Wrights Lake June 2012

Eliza & Copeland on our hike around the lake (the hike that lasted just a bit too long for us)

Making our lunches!

Rock Climbing and our boat!

Violet tired but not tired enough to actually take a nap

Out in the raft! Thanks Bro. Sanford for being captain!

My boy & I

We were going to head up to Wrights Lake for the day and so we invited a couple friends of ours.  We all met up there and had a blast. It was a little too cold still to swim but we had fun hiking and climbing all over the rocks.  It was such a fun day that we are planning on going back up there. 

Summer Fun!

 

Even though I've been busy teaching swim lessons, I still try to have fun with the kids now and then!  I bought them happy meals this week to tell them thank you for being so awesome while I teach (they told me that I was the BEST Mom!) and we picnic'd under the kitchen table.  Props to any woman who works & has kids...I'm only 'working' a couple hours a day and it's exhausting!

Summer Mornings

Summer mornings look a lot like this: 

Yeah, nobody wants to get up these days.

Loquats et al

We totally had a mysterious tree growing in our backyard.  But it looked exotic, so we left it to see what (if anything) would happen.  It produced fruit this year!  Neither Ben or I were sure what it was but thanks to all my facebook friends we found out it was a LOQUAT!  AKA Japanese (or Chinese) plum.  We did not yield that many but there were delicious and now we can properly care for the tree.  That brings our current fruit tree count to:
(1) loquat (2) bartlett pear (3) asian pear (3) lemon b/c we cut one down (1) orange (1) apple (1) apricot (1) almond (1) persimmon (1) grapefruit with grape vines and blackberries to finish it all off!

In other fruit news, we finally got in our apricot tree and found that it had produced a LOT more than we had thought...like 30 lbs of fruit.  We were pretty late in the season so we got working right away and produced 24 quarts of apricot jam.  Can we say yum? And can you see me up in the, yeah I was never a big tree climber...talk about freaking out!  Whoever planted these trees did a terrible job--they are all on a hill and it is so difficult to get in them!

CRAZY times! I seriously wish we could win the lottery so we could get things put together because our jungle of a backyard could be SO amazing if we had some 5 digit number to help us out! :)

RIBS & the worst trip EVER

We thought it would be a great idea to jump in the car one Thursday afternoon and meet my parents over at their time share for the night.  It's about a 2 hour drive and we figured we all needed a break from the city.  So we did it!  We arrived at our favorite Carson City, NV restaurant, "Reds 395 Grill" at 7.  TOTALLY late for the kids but they were AWESOME.  Especially this little one...can you say carnivore?  She LOVED her some ribs and did not want us to take the bone away!  It was awesome.  We got back to the hotel and let the kids stay up late w/ Nana & Grumpy because we are super cool like that. Well...

At 4 am, the fire alarm sounded.  Ben & I jumped into action to save the family.  My Mom jumped into action to save her & Dad--we were on the 3rd floor mind you--we had to boogie!  Something didn't seem right and I peeked out the door. NO ONE was out there.  A girl next door told me the alarm had malfunctioned earlier that day so I ran down 3 flights of stairs (elevators are out during firm alarms) to find out what was going on.  (Why I didn't call the front desk I don't know).  The security guard told me it was a false alarm. Ok. We got everyone settled back down.  It went on again. Then off again. Then on again. (strike 1: Management: if the alarm goes off in the middle of the night you get your staff MOVING around the floors telling guests that it is a FALSE alarm).  It went off and on for an hour.  Around 5 AM, it stopped and everyone was able to fall back asleep--except for Abby who ended up sleeping in Ben's arms.  Once we were all up (around 730) we went to breakfast at the little cafe on site.  While the food tasted good, it was cold.  (strike 2 and we still, with as many times as we went through the lobby, did not receive any type of apology for the alarms).  We put Abby down for her nap and took the other kids to the pool.  The main pool was closed so we went to the other pool.  Water aerobics were being taught and the instructor very rudely told us that we could not share the pool.  We got in a very cold spa instead.  (strike 3).  We swam for awhile, it was fun.  My Dad had come to the pool w/ us and we thought it was a fluke that we had picked a non-handicap accessible path.  But no, there wasn't one by the gate we'd gone through and so we had to find someone to help get my Dad off the curb because I couldn't do it w/ the kids and gear.  (strike 4).  We finally took the hint and got OUT of THERE!

We drove over to Genoa to check out the Mormon History Museum.  (There's a MHM because Mormon pioneers founded the Genoa area).  The kids loved it and loved running around the fort.  We had lunch in a cute little cafe and were having a great time until...I got the flu, or something like that and ended up in the bathroom.  We decided to drive home after that...

At least Abby was super cute with her rib right?

Allergies :(

I am seriously the worst mom some times! Abby got sick in Mid-May and had a fever for about a week.  She broke out in a rash.  The doctor and I thought it was because of the fever.  It never went away.  She was miserable!  Always itching and it was peeling, sometimes bleeding.  I did not know what to do-I definitely felt terrible.  I've never given so many oatmeal baths before.  Abby loved them though--or maybe it was because she snacked while she bathed?  Because she totally ate the oatmeal!

Anyways, while I was teaching some swim lessons, one of my friends was holding Abby and informed me that it was not a rash but it was HIVES.  What?!  We got her on some benedryl and it totally started clearing up!  WHOo-HoO!  But it didn't at the same time.  One night for dinner, I fed Abby some frozen corn.  She LOVED it!  Until I realized she was turning bright red again.  After talking to the doctor, switching formula yet again (to one non corn based) and taking all corn out of her diet--we can actually see Abby's beautiful baby skin again! There is no red ring around her neck, there is no peeling skin, and there are only a few spots on her belly that you can see were terribly irritated from the hives.  So, that's what we are dealing with right now.  And yes, corn is in EVERYTHING!  I guess it's a good time for us to stop eating processed foods anyways--it will be healthier for us all!

Eliza's Growing Up!

Watch out world! She is one mean driver.  Eliza has insisted for awhile that she was ready to say good bye to her training wheels.  Our neighbors took her seriously and brought her a bike.  One day, while I was watching a friends daughter, the friends daughter up and taught herself how to ride a bike sans training wheels! It was pretty amazing to watch. I wasn't sure if I should knock her down so her parents could watch or just let it play out.  I let it play out and she really did learn. Eliza was not going to back down after that. So, we took to the streets.  She picked it up pretty well and had fun doing so.  The next day we had a pretty big accident (we are so grateful for helmets b/c without it, we would have had some serious injuries!) and Eliza has not been too interested in her two wheeler since.  And it's been hot and hectic around here so I have not done a good job at getting her out there.  But we will!

Eliza is also growing up on other fronts and is learning new things every day!  While recently looking at old pictures we were amazed at what a baby she was so recently and how she had to grow up so fast with two babies in the house.  Despite the difficulties, we love her and hope that she knows that!

Make Sure it is on Tight!

I guess I didn't do a good job putting her diaper on today.  I'll do better next time!  Feeling super lucky because she did not wet herself while sleeping.  But I seriously had to smile when I came in and found her this way.