Fun in the Sun

It must be summer since my kids are wet, wild and full of energy. 4 hours of swimming doesn't even seem to put a dent in their energy level. We have another fun week full of friends, pools, museums. We have so much to do, the biggest challenge is finding time to fit it all in. My favorite kind of week.

Good Friends Are Hard to Find

Luckily, my boys have both found some truly wonderful friends that they love. As part of our week full o' fun, we got to enjoy a visit with our friends from Nebraska, the Tyrrells.


As kids, both Bill and I have moved collectively around 40 times (both of us have lost count-- so we have to approximate). We are used to making friends, leaving them behind, making new ones, then leaving them behind again over and over and over. It is a very new experience to make friends and then have them move away. We have collectively as a family decided we DON'T like this plan. It is much nicer to make friends and everyone stay put. Since life doesn't always happen this way, we have had to say good-bye to a few good friends. That is difficult to do, but it does make it incredibly special when you get a chance to see each other.

We enjoyed a fun morning catching up with each other at their family pool, swimming, chatting and munching our lunches. We took a break for Romney's class and naps and caught up again at our house where more of our friends came over to join in the catching up fun. There was a lot to catch up on since the Tyrrells have added a beautiful baby girl to their family since we last saw them.

It all culminated with a GIANT pizza-movie-sleepover. William has two very special friends that have been super close friends since Kindergarten (one since preschool) and the two that didn't move were devastated when the 3rd moved away, so this was a rare and wonderful treat. Never to be left out of the fun, Romney wanted to invite his favorite chic from Nebraska to join in the fun and a 5 kid sleepover was born.
What are the chances that anyone will actually sleep tonight?

From Monet to Picasso

Another week of summer has begun and it is shaping up to be a great one. Today Romney had a class at the University of Utah called "Small Fries: Cooking in the Kitchen". He has been looking forward to this class for a month or so now and couldn't wait to get out of the house to get cookin'. Apparently the child has many of my genes, but failed to receive the "DO NOT COOK" genome. That's funny, I thought that was a dominate trait. He had so much fun making strawberry yogurt and granola today. I am pretty sure he is the only boy in the class, I will have to pay more attention to find out for sure tomorrow. It didn't seem to bother him. Romney (true to himself) offered to read to the class today GREEN EGGS AND HAM, there is probably a good chance he offered to teach the class once I left. The sweet boy made me a serving of the yogurt and granola as well, since I had jokingly said as I was walking out the door "make me something yummy!" How cute is that. The only down side to the story is that we had to race to William's piano lesson right after his class and nothing is grosser than leaving a milk product in the hot sun for 30 minutes. Yucky! I couldn't find a trash can on the way and we were running late as it was. You know how I feel about being late.

William and I had some quality alone time today which is always a treat. William is growing up so fast that I am not sure how many more years I have where he will want to go hang out with me. I am soaking them up while I can. He offered to go grocery shopping with me today, while Romney opted to stay home with Daddy. We shopped for an hour and had pleasant conversation and then had more of that after dropping Romney off at his class. Since Romney's class is on campus, I decided it might be fun to head up to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) on that community pass I have. I had looked up what was going on and it just so happened that the new show, Monet to Picasso, was opening today. I didn't realize you would have to buy a separate ticket to see that exhibit. I know many shows do charge more, but I could have sworn that I read that it was included in admission. (Although, when asked by a friend who works there to show her where I saw that on the website so they could remove it, I couldn't find it--whoops!) So we skipped the exhibit. I come from Virginia and spent more hours in FREE museums than I can count with much more famous works of ART. I just can't stomach spending $15 to see just a small handful of lesser known works by famous artists. I am cheap, what can I say? William and I did end up seeing their permanent exhibits and a few left over pieces from a local artist exhibition. That was actually quite cool and William and I had some wonderful, arty conversations. I learned he is very interested in the Mayan culture after watching "The Mayan" on PBS Nova. (Good grief, I owe PBS so much MONEY!) He taught me some interesting factoids while looking at some pieces from the Mayan people. After an hour at the museum, (which is really all one needs to see the whole dang thing!) we walked over the Union Building to play some Air Hockey. You know it is sad when your child starts to be able to beat you at things with out you "letting him".

