There Goes the Neighborhood

Last Wednesday, we had a neighborhood block party. Our cul-da-sac and the cul-da-sac that is right behind us got together just to get to know everyone better and to meet/greet the newest families that have joined our neighborhood within the last year. Every family was supposed to bring a pot-luck dessert along with a few fireworks to add to the festivities. Rob was so excited to go.... making us leave 45 minutes early... (How long does he think it takes to walk one street over???) Needless to say, we were super early and since we didn't know for sure whose house it was at, (Our invite just said it was on the cul-da-sac next to ours...) and no tables/people were out we decided to just go to the park for a while. I just love how convenient the park is.... This way we wouldn't look so obvious that we were excited about the party. Going to the park was the perfect solution. Maysie was running around everywhere grabbing just about every stick she could find in the grass. Rob and I sat like bums in the grass just watching Maysie and her zest for life. Once we wasted enough time and we knew for sure where the party was... (I did guess the right house) we walked back into the neighborhood to join the party that was just starting to bloom. There was so many yummy treats and it was fun just chatting with everyone. We had everything from ice cream and cupcakes to smores bars and strudel and you can't forget the salt water taffy. It almost seemed like a small church gathering of sorts, because all of my neighbors are the people I know best and associate the most with at church, although with my calling I am branching off of my main traveled streets in our neighborhood since most of our ward is outside my street and the street behind our house... Imagine that! Ha Ha Ha :) Maysie was trying to chase our little neighbor boy, Cody around who is about 8 months older than her. Cody would try and play with Maysie too. It is fun watching her interact with her peers and make friends. Maysie also became quite infatuated with Cody's dad Matt. She would go to him when he would reach out for her, and she quickly decided that he was her best friend when the glow stick jewelry got brought out for the kids and he was the holder for all of his boy's glow stick bracelets. :) When it got dark everyone gathered around and the kids all got to play with sparklers and snaps. Maysie loved the sparklers! She wasn't scared at all to hold them. In fact, she like it so much she kept trying to tough the hot flame and put it in her mouth. She couldn't quite figure out the snaps. We showed her how you have to just throw them down on the ground, and once she got over of trying to eat them first she would try and throw it down but she couldn't throw them hard enough to make them pop. When the kids were all done with the little things, we got out the bigger fireworks. I quickly discovered that alot of our neighbors were pyro's. They were lighting the fuses with blow torches and would often set of 4 or more at a time, just for the effect. All in all it was quite impressive and really a blast! Sorry for the pun... I just couldn't stop myself. ;)'

Temple Square

On Thursday, we went with the rest of Rob's family to eat and then went to Temple Square to watch that Joseph Smith movie for a belated birthday outing for my sister-in-law Janae. I haven't been down to Temple Square for over a year I think. I try to stay away from the construction madness that down town brings to the plate right now. It was an interesting experience filled with many questions aimed toward me. For Rob's family living in the Salt Lake area basically there whole lives, you would think that they would know a little bit more about Temple Square and the buildings on/or surrounding it. :) Good thing my family took the opportunity to go there many times while I was growing up, and that I have a keen sense of direction. After we parked, (1/2 way to the capital building might I add) and hiked down the hill to the Square, we went first to the North Visitors center..... (That is where we were told that they were playing the movie...) Well, it seems like all the sidewalks inside the walls are getting replaced, and since we are not already late enough, we now have to embark on this maze around the building just to find doors that lead inside. We get inside the Visitors Center, and ask one of the many helpful couple missionaries where we are supposed to go, and come to find out, that the movie is indeed in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We now have to get over to that building pronto since we were supposed to be there 10 minutes ago. At least this voyage is easier to get to and not so much of a maze. :) We made it to the movie just as it was starting.... Now our task is trying to find a bunch of seats together, in the dark without interrupting all of the other movie goers... I don't think it would have been bad, but do you know how dark that theater is before the movie really starts???? I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. So as half of us trip up the stairs... we sat down in our seats and enjoyed the show. I haven't seen this movie since right after it came out a few years ago and it was fun to have a refresher of the amazing man that Joseph Smith was. I found it strange how as this time when I watched it, I felt a strong connection to Emma, and Lucy Mack Smith too. I started bawling at the beginning of the movie when Joseph had the infection in his leg... I think being a mother, you connect more. I wouldn't ever want Maysie to endure so much pain as long as I could help it. I guess we have to remember that we need opposition in all things and our individual trials and tribulation in our lives, to help us to stay humble and stay closer to Heavenly Father because that is what really matters. After the movie was over, we exited the building on the north side by all of the reflection ponds... This really confused everyone in our party. They couldn't figure out where we were and they would of had us going east if I didn't stop them.... Most every one was fascinated with the water, especially all of the kids. I thought that it was neat but a bride that was getting her pictures taken by the doors of the temple is what caught my eye... At times I feel like I missed out on so many of my dreams, and that would be one of them, although, it would have been the Bountiful Temple instead of the Salt Lake Temple... Don't get me wrong, I love Love LOVE my husband, and feel very strongly that I was doing exactly what Heavenly Father wanted me to do when I got married, but I know it won't ever be the same because of those choices that I made. Hopefully one day, I will be able to stand outside the Temple all dressed in white with along with my little family when we are sealed for All Time and Eternity. Our party finally left the reflection pond in search of the North Visitors Center so we could make a quick visit to the statue of Christ. As we were walking to the Visitors Center, my 3 nephews, Brandon, David and Rulon accompanied by yours truly made a slight detour to touch the Temple since they had the gates open. It was neat to see there enthusiasm even though they don't understand much about it. They loved the "big doors" in the front of the Temple. I told them that it took 40 years to build this Temple and compared it to their Dad's age.... You should have seen their eyes.... They were so big. :) We got to the Visitors Center right as they were getting ready to close the doors for the night. The Missionary that was locking up was awesome and let us in anyways, and even went up and played the audio for it... Super nice dude huh.... So once we left the Visitors Center, we began our trek up the big hill. We were able to walk with and talk to a couple of Sister Missionaries from California that was walking back to there apartment, but of course, we were parked another 2 blocks from there.... :) Needless to say, I am pretty sure we got our exercise in for the day! :)

Why Wait?

