Things Matthew Says, Traffic School PhD, Summer Continues

We attempted the splash pad again last week.  It was more of a success than last time.  Daniel even made a friend who let him borrow her pogo stick.  Daniel tried it, but after almost tipping over he was done borrowing it.

After much coaxing Noah finally got close to the water and loved it.

Much to my dismay Sarah attempted the fireman's pole and thankfully actually figured out how to slide down it instead of fall.

Noah is becoming somewhat of a daredevil and attempted going up this ladder to get to a slide.  The first try he got stuck and started screaming.  I went and rescued him, but right after I put him back on the ground he ran over to try it again.  The second time he figured it out.

We had our family Father's Day party Saturday morning at my brother Bryan and his wife Michonne's house.  They set up the Bansai Falls blow up slide with other fun water toys around.  All the kids had fun and the adults actually got to talk for a minute.  As you can see from Josh's backside it was almost a half moon ;).  Poor kid doesn't have a big enough bum to keep his swimming suit up.

Noah started out standing next to the water table, but decided that wasn't as fun as actually crawling inside it to sit down.

After we were going home from the party I was driving along not paying attention to my speed.  Unfortunately a policeman saw me and flipped a U-turn to come and get me.  DOH!!  Yes I got a speeding ticket.  I was really going 39 mph in a 25 mph zone, but he only put me down for going 30 mph.  I asked him about traffic school and they do offer it.  Hopefully I will be able to take it again since I just finished taking it only 5 months ago.  Do they offer traffic school PhD degrees?  I would definitely be a candidate for sure!!  After getting my speeding ticket I needed a little pick me up so we headed over to Sonic to get a drink.  After we ordered we were the next car in line to the pick up window.  Aaron handed me my credit card and I rolled down my window in preparation to pick up my drink.  As my hand rested on the door the stupid credit card slipped out of my hands and down inside the window slot of the door.  DOH!!!  Instead of even trying to take the door apart Aaron decided to cut his losses and just cancel the card.  In talking to the credit card representative Aaron said, "Um, This is going to sound really weird, but my wife just dropped her card down the window slot of the car and we can't get it."  He went on to say, "I bet you have never heard of anyone doing that before?!"  She responded back by saying that, as a matter of fact, she had done the very same thing herself.  We both had a good laugh after that!

Luckily the rest of my Saturday wasn't as rough.  Whew!!  Sunday morning for Father's Day the kids all got up and helped me fix breakfast.  They then made Dad some cards and we went in to wake him up.  I made a ton of bacon because in our house breakfast in bed isn't just for the parent it is for the whole family.  Everyone feasted in our bed and I have the proof on my bedspread with all the greasy bacon hand print marks--DOH!!  Oh well it was worth it.  I just have to go and get my bedspread cleaned at the dry cleaners--I should wrap up the receipt from the cleaners and give it to Aaron as part of his Father's Day loot ;).

A few weeks ago we had a Family Home Evening about journals.  Aaron had dug out his old journal from college and read to the kids about the first time he had met me.  He then got out my old scrapbook I had made in Jr. High.  That thing has all kinds of old pictures of me from growing up.  It was fun to go through again.  However, the kids found my old dance pictures which I had gotten rid of all the big ones, but forgot about all the wallet size ones.  The kids were shocked to see me with other guys.  It was funny to explain that both Aaron and I had different lives before we were married and had kids.  Here's an old baby picture they found:

For another FHE we went grocery shopping.  There wasn't really a lesson and I really needed to go so we just counted it as FHE :).  Anyway, we went to WinCo grocery store.  After filling the cart we went to check out.  Now at WinCo they advertise low prices and they get them low because they don't accept credit cards and you have to bag your own groceries.  When it was finally our turn to check out I unloaded the carts contents onto the conveyor belt and after they got scanned they went down another conveyor belt to Aaron who was bagging them up.  In the mean time our kids were being a bit crazy, but what can we do?!  After I finished unloading the groceries I went to keep on eye on the prices as they rang up.  After they were finished and I had paid, I went to help Aaron bag the rest of the groceries.  Matthew decided to come and 'help' us.  He started bagging up the other conveyor belt of groceries.  The only thing was is that the other conveyor belts contents belonged to the people who were behind us in line.  Matthew was bagging up their groceries and putting it in our cart.  I finally realized what he was doing and stopped him, but not before we had to go and ask the elderly couple behind us if they were buying the Tootie Frootie cereal among other things.  They weren't happy about it, but what else could we do?  I didn't get mad at Matthew because he was just trying to help and in the meantime score us some free groceries--SWEET!

