Logan Fun Center - July 29, 2014

Tuesday - July 29, 2014

Roger spent the weekend at Dan's house.  The kids and I had a nice relaxing time at home.  I got a lot of scrapbooking done.  I love having time to do that.  Roger came home on Monday.  We had originally planned for him to come home and take us to Bear Lake, but the weather was bad, so we had to change our plans.  We really weren't sure what to do with ourselves.  We spent the morning relaxing and trying to think of some place fun to go.  While we were deciding, my phone was giving me fits.  It wasn't working right.  It's been having problems for a while, but today I just couldn't handle it anymore.  So we decided to go to Logan and get me a new phone, then we would go to the Logan Fun Center and let the kids play while Roger taught me how to use my new phone.  The kids love the Logan Fun Center.  Last time we went, Roger, Parker, and I went rollerskating on the skating rink while Alissa and Brinley played in the big play area.  This time we decided to just play games.  We bought $20.00 worth of tokens.  The kids were in Heaven!  They loved this!  They each got 30 tokens.  They had so much fun.  Also, I love my new phone!  I got the same phone as Roger.  It is the biggest phone I've ever had, but I love it.  I use my phone to watch Netflix while I do the dishes.  The big screen will make doing that much nicer.  Here are the very few pictures that I took of our fun in Logan.

Tremonton City Days - Saturday, July 26, 2014

This year, they changed the location of most of the Tremonton City Days events.  I was happy about that.  They normally had all the bounce houses and booths at Jeannie Steven's Park.  It is a nice big park, but there is very little shade.  This year they had it at Shuman Park (I like to call it Library Park, since it is by the library).  Library park has big tall trees, so there is a lot of shade, and it has the splash pad, so there is a nice place to cool off.  They didn't have as many bounce houses as they usually do.  The kids were a little bummed about that.  Normally they spend the majority of their time playing on the bounce houses.  This year, they got bored of it really quickly.  Luckily there were lots of other things to do. 

Alissa has been babysitting a lot this summer.  She loves that she is finally old enough to babysit!  Her friend, Malaiyha, left to spend the summer with her dad.  She has a little half sister that lives with her and her mom.  Since Malaiyha has been gone, her mom didn't have anybody to take care of Malaiyha's little sister, Tiernynn.  Alissa had been playing at their house a lot before Malaiyha left, so Malaiyha got to know her and trusted that she would be a good babysitter.  That's how Alissa got her babysitting job.  Malaiyha will be coming home in 3 weeks.  Alissa is super excited to have her friend come back.  Anyway... I didn't mean to get off subject.  What I was going to say, is that Alissa had to babysit today.  She didn't want to miss out on Tremonton City Days, so she asked if we could bring Tiernynn with us to the Tremonton City Days Celebration.  So, Tiernynn got to come with us.  Brinley loves to play with Tiernynn, so she was really excited.  

When we first got there, we went straight to the bounce houses.  The kids only went down this one slide.  They went down it twice.  Then Tiernynn bounced in a bounce house for a little bit.  then they were bored with the bounce houses.

 While we were by the bounce houses, we ran into Taeyliana!  We were so excited to see her.  When we lived on the south side of Tremonton, she was over at our house almost everyday.  We were so used to having her around.  We really missed her when we moved.  She is a year younger than Brinley.  She is just a really nice girl.  Brinley and her always had lots of fun playing together.  She has a brother and sister that are twins and are the same age as Parker.  They didn't come over to play as often, so we didn't get to know them as well.  Her sister was in Parker's class in 2nd grade.  After we ran into Taeyliana, she stayed with us and spent the rest of our time there, with us.  She was going to be at the park all day, because her parents had a booth that they were running. 

Alissa had some babysitting money and she was super generous.  She bought us all some cotton candy!  So, here we all are sitting at a picnic table enjoying our cotton candy.  Taeyliana and her big sister are sitting at the end of the table and Tiernynn is sitting in between Alissa and Brinley.

 After our cotton candy, Alissa paid for everybody to go on this fun little spinning ride.  Brinley and Taeyliana went on it first.  Brinley was excited to try it, but she quickly realized that she really didn't like it.  she was scared.  She didn't like going upside down and you could tell by the look on her face that she did not enjoy this.  The guy spinning it, realized this and let her get off.  