William had another great piano lesson today and next week will mark the year point for him taking lessons. I told his teacher that today, and she couldn't believe it. She could have sworn it was longer (I don't know if that is good or bad:). William learned and memorized another BEATLE'S song this week, and he played it for his teacher who was in shock. "Here Comes the Sun" took a month of lessons to get to the point where "Let it Be" is already at. He passed off his 3rd book today and got a new one as well as version of Fur Elise to start. This is his first attempt at a classical piece and he is really excited. He is still loving working on the Beatles' stuff, but is ready for a new challenge. I could care less about anything other than the fact he is still so enthusiastic about the instrument. I was worried that as soon as we invested in a piano for him at Christmas, his interest would wain, but it has only served to excite him more. Thank goodness, because that sucker was a beast to bring into the house! I would hate to have to move it out! (Of course, I actually mean I would hate to have Bill and friends have to move it out!)

Reunited...

Look out Zion National Park, here they come. The Seager Family reunion (Bill's Maternal side of the family) happened this weekend. We headed down south for some quality catching up with the family time. All of Bill's siblings were able to make it down, which was a treat. We stayed at a place that had wonderfully appointed cabins, so we didn't really have to "rough it", which of course made this city slicker very happy. The place had a restaurant, a beautiful two story pool with slides, a rock climbing wall, a zip line, ATVs available as well as a stable full of horses. It was a gorgeous area and seemed to have something for everyone. Not an easy task when trying to please that many people.


We had only one little hiccup during our trip. Romney, the day before we left, must have been bitten by some "evil bug" (as he put it!) His hand swelled up to twice its size complete with blisters and a swelling bruise. It looked terrible. We gave him some benadryl and motrin to try and get the swelling to go down and let him sleep. The next morning it looked even worse. He woke up and said "NOW I CAN'T EVEN MOVE MY FINGERS!" Since it was getting worse and not better, we decided we should go have a Dr. look at it. We drove into Kanab (about 40 minutes) where there was an Emergency Room available. The best part of a small town hospital, NO waiting. We got right in and the nurses had already taken Romney's vitals by the time Bill was done registering him. AMAZING. That would never happen here. The bad part was there wasn't a real DR. only a PA (yeah, I didn't know either-- it stands for a Physician's Assistant.) He was cross-eyed and wore a hearing aide (I couldn't make this up!) and it was like pulling teeth trying to get the information about what was going on out of him. He said we did all the right things (we started to like him more after that:) and that it looked like the bug had carried some bacteria into Romney's hand when it bit him. He sent us to the Pharmacy for a anti-biotic that has really helped poor Romney's hand look much better. (BTW--You are all welcome for sparing you a photo of the swollen hand, EWWWWWW!)



We made it back up the mountain in time for a lovely presentation Bill's Aunt and Uncle had made in honor of his Grandmother's 90th birthday. It was so great to learn about her amazing, long life and let the kids get to feel the tie to their ancestors. Romney kept saying "We have a big family!" like it was a giant, wonderful surprise we had kept hidden from him for all these years. Yes, little one, we only let you know about them once you hit 5 years old. Then we let the secret family out of their hiding spots to play with you!




William had a wonderful time (of course, less surprised by the amount of relatives walking around as he had passed the magical age of 5!) golfing and playing with his long lost "twin", Quentin. Both boys had fun swimming and playing on all the random rusty farm equipment lying around in the fields. I guess the next Dr. visit may need to include tetanus shots :).

Just Hanging Out

One of the very best parts of summer is the ability to do what you want when you want. No set time to start or stop. Ahhh... Sweet Freedom! And that is just what we (and by we, I mean the three of us with no schedule. Poor Bill is still scheduled to the hilt!) have been spending these blissful two weeks doing. We wake up whenever we feel like it, have a leisurely breakfast, do our chores (even me) and then get some learning in and decide what to do for the rest of our day.



Of course, every once in a while things do pop up on our calendar that are scheduled. I think I win Momma of the week for driving William to his piano teacher's house in Provo for this weeks lesson. It turned out her other student and her Aunt, whose home we use in Sandy normally for his lessons, were both going out of town at the same time. William couldn't live with out a piano lesson (I know, not NORMAL!) so I drove for 2 hours (roundtrip) for a 30 minute lesson. See, Mom of the week.



