More Birthdays and the Surprise trip

  I guess it's about time I start playing catch up again.  Kelston celebrated another birthday awhile back.  He saw this lego rocket at one of the space museums we went to in DC and had really wanted it, so he was excited to open it up!  This kid is creative and imaginative!  He's very hands on and loves to help me can food, loves math, and is a big home body.  He loves taekwondo and is a great eater.

  My kids did summer reading programs at the library and at a bookstore nearby.  Matsen surprised us by using the cash/credit he'd earned by doing the reading log at the bookstore to buy a birthday present for Kelston.  This was his own idea and it touched me how thoughtful it was of him.  They have a special bond.

  I wish this picture wasn't such horrible quality, but I wanted to remember that a couple of times over the summer we got together with some other musical friends and put on a couple of informal talent shows at some nearby nursing homes.  It was a good way to keep the kids practicing their instruments and the residents loved it.  It wasn't just the kids participating--the moms shared their talents too!

  Wes found some fun science/craft kits he ordered for us to put together as a family and we've all really enjoyed it and learned something new.  Thanks, honey!

  Kelston was so excited to begin cub scouts!

  I've got some very talented friends.  One of them was ambitious enough to put on not one, but 3 backyard plays this summer (FOR FREE) for the older kids.  This was complete with props, scenery, etc. that some of the kids helped to create.  Masten and Jazlyn did two of the plays with their group of friends.  Jazlyn had lots of long parts to memorize in both of the plays!  It was fun for them to work together, perform, and have a good time in a fun but low pressure way!

  Another year older for this big boy too.  This big boy keeps us on our toes.  He's got a big heart and is not afraid to tell everyone just how he feels.  You know just where you stand with him!  He's been having lots of fun playing "little legos" with his big brothers, now that he's old enough that he doesn's destroy their creations constantly.  He keeps us laughing, he's learning his ABC's, and he gives great hugs!

  We tried out a new park on his birthday that all of the kids really enjoyed.  It has huge fake animals to climb up into.

 The park happened to be nearby the temple, so we stopped by there afterwards.  It was closed for cleaning, and as we took pictures of the kids touching the temple next to the front door, we were pleasantly surprised to have a worker come open the door for us and invite us to come into the front foyer.  He talked to the kids for a little while about the temple and showed them the waiting area.  The peaceful spririt was very strong there.  I hope my kids will remember that special experience and always be worthy and excited to return to the temple.

  We had a simple birthday party for Shelten with just a few friends.  We're talking super simple, a little Duck Duck Goose, english muffin pizzas, cake and a water fight.  It was great!  He'd been looking forward to his first birthday party for months.

 We got to help sort and load school supplies for foster kids one morning.  The kids were amazing helpers.  It's so fun to see them enjoy service and watch how excited they get about completing these important tasks!

Something exciting that happened this summer was that Matsen really started to love reading!  Up until this point, I'd rarely seen him pick up a book without me telling him it was time for reading time.  But he plowed right through books like no one's business.  He read more than Jazlyn!