 Alissa got on to finish Brinley's ride with Taeyliana (I really don't know if I'm spelling her name right).  They loved it.  I thought their hair looked cool.  After watching them for a little bit, Brinley and Tiernynn got too hot, so they went to cool off in the splash pad.

 Parker went on the ride with Taeyliana's sister.  I can't remember her name for the life of me right now.  I thought Parker would be scared like Brinley was.  But he wasn't.  He loved it!

 When Parker finished, we were going to do something else, but there was a girl, who we knew from when we were in the 12th ward (south side of Tremonton), and she wanted to ride, but not by herself.  She asked Alissa to ride with her.  So, Alissa went on the ride again.  They all really enjoyed this fun little ride.  Alissa kept saying that it reminded her of Fireball (a ride that they always have at the fair).

 When we finished the ride, we went to find the other kids over at the splash pad.  They were having lots of fun.

 Alissa had $5.00 left.  That was the exact cost of something she has been dying to try.  They had those fun bubbles that you can play in and go on the water.  She was so excited to try it out.  I was excited to see somebody I knew try it out.  She said it was so fun.  She said that it was really hard to stand up.  She was able to stand up 3 times, but each time, she quickly fell down.  She said it was exhausting, but fun!

 Our favorite part of Tremonton City Days is the fun contests they have.  They always have a hula hoop, hot dog eating, soda chug, and a pie eating contest.  We knew we wouldn't get to do all of them this year, because we had to have Tiernynn back by 2:00 pm and Roger needed us home, so he could have the truck.  Roger had plans to go to Salt Lake and stay at Dan's house.  Dan has a camper, that he said we could borrow, so Roger went to check it out and, of course, hang out with Dan.

The contests started at 1:00 pm.  This year, they added a new game into the mix.  They started the contests out with a game of Bingo.  They passed out Bingo cards.  Each card had three games on them.  so, we did the first square on the card.  After a few people had called out Bingo, they moved on to the hula hoop contest.  After the hula hoop contest, they did the next square of Bingo, then I'm assuming they did the hot dog eating contest, with another round of Bingo, in between that and the next contest.  We had to leave after the hula hoop contest.

Here's Parker and Alissa during the Bingo game. 

  Brinley and Tiernynn didn't want to play, so they ran back over to the splash pad.  I could see them from the spot I was sitting, so that was nice.  Parker quickly got bored of Bingo and ran over to join them.

 Alissa loves the hula hoop contest because she always does really well.  She was extremely disappointed this time.  They had one hula hoop out on the stage that was a cheap one compared to the rest.  It was smaller and had now weight to it.  We learned before that those dollar store type hula hoops are useless.  You can't keep them up for long at all.  When Alissa went up, this was the last hula hoop available, so she had no choice but to use it.  I think the people in charge really had no idea, but we know that all hula hoops are not created equal.  She was sad, because she felt really jipped for getting that hula hoop.  We watched the rest of the contest and every person who got that hula hoop, was the first person out each time.  The other hula hoops had a little weight in them and they were bigger.

 Alissa was hot after the hula hoop contest.  So, she decided to get her head wet in the splash pad.  She knew we had to leave soon, so she didn't want to get her clothes soaking wet.  Plus, we forgot to bring towels, so she didn't have a good way to dry off.  The other kids didn't care about that.

We laid a blanket on the back seat, so the soaking wet children wouldn't get the truck soaking wet.  After we got home, Tiernynn left and Roger gathered his things and also left.  We planned to spend the rest of the day relaxing at home, then in the evening, we would walk to the end of the street to watch the fireworks that they would be setting off at Jeanne Steven's Park.  We aren't too far from that park, so we figured we'd have a pretty good view.  

Alissa had really wanted to go and watch the fireworks at the park.  Her friend, Sydney, had talked to her about it before.  She had told Alissa that she would pick her up and take her with her.  So, Alissa was asking to call Sydney and see if she could go to the fireworks.  Before Alissa could call, Sydney sent a text message to see if Alissa could come with her.  Sydney's mom, MaryAnn, had agreed to come and pick Alissa up.  Parker and Brinley were really sad that they wouldn't get to go also.  I couldn't ask MaryAnn to take all my kids with her, but we are friends, so I felt comfortable enough to ask is she had room to bring all of us.  She said she did and she wouldn't mind bringing us all.  

