My very own kewpie doll

Boy, is he going to be so embarrased one day by this photo, but it was irresistable.




See the
resemblance?


Me too!

The green, green grass

Green grass means one thing in our house, and it isn't that we finally got the sprinkler set-up right for the lawn. It means soccer. This lasts, for our boys, at least 8 months out of the year. When the green grass is replaced by a lawn covered in leaves and then snow, the soccer moves indoors until the green grass returns in the spring. Only in the deepest heat of the summer does it take a break. With September on the way, that means our break is ending and the soccer is again beginning. Bill has signed up to coach Romney's team, and when they couldn't find a coach for William's, Bill stepped up again to co-coach that age group as well. This means soccer 4 x a week with no reprieve! Then if you add in REAL soccer home games, and the many (and I do mean many) games shown on the Spanish speaking channels that get DVR'ed this equals HOURS upon HOURS of Soccer.

By no means am I complaining, I actually enjoy soccer more than any other sport. I love that the boys get excercise and a chance to learn how to be good sports. I love that it includes some great Daddy time. I also enjoy the many friends we make each season. I met one of my very best friends at William's soccer practice years ago.




William's new 3rd grade teacher said at the first parent meeting that she is really into the phases of the moon and will incorporate that passion into much of the learning this year. She wants the kids to think about what is going on for them during each moon cycle. William is in his "Harry Potter" moon. I have been in my "being contacted by people I haven't heard from in forever! moon" but I think our whole family is entering our "Soccer moon."

How old am I?

You know you are old when you forget how old you are, and you have to break out your rusty math skills, fingers and year of your birth to figure it out! Bill and I both celebrated birthdays this week. Bill's was Sunday and mine is today. Bill's was mellow. His big present was a trip to see a soccer game in L.A. with his brother David, and sister, Anne. So, Sunday was pretty low key. The boys and I made breakfast in bed for him, got ready for church, after church we grilled his favorite dinner, did presents, and watched a GUY flick. It was relaxing. Mine looked similar, minus the going to church, grilling, and GUY movie. I received many beautiful flowers, one set even being planed in our yard for us by a friend.





Bill bought me a new camera, a HOLGA toy camera. Literally, a carnvial toy camera. It is as low-tech as you can get! I had a blast taking a walk around downtown with my boys today, 3 of us had cameras in hand, and me experimenting with a plastic toy! The effects can be stunning from the plastic lens and b&w film, so I will be interested to see what happens when I have the first roll developed. I am even thinking of signing up for a class at the University on the HOLGA. I'll decide after I see what comes out from my first roll of film.

Utah we love thee. .

Thanks for the memories of our fantastic summer, you wonderful state!

Down in the Boondocks

1960's Song or where we were today, Day #6, and final day of our backyard vacation? We headed South (again) to Sandy to Boondocks family fun center where the boys were impressed by Bill and I's grand-finale idea! It was $12 dollar wrist band day. The boys all got to play miniture golf, bumper boats, go-karts, laser-tag, and video games to their hearts content (or their feet gave out from standing in lines!). We started out with Bumper Boats at 11:00 a.m. William loved squirting strangers and especially Daddy and Romney. Romney was just so stoked Bill let him steer the boat! After the good soaking, we headed inside where the boys discovered that all the video games were free, no tokens needed and almost had mini-strokes from the excitement! They played for about an hour and then we took off for lunch. The boys were once again impressed that we could leave and then COME BACK on the same wristband! After lunch, I let Romney play in their Kiddie Cove (giant McDonald's like playset) while Bill and William chased each other in the Laser Tag rooms. At that point, I left my boys to their own devices and headed to my hair appointment. (My ears were grateful for the break from the noisy arcade!)



While I was gone, they hit the go-kart tracks and played more games. William was so happy he was tall enough to drive his own car! I came back all trimmed and straightened and picked up 3 VERY tired, happy boys. It was a very happy end to a very fun week. I know I feel rested just from having Bill around so much. It was great having some time together as a family experiencing wonderful things that turn into cherished memories. If that is the point of a vacation, we succeeded, even while coming home to our own beds every night!

CTR Superstar and Marvelous Work and a Wonderwoman

I know the photo is really, truly awful! But how many times will my kids get a chance to pose with a Mormon Superhero? One, I say-- so up it goes. Yesterday was Day #5 of our in-town vacation, and we did several new things. We saw a movie in the Dollar Theater. My kids have never done that with us before. We saw Meet the Robinsons. It was fine. Cute message. Boys dug it! Then we drove south to the Living Planet Aquarium preview exhibit. First of all, they aren't kidding, it is really barely a preview exhibit. It is tiny. And it was the only thing I haven't been able to find discount tickets for this whole week! It cost as much as the zoo, but took 30 minutes to see and do everything! Brief highlights from the aquarium were: the Octopus, the Stingray "petting zoo" and the giftshop.



