Yellowstone 2010

We ventured out to Yellowstone at the end of August. That place never ceases to amaze me. It is so beautiful. The old man and the kids had never been, so we figured they were long over due. We headed up with DJ's little brother, his wife, and their yummy little 4 month old. We stayed in West Yellowstone and checked the weather right before we left... 60's during the day, 30's during the night. Perfect, since we weren't camping. Well, apparently it gets ALOT colder in the park, which is weird because we could walk to the park entrance from our condo. Ya, it was barely in the 40's!! We froze. I didn't think that we needed coats, just jackets. Oh well, lesson learned.
Of coarse we saw a million buffalo. DJ freaked when I rolled down my window as one was walking by. Ya, like a window would protect me. He worries like that. I just rolled it down and laughed. I'm evil like that. Now you know why he's going bald. I like to freak him out.

Reese was determined to see a bear...

We found a bear carved out of wood, and apparently she didn't like it. I just laughed and took pictures.

I took the 2 older girls out shopping while everyone else napped one day. The girls had money burning holes in their pockets. Of all the cool things you can buy, Ginny only wanted polished rocks. She was obsessed. She kept track of which store had the ones she wanted. Tay was nice enough to buy us ice cream, they were nice enough to share with a buffalo statue. This one is EXACTLY like her Dad. I'm sure that had Tay not immitated this bear, DJ would have. They crack me up.

They had to pose with EVERYTHING! Since it was so cold, we didn't really get any action shots. We just ran from the car to the cool sites, then back to the car.

Of course we had to test out the bear traps...

At the Bear and Wolf discovery center. That is where they relocate "naughty" bears, and orphaned cubs. It was pretty cool, but I hate paying money for stuff. Free would have made it way more cool.

They thought they were hilarious, pretending to be attacked by a giant metal bear. I'm sure everyone does that.

This bear was fun to watch. When they let him into the viewing area he ran to this tall tree, stood up to it, and shook it until the big bird feeder fell out of it. Then he kept chasing the birds away who wanted his spilled bird seed. Glad we didn't run into him in the wild, he was huge.


And last, this is what I'm married to. Yes, we see the wolf sniffing your bum, haha!

We also see the wolf pooping. My kids got a good laugh at that one. They share their dad's humor. Okay, Mom's too.

We had a fun time. Hopefully we can go again next summer, maybe when it's warmer. Since we've now seen all of the big tourist spots, we can spend less time in the car and more time exploring.

Summer Came and Went

After a long 3 weeks of Summer, the kids are back to school. I love year round school all year long, until Summer. The breaks are great during the year, but it is just cruel to make kids go to school during the Summer. Luckily, we were able to enjoy it a bit.

Tay had her best buddy/cousin, Logan sleep over, and they had a blast together. Those two have had a crazy bond since birth. The only way to explain it is to say that they are "kindred spirits"... I love Anne of Green Gables.

Lots of Swimming...

And Parks...

Ginny lost her first 2 teeth. Actually, they weren't lost, the dentist pulled them out and put them in a tiny treasure chest. At least it didn't take 2 trips to the dentist, like it did Taylor a few months back. Is it mean to say that Taylor is a giant wimp?

After that, the Tooth Fairy spent the night in our doll house again, and left her usual trail of sparkles and a tiny note for Ginny. She even left her pink bath robe behind, so Ginny had to write her a note to come and pick it up. Ginny will believe anything, it's fun!

Before I knew it, it was back to school. Taylor is a giant 5th grader now. So giant that she sneaks my shoes and is starting to wear non kid clothes. I wish we could share clothes, that would make me super skinny. I think I was her size in about the 8th or 9th grade. She is going to be tall. Her new teacher lives in my in - laws neighborhood, and Taylor loves her.

In even bigger news, Ginny is now in the first grade. I was so nervous for her to start a new year. She had a rough time in Kindergarten, but is doing AWESOME in 1st grade!

She gets ready for school with no complaints and comes home happy. I help out in her class every week, and today I almost started crying when I saw how amazing her teacher is with her. It's a shame that good teachers don't get paid six figures.

Last, we spent some time with my family up in the mountains. We had a great time! These are all of the grandkids, minus my super cool nieces from Oregon. My kids are the really dirty ones.

I love Logan's crazy eyes and Ginny's dirt goatee. When she saw herself in the mirror that night, she said, "I look like a hobo!"

