Not Quite Easy Casual--Day 2B

Later that day we all fit in my mom's car and drove up to a canyon near Adam and Amy's house for a family gathering to celebrate Megan's 8th birthday and so everyone could see Betsy and the boys.

Emmit fell asleep toward the end of the drive and Betsy wanted to keep him asleep for as long as possible.

This is my favorite picture from the whole trip! Betsy had been sitting in the car with the sleeping Emmit but got out to hug my mom and ended up making this hilarious face.

Owen was so excited to be on a mountain, and Landon was good enough to "be on duty" taking him around.

Betsy had to keep checking on Emmit.

We got a mountain self-portrait.

Whitney, Bella and Megan.

Owen did a little creek crossing, he's hard core.

Robyn and her kids were the last to arrive, but completed to party.

They had gotten a dog that day (which appeared to be a guinea pig or a rabbit upon first glance) which stole the show for sure.

The kids roasted hot dogs, but the rest of us brought better take-out from various place.

Emmit woke up and got busy mountain climbing with the boys.

Megan got to open her presents and was surprised by the $10 bill we gave her.

At one point, Emmit plopped himself on Landon's lap, which was all kinds of cute.

I brought my tripod so we could get a group photo, which turned out great (I think) but is especially funny to us because Olivia's friend planted herself front and center. I just couldn't bring myself to ask her to stand near the tripod to try to make us laugh. Also, check out Randy holding the puppy in a blanket. He held the dog and rocked back and forth like it was a newborn baby.

Good times.

Sunday Thoughts

So today was the big day...after 7 weeks of thought and preparations it was finally time to give my talk. I had been totally calm up until this morning when the butterflies got busy and then while I was sitting on the stand I experienced some serious adrenaline (like save a baby from a burning building adrenaline) and heart palpitations (I'm not a fan) so it was a relief to actually get up there and give my talk. Here are some tidbits...

President Kimball said, “What gods do we worship? Modern idols or false gods can take such forms as clothes, homes, businesses, machines, automobiles, pleasure boats, and numerous other material deflectors from the path to godhood."

Satan’s distractions are even greater during the week when we are away from church and have thousands of things vying for our attention. What are you distracted by? Do you spend too much time watching TV, working, exercising, reading for pleasure (guilty!), checking Facebook, shopping, sleeping, talking on the phone, checking sports scores, playing video games and so on? None of these things are bad on their own, but they all have the potential to distract us and keep us from doing the things that let the Lord know He is our true focus and only God.

1 John 2 :15 --Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Dallin H. Oaks said, “We look first to our Savior Jesus Christ. He is our model. Our model is not the latest popular hero of sports or entertainment. Similarly, our most precious possessions are not the expensive toys and diversions that encourage us to concentrate on what is temporary and to forget what is eternal. Our model—our first priority—is Jesus Christ. We must testify of Him and teach one another how we can apply His teachings and His example in our lives.”

Not Quite Easy Casual--Day 2A

We picked Betsy and the boys up from the hotel (where they had a great time jumping on the beds and eating the complimentary hot breakfast) and headed over to the pond.

The water was freezing! You can tell by Owen's (blue shorts) body language that he was having 2nd and 3rd thoughts about it.

We had gone to Big Lots to buy some sand toys and floaties, so Whitney was super excited about those. We brought the battery-operated air pump so I'm not sure why she started trying to blow it up by herself, that would have taken forever and ended up with her passing out.

Betsy is good to get down and dirty playing with her kids...I always think I should get credit for taking them to fun places and shouldn't have to play.

I was happy to sit in my chair documenting the event. Landon and Whitney enjoyed the 2 new floaties and braved the cold water way out there.

Owen was a little tired and cold so he choose to hang out in a chair texting his dad.

Emmit was happy about everything but stopped by for a caramel popcorn break.

Betsy and Emmit got a turn on the floatie and braved the icy water.

And then there were the sensible folks under the umbrella.

Eventually I gave in to the possibility of having a conversation with Betsy so I gingerly tip toed into the water until I was waist deep. Whitney repeatedly tried to coax me into getting on the orange floating but I knew that would result in humiliation and submersion. I really think she wanted to laugh at my attempt! I didn't give her the satisfaction.

Landon hooked Owen up with some of his old Action Figures, which may have made them friends for life.

 Betsy swiped the camera! I attempted a sportier hat but it looks dumb too. Damn. I'm going to have to brave headaches and sunburn if this is how it's going to be.

I was trying to get a good shot of Emmit with sand all over his face when he leaned in for an extreme close up, he's so cute!

Not Quite Easy Casual--Day 1

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Betsy and I had a long phone conversation on my birthday which ended with her saying she was going to check into plane tickets for her and her boys to come visit us. I was totally shocked by this because it is no small feat to fly with two very active 4 and 7 year olds, I kept thinking she'd change her mind and decide to fly me to Michigan instead, but she did it! (For a title reference click the link.)

Whitney and I drove to the airport to pick them up, but stopped at my mom's to switch cars first (her car seats 8 mine only seats 5) and to pick up a bag of freshly made caramel popcorn (my mom has a gift for making this). Their flight got in 25 minutes early so we didn't have time to park and go inside to meet them, instead I pulled up to the curb and sent Whitney into to find them at baggage claim.

