Utah Vacation

July 9-10,Thursday-

20 hours in a car with four kids is a long,long time! We tried to be as prepared as possible by putting in DVD players, uploading new games on the leap pad and allowing some extra data usage on the iPhone's. Jace and Brooke are also really into Pokémon cards right now so I purchased a lot before our trip and every hour that they went without fighting, nagging or whining they got 10 new cards. I strategically placed Brooke and Jace as far apart as possible since they love to fight. I put Jace by the baby because he likes to tease Ty as well. Craig and I passed the time by talking and listening to the book on tape "Unbroken", which we highly recommend. The first day we drove up through Kansas City, passed through Iowa and got halfway through Nebraska. We arrived at our hotel in the middle of the night and suddenly the kids went from being asleep and tired to awake and excited to be in a hotel. They did not want to go to sleep. Craig and I were spent. Even though we only had two double beds Jace felt like he should have a whole bed all to himself and threw a huge tantrum about it. He didn't want to sleep in the same bed as Brooke. We were all grouchy and we were all tired. We finally decided to just have all the girls in one bed and all the boys in one bed. 

The next morning we slept in and ate at the breakfast buffet at the hotel and then finished driving through Nebraska,Wyoming and finally down into Utah. Wow!! That was a long drive. I think especially long since we had to make extra stops to nurse the baby and Brooke has a super sensitive bladder and needs to pee more often than anyone else I know. Lol. :)  

July 11,Friday - Wedding,wedding,wedding!!  We started the morning off with the temple ceremony, then did pictures, the wedding luncheon and then we were at the reception the rest of the evening. It was a full day but it was wonderful. We are so happy to have Brad as a part of the family and to see Katie so happy. Brooke loved being the flower girl.

July 12 Saturday  - 

We got to hang out with the Christiansen family all day long. We have been missing them like crazy since they moved from Arkansas back to Idaho. We ate at Maddox for lunch, did the Ogden children's museum, Snowcones and the Castle Park. It was a super fun, jam packed day!

 

July 13 Sunday-
We attended church and were able to bless our sweet little Jenni bean just a day short of her being 4months old.  She's so curious and loves to reach up and touch our faces when we're smiling down at her.  The pics above are of a sweet moment with daddy after church.

We waited to bless Jenni until we got to Utah so that our family could be there. She looked like a little angel in white.  She wore the same blessing dress as her big sister, Brooke.  A gift from Grandma Johnson.  Jenni is the happiest, sweetest little thing. Daddy gave her a beautiful blessing in grandma and grandpa Brammer's living room. It was low-key, intimate, and perfect.  Afterwords we took a few pictures in the front yard.  Everyone wanted a turn holding Jenni,  except Ty, he just wanted to ride the tricycle.  

I love that I get comments all the time on what a beautiful baby she is.  My mom says she looks a lot like me.  It's fun to contribute to the gene pool a little.  I feel like she's the first one that looks a lot like me or Johnson side of the family for that matter.

July 14 Monday-

We spent this day with grandma and grandma Johnson and Uncle Justin at Temple Square, Caputo's,grandma Carmen's, and we drove out to see my late grandmother Sundberg's grave and her old house.

The kids loved the visitor center at Temple Square. We watched a new video about families that really touched me and reminded me that our time here on earth is short and to enjoy every moment.

After Caputo's we stopped by my grandma Carmen's home and got to visit with her for a little bit.

Craig can't come to Utah and not hit up Caputo's. It's one of his favorite places to eat.

We drove by my grandma Sundberg's old home. I hadn't seen it since before she passed away and it really tugged on my heart strings to see it so grown over with weeds and unkempt. I was so glad that my mom was able to go with me over to her grave for the first time. My grandma Sundberg is an amazing woman and has been such a wonderful example to me. I know that she is in a good place and that she was finally able to reunite with her husband and that makes me happy.

July 15 Tuesday-

We had a girls date and finally made it out to Gardner Village. Nani has been talking about taking me here since Craig and I were dating and we just never got around to doing it. I'm so glad that we got to go this time though. It was so fun! The perfect girls date. We had an amazing lunch at Archibald's restaurant including dessert and then enjoyed walking through all the little shops: The Village Quilt Shop, The Posh Peddler Boutique Clothing Shop, Storybook Nook, The Bead Farm, Country Furniture & Gifts,  Aunt Elsie's Trinkets, Georgelle's Doll Shop, The Village bakery, and the Chocolate Covered Wagon where we watched them make taffy from scratch. The candy store and the doll shop were Brooke's favorites. It was the perfect morning. We enjoyed having Nani  all to ourselves.

Later that day we went to the Bountiful Rec Center and enjoyed swimming and going down the waterslide over and over again. Ty  really liked the pirate ship outside as well.

July 16, Wednesday-

LAGOON, LAGOON all day long!! We didn't take very many pictures but we had the time of our lives. Well, the kids did. We didn't quite make it to all the rides in the park but we sure tried and we stopped in the middle of the day to cool off at Laguna Beach as well. Brooke said it was the best day of her life. It helped me realize that I no longer like big roller coasters anymore.  Maybe that's a post having babies thing.  Rattlesnake Rapids was one of our favorites. Brooke, Jace, and I loved the swings too.  Ty's favorite was the mini bumper cars and Jace's very favorite was the Paraglider ride.  We were happy that nani & grandpa could come with us.  They had lots of fun in Kiddie Land with Ty while Craig and I took our big kids on the big rides.  Brooke was barely too short to ride so we put a big bun right on the top of her head to give her an extra inch and it worked!  It was a really fun day.  Jace & Brooke wanted to stay forever.

