The Grand Canyon

Usually the 4th grade gets to take a field trip up to the Grand Canyon, but due to budget cuts, Ellie's class missed out this year.  I've been promising to take her up ever since.

We decided to leave for Utah a night early and make a detour through the Grand Canyon since it only added an hour to our trip and we were taking our time getting up there anyway.

Dustin and I have each been to the Grand Canyon once before.  He was 6 or 7 and I was 23.  My dad took my sister and me up for the day and splurged for a helicopter ride.  It then made him so sick (he has inner ear issues) that he spent the rest of the day sitting as far away from the edge as possible and forcing my sister and I to enjoy nature.  We also played "Guess Who" on the way home and my dad picked Hitler.  WHO DOES THAT???

So my only memory, was about a decade ago and I remember thinking, "WHY ARE THERE NO FENCES???"  I prepared Luke -- the runner -- by telling him that he HAD to hold me hand or else he would fall in the hole and die.  And so we set off for one of the wonders of the world with Luke repeating over and over again, "I'm going to hold mommy's hand.  I don't want to fall in the big hole and die."

Luke was probably the most enthusiastic when we got there.  We saw a rock, "It's the Grand Canyon!"  We were walking on the path, "Ooooooh, look!  It's the Grand Canyon!"  Finally we got to the *actual* hole and Luke was appropriately impressed again.  And guess what -- there were fences!!

I was starting to relax a little bit when the kids wanted to go walk along the path, so we headed East.  Suddenly the fences disappeared and all that was left was a steep drop to the bottom of the canyon and my 4 very wiggly kids.

We pressed our luck, no one feel off, but I decided that we should head back to the car and drive around to see what else we could see.

Well "what we could see" ended up with us happening to stop at the trail head to the steepest and scariest climb down to the Canyon.  And guess which child loves to hike??

We decided that since Sadie was in ballet flats and I was in Toms, Dustin would take the big kids down and I would stay at the top where the littlest two were being loved and adored by some tourist group that couldn't stop taking their pictures.

Until Luke decided that he ALSO likes to hike.  And so down we went in our non-gripping shoes as people with their hiking poles looked at us like we were crazy.  We weren't going all the way to the bottom people!!  Oh wait, Nate also thought we were and he would only agree to come BACK up if Dustin agreed to take him hiking into the Canyon in the spring.

I ended up carrying Sadie up the trail because she couldn't be bothered to wear her shoes.  At the top she informed me that I was breathing so hard because it was aerobic exercise.

It really was fun and a gorgeous hike.  I'm actually kind of excited to go back and do it for real this time.

Author Spotlight: Sadie Rogers

On Sadie's report card, under teacher comments it says:

Sadie is like a sponge!  She is doing a great job learning new things and applying those skills automatically.

It is so true!  Sadie has already started filling our home full of things she has learned.  Probably her favorite skill is writing.  We are always finding little notes laying around the house.

Like on our trip to Utah.  I wanted to make a shopping list of all of the things we had forgotten back home.  Sadie decided to be the scribe.

Lasers (razors), Lush (blush), maybe puppets (she added that one herself).

She is also always making little books for us.  Here is one of my favorites.

 Title: BYU Game

 Last night I saw the basketball game of BYU.

 It was fun, but I did not get to shoot.

 But I didn't whine.

Sadie told me the other day, "I am never going to give up on writing.  NEVER!"

BREAK!!

Some people think that modified year round school is over-rated.  I am not one of those people.  In fact, I would argue that *those* people either a) are super jealous or b) hate your children.

But I love my children and I was very sad to send them back to school today after 2 and a half weeks of glorious fun! This is also explains why I haven't been blogging much.  Here's our very busy break in very bad iPhone pictures.

My kids went swimming 5 or 6 times and spent lots and lots of running around the neighborhood with all the kids.

We played at the park, saw Hotel Transylvania, and painted Nate's room.

Still had piano and karate, and Sadie ran for Class President of our house (oh how I love it when they find tape).

They managed not to fight, kept the house clean and even made a tree about how much they love me.