After the aquarium, where Bill meet us, we went to Ikea for dinner and some grown-up time, while the kids were in the playland. It is sad that our dates are all at Ikea right now! They'll watch our kids for us because they want us to buy stuff.

Then we raced back north to see a play at the Off Broadway Theatre called CTR SUPERSTAR. It was quite funny! A nice parody of Utah Culture. Not disrespectful, just hilarious. We all loved it! Superheros CTR superstar, and Marvelous Work and a Wonderwoman battle evil doers Paul Igamy, Jack Mormon, and Ethyl Alcohol. Joe Mormon and Holly Homemaker from the Deseret Morning news transform into the aforementioned super heros. My favorite part of the play came before the opening curtain. They call everyone celebrating a birthday up to sing to them. One person walked up, and I whispered to Bill, "hey babe, it's Pat from SNL." It was PAT --clothes, hair, voice and all! They asked his/her name and he/she answered "PAT". I almost fell off my seat laughing! Of course it was a silent, bite your lip kind of a laugh but I couldn't believe my ears.



Well, I leave you with one last AWFUL photo
docu-
mentation of our day.
I think we are winding down!
Tuesday will be our very last official "vacation" day.

Beavis and Butthead

Day 4 of vacation in our backyard and we headed to the place Beavis and Butthead retired, Bear Lake. We did not know that is where all the Beavis' and Buttheads' hang out when we decided it would make a nice Sunday drive. Bill has been bugging me to go up there with him since he has never been. I went at the ripe old age of 9 and remember NOTHING other than thinking I was less than impressed and that the water was FREEZING! We didn't head into the water today, but we did observe many visiting others who were on their way to the water. It was a lot of shirtless, beer drinking middle age men and their families. The poor town is really run down and we did not hang out for long. We stopped on the beach to put out a blanket, read a story and looked at the clouds, we let the boys run the batteries of their remote control cars out, and then hopped back in for the ride down. Here are the highlights from the drive: we saw some truly beautiful country side. The water was amazingly clear and blue and gorgeous. It was green and cool and spectacular at the top of a mountain range we crossed between Huntsville and Woodruff. We had fun listening to William's new CDs from last night and it was very nice to have so much time uninterupted by other distractions to talk to each other. We stopped at a Monastary in Huntsville and talked to the kids about things other's believe and about respecting differences. That was a great opportunity to talk tolerance. We had a very nice day together, but may not need a visit to Bear Lake again any time soon.

Cowpucky!

Who knew we had a champion buffalo chip thrower? Can you guess who? If you guessed Romney, you are correct. He took third place (and won an actual ribbon) in his age group at a Buffalo chip throwing contest today, day 3 of our backyard vacation. William took a respectable 4th in his age group. I am not sure whether or not we should be proud of them?! We headed up north today to Golden Spike National Monument. It was Railroader's Festival Day at the monument. They had both trains out and running as well as all kinds of games including the buffalo chip contest. Thank goodness the kids wore gloves, because-- EW!



Here they are standing in line, chip in hand, getting pysched up for their turn to throw. Bill also took the boys on a railroad hand car ride, they had fun, but it was short. After we had exhausted all our fun at Golden Spike, and watched a reenactment of the completion of the railroads meeting up, we drove over to Thiokol to look at their rocket display. It was pretty much a stay in the car and ohhhh and ahhh kind of exhibit. Not terribly impressive. We should look into whether or not we can watch them testing the rockets. Now that would be worth getting out of the car for! When we are in need of a good Sunday drive, we will hit the Spiral Jetty which I have always wanted to see in person.
After the West Desert heat, we needed some air-conditioning, so we went south to Ogden to the Treehouse Museum. Bill hasn't been to it since William was very little and it was still in the Old Ogden Mall. I think it is Utah's best kept kid secret. It is never too busy, and the kids can really get into the activites and exhibits there. We paid $8 for the whole family with some coupons I found online and spent 3 hours there. Can't beat that!
Our final stop for the night was at the Main City Library. Two bands played outside at the ampitheater. They were both Harry Potter based Rock bands. No, I am totally not kidding! Two! I didn't even know there was one. Anyway, William was in some serious heaven. Rock music and Harry Potter mixed. The child even broke out his rusty break dancing skills and got Funky!
Bill, being the most awesome Dad ever, bought William both bands CDs. Again, not kidding they had CDs for sale. One band had 4 CDs to choose from. All in all it was an enlightening day.