She really did. I had to hose her down in the yard before she could come in the house. She was so dirty that even after I showered her, I still found dirt on her legs, while I was lotioning her. I guess they have to make up for being so clean most of the time.

They were some tired kids...

Hopefully we can get in some more fun before Summer actually ends... between 3:45 and 7 pm.

It is so quiet with 2/3 of my kids in school all day, and 1/3 of them napping for 3 hours every afternoon. I wish I could say that my house reflected all of that free time, but it doesn't. In fact, I have started a new food storage system. It's in the form of crumbs on my kitchen floor. My cordless vaccuum broke and apparently I have forgotten how to use a broom. Brooms are evil.

Peace out!

Just Call Me Barbara K

If I had to make a list of things that really suck, cleaning bathrooms would probably be at the top. More specifically, cleaning tubs/showers. You clean them, then turn around and get them dirty again. Well, just when I thought that chore couldn't get any worse, Tay decides to start practicing the recorder while I was cleaning the bathroom. Please kill me now. That instrument needs to be banned from elementary schools. What an awful noise those things make. I had to bite my tongue and suffer in silence. After Taylor was done practicing, she came up stairs and commented on how hard it was to keep her fingers in the right place.... yah, I noticed. Later that evening she decided to practice again. Her Dad had to kindly ask her to stop due to a "headache". Hopefully her recorder skills improve quickly, or she will be forced to practice in the backyard. If the dogs in the neighborhood start howling in the afternoon, you will know that my daughter is practicing the recorder.

I never had to learn the recorder in school. DJ did though. He remembers trying to learn "Hot Cross Buns", with no success. When the time came for the class to perform for the school, his teacher told him that he had to pretend to play so that he wouldn't mess up the other kids. The same thing happened when his class learned the ukalele. I guess Tay got her recorder skills from her Dad (funny since she is learning the piano so quickly).

Now on to the pictures below.

We posted our van to sell on KSL. A lady was coming to test drive it, so we decided to vaccuum it out. DJ was getting under the seat, when he saw a blue ball. He reached under to grab it, when it cracked in his hand. Whoops, that's not a ball, it's an easter egg.

GROSS!!! He was ticked/totally grossed out. He couldn't believe that I had an old hard boiled egg in my car (like I knew it was there). In my defense, it didn't belong to my family. I vaguely remember one of our car pool kids having a died egg in the car. Apparently it rolled under the seat. Oooops! Good thing it was boiled. It was all covered in mold.

The next day, I found this clementine in DJ's church bag.

It was all hard and blackish.

I think we're even.

That is until I found these onions in my cold storage. I wondered why my cold storage was starting to smell like onions. I wonder how big they would have gotten.

So Basically, we are a bunch of dirty slobs. My great aunt was a messy lady. She put the show "Hoarders" to shame. I guess I got her genes. Just call me Barabara K... may she rest in peace.

In other news, we sold our van.... Booo!

I loved that van. It wasn't anything fancy, but we loved it. So for now, we are a one car family. When you see me biking to Walmart with my kids in the bike trailer, please don't laugh at the lady in the helmet, or honk your horn to scare me because I will get revenge.

I struggled with the helmet thing, but what kind of a mother would I be if I made my kids wear one and I didn't. Safety first, right?

Oh well, who needs a car when you have a Walmart down the street.

Wish me happy pedaling...

DJ in a Speedo...

We went to Hawaii last month, it was nice!!

Thanks to wonderful sister's and my neighbor (who is my sister Natalie's clone),

for watching my three stinkers for me! It was nice knowing that my kids were in good hands while we were gone. I was able to not worry about a thing all week... that's

a vacation. This was only the second time in 10 1/2 years, that I was away from my kids overnight.... I'm thinking that we need to do it a lot more often.

Before we left, I promised my sister that I would take a picture of DJ in his speedo for her.

Here you go Laurel... DJ in all of his oily, leathery, hairy glory.

I had a tough time catching this shot. I was trying not to get noticed by the leathery bikini clad wife. Well worth it!!

I tried to get a photo of an Asian man in a speedo, but was unsuccessful.... Booo!

Let's just say that the Asian in the banana hammock was running low on produce. DJ thinks that

I'm sick for noticing, but I'm sorry, there is nothing else to notice when someone is sporting one of those suits. Nasty! Almost all of our pictures look similar to this one. It was weird asking people to take our picture all of the time.

The view from my beach chair. It makes me want to cry looking at it. I miss that chair!

At the temple, which was closed for renovations.... Boooo!

