLY too little and too young for this.  She pulled the trigger a couple of times and then she was happy and done.  She went back to collecting!

Me!  And yes... I did hit the target!  Several times!  Yay!

And so did Braeden!

Yesssss!

Gma and Ella... getting tired of watching!

I would say they gave these cans a pretty good beating!

Gma and Braeden

These are like GIANT dandelions!  We just had to have them!  Even though the fun stuff was blown away quickly by the WIND... and no, not the hot air from their lungs!  Boo... that's like 90% of the fun!

I love this picture and the background looks so FAKE... but it is oh, SO REAL!  Love it!

Switching drivers!  Braeden is not such a natural at this... which totally surprised me!  He was very cautious about it.

Lexi doesn't even scare me as a driver.  She's really good at it, and it's so fun to just sit back and look around the beauty and enjoy the ride!

Then we had made plans to go try out the new aquatic center in Cedar.  Let's just say that not only is it amazing, but that it was also WILD and CRAZY crawling with HUNDREDS of children and their parents.  It has an indoor playground with the giant bucket that fills and then dumps out, a lazy river, the water slide (that is pitch black and very claustrophobic), and outdoor diving boards and pools to enjoy!  I was so grateful that we had a time limit there and that I had a hair appointment.  Just to get a trim, but it saved me.  We took Caroline with us and being responsible for 4 children in that mass craziness makes me a little more than crazy and anxious.  The kids LOVED it, though!  The only thing Ella didn't like was the fact that she had to abide by their "3-layer rule" for anyone under 4.  They have to have a swim diaper, a plastic covering of sorts, and a suit.  STUPID, but they enforce it to avoid any more accidents.  I had to buy one of theirs because I didn't know until we got there.  And... the one I bought was cute and not so bad... and wasn't really plasticy and annoying.  It had ruffles and is reusable... but still.

The indoor playground.  (And get ready for it... the lighting is totally icky in here, so my pictures are also... ICK!  But... they serve the purpose!)

Braeden and Ella

Lexi and Caroline waiting for the BIG dump!

There it is!!

Sliding is so much fun!!

Lexi and Caroline!

Braeden coming out of the water slide.  This is the only one I included, since they were ALL very fuzzy, but Lexi and Caroline also went... and went... and ...

Taking a rest under a fountain!

 After we scurried out of the aquatic center to meet Gma Pam (she was getting her hair cut), she took them to Gma Linda's for a shower while I got my hair trimmed!  Thank heaven for mothers!  They were pretty much all done when I got back there.  I had given a ride to a girl I didn't know... at all... but as it turned out, she knew Damian's family, and her father-in-law was my German professor in college!  She was pregnant, without a cell phone, and couldn't get a hold of whoever it was she was trying to call... just for a ride.  So... I offered.  You can do that in Cedar... it will probably turn out that you know many of the same people!  :o)

Then later that night we headed over to the Green Show at the Shakespearean Festival!!  An annual tradition, and we just happened to catch the Italian night where they sing one of the kids' favorites: FIGARO!  They lose interest faster and faster each year, but they still need a little culture, and this is my fairly lame attempt at getting them some when we are on vacation!  And... I actually love it!

The Green Show has their rapt attention... for the moment, anyway!

But the attention span of little girls making grass soup doesn't last too long!  Ella and Mary Jane  (Troy's daughter... and he is Damian's cousin!)

Calling for FIGARO!!!

I must admit here that I had NO IDEA that Figaro is/was a dog.  Or is that just a silly thing for the Green Show?  Maybe I better culture myself and look it up.  Hmmm... {Here is where I couldn't take the suspense anymore, thinking that I just might be wrong about this dog thing.  I wasn't!  Yay!  I wasn't as uncultured as I thought.  The song is from a Mozart opera and Figaro is a man... look it up if you don't know the plot or the story!!  It's one of REVENGE!}

Meanwhile... the grass soup concoction is coming along quite nicely!  ;o) (Alex is behind MJ.)

Love it!  LOVE IT!!  Jonathan and Gma Linda!

Much better!  He is clapping along with the music and totally enjoying himself!  {At least enough to distract him from what he WAS doing!  Haha!}

Yep... it has their attention again!  Yay!

And even theirs!  Caroline and Lexi giving their silly claps!

Well... we totally lost Justin and Braeden... sigh!  But it looks like they're still having fun!  (Justin is also Troy's.  And Alex is here in the pictures, too... she is between Justin and Mary Jane in age!  My kids had a riot with them!)

Troy and his wife, Ecstacia.  (The spelling of her name MAY be wrong... let me know if you're reading this, because she also goes by Staci!)

Me and my cuties!  Enjoying the fresh air... at the GREEN SHOW, which I LOVE!

Gpa Mike and Great-Gma Liebhardt were also there, but they didn't sit by us.  They were over on the other side of the stage sitting in chairs they had brought!

