Summer Vacation 2011 Part 1

Our family summer vacation started out on Friday, July 8th as we pulled out of our driveway towing our tent trailer heading for Page, AZ, where camped near Lake Powell. All 7 of our children, plus D's friend, M.M., helped set up camp, then we went swimming and played on the beach.

The next morning, I got up just in time to see the sun rising over the lake.  It took my breath away.

Our dog, Tammy, on the dock at sunrise.

After breakfast, we packed up camp, took one last photo, and headed ourselves towards Utah.

 

Q and B

 After 8  hours or so, we finally arrived at my in-laws home in Saratoga Springs, Ut.  The next day was Sunday and we attended church with S and L, then went to my sister, G.S.'s, home where we visited with her family, my sister K, my nephew Q. and his fiance, B., and my nephew Z. and his wife E. and daughter L.

Me and M with E, L and Z

Me and my sisters, K and G

We had dinner with them, and played dominoes later in the evening.  G, E and A decided to spend the night with their cousins and the rest of us headed off to the airport, where we picked up our friend, C.C., who had just flown in from Germany to spend 4 weeks with us. 

Monday morning, we woke up pretty early for a vacation day and drove up to Provo, where we checked D, J, and M.M. in at EFY (Especially For Youth) camp at BYU (my alma mater).  They will spend 6 days there having lots of fun.  Meanwhile, the rest of us went to the Life Science Museum and toured other parts of BYU, showing the kids our favorite places.

My dear husband

C.C. "Goldilocks" and the 3 Bears

On Tuesday, we packed a picnic lunch and headed up to Salt Lake City with S and L.  First, we learned about the early settlers at This is the Place Monument and Utah Heritage Park.  We rode a train, toured some early homes, took a pony ride, went to school in a one-room schoolhouse, made some crafts, played hoops and had a wonderful time together.

On the train.

A rode on "Honey"

Utah Heritage Park 

With our Bingo Sheets at the Capitol Bldg.

After the Pioneer Park, we headed to the Utah State Capital Building, where the children played an Architecture Bingo game that we printed off ahead of time from their website.  We found everything on the Bingo page and received a prize. It was a great way to get the kids to look around and observe the building and not be bored as the adults looked around and read things.

Ready to work.

Learning how to can food.

Our next stop was Welfare Square, where we watched a video about how the church welfare program helps people all around the world to become self-sufficient. Then we were able to can some fruit punch at the cannery.  The kids enjoyed putting on the hairnets and aprons. 

Then we headed over to Temple Square, where we walked around and took some pictures.  After that, we headed to dinner at our favorite buffet, Chuck-A-Rama, where we ate a disgustingly large amount of food before heading back to Grandma's home for the night.

In front of the Salt Lake City Temple.

In the Tabernacle on Temple Square

Today is Wednesday and was another full day of fun!  S and Grandpa took the boys fishing on the edge of Utah Lake.  They didn't catch anything, but they sure had fun trying!  Then we headed up to Park City, Utah where we had lunch and then rode the Alpine Slide and the Alpine Coaster.  It was a long wait for a short ride, but we all had a blast.  Heading back home, we first stopped at Granny's Restaurant in Heber, where we ordered their famous thick milkshake. Then we looped around past Wallsburg to look at the home that Stuart spent 6 months of childhood.

Grandpa the Speed Demon!

C on the Slide

G loved the slide.

C.C., A, and S on the Alpine coaster.

C.C.

Going up on the chairlift.

Coming down again!

 Milkshakes at Granny's - a family tradition!

 So far, our summer vacation has been a blast, filled with so many great memories, and we still have more than a week left.

Oh the activities we are doing!

Adin measures the fire truck

Ringing the Fire Alarms

On Monday, we went to our local fire station to say thank you to the Fire Fighters for all they do to help our community.  We brought them the fixings for Rootbeer floats.  Then they gave us a tour and helped Greg to complete some requirements for his Readyman achievement for Cub Scouts.  We had a great time learning about the trucks and the work the fire fighters do. 
Today was a "no screen" day (no TV or computer games), so to keep the kids occupied after dinner, we made marshmallow sculptures.  They really got into and Elijah said, "I'm really creative".  I love that boy.  (Both of these ideas, and the Screen Day idea come from a blog that I follow called My Mix of Six.  She is an amazing mother.)

At the counter making their sculptures.

Artist at work

Jake made a little guy

Adin wanted to build a campfire with roasting marshmallows

Mitchell ate the strays.

Diane gets creative

Fun times!

Elijah built a huge structure for Adin's airplane to land on.

Our creative boy!

Birthday Cakes!

Mitchell's 1st Birthday

Elijah's 6th Birthday

Greg's 10th Birthday

Jacob's 15th Birthday

Diane's 17th Birthday

Stuart's Birthday

Chad's 13th Birthday

Adin's 4th Birthday

With 7 kids, there are a lot of  birthdays at my house.  To make birthday's extra special, I try to make a really fun and unique cake for each of my children.  These are the cakes that I made for them on their most recent birthday.  Diane requested the Barbie cake even though she is 17, I guess she was feeling nostalgic.  Elijah found the space shuttle cake in one of my books and begged for it.  The rest of this years cakes were surprises for the kids.  I had made the dragon cake for one of Gregory's past birthday's, but all the rest were new for me.  I really enjoyed making Stuart's Fire truck cake, sort of a joke about putting out the fire from that many candles!  I'll have to make it again when he turns 50!  Elijah's next birthday is coming around in 2 weeks and he is already requesting an army tank cake.  I usually take requests, and I have made this one before, so it shouldn't be too hard to do again. And what about my birthday?  I refuse to make my own birthday cake, so Stuart usually buys me one.  He got me an ice cream cake this year.  Maybe someday, he dabble in the baking department and get inspired, but I doubt it.  Until then, I hope all our birthdays (and yours too) are happy and sweet. 

