Off I Go!

We leave in about 45 minutes (yeah, right, make that 2 hours because of Mormon Standard Time) for Girl's Camp. I'm director and really haven't had a clue what I was doing but I have an awesome assistant, so it should all balance out. We have 22 girls, 10 leaders and 2 priesthood going. On the night when the bishopric will be up there, we should have around 40 people! Crazy! But it's going to be fun. The forecast is for BEAUTIFUL weather (no rain, hopefully!) and there aren't any fire restrictions so we can use the wood I've been collecting for 6 months!

So keep me in your prayers! Bryce Canyon here we come!

It's July!

For those of you who were wondering, it is now officially July. Why do I say this? Because it isn't July until our air conditioner goes out. Yes, each July when it's 106 degrees outside, our AC will go on the blink and stop working. We have been in our house for 4 Julys and it has gone out each year.

Last Saturday, when Bryan returned home from the high adventure trip, he noticed that the house wasn't cooling off. So we checked and it wasn't working. We called an emergency service who told us the compressor was broken and was expensive to fix. But he told us that it was probably on warranty and to call the company who put it in. We called our builder who told us that he would contact the owner of the company who put it in...for the fourth year in a row in the month of July.

We loaded the kids up, some clothes and went to my parent's house in Washington for the night. We went back to our house to get ready for Church on Sunday and then spent the rest of the day in Washington at my parent's house. (The kids are LOVING this, by the way.) Monday morning they finally looked at the unit and concluded that it was, indeed, a broken compressor and that they would run to Las Vegas to get us a new one since it was under warranty.

Now, this is the MOST INCONVENIENT July for the AC to go out because I leave on Wednesday for Girl's Camp. My house is a wreck with piles of camp stuff everywhere and I have a ton to get done that I have been trying to do by cell phone. But it hasn't been stress-free.

Anyway, we spent Saturday through Tuesday at my parents house, hanging out in the AC and waiting for it to be fixed. They are supposed to be putting it in this morning so we are waiting to hear from them.

But apparently it is not an official July until our AC is out. I do have a much greater respect for the pioneers who settled this area without AC. I firmly believe we are all born at certain times in the history of the world because we can handle the situations at that time. I think I would have jumped back on my wagon and gone back to Salt Lake after the first summer in St. George .;)

Interesting article

My mom forwarded me an article about my great-aunt Christal's family that was killed in California years ago and I thought I would post it in case any of the family wants to read it. It's amazing the things we have to endure sometimes and how strong people can be.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705314976/Utahn-reunites-with-officer-who-saved-her-life-when-dad-sisters-were-slain-in-1952.html

(For some reason the link thing won't work. How annoying. I guess you can copy and paste it in.)

Withdrawals

Ethan has an addiction...Calvin and Hobbes. Yes, he can't go ANYWHERE without a Calvin and Hobbes book in his hand. He reads them over and over and has many of them memorized. Now, I didn't really understand the humor behind the comic before I had a little boy, but now they are pretty funny. The only problem with Ethan reading them is that now he WANTS to BE Calvin and he's doing his best to achieve his goal! Yes, we have a little boy who will look at a camera, smile and then make a face the minute the shutter goes off. We have a little boy who wishes it would snow so he could make a field of snowmen in various states of death. And...well you get the idea. Yes, we have Calvin overload in our house.

So Bryan hid two of the books hoping that Ethan will forget about them, but he hasn't. Ethan still has one book left (we are slowing getting him off them) so he's been holding onto that one for dear life all day wondering where the others went. Maybe when we can get a decent photo of him (without a tongue sticking out) I'll give them back. ;)

Sleepy Girl

I taught 2 piano students this morning at 11 and 11:30. When I was just beginning to teach the first student, Courtney came in the living room and gave me a big hug and kiss. Then she was quiet the rest of the lessons (which is unusual for her because she usually needs "mommy time" when I'm teaching). I didn't think anything about it. When I finished lessons, I called to Ethan and Courtney to get their shoes on so we could run some errands. Ethan came out of his room ready but Courtney didn't so I opened her door and went in. The light was on but I couldn't see her anywhere and it was really quiet. So I called, "Courtney" and suddenly a lump on her bed moved. She had gotten tired and put herself down for a nap! I was floored...but then I was mad at myself because I had woken her up! She doesn't take 2 naps in the day but I think she must have napped for around 45 minutes, so it wasn't too bad. She was pretty disoriented that I was calling her name but she woke up pretty quickly.

