Splashin' Around

Wow, I can't believe I'm actually keeping up with this posting every day goal. Good on me:) Here's number 4.

One thing that my kids love about Utah is that they have some great swimming pools here. We always end up swimming a lot when we're here, and not just because it's too hot to do anything else outside, like in Texas. The other day, however, my sister introduced us to a whole new water experience - and it's FREE! I love the word free. It is such a beautiful word. It brings my checking account peace. Anyway, there's this "splash park" (I don't know what else to call it) close by where my parents live. It's got a little waterfall, and slow moving creek, and fountains, all man-made of course. Perfect for kids of all ages....and adults. JT thought we were going to the swimming pool when we told them to get their swimming suits on, so when we got there he said, quite dramatically, "This isn't the swimming pool!" But he was having a blast before he knew it. Here are a few pictures of our time there, with my sisters and their kids. I may have gone a little overboard with taking pictures, but....

Doesn't that look refreshing?
Where is it going to come out?

Water wedgy!

Right in the Kisser

cousin Kylie

Oh, that's cute

cousin Ava

cousin Jada

Uncle Antione with the kids

Joe trying to splash the kids

JT thinks it's funny that he's "peeing" the water

I think we'll be going back before we leave here.

The UPs and DOWNs of a Road Trip

If you are just joining us, we are on day three of my week of blogging. These are going to be out of order, because I'm waiting on some pictures that I thought I would have already - but I DON'T! So this post will be about our road trip from Texas to Utah.

We first headed to Carlsbad Caverns. None of us had ever been. I was very excited. Joe is slightly closterphobic, so he was saving his opinion for afterward. Our hotel was the closest, and only hotel right at the entrance of the park. We got there and checked into our hotel, about 15 minutes AFTER their free water park CLOSED for the night. This was our first DOWN, especially since they only let you use it the day you check in, not the day you check out. The hotel's internet was also down, so we had no computer time that night. Our room smelled like a nursing home. Breakfast was not provided, and the only restaraunt was ridiculously expensive - Ridiculous as in the owners should be shot! Those were all DOWNS.

The UP was the caverns themsleves. Amazing! My pictures do them no justice. Since we didn't have all day to spend there, we just went to "The Big Room". First you go downt this elevator about 750 feet, and then you step into this cavern that is HUGE! It is about 1 1/4 mile walk around the perimeter. Immediately JT was upset, and wanted to know if there were spiders and bats down there. That kind of got Madelyn and Alex a little nervous. It was kind of dark, so you can understand their apprehension.

But after we calmed their fears we began our walk.

Everyone seemed to be in a hurry, but I wanted to take my time.

It's not every day that you get to see things like that.

At one point I made everyone stop, and take a moment to just be amazed. I told them I was reminded of the scripture that says, All Things Denote there is a God. I don't want them always hurrying through life, and missing out on the amazing things that are right in front of them. I want them to be grateful for the opportunities they have to see new things, and explore new places.

Next we headed out of Carlsbad, and on to Roswell. We did not get there in time enough to explore the shops in town like I had wanted to, but we did stop at the McDonald's that was shaped like a spaceship, and that was an UP for the kids.

It ended up being a good thing that we didn't stay longer in Roswell, because we drove all the way to Durango, CO, and we didn't get there until after 10pm. We found a room at the Best Western, which was an UP. The room was the opposite in every way to the one we had stayed in the previous night. There was a hot breakfast in the morning. It was lovely. We got up early and drove to Mesa Verde, and walked down the trail to the Spruce Tree House ruins, which are the most intact ruins there.

The DOWN part of this was Alex, because he is a 2 year old. If you've ever had a 2 year old, you'll understand. The trail isn't WAY dangerous, but you still want to hold a 2 year old's hand so they don't slip and fall down the hill/cliff. Well our 2 year old didn't want to hold hands (of course), so Joe put him on his shoulders, and then he just started screaming. Once we got to the ruins there are signs all around that say don't climb on the rock walls. Well our 2 year old wanted to climb on the rock walls (of course).

Needless to say, we weren't there for very long, but it was an UP anyway (and I'm not just talking about the UPHILL we had to climb to get back to the car, during which time ALL of our kids started complaining that they were hot, and why didn't we bring a water bottle). It was so interesting imagining people actually living there, and it made us think of the people in the Book of Mormon.

The next stop was 4 Corners. I remember as a kid going to 4 corners, and I thought it was so cool that you could be in 4 states at the same time. The kids thought so too. It was an UP.

We let each of the kids pick out an Indian-made suvenier, and I got a nice turquosie bracelet for myself.

Then we drove past Lake Powell, and stopped at Glen Canyon Dam. I made everyone get out of the car and go into the visitors center. There were protests at first, but it turned out to be another UP. Inside the visitors center they have a serious of photographs that show the building of the dam - it was Amazing!

Even though this dam was man-made, the water it controls is not. Again I was reminded of the scripture, "All Things Denote there is a God". When you see the beauty and the calmness of the water, and then think about the power and force it has, the life that it gives and sustains, and how essential it is to every living thing, it is no wonder that Christ is called the Living Water. I was really glad we took the time to stop there. Hmmm, maybe the above statement doesn't go so well with the picture below.

Oh well, below was the Kids favorite part of the dam - a little lizard. They made sure I took a picture of it.

On to St. George, we drove through Zion's National Park - SO BEAUTIFUL!!! I'm pretty sure that I was NOT being a safe driver, because I couldn't help looking, and looking, and looking all around be at the beauty we were driving through. UP, UP, UP. I was trying to the get the kids to look too, but they were having a hard time concentrating on the scenery because they were watching classic Micky Mouse cartoons. They informed me that the old ones are so much better than the new ones on the Disney channel. I couldn't argue with that. We got in to St. George after 10pm...again. We stayed the night with Joe's brother and his family, and most of the next day. Lots of UPs there - they're always lots of fun to be with. They cooked us Korean food, to send us off in the right way. We went to the St. George temple and walked around with the kids and went to the visitor's center. Then that evening we got to Joe's parent's house in Manti, and thus ended our rode trip.

