Slow Mo J-Mo

Britton left last Monday morning at 5:45 a.m. for scout camp.  He was beyond excited, and could hardly sleep the night before.

There are more pictures to come from his camping adventures this week but they are on Adam's phone and I forgot to get them before he left for the day.  You know how there are scouts that walk around without all of proper patches on their uniform?  Yeah, well, I'm THAT Mom that never remembers to sew on numbers or whatnot.  Poor Britton.  Fortunately for me he doesn't care about it in the least.  He arrived home on Saturday having earned an impressive 14 merit badges at camp.  Adam spent Tuesday and Wednesday night up at camp and reported that he was in his element and loving every minute of it.

Hey J-mo, I think you have your helmet on backwards. 

We gave him a haircut last Saturday night.  I never realize how long it has gotten until I see the pile of hair on the bathroom counter.

Fortunately cleanup is easy because of its texture.  You just grab the pile and throw it in the garbage, no sweeping required.

Monday afternoon we decided to go to Bear Lake for a couple of hours with Taylor, Jen, Will and June.  Adam received a 2 hour jet ski rental from clients so we thought it would be fun to use it while family was in town.

Jameson's signature cheese smile

We set up on the nearby sandbar and the kids who weren't on the jet ski played in the water.

 

Jenna loved it from the moment she got on. Korinne did NOT want to go on the jet ski, but we finally talked her into at least giving it a try.  Adam promised her he would go very slow and not turn a lot.

 

 She ended up absolutely loving it and wanted to keep going out.

Jameson refused to get on the jet ski and there wasn't a thing we could say to change his mind.  The beach was the only place for him and he was determined to stay there. The good news was that it left more time for the girls.

Two hours with the jet skis was perfect.  It was long enough that we all got to go out, but not too long that the kids got antsy. We packed up, got some raspberries shakes and called it a day.

 

Thursday was the 24th of July which is a holiday around these parts.  Adam returned from scout camp Thursday morning and had to work for a bit before he took a break and went to the parade in town with us. Grandma was in town and Tiffany and Abigail went with us, too. What is it with parades starting at noon in July??

 

 Notice I'm holding an umbrella for shade.  It was HOT.

 

 

 Grandma was a trooper and stayed up to help Jameson and the kids with all of their candy gathering.  It was a small parade, but they threw out a lot of candy.  Everyone came home with a full bag of goodies.  The first thing Jameson said when he woke up from his nap later in the day is, "Where is my candy?"

Even Tiffany, our resident Texan, declared the temperature to be quite warm. 

 

There is a retirement center in town that bakes mini loaves of homemade banana bread and throws them out in the 4th and 24th of July parades.  They don't throw a ton so it is always a bonus when we end up with one of them.  Yummy.

 

That evening we had a BBQ at Grandma's house.  Jameson was watching videos of himself on Adam's phone and was laughing so hard.  Grandma caught a picture of his laughing.

 

 

Our favorite video of the week is one of Jameson throwing a temper tantrum in slow motion.  Jameson could watch it for hours and still laugh every single time.  Hmmm, maybe I should film all of his tantrums so he can see how silly he really does look. :-)

 

 

Staycation

There are advantages to having my parents build a house around the corner from me. One of them is that when any of my siblings come into town, I'm guaranteed to see them and be able to spend time with them from the comfort of my own home.  This week we had a lot of visitors so it kind of felt like we were on vacation, too!

On Monday Tiffany and Abigail joined us for family home evening.  Tif provided sparklers for our activity and it was a hit with the kids.

It wasn't planned but their shirts just happened to be very patriotic.

 

Taylor, Jen, June and Will arrived from China on Tuesday and the kids spent all week running back and forth between the two houses to play.

 

 

Britton playing with Will and June on the trampoline.

 

It is so fun to watch June and Jameson.  Jameson adores June and the two of them are constantly laughing and having a great time. 

 

On Wednesday we all went for a little hike in the canyon.

 

Britton, Jenna, Abigail, Korinne, Will, June and Jameson

 

Wednesday night we all got to swim for free at the Aquatic Center from 7:30-9:30 thanks to Britton's soccer club.  They even provided dinner. Bonus.

June was a little fish.  Jameson doesn't have a great love of swimming yet, but after seeing June swimming under the water all over the place he was definitely inspired to at least get in the water a little more.

After the sun started going down we were ready to go.  Britton was great to play with the kids in the water and they loved it.

On Thursday Adam's sister Jaclyn and her family came to stay with us for a night. It was the first time they have ever been to our house so it was great to have them. I meant to take a picture of them before they left, but only managed to take a quick photo of the kids eating breakfast.

