Idaho -- Tuesday

Tuesday morning we woke up and my mom announced that she had a dreamed a dream that we should go to DI that morning.  And so we went.  I think we spent $11 and came home with a boatload of games that we played over the course of the week.  And some shoes for Sadie since we decided if she had better footwear she might be a better bike rider.  Maybe.

The big game hit of the week, however, was Headbandz.  The kids insisted that it sounded so lame but it was so freaking awesome.

 The best was that Luke would play with us.  He would look at the card, put it in his headband and then proceed with the following questions, "Am I a cow?"  "Am I a t-rex?"  "Am I (insert name of whatever card he picked)?"  It made us laugh every time.  The best was when he was ACTUALLY a cow and he still followed the same order.  "Am I a cow?"  Why yes, yes you are.  And then he looked bummed, like oh shoot, I can't ask anymore questions.  And sometimes he'd blurt right out what you were, "Nate!  You a dragon!"

While Luke and Livy took a nap. . .  Wait, actually only one of them took a nap.  Can you guess who?  WRONG!  It was Luke.  He seriously took a nap!  So while Luke took a nap and Olivia played with Beaney, we took our 6 kids (sometimes I like to adopt Kyle and Kathleen) to see Brave in 3-D.

It cost $77!  SEVENTY SEVEN DOLLARS to see a movie!!  What are we?  Rockefellers??  Luckily my dad had subsidized the outing with $80 and when he asked if there was any change I just laughed.  But it was seriously awesome in 3-D and since Dustin doesn't "believe" in 3-D (whatever that means, it will continue to exist even if you don't believe in it), it's probably my first and last movie in 3-D.  Thanks Pops!

When we got back from the movies we found the irrigating had begun and Luke and Livy were happily running around in what Luke named, "Lukey's Lake."  Why is he so creative???

I then forced my girls to get their hair done so we could take family pictures and our aunt Chelle came over for dinner along with my cousin Hannah (who is Ellie's age).  She brought the world's most delicious cupcakes (which were shockingly from Wal Mart, but seriously they were really good).  I ate probably 3 or 4 just myself (because I had to help Luke finish his) and then I didn't run for the rest of the week.  Vacation Maddy = Fatty Maddy.

Picture taking went about as well as picture taking always goes when you're me.  Which means, I yelled and bribed a lot and I'm still not sure we came out with anything decent.  But Kyle promises me there is something. 

Idaho -- Monday

We spent Sunday relaxing while the kids tried out everything there is to do in the yard.  Swinging, jumping, hot tubbing, playing in the sandbox, swimming pool, Aunt Beaney-ing, and running running running.

We had lots of time to do stuff since the kids never went to bed because of some stupid thing called Day Light Savings which means that it doesn't get dark until 10 pm in Idaho.

Monday morning we woke up (late) and everyone decided to take a bike ride (after a delicious breakfast of eggs and french toast made by my amazing Uncle Dave). Well first we had to run to Wal Mart and buy a million dollars of bike supplies -- helmets, baskets and of course a bell for Sadie's bike.  You know what it means when someone mentions a specific item in a story?  It means that it's probably foreshadowing some future event revolving around said object.  Or they're really wordy and give way too many boring details (which I am also doing with this story -- it's long and boring, but the bell is important).

And actually the kids did lots of things before we went on our bike ride because I had time to go on a run and also take the world's longest shopping trip to Wal Mart (any shopping trip to Wal Mart is too long in my opinion) before we got out of the house.  Like taking rides in the 4 wheeler rides in a wheel barrow.  Idaho is the best because you can make up whatever you want to do and it's FUN!

So finally at some point in time we took a bike ride.  There is a small lake in Blackfoot with a beach and everything and around the lake is a greenbelt trail that runs up along the river.  I think the whole loop is around 9 miles.  We decided to take the kids out to the greenbelt for a ride because the only other option is the dirt roads and 8 people on bikes going at a snail's pace to keep up with the 5 year old and lugging a trailer with 2 toddlers don't move fast enough to be out on the mail roads with no bike lanes.

