True Aggies never fall we bet you Take'em all for old navy blue and white! RAH! RAH! RAH!

I am only a couple of weeks behind in my blogging. But, that's better than my scrapbooking. I don't even want to think about how behind I am on that.

A couple of weeks ago, we spent a couple of days in Logan for the Cache Valley Cup. It was fun to be in Logan again. I didn't realize how long it had been until we got there. So much of it is so different. And, so much is still the same. It was fun to take the kids and Jer around and show them where my memories were made. I was only there for not quite two years but, it was such a great time in my life. I started out being my big sisters roommate in Greeves 221. And, the next year, I roomed with Stephanie and Laurie in Merrill 431. Funny - the things you remember. I showed them where the ole church with two chapels is, where I used to work (Western Watts), the Aggie Ice Cream, the cemetery, the Logan Temple grounds, and where the boys of 743 lived. For some reason, the thing I remember about hangin' with the boys of 743 is when we used to throw old biscuits at the building and watch them explode. Matt worked at Village Inn (of course) and would bring home all the biscuits at the end of the day. I guess you'll take what you can get for entertainment when you are as poor as we all were. And my favorite memory about Merrill 431 would be waking up to Jermaine brushing his teeth in the bathroom in his gold chains and a tiny towel. Remember that, Steph? BTW I still make your Smedley Enchilladas! My kids love them!



I also remember it being freaking cold! So cold that there were many o' days when I would have rather stayed in bed all bundled up. But, during the soccer tournament, it was far from cold! It was darn close to 100 degrees every day we were there. Normally I don't complain about the heat. But, when you are sitting out on the soccer field for hours on end with absolutely no shade, it starts to wear you down. The first day, Josh got heat stroke and lost his lunch. We spent the hour between each game at the hotel with the air cranked as high as it would go. Fortunately, by the second day, the officials started giving water breaks during each half of the games.


I don't know how well you can see these pictures, but this is our team. Yes, we are small. The boys worked harder than any other team there because we only had two subs. Some of the teams we played had so many players that they were playing with team A and team B. We are also losing Noah, our Keeper. His family is moving to California so this was his last tournament with us. We will miss him but, Josh is excited to get back in the box.

He played Keeper with his old team. With USA, he has mostly played Forward and just been the back up keeper. He played Keeper a lot at the tournament in order to get back into the swing of things. He loves it! Even with an injured knee, he had some amazing saves!

Josh's coach got a new puppy just days before the tourny so they brought him with them to Logan. His is a "chug." A mix between a chihuahua and a pug. I am definitely not a dog lover, but I will fully admit to loving this one!

Emma is drawn to all animals. I don't think either of the girls saw much soccer. They were busy dog sitting.

I forgot to take my umbrella that I usually take to the soccer games. It only took the first game to talk me into running to Big5 between games and buying a new one. We found one that was about the same size as the one we had at home. We set it up every game and it was a life saver! It's amazing how a little shade helps so much!

This picture makes me laugh. This is Jer and Jonathan (coaches). They were obviously in a deep discussion over something. I'd like to assume they were talking about the game. We layered Jer in spf 50 before every game and he still ended up fried! The team gave these shirts to the coaches (they have their names on them). Jer wasn't thrilled about wearing his, but gave in on day 2. They actually looked really good. But the best part is the v-neck sunburn Jer got! So funny. He was trying his darndest the next Monday to hide the v-neck line before going to work. Love it.

What a fun "staycation." We all had a good time getting away from the normal stresses at home, taking a walk down memory lane, getting some serious tan lines, and watching/playing some soccer. Can't wait till the next one!!

Bounce wit me... Slide wit me... Now take a walk wit me...

We go from overcast and rainy to hot hot hot! Since our June was . . . well, different this year, July has required a lot of making up. We hadn't done a lot of "summer" things, so now we are cramming in all of our favorite things to do in the summuh time. We also have a small window of opportunity to chill with the cousins. We are on a "trenditional" schedule (that's what Josh and Emma use to call it when they didn't really understand anything other than year round), Kailee is on C track (I think) and Alexa and Atley are on B track. So, if we wanna play together, we have to do it when all of them are out for summer. It gives us about 3 weeks this year.

Josh, Brynlee, Atley, Alexa, Guage, Kailee, Erin, Emma, Cambree

This picture of Bryn cracks me up. The Bumbo chair is her little recliner. Arms up, feet stretched, aaahhhhh ... big sigh.

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It's real nice, I got it at Target. It was on sale. ...

Good Times in the Ole Town Tonight FIRE FIRE FIRE

Traditionally, on our way home from the cabin, we stop in Evanston for a few boom booms to use on the fourth. We tend to spend mucho monies on them and then Jer drives ever so carefully all the way home praying that no police officers pull him over and search the car. Then, when we get brave enough to light them, we do it with much anxiety... knowing that if the Fire Dept. shows up, not only will they ticket us, they will take them away and go blow them up for their own enjoyment. In order to fully enjoy the whole thing, we invite the neighbors over. We figure the more people that participate in the show, the more justified it is. Okay, so we would've invited them over anyway, but what fun is a box of fireworks from the fitty cent table at the ghetto 'tent' in West Valley City? Aprils fitty cent sparklers from Reams were a hit, but they only entertain for so long.

