Another Day in the Life...

It seems like the only posting I have time for these days is just quick stories about funny things my kids say or do. But it is what it is and here's the latest:
A few weeks ago we had our 2nd annual Grandma Talent Show. My mom's birthday is in November and instead of presents, she requests that all the grandkids perform in a family talent show. We have only done it twice but it is already turning into a tradition that everyone enjoys. I must say that the highlight the past two years has been Finn playing his tuba. What makes is so entertaining is the tuba is not really a solo instrument, but Finn plays it with such pride, gusto and heart that he makes it seem like it should be in the spotlight of any orchestra performance. This year, before the talent show began, Finn was practicing in my sister's living room with some cousins listening in. The rest of us were finishing up dinner in the kitchen. When Finn was done he came into the kitchen and my mom remarked, "Finn, I really enjoyed your practicing." To which he proudly replied with a smile on his face, "I wasn't practicing. I was changing lives!"
Suzie has a little friend in her preschool whose name is Claire McDonough. Claire's mom is a high school friend of my sister, Natalie. We were visiting my mom one day and Suzie started talking about her friend, Claire. My mom, wanting to know if the Claire Suzie was talking about was the same one she knew, asked, "What is Claire's last name?" Suzie replied, "Claire Old McDonald."
Yep! That's the one she knows!

My Favorite picture of...

Suzie in her "itchy b----y" dress!

The Next Installments of Adventures in Vocabulary

If you want to read the first installment go here.
But here are the latest:
Each week Suzie has to bring something to preschool that starts with the letter of the week. She was going all around the house one morning looking for something that started with "D". She finally decided on a doll. She proudly held it up to Katie and said,"Katie, I am taking a duh-duh doll (that is Suz emphasizing the D sound, in case you couldn't tell) to preschool today."
Katie's response, "I don't kuh-kuh care!"
Then the other day Suzie wouldn't get dressed for school. I usually let my girls dress themselves so I told Suzie if she didn't choose something to wear, I got to choose it for her. She said I could choose it so I got a sweater out. It was probably the first time she has worn a sweater this season. She let me know this by saying, "Really, mom? You are introducing a sweater?"
Finally yesterday we were getting ready to go to a family Halloween party and Suzie was putting on her Princess Fairy costume. She often will rhyme words as she is talking to herself. Like if I am holding keys she will say "key, tree, flee- hey those words rhyme Mom." Well as she was putting her dress on she was commenting on how itchy the dress was. Then she must have gone into her favorite rhyming game in her head because after a few minutes she told me her dress was "itchy- bitchy."

It wouldn't be our family vacation if...

Over the part few years many of our family trips have been centered around Utah Football and this year is no different. So to record this most recent Utah football-driven trip to SoCal I thought I would describe some of the things that make our family trips "our" family trip. So here is the non-comprehensive list of "It wouldn't be our family vacation if..."

*There weren't several, varying comments made by the male family members about the tiny size of the female family members' bladders.

*The tiniest of those bladders didn't quite make it to the first bathroom at the very first place we visited. Sorry if you happened to be walking into the bathroom right outside the entrance of the San Diego Zoo around 11am on Labor Day. That wasn't a puddle of water you walked through...

*The owner of that bladder then didn't get a sweet new dress as her not-planned souvenir (We have established a strict "Souvenirs are only purchased on the last day of the trip" and this was the first day) to wear around the San Diego Zoo. (She also almost went commando in the zoo too but Eric insisted on her wearing her rinsed out underwear. But it kinda worked out well for her cause it acted as a sort of swamp cooler.)

*All the owners of the other tiny bladders didn't complain about Suzie getting to break the "Souvenir Rule" and wearing down Mr. Moneybags for a souvenir from the zoo too.

*We didn't force our kids to go on rides they don't want to go on, have their picture taken, buy the picture and then laugh and laugh! For another example of this check here.

*I didn't play MY favorite Disneyland game... "Spot the Mormons." To a trained eye they are so easy to find and Disneyland is crawling with them. Of course there are the telltale signs like a "BYU" hat or a bajillion kids. But a more subtle indicator is we are the only ones who have a white shirt under our tank tops when it is like a 105 degrees! *The Utes didn't lose on a road game we go to. :(

* We weren't spoiled by Dad with a week of fun and entertainment!

Celebrating Pioneer Day the Pioneer Way.

The alternate title for this post was "The road to h--- is paved with good intentions" but I decided to keep it clean in honor of the pioneers!

It started out innocent enough. Last Monday was the day designated to celebrate Pioneer Day. We didn't have any invitations to or plans for a bbq. Eric called from work, because appraisers don't get the day designated to celebrate pioneer day off from work, at about 5pm saying he has a fun idea for pioneer day. He suggested we go up Emigration canyon and have dinner at Ruth's diner then do a slightly uphill 4 mile round-trip hike along Emigration ridge to a look-out point where we could watch the fireworks go off across the valley. Sounded perfect. I was to get the girls ready to go. Finn was at scout camp. At 5:30 Eric got home and we all had our hiking shoes on, bottles of water, flashlight and the camera ready to go. We were prepared for the hike we thought we were going to take, unfortunately we weren't prepared for the hike we got.