Our neighbors have gotten to know Matthew quite well.  He is very friendly and not afraid to talk to anyone especially if the subject is about trains.  We have two policemen that live by us one across the street and one that is next door.  If Matthew ever sees them pull in their drive ways with their police cruisers he immediately stops what he is doing and runs over to ask them if they put anyone in jail that day--and I truly mean anytime he sees them pull into their drive ways.  You can hear him yell out, "DID YOU PUT ANYONE IN JAIL TODAY?"  Thankfully they are pretty good natured about it.

As for our ward the members are getting to know Matthew quite well, too.  He is quite the character in primary.  He likes to be in charge and is not afraid to show it.  Every week as he walks into sharing time he asks them if they have their prayers and if not he volunteers himself for either opening or closing prayers or both.  A few weeks ago the bishop was doing part of sharing time.  He had started to share a very spiritual experience that he'd had on his way down to St. George.  He had started having car problems on the road and said a prayer.  Right there in the story Matthew jumped up and asked the bishop, "HEY BISHOP, BISHOP!!!  DID YOU SEE ANY TRAINS WHEN YOU WERE DRIVING?"  The bishop told him no and started telling his experience again.  Matthew then interrupted again and asked him, "HEY BISHOP, BISHOP!!!  DID YOU SEE THE FRONTRUNNER WHILE YOU WERE DRIVING?"  Well so much for spiritual stories.  Stories are not interesting for Matthew unless they involve trains in some way.  Good thing the bishop is pretty good natured about it, too.







Ninja Moves, Summer Week #1, Bowling with 5!!, Hatched

Noah has started trying on everyones shoes lately.  Here he is trying Aaron's flip flops (aka skis) on.  Right after he tripped and tipped over because they were so big.

Today at lunch time Daniel showed me his ninja moves that he had learned at Kids in the Park this morning.  He was pretty proud of himself.  I had a hard time not giggling because he was so very serious about his awesome ninja moves.

Thursday we went and picked up our summer bowling pass up on base and tried it out.  It was CRAZY!!  Let's just say Noah has MASTERED the phrase, "MY TURN!!"   However, he doesn't understand that every turn is not his turn.  You had to watch him, too.  If you set him down he would run over and pick up a ball and try to bowl it down the lane.  He was a handful.  He is in the phase 'do it self!'.  I have to give him credit, when it actually was his turn he handled the ball pretty well.

He was all fine and pleasant during his turn, but when it wasn't his turn he turned into Mr. Hyde screaming tantrum mode as you can see:

We could have played two games of bowling, but we were exhausted after only one game and threw in the towel.

The eggs in the Killdeer bird nest in our garden hatched this week.  I just happened to walk out there and spotted the first baby.  It was so cute and tiny.  As I tried to come and take a look the first baby tried to run away, but it was so clumsy--poor thing.

The next morning me and the kids were getting ready to go out and about when I had them come take a look.  The first baby was gone, but the second baby had just hatched.

The kids thought it was pretty neat to see.



 The bird parents didn't take too kindly to the kids checking out their nest and they made such a ruckus!  Even the construction workers next door stopped to see what was going on.  They kept squawking at us and acting wounded so we would chase them and get away from their nest.

By the next morning all of them were gone.  I guess the other two eggs hatched during the afternoon and night and then they were all gone by the next morning.  I am sad to see them go, but I am glad we got to see them while they were here.

Tuesday of last week we decided to head over to the Dinosaur Park.  I remembered to bring a loaf of bread this time and the kids loved feeding the ducks and fish.

The kids loved digging in the sand to look for fossils.  Noah was just excited to play in the sand.

