Crepes and Water Fun at Great Grandmas

At least once a year Grandma Marshall hosts a crepe day, usually combined with a water day, for all of the great grandkids who live in town. My kids all seriously love crepes! They will each eat at least 6, no joke, even Bryce, who is our picky eater.

Breakfast started at 8am. I think Grandma was cooking crepes one right after the other for a good hour.

After the kids had their fill on crepes it was back outside for a water balloon fight and fun on the slip n slide, and yes it was warm enough for that by then. After all we do live in St. George, Utah.

After having lots and lots of fun in the water some of the kids were starting to get hungry for lunch, so we went back in and finished off the rest of the crepe batter. The kids thought it was great to have crepes twice in one day, for two separate meals. Lucky kids to have such an awesome Grandma so close!!!

Ducks, House of Jump, and Dippin Dots with Cousins

My sister Mandy came to town for the day so we decided to do a few fun things with the kids.
First up on the list was feeding the ducks at The Tonaquint Nature Center. She brought lots and lots of bread with her that she had been saving for the occasion. This is the best place to go to feed the ducks. It has lots of paths you can walk on, lots of shade, and a nice duck pond. In the pond you can see ducks, geese, turtles, and fish. The kids love it. I usually have a hard time dragging Bryce away.

After the kids used up all the bread we headed on over to House of Jump (an indoor trampoline arena). They had fun running around, jumping, and playing dodge ball. By the time we left they were good and hot and sweaty so we bought them some dip n dots on the way home. Of course B fell asleep while eating his so part of them melted, but he thoroughly enjoyed he did eat! Now those are a new favorite for him.

Hair Cut for Bryce

I took all the kids to get haircuts, in preparation for going back to school, but of course the older two didn't want me to take their pictures. HAHA! Tanner actually got his colored and cut. Chloe just got a little trim and then she added some blue highlights to the ends (those will be faded out by the time school starts). Bryce kind of got a haircut like Tanner. When he was getting it cut I said to him "now you look like Tanner". The girl cutting his hair was like "does Tanner work at Artic Circle?" Why yes he does. Come to find out she knows Tanner cause she works there too. Small world. Anyways she said Bryce looked a lot like Tanner.

Little Cutie

Cheese

Finding Dory

One of the things we like to do in the summer in St. George, besides swimming, is to go to the movies. It is a good way to enjoy a few hours out of the heat. They usually have a summer movie program where you can get super cheap passes to see older movies. Also every Tuesday the Megaplex movie theatres offer $5 Tuesday, where every ticket that day is $5. So we do that a lot if there is a new movie the kids want to see.

Bryce has seen lots of previews for Finding Dory, and so he has been wanting to see it, so we finally went and saw it. Tanner came too, but him and our neighbor and his two boys went and saw a different movie, while Chloe, Bryce, and I went to Finding Dory. I thought it was pretty cute and funny. The kids both really like it. Bryce hadn't had a nap and it was right around nap time, so he slept for about half of it, but for the parts he saw he was enthralled. Of course he got his cotton candy-his standard treat which he gets every time we go to the theatre. The older kids are more partial to good old fashioned popcorn, but they usually sneak a few bites of B's cotton candy.

A Seat for Everyone

Landon and I have been married for 16 years, and would you believe that in that 16 years we have never had a brand new kitchen table. We have had lots of hand-me downs, and yard sale items, but never a brand new table. Not only that but after having Bryce we really didn't even have room for everyone at our old kitchen table. It was small. We would pull a bar stool over and make it work, but it really was too small to fit everyone at. Forget about trying to put food in the middle or have company over it just didn't work out.

We had been talking about buying a new one for about a year, but just hadn't done it. Then we just happened to be in a furniture store picking up a part for our couch and as we were walking out the door I saw this table. I walked over to it and then I saw the price. It was marked down 50% off cause they were discontinuing the model and the floor model was the last one left. It came with four chairs plus a bench (that can fit at least three people). It was big, and sturdy (the top is made of blue stone-kind of like granite). And I loved it! I asked Landon if he thought we could buy it? He said yes. I was so happy :) I know it's just a table, but we now have a place for everyone to sit. We have room for company and to place food in the middle as we are eating. It should be something we will have with us for many, many years to come.