Do you see something wrong with this picture?

Ummm, Yeah.... You guessed it... And to think that this morning started off like any ordinary day, but it only took about 30 minutes into my day when Maysie surprised me with this! I started Maysie's bathwater, like I normally do, and while it is filling up, I go and put out Maysie's clothes for the day and then strip her down to her birthday suit and then rush back into the bathroom and turn off the water and put Maysie into the tub for her daily bath. Normally, when I start the water, Maysie will throw all of her tub toys into the water then follow me into her bedroom, but today, well that was another story. Today she surprised me and instead of following me she climbed into the tub and started playing. After I put out all of her clothes, I realized that she wasn't behind me and it was all too quiet. You know the quiet that you know she just has to be doing something that is a huge mess or something dangerous. Well she chose the latter one. I ran back into the bathroom, and quickly discovered that she can climb into the tub. This is news to me, although I probably shouldn't be as surprised as I am because the last two days she thinks she is too big and independent now and tries to climb up on everything - all the time... Like the coffee table, the couch, the bed, her chair, etc. But I seriously had no idea that she could climb into the tub. I guess now that I know that she can do this she now gets to lead the way into her bedroom instead of following me so she won't get sidetracked again. Anyways, since she was so busy playing already, I decided to grab the camera and snap a few photos of this completely unexpected moment - you know for future bribing purposes, of course, before I pulled her out and pry her out of her soaked pajama's. :) I guess her new bath time philosophy is Why Wait to get into the tub, I don't need to be naked, I just want to play with the toys anyways! :)

Dancing Diva

Maysie has this new found love of dancing in the kitchen. Alot of times when I am cooking, I turn on the radio. The last week or so, Maysie will come running into the kitchen when I am cooking, and just start 'boogieing'. It makes me laugh. She goes all out now, and instead of just a little head bob, it is a full body groove. She'll be turning around it circles, and stomping her feet, and when she is really enjoying the moment, she'll clap her hands too. Well today when I was making dinner, Maysie followed me into the kitchen and automatically started to dance without any music playing at all... I guess that she is giving me a sign to turn on the music. So, me playing the charades game with here, promptly turned on the radio and started dancing with her. When she saw that I was dancing too, she came running up to me and put out her hands so she could hold my own hands and we could dance together. By the time that the song ended, Maysie was laughing so hard I thought for sure that she was laughing about how horrible of a dancer I am, but as it turned out, she didn't ever want to stop dancing. :)

TIMBUCKTOO -- Or Just Its Equivalent?

