It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

Kyle has been channeling Scott and has been singing that song for a few weeks now.  Time to go back to school!  We have had so much fun this summer that I had really mixed feelings about starting up again, but now that we are back on a schedule and the house has stayed clean for longer than 5 minutes, I am really glad to be back.  I am also so glad to not be PTA President this year.  I didn't realize how much I sacrificed for PTA last year and I am glad to have my time back.  Apparently I am feeling GLAD about the whole thing!

 

  George didn't want summer to end but was happy to get on the bus and head back to school.


It wasn't Kyle's official first day of school but he was going to meetings, now that he is the business department chair, he had to conduct his first faculty meeting today, so it was a pretty big day for him too!  He didn't get any new school clothes this year though, because he got new exercise clothes (and equipment) instead!

 My 4th grader and my 1st grader ready to take the long long trek across the street to school!

My kids were excited to go back, for the most part, and that made it an easy transition too....well easy for some of them!  I was out running errands around lunch time and my cell phone rang....the specific ring to my home number.  I thought maybe Penny had come to my house on her lunch break, but when I answered the phone it was Evan!  This is how the conversation went:
Me- why are you home?
E- I'm done, lunch is over so I came home, where are you?
Me- Evan you aren't done, you have to go back to class after lunch.
E- I DO?  Why didn't anyone ever tell me that?
Me- Hurry back down to the playground and find Emily and she will take you back to class.
E- tears...I couldn't find Emily at lunch.....tears....tears...
Me- I will be right there sweetheart, don't move!

I was clear across town so on my fast and furious ride back home I called the office and told Aunt Gaye that Evan was AWOL and to please tell his teacher I would bring him back soon.
I got home to more tears and tried to calm him down and cheer him up.
He was afraid he was going to be in trouble and just kept saying why didn't anyone tell me?
Apparently he thought all he was missing out on in kindergarten was lunch.  He didn't even go to lunch recess, just walked himself home!
When we got back to his class his teacher said, "Evan I am so glad you came back."  Apparently there was a little girl that had cried for two hours straight that morning so no one really heard when she told them to come back to class after lunch!  (later Evan said- yeah that girl was really frustrating).

Our last Hurrah part 2

part 1 was about the "work" part of the trip for me and part 2 is about the work part of the trip for Kyle.  His isn't in quotes because it was real work for him and really the whole trip was just fun for me.  Sunday night we went to Salt Lake and stayed at Little America so Kyle could get up and go to the U for meetings first thing Monday morning, and because Brashley was coming to stay at mom and dad's and needed our room!

  I feel like I need a "now and then" picture from Jillyn right here because I know that her kids have been in a picture just like this and these kids remind me so much of Kyle and his sibs...
My kids love staying in any kind of hotel but we had to tell them that this one was fancier than most we have stayed in before and so they had to be extra quiet and nice...I was extra grateful we had a garden room and not one in the tower because they still couldn't resist jumping on the beds.

We have always set the three kids sideways on the other bed and it has worked really well, but I am afraid we are just one summer away from having to get a suite....Matty slept on a mat in the corner.
We painted the town red Monday morning, doing all our favorite things....riding trax, the new mall with fish in the stream, temple square and riding the elevator at the Joseph Smith Memorial.

 Then we ate lunch, I was already tired, and was having a hard time finding fat free food to eat, but I was excited to be able to meet our cousins at the zoo so I fed the kids and we powered through.
The Hogle Zoo is such a different animal than it was when I was a kid.  The lay out is basically the same but it has improved leaps and bounds and the animals were in rare form for us this day.

Evan and that baby elephant were so hyper! The elephant was so fun to watch because it was contained......Evan, also pretty fun to watch.

oh Evan.....you should have seen him 1 minute ago when he was high centered on that big horn...

The tigers were making everyone really nervous...they were having the most intense staring contest I have ever seen....but nothing really ever came of it, but it is amazing how much difference the water makes in these habitats.  They loved the water.

