Grandkids Camp

About a year ago we went to a family reunion at Sally's sister's cabin in the Uintahs. Judy told us about a camp they do every other summer for their grand kids over eight. Sally thought it was a great idea (we concurred). As soon as Jeff heard his mom consider it he started pushing for it, and we both pushed for lowering the age to seven. There is a gap between Gage and the next youngest grand kid of three years, so Gage would be the only kid not invited who would know what was going on (and oh, yeah, the only one of my kids left at home.) Persistence, whining and guilt, mixed with massive amounts of love and compassion paid off, and all of my kids got a golden ticket to grand kids camp.

Aunt Tiff went so that Madison could go (no way was that age getting lowered to 2, but if the momma came, the kid could come!) I am glad she did, because I stole all of these pictures from her Facebook!

They spent some wonderful time with their grandparents and cousins. They played hiked splashed in streams, and did some testimony building activities. I think they all had a wonderful time (even grandpa).

Here are the kids enjoying nature. Gage might be enjoying it a little too much!

It will be a sad day for these girls if Grandpa ever decides they are too big to sit on his lap.

Technically, Gage was only six when grandkid camp started, but he was seven when it ended!!

I only hope I have the whining power to make it an annual camp instead of ever other year.

Children are an heritage to the Lord...

Gage's Birthday

Birthday season was filled with lots of indecisiveness and lack of planning on my part (not really different for me, but the fog made it hard to push through.)

The previous year for Gage's birthday we had rented out a neighbor's backyard pool. Those sweet neighbors offered it to us again for his birthday this year. That made it easy. They have BBQ stuff on site, so a quick trip to Costco for some burgers and a few texts to friends and families was all that we needed to do.

This turns in to a bring your whole family party, so I planned for 75ish people. We had right around that number come. Not everyone swims. There is a lot of visiting and catching up among the old people (like me). But the kids have a great time.

They barely pause for eating and they swim until it is so dark we have to turn the dogs loose on them. (Literally, we turn the dogs loose on them. When the last few stragglers won't get out on the pool, we let out the neighbor's labs who love to swim. It scares the crap out of the kids and they are out in seconds.)

Good times!!

Also, we threw in celebrating my nephew, Marcus, at the same time.

My Birthday/Father's Day

Well, the title says a lot. My birthday was on Father's Day, which really isn't all that unique, it has been happening every few years for my entire life (yep, all 29 years.) The weird thing is, this year I felt even MORE obligated to honor Jeff (as the father of my children) than I have on all the other years the two have happened to fall on the same day. When this would happen in the past I would tell him that the fact that I was born kind of trumped the fact that he was a father. I mean, if I wasn't born, he wouldn't be a father (at least not the father of my kids). ;)

So this year, I found a way to make it about both of us.

First, a few days before my birthday my awesome neighbors threw a party for me and we had a big BBQ in my backyard. It was really nice, and really fun. Here are some pictures I took.

You're welcome.

On Father's Day/My Birthday my mom came up to celebrate with us. I suggested dinner out in Tooele with my grandma because I figured she might be alone and missing my grandpa, too. (Turns out she forgot it was Father's Day and thought we were just celebrating my birthday, which you know works for me because the world revolves around me.)

I chose to have us skip church because I may be strong, but I am not superhuman! (I had actually substituted in Primary the week before, and they were practicing their Father's Day song and the leader told them to point to their dad's at the end of the song. Then she had them practice that by pointing to where their dad might be sitting if he were in the audience. When I saw Gage point at the ceiling, that was about all I could take. Kids are awesomely resilient, but their mama's aren't always!)

So instead of church, we went to the cemetery and did a balloon release. (We were talking about balloon releases in my grief support group and I said "Who keeps a helium tank on hand all the time except clowns and widows.") And we also took the bottle of "champagne" Jeff got for completing chemo. It turned out, that bottle needed an actual old fashioned bottle opener, it wasn't a screw top. So after trying everything I could to pry it off, and my attempt to break the top of the neck off by hitting it against a tree, Courtney took matters into her own hands and walked it over to the curb and smashed the top off. It sprayed all over, which I expected, but the kids hadn't, so that was pretty funny. Then I poured it into paper cups, and checked it carefully for glass, and then we had a little toast. There was only enough left after the spraying that we each got a little sip, but that was okay because we all decided it was nasty!