Harmons, Hendricksons, Lingwalls, Bringhursts, Johnsons

Me and my roots - my girls, I mean.

The all girls area of the grass.

(Cari, Erin, Emma, Neve, Ella, Chloe)

Cari - the kid magnet.

Lisa - "Mom of the Decade."
(yes, they are twins. and they have two sisters. and they love chocolate and licorice.)

Thank you Harmons for bringing the "regular." It was super thick and chocolaty. BTW you should've seen the ants in my front yard the next morning.. campin' out on smashed chunks of chocolate doughnuts. The kids thought it was great (even though it looked like poo). Cheap entertainment.

These boys were Jer's best audience. They sat on the grass and cheered the whole time. Notice Sam's face - it was pretty dark outside but as soon as he noticed the light on the camera, the smile came out. You think he has his picture taken much at home?

I can't help but call this picture "cute." I know "cute" prolly isn't what April would call it, but aren't these two just adorable? They sat on the curb and kept the sparklers comin'. Thanks for the licorice buffet (and the fitty cent sparklers).

Future Boy Scouts of America.

The girls figured out that if you hold the end of your sparkler on the 'snap-its' that they had "popped" earlier, they "pop" again. Cute and smart.

I had to include this picture of Sam. That face is so him. He is such a small fry.

This is what I woke up to the next morning.

At the end of the show, the crowd slowly dwindled. By about 1a.m. we were down to April, Nellie, Jer and I. Good thing we stayed up 'cause we would have missed out on the trailer park fire. I don't know how your kids were the next morn, but mine barely made it to the Magna Parade that starts at NOON! For details on the Magna Charade, see April's blog. Thank heavens for Pete's Den... otherwise it might have been a complete waste of time.

There were some cute kids sitting on the Charade Route though.

*If nothing else, I must've gotten Chads attention with that title.
**Anyone else remember singing that in grade school? Backwards? Why did we sing IFER IFER IFER at the end? That's not FIRE backwards.

Giveaway!!!

One of my favorite blogs is the "make it and love it" that is flashing in the left column. If you haven't ever checked it out, I understand... maybe you don't sew, maybe you're not so into crafts or maybe you don't "blog bounce" like I do. But, this time you might wanna look. The giveaway is a watch with a watchband - your choice. Super cute. It goes until July 14 so hurry over and leave a comment! www.makeitandloveit.blogspot.com

Lady Bug Lady Bug Fly Away.........

Somehow it became a tradition to purchase a bag of Lady Bugs from Western Gardens for Emma and Erin. I think I bought a bag for Emma one year for her birthday because at the time, Lady Bugs were her obsession. Now, every time we go to Western Gardens, the girls try to talk me into buying some. I usually cave once a summer. It's actually become a pretty good tool to get them to do something (i.e. clean their room, stop whining, take 3 more bites, fasten their seat belts). It's great because I start by refusing to purchase them. Then after we have them, I don't let them free them without completing a task or two. I can milk it for a good 2 or 3 days. And sometimes they panic because when they check on the bugs (we keep them in the fridge in the garage until we let them go) they look dead. But, after being in room temperature for a minute or two, they all wake up.

Eventually, they do get to free them. It's great fun for all of us. You have to let them go at dusk so some of our pictures are a little dark but I love the one's of Emma trying to "save" them all. They "plant" 1800 bugs in the bag but only advertise on the front that there are 1500 because you tend to lose some along the way. Well, Emma is not okay with only having 1500. She cannot stand the thought of one dying. So as they all started walking away from the flowers, she tried to catch them and place them where they will survive. I'm convinced she did save them all and we ended up with a head count of 1800. . . it seemed like a million.

The next morning, Emma went in the back yard to check on them. I was out front mowing the lawn. I could hear her yelling my name over the lawn mower, so I turned it off and when I looked up at her, this is what I saw......

Oh how I love my little girl.

Off to Mill Hollow with EpiPen in Hand

You might think I am over reacting, but I've got some ground to make up after not calling 911. As if it's not hard enough to send your oldest away for three days, try putting him on the bus with an EpiPen in hand. Okay, so most likely nothing will happen while he's gone, but can you really trust the cafeteria at Mill Hollow to be completely free of mold? And, since he hasn't been into the allergist yet, we really don't even know what his reaction was to. For now we will go with what they are telling us from his ER visit and assume it was something to do with his allergy to penicillin. He will have to wear a cute little bracelet that says "penicillin allergy" on it and carry with him an EpiPen (which is the other drug they gave him in the ER that I couldn't remember the name of... epinephrine). My ten year old has learned how to jab the thing into his thigh in case he goes into shock again. Fortunately, the camp leaders have had some training as well. He's been gone for 15 hours and all is well so far. I'm sure he is having the time of his life, but I will sit and blog about him as I worry.

And to think I am going to send the kid away for two years when he goes on a mission. I am so understanding all that missionary mom's go through. My "new mom" little sister asked me recently when the worrying stops. Never.