Maysie and I decided to go with Rob on a trip earlier this week. We went first to Winnamucca, NV to get his oil tested and then we had to take it about 2 hours north-west from there clear up by the Oregon border past some place called Denio, NV (sorry my spelling on these towns is probably trashed). We left here on Monday afternoon, and stopped in Wendover for a quick bite to eat at the Rainbow, and was off again. We stopped at a truck pull off/parking area off the interstate that is less than 30 minutes away from Winnamucca for the night around 10:30 that night and settled in for a long sleepless night for all of us. I had to use the ladies room before I went to bed but News Flash!!! We're just camped out off the side of the road... This may not be a problem for males, but it is for females!!! But I couldn't hold it any longer, good thing it was dark outside. Maysie was sacked out on the bed for the night already so Rob was kind enough to walk with me and hold a flashlight for me so I could see what I was doing.... I am just thankful that the truck is extra long and the tires are big and it was super dark outside! How embarrassing! So now that nature took it's course, I soon discovered yet again that 3 people in a twin size bed is 2 people too many if you ask me... For one thing it was HOT and my daughter insisted that she either use me as a pillow, or she'll climb completely on top of me and go to sleep. Every time I tried to move her into a more comfortable position for what seemed for both me and her, when she was finally sleeping.... she would wake up. Never fail. She must have thought that I was the most comfortable thing ever.... So after being smothered most of the night, and then awakened, when I was actually able to nod off, by the passing traffic, (Darn those jake brakes....) I didn't catch much Zzzzz's and neither did my poor hubby since Maysie was insistent on using him as a footstool... Maysie seemed to sleep much better than the rest of us as long as we didn't try relocating her or she got too hot. Now I am wondering how the smallest person seems to take up the biggest portion of the bed??? The sad thing is, is that we let it happen. I never realized that when you become a parent, you give up everything, including a sufficient amount of bed space! Actually, that isn't true... let me rephrase that since Rob doesn't really have to share his 1/2 of the bed... I didn't realize that when you become a mom, you give up everything for the sake of your child, including a sufficient amount of bed space in hopes of getting more than 3 hours of sleep at a time! :) We had to be at the place in Winnamucca at 5:00 in the morning to get our oil tested. It took forever there but we were lucky and our oil passed so we could continue on our journey. If your oil fails, then you have to turn around and go back home, which happens often enough that you always worry if it will pass or not. (You want it to pass because you get more money for taking it all the way) Before we left Winnamucca, we stopped so we could use the restroom... the only place we could find was a old, dirty convenience store on our way out of town. Rob didn't want to wind our way back to Flying J since it was in the opposite direction of where we needed to go, so I get to put up with a completely ghetto accommodations, where I have to ask for a key to the el bano. Yuck! I much rather prefer those places where you can sneak right in and right back out without making it obvious that you only want to use there business as a potty stop. So I made the whole family go inside so I wouldn't be the only one to look stupid. To make matter worse, the lady couldn't find the key to the bathroom, and I really had to go since I hadn't went since the night before. I'm practically dancing around and dreading the thought that I was going to have to hold it until who knows when while Rob is trying to figure out what the lady is saying since her accent is so thick. Finally, the lady just gave up and let us use the employee restroom.... Lets just say, it wasn't a palace in there. We couldn't get the lights to work, so we had to have each one of us stand in front of the door with it propped open alittle bit just to let some light in, with the other person did there duty. But at least it was a bathroom equip with indoor plumbing unlike the night before, so who am I to complain, right? We felt kinda guilty for pestering this poor lady so we bought a small bag of ice to keep our cooler of water cold. Big mistake... that thing costed us $5.50 for the little bag! I would hate to see the cost of the big bags of ice that they had there too. So now with our empty bladders, and our expensive bag of ice, we were off to new adventures. At least I was lucky enough to be able to sleep while Rob was driving off into Timbucktoo or wherever it was where we had to go... (did I mention that this town was super small and in the middle of NO-WHERE?) It seemed like we were driving much longer than we really were, because all we saw was sagebrush, and more sagebrush, occasionally a rabbit crossing the road in it's attempts to run far far away from who knows what, then more sagebrush, and again more sagebrush. Now being form Idaho, I have seen my fair share of sagebrush, but I don't remember seeing just hours and hours of the stuff with absolutely nothing in between. That has got to be one of the most boaringist rides ever. It is right up there with the salt flats on I-80. It got monotonous and I was only away for half of the ride. How sad, especially since I love to travel! When we finally got to our destination.... (a make-shift pull off off of a highway in the middle of now-where) we were able to get unloaded. It took forever, since this is a job site that you have to unload directly into a truck so it take numerous times of unloading a little bit at a time before you are actually all the way unloaded so it is like unloading a gallon of water into something like a shot glass... Ok so maybe it's not that small, but it can't be more than a kids cup. :) (It's official, my analogies stink- but I know what I am talking about even if no one else can understand my lingo) Finally, we got all the way unloaded and could head back towards some sort of civilization.... On our way, since we didn't want to wait to follow the pilot truck, (that is one of the perks of this job is that alot of the job sites, you don't have to wait for the pilot trucks.... lets face it, you can be waiting for 30 minutes or so before the pilot truck comes for you--- who has that much time to just sit on the highway waiting when you have places to go and things to see.... especially when you are in the middle of nowhere!) SO anyway, back to my story.... Since we didn't wait, when we ran back into the pilot truck and it's convoy of loyal followers, we had the experience of driving European style for quite a stretch of our trip back... That was an odd feeling. At least there was some more excitement in our scenery on our way back when we passed quiet a few wild burro's, which I'm not sure why they call them a burro when they are wild because a donkey, is a donkey.... plain and simple. When we got to Denio again, we decided to unhook the trailers at "Denio Junction" - the life of the city - and drive into Oregon, just so we can brag saying we went to Oregon on this trip.... and to let Rob get some miles in that state for his truck licensing/tax purposes. So we drove through Denio and across the boarder into Oregon, noting that this town had a post office and a community center and its handful of trailer houses for the lonely residents.... you can't really call the "Denio Junction" as part of the city because it is really about 3 or 4 miles from the city, and there is nothing but sagebrush in between. We only drove about 10 miles into Oregon and we only passed a few ranches. There wasn't much there either.... Right after we turned around to go back to Nevada, Maysie got car-sick, or so I think it was only car-sickness, and she threw up all over the sleeping bag which is the main blanket we have in the truck, herself, and of course yours truly. The poor thing lost probably her last 3 meals, but she must have felt so much better because after climbing into my now icky lap and laying her head on my shoulder for a few minutes, she quickly became her happy self once again. Rob tried to be a big helper by throwing back a roll of paper towels, but lets face it.... This was a bigger mess than what just paper towels could handle. When we got back to "Denio Junction" he was able to come back and really help us get things, and us cleaned up. I'm so glad I brought lots of extra clothes for us!! Both me and her had to strip down to our bare selves and wipe ourselves down with baby wipes the best that we could. Oh how I wished for a shower at that moment, but at least we were armed with an abundance of diaper wipes.... If she was older, we probably wouldn't even of had that! When we got cleaned up, we decided to go inside this cafe/motel/gas station/bar/casino that we were parked outside and wash our hands and grab a bite to eat since we were parked next to a sign saying that they apparently had the best hamburgers and shakes in the west.... although we were incredibly hesitant about giving Maysie more food on her queesy stomach for fear of another out poor of grossness, but we knew that if we didn't eat then, then it would be at least 5 hours until we could eat get to a place that would accommodate our parking situation to where we could grab a bite to eat. Right after we walked inside and ordered, then rush hour must of happend because the cafe filled up with a lot of people that was just passing through town, who lets face it, was now starving since they had to wait for that beloved pilot car in all of that road construction! The workers at this place didn't know what to do really.... They tried to be on top of things, but for some reason, it didn't really work. They would come ask us if we wanted drinks and then they would forget to bring them.... etc.. It was actually quite amusing. Rob's half-brother Ryan caught up with us and ate with us too. He works for the same company as Rob and both of them had to go to this place, although Rob had the earlier appointment this time. The place didn't quite live up to their sign of the best hamburgers and we didn't even get to try the milkshakes since they didn't even have ice cream in stock... but it was better than what the 'Golden Arches' would have served us. :) We traveled back with Ryan which was nice since Rob could talk to him on the radio and I could escape the boring ride to the sleeper and watch a movie with Maysie. We decided to try and take a short-cut that Rob and Ryan had heard about from another driver which would let us bypass Winnamucca and take us back to I-80... Maybe they should of gotten all of the instructions before we tried this on our own... Yep you guessed it - We took a wrong turn and got some what lost. We turned left at some stop sign and a mile or so down the road we passed a sign saying not a through street! That is not the words you want to hear when you are in a semi pulling not one but two trailers. We were just lucky that there was a business that was big enough to have a parking lot that could handle us turning around - and that had someone outside where we could ask them for the right directions on getting to the interstate... :) We drove to Wells and stopped at the Flying J to go to the bathroom and grab some corn dogs for Maysie and I and some chicken something or other for Rob for the road for supper... It was just about enough to make me carsick for the rest of the ride home... When we were passing Wendover, 2 other drivers for the company that Rob works for was just getting on the interstate. So we had a train of 4 R-n-M trucks rollin' down the road. The boys talked on the cb telling about their trips and the jobs... (The newest drivers to join our road trip have dirty mouths and make too many vulgar comments for our taste that we ended up turning the radio down for half of the ride. I wanted to get on there and tell them that I was going to find some soap to rinse there mouths with, but we figured that they wouldn't know who it was on there and that it probably wouldn't have done much good...) Finally we made it back to the yard where I could jump in our car and go home!! We unhooked our trailers first then Rob had Maysie sit on his lap and let her drive to our car... I am pretty sure that that made her day! She had a grin from ear to ear and she just grabbed on to that steering wheel like she knew exactly what to do... :) Do you think if we start teaching her how to drive at this age she is more apt to be a great driver when she gets her license so no accidents will occur???? Hummm, that's something to think about. Anyways, when we got home, we basically went strait to bed hoping for a better nights sleep then the previous night... :)