After a yummy dinner at ruth's diner we drove up the canyon a little farther and parked right by the "Little Dell" reservoir. Luckily (and this is about where our luck ran out) there was a pit toilet the girls could use to empty their teeny-tiny bladders one last time before the hike. (They had used the bathroom at the diner at least twice each already- no exagerration!)
And off we went on our hiking adventure to the best pioneer celebration day ever. Cries of "Our dad's the greatest dad" could be heard echoing through the canyon. The air was pleasant, the scenery beautiful and the conversation lively.
Eric even led a discussion about how Brigham Young knew this was the place because of scouts he had sent out before to find the place Jim Bridger had described between two lakes.
About 1/2 way up it started dizzling. But we kept going- our biggest worry being that Annie AGAIN had to go to the bathroom and didn't want to squat behind a tree. The rain started getting a little heavier but at this point we could see Parley's canyon too and it looked like the storm was heading up that canyon. If we could just get over the ridge we would be out of the rain, or so we thought. So on we went with the rain coming down even heavier. Everyone was still in pretty good spirits until Eric almost stepped on a rattlesnake. He, Suzie and Katie were about 20 feet ahead of Annie and I so he turned back to warn us about the snake. This information was meant to be helpful to Annie and I, but it had the exact opposite effect. Annie went into a tailspin after seeing the rattlesnake curled up on the side of the trail. I must admit, it was a bit unnerving but it had turned so cold and rainy that I'm sure the snake had no intention of striking or even moving for that matter. But it should have served as an omen to Eric and I because things only went downhill from there- and I don't mean the terrain. The wind picked up, the rain became steady and hard and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. But on we went, like our pioneer forefathers, ignoring the whining of our posterity to reach our well-worth it destination.
About a 1/2 mile from the ridge it was still raining hard and the cries had gone from "Our dad's the greatest dad" to "I hate hiking" and "Why did you think this was a good idea?" and "Why didn't you bring an umbrella?" and "I'm never going hiking again." we decided to stop by a bush and let the girls get in under the branches and leaves, hoping they would get a reprieve from the rain and we could get a reprieve from the moaning and complaining. I snapped these two pictures-

One of the beautiful sunset, although you can't really tell how much it is raining.

And one of the misery of our girls. You can only see Katie's face contorted in a cry that says, "My parents are the meanest, most abusive parents ever." But really they all had the same look on their faces. After exchanging sly smiles, Eric and I decided we better turn around. So off we went back down the mountain in the cold, rain and now dark.
It was interesting to see how everyone coped with the situation. Eric tried to be the cheerleader and keep everyone's spirits up. Annie grumbled most the time, except when we passed by the rattlesnake curled up in the same position and she didn't dare talk and had a death grip on my hand. Katie was put in charge of the flashlight by Eric to keep her distracted. Suzie was on Eric's shoulders talking nonstop most of the way down. And I wrote this blog post in my head.
It was a day designated to celebrate the pioneers to remember! And we even got back to the valley to watch the Liberty Park fireworks in time in the comfort of our car. Eric and I agreed that it would be a good hike to try again to watch the sunset when it wasn't raining. And much to the girls chagrin, Eric has vowed to "hike the princess" right out of our girls!

Adventures in Vocabulary

You can tell I am learning about the importance of building up a young child's oral language and vocabulary when Suzie says to me, "Mom, if you don't read this book to me, I will literally kill you, literally." and I am more excited about the fact that she knows how to properly use the word "literally" than I am disturbed about the fact that she wants to end my existence.
Also another vocabulary highlight is this past weekend I finally learned the meaning of the word "shawty" in current hip-hop songs. I have heard it in many songs recently like "Shawty always burning on the dance floor." Or more often in the Justin Bieber song- "Shawty is an eenie-meenie-minnie-mo-lover." I was concerned it might be a dirty, vulgar or derogartory term (because even Suzie will sing the latter Justin Bieber phrase over and over again). But my young women came to my rescue this weekend at youth conference and informed me that it is just a slang term for "girl." Good to know cause I don't want to be like my mom and misuse it in my testimony by saying something like "I sure do love all my shawties." like my mom did when she was a seminary teacher and a group of boys told her that "bad-a" meant "bad attitude" so she proceeded to say across the pulpit when she was released "I will sure miss all my bad-a students." Then of course there was the "b----in'" incident. But we'll save that story for another installment of Adventures in Vocabulary.

Good thing I wasn't swearing....

Annie turns the big double digit tomorrow. On Sunday as we were getting ready for church Annie asked if I would make her some toast for breakfast. I was rushing to get ready and said, "Annie, you are almost 10 years old. You are old enough to fix your own breakfast."
Suzie must have overheard this because that evening we were having a friend over for dinner whom Annie told it was her birthday this week. When the friend asked how old she was going to be Suzie quickly replied, "Old enough to fix her own breakfast."