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!

Oh Yhea, the Reunion...

It has been a week since we've been home from Maine--I think I've had enough time to decompress and write a good blog about the trip--but every time I try I am still overwhelmed. So before life passes too far along and I have to blog about Lorien's high school graduation I'd better get a post up. So here are some of my favorite pictures and moments from the trip. Be ye warned, this is a long post made up almost exclusively of pictures.

Day One: An afternoon at the beach. We all met at Fort William's Park on the coast for an afternoon of yard games, checking out the lighthouse and playing in the water. Of course, there was lots of time for meeting new cousins and visiting with the family. (Above, Lorien and Lilly - Clare and Amelia)

Food and Family, all you need. (Silas and some watermelon - Clare and some watermelon)

When Will and I lived in the Boston area we would drive up to Fort Williams every so often. We had one of our first dates there and made one last quick trip up the coast before we drove out to California. It was so nice to go back and relive fun and fond memories.

With our time at the beach we all stuck to the activities we enjoy the most--Lorien got soakin' wet in the waves. Wyatt rolled around in the sand making sculptures and getting sand in creative places...like in his ears, of course... (If you cannot tell what Wyatt made in the sand: he wrote Dad Mom and made two sand hearts and two sand ice cream cones.)

My favorite part of the whole reunion was the evening spent with my brothers and sisters. We went out for burgers and then spent quality time reminiscing and laughing at Spring Point. (Above Left: All the ladies! - Right: All the fella's)

Out at Spring Point (Another lighthouse in Maine--perched out in the ocean at the end of a giant rock pier) Pictured above: Ebin - Camie and her husband, Ben - Lesley

Chris and his wife, Annette. - Charlie - Caleb (on the far right) and his wife, Shellie (center)...in the photo on the left...

After a weekend recovering from a little bit of family time, we all met up for the "Maine" part of the reunion at a big house on at a ski mountain. With only a few hiccups we were all settled and hanging out together. Meal times were the best-- (Above left: Max and Silas - Grandpa Davis and his wife, Catherine)

Shellie, Lily and Caleb - Simon and Erin

Clara and Max

Hey, it's me! --two days, no shower and still going strong. Grandpa Davis made some old family favorites like chopsui and fudge!

Lorien uses the adjective "amazing" all the time--the end result of three solid days with her older and totally glamorous cousins. For example the other day Lorien told me: "Emily has the BEST song on her Ipod. I love it! At first you just hear all these funny noises and then this guy starts to sing--and he has the most AMAZING voice. I just love it! He starts to sing and Mom, it sounds so AMAZING!!! I just love it! You HAVE to hear it!" Yep, that's my kid, six years old going on sixteen. It's, well, AMAZING! (Above left: Victoria, Kayla and Emily - right: Genet, Lorien and Alison)

We had many-a entertainment option at the house: games and music were very popular. (Top left: Will and Wyatt playing checkers - Mike and Ebin having a jam session Bottom left: Amelia and Mike - Simon)


If games and music were not what you wanted there was always a short walk down to the lake for a swim. Too bad we all jumped in fully clothed--neglecting to wear our bathing suits down to the tempting cool of the water. My sister, Camie, led the charge and like lambs to the slaughter we all jumped in after her. So, while I probably wont jump off a bridge if all of my friends are doing it--I will go screaming into the night if my big sister does.

Aaaaand, if games, music or water are not your choice--you can wrestle Wyatt. You will probably loose, he has a mean take down. (Above left: Wyatt and Jack - right: Owen and Wyatt)

Grandma Claudia treated Clare to a manicure. Clare was very pleased. (Left: Grandma Claudia and Clare - Clare showing off her nails)

For me, meal times were the best times. The teenagers emerged from their lairs for sustenance, parents served up paper plates of nutrition and children were left to pick around the healthy stuff and stick to the starches. We sat together in random groupings, laughing about whatever came up (or whoever fell down).

You cannot tell very well from any of my pictures--but Camie and Jenn had a great idea for reunion shirts. We didn't have time to have shirts made so in classic family form we made our own. Each family picked a color and we wrote "Bigger Really is Better" on the front of the shirts and "I'm # (fill in with number of child)" on the back. If you were married to--or the spawn of # you wrote "I'm with # (fill in number, again). They were all really cute. When I get a copy of the huge group shot I'll be sure to post that so you get a better idea of what I am talking about.

Well that is that! There is so much more I could blog about--and plenty more pictures (I took over 200) but I'll spare you and keep all those fabulous memories to myself.