Then we drove out to Tooele to have dinner with my grandma, my mom, and Kim and Warren's family. It was delicious. Here are some pictures.

You're welcome.

I decided since I had the tank in the car, and because the balloon release was just me and the kids, that we would do a balloon release for my grandpa, too, so that my mom and Mia (who came up with her) could participate too.

You have to look harder to see the balloons in this picture, but the sky is just amazing!

Much love to all the wonderful men who have changed my life. My dad, my husband, my grandpas, my brothers, my father in law, my brothers in law, and many wonderful friends. And many thanks to all of those wonderful men who are still showing my kids that there are good men in the world who are here to love and support them and be great examples to them.

(p.s. I am actually 37 years young!)

Things that Happened in May that WERE Jake's Birthday

You see what I did there! ;)

I know we did something for Jake's birthday. And I remember ice cream sandwiches and basketball in the back yard, but I don't think that was the main event...I better check my trusty phone!

Oh yeah, Minute to Win It. This is the only documentation I have. No other pictures or video. But let me assure you fun was had by all. (And yes, I do always nag like an impatient hag in the background on all of my videos...geez!)

All you need for a Minute to Win It party is lots of those red plastic cups and a box of ping pong balls! You can have games for hours with those and a few random things that you will have around your house

I don't know why, but Jake's parties always seem to grow the largest and the most out of control. Maybe it is a boy thing (or a mom who doesn't set limits thing.) But I have learned to be very organized and this party was actually very easy to pull off. Courtney and Tiffany were a huge help.

Jake is a great kid. He is a very deep thinker. He loves to laugh. He adores having the attention on him. He seems to be headed in the right direction most of the time. We are so lucky to have him as an important part of our family.

Happy 10th Jake!!

The Things That Happened in May That Weren't Jake's Birthday

I have been getting all my information from Facebook - but only the photos. I have way too many status updates to sort through to find out what was really going on. But these events were significant enough to inspire me to post pictures, so you now get to enjoy them (probably a second time) for your viewing pleasure: First up, Courtney got her braces off!!! Yay - it actually didn't seem like that long, and in all honesty I have some questions and I think we may end up putting them back on, but YAY they are off for now. I didn't think to take a before picture until she was already lying in the chair, so this one is really flattering: And this one is in the car after. Isn't she so pretty? (So pretty I am going to go out and learn how to use some of these weird looking assault rifles Jeff left behind...) The other "not birthday" May event that I felt was significant enough to merit a post was when the awesome Evan and family invited us to come along on the annual Sand Dunes trip. The date for the large group was up in the air, and no one really knew for sure if it was even going to happen, but Evan said "come with us" even though he had to know that it would be WAY more work for him! What a good sport (and loving, caring friend). We didn't want to be all excess baggage so we did what we could to get ourselves ready. Courtney felt pretty confident she could put the paddle tires on the little bikes. I was kind of pleasantly surprised (until some rudey pointed out that they were on backward.) Details - she knows the mechanics behind doing it, and for me, for this year, that is good enough. I have made it a point on our previous trips over the last 10 years to the sand dunes to never ride. And to be completely truthful I kind of had a secret goal to never leave the trailer except to shower and to make at least one trip in to town. Well, Patty and Evan decided that this kind of behavior wasn't going to cut it this year. They said "You have to ride out to the lake with us". WHAT?!?!?! There is a lake? Who knew? Is it new? No? Awesome! So we loaded up. Most of my family in the Rhino because the 90's just don't have the power for this kind of ride. Courtney and Jake fought over the 400. I can honestly say - I did not enjoy it. I get my adrenaline by waiting until the last minute to complete a project. Nearly falling off 20 foot drop offs is a bit of an overkill in the adrenaline department for me. On the way back from the lake Patty offered to come in the Rhino so one of my kids could take her quad. I don't know if she really wanted to, or if she just wanted them to shut up. But it was very nice.