It might seem like just a little thing, but to me it was really important, and something that has made me super happy and grateful.

Rejoice in the Small Things

Mismatched avoiding Meltdowns

A few weeks ago it was time to leave for church. (It was actually stake conference, meaning that all of the wards in our stake were meeting together for a two hour session, there would be no classes, which for a toddler equals a pretty long time to sit quietly.) As I was saying it was time to go, and of course we couldn't find one of Bryce's church shoes anywhere. I finally told him just go get your Nike's you can wear those. Well he brings me one Nike and one church shoe and insisted he would just wear one of each. I could tell that if I tried to fight him on this one a complete meltdown would ensue and I would start out that two hour block with a tantruming child. I decided to just go with it, so we could hopefully have a peaceful time a church. My older kids were horrified-how could I let him leave the house like that. At which point I reminded them of some of the things they would leave the house in when they were younger-batman costumes, dress up high heels, cowboy boots with shorts, etc. I just shrugged it off-I bet hardly anyone would notice anyways as he wasn't going to class that day, plus who really cares at least he is there and happy right. And you know what for all about the last ten minutes of the two hour meeting he was pretty well behaved as well behaved as a toddler can be in church. I can only imagine that going a lot differently if I had started it out with him throwing a tantrum at the first. Later my Mom told me that she bet anyone who had raised kids of their own would even think twice about it as they have all probably at some point resorted to similar tactics.

Sometimes you have to pick your battles. This was one of those times.

(Guess what he wore those same two shoes to church for a couple more Sundays-even to class, and no one even questioned it-until I found his other church shoe in the coat closet.)

#threenager #BryceEE

Lowes Build to Grow Workshop

Lowe's and Home Depot often hold free building workshops on Saturdays for kids, where they can go and build fun things. We have never gone to one, but I have known lots of people who have and thought it seemed fun. Awhile back I was in Lowes and noticed their sign for their summer "Build to Grow Workshop"-it was going to be a Marvel Avengers Theme. I knew that we needed to go. Being that it's summertime we have only made it to about half of the workshops so far, since they are every other week and we tend to be out of town on about half of the weeks they are holding the workshop.  Bryce and Chloe both enjoy the weeks we are able to make it though. So far they have been able to build Iron Man and Thor. They are actually pretty cool. Iron Man lights up and Thor make a hammer noise.

Swim Lessons

Due to the fact that we spend a lot of time in the water during the summer, and also since Bryce had been getting braver and braver in the water. I decided that it might be a good idea to put him in swim lessons.

We showed up to the first day and things seemed to be okay. He did most of the stuff the teacher asked him to without a problem, although he didn't seem fond of floating on his back or putting his face in. When it was time to go the second day he didn't want to go, but I made him. When we got there he reluctantly got in the pool with his class until the very end, at which point he decided he was done and got out and cried.

His teacher told me the next day to just bring a toy with him and drop him off even if he cried. I agreed and just hoped he didn't spend the whole class screaming and being uncooperative.

So the third day rolled around. Bryce was not happy to go and was crying by the time we got there, but I took him in and left. Well I didn't really leave I stood by the gate and listened and after just a few minutes I couldn't hear crying so I went and sat in the car and waited for his class to be over.

When I went back to get him I couldn't believe my eyes. Bryce was cooperating and doing his swim lessons. He was even putting his head under water and floating on his back when asked by his teacher. The trick-well lucky for him the teachers son had returned off his mission the night before and he had taken over Bryce's swim lessons. Bryce really bonded with him and did whatever he asked him to. He loved him, in fact when the week was over he kept asking when he was going to go swim with Spencer again. HA. On Saturday, which was his last day of class, Landon was able to go and watch. We are really happy with the growth he made this year in class, and so grateful for his teacher's for sticking with him and not giving up on him. It really gave him the foundation he needed to really start to swim. As you will see in later blog posts by the end of the summer Bryce was actually swimming independently on his own and I think a lot of it had to do with the start he got at swim lessons and the confidence Spencer helped him to have.

