Sunday, August 29, 2010

My FIRST trip to Seven Peaks!!!

Okay excuse me for a minute while I'm still doing the HAPPY DANCE!!!

Back in March of this year, my children were reading for minutes. (well actually they read for minutes all the time) but this time they were reading to earn a FREE pass to Seven Peaks.

Okay, if you don't live in Utah, or have never been, you might be asking what the heck it is. Well it's this way FUN, AWESOME, HUGE water park that's about a mile or so from my house.

What's the big deal you ask??? Well, I've lived in Provo for about 11 years and have NEVER, EVER gone! I know, RIDICULOUS, right? Yeah, I know.

So yesterday was the last day I could take my kids, (well not really, but that's what I used to go ahead and make a go of it) so they could use this free pass.

I find out ahead of time that I have to pay for parking, so I went prepared to pay cash for that. NO big deal.

I park. We (my five kids and myself) walk up to the gate and stand in line so we can purchase the two needed tickets to get us all in. Kids are standing in line with me, behaving. Thank goodness.

Some random lady walked up to me, and asked if we were doing the Season Pass? Hm. I'm thinking, am I in the wrong line?? I have no clue what I'm doing because I've never been there. I said, No. We're just buying tickets for today. She held up two tickets she wanted to GIVE me. Yeah, that's right GIVE!! I didn't have to pay for the two tickets that I needed anymore. We all got in FREE!!! SCORE.

HAPPY DANCE!!!

So since I have my purse with me, and didn't want to leave it unattended at the pool, decided to rent a locker to keep it in. $4.00 to keep my valuables still valuable. Not bad at all!

After playing in the wave pool and the tadpole place with my boys, we decided it was time to rent a tube or two. Thinking my options out, I decided that doing a triple was the way to go. We traded it in for three singles and everyone enjoyed using them. We went and floated the lazy river first. Ethan was with me and laughing up a storm he thought it was so FUN. Because we were almost crashing into the walls, and then we'd kick off and go gliding to the opposite one. I loved hearing him laugh. After doing the lazy river. We went back over to the wave pool. Kids had a blast playing on the tubes there as well!!

About this same time, I realized that it was the time Kaylee wanted her Dad to come and get her, to take her to a friends End of Summer Party that she really wanted to go to. So we got a hold of her Dad on the phone and he came and picked her up, and Ethan was ready to go home then too. (Found out he fell asleep almost before they got back home)

Whew, now I can really have some fun! Mind you I've never been on a water slide EVER. So we traded the single tubes in for a triple one, and Thomas waited for us at the bottom of the slide and Heidi and Katherine and I rode down the purple tube slide. HOLY FUN!!! We went back up and did it again!! While Thomas was content to just watch. We then went and traded in the tubes for a double and a single. I went up with Katherine while Heidi and Thomas stayed down below and did one of the body slides. I LOVED IT, except when I splashed into the pool at the bottom and got lots of water in my nose.

But I didn't care so much, because I had a blast!!

Now I'm just kicking myself in the butt, wondering why the heck I have never gone before??? Oh yeah. Too expensive!! But we've decided to buy the passes that are on sale right now, so that we can use them next summer!!! No vacation for us, we're spending as much time at Seven Peaks as possible. But not only there, we can go to Trafalga ( a family fun center with unlimited use of their activities too. We also love that place but don't go very often because it costs a lot for our family) So now the girls can go on Dates with their Dad, or heck I can and it's "cheaper" because we pay for this pass. Totally worth it to us!!

So now, we're looking forward to going to Seven Peaks at least twice more before the end of the year. (the swim season for this place ends on Labor Day) I'm excited. So glad I went!!!

INSERT more of the HAPPY DANCE.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

First day of school 2010


I think my two boys are so funny.  If you've ever watched iCarly you might get this more 
then someone who hasn't seen it.  But there is a boy who goes by Gibby and loves to go around
without his shirt on.  So lately my boys have discovered the ability to run around without their 
shirts on.  So as long as I'm not going somewhere and they ask to do so, I'll let them. As soon as 
one gets that way the other joins him in removing his own shirt.  So when they don't have their shirts 
on they call themselves "Gibby brothers".  So on the first day of school this year, Ethan wanted to dress just like Thomas so they could still be "Gibby Brothers".  So we found what we could to closely match 
the two in what they were wearing.  And those hugs... they posed like that on their own, and who am I to discourage a hug!! I couldn't resist their cuteness.  And I'm still trying to catch a group picture of all the kids dressed for school because as of now, I haven't been able to get one because they haven't cooperated. But I have a few more page ideas... I just need the pictures to do it.  So I'm crossing my fingers that in the morning (August 26th, 2010) I'll be able to snap a few pictures of the kiddos in all their school glory.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The girls New Bedroom ....

