Crazy Fun Summer!

I don't know why, but this summer has been crazy busy.  I think I probably said this in my last post.  Its also been crazy fun.  I really have been enjoying it, but I do think the business is starting to wear my kids out.  Today Sage even said, "I like winter better than summer!  Summer is too busy, except I like my birthday!"  Silly girl.  Its been awesome, and looks like its going to keep going right until school starts.

We went camping with the Binghams/Spjutes to Payson Lake.  It was good fun.  I have zero pictures because I'm awesome like that and I planned to steal some from my sisters and they haven't posted yet.  So I'll add those later.  But here's the low-down on what we did.  We had the best yet pirate treasure hunt put on by my dad and Kathy.  The kids loved it.  I love that they do that.  We spent most of the time swimming and canoeing in the lake.  Super fun.  The kids loved it.  We went on the best hike ever after dinner.  Best hike ever because it was only 1/2 mile (perfect with kids), super pretty, and ended with a waterfall.  We of course had yummy food and lots of time to sit and hang out.  Good times for everyone.

My sister Mel has been here from Rhode Island.  We've managed to have a couple of spontaneous get-togethers.  I'm always proud of myself when I do something spontaneous because I tend to be way too into my routine.  One day we met up at City Creek in SLC.  Love that place.  Then the next day we hitched a ride with Jake to Farmington and we all went swimming.  So much fun.  There must be lots of swimming when its hot.  Lots of swimming…

We're still in the process of starting to build our house.  It hasn't started yet.  I'm trying to be patient.  We have been busy getting things ready to go on our lot.  In the spring we had a bunch of dead trees cut down.  They left us with lots of wood to split into useable firewood.  I've never split wood before.  I didn't mind doing it too much, but it took way longer than we thought.  What I thought would be a one afternoon project turned into a two afternoons and every night for a week project.  Holy cow.  The kids loved it.  Actually, that's one thing this lot has been good for - giving our kids lots of opportunity to work.  Its very good for them, although I'm sure they'd disagree.  After splitting the wood we had to load it into Jake's dump trailer so we could move it back further on the lot.  Once we moved it we had to stack it.  Yes, this has been a very long process.  I'm happy to say that the wood is now stacked and ready to use.  Phew!

the annual cousins picture - oldest to youngest

my kids in front of the firewood - there are 2 rows behind the one you can see

Festival Days!

Farmington Festival Days did not let us down this year.  We had all kinds of fun.   Kate has wanted to try running for a while, so she started training with me to run the Festival Days 5K. We made it up to 2 miles in our training.  Race day came and she did awesome!  I know the last mile was hard for her, but she just kept pushing forward, no hesitation or complaints.  She even sprinted past a kid who was in front of us right at the end.  She did so great and wants to do another one.  She finished in 30:43 and got first in her age group.  Awesomeness!  It was so fun running with her!

Kate and her cousin Megan who also ran

Kate getting her medal

Also associated with Festival Days is Zack's birthday.  Every year we celebrate his birthday with the family because we're all together.  I think he now thinks the parade and celebrations are just for him.  Pretty cool birthday if you ask me.  He requested another candy sign for the parade.  It said, "It's my birthday, throw me candy."  And holy cow, he got so much candy.  A ridiculous amount really.  He was loving life:)

Zack's sign and huge bag of candy

Camping!

This summer has been crazy busy.  Crazy.  Thus the lack of posts.  But we've been having some good fun.  We went camping up above Beaver, Utah.  We'd never been there before and it was pretty cool.  We camped in the Tusher Mountains.  I just got online and picked the first campsite I saw.  It ended up being the very last one we got to, at an elevation of 9,500 feet.  Good thing we have a big Dodge to pull Tiny up big mountains.

Jake's cousins who live in Cedar came camping with us.  It was great fun.  They brought all of their kids so our kids had great fun playing together.  It was awesome.  Beautiful campground, good people to hang with, time to relax.  Nothing better.  We will have to make it an annual tradition for sure.

Our awesome group - love getting to know family better!

