Silly Pictures

Since I am on a roll and no one is bothering me yet and dinner is made and in the oven, I decided to post just one more thing. Here are a bunch of random pictures that were taken in July. Kaymin was in the Uintahs backpacking with my parents. The kids love the Stickerz fruit snacks and love the fact that you are allowed to lick them and stick them on your body. Gerrit decided to grab his blanket and get in the cooler. Deilen thought it looked like fun and hopped in with him. It was too crowded for Gerrit so he got out and Kameni hopped in. Now I am offically caught up. I need to be more dilligent in taking pictures of my kids and the cute and funny things they do. They are just growing up on me too quick.

Cars Just Stink Sometimes

Yesterday we took our car in to get inspected. Now our car is 13 years old and has almost 300,000 miles on it. That is why we bought a Honda. They go forever and we will continue to drive the car into the ground. We bought it when it was 2 years old and had only 26,000 miles on it. We have definitely gotten our money's worth. We have had it paid for, for 8 years now and every year we have inspection something else needs to be fixed or replaced. But that comes with the territory for having a car that long. This year the list tended to be a bit longer than in the past. In order to pass inspection we had to have the motor mount fixed ($146) , new front brakes, bearings and rotors ($350) and new belts, timing and alternator ($133). The things that are recommended or need attention is 4 new tires, new wiper blades, a new radiator (it has a leak), coolant flush, and a transmission flush. Slowly we will get it all done, but for now we will just pass for inspection. We had them do the belts and the motor mount, but we found another place that would do the brakes for $350 instead of $450 they quoted us. I really can't complain because not having a car payment for 8 years is definitely worth it and that car just keeps on going.

Get Together

On Monday, August 9th (yes, I know I did this out of order) Shari, an old friend from high school invited us and our friend Carol and her family for a BBQ. Shari and her family was in time for her husband's school reunion and decided to have a little reunion of her own and I'm so glad that she did. I haven't seen them for 18 years and it was fun to see their families and get caught up with them. It bought back so many fun, good memories. I sure had so much fun with these guys in high school and on the drill team. I wish it didn't take 18 years to finally reunite with them. Thanks Shari! If it wasn't for you, it wouldn't have happened.

Short Hair...Really Short Hair

On Tuesday, August 10 I cut my hair really short. I bought a Chi flat iron..you know the kind that says it doesn't fry hair...well it did mine. However, my hair was so damaged as it was. I have been dying it about every 6 weeks because that gray just keeps wanting to poke through. Well once it synged my hair, I cut off most of the damage myself and decided it was time to go really short to start over and get my hair healthy again. I swore I wouldn't go short again because I feel like a boy and I used to get hit on my women all of the time. I keep my hair short for about 10 years beginning about age 19 when my hair got really damaged from a perm. My friend Jessica and I would go to dance clubs and I would get hit on by women. I even got hit on by women at Weber State. Anyway...I swore I would never do it again and yet here I am again. I like it, but I am still trying to get used to it. So far no women have hit on me and my hair does feel so much better. In fact, the lady that cuts my hair said that I had hardly any longer pieces because most of my hair was so broke off. Who knows...maybe I should just keep it short. Now that I am old, married with kids, women won't hit on me anymore. I just hate my hair. If there was one thing I could change about me, that would be it!

Kindergarten Assessments

On Thursday, August 5th Deilen and Kameni went in for their Kindergarten Assessments. Their personalities couldn't be any different. Deilen went first and just wanted to get done so he could leave. He is always the first one to come when I call them because he is all business. When she asked him to count as high as he could go beginning with 1, he was upset because she stopped him at 50 and he wanted to count to 100. He didn't even miss a number. They had to say the alphabet letter and then the sound. Deilen went M..made the sound...P..made the sound. He was done in 10 minutes. Then it was Kameni's turn. Kameni's took 25 minutes. She had a story for everything. She would say that is C for cat and I love kittens. They are my favorite animal. The poor teacher had to keep redirecting her attention back to the test. When she was doing her colors she had to name something she loved about each of the colors. When ask what the number 8 was (and she knows this number) she said 15, no 17, or maybe it is 26...OH, I know 31! I was trying so hard not to laugh. She sure is a lot of fun and should be interesting in class. Deilen is all business so I am surprised he and Kameni get along so well. On Thursday, August 11th we just found out that they are in the same class (which I requested so they have the same homework) with the teacher that I just love. I am so excited and so is Deilen. Except he wants to go to 4th grade with Kaymin. Kameni keeps telling me that she is too little to go. This should be very interesting. However, I am very excited to have every morning with just my little, Gerrit. I think he will love not having to share mom with the other kids.