There were still lots of activities going on at Library Park.  After all the contests, they had a beauty pageant, then there was a Magician set to perform at 6:00, then they would have a band playing there after that.  They wanted to go and see the magician.  So, they came and got us all and took us to see that.  The beauty pageant wasn't over when we got there.  The pageant ended up running late, so the magician wasn't able to start his show until 7:00pm.  We sat down and watched the beauty pageant contestants finish up a dance, then they left the stage, while the judges deliberated.  I was surprised that the girls involved all had the big poofy expensive dresses like you see on 'Toddlers and Tiaras' on TLC.  While the judges figured out their scores, they didn't have anything planned, so the lady in charge of the pageant, stood on the stage and talked.  She was not a very delightful person.  She came across as someone who is very uppity, self centered, and rude.    The kids were bored, so they all ran off to play.  Taeylianna saw us right away and came over to join us.  She ran off to play with the kids also.  I sat, by myself,  listening to the pageant lady go on about all sorts of annoying stuff.  She told us all about how her girls do pageants, but she makes them work for it.  She makes them earn the money for their dresses and even the gas to get them to and from a pageant.  Because if they want it, they got to work for it.  Then she introduced us to the photographer and told us about how picky she is when it comes to photography.  She said that she will take her girls to Sears to get the pictures taken.  They will do a whole session, but if in the end, she doesn't like the pictures, she has no problem walking right out of the door with nothing and not paying them a cent.  She insists that her photographers be good at what they do.  She doesn't want pictures where her kids don't look beautiful and if they can't get a smile out of them, she's not paying.  She met the photographer that she had there doing the show, when she was in Logan.  Her kids had been out in the sun for hours handing out flyers (for whatever she makes them sell to earn their pageant money).  The kids were hot, tired and fussy.  For some reason they were in an area where he was taking pictures.  Her girls asked if he would take their picture.  He agreed.  She said she was disgusted, because her girls looked so horrible at that moment.  they were do sweaty and gross, she couldn't believe that they wanted their pictures taken, but she didn't stop them.  when she got the picture that he took of them, she was so impressed with how beautiful he made them look, even though she thought they were so gross.  He magically made them look pretty.  It was the craziest thing listening to this lady.  She told everybody how she never did pageants when she was younger and she still can't understand why anybody would do this.  She thinks it's pretty stupid (crazy thing to say while being on stage at a pageant, in front of all the pageant loving people out there, who had just finished this pageant and were waiting to hear the results).  She let us know that she is not a country girl... At all!  She hates this country stuff, but she's trying to fit in.  She just doesn't like the small town country type stuff (as she is standing in front of a large crowd of country folk who live in a small town).  Then she asks, "But am I doing okay?  I look kind of country right?"  Then she says, "Let's dance.  How about we do a country line dance.  Anybody who wants to join me, come up on stage."  Some of the pageant contestants go up on stage and join her.  They dance.  When the song ends, she tells us all about how she's not a very good dancer, then somehow she is talking about would anybody take her to a school dance.  Then this girl runs up on stage and is like, "I'll take you to the dance!"  She is really excited to be up on the stage and in front of a crowd, but she seemed to not know what to say.  She stood up there by that lady for a little while.  I don't remember what she said, I just remembered that it seemed really awkward, then she went and sat back down.

The whole thing was just very weird, a little entertaining, and kind of annoying.  Entertaining in the fact that she dared to say some of the things she said and she didn't seem to notice or think that maybe she shouldn't be saying that kind of stuff at a pageant or to a bunch of country folk.  It was odd.