Summer Time is Here

The kids have been out of school now for a few weeks.  We have such a busy summer this year. Right after school got out, Jacob completed his Eagle Scout Project.  He needs to finish the paperwork next.  He is also taking an online math class through BYU.  Jacob and Stuart already went on the Scout High Adventure. Diane and Jacob are enrolled in summer school history classes which are 3 weeks long .  Chad and Stuart left this morning for scout camp. Stuart will return on Tuesday night and Chad will come back next Saturday.  On Monday, Greg and Eli will go to summer intersession at school, which lasts for 3 weeks and Chad will go to it when he returns from camp.  Diane is looking for a job and has applied to volunteer at the hospital.  She is also applying for college scholarships online.  She is teaching piano to 2 students for the rest of this month, then takes July off.  All the kids are taking a break from piano and Aikido lessons for the summer. We have swam in the neighbor's pool several times already.  We also went to Gilbert to visit Stuart's sister, Laurie's, family.  We brought her daughter, Lexi, back with us for a few days and Laurie picked her up last Monday.  Stuart and I have plans to go to the temple in Mesa next Friday afternoon.  Chad hoped to get to work on his eagle scout leadership project (putting a gate into a fence for a public school). Then, on July 8, we will leave for our family vacation to Utah.  It will take us 2 days to get to Stuart's parents' home.  Then we'll pick up our former exchange student, Carina, from the airport on Sunday, July 10.  On July 11, we'll take Diane, Jacob and Diane's best friend, Megan, to BYU for Especially for Youth activity, they will stay there for a week, while the rest of us will visit family and attractions in the Utah Valley area.  We'll head to Moab the next Monday and spend 2 nights there visiting the parks and canyons, then drive to Bryce and Zion's National parks, after that we will go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and spend 2 nights there.  My in-laws, Megan and Carina will be with us for that part of the trip, then we'll part ways with the Roberts and Drop Megan off with her family in Flagstaff as we head home to Tucson on July 24.  Carina will spend another 2 weeks or so visiting with us.  We all have dentist appointments for cleaning and we'll  do our back-to-school shopping. I also have some gift certificates for horseback riding and I hope to go to Breaker's Water Park before school starts. The K-8 kids are going to attend a new charter school called Legacy Traditional school which starts on August 8.  The high school kids will go to CDO on August 10.  That will be the end of our busy and wonderful summer!

So many goals, so little time!

It's time to report on my goals, I'm not doing great so far, but I will do better now that my home business has shut down.  I have more time on my hands for things like scrapbooking and cross stitching and reading.

• Add $399 to each of my children's bank accounts We added $500 to each account at the end of 2010.
• Archive old film and prints on memory stick I need to buy a film scanner
• Attend 3 cultural events Not yet
• Compile a Family Favorites Recipe Book Haven't worked on this yet
• Complete a free on-line class signed up for the class, but haven't worked on it much
• Do my visiting teaching monthly Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, March, April all good, hope to go this week for May
• Do not yell in anger ever again I'm working on this, still :)
• Fast correctly 1 time a month I'll start fresh in June, it's hard since Mitchell isn't weaned yet.
• Finish cross-stitch for Mitchell I have worked on this some, but it will take a while.
• Finish scrapbooks for Adin and Mitchell Finished Adin's and I am now working on Mitchell's
• Get a manicure at least 9 times 2x
• Get my hair cut every 3 months 2x
• Get my weight to 139 lbs I'm down to 146! Haven't made any progress here yet.
• Go on 3 camping trips with my family 1x to Catalina State Park
• Go on a date with Stuart 2 times a month This has been hard with his Boy Scout calling, but we'll work on it more.
• Go to the temple 9 times 2x
• Have a professional family portrait taken Took a non-pro one, and need to set an appointment for a pro
• Help Greg earn his Arrow of Light Finished his Webelo award, still working toward AOL
• Help Jake earn his Eagle Scout Award Project set to work on May 28!, Chad should get his this summer too!
• Keep a blog of my 39 goals :) Here it is!
• Make 39 humanitarian kits 12 completed
• Only spend $275/week on groceries Put together a budget and will be keeping close tabs on it now.
• Organize a "Friends in the Park" Day A friend beat me to this one, and I have attended once.
• Read 39 books Finished 6, but am reading 2 more right now.
• Read the Book of Mormon I'm in Alma.
• Read the New Testament
• Read to my children every day Will be more consistent over the summer, I promise
• Sew/Make 3 projects or crafts Made Easter Bunnies from water bottles (see post below)
• Spend 30 hours doing community service  Will volunteer at the school in the fall, I think.
• Take cookies/brownies to 9 people We took 10 plates of Christmas cookies to people.
• Take each of my children on a 1 on 1 "date" Jacob and Diane are done.  Chad wants to go rock climbing
• Take my children to the zoo 9 times 3x (to 3 zoo's !)
• Take my family to 9 local attractions.  1
  
• Try 1 new recipe each month Been trying the free sample recipes from EMealz.com, love them.
  
• Write 1 letter a month to a family member or friend I have written my parents and in-laws,
• Write in a journal weekly (my own or one of my children's)I I have written in all the younger children's journal's at least once, more with Mitchell's.  I need to write in my own though.