Rhode Island!

We actually went on a planned, week long vacation.  And we sure needed it with all the moving fun.  We finally went to visit my sister Mel.  She lives in Rhode Island right now, so that's where we went.  And it was pure awesomeness.  For reals.  My kids got to go on a plane for the first time.  They loved it and were troopers.  We flew the red eye on the way out.  I was nervous about it, but my kids rocked it.

Anyway, enough about flying.  The good stuff happened when we got there.  My sister and her family are the best hosts ever.  They were so nice to give up their rooms, bathrooms, food, and time so that we could stay with them.  My kids loved playing with their cousins.  In fact, the first thing they did when we got home was to write letters to their cousins.  I love it when my kids get to play with their cousins.

Mel was super awesome as usual and watched our kids so that we could go to New York.  Jake had never been back east before, so I wanted him to experience the big city.  I forgot how big NYC is.  For Father's Day I got Jake tickets to a Yankees game.  It was awesome.  I even managed to stay the whole game.  You should be proud.  We saw Times Square, FAO Schwartz, cathedrals. Rockefeller Plaza, Central Park, the 911 Memorial, and the Statue of Liberty.  On Jake's first NYC subway ride he got to see street dancers and fake singing cowboys.  I mean, we're from Midway.  We know what real cowboys look like, and those were not real cowboys.  NYC was awesome, but a bit overwhelming to us small town hicks.  I'll take Midway any day.  But I'm glad we got to see all the sights.

The weather cooperated quite nicely for us considering it was early in the year.  We got to go kayaking in the ocean.  Super cool.  My kids cannot paddle, or do anything else in the water for that matter.  Their Navy cousins definitely showed them up in that regard.  We went to the beach a few times.  So fun.  I even braved the cold water to try my hand at the boogie board (I think that's what its called).  I didn't manage to catch a single wave because I'm awesome like that.  But I sure had fun trying.

Jake and I went to tour a couple of crazy mansions.  Crazy.  Like Downton Abbey crazy.  Jake loved it, until they said that the huge, huge house was built in two years.  Then I told him that he needs to step it up:).  We went to an awesome clam shack where I tried fried clams.  Not my favorite, but I had to try them while I was there.  Then we went to a seafood store right on the coast and bought lobster fresh out of the ocean.  They were fun to cook and the kids had lots of fun playing with them.  Poor Ethan named his.  I thought we were going to have to have a funeral, but he handled it like a man.

We even managed to fit in a day in Boston.  Despite the traffic we managed to see a record breaking number of sites.  This would be due to the Spjute's ability to maximize every minute and waste no time.  I guarantee we could make it through any museum in 30 minutes, 60 tops.  If you force us to spend longer be prepared for a meltdown.  I digress…Boston was amazing.  I loved all the historical sites.  We made it through most of the freedom trail and my kids got to go on their first ferry ride.  We also found the best hole in the wall food place ever.  So great.  Jake said his hamburger was, "the best hamburger I've eaten in my life."  And we're old, so that says a lot.

I'll stop the boring details so you can now be bored by a million pictures.  Obviously we had a super amazing time.  So great.  My favorite part?  Spending time with my sister and her family.  Doesn't happen enough.  We got to go running together which I love.  If I had one wish it would be that my siblings and I live on the same street.  In Midway of course.  How awesome would that be?!!

Tired, but ready to fly

asleep during our layover

Introduced the cousins to marbles - so fun

At the Yankee game

Times Square

NYC

Cousin fun

One of the awesome light houses

Cousins!

We even played a duet at church:)

Awesome mansion

Lobster fun

Boston

Paul Revere's house

Chocolate french toast

Goodbye

So long to our house.  We are out.  Lived there for eight years, built it ourselves, had Sage there, our kids did a lot of growing there, lots of good memories.  Was I sad to leave?  Strangely, not really.  I'm ready to move forward. Someday we'll build our house.  Jake's so busy that we might end up in this rental for a long time.  Fingers crossed.