Took the boys in for a well check (Luke is in the 35th percentile for weight -- WOO HOO!  Highest EVER!!), everyone got flu shots, and survived many trips to the grocery store with 4 in tow.

 Between the 3 of them, there were 5 or 6 sleepovers and we also went out to dinner and a play with friends.

General Conference was wonderful -- I did the candy buckets this year and we ate way too much candy, but enjoyed every session.

Including our Saturday night park date while the husband's were at Priesthood Session (which ended up being a very wet evening).

And Sunday morning brunch with the Oregon girls and our 12 children

There were more play dates and a funeral for Lindsay's pet hamster.

 And in the middle  of all that there was a car trip to the Grand Canyon and Utah (more on that later)

We came home just in time to clean out closets, do lots of laundry and celebrate with a lunch and cupcake date.

I would have liked to end October break with all of those great memories, but our very last excitement was a trip to the Urgent Care.  While I was picking Ellie and Brookie up from Activity Days and Dustin was finishing up dinner, Sadie and Nate were having a very intense scooter race.  IN the end they crashed and Sadie's foot ended up between the scooter and wheel and when she pulled it out, she had a deep gash.

She was very very brave and everyone was very sweet to her.  After lots of attention and a little glue, Sadie realized, "It's a good thing I needed to come in, or else they would have been bored all night."

Twins!

At the end of each quarter, our school holds a "free dress day."  Only, it's not free -- it costs $1 and the proceeds benefit a charity or the school.  The "free part" is the free choice to where whatever clothes you want to wear (ie whatever clothes you still fit into from the summer because no one who sends their kids to uniform buys new fun clothes from July to October).  But if you're my kids, it really is free because your mom forgot to send you with money and no one was going to send you home to change back into a uniform.*

* I promise to give liberally for the December free dress day, which proceeds, in the spirit of full disclosure, will go to supply art supplies for the art program I run at the school.

After a million tangents here, let's go back over the facts: kids can pick whatever they want to wear to school 4 times a year.  Only SURPRISE!  This quarter, the student council thinks it will be fun to have a twin day.  Which is not exactly so much fun. Isn't every day at a uniform school twin day???  And girls are super fun too.  Ellie was told she couldn't dress with a group because she didn't have blonde hair.  Hello Aryans (I'm totally kidding.  TOTALLY KIDDING).  This is actually fine by me. Ellie is freaking gorgeous, so none of you could be her twin anyway.  Ellie actually had other friends who wanted her to dress like them, but this was just a small sample of the drama which other friends of mine encountered. 

My main problem was Sadie, who is in Kindergarten.  Now no Kindergartener cares about Student Council "spirit days" unless they are the super-mature, younger sister of 2 older kids who do care.  And so Sadie was begging me to find someone to be her twin. 

Ellie, who is a secret evil genius, saw the opportunity and grabbed at it.  Instead of going with the "let's all wear blue shirts" group, Ellie sweetly offered to dress like Sadie's twin.  And so Ellie ended up with a brand new outfit.

I won't go over the HOUR long hissy fit Sadie threw while we were trying to pick out clothes, because the main focus of this blog post is how sweet Ellie is.  My darling 5th grader wasn't too embarrassed to dress like her Kindergarten sister because she knew it would make Sadie feel special.  I love that girl.

And I lied -- I will give you one glimpse of the shopping trip.  See that crazy eyed blonde above?  To quote her, "I'm not in charge of the clothes, I'm in charge of picking out the accessories!"  This was as I informed her I was NOT buying hot pink sequined boots and matching belts.

Oh and Nate and his friend wore Ninjago shirts and khaki shorts.  Boy are so easy.

This is not a paid advertisement

I don't get paid for my product endorsements -- and that's how you know they're AWESOME!

For instance -- cupcake goldfish.  I'm actually kind of sad I shared this find because now I can never find them when they are on sale.  I still pay full price for them.  They're that yummy.

And The Chocolate dessert cafe in Utah.  Has anyone ever been let down by Kitty Katrina or a cazookie? I cannot wait to get my hands on some in just a few weeks.

