Bagoon - AKA Lagoon

Can we say One Of These Things Does Not Belong? Rich is tooooo big for the kiddie swings!
Somehow Sophie got her way and sat in the front even though Pete called it first...
Beep Beep!
This was the first time I realized there were kiddie bumper cars at Lagoon - where have I been?
Peter would NOT ride this roller coaster, but Max did!
This was the boys favorite ride!
Gotta love the fountians, I just wish they wouldn't make the kids wear shirts, shorts and shoes. Shoes is fine, but they get their clothes all wet! Don't they get it? What's the big deal about being dressed running through the fountains that they have to have tons of employees standing there enforcing the rule???
Smiling and excited about the Music Express!
Happy Lagoon Day

Peter calls it Bagoon, and it drives Sophie crazy that he doesn't say it right. We promised the kids that we would take them this summer. And that is where we were headed today. My favorite question was "mom, are you sure you know the way to Lagoon?" We pass it on the way to and from the airport everytime we go... It was our stake Lagoon day, and this year we actually bought a day pass, and did more than the free things that come with Stake Lagoon Day. And it was a great day! We didn't get there until 4pm and wanted to be there around 1pm, but I was thankf ul for our late arrival. It was SO hot!! It was 91* and Sophie said it felt like 102*!!! She is a funny girl, how does she know?... Well to report on the rides, they were a hit. The biggest achievement of the day goes out to Peter. He had fun!!! He went on most of the kiddie rides happily and even went on the Music Express twice! With his little older and braver cousin Hyrum! Thanks for the peer pressure Hyrum!! It did wonders! We stayed way late, and didn't get home until midnight! I guess that makes us child abusers, keeping our kids up so late, but that last hour we could practically walk onto any ride we wanted with no lines! We were grateful for grandma and grandpa who offered to take Max home after dinner and put him to bed. But he had fun before he left and LOVED the kiddie boats the best. I did nothing but walk around, take pictures and push the stroller. What else can you do at 8 months pregnant at Lagoon? I could have ridden on the train and merry go round, but didn't. I still had fun too. Next year will be even more fun - Sophie will be tall enough to go on everything I think, and Peter will be even braver, and Max will be bigger, and the baby will be able to ride a little, and I will be able to ride too! Fun times!

ALOHA

Rich often goes away on business trips. He trains chiropractors how to use the Pro-Adjuster. He loves this little side job and has been able to go to some fun places. Like California, Texas, Nebraska, Alaska, and this weekend... Hawaii!!! I really wanted to go with him, but was too pregnant to make the trip. So he had fun in the sun on his own. And it worked out anyway because he was gone the same time my grandma was here. And I would have missed her if I went with Rich. Well. I need to tell you about some of the mis-haps during his island adventure:
1. His flight left at 8:30am and we actually got to the airport in PLENTY of time to catch his plane. He didn't want anything to go wrong and got there 1 1/2 hrs early. As opposed to his usual 30 min - run onto the plane airport experience. For some reason things weren't going his way. Because of massive security lines he missed his flight by 4 minutes. He and 5 other passengers were standing at the gate looking at their plane still sitting there, but the attendants had locked the flight and wouldn't let them on!!!! Totally not fair! Rich did miraculously find another flight (that he had to pay a re-booking fee for) that left at 9:30pm, then he had to lay over in LAX for 10hours in the middle of the night!! He was really upset about all of this, as you can imagine. But at least he could get there and train this doctor. The whole trip was almost cancelled during the new flight finding process. Things did not look promising for a while.
2. We got him on his red eye with no problems, and his checked luggage was probably already twirling the conveyor belt all alone in the Honolulu, HI airport without him... Meanwhile, Rich was trying to sort out his hotel and car reservations. But because of the time difference he could only reach the hotel. When he finally got there his car was long gone with no replacements in sight. He wandered around car rental places in a huff and finally found ONE for double the cost of course!! He was not a happy camper.
3. The rest of the trip seemed to go along swimmingly (doing sight seeing, fine dining, and snorkeling) until Monday afternoon. He was going back to his car after doing a little shopping for the kids only to find his car missing - it was towed!!! He parked in a line of cars on a curb and when he got back all the cars were gone and he could clearly see the NO PARKING - TOW AWAY ZONE sign... This was only hours before his flight was leaving to come back home.
4. After a little investigation he found out his car was towed to the other side of the island, of course! He had to hail a taxi to get him there. He made it, paid the crazy fees again (I'm sure glad money grows on trees in Hawaii) and cruised back to his hotel to get his luggage they were holding, fill up with gas, and return his expensive car rental only to enter the airport and find ridiculously long lines, again.
5. Finally he got to the front of the line, only to realize his ticket was for Sunday night, not Monday night. Big uh-oh on our part. When he was told he would return on the 23rd, he assumed that meant the plane left on the 23rd. Actually it was to arrive in SLC on the 23rd.
6. United had no open seats on any flights out of Hawaii on Monday night.. But he had a super nice lady was helping him and his luck changed. He got on with Delta and flew off the cursed island. After sleeping on the plane and a short layover in San Fransisco he made it home to SLC Tuesday morning. Yeah!
7. After sitting in the car in the park and wait for almost an hour we decided to go in and sit with Rich while he waited for his luggage to come. Big hugs for all of us! And he surprised us all with is scruffy bearded face! Better than I would have thought, but it'll be gone in a few days. The luggage didn't come. When his flight cleared out we went to the luggage office hoping for the best and expecting the worst. Good news, it was coming on the next flight. We just had to wait for 1/2 hour more. The kids were getting bored. But I was just happy to finally have Rich home, the luggage coming, and not be in the car anymore.
It was over...