The judges finally finished and the girls got their awards and left.  Then it was time for the magician.  The kids all came back over.  Sydney and Alissa found seats up front and closer to the stage.  Brinley and Taeyliana tried to squish in with them, but it was uncomfortable, so they were kind of in and out of different spots.  At one point, I saw them sitting with Alissa and Sydney, then I saw them leaning up against the stage.  They were just having a hard time finding the best place to sit.  The magician turned out to be more of a comedy act than a magic show.  The problem was that the jokes weren't very funny.  It didn't take long for me to be completely bored by the whole show.  I was looking off into space and daydreaming, when MaryAnn, said, "Look over there."  I looked toward where she was pointing, just in time to see this guy sitting next to us, magically look like he just coughed up a bunch of cards.  I have no idea how he did it, but he was amazing.  He did a few more awesome tricks for us, then went on his way.  He was super talented.  He should have been doing the magic show.  He was way more entertaining.  

The magician, just kept taking forever to get to the point of each trick and most of the tricks ended up being a joke instead of an actual magic trick.  It was pretty annoying and not very funny at all.  So, that was a bummer.

After the magician, we went home and ate some dinner.  Then MaryAnn, picked us up and we all went to watch the fireworks together.  It was a fun day.  I din't take any pictures when we were at the magician and I didn't take pictures at the firework show.  The magician wasn't exciting and it was too dark at the firework show.  I should have taken some pictures of the kids at the magic show, but I just didn't think about it.  Brinley ran into another old friend from the south side of Tremonton.  It was her friend, Fayleen (I don't know how to spell her name).  They had a lot of fun playing together on the playground during the magic show.  I should have taken a picture of them, since they haven't seen each other in so long.

Playing With Friends and a New Road - Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Brinley and Parker's friends, Onnika and Weston, came over to play for a little while this morning.  We set up the little pool in the back.  They had a lot of fun playing together.  This morning they repaved the road by our house.  So, we walked over to admire it.  It was shiny and sparkley in the sunlight.

Pray For Peace - July 21, 2014

We got frustrated with how much time the kids were spending sitting in front of the tv.  Ever since we got Minecraft for them, they sit and play it nonstop.  If they are not playing it, they are watching it on youtube. It's crazy how into this game they are.  So, we had to make some rules so our kiddos wouldn't forget how to play outside and enjoy the toys and fun things they have to play around the house.  Today is our first day with the new rules.  The rule is no tv during the daytime.  In the evening, we can all sit and watch a show together to wind down from our busy day, but that's it.  We also gave them time limits on their computer usage.  They each can use the computer for one hour a day.  Parker and Brinley did that first thing this morning.  So, first thing this morning they didn't really know what to do with themselves, but they eventually figured it out.  It's 4:34 pm right now and they have been outside playing for most of the day.  I set up the little swimming pool for them.  They took their Legos out and they all were playing a fun game in the pool with the Legos.  Then, Parker's friend, Aiden came over.  Parker started playing Legos with Aiden, Brinley's friend Torrence came over and invited Brinley to play, and Alissa came in to dry off and change back into her clothes.  Brinley eventually came back in and her and Torrence got some toys and the cloud dough to take to Torrence's house to play with.  Roger called and made an appointment for Alissa to get her before she can start 7th grade shots.  Alissa has been wanting to get these shots over with, so she was happy.

This morning, while we were sitting around trying to decide what to do, I checked facebook on my phone.  One of my friends had shared a link to a song called "Pray For Peace"  by Reba Mcintire.
 Alissa and I watched it.  It is a good message, but for some reason it struck me as funny.  She repeats "pray for peace"  over and over through out the song.  A little before the middle of the song, she adds, "please pray for peace".  Then she adds a lot more, but it mostly repeats "pray for peace" through out the whole song.  And they do these actions with their hands where they hold their hands together like they are praying, then they hold their hands out and give peace signs.  Alissa and I watched the first part of the song, then I realized something..... I stopped the song and said, "I am amazing!  I just memorized all the words to that song.  I even memorized the actions that go with it!"  I thought I was so funny, so I shared the video on Roger's timeline and posted about how amazing his wife is and how she was able to memorize the first half of this song so quickly.  I don't usually post on facebook, because I'm embarrassing and almost always after I post something, I start to worry about, "Was that stupid?  Should I have put that?  People probably think I am such an idiot."  So, it's just best if I never post anything.  Anyway... I liked the song, but like I said it struck my funny bone for some reason.  So, after I posted that on Roger's page. I of course started to worry, "Should I have done that?  Will people be offended and feel like I am making fun of the song?"  I don't know what people will think of that.  As the day as gone on, I've noticed more and more people sharing the link to that song with word of encouragement and talk of how inspirational that song is.  So, I feel a little bad.  I'm just different I guess.  I have a hard time feeling the good message of the song.  I'm distracted by the fact the the whole first half of the song is the same lyrics repeated over and over along with the same actions over and over.  I'm entertained, by watching the peoples faces and Reba's facial expressions as she tries to convey this message and look like she is sincerely praying and serious about this message she is trying to send.  Please don't think I'm a bad person for thinking this video is so funny.  I'm just different.  We live in a really funny world.  There are a lot of things that people seem to think are so great wonderful and inspirational, that I think are hilarious.  I really must be a weird-o.  But somethings, seriously are wrong and weird and it makes me laugh that so many people can be inspired by it.  In those cases, I don't question if I'm weird, I really truly believe that the rest of the world is weird and crazy.