  Towards the end of the summer, I got a big surprise from my mom.  She called me up out of the blue one day and said she wanted to buy us plane tickets to come visit her and Dad in St. George.  We'd get home the night before school started.  I waited to tell the kids until just a couple of days before they left, and boy were they excited!
  Just for memories' sake I need to record these crazy experiences getting there and back.  We showed up at the airport in plenty of time.  Once it was almost time to board, they announced that our flight would be delayed.  It was delayed enough that we'd miss our connecting flight.  The only thing they could do for us was to fly us to San Francisco, in which we'd get there really late, and have to get a hotel.  Then we'd be able to catch our next flight early the next morning.  This was NOT what I was hoping for.  Plus, they wouldn't pay for our hotel!  Amazingly, I was blessed to stay very calm, especially since Wes wasn't with me and the kids were all getting upset about all the changes.  With no other options, we went ahead with this plan.  We landed in San Francisco really late, and had to take a bus from the plane to a different part of the airport closer to the baggage claim.  We carried all of our luggage on, which meant we were hauling all of our stuff around.  Shelten fell asleep on my lap on the flight so he was very distressed when the flight landed and he was super sleepy and being moved around.  Then we had to wait for the hotel shuttle to come pick us up from the airport.  I was just hoping we wouldn't have to wait long.  But we had to wait 30 minutes and it was cold, we were in shorts, and it was about 12:30 in the morning our time when the shuttle finally picked us up.  I didn't have any eye make up remover and soap doesn't take off waterproof mascara so I had to sleep in my eye make up (yuck).  We only got a few hours of sleep at the hotel.  Then we woke up early for the next part of our trip, which was too early for the hotel's breakfast.  We had hardly eaten anything the night before either, so everyone was now really hungry and tired.  After waiting for quite some time at the airport the next morning, I kept wondering why our flight wasn't posted on our gate.  Apparently, they'd moved our gate but hadn't announced or posted it.  So we hurried to our new gate.  Oh, and the zipper on our backpack with our activities to keep the kids busy decided to break while we were at the airport, so it was bursting open with all of our stuff, and no where else to put it.  We finally made it to our destination, my dad picked us up and fortunately my mom had cued him in to getting us some food, as we were FAMISHED.   They didn't even give us snacks on that morning flight.  Seriously?!

  Once we were there, we had a wonderful time though!  My sister drove down with her kids and it was so fun to visit with her.  And the kids had so much fun with their cousins.  They were especially excited to meet their new cousin, Tyli for the first time!  She got lots of loves and attention!!  My aunt Delina was also there (how did I not get pictures of hardly any of the adults on this trip? Hmmm, guess we were having too much fun).  It was fun to see her.  And Jared and Maren came down for a quick 24 hours.  It was so great to see everyone!

 I'd been training for a mini triathlon with some friends, and did my trial run through while I was in St. George.  It's a 500 m swim (20 laps), 9 mile bike ride, and 5K run.  My dad did the biking and running parts with me.  It was fun to be able to do that with my dad and St. George was a great place to practice--they have awesome trails and dry heat, as opposed to the thick blanket of humidity here.
  And a little out of sequence here, but I did the mini triathlon a month ago and it went great!  Before training, I hadn't swam more than a lap or two since maybe when I did swim lessons as a kid.  I can't even recall.  The swimming intimidated me at first, but I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't take long to get in a groove.  Although, I did the whole thing back stroke, as the breathing with the front stroke just wasn't going to happen.  Baby steps, people!  The only hiccup with the race was that I got lost during the biking portion.  We swam first in a pool and there were only 6 people swimming at once, so everyone was very straggered out in the race.  I accidentally took a wrong turn and did my own route.  It ended up being fairly accurate distance wise and I hit my goal exactly of 90 minutes total!

  My parent's place is so beautiful.  The kids just swam their hearts out and everyone had a marvelous time.  Thanks, mom and dad for being wonderful hosts and for the fun trip!

  After our fun trip in St. George, we drove with my parents back to Las Vegas, where we flew out of, and the kids and I had a great time visiting with Misty and her kids.  She fed us a delicious dinner and the kids had a fun time playing with each other.  Misty and I have been buddies since we were toddlers.  It's so fun to have kids the same ages now and still be close buds!

 I was hoping that our trip back home would be less eventful.  But apparently, the whole trip needed to be memorable.  We got on our first flight without a hitch.  Right as we landed, they announced that there had been an issue and our connecting plane had been rerouted to a different airport an hour away.  So we had to wait for a couple of hours and then load on a bus that would take us to our new departing airport.  The kids were so tired, and amazingly, they all took a nap on the bus ride, which was a huge blessing!  Then we had to go through security again with all of our carry on luggage again.  And surprise, surprise, there would be no snacks on this flight either.  Really, people?

  But we made it home around the same time that we were originally supposed to, so that was a blessing, since school was starting the next morning.  It was a wonderful way to finish summer off with a bug hurrah!