Thursday morning came and the girls were tired and super ornery.  Enough so that they both ended up in a serious time OUT.  So... Braeden hopped on his bike and I put on some running clothes and we ran/biked to the post office, up the street, down to the town hall (looking for someone), around and around and then back to my mom's.  That may sound like a lot unless you know the town.  Kanarra's blocks are equivalent to... basically one here in our little part of the community that we live in!  (In other words... they aren't big... at all!)  I was still out of breath!

In the afternoon my mom and I decided to see if we could remember how to get to Turtle Cave.  We couldn't.  And we took the ATV's up to the trail head and realized quickly that it had been way too many years since we had been up there... and I didn't even remember that it was NOT what I thought it was...  boo.  We went in a little way and then Braeden said that he saw a mountain lion.  Sigh.  That was the end.  Lexi started whining that she didn't want to DIE.  She didn't want to get attacked by a mountain lion OR A RATTLESNAKE and DIE... die, die, die... so we turned around and just went for a ride down the lane and all the way around the loop.

That evening we went to Gma Linda's for a sleepover!  Gma Pam came with us because we were going FISHING!  Yay!  But before that we had dinner.  Gma Linda had made pizza dough and gave each of us a little ball and lots of toppings to choose from.  We all made our own and they were Y-U-MMY!

Then we packed up our stuff and headed up to Wood's Ranch for some fishing time in the mountains!  Right when we got there and got set up, Ella's pole was cast and almost as quick she had a bite!  She caught ONE!!  And then we had bite after bite on all the lines... and time after time they just stole the bait, but then Ella caught another... and then Caroline caught one!  Lexi and Braeden were excited for them, but heartbroken that they didn't catch any.  So... after we went down the mountain, made smores, took showers, and slept over, Friday morning Gpa Mike took them to the Lake at the Hill there in Cedar and they caught some there!  I didn't go because I had to go out to my mom's to help her with her new internet setup and Ella came with me.  During that time Braeden caught 1, Caroline caught 2 and Lexi caught 2!  They were happy!  Then I cleaned 4 of the 5 of them... to Dad's SURPRISE, I'm sure!  I did GAG the entire time, though!  Ick.  Stuff like that didn't used to bother me that much... but pregnancies changed my ENTIRE life!  Gag!

Gma Linda is making sure that she really does have one and helping her reel it in!

Splish, splash!

Gpa helping!

Yay!  It's real!  She caught one!!

Hold it just like this and carry it to the cooler.  Just do it, Braeden!  He just could barely handle sticking his fingers through the gill and out the mouth.  He was sure that it was going to bite him!!  :o)

Gma Pam helping someone cast out their line!

The beauty that surrounds us at Wood's Ranch!

Love it!  I have no idea why she has this bandana on, but I love the look!  Haha!

Happily, but not patiently, waiting for a bite on the line!

Caroline... also waiting!

The first fish EVER caught by one of my children!  And wouldn't you know that it would be the youngest to catch one first!

I really do just love this picture.  Sitting by each other, hands in pockets, totally content to cast and reel in a thousand times!

Braeden helped me represent myself at this outing!  And the beauty of the aspens and the pond are so wonderful!

Caroline found Bluebells!  And she gave them to all the girls for their hair... me included!

Ella's second fish!  Haha... her face is priceless.  She was happy as long as it wasn't TOO close!  This was pushing the LIMIT!

Caroline's catch that night!

Ewww... he's a bloody one!  Caroline and Gpa!

Poor Lexi... she is just realizing that her fish has severe rigor mortis!

Not too shabby!  Gpa with his fishing grandkids!  Ella, Caroline, Braeden, and Lexi!

The load!  And yes, the one in the middle is a trout, too, but just an ALBINO one!  ??  I had no idea, but there it is!  Caroline was the lucky gal who caught it!

Realizing that I probably can't quite make it through this.  Ick... ick... icky!

Seriously?  Even Braeden is backing off of this job.  I would have never thought he would be the one to check out!

Yessss!  I have CONQUERED the fish-gutting withOUT losing my breakfast!  Yay!

Then we headed back out to my mom's to get ready for Colleen to come with Sam and Amberie!  This was after we did some shopping and getting stuff for the float!  The kids had fun in the MUD in Gma Pam's back yard, and then we got ready to go to town AGAIN to eat at the Pizza Factory!

This is what I see when they realize that I am scrutinizing WHAT I SEE!  They totally point and lay blame.  Nice!

I think it got a little out of hand.  And this is not even CLOSE to why... just wait... scroll down now!  You'll get it! 

Hmmm... no explanation needed, right?  But... can I just say that Gma Pam told them to try squishing the mud between their toes... that it felt great.  It was a bitter/sweet memory she had as a child when being forced to PULL WEEDS in the many gardens of my gma.  I had that same memory... years later, but here... well... they didn't have anything like WEEDS to keep all parts of them besides their toes occupied... so... this is the end result.  {BTW:  red Utah dirt does NOT come out easily, if at ALL!}

I'm so sad to not have a picture at the Factory because we had quite the group!  Cornell, Tamie, and Tiffy were supposed to be there, too, but Cornell's hip had popped out and he was in severe pain and discomfort. BOOOOO!  We missed them.  But there was: