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.

Bear Lake - June 23, 2014

Monday - June 23, 2014

The weather was much nicer this Monday, so we decided to go to Bear Lake again.  We had such a nice day relaxing on the beach.  Last year when we went, we didn't have an umbrella and we desperately needed shade.  This year we had lots of shade with us and it was so nice.

 Parker spent most of his time playing on the beach in the sand.  The girls spent most of their time out in the water.  Roger and I put our chairs out in the water and relaxed for a bit.

 Eventually Roger got tired.  His body is used to sleeping during the day.  It will be so nice when he can be on a regular schedule again.  Anyways, he got tired, so he made himself a little space to sleep in the bed of the truck.  It was nice for him to have a place to take a nap.

 Alissa and Parker had a lot of fun burying their dad's feet in the sand.  It was funny watching Roger see if he could lean forward or backward and not tip over.  He had a hard time getting his feet out, when they were done.  That was also funny to watch.

 Around 5:00 pm, it got really windy.  Pretty much, everybody packed up their things and left around that time.  Parker and Brinley had a lot of fun chasing after the seagulls while we loaded our stuff in the truck.

 Alissa realized she was starving, so she hurried and ate a little snack before we all loaded into the truck.

 On the way home from Bear Lake we had to pass through a ton of cows.  It was fun to see all the cows, an adventure to try and get through them, and disgusting, since they smelled and they were all pooping everywhere.  I didn't think to pull out the camera until after we passed them.  These pictures don't do them any justice.  You can't tell that there were a lot of cows.

 As we drove through Logan Canyon, we were all feeling sick.  We were so hungry.  We decided to stop and eat dinner at a campground a long the way.  It was the Red Baron Campground (or red something - I'm not sure what the name was.  I just know it started with Red).  It was very beautiful.  We decided that we will go camping there as soon as we get a chance.

We got home, just in time for Alissa to take a quick shower then go babysitting.  Alissa has her first babysitting job.  She tends her friend, Malaiyha's little sister, while her mom goes to the gym.  Malaiyha is the friend that is spending the summer at her dad's house.  Anyways, Alissa is loving her new babysitting job.  She is so excited for a way to make money.  She feels rich!

The girls and I ended getting pretty bad sunburns.  Next time we will be better with the sunscreen.

Saturday - June 28, 2014
This is the first day of Roger's 10 day vacation for the 4th of July.  Since things didn't work out for Parker to go to scout camp on Monday (because he is the only boy his age, they don't have a leader for him, so they forget to invite him to things - no matter how many people I ask about it, nothing ever gets done), Roger decided to take Parker with him to Dan's house so they could have a boys weekend.  They had a lot of fun.  when it was time for them to come home, things got not so fun and it was a good thing they were there to be supportive and help out.  Dan's wife had a miscarriage.  They were really sad and Dan wanted roger to stay a while longer, so they could hang out and he could keep his mind off of things.
While the boys were gone, Alissa, Brinley, and I just hung out.  We didn't have a lot of money to spend,but we wanted to do something different.  Alissa had money from babysitting, so she offered to buy us something.  So, Alissa, Brinley, and I walked to McDonald's.  Alissa was so excited to buy herself a big combo meal.  she had never had one before and she got a different kind of burger.  I think it was a Bacon Ranch cheeseburger.  She loved it!  She was so excited to be able to order what she wanted and she felt so proud to be able to buy some ice cream for Brinley and me.  It was fun.  Here is Alissa's very first receipt that she got from buying something with her own money for the very first time.  Exciting, huh !?!

We Love Our Little Swimming Pool - June 20- 21, 2014

Friday - June 20, 2014

We have had this pool for a long time.  I need to look back through pictures and figure it out, but it seems like we've had it at least since the summer of 2010.  So this pool has lasted for 4 years, at least.  I got it on sale for $15.00.  I saw it at Walmart the other day for $40.00.  I'm glad I bought it when I did.  Anyways, Alissa's friend Erin came over and they all had a lot of fun swimming.

Saturday - June 21, 2014
Roger's work had an open house today.  This is the first time, since they started doing these open houses, that they allowed us to go and see the area where Roger works.  He works in the most dangerous area of the plant, making explosives.  It was nice to finally get to see where he works.  After the tour, the kids got to play on some bounce houses, we had some yummy food, then the kids rode on these fun little bikes before they all got put away.  The kids got a lot of fun things to bring home with them.  They each got a small back pack thingy, a water, handfuls of pencils from the police station, and lots of other fun little things.  The reason they got handfuls of pencils is that they were putting things away at the end and they wanted to get rid of the stuff they brought for everyone.  They kids love their pencils because they are the fun kind that change color when they are hot or cold.

Pinata, Friends, a Dead Cat, Two Drunken Strangers, and a Cub Scout Pack Meeting - June 18, 2014

Wednesday - June 18, 2014

It was a fun, kinda crazy day today. Today was Missy's last day of staying with us.  She had to leave this afternoon.  We had a nice relaxing morning.  Last night I introduced Missy to the show 'Bridzillas', on Netflix.  I love watching that show.  The house was getting too messy for comfort, so in the morning, after I finished eating breakfast, I mustered up the energy and did the quickest clean I could, so we could have some comfort.  My quick clean ended up taking about 2 hours, so not as quick as I hoped, but the house felt much better when I was done.  After the house was cleaned, Missy and I did puzzles while we watched Bridzillas for a while.  Alissa had gone to her friend's house to play for awhile, but they were planning on coming back to our house to play in the afternoon.  The pinatas were dry and Missy's pinata was all prettied up and ready to go.  Missy didn't want to leave until we got a chance to break the pinata.  We wanted everybody to be here for it, so we had to wait for Alissa to come, Brinley's friend was going to come also and we thought it'd be fun for her to be here too, and we had to wait for Roger to wake up.  Everybody was finally here to do the pinata a little after 3:00pm.

Brinley and her friend Onnika played with the cloud dough that I had made, while they waited.

 Alissa and her friend Tanya were just being goofy while they waited.

 Roger finally woke up, so the fun could begin!  Here are the girls posing with their beautiful pinata's  Brinley made a heart, Missy made a cat, and Alissa made a bird.

 Here's our handsomest boy waiting for the pinata fun to begin.

 Alissa put some small toys, that we had (Legos, squinkies, I can't remember what else), in her pinata.  she wanted to break hers.  So she went first.  She ended up breaking hers pretty easily.  After it was on the ground, she took off her blindfold and beet it a little more.  She is just funny like that.

 Before it was completely destroyed, she tried it on as a hat.  So cute!

 Time to break Missy's Pinata!  They were all really excited to see what kind of treats were in Missy's pinata.  They had been asking her all week, but she wouldn't tell them.  Brinley went first.

 Now it's her friend, Onnika's turn.

 The kids were all being so goofy while they waited for their turns.  they were all so hyper and excited.  It was fun!

 Parker's turn!

 Now it's Tanya's turn!

 Alissa's Turn!

 I took a turn, then Roger had a turn.  Of course, Roger broke it open.  the kids were so excited grabbing their prizes.

When it was all done, we cleaned up and the kids took all the prizes inside to divvy them up evenly between each other.  

Missy packed up all her stuff at this point and headed home.  We had a lot of fun with her staying here with us.  We love to have company.

Shortly after Missy left, the kids went out in the front door to play.  They came back in to let me know that they found a cat that is laying on the ground, not moving, and it's eye is sticking out of it's head.  They didn't understand why it's eye would being hanging out of it's head.  Roger and I went out to see.  The cat was laying in the parking lot right behind the parking spot that Missy had just pulled out of.  Every time we went outside while Missy was here, there were cats by her car.  for some reason they were attracted to her car.  It was crazy.  We don't know if Missy ran it over or somebody else did.  Missy said she didn't feel anything when she backed out, so who knows.

Roger had to work tonight, so I helped him get his dinner ready and he headed off to work.  All of the friends had to leave shortly after Roger left.  The kids and I had the house to ourselves.  We felt a little lonely.  The house all feels a little empty after people leave.  We decided to lock up the house and just stay in for the rest of the day.  I worked on scrapbooking stuff and the kids were in the living room taking turns playing Minecraft on the PS3.  

Around 8:00pm, someone knocked on the door.  I figured it was probably one of their friends asking to play, so I wasn't in a big hurry to get in their and see who it was.  The kid's ran to the door and flung it wide open when they heard the knock.  There were two guys in the 20's, high on something, at the door.  The kids opened the door and stood back, the drunken men stumbled into the living room.  I came into the living room and saw them standing there just kind of looking around all confused.  They saw me.  One guy said, "Hey, where's Rach.... a.....wait.. Dude. I think we're in the wrong house again man."  The other guy was standing there smoking something from a pipe.  He looks up confused and says, "Oh...man.... Not again...."  Then they both stumble out of our house.  I heard the one guy say what number they were looking for.  I don't remember what it was, but they were way off.  That was just a crazy weird experience.  I thought we were pretty safe.  I keep the doors locked most of the time.  I hadn't really thought about how dangerous it could be to have the kids running and answering the door all the time.  I showed them a good way to answer the door that doesn't involve flinging it wide open and welcoming just anybody into our home.  but mostly, since then, when there's a knock at the door, the kids all yell, "Mom!"  and they wait for me to be standing close by before they open it or they just let me be the one to open the door.

So that was our crazy, fun, interesting day.

Thursday - June 19, 2014
Parker had a pack meeting to go to tonight, so Roger got a ride to work.  Sydney came over to play, so she came with us to the meeting.  They played a lot of fun games and then roasted marshmallows for s'mores.  Parker was a little shy at first, but he still had a lot of fun.  The girls enjoyed their time playing on the playground, then joined us for s'mores at the end.