George loved the eagles, they were amazing. I don't know what Evan's expression is...he didn't want to hold still that long...4 seconds.... I am too demanding.

It was a pretty hot day so Grandpa bought everyone an ice cream cone.  Matty was never going to make it through hers so I asked Uncle Brad to help....

 There is a big polar bear behind Matty's head (and an iguana some brown bears and giraffes)
It was a little disappointing that it was just laying there, it looked miserable so Emily asked the workers why the bear wasn't in ice?...good question.

A bunch of monkeys in front of a picture of a bunch of monkeys!

Some things never change.....

I love the lion drinking fountain and it's
millions of germs.

Andy and Sarah didn't make it to the end, it was just too hot, but we sure had a great time. 

Brad and Ashley weren't in this picture either because they couldn't get enough of the animals.

We went back to the hotel and got Kyle, went shoe shopping and to get some dinner and then Traci and her boys met us at the hotel pool to cool off and relax.

Emily and Evan went home with Traci and slept over there.  They had a great time and we got to sleep in. WIN WIN! George and Matty didn't wake up until after 9:00.

We did a little more shopping and then headed up to Bountiful to Traci's fun house.

(that sounds like an amusement park).  It was fun, but we went to a different amusement park called Get Air.  It is a much better version of our Anti-Gravity Trampoline Park and the kids had a blast.

I had to pry them away to go back to the U and pick up Kyle on time. 

We stopped for a quick dinner in Lehi and packed up all our canned goods and headed home.

We got home about 10:00 pm on Tuesday night, school started at 7:10 the next morning, not the most responsible parenting, but I think it was worth it, we had a fantastic trip.

Our last Hoorah! part 1

Kyle had meetings he had to attend in Salt Lake at the University of Utah the two days before the kids were supposed to go back to school.  I thought it sounded pretty boring to stay home in the sweltering heat and try to entertain the kids and avoid sleep-overs (ask George, I hate sleep-overs).
SO...we tagged along and made a very long weekend road trip out of it.

We drove up to Lehi early Friday morning (August 10th).  We arrived to full canning happening in the basement without us.  Mom had already canned beets for us and they were processing, even though I told her to wait and let us do the work.  

We did go right out to the garden though and started picking green beans and orange liquid sugar balls, I mean orange cherry tomatoes and 5 gallon buckets of tomatoes for the salsa to come on Saturday.  We picked an 8 inch long green pepper and it smelled so good we couldn't resist biting right into it.  Grandpa's garden is magical.  I think he could successfully grow just about anything in there including a whole lot of hardworking kids and happy grandchildren.

We also were eating blackberries right off the vine all weekend long. They are also like candy, although my belly doesn't like them right now, I found a way around that....We juiced them and made the MOST AMAZING blackberry jelly I have ever had.  It tastes like a blackberry pie in one little spoonful....

He is Willy Wonka my friends, I just made the revelation that my father is Willy Wonka with his magical candy filled garden!  Emily and Matty picked everything they could find that appeared even close to ripe.  When the harvesting was over they went and played with their cousins. The harvesting is never really over though, Emily learned, and every day she picked at least a little bag of something.

 The next morning we picked 4 onions 6 anaheim peppers about 4 pounds of jalepenos and 8 jinormous bell peppers, and started our SALTSA! yes SALTSA-that isn't a misspelling. (Jandy)

We had 10 quarts besides the 34 pints! We had no idea we would get so much, it was fantastic!!

I need to clarify when I say WE I mean my mom and I, and I really mean- my mom. 

 She is the hardest working person I know.  

She never slows down, and she gives us so much- never stops giving.

Laying low at the cabin

Since I was recovering we didn't do a whole lot of wandering, but we did make it up to Pine Valley for 2 whole nights in a row!  It was great, mostly because we didn't really do anything.  It was a crafting weekend.  I brought my box of old toll paints and the kids painted everything they could find.  I was so happy to use up those old paints, and the kids painted for hours.

I worked a puzzle in the house while the kids painted outside. It has been years since I did a puzzle....and probably years til I finish this one!

