School again!

This was a big week!  But before school started, we celebrated our 13th anniversary.  Our babysitter fell through so we all took a big family trip to Texas Roadhouse for dinner!  Then it was the big day.  First day of school!  They all are in great classes this year and we are excited for a great year!  Oh, and Sunrise decided to give himself a nice haircut just a few days before school.  I had to buzz it with a #1 all over!

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Homemade Cheesecake mmmmmmmm

We started the week with piano lessons, swim lessons and a well-check-up for Sunrise. On Wednesday I took Tornado into an audiologist to have his hearing tested.  He is by far our loudest child and had ear tubes as a baby.  His results were mixed.  He passed a few tests but responded lower than average on another.  So we will bring him back in in 3-6 months and have him tested again.  On Wednesday the kids begged to stay after swim lessons and swim in the fun pool, so I paid and off they went.  Then my phone died.  What is a restless mom to do?  I sat there and wrote a song!  It's not quite finished but it's got a cool start.  Thursday was the last day of swim lessons and they all passed.  Cloudburst is moving on to level 6, Sunshine to level 5, Tornado to level 4 and Sunrise to level 1 (he was in preschool classes).  They were all pretty excited to move on.  

On Friday I was part of a morningside- a fireside that started out in Eagle Mountain at 8 AM.  I sang three of my songs and got to speak a little bit, along with another speaker.  The youth were great.  Later that day Cloudburst baked something I have never attempted- cheesecake!  She did it all herself, even separating an egg yolk.  I'm not sure where she gets her love of baking, but the rest of us don't mind one bit!  It was delicious!  On Saturday we kicked off the 3rd grade football season with the big Lehi Football Jamboree.  Each grade-level has two teams that scrimmage against each other.  We won our scrimmage and looked really good!  Thunder is the head coach again and is of course doing an excellent job.  That guy is pretty much good at everything he does :-)

FREEEEEEDOM!!

Freedom! Well, for one of us... more on that later.  We started the week with a hair-pulling activity: shoe shopping for 4 kids!  We survived intact.  And I remembered why I ordered a bunch of their uniform clothes online so it could be shipped directly here :-)  Even though we started swimming lessons, we found the time to go to Seven Peaks on Wednesday.  We went right in the morning and there were no lines at all.  Unfortunately when Tornado and Thunder were riding together on a tube down a ride, their tube flipped and they both smashed their heads hard into the side of the ride.  They came out in front of the tube, crying (well Tornado was).  The rest of the day Tornado hung out with me and Sunrise in the smaller section.  On Thursday we went to see one of Cloudburst's friends in the play "Aida."  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the singing and acting.  The boys sat mostly still for the whole things, although it was interesting when Sunrise fell asleep at the end and I had to lug him like a sack of potatoes up to the top of the amphitheater and out to the car.  I forgot how much he weighs.  Friday was another fun day for Cloudburst.  One of her best friends, Heather, had moved up to Washington state last year.  Her dad promised a trip for her and her brother to visit friends and he kept his promise.  He drove with just the two of them all the way down.  Heather stayed all day at our house and they were both in heaven.  They played outside, played inside, baked brownies and just giggled.  It was fun to watch.

And on Sunday, Sunrise found some new freedom!  He learned to ride his bike with no training wheels!  He figured it out on the 3rd try and was riding all down the street.  We were so proud of him.  

Visiting the Past...

How much can you fit into a week?  A couple cabin trips, a fireside, a reunion, football and an Young Women overnight trip, that's what.  I'm just starting to catch up now, 2 weeks later.  It actually started on Monday July 29 with the start of football.  Let the games begin!  Thunder has been very busy meeting with other coaches and completing the play book. The first practice went great, although all the boys were very sore the next day!  On Tuesday I left with the Young Women to head up to the cabin for an overnight trip.   The girls brought up games and we had pizza for dinner so it was very easy.  Well, expect for some men canceling at the last minute who were supposed to stay overnight with us, and we had to spend 2 hours calling to find replacements.  But overall, it was just great.  On Wednesday I was invited by the Heber Stake to present a fireside.  I went with Tanya and it went great!  They fed us Cafe Rio for dinner and Kneaders cookies for dessert.

