Thanksgiving Point

Yes. I know there are a lot of pictures. But, I like pictures. And I take all these pictures and nobody ever sees them. So, I'm subjecting you to the modern Family Slide Show. Besides, aren't these pictures fun? We have been having lots of fun at Thanksgiving Point this summer. We used some of our tax refund to buy an annual pass. The gardens are beautiful, the dinosaur museum is fun. We haven't been to the farm since spring, but it was fun, too. During the summer they have a lot of family activities, especially on Monday night. One night, they had lots of water activities, from water fights to giant slip-n-slides.

Then, on another night, they had a Harry Potter night. They started by being sorted into their houses, then we got to make wands. We went to our classes, including Herbology, Divination and Potions. (They had already taken down Defense Against the Dark Arts by the time we got there.)

This was such a fun night for us Harry Potter fans. I would love to copy this idea for a birthday party, but the last birthday kid for the year has a different idea. We'll see if we can't talk him into it.

And of course, we can never get enough of the Dinosaur Museum. We love it there. Next time we go, we have to remember to take a couple of dollars to make our own fossils. We are having so much fun discovering all that Thanksgiving Point has to offer. I'm pretty tempted to buy a pass again next year.

Our Temple Adventures

Last spring when we went to Moab, we also went to Monticello to see the temple. Whenever we go on a vacation, if there is a temple there, we always try to stop. It's always fun. So, when we were in Monticello, I thought to myself "hey, there are 13 temples in Utah now. We should try to see all of them this year." So, that started our adventures. We started at Salt Lake Temple (well, after Monticello).
Then, one evening, we went to the Draper, Jordan River and Oquirrh Mountain Temples.
Then, we took another Saturday to go to the Ogden, Logan and Bountiful Temples.

On the grounds of the Ogden Temple, there is a great little pioneer museum. They had hundreds of pioneer artifacts and things, from dolls to doilies, and tools to toilets (seriously, there was a wheelchair that you could take out the seat and use it for a toilet). There was also a little cabin there that was the home of the first settler in the Utah area.
We saw some magnificent views and beautiful flower gardens.

Then there were these beauties. Five of them. How lucky can we get!

I guess it's fitting that the favorite song to sing during scripture time is 'I Love to See the Temple.' We've still got a few more to go. I'm looking forward to heading down to Manti this week (hopefully). It's a great time of year to take a detour through one of those canyons in that area. We'll hit Provo and Timpanogos, too. The tricky ones will be Vernal and St. George.

What?

I really have tried to update with our exciting adventures, but blogger won't let me upload pictures. So, for now, there is nothing. Still.

I had high hopes

I had high apple pie in the sky hopes. I like to plan. I'm a planner. Sometimes my plans are so good I need to ease into them slowly. A couple of weeks ago, I made a great schedule for accomplishing all my goals, which includes school, excercise, scrapbooking, cleaning and more. It really is a great plan. I decided I would not overwhelm myself by trying to do it all at once. I started with school. We have done a great job with school every day. Last week I added in exercise. This week I was ready to jump in with both feet and do everything on my list. I got up early, got busy and was feeling great. Then, what do you know? My baby woke up sick. She wants to be held. She wants to be held by me. She wants to be held all the time. I quickly came to the conclusion that my goals would have to be put on hold. Sometimes I feel like the scheduling gods are against me. Sometimes I feel like there is a force out there that really wants me to fail with my goals. Today, since I am in a good mood, I choose to believe that the Lord wants me to remember that sometimes all I need to do is hold a baby, and I will be accompishing the greatest thing for the day. Having to sit and hold the baby will allow me to read to my kids books that we haven't picked up for a while. It is reminding me that slowing down and cuddling is often the best option. So, my goals will wait another day. Oh, I'm sure we'll get a few things done today. School is easily done with a baby on my lap. But, the kitchen floor might stay dirty one more day. And today, I'm okay with that. Of course, it still is early. We'll see if I can stand it the rest of the day. Someday I will accomplish all my other goals.

Oh, and as an update, last week I lost 2.5 lbs. Woohoo! I hope this week is just as good!

Just sitting here

Well, here I am. I know you all (all 3 of you) thought I'd forgotten about this blog, but I'm back. I actually have a lot I want to update, but I don't know that I'll do it all right now. But here I am, just sitting here listening to the wonderful sound of my children playing outside and smelling some delicious cookies in the oven. It's a good day.

I've decided I'm going to copy my sister-in-law, and publish for the world to see my battle with weight-loss. After 5 kids, I've got a few extra pounds that I wouldn't mind losing. I've somehow become the ring-leader for a weight-loss competition that started last week. It will go for the next 14 weeks. I'm excited because I need the motivation. I'm also worried that I won't get it all off. I get discouraged easily, and I think if I don't get it all off this time around (it's the 3rd challenge for me) I might give up completely. So, I'm determined to win this competition this time. This first week has been pretty good for me, but I always seem to lose steam on the weekend. I still need to get some exercise in, too. I weigh in again on Monday to see how much I've lost. Keep your fingers crossed.

Now, I'm going to copy her again, and make a list of things you have to look forward to. My only problem is, she's clever. I'm not. So my list will simply be a list and not an exciting itinerary with funny titles. But, here it is:

Our temple adventures
Birthdays, birthdays and more birthdays
Fun at Thanksgiving Point
This is the Place State Park
Summer fun

So, there you have it. Lots of fun to be had in the coming days here at Creativity Escapes Me!

The rest of the story

Every year at Josh's work party, the company buys prizes for all the kids and all the adults. They call the kids names one at a time, and they can go pick their prize. The adults also have a drawing, but the prizes are picked before the name. (As is evident by Josh's prize of $15 to a tanning salon.) Anyway, we got to the park an hour early because Josh had to help set up for the party. The kids all started scouting out the prize table. Anna kept going back all evening. Tyler was excited about the toy snakes. Emma wanted some of the cotton candy. I explained to them that they might not get what they want. Their names might be among the last called and the prizes they hoped for might be gone. Well, Anna's name was the second one called. She had been listening intently to all the introduction, so when her name was called, she didn't have to be told twice. She took off running to the front. She was dodging people's feet here and there and made it to the front before Josh even realized her name had been called. The boss had asked parents to help their kids so they didn't take too long choosing. Anna was back in her seat with her prize before we could catch up to her. She was so excited to get her Barbie. It came in a sand bucket with a shovel. I wish I could capture her quiet determination and her excitement. She hadn't voiced to me that she knew what she wanted. It was exciting for me to see it all unfold. Tyler, however, was not so lucky. The snakes were gone by the time he got up there. That was pretty sad. We might be spending a dollar on a toy snake.

Quote of the day

Last night Anna and Tyler were playing with prizes they received from Josh's work party. Anna got a Barbie. Tyler was talking for the Barbie, so Anna said (in Barbie voice), "Don't talk for me." To which Tyler responded, "You are a Barbie little. You started in a box." Anna came up with the great retaliation of "DON'T BRAG THE MEMORIES!" You have been warned. Don't brag the memories.