After a few minutes Sarah came over and sat down next to me on the rocks to watch her brothers play.  When it was time to go, Sarah jumped up and announced she had to go potty.  However, when I looked at the rock she just jumped up from, it appears she made her potty announcement just a tad late don't you think?!  This girl had brought me to my ropes end with her potty training or lack thereof.  I keep telling myself she will fully catch on someday....

After taking care of MS. Wetpants, we went over and had a picnic lunch.

Then we went and played on all the outside exhibits.  This one is one of my favorites.  It says, "World's Most Dangerous Creatures".  I have to agree!!

Here are the kids checking out the fossil cave:

On the way home from the Dino Park I made a spur of the moment decision to try out the Splash Pad in Riverdale City.  Since it was spur of the moment, the kids weren't wearing their swimming suits.  When we parked I told the boys to take off their shirts.  Sarah attempted to take off hers too, but I told her not to worry about it.  That did not go over well.  She screamed until I finally gave in and let her take her shirt off, too.  She just thinks she is 'one of the boys'.  She was the only little girl running around with a skirt on and no shirt at the pad.  Awesome.

Noah had a ton of fun.  He didn't get right in the middle of things, but kept to the outside of the splash pad.  He screamed in delight when he got wet in any way shape or form.  He's a funny guy!

Later that night Daniel was showing us how loose his tooth was.  Now his front tooth has been loose for as long as I can remember, but he won't let anyone come near him to help him get it out.  Finally Aaron asked Daniel to come let Aaron see how loose his tooth was.  When Daniel got close Aaron held him down and pulled.  It didn't take much to get it out, but Daniel wailed so bad, he swallowed the tooth.  Aaron tried to tell him horror stories about what happens to you when you have a tooth in your belly, but he just screamed.  His wailing got even worse when he felt where his tooth used to be and his hand came away with blood on it.  When he finally calmed down he was excited to be getting a visit from the Tooth Fairy that night.  He was already thinking of ways to spend his money.  Here he is minus a tooth:

The next morning Daniel came running into our room to tell us about his Tooth Fairy visit.  When he crawled into our bed Aaron reached over to check out how loose his other front tooth was and it was ready to come out.  Aaron held Daniel down pretending he was going to tickle him and then quickly yanked the other tooth out.  It happened so fast that Daniel couldn't scream all the way through it like he had done the previous night.  He did scream after because he was mad that Aaron yanked it out.   He got over that when he realized he would be getting even more money from the Tooth Fairy.  Here he is missing his TWO front teeth: 

I think Daniel will be keeping his loose teeth a secret from us for a while---or at least until he needs some more money ;).

Saturday morning our local grocery store was celebrating their 10th anniversary.  To celebrate they provided a free breakfast, face painting, balloon animals, bounce house and $0.25 ice cream cones.  After the kids snarfed up their breakfast of cereal, bacon, eggs and juice they ran over to get in the bounce house.  When it comes to getting in the bounce house the ladies first rule flew out the window for Matthew.  Sarah didn't seem to mind getting run over by Matthew, though.  I guess all's fair in love and war when it comes to bounce houses.

Here's the kids sporting their painted faces and balloon creations.  Noah and Matthew did not get a balloon.  Matthew is not a fan of balloons so he didn't want one and as for Noah, it's just best he doesn't get one to begin with--there's less screaming that way.

Noah and I split a 25cent ice cream cone.  He was in heaven when I let him finish it all by himself.  You can tell he enjoyed it. 

The kids all enjoyed theirs.  Not to fret Daniel, since he couldn't eat the ice cream, got to pick out a couple of Air Head candies to eat.  He was happy about that.

After the grocery store visit we went down and visited Kennecott Copper Mine aka Bingham Canyon mine.  It was an interesting site.  We learned a lot about how they mined Copper and other precious metals.  Also seeing the open mine you got to appreciate how big it really was.  It is so big you can acutally see it from space--or so they say.  Here's the boys looking at the big pit.

 Here's the size of the tires that the machinery use down inside the pit.

 The kids got to look at different metals/rocks under the microscopes.  They liked that.

Aaron had volunteered with another Dad to coach Daniel's T-ball team this summer.  I haven't gone to any of the games because it is nearly impossible to see anything when I am trying to keep the other four kids entertained and quiet.  I finally did make it to a game this past week and what little bit of it I saw was good.  Here Daniel had just hit the ball and made it to first base.  His awesome first base coach (Aaron) was giving him advice on what to do next.