(Our Family at the Lake)

So I asked her if she wanted to drive and she was like "Really, you would let me." As if that would take some of the enjoyment out of it for me. I was thinking "At least then closing my eyes will be less dangerous."

We all made it back to the campsite safely, and not much worse for wear.

And we do want to say THANK YOU to the awesome Wiggins family for being so wonderful to us on this trip, and really for the whole last year. What amazing friends we have. (Evan even said he was up for it again next year. I would like a prescription for a double dose of whatever he takes!) ;)

Relay For Life

TEAM PARTNERS FOR PARADISE IN MEMORY OF JEFF ANDERSON

We participated in the Relay for Life in St. George. My fabulous cousin Melinda, with the help of my fabulous cousin, Bobby decided that it would be nice to establish a team in Jeff's honor. My girls wanted to run with the team. I was going to bake cookies or something - but this was before I was able to rejoin life. (I baked cookies again for the first time - from scratch - in October). So mostly I drove my kids down, and provided some pictures for their posters and the cute booth they made up. The theme they choose was Partners for Paradise. They had a cute island thing going. It would have been super awesome if the weather had chosen to follow the theme. It was sooo cold. And the wind blew non stop. In the end, I wimped out and went to sleep in Adele's nice warm condo. A few brave souls spent the night, and someone was on the track for at least one lap every hour for the entire 24 hours!

I am very excited about doing is again - and promise to participate more fully in some way next year, as I am now back at least among the walking wounded instead of the full on zombie I was at this event! Thanks to Melinda and Bobby - and thanks to all the other family who came out to support this event in Jeff's honor. The theme was Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back ... We have, we do, and we tried! Now we need to continue to do it so others can CELEBRATE, LIVE, WIN My mom forced me to take a picture as if I was actually participating. So there you go. In Jeff's sweat pants and everything. (FYI - this is the same "Hansen Stadium" track that I will probably mention in a future post - maybe about my courtship story ;))

Easter Campout

After a lot of internal debate about if we would continue camping this year, I decided I was strong enough, brave enough, and doggone it...pretty enough to do this. I had a lot of awesome help from some amazing friends (thanks Evan and Dave - not that they will ever read this because guys reading blogs is lame - no offense to guys reading this blog) we got the trailer locked and loaded and sitting in front of the house in the "just pull straight out and stay on the road position". Evan asked me repeatedly if I wanted to at least pull it around the block to get a feel for how the brakes worked and such. I declined. My plan - always go straight, never check the mirrors, just keep going - and never get in a position to BACK anywhere! (FYI - valid plan - totally worked!)

I posted this picture the morning we were getting ready to leave, with a caption of something like "Here is praying that there is a truck driving gene, and that I got it."

And just to be clear, that is not a mini pickup with a little trailer. That is a full size - jacked up - truck with like a 32 foot trailer (or something like that - I forget, and who cares, it is behind me - and I have a no backing policy)

The trip down (and back home) was fairly uneventful. Thus allowing us to have many more camping trips over the summer. However, the complete and overwhelming anxiety every time I pull out of the driveway never did go away. Maybe that is a built in safety mechanism that I should stop trying to medicate away. I did learn to back in to the driveway - and as far as I know, I never did have to back in public (like at a gas station), however, I did have to have a guy come out and watch me once just to make sure that I was clear, because it was a really tight parking lot. I chose my gas stations more carefully after that.

Really, almost the entire trip was uneventful, except for one unfortunate accident that Chad's friend had on one of the motorcycles and ended up with a mangled arm that had to be put back together surgically. I don't have pictures of that (you're welcome) so I will just share a few pictures from the camp out.

Even though I go to all the stress and anxiety of pulling that massive trailer down, my kids love to sleep in a tent. Well, this camping trip, sadly, was the last for our tent. By the last day of camp it was duct taped and caution taped together. (Lucky for us, I found one at a yard sale in May for $5!)

No particular reason for this picture except to say that Gage is a fashionista and I am mom of the year!