Swimming with Cousins

 I bought a pass to Sandhallow for the summer, so we swim there a few times a week. Sometimes it's just the kids and I, and a lot of times Chloe will bring a friend. But every once in awhile we get lucky and cousins join us. I can't believe I got them all looking at me in that top pic-impressive!!! They always all have so much fun together!

Veyo Pool and Crawdad Canyon

There is a little town called Veyo, Utah not many minutes away from our house. They have a swimming pool and crawdad canyon. Fun fact I took swimming lessons at the Veyo pool when I was younger. Anyways the kids love to go there. They think the swimming is fun, but what they love even more is catching crawdads. They will spend hours hunting the little guys. I just usually buy some hot dogs, which they use for bait, and take a couple of jars or containers for them to catch them in. They find sticks to put pieces of hot dog on and then lure the crawdad in and put in in their bucket. It's lots of fun, plus being down in the canyon gets you out of the hot summer sun just a little bit.

If you are a hiker or rock climber the canyon offers that as well, but we have only ever been to catch crawdads and swim. You have to pay a small fee to enter the park for the day and then a little more if you want to swim. It's one of those places we try and go at least once a summer.

Swollen Ankle and Hyperbarics

A few weeks ago Chloe had an early morning softball practice. I picked her up afterwards and she got in the car and said "guess what happened to me at practice today?" Then she told me that she had missed catching a hard line drive, bit by her coach to the outfield, and it hit her right in the ankle. I could tell she was hurt, but of course she didn't cry and she said she didn't cry when it happened. In fact she just held it in that she was even hurt, and didn't even tell her coach. When we got home she took off her shoe and her whole ankle was swollen up pretty bad. She was in a lot of pain. I decided to wait a day or so and see how it was going before I took her into the doctor. In the meantime a friend of mine offered to let her come sit in his hyperbaric chamber. Hyperbaric chambers are used to treat lots of things, one of those is swelling. So I took her down and she sat in it for about an hour.

I honestly think it helped a lot, because the next day she was back at practice and hardly limping or complaining of pain at all. An injury that normally would have taken at least a week to begin to heal, was doing lots better in just a night. It was still a little sore for a few days, but nothing she couldn't manage. She is for sure a lot tougher than I am.

Tired

Summertime can be exhausting!

Celebrating Independence Day

In celebration of Independence Day I made this fun clothespin wreath, which I saw on Pinterest.

Over the 4th of July Weekend my Mom and Jeff were in town. Since the 4th was on Monday and they would be traveling home that day we had a little bit of an early celebration on Saturday. We started out with dinner and a huge water balloon fight at Grandma Marshall's house. It was lots of fun and everyone was able to make it to town that lived close enough except for my Sister Mandy. After the food and water balloon fight we had some delicious homemade ice cream and then had our own fireworks show. It was lots of fun, and all the kids and adults all enjoyed it.

Monday was actually Independence Day. Landon had the day off and aside from helping set out and pick up scout flags we just kind of had a chill day. We hung out, grilled burgers, and went to the swimming pool. Later in the afternoon Bryce and Chloe made a swimming pool in the back of Landon's truck-you can never have to much fun in the water on the 4th of July.

When it was time for fireworks Bryce, Chloe, and I went out front to watch them. They were being set off just a block from our house so we had a great view. Landon had gone to bed already cause he had to get up super early the next morning for work and Tanner was mad at me and not having anything to do with the family, so he boycotted us. I was a little sad the whole family didn't watch together, but I did enjoy my time with Bryce and Chloe.

I truly am so grateful and happy that we live in the United States of America and have the freedoms and privileges that we enjoy on a daily basis.