Adam assuming his normal position at the griddle.  He is the breakfast man around our house. My idea of the perfect breakfast is leftovers from the night before, so clearly his services are needed if anyone wants food of the breakfast variety.

Friday was kind of back to normal, Britton had 2 soccer practices and piano, the girls had Fun in the Sun and I had a lot of errands to run, but we still tried to play with cousins as much as possible.

On Saturday Adam went and met up with 7 of his siblings in Layton and enjoyed a few hours with them.  It is always fun for him to get together with siblings even though he would never think to take a picture. I stayed home and went on a nice long bike ride and tried to get a few things done.  Mostly this involved doing what was necessary for Britton to get all of his customer's lawns mowed before he left for scout camp bright and early Monday morning.   That night we all enjoyed our Stake's pioneer day celebration with dinner and activities and games for the kids.

Ahh, a fun week to be with family.  Jameson will definitely be going through withdrawals when Abigail, Will and June are no longer at Grandma's house.  He is pretty much in heaven having someone to play with all day long.

Another week in the books

Having a 2 year old and a 1-4 p.m. church schedule each Sunday isn't a very good combination. For Jameson (and everyone else) his nap is an essential part of his day and he can easily sleep for 3 hours at a time.  When I get to the church on Sunday I always hope for the best and prepare for the worst.  Sometimes we get lucky and he will spontaneously fall asleep sitting on my lap during sacrament meeting.  Most of the time, however, it is a major battle to make it through the meeting.  We have caused many a scene and I wouldn't be surprised if the ward secretly looks forward to the next Jameson episode because they are so entertaining.  He has a flare for the dramatic after all.  Last Sunday was epic and not in a good way.  As a rule if I have to take him out of the chapel I won't let him get off my lap while in the foyer. He doesn't like it so he is motivated to stay in the chapel during the meeting. Well, last Sunday he didn't even make it through the opening song and was determined to get off my lap in the foyer for the next 60 min.  He refused to give up so for an hour I had to wrestle with a freakishly strong 2 year old. It was not pretty, people. I was exhausted and so was he.  Upon returning home after church it wasn't long before I noticed that it was strangely quiet.  I started looking for Jameson immediately and found him asleep on the kitchen floor.

Wow.  He really was tired! He has never done that before.  Unfortunately a 5 p.m. nap is terrible for an early bedtime so I had to wake him up after 20 min or so. Jameson did NOT appreciate my schedule saving efforts.  Only 6 more months until 9 a.m. church and it simply cannot come fast enough!

In the last few months Jameson's speech has really come along.  He is using a lot of full sentences and says funny things all of the time.   He has quite the sense of humor and likes to tease his siblings.  Last month he threw Adam's phone down the stairs and cracked the screen.  For awhile when we would ask him who did it he would own it and say. "Me." but now when we ask him about it he will smile and say, "Jenna did it!" and start laughing.

Britton had a soccer tournament this week. It was a local tournament so we didn't have to do any traveling, which is always nice. They won their first game and then went up against 2 very good teams before being eliminated.  I didn't think to take any pictures, but can tell you that playing/watching games at 1:15  in the afternoon during the month of July means you will be HOT.

They resurfaced the road in front of our house this week and closed the road completely for 24 hours.  Everyone on the entire street had to park their cars on a different street and walk around the block every time they needed to go anywhere.  We parked on the road behind us and make several trips through the vacant lot during the day.  It wasn't too bad until I stopped at the grocery store coming home from one of Britton's games for some bread and milk and decided to get a few more things while I was there.  I had forgotten all about not being able to drive into the driveway until I got to the top of the hill.  Uh-oh.  Hauling several bags of groceries through a field of weeds and up to our house is not my idea of a good time, but it did make me laugh when I thought about how I probably looked to anyone watching me.

Yesterday I rode the Cache Gran Fondo.  It was a bike race for those who wanted to race it and a fully supported ride for the rest of us that are in it for the "food and good company."  There are different distance options but I rode the full 100 miles. (Actually it ended up being 104 miles if you want to get technical) At the top of one of the summits we pulled off to re-group and had someone take a quick photo of the group.

Abby took this from the back of our pace line somewhere in Idaho.  You can see all of the shadows lined up on the road.  I feel very fortunate to have a group of great ladies to ride with.  Our idea of fun may not be the same as others, but at least we have each other.

Here are a few pictures that were on the Gran Fondo website after the event:

That's our group cycling along the fence topped with old cowboy boots. The scenery was gorgeous!