Bear Lake With the VanBibbers - July 18th

Friday - July 18, 2014

Roger took a few hours off of work today so we could go meet the VanBibbers at Bear Lake.  Alissa didn't come with us this time, because she had already made plans to go with Sydney's family to Seven Peaks.  She was really excited to go.  She was our scout.  We have never been before, so it was Alissa's job to go experience it, then come back and tell us how it was.  She loved it!  She definitely thinks it is a place we will enjoy.  We need to try and get there soon.  We have the pass of all passes this year and we really need to use them.  The only problem is, that everything is so far away from us, it's been hard for us to use our passes.

Bear Lake was a lot of fun with the VanBibbers.  They brought fun floatie toys.  They brought a big island thing with seats in it and a big flip flop floatie.  We all went out on the island thing at first.  I was feeling a little motion sick.  I was getting car sick on the way there and I had a hard time getting rid of that yucky sick feeling.  I stayed off of the island for most of the time.  When I got on it, I really started to feel yucky.  so, I got back in the water.  The wind picked up a little and the wind and waves were making me feel sick and dizzy as I walked back to shore.  So, I ended up staying out of the water after that.  I felt better as I sat on the shore.  It was nice to sit and visit with Cindi for a while.  We don't get to see them very often.

 When we finished playing at the lake, we went with the VanBibbers to their family property to have a barbecue and relax.  It was very nice.  I really like it there.  They have a really nice view of the lake.  We brought a big watermelon with us.  It was so yummy and it really hit the spot.  We all ate a lot.  All that watermelon made the long drive home difficult.  We all had to go to the bathroom shortly after we left.  We stopped at the visiter's center and Bear Lake overlook to use the restroom, then we piled back into the truck to finish the drive.  Not long after we started driving again, Brinley said she had to go to the bathroom again.  Pretty soon, I realized I had to go also.  Roger also had to go.  It was hard to find a place to stop in Logan Canyon.  We knew where some bathrooms were, but Brinley was too scared to use those, so we all held it and hoped to make it to Logan before it was too late.  We made it to Logan and went straight to the Smiths to use the bathroom.  Brinley knew exactly where it was, since she had had the same experience the last time they came out of Logan Canyon.  The rest of the drive home was not so bad.  It was nice to get home.  we were tired.  The bummer was that roger still had to go to work.  He left to work as soon as we got home.  He just ran in, grabbed what he needed and headed out the door.  Alissa got home about a half hour after us.  I'm glad that we were all safe and that we were all able to have such a fun day.