 Daniel is running home to score in this action shot.

Monday when I picked up the kids from Kids in the Park they all asked me where we were going that day.  Josh made sure to let me know that we couldn't go anywhere we had already been because that just isn't fun.  Well....we finally decided on the Ogden Nature Center.  When we got there we looked around the visitor's center then we headed out on to the grounds.  That's where we ran into three turkeys just wandering around.  Josh and Sarah had no fear and chased them around.  The other three were a little more timid about them.

However, after hearing them gobble, Noah started screaming, "BOGGLE BOGGLE BOGGLE!!" at them.  He thought he was saying gobble, but it didn't quite come out that way as you can hear:

We walked over to the observation tower.  Noah refused to be left behind and hiked up the stairs to see what we were doing.

They had telescopes so you could see near and far.  Everyone got a turn.

On the way to the next exhibit, Daniel grabbed Sarah and Josh's hands and held on to them while walking.

We got to see the human sized mouse hole.  The kids all had fun crawling around that.  That lasted until Sarah peed her pants.  We left right after.  **SIGH**

Noah has commandeered one of Sarah's babies and it is now his baby.  You rarely see him without it.  He even fell asleep on it face first the other night.  That couldn't have felt nice, but he was fast asleep.

Dancing, Birthday, Multitasking, Summer Begins...

During the last week of school we were really busy.  However, during the afternoon we had a few minutes break and Daniel would always beg me to play the Wii with him.  I kept trying to lay the youngest two down for a nap, but they, of course, were not tired at all.  I let them stay up and I played the Wii with Daniel.  It wasn't long until both of them crawled up in my lap and fell very much asleep.  So much for not being tired.  So I had to try and play while balancing both their heads on my arms.  Talk about multitasking, but I didn't mind at all. 

 Last Thursday was Aaron's birthday.  All Aaron wanted for dinner was something that everyone could eat including Daniel.  We had grilled hot dogs and I made a vegan cake from scratch so Daniel could eat it as well.  Of course, true to form, Daniel did not like how the cake looked and refused to even try it even though I let him pick out the flavor of the cake and frosting.  He can be so frustrating at times!!!  Anyway, we had dinner and cake and then Aaron opened his presents.  Look at all those candles--almost enough to go with all the gray hair he's getting. 

 Of course he had all kinds of help in blowing out the candles.

 Right after dinner, cake and presents we had to hurry to Sarah's dance recital.  She was so excited to get all doodered up.  Her favorite part was the makeup especially the lipstick.  She is one tom boy girly girl diva if that makes sense in any way and I LOVE it!!

 Here's her first dance:

 Here's her second dance:

 She was pretty proud of herself on the way home.  She looks so old with makeup--I don't like it!  

 She must have wanted to relive the dance recital experience the next morning because before she came out of her room for breakfast she changed of her pajamas and into her costume.  She even completed the ensemble with her Cinderella headband and some sweet bedhead and put her butterfly wings on sideways.  Of course when I told her to smile for the camera this was all I got:

 Saturday was National Trails Day so we had to do our part and get out to enjoy them.  Along the trail system the cities had booths set up.  The booths had everything from a prize wheel to coupons to bottled water to Super Heroes.  Of course all the kids had to spin the wheel.  That is one advantage of having so many kids--you get lots of turns to win stuff--WAHOO!!  We ended up winning a swimming pass and two bike helmets--AWESOME!! 

 Hiking along the trail we encountered some HUGE blow weeds.  I know that is not the scientific name for it, but that's what we will call it.  There was enough for everyone to try.

 Noah even got in on the action.  That lasted until Aaron started sneezing uncontrollably when the weed seeds blew right into his face.  He did not appreciate it very much.  Whoops.