Vacation Day #2

Day one was more fun, but we did do a number of things we have never done before. We first went to Kennecott to take a tour of the mine. I am not sure what we were expecting, but I know I was hoping to view a bit more of the process of taking the rocks and getting the copper out and turning it into something usuable. (Sounds like I actually did know what I was expecting!) It was more a drive to the giant hole they have created and looking into it. They did have a 15 minute movie sort of explaining the process, but it was really more of a commercial for how "environmentally friendly" they are -- yeah, right. Don't we all wish! They did have a giant tire on display from the gianormous trucks they use to haul that rock around. That poor mountain looks like it is inside out from all the dirt they have displaced.
After that we went piano shopping. William has decided he "needs" a piano and not just a keyboard since he is learning cresendo and decresendos and that is hard to do on a keyboard. Since the boy has a point, we looked at a few pianos, but have not made any decisions yet. We went to dinner at a resturant that was supposed to have belly-dancers, but didn't. We did sit on stools and appolstered benches at a very low table and enjoyed good middle eastern food. Tomorrow is day #3 of our vacation and should be a bit more exciting.

Vacation in your own backyard

We have been thinking about where we should vacation. We have decided that Germany, Alaska, Washington D.C., The Czech Republic, these are all places we are interested in spending time and money. Since time is not on our side this summer, and those places are not an option in the next couple of weeks, we have decided to vacation in our own city. We are taking time to go do all the things we never do, but mean to. Today was day one: We started with William's piano lesson and then went about a mile east to "This is the Place Heritage Park". We have been there once before, and it was fine, but they have made some improvements and this time was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed making crafts and doing activities from the 1800's.




There was a train ride, a pony ride, another petting zoo (see post below), a basket making craft, a leather tooling craft, a cookie, a cup of ice cream, a miniture pioneer village playground, and many, many, many cabins and houses to tour. We weren't planning on staying as long as we did, but we were all having fun and hung out the better part of the day. We shall see what day 2 of our vacation brings.

Who knew Quidditch could actually be played?

Harry Potter Mania has finally hit our home. We have avoided it for many years, but this summer Aunt Annie Alligator (A. a. a.) inspired William and he has not put a Harry Potter book down since. (BTW Anne, he is half way through book 5). Once it hit, it has not let go. But I am not complaining, because it has pushed Pokemon back to a distant 2nd in importance in my boys' lives. When Book 7 was released our FABULOUS city library had a Muggle Mania party (until 3 weeks ago, I had never heard of a muggle, William had to clue me in!) They had the REAL soccer team and several librarians teaching and playing a "real" game of Quidditch. Romney played the Goalie (he blocked many a goal!) and William was the seeker hunting for the golden snitch (yeah, I have no idea either!). Their team won and had a congradulatory photo taken shortly after of the whole team. Romney really loved the mini-broom. I want to buy one to see if he will help me sweep the kitchen daily.

Guilty Summer Pleasures

I say guilty, because after being so tired yesterday, the kids sat in front of the television for the better part of yesterday afternoon with me zonked out on the sofa, so today we made up for lost time. We went to Jungle Jim's, an indoor amusement park with rides, and let the kids make themselves sick on the spinning rides. Then we met up with Bill for a nice lunch. We talked him into taking the afternoon off with us and took the kids to the toy store to let Romney buy the remote control ATV he has been wanting (for all of 24 hours).





My guilt still nagging me from being a slacker yesterday, I suggested going to Garnder Village for Pony rides and Petting Zoo time. The children then continued to score, by hitting a candy store and picking out any one candy they wanted. We capped it all off by hitting the Mayan Adventure for dinner, a kids' paradise. I am feeling much less guilty today about being tired, but now I feel guilty about spoiling the kids! Notice the family photographer never carries her good camera around and is constantly using her crappy cell phone camera to capture our fun.

Wolves in the Woods

Testosterone was in the air this week as Bill lead 10 boys into the mountains for the pleasures that are Cub Scout Day Camp. Bill and I are cubscout leaders and when we were asked to do the job, I made Bill promise I would never have to do the camps. Last year, his knee surgery kept him from keeping his promise and I had to, I mean, I had the pleasure of going. This year, the pleasure was all Bill's as he valiently kept 9 boys from shooting their eyes out with BB guns (William didn't want to shoot this year, THAT'S my boy!) and 10 boys from shooting themselves, or someone else, in the foot with arrows! Of course, he came home exhausted and the boys exstatic from their very fun 2 days in the woods.

Estrogen has also been in the air around here! My sister, Andrea, is in town for a few days, and Lisa and I have had a nice time with her. She brought her dog, Bowie, and my boys are so happy to see him. They love to play with him. Bowie is the puppy they wish one day to have. They have no allergies to him and he loves to wrestle and play catch with them.

It has been a strange week, with many out of the ordinary things happening around here to keep us on our toes! Not bad, just strange. It is good for us to mix it up every once in a while.

For those of you keeping track only 12 more shopping days until Bill is a year older, 14 shopping days until Tara is miraculously the same age! (insert cheesy smiley face here!)