A Crazy Week - July 12th -17th

This week did not go as we had originally planned.  Roger has been wanting to go camping, so we had planned to go camping on Monday night.  The plan was that we'd leave in the afternoon, set up camp in Logan Canyon (at campground near Tony Grove), explore the area, then sit around the campfire and relax for most of the night.  roger really wanted to stay up late sitting around a campfire.  Then in the morning we would eat, gather our things, and head to Bear Lake to spend the day on the beach, then come home that night.  It didn't go that way.  My friend, Laurie's (who passed away in 2012) husband passed away on Friday, July 11th.  He had cancer and he knew he was dying.  Because of the funeral and me needing to learn the song to sing at the funeral, we had to cancel our plans.  At first Roger, thought we could still go - We would just spend Monday at Bear Lake, camp on Monday night, then leave first thing in the morning and be back in time for the funeral.  I had been asked to sing a song, with some other ladies from the 6th ward, at the funeral. I was really not feeling up to going to Bear Lake and Camping, and after our first time of practicing the song, I knew I needed more time to practice.  So, we came up with another plan.  Roger really had his heart set on camping and the girls really didn't want to stay home all week.  They all really wanted to go out and play.  So, Roger decided to just take the kids and have a fun long day at Bear Lake, then stay up late sitting around a campfire in Logan Canyon where we had planned to camp.  I thought that was a good idea.  That way the kids and Roger still get to have fun and I have time to practice my song and I also have lots of time to relax by myself and scrapbook.  On Sunday night, Parker started feeling a little sick, so he decided to stay home with me.  so, it ended up being a Daddy daughter day.  The girls loved it!  They all had so much fun.  When they got home, they were all so excited to tell us their funny stories about their day.  Apparently Brinley was really funny when she went to the bathroom.  Roger said that Alissa was so talkative while they were sitting around the campfire.  He said that she talked 90% of the time they were sitting there.  He loved it and I'm sure Alissa loved it.  she loves to talk.  I was a little worried, since we hadn't discussed what time they would come home.  they were in Logan Canyon, so they had no cell phone service.  I didn't think they would stay out so late.  It was almost midnight and I still hadn't heard from them.  I was worried and kept wondering at what point to I call for help and send someone out looking for them.  Roger said they were having such a nice time and they just lost track of time.  He felt bad for being out so late.  They apologized for that when they got home.  I'm glad they had fun.

So... back to the sad stuff...When Laurie and Tom moved in across the street from us in 2008, I just never could have imagined how things would go.  They were good neighbor's and good friends to have.  I'm so sad that they are no longer with us.  I feel bad, because I kind of stayed away after I found out that Tom was sick.  I just felt like my heart couldn't handle anymore loss, so if I stayed away and wasn't close to the family at all, it might be easier to handle.  I was wrong.  Now I just feel guilty for not being a better friend and not being there for people.

Anyway, so on Saturday, I got a call from Suzee Deakin.  She asked if I would sing at his funeral.  she had a few other ladies from the ward that she would ask to sing also.  So, on Sunday evening, Monday evening, and in between the viewing and the funeral on Tuesday morning, we practiced our song.  The first practice we had on Sunday, was difficult.  I had a hard time learning the alto part, because it was a familiar song (I Need Thee Every Hour), with unfamiliar notes.  I took the music home after that and practiced it a lot, so I wouldn't feel like I was the ruining the song and making it sound bad.  The practices after that were great.  I was glad that I was able to figure it out. It didn't seem to be as big of a struggle for the other altos.

At the funeral, I did my best not to get to sad and cry before we sang.  I knew that if I cried once I wouldn't be able to control my emotions during the song.  When we first walked in the church, I walked over to get a program.  Then I saw Laurie's Mom.  I had to go and see her.  She gave me a big hug and started to cry really hard.  It was so hard for me to control my emotions, but I managed to keep it together.  I did pretty good through most of the funeral, just at the end, I couldn't keep the tears back anymore.  I just had to hurry out to the truck.  I don't like to be the overly emotional one.  I just don't handle funerals well.  I was a wreck at Laurie's funeral.  I felt like her family was there comforting me, when I was the one who was supposed to be there comforting them.

Alissa is Home From Girl's Camp! - July 11, 2014

Friday - Alissa came home from Girl's Camp!  I'm so happy to have her back home.  I missed her too much!  It was really weird with out her here.  There was this emptiness in our home all week.  It just felt different with out her here.  Anyways.... So, I'm really glad she is home.  She had so much fun!  At the end, they gave out awards to all the girl's.  Alissa got the award for being the whittler.  She learned how to whittle and had lots of fun making little creations.  Here she is posing with the very first thing she whittled (in her right hand) and her supper cool knife that she whittled.

