Zion National Park and Great Friends...

For one last summer hurrah we drove down to southern Utah to see some friends from our early Boston days. We double dated together, were married at about the same time and have three children who are very close in age. Needless to say we have enough in common to make a casual visit entertaining and comfortable. While there our friends took us to Zion National Park. I've never been to Zion and was stunned by the beauty. Having lived most of my life in wet, green climates I was not expecting much in the way of beauty in the dry, hot desert. The red rock canyons and "weeping walls" were so incredible I literally walked around jaw dropped. My rinky-dink camera did little to capture the sights but snapped what I could here and there.



Of course the kids found entertainment of unusual sorts--like skidding down a rock slope to see who could slide a hole in their undies first. I neglected to take a picture of the winner.

We took an easy hike through one of the parks slat canyons. The water had carved its way deep through the rock leaving the path completely shaded and a few degrees cooler. At the end of the hike our reward awaited, access to the river where we dipped our toes and splashed in the water.


This is a picture of my husband, trying to drown our only son. And here is my husband, trying to drown our friend's daughter and our oldest daughter--classic. Really, Will was holding them in what he assured us was his tightest grip while the kids kicked their legs in the current.

Another curious attraction where the squirrels running around the paths. They were fearless, not even flinching when the kids tried to shoo them off by swinging their arms and legs in the squirrels general direction. Apparently, the squirrels are pretty aggressive in their search for crumbs and cast offs. There were posted signs telling us not to feed the animals unless we want to pay a $100 fine and encouraging us to report offenders around us--nice.

If you are wondering--yes, southern Utah is very hot and dry in at the end of August. Heat aside, we had a great time. It was so nice to catch up with our friends, thanks for having us!

Phew!

Guess who finally lost her first tooth? Lorien! Her front, right tooth loosened up around May and through a diligent lack of action, came out yesterday. After three months of looking at her smile with a crooked-dangling tooth, I had enough. We took the kids to Wendy's for frostys and made Lorien eat hers quickly. While her mouth was cool and she was distracted Daddy popped the loose tooth out. At first Lorien didn't know what had happened. Daddy had been wiggling her tooth and showing me how loose it was. I offered to take a picture so Lorien could see the gap the loose tooth made. Right as the camera flashed Daddy pulled Lorien's tooth out. It is kind of a cool, yet disgusting, picture. And, TA-DA, the tooth was out. Lorien has returned to eating whole apples with her front teeth, although, I'm sure that wont last since her other front tooth is loose to...

What is that smell?

We went to the San Mateo Fair today with Aunt Angela, Evan and Andrew. I have not been to a fair since I was a teenager and frequented our local fair: The Ossipee Valley Fair. San Mateo's fair was a little different but still maintained many of the fair qualities I was hoping to see. In other words:

The whole place smelled at various times like animal poo, arm pit and fried food (depending which winds were prevailing).

There were loads of unsteady looking rides (certainly thrown together with quality labor and duck tape).

The rides were startlingly over priced for a person of modest means (like myself).

Lastly, 4-H, carnival workers, tube-tops and cut-off-jeans were extremely well represented.

There was even a petting zoo/dust and dirt trap for the kids to play in. The petting zoo had plenty of child friendly animals like:

Geese, alpacas, a pony that "nipped" (read bites off little fingers), aggressive goats, and, of course, a camel. You can tell the camel was happy to be part of a petting zoo...just check out the picture...

We also took a shaky ride on the Ferris wheel, watched a Chinese acrobat show (Sitting on scorching hot black top where I am pretty sure I cooked my @$$ off because 1. I could feel the heat burning through the package of wipes I was sitting on and 2. When I stood up it looked like I peed my pants I was sweating so much.) and ate a bag of cotton candy--sweet!

Don't be fooled...

How often do you hear a six-year-old girl sing this:

"Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got
I'm still--I'm still Jenny from the block
Used to have a little--Now I have a lot..."

Well, if she is my precious six-year-old--you hear it about 20 times a day.

Help me, please...

She's pretty cute--huh?

Actually, all of my children are this adorable. It is just something I have to deal with--heart breakingly adorable children--rough life for me.

How's the old summer been treatin' you?

Our Summer, so far, has been pretty dreamy. It has been exactly the Summer I hoped it would be. When Lorien finished school I panicked a bit--wondering how my low levels of entertainment would satisfy after a school year packed with fun and education. I also did not want to go bonkers stuffing our summer with event after event. So we made a list of things we wanted to do and wrote a few things on the family calender. Well, Summer showed up and did not disappoint. Here is a little taste of what we've been up to:

Dollar Movies

Playdates, Park and Library trips

Eating popsicles and ice cream after every meal but breakfast.

Swim, swim, swim! A million and one thanks to our friend, Cheer, who let us invade her pool and save those pesky public pool entrance fees.

(I know, my Mom friends are totally Hot!)

The Beach--The Sun--The Sand

--Is that a dead body washed up on the shore?

--No, I think it is another clump of seaweed.

--I'm pretty sure that is a body...

--Do you want to go poke it with a stick?

--Uh, maybe...wait, that is my son. I wonder what he is doing?

Answer: digging a hole in the sand...of course...

Dress up and dancing parties

Shaving cream fight--er--Family Home Evening activity

Lorien's loose front tooth not falling out on its own.

A few items that were not on our list, but we managed to do any way--

Getting sick and throwing up 100 times (a combined family effort).

Sending Clare's nap and meal schedule so completely out of whack that she made up a good 99 % of our puke tally.

Wyatt's discovery of computer games.

Lorien's sassy intellect informing her that she "knows everything" and her parents are totally lame.

Clare graduating from one favorite outfit to another-- The extremely observant blog reader might have noticed that in almost every single picture of my youngest child, she is either naked but for a diaper or wearing a red jacket. This summer Clare switched her preferences from: "Naked" or "Red Coat" to: "Naked" or "Mermaid shwem-shoot" (her Little Mermaid bathing suit).

Sibling bickering reaching monumental proportions.

Catching up on Avatar, So You Think You Can Dance and Word World.

The intense California sun and significant lack of ozone layer has dealt a near fatal blow to my energy saving clothes line. After a summer of line drying I discovered that all of our laundry has faded into a willowy shadow of their former color. Not that our clothes were anything fantastic to start out with but I am disappointed in the grey-green some of my favorite clothes have turned. So, I've limited my line drying to the big stuff (blankets etc) and any clothes that have already been destroyed by our usual family activities. (Like shaving cream fights.) I'll have to find other ways to save energy--our PG&E bill has gone down by almost 100 bucks-- I just cannot ignore those kinds of savings. Hey, maybe I can use that extra cash on new clothes every month!