On Thursday it was time for a long-anticipated roommate reunion!  There were 12 of us who lived in adjacent apartments our Sophomore year at BYU and we loved living together.  One girl has been great at keeping us in touch by compiling an annual "Elms Crew Review" so we can keep up with each other's lives.  We were able to have 11 out of 12 of us come to the cabin and hang out for a few days!  It was wonderful!  On Thursday night a few arrived.  On Friday we went down to the Provo airport to pick someone up and ended up stopping by our old apartment and dorm rooms.  Yes, we knocked on the door and even went in!  Then we drove up to Park City and did some shopping all together.  One girl is now a fashion blogger, so it was fun to get her advice on clothes!  That night we stayed up til 2 am sewing and talking.  We made pin cushions and little doll dresses.  One girl is now the owner of a fabric/sewing and digital scrapbooking company, so she brought a ton of stuff for us crafty girls to do.  It was so nice to not have little fingers trying to get a hold of everything!  On Saturday we stealthily planned a baby shower for one girl who is 8 months pregnant.  She slept in and we got things ready.  Then, surprise!  It was really fun.  We even had a swaddling contest.  Pretty sure I won, though others may dispute that... Later on Saturday we headed over to Olympic Park to do zip-lining and Alpine sliding.  We had earned some free tickets from our shopping the day earlier.  It was a blast!  We stayed up late again Saturday night to finish projects and just hang out.  By Sunday morning our lovely weekend was over.  Everyone went on their merry way, recharged and renewed!  Til we meet again ladies!

A coat of Wayne

At the beginning of the summer we set a reading goal.  How much, you ask?  Well I don't really know.  I filled out a paper with small boxes and said each box was 10 minutes.  So a page full of reading, I guess!  Anyway, they met their goal about 2 weeks ago.  The reward was to go up to the Discovery Gateway museum in Salt Lake City.  We finally had time to go up there on Monday!  We left after piano lessons.  The kids all had a great time playing and using their imaginations.  Unfortunately Thunder and Sunshine couldn't come because they were traveling to Idaho for the funeral of our friend's father.  On Tuesday Tornado had gymnastics and I had young womens that night.  We went to play frisbee golf.  Oh excuse me, "Disc Golf" is the proper term.  Apparently this is a large sport requiring official courses and weighted frisbees....er, discs.  We just had very cheap normal frisbees.  But it was still fun.

Wednesday was July 24, which is a holiday in Utah to commemorate the pioneers arriving.  We spent it with some good friends.  We started off the day by hiking to the Alpine Rock Slide again.  The water was just as cold, but it was overcast!  No sun to warm us up between slides!  I was chilled for most of the day, but everyone had a great time.  After a way-too-long wait to try Popeye's chicken, we headed home to get showered and changed.  Then we went to our friends the Butler's mom's house.  It is a really fun house with a zip line, sprinklers under the trampoline and cool decorations inside.  The kids played and the adults talked.  It was a great day.

On Thursday we met with the missionaries and a family in our neighborhood who are thinking about coming to church after being away for a while.  They are our neighbors and our kids play together.  On Friday Cloudburst had her last day of tennis and we all went and played tennis on the court next to her class.  She was not too happy about our plan to do this.  She insisted she would be very embarrassed if anyone knew the goofy kids playing next to her were her family.  When did she become a teenager??

Saturday began normally enough.  I went to an early morning temple session with the ladies from church.  On the way back I called Thunder to mention I was going to stop at Home Depot and get some paint to paint some baseboards (I have a meeting with a Deseret Book music guy at our house this week).  Well he called me back a few minutes later and said a friend of ours could help us install Wainscoting if I wanted.  So off we went!  The rest of the day until 8 pm was spent measuring, cutting, nailing, caulking and painting.  It took the 3 of us all day, but we finished off the piano room and the front hallway.  It looks amazing!  I am sore today... but it was totally worth it.