Alissa said that she was surprised at how many spiritual experiences they had.  They had a testimony meeting and she didn't expect that it would be very good, but she said it was the best testimony meeting she had ever been to.  She said she cried a lot that night (but it was a good cry).  They did an activity where they blindfolded the girls and had them hold on to a string or something that represented the Iron Rod.  They instructed the girls to hold on the the rod and don't let go no matter what.  Alissa said, people kept coming to her and trying to convince her to let go, but every time, there was another voice (quieter than the other) reminding her not to let go.  At one point someone tried to pull her off and she had to hang on much tighter.  At another, they tried to convince her that there was a big rock in front of her, so she needed to let go to get around the rock, then she could grab on again.  She didn't fall for it, and held on tight to the rod.  When they got to the end, they got to take off their blind folds.  There was a big tree, lit up with little white lights and hanging from the tree were pictures of their families.  After that activity, they got to take their pictures and they were given an envelope and told they could go find a quiet place to read.  In the her envelope, was a letter from me.  they had asked us to write letters of love and encouragement for the girls to read while they were there.  Alissa said, when she read the letter, was when she cried the most.  She wasn't too home sick for most of the time, but that night she was.  

She had a ton of fun with all the other girls.  She said they had a really funny skit night.  She just loved every minute of it!  She is still 11, so she is not in Young Women's yet.  She got to go, since she will be 12 soon.  She has 4 more Sundays left in Primary.  She can't wait to go to Young Women's.  She feels like the next 4 weeks are going to drag on.

Playing at the Splash Pad - July 10, 2014

Thursday - July 10, 2014

We went to the splash pad today.  Brinley's friend, Onnika was going to meet us there at 11:00 am.  I ended up sleeping in this morning.  It was nice, but I woke up frustrated with myself because I had a lot to do before we went to the splash pad.  Since I slept in, I ended up having to work extra hard when we got back, so everything would be ready before Roger went to work.  So, Parker, Brin, and I ate breakfast, go t ready, then hurried over to the splash pad.  Onnika's mom kept sending us messages that they were running late.  She kept predicting times that she thought they would get there by, then when that time hit, she would have to text about what came up and made it so they hadn't left yet.  They ended up not getting there until around 12:40 pm.  In the time that we were waiting for them, Brinley and Parker played for a while, then Parker had an accident.  We came home, so I could drop Parker off at home and get the good camera (I was frustrated that I had forgotten it).  We made it back to the park shortly after Onnika and her family got there.  Brinley had a lot of fun playing with Onnika.

Alissa Left to Girl's Camp - July 7, 2014

Monday - July 7, 2014

I can't believe Alissa is old enough to go to Girl's Camp!  That's crazy!  She's not actually 12 yet, but she will be next month.  We dropped her off to go to camp first thing this morning.  It is so weird not having her here.  This will be the longest that she has been away from me.  I don't love it, but I am so excited for her to go and for the fun experiences she will have.  At church yesterday, on the way out, Alissa ran into a friend.  That friend excitedly exclaimed that they were bunking together.  Alissa agreed.  then we continued walking and ran into another friend and that friend did the same thing.  she said, "We have to bunk together."  Alissa tried to explain that someone else had already asked, but her friend was too excited and not paying attention to how Alissa had responded.  So, I wonder how that's going to work out when they get there.  but, I'm glad she has friends in the ward.  I think she is going to have a ton of fun.