We did get to meet Mark Eubank at the temple visitor's center. He is serving a mission there

with his wife. He was so nice. I thought about asking him if people thought that is was going to snow every time he wore his white coat in the temple. I wonder if he used to use his temple coat for the news? I should have asked him. Maybe I will send him a letter...

Here is DJ with his ukulele coach at the PCC. DJ did alright, considering he doesn't have a musical bone in his body.

At the resort... I miss it!

Another self portrait... so nice!

This was my first trip to Hawaii. I can't wait to go back.... someday.

Fancy Nancy 6 Year Old

Ginny's Birthday FINALLY arrived!!

She'd been planning her 6th Birthday Party for about 10 or 11 months, so I was happy to see the day finally come (maybe we will get a break from birthday talk for a month or two).

I told her we would plan her party on her actual birthday, then surprised her a few days early. DJ picked her up from school and surprised her with some "Fancy Nancy" dress ups. He told her to change in the car so she could surprise me when she got home. Unfortunately, I had changed into my fancy clothes and left my phone in my pants, up in my closet, so I didn't get the call warning us that she was coming home. So instead, Ginny surprised us by just walking in the front door.

Even though the surprise part didn't work out as planned, Ginny said that it was the best party ever... except I forgot confetti and "one of those things that you whack with a stick". Maybe next year!All of her friends dressed in their fancy clothes.
It was the perfect "girl" party. We painted nails, did glittery makeup, made fancy purses, and then the girls got to go shopping at my fancy store for their party favors. What more can a six year old girl ask for? (except confetti and a pinata)

Bright and early on her actual birthday...

Her surprise party reminded me of my 8th birthday.

My Mom planned a surprise party for me, and she put my neighbor/sister from another mother, Becky, in charge of handing out my invitations. Becky was so excited that she was totally obvious about handing out the invites. She asked me who my friends were, then made me hide behind an umbrella while she passed them out. I knew something was up so I asked my best friend Kim what was going on. Of course she told me about the party but made me promise not to tell (girls can't keep secrets). So when the big day finally came, everyone yelled "Surprise", and even though it wasn't a surprise I totally started crying. Funny, considering I'm don't cry too often.... DJ's the family softy.

So anyway, Happy Birthday to my hilarious, funny, crazy 6 year old whom I love to death!!!!

A 2 Year Olds Survival Kit

If you ever come over to our house and see Reese carrying around a big white mixing bowl, let me explain what that is. It's her barf bowl. She got the stomache flu several months ago, and we have a "barf bowl" that we use (don't worry, we won't show up to a potluck with this bowl... we keep it in the bathroom cupboard).

Well, after Reese was sick she would always claim that she needed the barf bowl. If she ate too much, she would get out the bowl. If she didn't want to go to bed, she would pull ou the bowl and claim she was sick. Eventually, she just kept it out all of the time. After a while, she discovered that it can carry alot of treasures. Here is a list of her usual treasures that get carried around in the barf bowl:

• Her heat pack that her aunt gave her for Christmas (I guess if she was in an emergency situation, she could eat the dried corn inside)
• Lipgloss (a must in any survival kit)
• Purple exam gloves from the ENT Doctor (usually she is seen wearing these, while carrying the bowl)
• A Hello Kitty flashlight
• A miniature gift bag (?)
• Sunglasses
• Her Charm bracelet
• Her potty watch (in case she forgets that she has to pee)
• And her favorite, a pocket sized German dictionary

I have to say that the German Dictionary is my favorite too. She will sit and "read" that thing for 15 minutes at a time. I won't be surprised when she breaks out in German one day. In fact, she's probabably already speaking it. I can't understand half of what she says. Just this morning she was frantic about something. I finally realized that she was saying, "I can't find my baby German book, it's lost. Help me look mom." We finally found it, and it was promptly put back into the barf bowl.

In other news, she WAS potty trained, then decided she wasn't. Luckily, I hadn't made the transition to underwear yet, so my carpets aren't yellow. She kept saying that she was a baby, not a big girl and even took to crawling occasionally. I finally got out her underwear the other day and told her that if she goes pee or poo in them, that I will give them to Chucky. So far this has done the trick... not a single accident. She has even survived grocery shopping at Walmart. She did inform me yesterday, that Chucky doesn't have a butt, so he can't wear her undies. Smart kid, considering Chucky is just a mask, so he technically does not have a butt.

That Chucky mask is golden... best $2.50 I've ever spent.