No more stressed out panic phone calls to me while he vents his frustrations to me as one thing after another went wrong on his trip.

Not more trips to the airport. We had been there 5 times in 5 days!!! Between Rich and my grandma.

And no more being a single mom. That's always the worst part about him being gone. I have to change all the poopy diapers!

Then came the kids favorite time. Present time! Rich always brings them home a little something when he goes away. Lei's for us all! And he brought Pete a cute ukulele, Sophie a dancing hula girl and necklace, and me 2 necklaces and a pair of earrings. While revealing the goodies his heart sunk as he realized he had forgotten Max. But Max didn't care, so it was OK. But he did have a great surprise for all the kids. Cute Chinese costumes for Halloween. Complete with hats, shoes, and an umbrella! Can't wait for October! He even got one for the baby!
So now we are all together and all the problems with the trip are behind us! Thank goodness. And surprisingly Rich said he DID NOT want to go back to Hawaii any time soon! Can't blame him I guess...

Excuse Note

Well, one of the reasons for my recent absence is the reading of the rest of the Twilight series. (It was great!!! Can't wait to read book 4 in August when it comes out!)That kept me busy until Monday June 14th. Then I worked at Rich's office for a week and a half while his secratary went on vacation. My last day of work was the same day my grandma came to town for a few days on her way back home to Canada after being in Arizona for a while. And thus, my blogging absence. But I will back track our adventures and fun. Eventually. The main set back would be computer issues again. Not mine, but Rich's at the office. He took MY home comupter and gave me his acnient lap top. It is supposed to be a temporary situation, but I am not holding my breath. His laptop does not have any of my favorite programs, pictures, or websites that I keep under my Favorites and don't really know the website addresses. So I can't download my pictures and movies. It is a nusance to say the least.

GG came to visit

My grandma (my mom's mom) is lovingly referred to as GG (Great Grandma) by my kids. She was recently in Arizona and decided to pop in on us on her way back home to Canada. And I was so excited! I haven't seen her in more than 2 years, since I was last in Canada. When my family moved to Canada, we lived with my Grandma. And we continued to live with her for most of my growing up years in Canada. She is more like a second mother than a grandma. So I was thrilled for a visit. And I really wanted my kids to have some bonding time with her. Especially since she has never even met Maxwell - and he is almost 1 1/2 years old. She stayed for close to a week. And we took it slow and didn't do too much. We went to a lunch group, the dentist, the movies, out to eat, and only one little trip to the store. The rest of the time we spent at home enjoying each others company. The kids loved playing games with her and showing off some of their skills, like head stands against the back of the couch. We wish the time could have been longer, but we were so happy to have her even for just a few days. And we'll see her again later this summer when we go to Canada on our family vacation later this summer.

WE LOVE YOU GG!!!

THANK YOU FOR VISITING US!!!

Kung Fu Panda

Peter has been 'Kung Fu Panda' forever now. Since the first preview of the movie he saw. Well, with GG in town we decided to go and see it this afternoon. It was a major hit with all the kids. They laughed and sat through most of it. Pete would have sat through all of it if it weren't for me and Max going on a walk on the side of the theater. It was only like the last 20 minutes. He followed and turned out he wanted to be part of the movie. He ended up down in the front of all the seats running back and forth as he demonstrated all of his awesome Kung Fun Panda moves!!! And Max was right behind him trying his darndest to copy his cool big brother! I'm sure they were a distraction to everyone else, but how could I stop them?!! They were being so stinkin' cute! On the way home they asked when it would be on DVD. I said I thought sometime before Christmas. Then the fight broke out over who would ask Santa for it... Needless to say, they LOVED the movie! I asked them their favorite parts and Pete said all the Kung Fu Panda parts(duh), and Sophie quoted her favorite line "He finally had the noodle dream" (totally random!! but that's why we love her)

Back to the Dentist

It was time for another check up today. We went right after a really fun lunch group with all our friends. Max is way younger than the otherg kids were when they first went. But I thought since we were all going, he should get checked out too. He has what we call a snaggle tooth. It's his top front left tooth. And I wanted to know if I should be concerned about it or not. I didn't get any real answers I didn't already know. We can't tell for sure until he is big enough to get x-rays. And the problem right now is just cosmetic. Sorry Max! I wanted to get some cute pictures of his first trip to the dentist, but he doesn't do pictures very well, and they only did a lap exam on my lap. Nothing too exciting.

