At the Top

SO yesterday was a hard hard day. But today is a new day. Andrew is happily doing his chores, and even offered to do extra. We went for a hike after having some eggs and bacon for breakfast. I have been trying hard to find a baby backpack, after Stuart Falls I said never again do I hike with owen in the boba. TOo hot. too heavy. no padding in the boba air. SO I have been scouring the yardsale pages, ksl, even craigslist (which I normally don't touch). Found a couple things but they either sold or weren't quite what I wanted, or more than i wanted to spend. So then I saw an add right after it was posted for a kelty Summit for $40. It was donated for a school fundraiser, and said it was in excellent shape but dirty. It WAS DIRTY. Dan picked it up for me, and that yesterday morning actually I was bummed, I thought she had sold it before the time I was supposed to look at it. I kinda wondered if she marked it sold because of the overwhelming response, and I was right. luckily. So dan picked it up, I gave it a bath with detergent, borax, washing soda, oxiclean and scrubbed it all up. The water was pretty dark, but it washed up so well! It looks fantastic now. Has a great big sunshade, with side flaps that velcro down if I need to, very padded, has a removable backpack (which I had the kids take turns carrying this morning, its kid sized), adjustable to different heights and seems really well made and padded! I am really excited to have this around for hikes. Even Bella could ride if we needed her to. Owen has had a fever the past couple days so I am not sure how much he enjoyed it, but he was asleep most of the hike this morning. We just went to the top of our little mountain and back. Andrew is working towards earning the Jazz Draft back, Bella is playing a Dora game on the kids computer, Abby is (hopefully) cleaning the toy room, Owen is toddling around. He LOVES holding train tracks, markers, and zip fizz. He even started playing cars, putting them down the car garage. its so cute. Well, Hope we have a great day today! I'm pretty determined to do so!

On our way!

View from the top

taking a little rest at the top.

sorry apparently forgot to rotate this one. 

Parks!

Baby loves his splash pad! 

So we found the splash pad in Eagle Mountain yesterday, it was quite nice! It doesn't have a little river, but it does allow the water to pool so you can wade. Owen just LOVES the water. He is so content to walk around, doesn't love getting sprayed by freezing cold water (can't blame him there!) but loves wading. He also loves the baby areas in the Museum of Curiosity, the one with balls and holes for the balls to go in and slide down are his favorite. He LOVES holding things in his hands. Its how I get him to keep his sun hat on:) We also discovered the playground outside at the museum! How did we not see this before?! SOO cool. And tires for the ground, which is the best playground ground out there! See saws too. thought those didn't exist anymore;). Summer has been fun. Today tho, not so much. Owen was up from 2:30 until 5:15. Dan gets up at 5:45 and the kids woke up around 6 i think. I was able to keep them out of my room until close to 7, but I am dragging. Just finished a zip fizz, but still a bit tired. We had to miss our playdate at the splash pad with our neighborhood today. Kids just didn't really want to go I suppose, they each had a couple jobs they simply refused to do, and made a big mess of train tracks and legos instead. I'm all for play, don't get me wrong, I LOVE seeing them build. But not so much when its just to get out of jobs and its a great distraction from mom telling them to get their stuff done. THAT is just annoying. I love these children and each bring something great and wonderful to our family, but today its not shining thru as much. I am trying my best to keep it together today, and be the mom they need, especially when they are so disobedient and disrespectful, and just don't seem to care one bit. Thats really hard for me. But I have faith our Lord can help me become a good mother even on hard days. Andrews friend just came by with his dirt bike but Andrew can't play. that one hit hard for andy. Hope it helps him today. I do love natural consequences, I do hate seeing andrew get so sad, and I gave him a big hug and said how much it makes me sad to see him miss out. But that doesn't change what he has to do... anyways here's to tomorrow! 

Baseball, Kiddie pool and Boy Scout Day Camp

Her and Andrew cut each others hair... hers is nice and short in front, and there is a large chunk missing at the top of her head in the back too. Darn it.

kiddie pool fun saturday!

Andrew is off to Day Camp for Boy Scouts!

Well ANdrew is off to Day camp for Boy Scouts! He is super excited. He also had a game saturday. For Fathers day we didn't do too much, I made pancakes with that wonderful caramel syrup for breakfast. Dan wanted mexican for dinner so we did tacos, with black refried beans, and guacamole. Abby made Dan a card yesterday and gave him $.35 and very seriously let him know " you can buy a new house with that". Andrew felt a little sheepish for not having a gift prepared so he made a card with $.10 (which he said was all his wallet held today.) Sweet kids. We love Dan, he's a great father and provider and hard worker, and a super husband. We are  very grateful for our Dad around here, who honors the priesthood he holds, values the gospel and his family above all else. I couldn't ask for more! As far as my own dad goes, I LOVE HIM! He's such a wonderful father. So willing to help, so concerned with others before himself, he has a heart of gold. Plus he is so smart!!! Truly a great man. He set a great example for me growing up, shared his testimony, which I will never forget, and worked so hard to provide for our family. He showed faith in the Lord, and that taught me to trust in Him also. Happy Fathers Day to all the wonderful dads out there, but most of all to mine, Dan and Dan's dad Lynn up in the spiritual realm he now dwells in.