My other love at the moment -- sea salt caramel frozen yogurt from Swirl-It.  This is my number one craving.  One night I even wished that the Sea Salt Carmel Fairy would visit me and HE DID!!

Are you noticing a trend in products I enjoy?  They all involve sugar.

Right now we are loving Rita's Water Ice.  It's like Bahama Bucks only better.  It makes Bahama Bucks taste like barf if I'm going to lay it out there (think they can use that as an advertising campaign??)

Rita's Water Ice originated on the East Coast and it is our summer time splurge whenever we're at the beach house in Virginia.  When we got back last summer, Dustin looked them up and found one about an hour away.  Just a month ago we were up in that area having dinner with friends and we convinced them to give it a try.  They agreed -- Rita's Water Ice is delicious.  And a perfect summertime treat.

We were even more stoked to find a new one just opened up in downtown Tempe.  A 20 minute commute actually seems like a breeze compared to driving to Arcadia.  And luckily for you, even though the calendar says it's fall, Arizona weather says it's still SUMMER!!

Goooooo Cougars

This weekend BYU plays Hawaii.  We're gearing up for the game and rooting for a WIN!  The Cougars have been causing a lot of heartache  the last few games.  Possibly the hardest loss was the BYU vs. Utah game.  Bitter rivals, only made worse by the fact that some of our very best friends are Utes.

You may remember last year, when I was spared the blow out by being righteous.  But this year, we were free to party.  Molly hosted all of our BYU/Utah friends and if the game had been based on sheer numbers, I think that field goal would have been good!

Part of the requirements to get into the party you had to pick a side!  I was horrified that so many of my friends did not have BYU shirts to wear.  How can they call themselves fans?  Luckily the Rogers family could supply their spirit.

The food was all red and blue themed.  Mainly blue!  BYU mint brownies, blueberry cheesecake. . . I made Y sugar cookies with butterCREAM THE UTES frosting. Amanda even brought caffeinated Coke in honor of the latest BYU debate.

The game was a slight disappointment for most of the room, but at least the ending was exciting.  And we're all still friends.

Boy School -- Part Deux

I did some form of Joy School with both Nate and Ellie, but life was too busy when Sadie was a toddler (ie Luke was a terror), so I was very happy to get back into the swing of things with another round of Boy School.

I forgot how fun it is and how cute those little boys are.  I also forgot how crazy and exhausting it is keeping 4 boys engaged and interested for 2 hours.  It is definitely a physical work out.

I picked D for Dinosaurs because. . . actually I don't need to tell you why.  If you don't know how much Luke loves dinosaurs and how many dinosaur related items we have then I don't even know why you are reading this blog because we cannot possibly friends or related and if you don't know we are dino-obsessed over here you are probably a pretty bad stalker.

We sang songs, we did stickers, we shadow matched, dino-sorted, read a million dinosaur books, stomped around the house, learned about 4 types of dinosaurs, thawed dinosaurs out of ice cubes (we had to learn how they died and why their bones are preserved), made dinosaurs out of the letter D, ate dinosaur gummy snacks. . . and then when my house was trashed, we watched 20 minutes of Dino Dan.  Don't judge me.  I was really exhausted.

 It's going to be a fun year with handsome guys!  And just for your viewing pleasure -- a flashback to some of my other favorite boys:

Adventures in Babysitting

There is a really adorable young couple in our ward with this chubby chunky baby that Dustin cannot get enough of.  Every Sunday you'll find Dustin wandering the halls with him.  You would think this would get Dustin on board my baby train, but no.  It's just enough to give him a baby fix each week.

Remembering how poor we were back when Ellie was a baby and how little we ever got out, we volunteered to babysit for them one evening.  It was seriously the best night ever.  The kids crowded around Jameson all night and we did nothing.

Sometimes they may have crowded poor Jameson *too* much.

I think it's funny that people always say that girls are more nurturing than boys because in my family that is simply not true.  My girls are probably better at "mothering" because they're really good at being in charge, but my boys love love love babies.

We also feel badly for poor Jameson because his parents sometimes make him wear ASU clothes, so he couldn't leave this house unless he was a true blue Cougar!!

