Scrambled Thoughts XXI (Catch Up Post)

1) Where did this kid get his fashion sense anyway?

Miles is sporting a great look at his friend, Chelsea's, baptism. The pocket square, the fitted pants, the shoes... he looks so fashionable that I'm thinking there might be hope for our family after all.

2) Poppys are the best pool toys

At first I worried whether or not Poppy was having fun being attacked by all the neighborhood kids. But then I saw his face and he looked just fine.

3) We weren't planning on sleeping out on the sports court in the middle of a school week...

But when the house starts smelling like rotten eggs and you're pretty sure you didn't leave any sitting around anywhere you've got to take precautions. Right after all the children fell asleep in their snug little beds, Brian and I started smelling an intense rotten egg smell coming from the vents on the main level of the house. After a quick google search, Brian called the gas company while I rounded up all of the drowsy children and their bedding and funneled them outside for some fresh air.

Thankfully it was an absolutely gorgeous night and after the initial wave of excitement (and complaining from the teenager about how she was ever going to survive her finals the next day without a proper night of sleep in a regular bed (poor girl)), they all fell asleep quickly while Brian and I waited out front on lawn chairs, chatting and waiting for the gas company to come out and give us the all clear.

Which they did.

It's still a mystery as to where the rotten egg smell came from in the first place.

4) The whole backside of the mountain burned

And it gave us all a pretty helpless feeling. We were driving up to Utah when we passed the smoke and we saw helicopters loaded down with water coming from the lake - little dots in the sky - doing their part to help.  To my eye it didn't look like they could possibly be making much progress on that giant fire. But I suppose, if they truly weren't making much progress they would be asked to stop using their fuel for such a futile purpose. They must have been doing good after all. Life can be like that...

5) Daughters with strong fathers have a better chance in this world. It's a thing.

My girls are lucky that way.

6) Can you even get enough of this face?

I seriously can't.

Utah Trip - Great Grandpa Alder's House (Catch Up Post)

We love to visit Great Grandpa Alder whenever we can. He is genuine and good and simply being in his house rubs that off onto all of us.

We stay for a few hours to visit and relax.

We'll have a meal,

maybe take a nap,

play games,

and tell stories.

That's three generations of great men up there. 

Carson handled the whole broken foot thing pretty well. And I noticed that his siblings toned their own energy down to match his. 

Not every child gets to have a great grandparent in their lives. 

I hope mine will carry into their adulthood the stories, the feelings, and the faith of this great man.

Utah Trip (Catch Up Post)

Well, that was fun. 

We'd only been at Grandma's house for a few short hours before Carson jumped from the top bunk and cracked a bone in his foot. 

I knew something had gone wrong by the urgency in his voice. "Mom, mom, mommommommom," he said in a panic. "Come 'ere come 'ere come 'ere," I rushed to his side and he collapsed into tears while holding tightly to his right foot, and soon Brian and I were wrapping it in ice and tucking him into bed, talking in hushed tones about how we were going to work out the details of the following day, which now would need to include a visit to InstaCare.

Just a few hours before, on the drive up to Utah, our car had started flashing its 'check engine' light loudly in our faces. So that needed to be attended to as well. Thankfully, with Grandma and Grandpa, we had four adults around to help take care of all the things, so early in the morning I left the little kids with Grandma and Grandpa, loaded Carson into Grandpa's car, sent our own car away with Brian to the car repair shop, and drove Carson to the foot repair shop.

X-Rays confirmed the break and he was given a boot, crutches, and instructions to avoid all that is fun for the rest of the summer. Or, I'm pretty sure that's what he heard anyway. But even though we had to cancel our trip to Lagoon the following day, we tried to fill it with fun.

And what could be more fun than a boys against girls Chocolate Chip Cookie Baking Contest:

Timothy and I got to be the judges,

and we took our job very seriously judging the taste, the texture, the appearance of each cookie, and the presentation of the platter as a whole.

The girls came out victorious, but the boys handled their defeat well.