Let's talk about this rental.  As far as rentals go, I'm sure it could be worse.  We have enough room.  Its definitely livable.  And my kids are still close to school and friends.  However, it was built for short skinny people.  I don't have a problem with the short part, but Jake is constantly hitting his head.  And there are random doorways that are seriously a foot wide.  Its awesome.  Diet motivation I guess.

So we moved a week ago (which was exhausting by the way).  We're unpacked and now scrambling to be ready to go on vacation.  Definitely one of those where we breathe a sigh of relief when we get on the plane.  Rhode Island here we come!  Peace out!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I have a love/hate relationship with this picture

Happy Birthday to Mom today!  She would be 59.  Craziness.  I told my kids to try to do something extra nice for someone today, in honor of Grandma Lu.  April and I are going to the Cheesecake Factory for the first annual Mom's Birthday Lunch.  Hopefully as the years pass we'll get more siblings there.  I'll eat the lunch for Mom, and the cheesecake for Linz:).  We all know food makes everything better, right?

In other news, Jake came through for me for Mother's Day (which is impressive since its not my favorite day, thus he has his work cut out for him).  Jake's cousin, Jordan Wright,  is an amazing artist.  Last year he painted this picture of Peach City in Brigham City.  I've been wanting it ever since for a couple of reasons.  My mom grew up in Brigham City, and not only that, but she actually worked at Peach City.  So now I can put this painting up that everyone can enjoy because its awesome, but for me it has extra meaning.

So, in honor of my mom, everyone do something extra nice for someone today.  Some act of service.  Because that's what she would be doing if she was here.

PS - If any of my siblings, or anyone else, want prints or copies of this painting it can be arranged.  Just let me know.

Time

Linz and Kate

Mom and Sage

"Time heals all wounds" I believe is how the saying goes.  Well, that's a bunch of crap if you ask me.  I will say that the daily heartache and sadness gets better, but I don't see it ever going away.  Especially in May.  May is not a fun month.  Every year I brace myself.  This year its harder than normal for some reason.

Saturday, May 10, 2008 is when Linz left us.  This year May 10 is a Saturday again.  Maybe that's why its harder this year?  I'll never forget that day.  The phone call.  The tears.  The shock.  The tears.  I remember going to church the next day in my parent's ward.  I remember crying while attempting to sing "Families Can Be Together Forever".  I remember coming home on Monday to do laundry and then rushing back to be with my family.  With my mom.  I remember how Mother's Day was the next day.  We were supposed to talk to Linz.  I remember figuring out the funeral.  What songs to sing.  Who to speak.  I remember Mom's birthday on May 14.  A few days after we lost Linz.  Poor Mom, had to celebrate Mother's Day and her birthday right after losing her daughter.  I don't know how she did it.  I remember trying to pick a present out for her with my sisters.  I think we got her a ring with Linz's birth stone.  And there are lots of other things I remember about that time that, six years later, are still to tender to share.

At least in those moments we had my mom.  Now we go through these days without her.  And its hard.  Mother's Day is no fun.  I've bucked up the last few years and put a smile on my face for my kids.  This year I volunteered to work.  Then we get through Mother's Day and have her birthday on the 14th.  So I don't love this time of year.  At all.

I'm not trying to be negative.  I know I'll see them again.  That's the only thing that keeps me going.  I know they're still part of my life, and part of my kids' lives.  I've had many experiences that teach me that.  But its still not fair.  And I still miss them.  I hate that I never got to go to Linz's wedding.  I hate that my kids don't get to play with her.  I hate that my kids don't remember my mom.  That's horrible!  She was the best grandma.  I hate, hate, hate not having any new pictures.  I don't want to see the same old pictures anymore.  I want to see new pictures.  New memories.  My heart hurts, and this year I feel like letting it hurt.

So, sorry this post isn't all fun and exciting.  I promise I'm not going to be all weepy for the rest of my life.  But sometimes things are hard.  Sometimes I don't want to put a smile on my face.  And that's what I feel like saying right now, even though it probably makes Mom and Linz mad…