Today, Rob had to go back to that same place and I politely opted to stay back using the excuse that I have to make sure that I am here for Friday to pick up my niece Rachael from some school thing. I know that he will probably be back tomorrow, but I was not wanting to go back so soon, and I better not take chances of being gone since I have previously made arrangements to help my sister out in a bind. Can I say THANK YOU for living close to my sister and being able to help out!!! This gets me out of these boring trips to the middle of no-where. So with Rob gone, Maysie and I had some quality Mommy-Daughter time... It was great. We had grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup for dinner, and cuddled on the couch while we watched TV and we played with the toys, mainly the shape sorter thing.... (Maysie discovered this one in the big kid toy closet that I had for my nieces and nephews before she was born, and is completely fascinated by it at the moment. She is big enough for it, but I just haven't put it in with her toys yet) I think she loves things that make her think. Some of her favorite toys besides her frog and her love for books is her foam number puzzle. She can't quite figure these things out by herself, but she watches closely to how I do it and she tries hard to follow me. It is so cute. Here is another story of something that she did today that shows off her total cuteness: We we lax today and ate dinner around the coffee table in our TV room instead of eating at the table like normal, and Maysie was eating some of the sandwich.... anyways, she broke off a piece of her sandwich and tried to feed it to me.... She would climb right up into my lap and try and put it in my mouth.... She wouldn't eat if I tried to give her some but she would if she fed herself... I guess she is just trying to feed me for a change since I am always the one to feed her. Why do I have a feeling that she thinks she is so much bigger than what I am willing to admit? :) Anyways, it was adorable, and she just makes me laugh - thought you might want to know!

Superhero Academy

On Monday I was able to go to "Superhero Academy". This was the first day of the Cub Scout camp that our ward was going too. Us, female leaders only had to go on Monday while the male leaders chose to take the boys on the second of the 2 day camp. (The next day was Jurassic Park so I feel we got the better end of the deal) We had the camp up at Camp Tracy which is in the Mill Creek Canyon. It was tons of fun. Basically, I found out that Scout Camp is just a camp put on and ran by youth for the scouters to help them get lots of badges, belt loops, and pins. I didn't know what to expect, but I am glad to of had the opportunity to go. The plan was to leave the church no later than 7:45 am.... but as you know, most plans seem to go out the door. One of the boys almost forgot, and when he got there, late of course.... they realized that they forgot his scout shirt... then when they got back, and we asked for his medical info and permission slip.... they forgot again... So since we were already late, we just told them we would follow them to his house and then he could jump in with us... I rode with Tiffany, one of the other leaders because she had room in her van, that way we didn't have to take up all of these cars plus she knew where we were going already. We had 8 boys go and then there were 3 of us leaders.

When we got there, it took about 15 minutes to check in... So thankfully one of the camp helpers, had the boys do an activity where they had to get into groups of 4 and put a log in between there legs and run so far.... It was fun to watch them try and work together and try and beat each other to the finish line. We were told that us leaders just have to sit back and relax and let the camp crew do there stuff. I could live with that. We were basically just there rides and we were there to make sure they behave, but since everyone was so excited to be there they were on there best behavior so it was like a vacation! When they were doing this activity, I realized that I forgot to bring my camera... Bummer! April, the other leader brought hers and said she would get some of the pictures to us... Hopefully she does.

When we were all checked in, we went to the "Amphitheater" which was some metal bleachers set up in a semi-circle.... Not my idea of an amphitheater but hey, whatever works right. :) Here we had a flag ceremony complete with the Pledge of Allegiance and Scout Oath, and it wouldn't be scout camp without having to sing silly songs, (It was girls camp all over again) and a few Corney skits. The boys were not sure what to think or what to do, because for most of them, it was there first time at camp too.... but they finally got into it towards the end... (They were so self conscious by how they looked 'goofy' the whole time -their word's not mine and I was trying to figure out who they were trying to impress since there was no little girls around... just some 'old leaders' and fellow campers that it took them a while to just relax and have fun!)

When the opening ceremonies were done they broke us off into our Packs and assigned us a camp helper to be groupies with. Our pack and another pack for West Jordan became groupies with Dillon as our leader. We made up group 2. Our first stop was BB gun shooting. Oh, boy. Give a bunch of 8 and 9 year old their own BB gun to shoot, this should be interesting. We all got to wear these "Sexy" protective glass-ware which were so scratched up from years of Scout Camp that you couldn't hardly see out of them. Most of these boys it was there first time to ever shoot a gun...so, I opted to stay clear away from the target area and stood way behind all of the action....