Cheerleading Clinics

This year the girls were in two Cheerleading Clinics with the Sunset Sundevil Cheerleaders. They had a lot of fun. The second one they were in was held the first week of August. They were able to ride in the South Weber Days Parade and perform at the fair. My girls look forward to this every year and can hardly wait to do it. They both did such a great job too!

Raging Waters

This year instead of going to Lagoon, we took the kids to Raging Waters. We decided to go on the Friday after Bear Lake since Blake was home. Our kids have never been and Blake and I haven't been since before we had kids. I had no idea of the kiddie area since we have never had the need to go there before. Deilen and Kaymin were so excited and not afraid at all. Kameni and Gerrit cried. Kameni didn't want to go down the waterslides and Gerrit didn't want to get near the water at all. After about an hour, we decided to rent a double tube and we talked Kameni into going down. She LOVED it. Deilen and Kameni just went down by themselves. Deilen is such a little dare devil. I haven't found anything he is afraid of besides being dirty. It is so hard to believe that he and Kameni are only 4 1/2 months apart. She acts like she is 2 and he acts like he is 10. We had a lot of fun. It will be more fun when Gerrit is big enough to go down the slides. His little bum was too little to fit in the tube and hang on so Blake and I took turns playing with Gerrit in the kiddie area. Thank heavens I brought the kid's life jackets so I didn't have to worry about them drowning even though they already know how to swim. Kameni loves the water and was worried about the slides, but soon that fear left her. Next thing we know she is going on the rope swing with Deilen and Kaymin and down the slides that drop off. She sure is a little fish. It sure will be fun to take them there again.

4-Wheeling

After the Bear Lake trip Blake went to work on Wednesday and then decided to take the rest of the week off. We decided to call Tori and Billy and go 4-wheeling up at my parent's place. We went up Line Creek and had lunch at 5th crossing. Then we went up through Deep Creek and had a really good time. It sure is pretty and wasn't as hot as it is at our house, but it was still pretty warm. We were gone roughly 5 hours. The kids loved it and Gerrit ended up falling asleep on it. I took the girls with me and Blake took the boys. I opened up the gates and Kaymin got to drive the 4-wheeler through the gates. She felt so big and loved driving them. Thanks mom and dad for letting us borrow your 4-wheelers. We need to do it more often. Growing up we always did that. We would go up and have a cookout for Family Home Evening. Or, we would just go up for a ride. I really miss it!

Sunflowers

I decided to take a picture of Deilen and Kameni with their sunflowers they planted while they were in preschool. They were 11 feet tall and I figured they would start falling over like the one did, but so far they haven't and they continue to grow taller every day. I can't believe how well they did. Maybe they will have quite the green thumbs.

I Caved

The kids have been begging me all summer to put up the pool and I caved. During swimming lessons I decided to put it up. The kids have had a ball in it and I almost wish I would have put it up sooner. Gerrit won't even go near it. He is really afraid of the water. He loves the tub and will put his face in the tub, but any other water he hates. I have been meaning to put him in the pool, but the kids seem to swim when he is napping and it makes it easier for me as well. When we put it up the kids even talked me into swimming with them. We've also had a million neighbor kids over swimming too!

Swimming Lessons

The two weeks before we headed off for Bear Lake the kids had swimming lessons. Deilen and Kameni were in Preschool C (which had to have manager approval since they swim in the deep end) and Kaymin was in level 4. Level 4 is the hardest and they learn several new strokes and diving. Kaymin did really well, but needs to practice and master a couple of the strokes so she will have to take it again. However, her dives were amazing. I was told that only 10% of the kids actually pass it the first time. She was really upset since it was the first time she didn't pass it the first time. I told her she is lucky because that is one more year she gets to take swimming lessons. Deilen and Kameni were actually quite amazing. They are trying to do away with level 1 and apparently this class taught stuff that was in level 2 so they passed it and will move onto level 3 next year. Kaymin had to take preschool B for two years and then level 1, 2, and 3. I guess Deilen and Kameni are lucky they are moving so quickly...but on the other hand, Kaymin will have more years of swimming lessons, which is what my kids look forward to every summer.

