Go forth and conquer...

Yay for school!

Worth every penny...

Remember this?

Lorien got a major hair cut right before school got out.  She loved it for about a week.  Then...she told me (through tears) that one of her friends showed her a text another "friend" had sent saying "Lorien's new hair cut = ugly".

You can imagine my reaction.  I started trying to figure out how to leave a horses head in that "friend's" bed the next morning.

I never managed to pull that plan off.

The problem is, Lorien has crazy, thick hair.  The short cut made all that thick hair stick out like she had stuck her finger in an electrical socket.  She can keep it clean--but keeping it tamed is another matter.

Instead of lashing out at the "friend", Lorien and I made a plan to see my hair dresser.  Maybe a professional would find a way to make her feel better about her hair again?  My hair dresser said there wasn't a lot she could do right away.  After agreeing that "friend" totally deserved to wake up to a severed horses head, she suggested letting Lorien's hair grow for the summer and trying a fix right before school started.

So, I took Lorien to my hair dresser today.  That sweet woman spent thirty minutes trimming Lorien's hair...then she spent 90 minutes blow drying and flat ironing Lorien's hair.  The transformation was amazing.

This is the best "before" picture I have...

So pretty!  Her hair looks nice too.

She has been confident smiles all day.  School starts tomorrow...I hope that "friend" falls in the mud on the way to school.  Do I need to grow up?

My tana...

We made our way back to Montana this summer.  If you remember, last summer was our first trip back to Will's home-state in five years.  While we were talking about summer plans earlier in the season Will confessed, he missed home and wanted to get the kids back up to the lake.  I was happy to go--as long as he did all the planning and prep work.  Packing the car was my only contribution to the trip.

Like last year, Will drove out with the big kids and I flew out with Colter.

Like last year, as soon as Will and the kids were gone I started having panic attacks.  This is a strange thing about me.  I need some help figuring out the root of these panic attacks.  I have a book called When Panic Attacks...but I only read it through eyes blurred with tears as my panic is attacking.  It hasn't proven to be super helpful.  I mostly avoid the house when I am in the throws of these attacks.  Being in the almost empty house seems to be the biggest trigger.  Saturday was the worst, I finally came home after forcing my baby to be out all day.  As soon as the door closed behind me I started to shake.  I couldn't breathe...I couldn't see...it was crazy...I was crazy.  I put Colter safely in his high chair and grabbed the phone.  It was a toss up, call 911 or my sister.  My sister won.  Through gasps and sobs I told her that I was physically fine but mentally off my rocker.  

It was horrible.

My sister was saintly.  She talked me through my emotions.  She talked me through feeding the baby.  I was so consumed by panic I couldn't remember how to feed him--or myself.  She shared personal experiences from her own life and her own work through anxiety.  I called the right person.  

Yuck, that is one unpleasant start to a post about a pretty awesome trip.  Sorry.

Once Colter and I were in Montana everything was A-OK.  We took the grand tour of the lake front.  The kids showed us their sand castles, our tent, the cabin--everything.  The whole family was happy to be back together again.

We spent about five days at the lake.  Of course, Will is never really on vacation...work had to be done.  Will's younger brother, Alan, also works with Will--so he had to work too.  This is what work looks like at the lake:

There is other "work" to be done at the lake too.  Sand castles must be built.  Marshmallows must be roasted.  Children and adults must water ski.  

It is very stressful...

Much of the real work at the lake involves the boat.  Even the kids have to pitch in with the work.

Somebody get that girl a cheese burger.  If she has to turn that steering wheel her arms will snap off...

Wyatt proved to be the best water skier in our family.  He crossed the wake and was a natural out there.

Lorien hated water skiing.  But like many things in her life, her parents made her do it because it builds character.  She would like to take a wrecking ball to character.

There was plenty of cousin-bonding going on.  Clare and Andrew were attached at the hip.  Here they are in a fort they made in the woods.

A couple of Hobbits, running barefoot through the forest...drinking soda.

Most of the kids preferred to be pulled behind the boat on the tube over skiing.

Will and Alan had a baby fight.  Will won.

More fun on the "beach".

Clare was nervous the first time she got up on skis.  But it didn't take long before she was skiing like a pro.  She even let go of the handle a couple of times to wave.  Woot-woot!

Even Adell got up on water skis.  Sort of.

She kept her little body crouched down on the skis creating a spray of water--up into her face.  Still, she went all the way around the bay--getting her face sprayed with lake water.