Alissa's absence is very noticeable.  It just doesn't feel right without her here.  Today we set up our little swimming pool and played outside for a little bit.  This is the last day of Roger's 4th of July break from work.  He has had the last 10 days off of work.  It's been nice.  I'm sad for him to have to go back.
Also, at church yesterday I got another calling.  It's funny because I went to church, debating about asking to be released from my primary teacher calling, so I can not be stressed out while I'm trying to get Parker used to going to church again.  He is having a really hard time getting back into the swing of things.  When I went to talk to the bishop, it just didn't feel right to quit my calling, so I decided to keep it, then the bishop said he had actually been planning to meet with me today, so we could discuss it more then.  I ended up meeting with one of his counselors.  At our meeting, I decided that I would keep my primary teacher calling and ask the primary president (Parker's 2nd grade teacher - who was really good with him) to help me with Parker.  Then the counselor asked me if I would take on another calling also.  They asked me if I would be the pianist for the ward choir.  I accepted, but I am super nervous.  I've wanted a calling to be the pianist for something, but I had primary or relief society on my brain.  I know I could do those easy peasy, but for the choir?  That is a whole different story.  Sometimes they do really complicated songs.  I've been at choir practices before and thought that being the choir pianist would be too hard.  It is something I never wanted to do.  I'm really nervous.  I feel like Heavenly Father will help me out with this and it will be a really good thing for me.  I'm going to be practicing a lot!  I'm really thankful that Roger bought me a keyboard for Christmas.  He sleeps during the day and the piano wakes him up.  I wanted a keyboard so I could play while he is sleeping.  This keyboard is going to get a lot of use this year.  I'm just really nervous.  I feel completely unqualified to be doing this job.  I taught myself how to play the piano when I was 7 years old.  I didn't start learning or understanding a lot about reading music until I got into choir in 7th grade.  I'm afraid that I won't understand or know all of the musical terms and I'm going to feel so stupid about that.  I really hope I can do well and this will be a really good positive thing.
Anyway... here are the pictures I took of us playing in the pool.

Independence Day

Friday - July 4, 2014

We had a fun day!  Roger and I woke up and went to meet Carolyn and Scott in Brigham City for a day date.  We went to the new pickle ball courts and Carolyn taught us how to play pickle ball.  She has been playing it for a while.  She is really good.  It was a lot of fun to learn.  The only problem was that it was sooooo hot, we couldn't keep playing.  We played for about 2 1/2 hours, before the heat and exhaustion was just too much to handle.  It was just such a fun game to play.  I loved it!  Also, it was nice realizing how easy it is for us to go out on dates now.  Alissa is finally old enough to babysit!  I love it!

After our game, Roger and I went to get some food before heading home.  We had water with us while we had been playing, but we ended up running out.  Roger really needed more water.  He couldn't stop sweating and he was starting to feel a little sick.  It was a little scary, but he drank water and relaxed for a while and it started to go away.

We went home, took a nap, prepared some food, then headed over to the Wilding's house to celebrate Independence Day.  I realized while we were there, that we have spent this holiday with them more than we have anybody else.  We even spent our first 4th of July together with them.  Good Times!

We really like to watch the fire works from their back deck.  It overlooks Ogden and the surrounding cities.  We basically get to watch everybody's firework shows from their house.  It is so nice.

So, we had a barbecue, lit some fireworks in their front yard, then went out on the back deck to watch everybody else's fireworks.

Bear Lake Again - July 2, 2014

Wednesday - July 2, 2014

We cannot get enough of Bear Lake this year.  It is so fun for the kids and so nice for Roger and I to relax on the beach.  It's also a very affordable mini vacation for us. It cost around $35.00 for gas and we pack food from home, so that it not too bad at all.  Anyway, we wanted to go again.  We invited people to come along and join us this time.  My dad came and Roger's sister, Carolyn, came with her girls.  We picked my dad up from the Frontrunner the day before, so he rode with us.  Carolyn and her girls left a little later than us, then they ended up getting in a little car accident on the way.  There was construction on the road shortly before getting here.  When they slowed down for the construction, they got rear ended by the car behind them.  That was such a bummer!  They were all okay and the car wasn't too damaged, but it took them a lot longer to get to the lake.

 Parker was so excited to be able to feed the seagulls.  It was fun watching them.

We had too much fun playing in the water.  We didn't want to leave.  We stayed until after 7:00 pm.  Normally we leave around 5:00 pm.  The wind usually picks up around that time and kind of chases everybody away.  This time, that didn't happen.  It stayed calm.  It was so nice.   Carolyn and her girls had to go home right after, but we planned on eating dinner in Logan Canyon again.  This time we stopped at a campground near Tony Grove.  I'm not sure what this one was called.  We ate dinner and sat around the fire until it got dark.  It was nice and relaxing to sit around the fire.  It was a really good day.  The only bad thing was the drive home.  It wasn't fun driving through Logan Canyon in the dark.  There were a lot of deer out.  It was scary.  Roger had to drive a lot slower, due to the amount of deer darting out in the road.  We were super tired by the time we got home.  My dad spent the night again and we took him to the Frontrunner in the morning.