After everyone got to shoot the gun 5 times, we left that station and took a short hike up the hill to a fort thing. It reminded me of the lifeguard shack on Baywatch except it wasn't all boarded off... All of the boys climbed up in it and piled in there and they had a short discussion about taking care of our world and the safety about camping... ie. not littering, not eating the berries outside of your gardens, and leaving nature how/better then you found it... etc.

After that we went back to the amphitheater and talked about the flag and then they got to practice folding the fag. I learned what the colors on the flag represented... FYI: Red is for courage, white is for purity I think , and blue was for loyalty. We had to stall for a few minutes when we got done with that because the group before us wasn't done yet so we played a few games of telephone... Surprisingly enough, the end result was always the same as the beginning.... And then we play some game that Dillon made up on the spot called mingle. What you do is walk around and then he calls out a number and you have to hurry and make a group consisting of the # of people that the number he called out was. The boys did pretty good with it but if you called out a number bigger than 5 then they had to stop and think about it... It was a good time savor.

Our next stop was inside the train cabooses that they have set up there and we practiced our geography knowledge. We have some really smart boys and they got the answers fast. Although it was cool to study geography in an old caboose... You can say that you don't do that everyday! :)

When we were done learning, we had art time, where the boys had to make a superhero mask since they are disguised as "humans" during the day and then they can become a Superhero like Spiderman, or Superman. Styles Wiler, (our eager scouter) made his favorite hero of the day, Hulk. He made me laugh, He said that he was a scout in the day and at night he turned into HULK! lol... Finley Carson made a "flower man" mask, complete with a theme song... I think he was finding his creativity since he normally doesn't want to do much... LOL. It was fun..

When we got all done with these masks, they did an obstacle course with water. They had to make a 'water line' using all of the pvc pipe they had and have the water go from one end out the other... It finally worked the second time they did it... then they had to try and fill up these pipes that had holes all over it. The boys got into teams of 5 and they had to alternate from trying to cover the holes with there hands and getting the water and filling it up. Dillon, told them that the first team to get the water all the way to the top would get the coveted "Superman" fanny pack with matching water bottle that clips on to your belt loop. The task is virtually impossible to accomplish, but the boys tried so hard to get it to fill up. All of the boys were soaked from head to toe. Good thing it was really hot outside so they could dry off really fast.

The next stop was the fingerprinting area. Each boy got to get fingerprints and then learned about what the different type of prints are.. I guess they also learned about braille, but I went to go bring the lunches in from the car so I missed that part.

After the fingerprinting, we had a lunch break... I was surprised how willing the boys were to share there lunches. They were all trying to share with us leaders and also the other boys their chips, cookies, crackers, etc. We all had our own lunches, but it is always more fun to share... :) It was interesting to see what everyone had in there lunches. It has been so long for me to have to pack a sack lunch, I couldn't think of what to put in them... Everyone agreed that I had the most healthiest lunch: Chicken Salad wrap, (I didn't have any bread so I had to use a tortilla, and we don't have lunch meat hanging around since we normally eat leftovers for lunch or something that can be put in the microwave..) 1/2 of a yellow pepper sliced, a bag of pretzels, and a honey oat granola bar, with water to drink... Rob should be so proud of me- he's starting to rub off on me! I got a few of the boys to try and eat a slice of the pepper... It took awhile for them to get over there fear, but they agreed with me that it is more sweet tasting instead of hot.

After lunch, our next stop on our camping journey was the push carts.... That looked like fun! Too bad I was just a leader cuz I wanted to ride too... It got kinda breezy out to where it cooled things off a little bit. It was so nice outside. One of our boys, Jackson Rees, seemed to get motions sickness with it though, and looked like he was going to pass out. He just kept saying he was dizzy so we made him sit down and drink some water thinking that he was just getting dehydrated he didn't want us to fuss over him and look like a baby in front of his peers but you could tell that he wasn't feeling very good because whenever the trees would move in the breeze he would get this look like he wanted to spew... We came to the conclusion that he probably has a phobia of some sort against the wind. So for the pushcarts they would have 3 boys push with one boy getting to ride and they had to go around on this little trail that goes in a big circle. They were constantly racing each other... If I remember right, the winning time was 36 seconds! They were unleashing their inner "superhero" I guess because that is pretty fast!

After the pushcarts, the next stop on our journey was to go to the bottle rockets..... They filled up these old soda bottles with water and then put them on the launch... and 1, 2, 3, blast off! Away they went! We had 2 rockets going at the same time so we could get each boy a turn at filling up the bottles and getting it on the launch. Sometimes, the rockets would go pretty high, and pretty far.. Other times, it would us go up a little ways and then fall down right next to the launch. This one time was hilarious, The rocket got launched and went flying way high, then when it came back down, it landed right on top of Jackson Rees' head. KAH POW! If he wasn't already sick enough... LOL, It was so funny, and the Camp worker said that of all the time he has been doing this, then that was the first time that the rocket actually hit someone. Good thing that were were almost done with this station when that happened so no one else got hit.

The next stop was all about team work. The camp had made this big A-Frame thing out of logs and attached lots of rope of various sizes to it. The Object is to have some one stand on this A-Frame thing and to have the people holding the ropes work together and make the frame 'walk' without having the person who was standing on it fall off. It was a cool concept but the boys didn't seem to catch on to this very fast. It took everyone, to help talk them through it in order to get it to work... The still didn't really get it completely figured out in order to get it to work right, but they did get he frame to move a little bit before we had to go to the next station.

Now we could go to the much anticipated Trading Post! (The boys were looking forward to this all day long and kept asking when they could go.)
They had so many cool things to buy... I ended up getting a couple of first aid kits to go in the cars for $3.00 and a Spiderman ball for Maysie and one of the plastic helicopter things for Maysie too... I'm not sure what they were called but they remind me of a helicopter. It has the propeller thing on top and then a long stick thing on the bottom, and when you rub it in your hands it will fly... I know I totally butchered this description but it is as close as a description to what this thing is as I could come up with. They had all sorts of cool things here to buy. They had the coveted fanny packs and water bottles, candy, bear claws and eagle claws, hacky sacks, tons of Superman, Batman, and Spiderman stuff. and t-shirts.