Our kids are very good travelers, and we're really lucky. When we drove to Manti from St. George, they asked how long it would take to get to Grandma's. When we said 3 1/2 hrs, they replied, "Oh, that's not too long". We've trained them well - It's an UP to traveling.

I've discovered that sunflower seeds help me be a safer driver, because it's impossible to fall asleep while your chewing on sunflower seeds. It's a snack AND an activity - It's a snacktivity! The DOWN to this is that if you eat too many sunflower seeds, your tongue gets raw. Now add to this the lemon heads that my friends Polly gave me for our trip, and it is BAD! Note to self - do not go back and forth between seeds and lemon heads, EVER:) I still have half a bag left of each.

One time during the trip JT said, with much furvor, "Mom, you HAVE to stop the car! I have to go to the bathroom really bad! I've been plugging my privacy!" I'm sorry if that offended anyone, but I almost peed my own pants when he said that because I was laughing so hard, so I just HAD to add it. JTisms are always an UP for me:)

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but if I am, I can't remember it - hence the forgetting.

First Time Buyers / First Time Sellers

I almost missed my deadline, but here is day two of my week of posts.

So we recently sold our first home. This was an interesting process. Interesting meaning scary, stressfull, and therwise non-enjoyable. However, we were VERY blessed during this process. We only had 1 1/2 months from start to finish to sell our house, and we actually did it. With the help of some very good friends we put our house up for Sell By Owner, and ended up getting about what we wanted out of it. There were some ups and downs along the way, but when all was said and done, we were very happy.

We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this house, as well as a lot of love. Down at the bottom of this post is a video that shows the house as it was when we first moved in. Then it shows what we first did to the living room and bathroom. Then there are pictures (sorry they are out of order) that show what our bathroom and kitchen looked like in the end (the living room we kept the same color).

As part of selling our house we had to have our roof replaced. Thankfully our insurance company covered that.

The new owner chose green shingles, as opposed to the brown ones that were on before.
We loved the way this bathroom turned out.
Of course, the kitchen was our favorite renovation.

Boy, the lady who bought it sure is lucky:)

It was weird to watch the movers pack up our stuff. It was crazy to see the house empty. It was very, very strange as we were doing the final walk-through, and then as we pulled out of the driveway for the last time. A little sad, yes. But we were also ready to move on, and it is such a relief not to have to worry about the mortgage or any more repairs. So now we are temporarily homeless. We can't wait to get into our new place.

Messy Birthday

Well, I realize that I am WAY behind in my blogging. So, to catch up on everything, I'm am going to TRY to blog a new post every single day for one week. You might be wondering what I'm doing right now, but you'll have to tune in later in the week to find out that. To start it off I have to backtrack to Madelyn's fourth birthday party....

We decided to have a MESSY birthday party for Madelyn this year. We invited all her friends from her Sunbeams class at church. We started things off by covering the kitchen table with shaving cream, and letting them go at it.

This was very interesting to watch, seeing the different reactions of the different children.
Some jumped in with both hands.

Some were cautious.

Some took time to warm up to the idea, but then like it. And some didn't want to have anything to do with it at all. It was TOO messy:) Surprisingly this did not take long to clean up, and all the kids helped. Then we broke out the finger paints, and each child had their own little canvas to paint on. Everyone wanted to do this. I don't really understand what the difference was between the finger paints and the shaving cream was - maybe they just liked the colors.

Again, I noticed the different techniques.

Some just using their fingertips.

And others using their whole hands. We made sure to give each child an old, oversized t-shirt, so they wouldn't Mess up their own clothes - aren't we thoughtful?

Next came cupcake decorating. We had brightly colored frostings and a variety of sprinkles.

Everyone got their own candle in their cupcake.

Make a wish!

Happy Birthday Madelyn!!!

Madelyn loved all the presents she got. Thankyou everyone!

There's not better way to clean up from a Messy party, then to swim afterwards.

I thought the party was a big success. Madelyn had really been looking forward to it all month. "It's my burp-day, it's my burp-day", she kept saying. JT finally said, "Madelyn, it's not BURP-day, it's BURF-day!" Good one JT:)

Oh my little Madelyn, growing up so fast. She turned from our Hurricane (because she left a wake of destruction wherever she went) to our Dust Devil. Explanation? Definition - a dust devil is a strong, well-formed, long-lived whirlwind; usually harmless, but can grow big enough to threaten people and property; also known as a dancing devil and a whirly-whirly. That makes me laugh, because that really does describe Madelyn. She's very strong-willed; she's a beautiful child; she is a whirlwind of activity, from dress-up to dancing to jumping on the trampoline; she keeps us guessing, and we never know if we're going to get the sweet little Madelyn who gives us kisses and says, "I love your face Mom", or the little devil Madelyn who twists up her face and says "No Mom!" and other such sassy things; She is relatively harmless, but darned if she doesn't lash out at her siblings sometimes. We'll keep her though, forever and ever. We love our Madelyn, and are so grateful to have her in our family.

One funny thing that Madelyn said a little while ago - She had a dentist appointment, which she did not like. Then she overheard me talking about her needing another appointment. She insisted that she did not want another appointment. I told her that I understood that she didn't WANT to, but that she needed to go anyway. A few minutes later she said, "Mom, my friend told me that I can't go to any more appointments, so I can't go!" It didn't work, but it was a cute try anyway.