I've never had that experience before...a child putting herself down for a nap. Hummm.

The 4th of July!

We had the best day! We woke up, made cinnamon rolls, loaded the bike trailer with breakfast stuff (cinnamon rolls, bananas, frozen go-gurts, oj and water) and biked to the sand dunes in Snow Canyon State Park. It was 4.4 miles one way. Courtney rode on the tag-along attached to Bryan's bike, Ethan rode his bike and I rode my bike with the bike trailer attached with our stuff in it. I originally thought we would stay and play for a while, but the kids had other ideas.

Now, the bike ride up was difficult. It took us 43 minutes to get from our house to the sand dunes, but it wasn't too bad if you used your gears. Ethan is still trying to figure out his gears so it was a bit tough. He threw down his bike in frustration twice, but once we got to the picnic area he was just fine (sweaty) but just fine. Courtney LOVED being on the tag-along and enjoyed "helping" Bryan go faster. We ate our breakfast (talking about cinnamon rolls and frosting while sitting on a table next to some women from the Spa who were there for a weekend vacation to loose weight, oops) then headed back home. It was all downhill from there and we made it home in 25 minutes. Ethan said it was the best time ever, so his previous frustrations were all forgotten. The weather was great too because it was only 81 degrees when we got home.

After we got home, Courtney went down for a nap while Bryan and Ethan helped a family move in to the neighborhood. When Courtney woke up I took the kids on a few errands then we went to Sand Hollow to swim. It was fun because there weren't too many people there. Ethan has decided he LOVES the diving board and spends quite a lot of time there with Bryan. Courtney just likes to float around and go from place to place. She is a busy body.

After swimming, we changed out clothes and went to my parent's house for a BBQ and some fireworks. Now, we are not a late-night-staying-up family so we had our doubts about fireworks. Our kids also don't like loud noises, so I bought some sparklers and we thought we could just do sparklers and go home. The kids were fine with this until we announced what the plan was and then they decided they wanted fireworks. So at 8:30, we lit sparklers (except Courtney who wouldn't let us light hers) at my parents house. After the sparklers were finished, Ethan did his best fighting moves to humor us. It was pretty funny.

We drove to Bryan's office around 9:45 to have a good view of the fireworks. We parked, went upstairs and sat down to wait. When they began we weren't in the best place to watch them because fireworks were being set off from two different locations in tag-team style, one on each side of Bryan's building. So we spent the next 15 minutes running from one side of the building to the other chasing the fireworks. It was pretty hilarious. The kids became tired of the fireworks before they were finished being set off, so we went down to the van to drive home only to find it surrounded by people watching the fireworks. So we waited for about 5 more minutes until they were finished and then we drove home.

Our kids were pretty exhausted but had a great time. It was a really fun 4th of July!

Ahhh.,.The Relief

Ethan had an ear doctor appointment yesterday. He had his tubes out last month and the doctor had to check and make sure the holes had filled in and that everything was healthy. Ethan had a bad experience having his tubes out and was wound extremely tight on the days leading up to the appointment. I explained that the doctor only had to look and not pull anything out, but he didn't believe me. Each time we have visited the ear doctor there has been wax in the way that he has had to pull out. Ethan just knew this would be the case.

So I called in back-up...Bryan. He took an hour off of work to go with us so I wouldn't have to deal with screaming on my own. While we were waiting Ethan said, "If the doctor puts anything in my ear I'm going to hate him forever." I was nervous. When the doctor came in Ethan wouldn't even look or talk to him. Courtney, on the other hand, chatted away about her summer. ;)

The doctor looked in each ear (I was silently praying that there wouldn't be any wax to remove) and then said that Ethan's ears are "perfect." You should have seen all the stress leave Ethan's little body. His face relaxed, he let out a huge sigh of relief and almost slid out of the chair as all the tension in his body left. Bryan was amazed and I just laughed. The poor kid was so nervous!

The doctor thinks that ear problems are behind us (YEAH!!) and now Ethan can swim without ear plugs and he is thrilled. Yeah for Dr. Marsden!