But other than that I'm happy to report - NO CAVITIES! Although I would have been surprised if there were any. We try to be consistant with our dental hygene habits. Not always sucessful - but we try. And in my mind they are too little for something like cavities. I was surprised that this time they took the kids in for their cleanings without me. I think the kids felt really grown up about the whole thing. And their faces beamed as they walked out with their new tooth brushes (Cars and Belle) and their sticky eye ball prizes they picked out.

Lemonade Stand

Sophie was devastated the other day when the neighbor kids did a lemonade stand - after dinner... I have a No Playing Rule after dinner. But today they wanted to do it again and that was OK with me! Sophie was SOOOO excited! Some how they ended up using all of our lemonade, otter pops and cups... All in the name of fun. Peter was back and forth all day and was upset when the big girls were making him pay for an otter pop - even though we supplied them!

They were there for hours! And when Rich had to go back to the office after lunch he drove by the kids and noticed a new sign in addition to the $o.25 for lemonade and the $0.50 for otter pops. This new sign said all the money would be donated to the children's hospital. He called me laughing and checking to make sure there wasn't some scam going on. Sure enough, much to Sophie's dismay, the big kids wanted to donate all their sweat earned money to the children's hospital. They earned a total of $23.95. Not too bad. And I'm sure they'll be doing this again soon! But maybe next time they'll keep their money. I know Sophie was looking forward to a little shopping spree with her earned money.

Reading

Yesterday I finished reading Twilight (by Stephanie Meyer). It was SO good! It took me 3 days only because I was trying to be self disciplined and not read 24/7. (One reason I don't read often is because I tend to ignore the real world and live only in my book till it is done. Another reason is because I never know what to read. I usually pick my books according to recommendations from friends or family. Too many to count have loved Twilight - so I jumped on board! So if you have suggestions - let me know. I love to read.) I made ground rules for myself. Like finishing my chores, making sure I play with the kids, make dinner for my husband, and still go to bed with a clean house. After these things were done I was able to use my free time to read. And it worked, even though it was SO hard to put the book down at those climatic moments! I did run into one incident during the 3 day reading session. I will have to admit that on Friday afternoon I thought Max was playing inside, and Sophie and Peter outside. And I was reading. I was hearing too much outside noise from inside and I went to investigate. I peeked out Peter's window because the outside noise also brought my attention to the fact that either Max was playing really quiet, or he wasn't in the house. The latter proved to be true. Out the window I saw all the neighbor kids playing together (expected) and Max at the END of the culdisac, walking all by himself - alone! (unexpected!) I felt like a horrible mom! Thankfully there is hardly any traffic here, especially during the day. And what traffic we do have are local neighbors - all aware of the mass amount of children in our culdisac and in the street behind us. Still - no excuse for letting my 16 month old out without supervision. The kids response was that Max wanted to play outside and so they let him. I love my daughter; AKA the little mother. Lesson learned. All in all, I can't wait to start the next book in the series. This time maybe I'll do a little more reading outside where I can supervise my children a little more.

The Bubble Boys.

Peter got 2 bubble guns for his birthday. And of course he loves the Buzz Lightyear gun best(thanks Aaron and Matt). Good thing because Sophie likes the other one better. Turns out his buddy Josh has the exact same gun!!! So they have a great time shooting bubbles. Peter plays with Josh almost everyday. He lives 2 houses away from us in the culdisac and I can usually find them at one of our houses or roaming the circle. I don't mind at all, I'm glad they have each other. It's so fun to have friends.

PS-I thought it'd be fun to put a blue tint on these bubble pictures, but now that I look at them again it just looks like it is dark outside. It really was nice out today. Oh well.

Happy 4th Birthday Peter

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

So the picture turned out a little blurry, sorry about that.

Here's Peter with his presents from the family. Thanks to the grandma's!! He loves the pirate puppet, and stickers (they are already used up) and hat. And maybe he'll learn to tie his shoes with that great interactive book. And I wasn't surprised when Peter loved the mini transformer guys we got him. It is a pack of 5 and he carries them all in his hands where ever he goes. Sophie was so proud of her Superman Look and Find book she got Peter. She loves to read it.

Can't believe my Peter is 4 years old. I still remember when he was born(won't go into the details today). Our first son. We love you Peter.

Four Reasons Why I Love Peter

1. He makes me laugh, every single day. Even/especially when he is getting in trouble. And when he says funny things like "Look mom, a human is on the street!"

2. He learns things on his own and then shows me. Newest one, the other day he came to me and said "I can do my own buttons mom!" And sure enough, now he does all his own buttons. (I do the top one so he can keep them in the right order though)

3. He loves his Savior. I don't know where he picked it up, but he goes around telling me what Jesus tells him. "Jesus told me to not have any accidents (potty accidents), so I won't anymore." Apparently they have several conversations relevant to Peter's life. "Jesus told me to be obedient to you mommy. So I will." "Mom, I did a great thing Jesus told me to do - flush the toilet, I did it... And he told me to shut the bathroom door and I did that too." And he often prays that Jesus will come again.

4. He is so dang cute. I fall in love with Peter when he looks at me with his big blue eyes and gives me a giant hug. I get very frustrated with him at times (at least once a day), but there are those priceless moments where I wonder what I would do without this little boy. He is so precious to me.