Crossing the finish line. Woohoo!

"Official group portrait" complete with girls holding flowers? (Weird)

This week Jenna and Korinne started 'Fun in the Sun' which is a little summer camp type thing the city puts on.  It is MWF from 9-12 for the month of July.  They do all sorts of park activities, crafts, and go on several field trips.  The girls absolutely love it and so do I since it is inexpensive and breaks up the summer for them.  The only one who isn't a fan of it is Jameson.  He misses have the girls home in the morning. It only goes up to age 11 so this will be Jenna's last year to participate.

Holiday Fun

What's more American than baseball, the 4th of July and Uncle Sam?

I am! I am! I am!

 (Remember that song?)

Here we are just before we left for the 4th of July parade on Friday.  Tiffany and Abigail arrived just in time to go with us!

We love our little local parade.  It's 'small town' and quirky but we kind of like getting string cheese, and lots of frozen otter pops thrown at us.  One thing I don't love about it is that it starts at NOON. Hello! Don't they know it's hot at 12:00 p.m. on the 4th of July?!

The kids ready with their candy bags in hand.  They all briefed Jameson on what would be happening that day, "Candy is going to fall from the sky" they told him.  He walked around for awhile saying, "candy, falling, sky". It has all the makings of a great day.

 Good thing I had my umbrella, it got pretty hot this year.  Of course, it's all relative. Tif and Abigail were quite pleased that it wasn't very bad at all.

Adam in his logo wear.  Fortunately he had an Academy Mtg shirt in red and an Academy hat in white.

 

Jameson cheesing it up on the way home.

 

Our 4th of July afternoon was spent watching the World Cup game between Brazil and Colombia. Brazil won 2-1.  Even though we were cheering for different teams it was a fun game.  I'm glad Brazil won, but 2 of their stars won't be able to play the semi-final game so I doubt they will win the next one.

 

We went up the local canyon for a dinner picnic that evening with my parents and Tif and Abigail.  It was nice to be in nature on such a lovely night.

 

 

We've been to the canyon twice in one week after not going for over 4 years. Wow. Look at us being all nature-ee all of the sudden!

That night it was fireworks, fireworks, fireworks.  Our neighborhood pooled all of their fireworks together and we had quite the show just in the neighborhood!  Of course, from my parent's deck you can see all of the fireworks in the valley, too.  Without any fire restrictions this year there were a lot more fireworks than usual.

The next day our friends Josh and Carrie invited us to go boating with them at Bear Lake.  We brought a cooler of food and decided to make a day of it.

The kids loved the beach.

 Getting ready to take the boat out.

Jameson NOT loving the boat.

Beautiful.

Korinne's favorite spot on the boat.

Britton and Jenna really loved the tubes.

Even after 1 1/2 hours Jameson still did not like the boat.  He wouldn't let Adam get in the water, he wanted him to be right by him the entire time.

Korinne finally consented to go on the tube with Cara, but only if it went slow and didn't turn a lot.

Josh and Carrie and kids.  Carrie did most of the driving since Josh gets a little crazy when he tries to drive.

After 2 hours Jameson was FINALLY ok enough to wave at the girls on the tube. That was as good as it got for him.  Boating is not on his list of favorite things to do. When some of the kids said they were ok to go to the beach he perked right up and started saying, "Beach! Beach!" Just knowing it was an option made him a little happier.  He didn't cry while on the boat, he just sat there and looked miserable.  Poor guy.  I hope we didn't scar him for life.

Back at the beach the boys played Frisbee.

Jameson loved the beach and playing in the water with Dad.

The older kids went out on the boat one more time while I packed up the gear and then we headed home.  We couldn't leave Bear Lake without getting raspberry shakes, of course.  Jameson must have been super duper tired because he fell asleep in the middle of eating his shake.

Don't worry, I finished it for him. :-)  I'm a nice Mom like that.

Thanks to Josh and Carrie for a great day at the lake!  Our sunscreen skills need some improvement, however, as we all had small sunburn patches that didn't get covered for one reason or another.  I already had a major tan line on my legs from my biking shorts, but my swimming shorts were a few inches above my biking tan line so I had a stripe of white on my legs that I didn't get enough sunscreen on.  The result was  'Neapolitan legs'. It's white where my swimming shorts were, red where the new skin burned and then brown where my biking shorts normally end. Three distinct lines with 3 different colors. Adam laughed and laughed when I showed it to him and I must admit it does look pretty funny.

Happy 4th of July to you all!