the quiet chair says...

is it time for school to start yet?

pioneer day 2009...

Pioneer Day! The 24th of July! Isn't it so fun to have a 2nd fireworks holiday in July? We spent the morning having a nice breakfast at our stake center. Yummy dutch oven potatoes, loved it! It reminded me that we have a dutch oven, that has never been used. So, we dug it out and made a peach cobbler for dessert after dinner. Super yum!

We spent the day swimming in our little pool, and hanging out around the house. We grilled for dinner and did our little sparklers and very small fireworks. We can see the city fireworks from our front yard, so Zane stayed up to watch them. We had put Lily to bed, but woke her up to see them. As soon as John brought her out, she looked out at the fireworks and then said "night-night". I asked her if she wanted to go back to bed and she said "yes I do". Lily says this all the time right now in this cute little sing song voice. Love it.

(ignore the very splotchy skin and gray hair - post pregnancy is not pretty)

While Zane and I were setting up our chairs to watch the fireworks, Zane noticed something on our front steps. I got a picture of it right before the camera battery died. I believe it's a Rocky Mountain Toad from what I could research from the internet. Pretty fun!


John and I got to go see Annie Get Your Gun last night. I think it was fitting for the Pioneer Day weekend. Unfortunately I am sick again. I have been coughing the past few days, and while sitting in the theatre, noticed that I had a fever again. Sorry to anyone that was in the theater last night!

We are thankful for the pioneers and all the sacrifices they made coming across the plains. And I'm thankful that I wasn't one of them!

friends, family, FUN!...

John's extended family had a family reunion in Logan this past weekend. We got up to Logan on Friday evening (finally) and spent the day Saturday at a park (in the heat) visiting with family. I had been sick since Thursday with a fever and flu-like stuff, so it wasn't so great for me, but the kids had a lot of fun playing with cousins.

On Sunday - we decided to take a little side trip up to Minnetonka Cave in Idaho by Bear Lake. Zane is very interested in caves, and we figured this might be the only close by cave that we could actually go into with the kids. Timpanogos is too hard of a hike for the little ones (and us!). I didn't realize that although there is no hiking to Minnetonka - there are 444 steps over just a 1/2 mile of cave inside. Up and down. And you have to go in and back. So 888 steps total. Including one really steep 71 step staircase. A lot of these steps are uneven rock steps as well. So - I would recommend - do not take your kids unless they can walk it themselves (and NOT at nap time). John carried Lily almost the entire way, and I carried Evan in the baby Bjorn. John had to leave early with Lily - she was DONE. I stayed with the baby and Zane. Zane did fabulously. He loved it and didn't complain. I have to say that I am STILL sore 3 days later.





Monday was Lagoon day. It wasn't really smart of us to go and kill ourselves doing that cave the day before. We were pretty sore to be walking around Lagoon all day. It was a very hot day, and I wasn't fully recovered from my illness (I'm sure the cave the day before did not help). John and I, Lily, and the baby all stayed as long as possible, but left late afternoon. Much too hot to have a baby out. I don't know what it is about nursing in the heat, but it's just really NOT fun. I really don't know how the pioneer women did it. We left Zane to ride the rides with some of John's cousins. He had an absolute blast! He rode all the roller coasters and just loved it. I felt bad that we weren't there to see his excitement and share in it, but I'm so glad that he was able to enjoy himself.






We had a lot of fun being able to spend time with family and old friends. We miss you all and wish we could see you more often. Thanks for the fun times!!

summer fun...

Can you believe that school starts in one month? Wow. The only way to survive our summers outside is to live in the pool. We have a little pop-up pool that we got last year, and it has been sooo great. Zane, Lily, and I spend a couple hours out there every day. It's perfect for the kids. Evan's not quite big enough to spend time out there this year - but the pool should make it to next year. When (if) we are ever able to get a new house, my requirements (let me clarify - these are NEEDS, not WANTS) are: a pool, mature shade trees, covered patio, and at least 2 floors. Is that too much to ask? A girl can dream...

I posted a picture of myself in a swimsuit? Seriously?

the long road from phoenix...

We spent the 4th of July in Phoenix with my family. We had a lot of fun swimming, eating, going to the movies, and just hanging out together. Arizona is not keen on fireworks, and we didn't have it in us to go to one of the big shows, so we just lit our black snakes, and threw our poppers on the ground. The kids had a lot of fun playing with aunts and uncles and of course grandma and grandpa. I didn't get enough pictures, I always forget to get out the camera when there is a big crowd.

(The kids did have really cute 4th of July outfits, but Lily was already in jammies, and Zane had changed his shirt after swimming - so I didn't get a picture of them, doh!)

On the way home, we decided to take the Laughlin way and avoid the traffic going over Hoover Dam. We were stopped for quite awhile going TO phoenix that way, so we knew it would be bad going back. So, of course, about 6 miles outside of Laughlin there was an accident that shut the freeway down for over 2 hours. Nice! We sat for over an hour, and watched as some cars ventured off onto a dirt road and disappeared. We were iffy about trying that, so we called my dad, and he googled for us. Since the road was going to be closed for at least another hour, and that road didn't look to be long, we decided to try it.

We got going, and my goodness I was scared. It was a jeep challenge course I kid you not! We said a prayer, and a few minutes later Zane said to me "Mom, the Holy Ghost told me that we should be careful of the big rocks." Thanks! I tried not to cry too hard, and tried my best to hold it together for the kids. They really didn't seem to care. They just watched their movie, and occasionally Lily would say "Bump!" and laugh hysterically. We made it through, with my Dad on the phone the whole way telling us which direction to go. Thank you soo much Dad, you really helped us so much.

Although everything turned out fine, I doubt I will ever do that again. We had some snacks with us and not much water. Really, not a smart idea to take your family out into the desert - unprepared - in 100+ degree heat. Just really not smart.

View Larger Map
(we took the dirt road from 68 at the top of the map to the subdivision at the edge of the map near the A marker)

i got 2 quarters...

Zane lost his first tooth!(I should add: without dental help). His bottom tooth was loose for quite awhile before it just finally came out a couple of weekends ago. He was nervous about pulling it out himself, so he let it stay until it just finally fell out while he was eating pancakes. You're a big kid now!