Our Summer 2015!: Cousin Sleep Over

I made a last minute plan to have Jaxon and Jerzee come spend a weekend with us, finally! How much fun and free stuff can you pack into 2 days? Apparently a lot!

 

 

I think the pictures sum it up well enough. What a bunch of cuties!

Our Summer 2015!: Baseball Season

This actually happened in the spring through summer. Garrett had his first "try-outs" for a baseball team. I was so nervous for him. Having not played any baseball for a few years pervious I thought he did fairly well. He had a really fun team. Herriman Gray and some great coaches.

He got to ride with his team in the Herriman Days Parade too!

We can see that he has talent and that is exciting. He's working on overcoming some timidity at bat (yeah it hurts a little when you get hit with a baseball), but we think as his confidence grows he'll overcome that, especially since he seems to have a great swing. He also throws a baseball much better than his mom. ;)

Our Summer 2015! : The Looooonnnngg Hike

Yeah it's not a very original title, but hey we actually had a summer this year, so I'm going with it. We had 6 weeks of summer and we really seemed to fill every moment! Here are a few things we did:

We drug our children on a 5 hour/ 8-10 mile hike to Cecret Lake. We didn't really intend to hike that long,  (you can blame it on me), but we made it! We wore the kids out in the process! We saw 3 moose, some rock chucks, squirrels,and salamanders (or something like that).  Maren was quite the trooper, they all were really, but I did have to carry her about half the way back. Not too bad for a then 3 year old on a surprisingly long and sometimes steep hike.

We also saw snow in summer which the kids thought was so wild! We passed the ski lifts, Dad picked wildflowers for the girls. And see that top right corner picture? That is from where we parked. We hiked to that furthest peak that you can see the sun is still touching.

Good thing we took snacks and water! They were all asleep by the time we drove home. :)

 

 

Boys Summer Trip

Since the girls were going on a little trip, the boys needed to go too!

Brad took Garrett up to Scoffield Lake and they camped and fished and slept in the tent. Grandpa Callahan showed up to camp with them!

 

 

 

 

Then Doug & Ian Rigby came down the the 2nd part of the weekend. They fished some more, rode 4-wheeelers, and went to see "Ant Man" !

In total Garrett himself caught 41 fish that weekend!!! 26 of them were in one day! crazy!

You can bet that if I had been there, there would be more pictures to share, but beggars can't be too choosy ya know! Garrett really seemed to have a fun time even if the other boy cousins didn't make it.

Summer Girls Trip

In place of a major summer vacation this year the boys and girls did a little split trip weekend. Grandma Callahan, the Staley girls, Sydnie, Janelle & Izzy Rigby and me and my girls went down to St. George for the weekend to see "Beauty and the Beast" at the Tuacahn Theater.

Now this was a really big deal for my girls and I'll tell you why: Their mom (aka me) gets to go on an annual girls weekend to St. George with friends once a year. Just moms -so fun by the way-. So when they found out that they got to go on a girls only trip to that same place mom takes her girls trip, they were over the moon! Couldn't wait.

 

We all shared a condo that was great! 5 Adults and 5 younger girls. The young girls thought their room was awesome as it had two bunk beds and two roll out beds so that they could all sleep together. Plus there was a pool! what's not to love? And they all fit in the one big tub haha! Very effective for cleaning as you can obviously see.

 

Janelle (Brad's cousin) bought all the young girls little Belle bags and filled them with all kids of fun stuff and they all thought it was fantastic! While Izzy was the expert in hair makeover for the weekend. And no one cooks like Grandma Peggy! She made them their favorite breakfast one morning, her famous pancakes, and steak and hotdogs another night!

The Tuacahn has a little market on the weekends so we went shopping there and at the outlets. I admit that not being a big shopper myself I have never really taken my girls on a shopping trip... fail? I told them that they could each pick out a new school outfit. They had a lot of fun with this! 

 And Beauty and the Beast? Awesome! we loved it. I had never been to the Tuacahn either and it was great to see an outside production and how well they used their surroundings as part of the show. It was really fun. Embrie and Maren were mesmerized!

We stayed behind to meet the cast and didn't get home that night until midnight, but everyone slept in and had a blast!

Please Believe Me

Mom's know a few things. Really! It's true!
As much as I would love to say that I know everything (ok so maybe I have told me kids that a couple times when they ask "how did you know?") I don't actually know everything. But I do know a lot of things.

So this just in:

Garrett: "Mom, I am going out to play baseball with Embrie. She wants to play." -as he goes up to get his baseball gear-
Me: "That's fine. Don't use your real baseball though."
Garrett: -comes back down with mitts and his baseball- "But Embrie says she wants to play with this ball."
Me: "Don't play with the real ball. She doesn't know how to catch as well as you do."
Garrett: -goes to the door- "But she wants to use this one."
Me: -right before he shuts to door- "But who is in charge? Embrie or me?"
-door shuts-

Me: "How do I handle this?" - said to Brad because I have to deal with kids not listening to me all the time-
Brad: "Just wait until she gets hit with the ball and comes in crying."
Me: "Yeah, but I mean him not listening to me. And here's what going to happen, is she is going to get hit in the head, that is what I worry about."

1 minute later (no kidding!) Embrie comes in the house crying, she's been hit in the face with the baseball.....

I know it was an accident. I had to explain to Garrett, yet again. That I don't make these rules just to make his life miserable. I was once 9, I was once 6, and I was once 4. I had to learn about life so that I could teach them.
Garrett is currently playing his 2nd season of back to back baseball. He knows it hurts to get hit by the ball and he also has been taught how to catch and throw properly. Embrie has not played baseball since the t-ball season of 2013. She needs to practice with the softer ball until she gets better.

Any other moms out there just wanting to pull their hair out sometimes and say "Please Listen to ME!"
oh well.... she may have herself a shiner for the first day of 1st grade. What can you do?