When we got done with the Trading Post, we went back to the amphitheater for the closing ceremonies which again was filled with lots of songs and skits. There was some fun jokes too, but I can't remember them. The took down the flag and we said a prayer, and then they did one last song which makes everyone little by little go down and do this song with the actions in front of everyone until there is no one left in the bleachers. When that song got done then everyone was free to leave and go home... It was so much fun, and I hope I am still in scouts to be able to go next year too.


PS. I almost forgot to do this again, since I forgot on the last Blog but, Happy Birthday to my nephew Spencer whose birthday was on July 1st. And Happy Birthday to my niece Presley who turns 2 today! And just in case I don't blog tomorrow, Happy Birthday to my nephew Gabe!

My Addictions

I totally have nothing new to report, but yet I feel that I should blog something because, you know.... This journal would be pretty boring if I didn't ever add anything - right? So I stole this off of my sister-in-laws blog..... Sorry Rachelle! Today you are my "blog" saver! :) lol, corny, I know!


5 things I am addicted too:


1. MY FAMILY: I can't get enough of them. If Rob is gone, then I spend most of the time on the phone with him, seriously. I miss him so much when he is gone. I haven't spent too much time away from Maysie yet, but she is completely my world. When I have left her behind for one reason or another, I feel like I am missing out on part of her life... I love that little girl! And I can hardly go a day without talking to my mom on the phone. I would do anything for anyone in my family. I am a firm believer that families were put on this earth to help each other and to provide a support system, and give laughter, and love throughout this journey called life. The people in my family, both mine and Rob's sides, are some of my best friends. I couldn't imagine my life without them. Yes there are days when I can't stand to be around them, but overall, I couldn't live my life without them. :) They really are the best!


2. AMERICAN IDOL: I love, Love, LOVE this show! I get into it from the very beginning when they are just doing the auditions! I have this set on DVR so I can always watch it the next day because lets face it.... Rob is not that into music. He likes talk radio, which is totally a snoozer for me, although he is getting better about listening to 'music' when I am in the car with him, but a big part of that is because I quickly change the station when I hear the talk radio. :) (We can now let Maysie listen to the Rain Forest lullaby CD before going. to bed. It is basically classical music with cricket noises and waterfall sounds... and we are allowed to listen to church music or Disney music in the car and occasionally, we can listen to country music! Yay, Progress!) I seriously hate waiting until the next season starts. Why can't they just keep it going all year long - right? I love music. Most any type of music. When I hear it, I just smile and relax.... I love how this show is all about music. There are so many talented people out there waiting to be discovered that it has to take competitions like this to show the world where the talent is.


3. MY CHURCH CALLING: I love my calling at church as a Den Mother in the scouting program. These boys are so much fun and it is great being able to think of fun activities to do that will also be of help to them in their lives. I am thankful for this opportunity to learn the Cub Scout program. When I was first called by the Bishop to this calling, I almost thought that it was crazy: I mean, I'm young, I don't have any boys, my husband doesn't know anything about scouting, I have to take Maysie to most of the den meetings... etc. But once I got into it, I absolutely Love it! It is such a blessing in disguise. I get to learn about the program now, so that one day when I have a little boy, then I can help him with his badges. I also love the fact that I can take Maysie with me whenever I need too. I think it is good for her to play with others, and to be around other people. I can take her to the babysitters but every time I do, the boys always ask where there 'mascot' is. I think that they look forward to coming to scouts just as much as I do. And I love the opportunity of being with adults too. I get to learn more about my neighbors and the people in my ward because of this. By taking the boys home after the den meetings I have learned where basically everyone lives in my ward. Before, I only knew the people on my street and the street behind me.... Sad I know but they are basically the only houses I see that is in my ward boundaries.... but now I know almost every house. I love the fact that Scouting keeps me busy. I have activities during the week, and meetings on Sundays so I get to have a life outside of my home. Don't get me wrong, I love being a stay at home mom but I love the fact that I feel needed somewhere else, and that I have a 'schedule'. :) It keeps me going.


4. PICTURES: I love pictures.... I do, really. I am constantly taking pictures of anything and everything. I need to get better at getting them developed regularly, (I only say that because I have pretty much both of my memory cards full with pictures, that I haven't developed...) - I may end up being like how my mom was, buying a new memory card instead of deleting them off the camera. :) Ha Ha! I love you Mom. Just Kidding. I just seem to never remember to take the memory cards with me to get them developed when I am out and about. But since Costco has a coupon that starts next week that is for picture developing.... They will get don, and I will have all sorts of space on my camera's now. I love pictures of any shape and size. I love the professional pictures, and would love to know how to do all of that.... but lets face it, the first thing you have to have in order to do that is an 'amazing' expensive camera.. and you have to know how to work it. I am still trying to figure out how to work my little digital camera. I love all of the snapshots that I take.... normally of just random things or all of the funniest expressions of someones face. They capture so many memories. I love pictures because they never let you forget.... Life goes by so fast, and I forget how things were. The other day, I was looking though my pictures on my memory card to see if there were any I could delete when I came across one on me holding Maysie when she was only a few days old. I forgot how tiny she was in my arms... She just grows way too fast. My mom has always said that if she had to leave her house really fast, the first thing she would grab is her pictures. I think this all came about when my Dad passed away, but I'm not sure. Pictures hold so much sentimental value in a persons life. It is one of the greatest inventions in history I think.