Apparently Betsy didn't recognize Whitney at first because she was expecting to see me! They were near the doors and waved to me but then took a long time to come out (apparently the baggage claim was slow). It was surreal to see them walking toward me, especially since her boys were 4 and 1 the last time we saw them!

Betsy opted to sit in the backseat in-between the boys (while eating caramel popcorn of course). It was so fun to listen to Emmit (the 4 year old) because he was just a baby the last time we saw him. He is so full of joyful personality that we just kept laughing at him. Owen was as pensive and smart as ever. He is an amazingly bright 7 year old and keeps everyone around him on their toes.

We came home to have some lunch and to get Emmit down for a nap (which was a challenge).

While Betsy laid down with Emmit, Owen showed me his homemade Pokemon cards (seriously impressive) and some of the cool stuff he had in his backpack. While describing some of the Pokemon characters he used the words "vulnerable" and "aggressive".

After Emmit woke up from his nap we got decked out for the pool. Getting this self-portrait was pretty funny as Owen tried "to box out Whitney" and Emmit wanted to make sure he was in it.

As we got to the pool I realized Betsy and I hadn't even taken a self-portrait yet...right the pool was a good idea.

Betsy's kids are little fish children so there was no time for sitting in our chairs talking.

Betsy took Emmit down the big slide and Owen braved it all by himself (a big milestone).

At one point Betsy and I were sitting down trying to talk when she spied some kid hitting Emmit. The seasoned teacher in her took over and she got right up and went over and took that kid by the hand to have him talk to Emmit. She got them to say what happened and then got the kid to apologize. Crazy!

I bought this hat on clearance at the end of last summer, but hadn't ever worn it. It doesn't seem like my style at all, but I need something to block the sun. So I was wearing it for a little while then had this conversation with Landon...

Me: Do I look totally ridiculous in this hat?
Landon: Yes you do. I just gotta tell the truth mom, but I love ya.
Me: Dang, I knew it.

Later when talking to Betsy about it she diplomatically informed me that my swim ensemble is sporty, so the hat didn't really go with it. Oh the shame..

We returned to home to dinner freshly purchased from 3 different locations by Randy. The grown-ups had Cafe Rio, our kids had Wendy's and Betsy's munchins each ate 1 taco.

Whitney impressed the boys with her Tinker Toy skills.

Betsy had booked a hotel nearby in an attempt to get the boys to calm down and sleep (and because our house is tiny). The boys were super psyched about this bit of excitement.

They immediately started jumping back and forth from the 2 beds (apparently this is the ultimate entertainment when you're a kid). Whitney and I left them to get settled and ran to Wal-Mart to buy a noisy box fan to help increase their chances of sleeping. They were wasted from their day of travel and from the 2 hour time change, but were very hyped up...poor Bets, she didn't get much sleep.

Summer of Amie

I hardly ever get to see Amie during the very busy school year, so summer is usually the time when we hang out. In the past, most of this hanging out has happened at my not-so-favorite waterpark, but this summer has been different because we've gotten together for impromptu outings.

Amie texted me the morning of July 2nd to see if I wanted to meet at Cafe Rio for lunch (um yes please). It turns out her daughter Jessica had a friend visiting from out of town so Amie had agreed to shuttle them around a bit and wanted a friend too, I was happy to oblige. We stuffed ourselves silly at Cafe Rio first.

Then we waddled around Target for awhile while the girls wandered in other parts of the store. Amie has all kinds of tricks for managing her curly hair and these tubs of gel are part of repertoire.

It was beasty hot that day so we tried to cool ourselves with the car's air conditioning. I had to keep checking to make sure the seat warmer wasn't on because my backside felt too hot. I really need seat coolers, not warmers! We found some good stuff at the dollar store (Sudoku books and treats).

We met up with the girls again (they had walked down to Old Navy) for some funny group shopping at Costco. I will admit that I caved to a sample situation (normally I'm opposed to this on principle) because they were giving full-sized yogurt Creamies.

I just had to document the amount of animal food Amie had to buy!! Dog, cat and chicken food!! These items are never on my shopping list, no wonder she's so strong...it's all that heavy lifting.

Since our birthdays are one week apart we usually get together for some sort of outing. This time we went out on Amie's birthday (the 16th).

We were debating between Which Wich and 5 Guys and made fools of ourselves standing in front of the restaurant trying to make a decision, eventually we concluded that fries were more appealing than chips on this particular day. Oh my goodness, it was such a good choice, those burgers were the best ever. They were bigger than we expected, but we ate them all!

After lunch we went to the mall to go to Bath & Body so I could get some sort of air freshening plan since my house has a tendency to default to a musty old, people smell. I don't notice it most of the time but when I came back from my trip I could hardly stand it! (This is a cruel irony for me since I'm always cleaning and like to have the windows open.)

After the mall visit (I bought Eucalyptus Mint because I enjoyed it so much at Collette's house) we went for pedicures. I had never gone with a friend before because I usually enjoy reading my book for the hour, but it was fun.

Our last stop was the grocery store for a few items, but since Yogurt Bliss is right next door we had to go there for dessert.

This is the present Amie gave me, inside was a skirt, 2 pairs of earrings, 2 Twix bars and a lip gloss. What can I say, she knows what I like.