The obligatory "can we just go pick up the Easter Eggs, yet" picture.

Courtney with her super clean face from riding dirt bikes with a helmet. I will take the 5 o'clock shadow look though, because it means they are WEARING THEIR HELMETS!!

The dying of the Easter eggs.

The annual "Gathering of trash to make a THE GREATEST HUT EVER"

One happy camper. (Actually, I can't believe there was a picture of me taken that I don't completely hate. I refused to change clothes or brush my hair the entire weekend in protest of being forced to sleep in the wilderness.)

Easter camp would not be complete without collecting caterpillars that then crawl in the trailer and procreate for years to come on all the camping stuff!

When I got home, my awesome neighbors had "egged" my house!

We Have A TEEN!!

Courtney's bithday! YIKES!! Anyone know a good, all girl, boarding school?

Okay, mini melt down over, let's get down to business. I would say that life circumstances caused my lack of planning, but if we are being honest, I never plan a birthday party more than 3 days in advance. It is a personality flaw. (Probably my only one, so enjoy it!)

Courtney's birthday fell on a Sunday, and by the time I realized it, I had already planned my own party for Saturday, which left her Friday. Which was April Fool's Day. We already used that theme last year - so I didn't want to do that again. On Tuesday I finally made up some invitations for her to give to her friends, so on Wednesday I told her she really had to decide what we were doing. We tossed ideas back and forth and she finally decided on a "Cake Boss" theme.

We decided everyone should decorate their own cakes. Not sure what the point of that was - we weren't doing any kind of contest, it just sounded like a good idea. This is the point where a mom who was on her game would say - CUPCAKES, let's decorate cupcakes. But I am not that mom, I was going to bake 15 cakes! Luckily my friend/awesome neighbor took pity on me and volunteered to make half the cakes. Then we realized we didn't have the right pans. So after she made a quick trip to Wal-mart for me we spent Thursday baking. Then she was nice enough to come over at 8 p.m. that night so we could frost all 15. (I should tell her that helping me find therapy would be less time comsuming!)

So Friday was the day of the big party. I planned it from 5-9 so I could have all the kids gone by 10 and be in bed. (Honestly, have I always been this dumb?) It would appear that fasionably late has changed since I was a teen so the first girl arrived at 5 and then they SLOWLY trickled in until 7:30 (I am no Miss Manners - or ever prompt, but really?!?) I have been to quite a few neighborhood parties in the last 6 months so I had a ready repoiter of "Ice Breaker" games. I got the girls started on that and they played those (and seemed to have a good time with it) until everyone arrived.

At 7:30 we started the cake decorating. (I was afraid Courtney was going to scrap that idea - which would have involved me in a straight jacket being hauled away from our house.) The hours of baking and frosting were rewarded with about 15 minutes of some really "interesting" decorating. Good thing there wasn't a contest. Maybe I should say the theme was Cake Wrecks instead of Cake Boss.

Then Courtney's friends decided she needed to have a cake smashed in her face (yes, I am looking for new friends for her).

Whatever, I am a go with the flow kind of person (yeah, couldn't even say that with a straight face, but I am trying to be more like that.) So I let it happen, after I made them move off the cement and on to the grass for easier clean up!

When the smashing was done, I locked all the doors in the house and said no one was allowed back in until they used the hose to clean off (I said I am working on my "go with the flow" attitude, it isn't perfect yet.) Half the messy girls went to a neighbor/friend at the party's house to shower, the other half showered here.

That brings us to almost 9:00, party over, right? Yeah, not so much! Another friend/neighbor had let us borrow her Kinect and dance game (BTW - I am a super HOT dancer - if I knew how to load a video I would...not). The kids decided this would be a good time to do this. Just like the arriving, the departing was a trickling sort of affair starting a little after nine. When most of the guests were gone by just a little after 11 - I asked Courtney if maybe her dear friends that were still here needed a ride home. They did! Suprise. So I drove them home - to outer BFE and got to bed at about 11:55 (for the love).

It is all good. I am sure I am the coolest mom ever and it will pay off someday.