5. THE GOSPEL: This may sound a little bit cheesy, but it's true. I have had many opportunities in my life, especially since I met Rob's family, to think long and hard about my religion. Every time, I realize how much of a blessing it is too have gospel in my life. Everything about the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes me who I am today. I love the morals it instills in people. I love the way it can bring families together for eternity. I love knowing that my Heavenly Father loves me individually, and is always there for me if I turn to Him in Prayer. I love it when I read the scriptures and I find something new in it every time that just makes since... I love going to church... Yes it is hard to go by myself sometimes, but I find that my week goes by so much easier when I go. I love being able to feel the Spirit and having it as a constant companion. I may be far from perfect but I now have a goal to obtain because of Jesus Christ and the example he led here on Earth. I love being able to take the Sacrament, and renewing my baptismal covenants. It feels like being baptized all over again every Sunday. I know that I have a purpose in this life, and I am here because I chose to follow Christ! The Gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed my life in so many ways. Each aspect of it is indeed for my benefit so I can have an everlasting life and live in the presence of our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. I love being able to share my testimony to others, and love being able to teach about the church to those around me.... Hopefully, because of my decision to be steadfast in the Gospel of Christ than I can help others to know that the Gospel really is the best place to be.

From the 'Mile High' to the Holiday fun!

Rob called me up on his way home on Wednesday morning saying that he had to go out on the road again on another trip..... But this time I went with him. So here is a picture of where we went. Any guesses of where it is?

Down town landscapes....

Well if you guessed Denver then, DING! DING! DING! Your right. He had to take a load there to deliver it on Thursday morning. It rained on and off the whole way there.... Which makes it an even more long trip while traveling on I-80 through Wyoming. We decided to drive all the way to Cheyanne and then cut down on I-25 instead of going the way we went last time which we got off in Larimie and took a highway through the mountains. It was a nice drive and it was alot of fun to be able to go with him. I love not having to work outside the home anymore because I was never able to go on any long trip without giving a few days notice. I missed out on some of Rob's longer trips, (any trip that is longer than just overnight). Maysie is quite the little traveler. She often just goes to sleep once the truck starts rollin' down the road and then wakes up periodically throughout the trip for a few minutes then goes back to sleep.... It is funny because she'll be sound asleep and then when Rob stops and pulls his breaks on she automatically wakes up and is ready to go... :) Funny kid. Normally when Rob is unloading, we watch a movie or just read books... This time we watched her reading movie which I am happy to add that she recoginized the word "clap" while we were gone. :) Some of Maysie's favorite things to try and play with is cell phones, keys and remotes. When we were watching the movie, she just held on to the remote like she owned it... It made me laugh, so of course I took a picture.

Watching TV and chillin' on the bed...

Doesn't she look so grown up?

Before we started our journey back to Utah, we had to fuel up all the way especially since there are very few stopping places between Denver and Grand Junction. (We took I-70 on the way home). So we booked it over to Flying J, with only a small detour because of a wrong turn... (I told Rob to use the GPS system, but he being a "man" knew where we were going because he looked at a map.... anyways, the Flying J was East of where we were and of course we went West when getting on the Interstate and had to go 4 or 5 miles until we could get to an exit to turn around.... What's with men and directions? ha ha. :) J/K - I love you Lovey) So since we had to fill up the deisel guzzlers... We decided to just eat breakfast at the restraunt inside the Flying J. The food reminded me of a hospital or a school... although, the hashbrowns were amazing! ( I ate alot of those - that was also about the only thing that was really "normal" tasting :) ) Before we left we baught a couple of postcards to put into our scrapbook too. While I was going to the ladies room before we started our journey, Rob watched Maysie. I couldn't find them when I got out. When I fineally found them, Maysie was riding a rocking horse with the biggest smile ever! I wish I had the camera with us but we left it out in the truck. She got so mad that we made her get off and we didn't take that horse with us. (We thought about buying it since it wasn't really all that bad priced, but where would we put the thing???? I wanted all the bed space back there as possible and we already had her big carseat on the floor!)

Rob working hard. (Fueling up the truck)

After breakfast, we jumped into the truck and took the senic route down I-70. That drive is just georgous. We went that way last August when we went to Denver again to take another load there. I have so many pictures of the moutaionous drive that I will be able to scrapbook 3-4 complete pages of our drive in our family album... I loved all of the random waterfalls, and rocky mountains that still have lots of snow at the tops even though it is July now!!! One of the funnest parts of the drive is going through all of the tunnels. That one tunnel that is right before Vail, is humongo.... It was so cool. Even Maysie loved them all... I couldn't tell if she knew what was going on or not but she would look all around every time we went into a tunnel.... I think she was trying to figure out where all of the lights went. LOL. On our way back we stopped in Green River, UT for dinner. Rob has heard alot of people talk about how good the hamburgers at Ray's are when he has went there for work. They were big and the homade french fries were amazing. It costed alot especially for a hamburger, but I was so full, I couldn't finish it all. :) It was so Yummy! The only thing that would of topped it all off was a Green River Watermelon, but it is too early in the season for that.

Since Rob wouldn't have to go out for the rest of the week because it was the 4th of July weekend we decided to join his family at his sister Bec's house in Huntington. We didn't want to drive all the way back home just to drive back there in the car so we just took the semi there and parked it right next to her house. We got there a day earlier than the rest of the gang did so we were able to just relax and let the kiddo's play together. We watched some clips from various concerts done by this one pianist/comiedian guy that Chris had recorded off of KBYU. I can't quite remeber his name... Victor or Vincent something... Maysie and Brooklynn are becoming best buds since they are around the same age. (Brooklynn is 7 months older) It was so much fun watching them learn how to share. Although the funny thing is, the toy that everyone fought most over is Maysie's stuffed frog.... We left all of her other toys in the truck so we wouldn't loose them, but we knew that she would throw major fits if we didn't have her frog with us, espically for bed. One of Maysie's favorite toys there was Brooklynn's horse thing. I am not exactly sure what it is called but it can hook up to the TV or you can just ride it by yourself. It is suposed to rock back and forth and go up and down from side to side but Maysie is too short and can only make it rock back and forth. The rest of the gang showed up on Friday night. So we had, Bec and Chris and the girls, John and Joan and all of there kids, my Mother-In-Law, Willy and Amy, Johanna and Trent, Orlean, Joe and us... Quite a houseful. It was crazy confusion most of the time... espically with the bathroom.... (The waiting in line, the who-done-it, you name it)

(Sorry, I got the next 2 pictures mixed up.... Yet again...)