Bear Lake

I finally have a little bit of time to try to get caught up. I am home from church right now with Kaymin. She is running a fever AGAIN for the 4th time so far this summer. I have no idea what is going on. Sometimes she will even throw up with it. I believe it is just a virus since several other people I know have had it.

Over July 24th we went with Blake's family to Bear Lake. We had SO much fun. We went July 24th-27th and stayed in a HUGE house in Snow Meadows with 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. My mother-in-law, Carla, decided to pay for the house as our Christmas present. We thought that was the best Christmas present ever! It was a lot of money, though, but we LOVED it! The house was so much nicer than any of us are used to and couldn't imagine living that way. The kids stayed in a room all to themselves. There was a big, flat screen TV and a couple of couches. The kids were so happy to have a TV to themselves. Each couple had their own bedroom. Blake and I were lucky enough to have a bedroom with a bathroom, which came in so handy when Kameni and I ended up with the flu. Our nephew and later we learned our niece were throwing up and and having diarrhea on the way up there. On Monday, in the middle of the morning Kameni and I (and Jill and Eric) woke up to it and later when we got home, Gerrit and Kaymin had it. We rented a HUGE boat that was able to fit all of us on it and it came with skiis, a wakeboard and a tube. The kids loved the tube especially Kaymin, Deilen, and Oakley. Gerrit did not like the boat or the tube. However, he did it anyway and was a good sport as long as he was held really tight. After he got off the boat, he would bury his head and face into the sand. The sand was really hot and it must have felt good to him. However, he hated it when we would wash him off in the water. We spent most of our time on the boat. The kids even had fun jumping off the end of the boat when we were stopped to swim in the Lake. Kameni was terrified at first of the boat, which is crazy because the girl LOVES the water. When the boat would stop, she would jump in the water and love it. Carla is such a great grandma. She even jumped off the back of the boat with the kids. I think she enjoyed it as much as the kids did. The boat we had rented from Layton and the guy already had it up there, which was really nice...so we thought. The day before we left Blake asked the guy what size of ball did we need to pull it home (I had no idea there was different sizes, but I do now). It was bigger than the ball we have on our truck. So I went out and bought the size we needed, however, our current ball and receiver hitch are rusted onto our truck. Blake and Billy tried for hours that night to try to get it to work. Until we realized that our truck has three holes for balls on the bumper. We figured that would work and headed off for Bear Lake. The guys tried to pull the boat out of the water the first night and the light, which is on a pole, on the trailer was broken and we put a pretty big scratch on the boat (6 1/2 feet worth). It was about an inch below the rubber part on the side of the boat, but I was just relieved that no one got hurt. In fact when we took the boat back to the guy, Blake immediately told him what we had done and he was so relieved that Blake was honest, he gave us 6 pounds of elk burger. It really does pay to be honest. Once the boat was on our truck, our bumper was about ready to break right off. Apparently our bumper can only handle 500 pounds of tongue weight and the trailer had about 1,500 pounds. So here we are in Bear Lake with a boat and we have no idea how we are going to get it home. So Billy decided to ride his motorcycle into town to ask the "townsfolk" if they knew anyone that could help us. Sure enough, Billy did not let us down. The next morning I took off so Blake could take the others on the boat, with my father-in-law and went to Dee's Sinclair. That is the best place ever if you are ever there and in trouble. Dennis, first took a pneumatic tool and had my father-in-law, Bruce, hold a wrench with gloves on while he tried to get it off. It began smoking and rattled both of them pretty good, but that ball was not moving. Next he took a blow torch and cut the thing right off. The hitch he had was a smaller shank size than we needed (wouldn't have know what a shank size was until this happened) so he made it work by putting in a metal sleeve. THANK YOU DENNIS! I really was almost ready to cry. Now we could get the boat home and enjoy the rest of the vacation. We brought up plenty of food and we bought the kids each giant jawbreakers. The kids had fun licking them to death, and they made huge messes all over their faces. Billy and Tori brought up 4-wheelers and we brought up our bikes so we went on some bike rides and the guys went on a few 4-wheeler rides. The rest of the time was spent on the boat, basking in the sun. Blake and I even got on the tube together. Billy was driving so his sole purpose was to try to flip us off, which worked, but it was a blast. I can't wait to see where we go next year.