We set off on our ride and off zoom Ellie and Nate.  They are having some sort of competition to see who can be in front.  And I'm pretty sure the competition was not a light-hearted friendly competition.  My mom and Kristine went with the big kids and I stayed back with my dad (who had the bike trailer) and Sadie (who had a bell).  Sadie was just piddling along ringing her bell.  Ring.  Ring. Ring.  She couldn't even go in a straight line because she was too busy ringing her bell.  My dad and I could barely hold a conversation because of that bell.  I did manage to hear Luke demanding, "I want to go to the BEACH!"  And so it was, we pedaled to the beach.

We actually stopped short of the beach and walked down the stone hill to get to the lake.  The kids threw rocks, caught snails and made homes for them in water bottles, splashed around in the water (getting deeper and deeper and wetter and wetter). . .all the things you picture you should do on a lazy summer morning? afternoon? (time does not exist on vacation) in Idaho.
 
Finally it was time to head home.  It was decided that Sadie would lead the pack on the way home and everyone would stay behind her.  Of course the big kids couldn't wait because Sadie couldn't pedal very fast because she was concentrating on ringing her bell and kept veering off the path and dangerously close to falling down the hill and into the lake.  She was actually pretty adorable because she would say cute things like, "It feels so good to be back on the road," as she pedaled along.  Or comment on what a beautiful day it was.  However,  I could hear Nate and Ellie screaming about who was suppose to be in front and I took off fast to catch up to them.

Meanwhile in the back of the pack, Sadie is so busy ringing her bell and commenting on how lovely bike riding is that she actually does end up heading off the path and straight down the hill.  She then flips OVER her handle bars, and lands in the middle of thorny bushes which scratch her poor little legs up.  Tough little thing that she is, she bounces up and gets back on her bike. To her the only bad part was that t broke the spring in her bell.

After the greenbelt adventure, everyone else decided to head for home (another 2 miles) on their bikes except for Ellie, who was done and Sadie's bike.  We ended up strapping Sadie into the trailer and I waited for Dave to come pick us up in the pick up.  To get home there is a really steep overpass and Nate was really worried about getting up and over it. Kristine said she would walk up it with him if he needed it.  Ellie and I watched and cheered him on and Kristine said he kept asking how many more pumps he would need until he made it to the top.  Finally the last ten pumps were over and he made it!!!  Then we had to cheer on poor Papa lugging all the water bottles, rocks to paint and kids in the trailer up the hill.

After our adventures in bike riding we were ready for some dinner.  Dustin and I made burgers and salad.  Sometime during the day we discovered that Dustin had never been to the world famous Rupe's and we headed out for an adult-only milkshake (and onion ring) run.  We actually had no idea where it was, but Dustin figured Blackfoot was small enough we didn't need directions and we set off and found it without one wrong turn.  Kathleen and I both got shakes to share with Luke and Olivia.  Luke and Olivia had no milkshakes.

My kids, my mom and my aunt decided they would spend the night on the Trampoline.  Kristine even named it: Tramp Camp.  She claims she wasn't thinking when she came up with that name.  Ellie wrote a top secret list of things to accomplish at Tramp Camp and we said good night.

I'm not sure what they did other than their OWN milkshake and french fry run to Rupe's and then they all slept on the trampoline until about 5 am when they all headed back to the basement for more sleep.

Utah -- the first stay

The week after I got back from Girl's Camp it was time to get ready for our trip to Utah. Of course I had to unpack all the camping junk, laundry, company, Dustin was out of town, I hosted 2 sleepovers, there was a pool party, piano lessons, summer movies, Peter Piper play date, breakfast with one of my YW, lunch with a girlfriend. . .I was beginning to think it might be more fun to just stay home.

In all that craziness, the weather delayed the arrival of our lost roof rack keys so we didn't have much extra space.  That meant I packed everything our family of 6 would need for 2 weeks into 4 carry on suitcases.  Therefor you will see my kids wearing the same clothes over and over again.  I swear I didn't just stage all the pictures on the same day.  My kids were mostly upset that I only packed one swimsuit each and they had to put on a wet swimsuit in order to get wet.