Maysie waving as the floats passed by. She cracks me up.

Maysie riding that horse, She had to have froggy ride it too. :)

As you can tell by the pictures, we went to another parade yet again. Tis the season for parades! Every year Huntington has a big 4th of July shin-dig. It starts with a parade down the main street in the morning and comes equipted with vendor booths in the park all day long including food, random things, and music and a fireworks show at night. Since the elementary school is right next to the park, they had rides and stuff set up for the little kids. Everything was free except for what ever you bought from a vendor booth. The weather was HOT all day but we were relieved when a few scatters showers came by and cooled it off a few degrees. The parade was really good. There was so many people there, way more than the last parade. You would almost mistake it for the Macey's Thanksgiving Day parade. Seriously! Maysie got tons more candy to add to her stash (too bad she can't really eat it...) I laughed becasue some of the floats were tossing out the otter pop popsicles. Have you ever seen a parade that passes out popcicles? Maysie got 2 orange ones that was melted shortly after they entered into our hands. Good thing I can just refreeze them. :) I have lots of fun pictures of the parade. but I didn't want to boar you with all of them like I did the last time. They had everthing from the traditional cheerleaders/dance teams, to a fancy Lotus car, to the High School band (They were pretty good if I do say so myself). They even had Smokey Bear and the McGruff House Dog! Cool Beaneers! After the parade, we walked around the park some just to see what there was. Maysie got a balloon from the local county sheriffs booth, and then we watched some clown make ballon animals for the kids. She made Maysie some sort of animal that will fly in the air if you pull on the bottom. It is hard to explain it. It looked like a dog head and then she left the rest of it not blown up so you could make it fly so Maysie could chase it. I had to laugh because a little girl asked for the clown to do a puppy so the clown asked her back if she wanted it potty trained. LOL. Silly clown. Joe entertained us all with a potatoe gun that he bought at one of the booths. He would chase his brothers, and Trent around with it. LOL. Trent also provided his share of entertainment. I don't think there is ever a dull moment when he is around. He got this bike from my nephew Vince that had all of the pegs on it to do the tricks... (I don't know if the bike is Vince's or if it is one of his little brothers bikes and he was just using it.) Anyways, Vince told him to stand on the back pegs and do a standing wheelie but Trent misunderstood him so he stood on the front pegs and tried to do a wheelie. Needless to say, it didn't work and he flew over the top of the handlebars hurting only his pride. :) We went over to the school to see what all they had over there. They had a rock wall that definately entertained the adults and bigger kids, and then they had some swings like at Lagoon where the go in a circle, a ferris wheel, and a little train ride. Maysie was too small for the farris wheel and the swings, (they were for kids only) and we tried to get her to go on the train with Ambree since it was for kids only too but she screamed like crazy so we went and saved her and everyone else from all the scraming. Oh, well. We were able to stop and listen to the "Root Beer Reuinon" for a little while. This is a band that consists of 3 brothers from Wellsville, UT (by Logan) whose ages are 15, 11, and 7. The older 2 boys played the guitar, violen, piccalo, and took turns being the lead vocals while the 7 year old played the drums and also a guitar. They sure are a talanted crew. For lunch we all went to Subway and grabbed a sandwich. Maysie had fun mooching off of Amy's sandwich and some of mine too. Then we went back to Chris and Bec's house and watched the movie Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler. I ended up falling asleep in the middle because it was a late night the night before.... (the kids and adults were up until well after midnight. Rob and I went to be around 11:30 but we could hear them well into the night... but we were the first ones up at 6:30 or was it 7:00? Anyways we were the first ones up and around which was nice becasue we didn't have to worry about getting cold water.) Ha Ha! When the movie was over, everyone but Joan and the baby, Leona, and Rob, Maysie and I went swimming at the resivour. (I didn't know I was supossed to pack swimsuits, or we probably would have went too.) That's ok because it gave us a chance to watch Maysies movie again without letting her have too many distractions around. When everyone came back to the house, we had a humongo BBQ with hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, and ribs. Chris manned the grill and boy was it soooo good! After supper, we played games. Rob and I played Pinnacle with John and Leona. We were winning really good when the fireworks started so we dropped our cards and ran outside. Chris and Bec live only a few blocks away from the school where they were lighting the fireworks so we opted to stay there to watch them instead of messing with all the people. So we went out to the street on the side of the house and watched them. They were so much better than West Bountiful's this year. Because Huntington is surrounded by canyons, each boom echoed so it sounded like really cool thunder. That was one of the coolest firework shows because of that. It lasted a good 30 minutes or longer and they had a big 1/2 time extravaganza along with a huge finally. Maysie loved them, although she didn't want Rob to hold her at all, and the misquito's loved us. We never did get back into our pinnacle game, instead we all got ready for bed... The next morning we gathered everything up and got ready to leave. We took the senic route home again going "up top" as we call it which is going up Huntington Canyon past all the mines, over the mountain to Fairview then back up to Highway 6. Rob's family wanted to look at some ground that Bec's friend was selling that is in the Fairview area, but we couldn't find it. Trent and Johanna rode with us to Fairview because Trent really wanted to ride in the semi then they went with Leona the rest of the way. We ended up getting home around 7:30 or 8:00 and I had go to bed because I had scout camp the next morning.

Over all, we had a fantasic trip and an entertaining and funfilled 4th of July holiday.