I also brought up some baby pictures of Matty and scrapbooked on the porch.
She almost has one whole book done now,  I am hoping that I can get at least her first 6 months done before her birthday, but I am pushing it!




For Kyle it was a puttering weekend. He has a hard time just sitting, but he did relax quite a bit after he cleaned all the old pine boughs out of the field. I'm not sure how he got this load to the dumpsters!

We took a little hike up to the water tower.  Kyle took the kids the first day, and then the second day we had the Beckstrand boys so we took them up too.  I don't have pictures of this,  Penny blogged about it and got some awesome pics, but they all got pretty daring at the water towers and had a really good time.  We have started a new little tradition since Jeff Gardner bought the Branding Iron and changed the bar into an ice cream parlor, we go get ice cream cones, and since Beckstrands were with us for the first time, Aunt Penny treated!

 
There was of course, as always, the burning, perfecting and consuming of s'mores, s'kamallows, and the supposis'mores. (you'll have to ask Kyle the definitions and techniques).

Kyle wanted to run home, as always, so while we were cleaning up the cabin, Evan invented a really fun game to play with the golf cart called.......what a drag, or maybe it was the poor white trash version of  Indiana Jones, since they had watched that movie earlier.  Unfortunately I believe the shirt wasn't just covered with grass stains but also with cow manure.  This is exactly why I have my kids bring their most "well-worn" clothes to Pine Valley.  These went straight in the trash.

Only David was as daring (a.k.a brainless) as Evan with the crochet mallet approach, so they got out one of the snow sleds and attached it so everyone could have a turn.  It did, of course end in a crash and lots of tears and bruises, but no broken bones and more importantly :) no broken golf cart.
A very fun little stay-cation in heaven.

Journey to Recovery......

I hadn't been feeling well for a while.  I decided since I had never been to the doctor for anything but birthin babies it was time to get a check up.  Well the doctor said it was probably gall stones and sent me for an ultrasound.  The ultrasound technician said there were definitely stones in there, but it didn't look inflamed or really problematic....but a scheduled gall bladder-ectomy (stop laughing Spencer) was better than having an attack and having to go to the e.r. in the middle of the night.
I agreed and we scheduled it for July 20th.  The boys had talked about hiking the subway again in early August and I thought I would probably be fine by then and be able to go. (so so naive)  By the time it came around to July 20th I felt fine, I wasn't even a little sick anymore (I thought). Everyone I talked to volunteered to bring food and help out and I just turned people away..."I am sure I will be fine."  Well I wasn't.  It was like have a c-section again, but with the ugliest baby ever delivered.

The doctor said my main incision would probably be sore for a long time because they had to stretch it so far to get the bag of rocks out of my belly (he probably used a little more technical terms). The recovery nurse showed me this picture as I was coming out of my stupor and asked if she could show it to the other nurses.  That is when I knew I was pretty special!  There were at least 22 stones.  The largest ones were about the size of dice cut in half.   Spencer asked me if I was going to make a necklace out of them..... they do kind of look like tiger's eye, or fool's gold.  I should have made it into jewelry, it would be the most expensive piece I own! The hospital bill came today and 72 minutes on the operating table cost almost $3000!  That wasn't even half of what the hospital found to charge us for......amazing.  Had this sickly looking bag of rocks not come out of me I would be really mad that I spent that money.  The doctor explained to Kyle (while I was still in my stupor), that a healthy gall bladder looks like a robin's egg.  Mine was twice as big and NOT a pretty pale blue.  

Gross I know- sorry.






The doctor also said that I would probably feel a lot better than I have in months or years. "She hasn't really known what FINE feels like." and he was right.  It might partly be because of the no fat diet I have to be on, but I do feel much better than I have in a long time.  It took a long time to get there though, today is almost a whole month since the the day of the surgery (unbelievable) and swimming still wipes me out, especially my core muscles that got so abused with cameras and surgical equipment burrowing through them.  It was a long hard row.....but I am glad I did it, and I am glad it is over!