We had planned on leaving Friday afternoon so Dustin could work half a day.  I was begging to leave at 6 am so we could party with my sister all Friday night.  Unfortunately his plane was delayed and he didn't get home until 4 am.  Somehow we met in the middle and ended up leaving around 10 am.  We drove straight through and arrived at the hotel within a few minutes of my parents.  The next few hours looked like this:

CHAOS!  As the cousins reunited and the kids saw my parents for the first time in months, it was a total blur of a moment.   Luke and Livy were running in and out of closets chasing each other.  I have no idea how late we stayed up but it was long enough that Kathleen could run some errands and return with the star of the show: NORA!

My sister had a baby just a month before and she is adorable.  Luke loved her and kept calling her, "Lukey's baby Nora."  And then poking her eyes.  Just a small reminder why I don't need one last baby.

Saturday morning we switched off with the kids so everyone could run, made a million trips to Macey's and Kathleen hosted a party for the June Boys Club.  We all know the "January Girls Club," but there is also a lesser known although just as a exclusive "June Boys Club."  To be in it you have to be just plain awesome.  Luke, my brother-in-law Kyle and his brother Reed were all honored this year.

Reed (Kyle's brother in case you can't remember from me telling you 5 words ago) and Rachel have 7 children -- 6 boys and 1 girl.  The oldest, Emma-the-only-girl, is Ellie's age.  7 children in 10 years is crazy.  Six boys is unimaginable.  And yet Reed and Rachel are totally sane and really funny. On top of the 9 of them, they also brought some family friends, so I feel like most of the pictures make the swimming look relaxing and quiet  In reality, this picture probably captures the moment better:

Kyle's parents were also in town and his sister and brother-in-law too.  We had such a good time that we were there for well over 5 hours before we realized we still had cake!

Luke loves twinkies, so my sister spent hours in the kitchen making homemade twinkies which we then painstakingly stacked into a masterpiece of a cake.  Thank you so much Pinterest!  Actually we bought a box at the store, unwrapped them and shoved whatever wasn't eaten onto the plate.  But it's a super cool BYU Cougar plate that my sister painted at Color Me Mine so it's almost as impressive.  And I'm glad we didn't spend any time on it because it was devoured before we could even cut the actually amazing cake that Rachel made.

Can you see the cake in that picture?  Can you see the look on Luke's face as he contemplates why Reed got a cake with fancy Chinese characters on it and pudding and butter cream layers while he got some haphazard twinkie cake?  Probably not. While he was impressed with the real cake, he seriously wanted to marry his twinkies.  Poor Kyle only got gummy frogs as his special item.  And that's makes the June Boy Club so awesome: none of them actually cared.  I fear, no I KNOW (!) this would not be the case with the January Girls Club.

See the smiles?  June Boys are the best!  (Rachel of Cake Making fame in the corner and Reed and Kyle are the two men over the age of 7 in the picture).  Wait?  Are they talking while my won is blowing out candles?  Jerks!

The kids had a great time with each other and Emma even tried to come on vacation with us.  With 6 brothers I was really rooting for her.  And with 7 kids, there was a friend for everyone.

Nothing says fun like a dangerous game of Real Life Frogger between swinging kids.  I believe Luke was injured during this game.

We had Cafe Rio at the hotel for dinner and then Dustin and Kyle went to get us Kitty Katrina cake and cazookies from *THE* Chocolate while we watched Olympic trials and the kids bounced from bed to bed.  I love my family.  We have the most fun when we're doing absolutely nothing.

Sunday we went to church with my sister for the blessing of Nora.  Even though no one officially invited us.  That's actually only funny if you are my sister.  I was really excited because she lives in a richy rich ward with people like Donny Osmond (who I SAW!  But I was stalking his house at the time) and Steve Young's parents.  I don't know what I was expecting, but something along the lines of the front row at a Fashion Week runway show might be an accurate description.  In the end everyone there looked pretty down to earth and really nice.

We threw a brunch afterwards where the adults had great conversation because all the children went into one big empty room in the Club House that has solid oak doors.  It was totally quiet until someone opened them and then you could hear screaming and see children flailing around the room.  Then magically the doors would shut again and you forgot what you had seen.