Once again, I've been busy painting in a bedroom. 
Once again, it's not mine. 
Once again I've completed a goal I set for myself.
Once again, the house is a wreck everywhere else.
Once again, dishes are piled up high, 
once again clothes are ALL over the house. 
Once again, school is going to start, and all this is okay ...because I was able to take this:

Which has only gotten this bad since I cleaned back in May.  My kids have way too much stuff!!!  Time to declutter and dejunk. 



So here I've managed after a  LONG, EXCRUCIATING week of clearing out the MESS and equally dispersing of it throughout the rest of my house, yard and garage, and a few trash cans, to finally clear out the room and get it EMPTY!!  Yeah for me.   (With some minor, and occasional help from the kidlets that reside in this humble abode).   The walls were NASTY ... marked up with just about everything one could imagine, and even popper exploded on the wall.  The last time this room was painted and had clean walls was right before I had Heidi 8 years ago.  All this happened in 8 years time... YUCK.
Of course, you can see their lousy place of a closet. And all the work materials sitting up there on top. 
We moved the beds all outside so that we could paint the room.  And paint the beds. So outside they sat for about 3 days. We got so lucky that it didn't rain while they were out there either.  Although on the last day we had several storm clouds above and kept hearing the thunder so we were hurrying to finish up the paint jobs on the bed frames so that we could get them inside before any potential harm from rain.  Luckily it never rained on us though. 

So after a long week... we moved the girls back into their bedroom....   We switched up the positioning of the beds. Actually they were just like this but flip flopped.  I wanted something a little different.
 
A great find of a dresser off from KSL.  I love it!!! So now all the girls share this dresser.  Should help contro the amount of clothing each one of them can have and hold onto.


We didn't have a real border or trim around the sliding glass door so I had to "MAKE" one.  I think I did a GREAT job if I do say so myself.  And I do say so!!  The only problem left is trying to find a good window treatment solution.  Vertical blinds are not it!!  We've tried curtains and rods... and they just get ripped out of the wall.  So now I'm going to try just using some velcro attached to the wall, with the other part on the "fabric/curtain" that I decide to use.
Here's the closet area.... With a MAD pile of books that we had to rush inside for fear of rain ruining them. We're waiting to get the book case painted and then I can organize their books again on the book case that sits inside this closet area.  

I seriously feel we've outgrown this house.... someday we'll find a new place to live that will be big enough to make me feel not so cramped. 


Friday, August 13, 2010

Back to school haircuts for the girls

Okay there comes a time in our lives when changes need to occur.  Today was one of those.  I have been 
wanting to grow out my girl's hair lately.  But as always I run into walls such as, they won't let me brush 
their hair, so it always looks ghetto-ish.  Rats NEST big time.  They have gorgeous hair but they 
won't let me do anything to it very often so that it looks nice. So after a very internal battle with myself, and 
an offer I couldn't pass up, I opted to cave into their wishes of getting their hair cut.  And the following are the pictures.  I'm so excited that I jumped right onto getting these pages done just a few hours after we got home. Sad thing though, it took three hours nearly to get all three of their hair-cuts done  
The boys were troopers though even if they were LOUD ones.  So now my girls are all set for 
school with a brand new hair cut.  And the boys will get their hair cut tomorrow (Chris, Thomas and Ethan) Needless to say, I think I'll be a HAIRY mess tomorrow morning.  And a painted mess hopefully later that day.  .

Saturday, August 7, 2010

A word on Time.

Have you ever had those days.
You know the ones. YEah those.

Where you wish you could slow down,
have a little more time.

Well, that happened to me today.
BUT, the difference, I really did
get time to "STOP" really. I did.

So, you would have thought I'd have
gotten a lot done today with my EXTRA
time. Only I didn't. I don't think I did
a darn thing today. Kind of a lazy day.

That isn't to say that I don't have LOTS
I could have done. But I didn't.

When time caught up with me, and I thought it was
only 11:40am... it was really 1: 20pm. OOPS...

Chris caught that the time stopped, and you'd think
that I ...Yes, I, would have noticed something,
after I looked at the clock at least three times in about
a 45 minute period that the clock never moved.

Oh my gosh... I lost a lot of my day when I thought I
still had a lot of it left!!!

Note to self...school is starting soon, check all clocks
for accuracy, and replace batteries.