July 17, Thursday -

The day before leaving for home we mostly just relaxed at the house and visited with family. Nani and grandpa did a surprise mini birthday party for Jace and Brooke since they wouldn't be able to make it to their birthday parties.

July 18, Friday-

Luckily for us we were able to carpool with grandpa on the way back. Jace rode with him and had some special one-on-one time with grandpa.  The ride back was significantly more smooth. We drove through Utah,Texas and New Mexico The first day. We were going to stay with my sister in Albuquerque but things didn't end up working out so we stopped at the Marriott hotel instead. Grandpa took the kids swimming and wore them all out before bedtime. The second leg of the trip we just drove to Oklahoma City and stayed with Grandpa one night before doing the last 3 1/2 hours home to Northwest Arkansas. What a trip! Busy,busy,busy,and fun,fun, fun. It was difficult to get back into normal mode after SO much fun.

Lemonade Stand

All summer long I have been promising the kids that they could do a lemonade stand to help earn spending money for our upcoming vacation to Utah.  They have had other opportunities to earn money with the weekly jobs for higher chart but I have found that when work around here is optional it never gets done. They would much rather quickly do the jobs they HAVE to do and then run off to play with friends. Before I knew it, it was two days before our trip. I purchased the supplies that we would need. Brooke had me write the letters out for her sign then she traced and colored them along with some pictures of cookies and lemons to add as well. Jace wasn't too sure if he wanted to participate anymore. He wanted the money without having to do any of the work.

The day before our trip we had a lemonade stand. Note to self- never do that again. The day before you leave on vacation is reserved for being stressed out with getting all the laundry done, bags packed, house cleaned up, ect. 

Since Brooke and Jace were not being the best coworkers, I decided to have them work in shifts. Brooke took the first shift, mid-day, with the hot sun beating down on her while Jace went swimming at his friends house. Unfortunately for her this wasn't a good time. Not only was it hot for her but nobody was out and about to notice the lemonade stand. We live on a quiet street. We ended up postponing it until later in the day when it had cooled down. Brooke and Jace tried working together but got into too many arguments so Jace took over for the last hour, manning it himself. Luckily for him lots of people stopped by so he raked in the dough. Poor Brooke. She worked so hard and earned less than five dollars. Jace did significantly less work and earned three times as much. Not fair. I may or may not have secretly snuck $10 into Brooke's jar so they ended up making the same amount. Shhhh ... Don't tell.

Why didn't I just have them split all of the money that both of them earned equally? Good question. I sabotaged myself on that one earlier in the day. Dang it!! Jace was supposed to be working with Brooke but he decided that he would rather go swimming at his friends house. Brooke politely told him that any money she earned she would still split with him. I forbade it. I said "no way". If he wanted to earn any money he was going to have to work for it and do a shift of his own later. So later came and as he was rolling in cash he was also rubbing in the fact that I had forbade them from sharing earlier on. All with an extremely mischievous grin on his face . Grrr. My lesson on "you reap what you sow" backfired.  Oh well, they both had fun and they both earned money for our trip which was the point anyways.

Everyday Moments ... July/August

A Poopy Morning :(

The morning after the best day ever ... we had the crappiest day ever ... quite literally. Ty has gotten to the point where he is uncomfortable in a dirty diaper so he just takes it off.  Unfortunately for us this happened while daddy was sleeping in and mommy was nursing the baby.  When Craig came into the living room poop was everywhere. Most importantly it was in the place where we least wanted it to be ... the spots on the leather couch that are wearing out and have cracks.  It was smothered deep into the cracks.  You're not supposed to get leather wet but I scrubbed and scrubbed that couch trying to get the stink out.  It was horrible and it started to peel some of the leather off.  :(  My pretty couch is now less pretty but it doesn't smell like poop anymore. Craig cleaned up Ty.

About 10 minutes after cleaning up that mess, Jenni did the biggest poop of her life getting yellow, slimy, mustard colored fecal matter all over the front and back of my favorite WHITE outfit of hers.   So I scrubbed some more.  What a crappy morning.  Sometimes being the mom is not so fun.

Looks like potty training is in our near future. 

4th of July

Um ... best 4th of July EVER!!  We started the day off with our wards pancake breakfast.  It was delicious and wonderful to see everyone.  In the afternoon we partied it up at a mansion one of our friends is taking care of while the owners serve a mission.  We had a BBQ, swam, visited, flew down the giant slip n' slide, and watched some awesome fireworks.  Jace LOVES fireworks and here everything is legal so the sky is the limit.  He told me a few days ago that "This is mine and Kaden's times of our lives.  We are going to hit up every firework show we can.  Maybe we'll even catch a parachute."  Lol!!  He helped daddy pick out a few fireworks of our own and then we combined them with friends to get a bigger show.  The kids had a blast in the pool.  Jace did some awesome flips off the diving board and even went down the giant slip n' slide.  Even I went down the slip n' slide.  I had to lube up with dawn dish soap to get some extra speed.  It would have hurt less if I wasn't nursing a baby.  Hopefully her milk wasn't soapy. ;)  Craig had a pretty heated game of pool basketball.  3 on 3 no rules.  Boys will be boys.  His team came out on top so he has bragging rights.  He even made half the shots.  Such a fun day with fun friends.

 

 

 

Happy birthday Miss Molly Doll.