After all of that, we shoved the big kids into my Aunt Kristine and Uncle Dave's car and followed them to Idaho.  Well, we meant to follow them, but we ended up about 30 minutes ahead because they made TWO food stops during the short 3 hour drive.  I guess stops for beef "turkey" and nachos directly after a buffet are what make them so much cooler than us.

And then we arrived to my own personal heaven.

A Camping We Will Go

Once again I was the Girls Camp Director for our Ward this year.  I don't know what it is about Girls Camp that makes it so fun.  It's dirty.  It's hot.  There's a lot of screaming and shrieking. . . But somehow you can't help think, "This is so great!"  Like when you win the Golden Plunger which lets you cut in line for food!!

Our girls are amazing and I was so glad that I got to spend time with them and especially get to know the Beehives and Miamaids better. Testimony night made me cry more than I have in years.  I love the Gospel.

One of the best parts of going to Girls Camp is that Dustin's parents come out to spend a week with the kids and we always get lots of time with Doug and Kathy and the boys.

This year we went over to go swimming.  Sadie latched onto Jake like she always does and Luke was in love with their dogs Max and Lucy.  I think they got a little tired of entertaining Luke and tried to escape into the house  Too bad Luke followed them.

Dustin's dad has Parkinson's and we are always grateful for any little bit of time we get to spend with him.  Sometimes he's pretty entertaining as well.

One afternoon we couldn't find him anywhere (he's been known to wander off -- one time he was off buying a new pair of boots).  After much searching and screaming we found him asleep in Sadie's room.

Father's Day

It's been a tough year for the Rogers' family as we haven't seen much of Dustin.  This may not seem like a big deal, but when your Dad is as fabulous as ours, you want to see him as much as possible.

We ended up playing the day extremely low key due to just general family stress.  Dustin had meetings all day after church and didn't get home until late in the afternoon and had to be back out on a flight to California for work.  I was leaving for Girl's Camp and getting everything put together last minute for that.  Plus Dustin's parents had flown out unexpectedly and we wanted to enjoy the little bit of time we had with them.

I'm so grateful for a wonderful husband and father.  He works so hard and it stretched so thin, but he is so kind and loving.  We are ALL excited for some vacation time and no work for Daddy!

Sweet sweet Sadies

When we were deciding on names for Nate, I loved the name Sadie for a girl.  Dustin told me it was a Grandma name and we would never use it.  Then we moved to our street and there was the most adorable little girl named Sadie.  And then another one moved in.  When we found out #3 was a girl, I was so excited because Dustin finally agreed that we know the cutest Sadies in the world.

Our little Sadie came into the world with blond hair just like the other Sadies we knew and while one has moved away, we are so grateful to still have one other Sadie on the street.  I love that when they're both over I can ask my Sadie to do something and the other Sadie does it for me.

 

They usually end up changing clothes and 9 times out of 10, they change into these black leotards and put on a dance party for me.

They think it's pretty special having a friend with your same name (at least right now when they're 5 and 6).

Our little monster is 3!

Can you believe my baby is 3??  I love those big brown eyes and his adorable little voice (when he's not screaming).  I'm pretty sure Luke is as infatuated with me as I am with him and that's what makes me want to smooch his cheeks all day long.

 

For Luke's birthday we threw a joint party with Luke's best friend. . .ASA!!

Luke and Asa were born only 4 days apart and destined to be best friends.  Luke may actually love Asa more than me.  One day at lunch we had a family debate on whether Luke liked Asa or dinosaurs more.  He loves him *that* much.

I had such a fun time planning the party with Tia.  We. . .

• Rented a water slide

there was also a swimming pool full of monster goo

• Set up a photo booth

 

Props by my amazingly talented sister Kathleen Skinner

• Ate some hamburgers and hot dogs 

• Decorated monster cupcakes (key lime frosting on graham cracker cupcakes -- Tia is an overachiever)

 

 Ellie made George Washington

  

Luke made his a triceratops

• Opened presents  

  

surprisingly Luke got a LOT of dinosaur related items 

• Played with presents

• Blew out the candles

Leftover chocolate cake and lemon cupcakes from the night before

 

• Cracked open the pinata

 

• And sent everyone home 

• But not without party favors!! 