We are so glad he will have something to wear when he cheers on BYU this Saturday night!  GOOOOO COUGARS!!

Karate Chop

Like most boys, Nate's #1 career goal is to be a Ninja. Being the supportive parents we are, we decided that taking Karate would be the natural first step.

Miss Julie, our amazing piano teacher and friend, even took Nate to see her girls in action to make sure he wanted to sign up.  It's just a program out of the Junior High by us, so you don't actually have to wear a "gi" although they do have some available for purchase.

I sent Dustin and a sweats-wearing Nate to his first lesson.  Right before the lesson was about to start, a picture of Nate clad in black was sent to my phone.  It looks like Mommy isn't the only softie in the family, despite what Daddy says every time I come home from the store.

So far I've been really happy with the program.  They encourage responsibility and self defense. Even better. . . Travis, Nate's best friend, signed up for Karate too!

As soon as I can get Nate to stop whining about running half a mile I'm going to make him my running buddy so I can stop carrying that baseball bat.

Preschool!

The day is here! For 4 hours a week, I have no one to entertain me and give me kisses. . . at the same time no one needs a snack or to be strapped into a car seat. It definitely has its ups and downs.  I'm torn between being sad to leave a stage in my life and being excited for Luke to experience some independence.

We are lucky enough to have the best, most loving preschool teacher in the world in our Ward and Luke was dying to go to school.  Everyday when we would drop off the kids he would ask me where Sadie was.  He was definitely lonely without his little buddy.  I think it's obvious that I no substitute for the entertainment Sadie provides on a daily basis.

The kids picked out a dinosaur backpack for Luke and he loves it.  In fact every school day he wants me to take a picture of him with his backpack.  He also insisted on wearing his dinosaur shirt.  I probably should have made him wear something cuter, but I just wanted him to be happy.  I have literally given in to that whole "spoiled baby of the family" syndrome they talk about in all the psychology books.

He did surprisingly well getting dropped off and I was running late for a meeting, so I didn't wait until they all went inside (ah, see the "baby"stereotype coming to fruition already?  The guilt I feel can only be rectified with buying him loads of ice cream!).  Then I saw this number on my girlfriend's facebook wall.

Sweet Luke looking terrified, surrounded by girls.  He is the ONLY boy in the class, but I think it will be good for him since he's kind of bad at sharing.  He was not really terrified I assure you.  The picture is just too funny to pass up.

 Now that Luke is in preschool the number one question I get is: "What are you going to do with all of your free time?"

Well people, the same thing I did with my time before (mainly volunteering at school).  Only now when I leave Target I don't have to buy a dinosaur toy to make it out alive.  And no one is grabbing things off the low shelves at the grocery store and I don't have to maneuver those awful car shopping carts.

Don't let my faux-enthusiasm fool you.  I miss Luke like crazy.  One day I had nothing to do other than run to the library and get some food at Sprouts.  I literally felt lost.  I just wandered up and down the aisles wishing Luke were with me begging for cheese curls.  And it still only wasted an hour.

I can't wait for field trips and class parties for Luke!! 

As political as I'll get for now. . .

This is why I'm not as politically informed as this season as I should be --

I sat down to watch Michelle Obama's speech and the next thing I know all of my kids are hovering around me.

Sadie starts off. . .

Sadie: Guess what!  I have all 5 senses.  I have eyes.  I have my nose, I have my fingers and last I have my mouth.  And my ears.  I was forgetting one wasn't I.  I can hear.  I can see.  I can smell.  I can taste.  And what's the five one?  And I can touch with my fingers. 

You see these bumps on my tongue?  They're called taste buds.  Any bumps on your tongue are taste buds.

Guess what, the fingers actually look like legs.

My teacher has a friend who can't smell anymore because of this (points to her nose).  She can't smell out of her nose anymore.

Ooooooh, what's in this bag?? (starts ransacking my bag of goodies for Boy School tomorrow)

Nate walks in. . .

Nate: Can you shave off my mustache?

I guess that's why they invented DVR.