And...on the last day...I went water skiing too.  I am not a water skier.  I am not a down-hill skier.  I am a cross country skier--in that I went cross country skiing four or five times one winter in middle school as part of a PE unit.  I am wicked good at cross country skiing.  Water skiing...not so much.  Alas, I couldn't properly expound on all the character building benefits of water skiing to Lorien without going once myself.

So, Will and I got behind the boat and off we went.  I got up just fine and assumed my "natural" water skiing position...which is almost exactly like Adell's.  I hunch over, bend my knees and cry.  Then I fell over and got water up my nose.

It wasn't a bad fall so we tried again.  I love tempting fate.  This time, as the boat turned around one part of the bay I started to cross the wake, lost my cool and fell over.  I fell backwards this time and my body was going faster than I anticipated.  My legs (still solidly attached to water skis) shot out in front of me and my back-side skidded along the top of the water.  The result: an atomic wedgie that would have made any middle-school-80's-movie-bully proud.  My bathing suit actually became part of my body for a few seconds...the fish way down in the deeps of the lake were treated to a view of my blinding white hiney as I skipped across the lake.

It was awesome.

I came up from the fall in pain.  I couldn't walk or sit down for a couple of days.  I will probably never water ski again.  Who needs character?

Photographic proof of my water skiing.  That's me on the left...no, I'm on the right.  Yes, that's me on the right--hard to tell when you have the same hair cut as your husband...

Then, after Will and I skied.  Alan and his wife got up on the skis.  They held hands.

Then they kissed.  Then I cut their ropes and told the driver of the boat to leave them in the lake because I hated them.  The driver ignored me.

There was another reason we went out to Montana this summer.  Will's youngest sister, Emily, was getting married to a great guy--Kenny.  So, after a handful of days at the lake we packed up the van and drove down from Montana to Utah for the wedding.

I really loved this drive.  It was fun to do just one part of the three-part road trip Will and the kids did.  We stopped at a few picturesque places and played travel games (I couldn't reach the DVD player...).

At the reception the bride's older brothers gave Kenny an affectionate welcome to the family--affectionate for a family of wrestlers.  They turned Kenny into a Groom-ata (like Pinata--but more Groomy).  Kenny was such a great sport.  We thought it was funny.  Will's mother did not think it was funny--sorry Judy.  My kids liked the Groom-ata but that could have been all the candy talking.

We also managed to squeeze a little visit in with some of my relatives while we were in Utah.  My Dad was out from New Hampshire.  One of my nephews is going on a mission in November (to New Zealand!). It was fun to see my brothers and their families.

My dad is the big guy in the middle.  See any family resemblance?  

At long last, it was time to go home.  Colter and I flew home while Will and the kids drove across the long, dry, boring roadscape that is Nevada.  (I am such a lucky girl.)  I even got to fly with my brother-in-law.  So I had help with Colter.

What a trip!

Six Flags...over California...

Six Flags in the summer means only one thing:

Sweat.

We go.

We stand in lines.

We walk around the park.

We sweat buckets.

Buckets!

I am pretty sure we could go to Six Flags naked and still sweat buckets.  So, we stick with modesty and wear the appropriate amount of clothing...and sweat.

Will takes the big kids on some big rides while I stay with the little kids on the little rides--then we switch.  We get to eat dip'n'dots and cotton candy.  And we sweat.

It is fun?

Six Flags over...where ever...is also a zoo and animal show.  Adell and Colter got to see elephants, a snake and a porcupine.  Adell was brave enough to pet the snake.

Lorien and Wyatt took a break from all the crazy roller coasters to ride some puny rides with Adell, Clare and Colter.  The older kids liked talking up the baby rides like they would be as scary as a roller coaster--much to the disgust of Clare.

We took advantage of what little shade we could by sitting through a dolphin show.  We still sweat buckets...sitting in the shade...wishing we were down in the tank with the dolphins.

I did take Lorien and Wyatt on three big rides.

Big rides freak me out.

As we were walking between rides Wyatt asked Lorien who she liked going on rides more with, Mom or Dad?  She said Mom!  Before I could get all excited that she loved me more than Will, Wyatt agreed saying "Me too, with Mom I feel super brave because she is always freaking out so much."  Lorien added "Yhea, Dad is so brave and Momma is a wimp."

Then they both took turns mimicking my screams on a big ride.

Thanks.

Six Flags over sweat...