 After enduring our 3 mile walk filled with whines and cries about the kids being hot and tired it was time for lunch.  It also was the first weekend of summer so we celebrated by going to McDonald's.  Holy cow our kids eat a TON!!  We ended up ordering 80 nuggets, 3 hamburgers, two large fries and four drinks and it was all gone within ten minutes.  I only got 6 nuggets and gave the rest to the cause.  I feared for my fingers in passing out the food--seriously.  Even after inhaling all that food they were asking for more, but we were the mean parents and said that everyone was done whether they were full or not because that was A LOT of food.  Josh even went back through the trays to pick out the stray fries that had fallen out of the container.  I stopped him before he could lick the tray clean, though--Jeez!

 Afterward we tried to go over to the Splash Pad on base to play, but it was not working.  Instead we came home and Aaron started unpacking the garage.  In the unpacking Aaron found the training wheels to the smallest bike.  He put them on and let Sarah try it out with her new helmet that she had won earlier in the day.  Wow, once she got on that bike she refused to get back off.  She loved it.  I tried to take her picture, but the sun was in her eyes so I just got a squinty look.  She thinks she is a big girl (boy) like her brothers.

 She may think she is a big girl, but she still needs Daddy snuggles.  She crawled up into Aaron's lap on Sunday afternoon and they both fell asleep.  Aaron loved it.  And, yes, Sarah still sleeps with her hands behind her head.  She has done this from birth and continues to do this.  I think it looks quite uncomfortable, but it doesn't seem to bother her obviously.

 Monday to celebrate the first day of summer the three oldest boys started the  Kids in the Park program again.  It is a recreation program that keeps the kids busy from 9-12 Monday through Wednesday and then Thursdays are field trip days.  They visit lots of places like the aquatic center, movie theater, etc.  I love it!  It gives me a chance to grocery shop, exercise or run errands with only two kids instead of five.  That's awesome for me and the kids love the stuff they do at the park, too.  It's a win win situation as far as all of us are concerned!!  After the first day of Kids in the Park we headed over to the Union Station Museums (aka the train museum).  We looked around, but since the kids have been there before they didn't spend a whole lot of time looking at the exhibits.  Here they are running by the mock rail car exhibit.

 There was a poor volunteer who tried to talk to us about different facts.  I was the only one who really heard him because I am able to tune my kids loudness out somewhat.  He was a quiet talker, too.  I stopped by and tried to fix a computer for Matthew to look at, but the computer just wouldn't turn on.  That's when Josh walked by and saw the old typewriter.  He then said, "Wow, I have never seen something so old!"  That sure made me feel old since I have actually used one before.

 Here's the kids just looking and playing with stuff:

 Noah was just happy to be there.  I was just happy he was strapped into his stroller and couldn't run away from me.

 About this point in the tour Matthew found his favorite place in the museum which is right by the emergency doors that look out onto the Frontrunner tracks.  Once Matthew saw that he wasn't going to go anywhere until he saw a Frontrunner train go by.  We had to wait 15 minutes, but Matthew's patience was rewarded.  He was so excited and thought everyone else was super excited about it, too.  He kept telling the lady sitting down next to him on the bench to pause her phone so she could see the train go by, too.  She was not as excited about the train as Matthew was, though.  Here's how excited Matthew got:

 While my attention was turned toward Matthew Sarah snuck off and 'took care of business' in her underwear and it wasn't just wet.  After the Frontrunner finally went by I ushered the kids out, but they had to look at one last train.  It was right here that Josh said very loudly, "This better be the last train we look at because I REALLY NEED TO GO #2!!"  Unfortunately, the lady that Matthew had kept telling to pause her phone so she could see the train was standing close by to us as well so she heard what Josh said loud and clear.  Luckily she was pretty laid back about it.  While I was over hiding in my corner from embarrassment she told Josh that he just said was a little 'TMI' and I couldn't have agreed more!!  We quickly left to come home by way of the bathroom so Josh could take care of his business not in his underwear and also so I could clean Sarah up.  Now it wouldn't have been too bad, but this was the third time that day that I had to clean up this particular mess.  **SIGH**  someday I hope my little girl will be poop trained.  Do they teach that in kindergarten?!  Here's Josh keeping his legs tightly crossed right after he'd made his 'announcement' of needing to go um...potty.

When Noah hears some rocking music he can really get his groove on:

Him and Sarah even like to get jiggy with it to Farmer in the Dell:

Needless to say these crazy kids keep things interesting!