These only took an entire afternoon to put together.

Luke at THREE!!!

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite Number: 3

Favorite Drink: Apple Juice

Favorite Food: Watermelon, Mac & Cheese, Chips

Favorite Game: Candyland

Favorite Animal: Dinosaur

Favorite TV Show: Dinosaur Train

I feel sad when: someone tells me NO

I feel mad when: I have to go to Church

I like it when my friends: are Asa

I like it when I: get to read my Dinosaur Field Guide

I wish I could: have a real dinosaur

Who is your best friend? Asa

What is your favorite activity? Reading my Dinosaur Field Guide

What three things are you are good at? Zerberts, dinosaur names, not eating

We're so glad you're in our family!!

Our Summer Thus Far

The first day of summer vacation at our house always starts out with such high expectations.  This year we:

• did chores
• studied in our workbooks
• read books
• practiced piano
• organized the pantry
• washed/folded/put away loads and loads of laundry

In fact my kids were so ambitious I had to yell at Sadie to STOP doing her summer workbook or else we wouldn't have anything else for her to do during the summer.

You're probably not surprised by this.  I am a relatively orderly and scheduled person.  I thrive on routine.  But for some reason, when that 7 weeks of summer rolls around, I just don't care.

Turns out I should have let Sadie finish that workbook in one day because that's the last time we've used it.  Somehow we've been caught up in a whirlwind of swimming, play dates, games and movies.

(I was just looking at the pictures on this post and I noticed Luke's plate is entirely chips!)

This morning, the 8th day of vacation, a little nagging voice in my head started reminding me about the workbooks.  And the math facts.  And the reading.  And laundry.  Oh, that dang laundry still piles up despite me encouraging my children to live entirely in their swimsuits of pajamas all summer long.

I resolved to restart the program today.  And go to Costco.  And the library.  And Target.

8:30 am the phone rang and my friend Kristin asked me if we wanted to go to the Designer Boulevard sale.  And with that, my plan went out the window.

We ended up shopping. Nate went out to lunch/shopping/swimming at a friend's house (his mom is way more fun than I ever am).  We picked up not enough pizza (4 whole pizzas and they were still starving and some didn't even eat!! Our kids are pigs.) and went swimming with a bunch of friends.

At one point in time there were actually no children in the pool, but we couldn't drag ourselves away from it because everyone was off playing so nicely.

We stole one of Ellie's friends for a sleep over.  Picked up Nate.  Came home around 4 and not even five minutes later, there was a knock on the door from Brody wondering if Nate could come over and play.

Five minutes later, Sadie Tyler ended up over here.  We played games, we ate cookies. . . I did manage to fold some laundry!  Around 6 pm I thought I'd better make some dinner and with that our day was gone.

How do the summer days slip away so fast??  I should probably feel guilty, but I don't even feel like we wasted the day.  I think that's exactly how summer should go.

The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

The most wonderful day of the year is the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!  2012 was a great school year for Nate and Ellie, but I am so glad it's over. No homework.  No early mornings.  We got big plans this summer: lots of sleeping, lots of swimming, lots of games, lots of movies, and lots of cleaning (that might not happen, but it's in *my* plans).

Luckily for me, both of my kids' teachers wanted to do their own thing with the kids, so I got off easy.  All I had to do was thrown Ellie's class lunch.  I ordered pizzas and picked up a some Capri Suns, plates, napkins and cup cakes. And with that, we closed the book on 4th and 1st grade. Both kids had great report cards and we're really happy with their teachers for next year.

My neighbor Jill and I set up a giant slip n slide down at our park and invited some friends over.  We hooked up 4 hoses to the faucet at my house to get water down there, but it was totally worth it.  The kids had such a great time in the water and eating popsicles, while we sat in the shade for 3 hours just chatting.

You can't even tell there were almost 30 kids there.  And in case you were wondering, the 2nd most wonderful day of the year: The first day of school.