While the bakers were baking, Timothy and I went to the park across the street. Grandma and Grandpa live right across the street from an elementary school, so our kids love to go over there and play on the playground after school hours.

Eliza and I hung out in the shade of a tree for the most part. And tried to ignore the fact that there were hundreds (thousands?) of honey bees roaming around in the spring flower buds above our heads.

We took a day to introduce Eliza to her cousin Olivia.

Olivia tolerated the whole ordeal and even gave Eliza a few kisses. Cute.

This particular trip was all about the Alder family. But we snuck a night in with my family to see Amber in an outdoor Shakespeare play. And introduced her to Eliza.

We all enjoyed the play very much, even the children. That might have had something to do with the candy we kept dishing out, though.

Other than that, most of our time was spent hanging out at Grandma's.

Which is really a favorite place to hang. Her backyard is beautiful, relaxing, and fun.

Miles perfected his catching skills,

Timothy perfected his multitasking,

and his baby loving,

and his sand playing.

And we all enjoyed the perfect weather.

We love it here.

Miles's 8th Birthday (Catch Up Post)

Miles surprises me more and more every passing year. Sensitive and passionate, determined and bright, he keeps us on our toes and fills our home with excitement.

He woke up the morning of his birthday with the anticipation of a great day, and lucky for him, the day played out in just that way. 

He spent some alone time in the pool (a favorite activity) jumping from the waterfall, doing flips in the water, swimming from one side to another like a dolphin... anything his little heart desired without anyone around to tell him to do it differently. 

Soon, however, Timothy joined him and they played together for just a minute before Miles moved on to bigger and better things.

Like his party with his two best friends, Liam and Hyrum.

He chose laser tag and mini golf, and everyone had a fabulous time under the black lights.

He played a mean game of mini-golf and beat us all by a landslide, as he usually does when sports are at stake.

His two buddies were scared of the laser tag room, so they stayed outside with Eliza and me while the rest of the family went inside and shot each other with lasers.

Later that night we opened all of his gifts, which included a brand new, beautiful baptism suit and a Book of Mormon with his name engraved on the front cover. He was delighted with both.

His siblings wrapped him in love for the whole day, and especially during the evening hours of present-opening. Isn't it so beautiful that giving gifts makes you feel so loving?

Miles requested a Poke-mon cake. So I did my best to comply. I have a new baby, however, so simplicity was a must. The end result was perfect in his eyes and it hardly took me much time at all. Score.

These days are so fleeting. I feel it. I see it. I can't believe how fast they're clipping along. The following picture speaks to me for some reason. It's not the best in terms of lighting or composition, but the movement in it shows life. The life that we're living. Smiles and singing, distraction and family-togetherness.

Oh how we love our Miles!

Girls Night (Catch Up Post)

Have I ever told you about our girls' nights? 

The five of us celebrate each other's birthdays with a themed night of crazy fun. This time it was Cara's birthday, so the other four of us got together, picked a theme (superheros), picked a night, and let Cara's husband know that we would be kidnapping Cara for the evening. 

Usually we take the birthday girl out for dinner, but with all of the other activities we had planned for this night we needed to pack a dinner to take with us to eat in the car. We did our best to stay with our theme.

We picked the outfits (I always need to borrow items because my wardrobe is so small), kidnapped Cara, and then we were off to the superhero museum. When we got there, we realized that there is a difference between 'Marvel' superheros and 'DC' superheros. The museum was all about Marvel superheros and we were dressed as DC superheros... believe me when I say that people noticed.

But we didn't let that stop our fun.

(Our good friend Laurie wasn't able to make it to the first part of the evening, which is why she isn't in these pictures)

Cara fought Hulk,

we laughed at our creepy eyes,

tried to pull the sword from the stone (or whatever the equivalent Marvel terminology is):

rode a motorcycle,

and learned all about superheros.

These women are such fun to be with!

After the museum we took Cara to the movies where we met up with Laurie and watched Wonder Woman. Such a fun and fantastic night!