Califonia Sun

For Mother's Day Dustin decided to send me on a trip to California.  He called up my friend Kristin's husband, who then called Molly's husband, who in turn called Maren's husband, and before we knew it we had a lovely foursome.  Except it was suppose to be a surprise so none of us talked about it to each other, only to find out that none of our husbands can keep a secret for long.

It had been in the 100's here in the valley, so we were excited for some cooler weather.  Only our husband sent us over Memorial Day weekend, which happened to bring a 20 degree drop in temperature.  Great if you were staying in Arizona, not so fun if you were hoping to hit the beach.  I texted Dustin, "Less time at the beach, means more time to shop."  He then told me it is never too cold for the hot tub.

We started out adventure with the brilliant idea to take a picture everywhere we went. It lasted a day and a half. ..so as this blog progresses, you will see less and less.  The first thing we did was go to the bathroom.  Seriously.  It's a trip of 4 girls.  We spent a lot of time peeing.  No picture of that, but I did think it would be funny to go in the exit and surprise Maren, and in my haste ran into someone actually exiting the bathroom.

Actually, the first thing we did was irritate everyone on the plane around us.  The take off had really bad turbulence and Molly might have been freaked out a little which might have left all of us in hysterics (what kind of friends think being scared is funny??).  And we had a stack of People magazines that we couldn't stop discussing.  And that's the last details I can give you on any of our discussions and inside jokes because what happens in California, stays in California.

So once we landed, peed, got our rental car, we headed for Javier's.  It's a rather swanky Mexican restaurant where Molly ate a toothpick.  There were actually 4 of them hidden inside her chimichanga.  But never fear, we got free dessert out of the whole thing. 

Next we hit up a home decor warehouse that Molly's friend loves.  We are not allowed to divulge the name, but it was HUGE. For example, there were 3 entire Costco rows of just ribbon.  And an aisle of creepy elves.

  There was also a lot of really cute, well priced stuff too.  It was the most confusing selection of prices and items.  Like these beautiful headbands right by the checkout.

Once we freaked out because we had already bought enough stuff to fill an entire suitcase, we went to unpack at the hotel.  They might have written 1724 on the cards and we might have spent 5 minutes trying to break into someone else's villa until we called and they told us that we were in 1721.  I really hope the people in 1724 were not home.  In the middle of unpacking, I discovered that I had brought two left running shoes.  This prompted another shopping trip!!

We headed over to Fashion Island and ate at True Food Kitchen.  I have been dying to eat there since they opened one in Scottsdale, but hey, why not travel all the way to California for it.  It was actually really good and I'd eat there again. 

Then Maren used her Nike hook up to treat us all to new Nikes.

Finally we hit the grocery store, rented a movie, went back to the hotel, made pizookies, and snuggled on the pull out couch while we watched 30 minutes of We Bought a Zoo before I fell asleep.

Saturday I woke up long before everyone else, strapped on my new running shoes and ran up the California hills.  It was brutal.  I did the first 4 miles straight uphill, though, so the last 4 were gorgeous.  We all showered and headed to Laguna for brunch at Las Brisas with my really good friend, Michelle, and Molly's friend Kristen.

Then we stopped taking pictures.  We went to Tai Pan Trading and then South Coast Plaza for lots more shopping, dinner and a movie.  We still managed to finish of the last of the cookie dough and ice cream with another round of pizookies when we got home.

Sunday we went to Church at the Stake Center across from the Newport Temple.  We also took the ferry out to Balboa, put our feet in the sane (because I touched that water and it was freezing), and then back to the resort for some relaxing by the hot tub.

We realized we still had to finish We Bought a Zoo, so we decided to change into our PJs and get take out.  Somehow in our driving around using our cell phones, we happened upon Pasta Pomodoro, which is one of Molly's favorites.  It is, however, sit down.  Oh the horror as we walked through the restaurant (at least mine were yoga pants) with Kristin in her silky hot pink leopard print pajama pants.  Our waitress was really cute about it though, "Oh!  It's a slumber party!"  And then she shoved in the back corner.  Thank you waitress.  But seriously, the bread there and the pesto dipping sauce were so delicious.

And then we woke up and went home.