Another calendar activity is soccer. It wouldn't be a week unless there was some kind of soccer going on around here. Both William and Romney wanted to do a fun league with their Shumway friends. The nice part is I convinced Bill he is REALLY too busy to coach and to let someone else handle it this time around. This means that we don't have to show up for every game and practice. The bad news is that William's team coach never showed up and so SUPER BILL to the rescue, he stepped up and helped organize that into somewhat of a team.



I have timed my library community passes so that I am eligible to get one right when school gets out. This lets us into the Children's Museum, Red Butte, the Utah Museum of Natural History, and the Utah Fine Arts Museum for free. (My favorite word!) Every Monday we have an outing to look forward to all together. We have been kidnapping Bill during his lunch break and he has even come on both so far. We hit one of our favorite places, Red Butte Garden. We checked out a learning backpack and hit the paths. The kids can run, explore and learn a lot about the local flora and fauna. I get a place to break out the (rusty) ol' camera and soak in the rays.



This week's outing was to the Utah Museum of Natural History. They have a great exhibit going on right now about DNA in honor of the professor who just won the Nobel Prize for his ongoing research in that area. We all learned so much about genetics and how we are made and what makes us unique, and heaven knows the 4 of us are nothing if not unique.
If you felt a little tremor on Monday, fear not, it was only William jumping up and down trying to get an earthquake to register on the sizemograph.

Pretty Good Year

It has been another wonderful year of school. William just finished the third grade and I have had a moment to reflect on all the learning that has happened for him. It was so wonderful to think back to what we were working on last summer and what we are going to work on this summer. He has memorized his times tables and knows how to divide. He learned fractions and measurements. He wrote a screen play, poems, comic strips, an autobiography, as well as countless stories. He learned some great word processing skills and strengthened his typing skills. He learned how to spell around 700 new words. He learned much about Utah history and geography. He learned so much in depth information about environmental concerns as well as about native birds and plants and soil. He helped set up a green house. He learned how to make new friends and strengthened old friendships. He learned how to walk away from situations he was not comfortable with. He learned how to express what he means more clearly. He had a chance to make another step towards conquering his fear of performing in front of a group by playing a piece of music he worked hard on in a talent show. He had an amazing, loving, nurturing teacher who was patient and kind while helping the kids to grow and stretch themselves.




Romney had his first school experience this year. It was so difficult at the beginning of the year to drop him off and walk away. (Not for him, mind you, but for his parents). He made so many new friends and strengthened old friendships. He was able to learn how to function with a boy who has been difficult for him for many years. He strengthened his reading and writing skills. He learned more about cooperative play and classroom rules. He enjoyed both his teachers this year and was lucky to have had a great one for the second half of the year. He enjoyed being at William's big kid school and is really looking forward to Kindergarten next year.




Story time was Romney's favorite part of the day. He loved hearing all the stories that co-opers brought in to share. He did not like small groups. He felt the activities were too easy for him. It was interesting to see the difference between the 3 year olds and the 4 year olds. It was quite a gap and it made me remember how much Romney has learned in the past few years. It is truly amazing.




After the end of the last day of school, we went to Lagoon for several hours. The kids had so much fun riding all the rides and celebrating all their learning in such a big way. William was equally excited for his piano lesson later that day. I am so glad I have kids who love to learn just as much as they love riding amusement park rides. There is something to be said to all of their amazing teachers who have helped them keep that lust for learning strong and healthy! Thanks again for helping my kids along their paths!

A Sorta Fairytale

Once upon a time, long, long ago, and what seems like very far away, there was a strawberry blonde girl who enjoyed getting out of the house after 7 p.m. This vivacious, strawberry-blonde pixie often would start her fun when other little girls were just laying down their pretty little heads on pretty little pillows. Many a night she would wake up her non-nocturnal friends, who were trying in vain to get their beauty rest, and insist that they join her at a Dance Club, Midnight Movie, all-night Diner, or even for a late night drive to the southern most point of her state (often beyond). This little girl had a social life.

One fine day, a VERY handsome prince swept her off her feet. Gallantly and bravely, he rescued her from the evils of BYU. He took her away to his castle upon a hill and they vowed to live happily ever after. Which they did...

However, our strawberry-blonde princess grew older. She had two fair princes to raise and her handsome prince was very busy running his kingdom and making sure the castle was paid for. She was happy in the castle and wanted for nothing, except the freedom to roam about her city late at night, enjoying the company of friends.

Little did our heroine know, that many of her princess/mommy friends also felt that same longing, and some had found creative ways to feel that freedom once again. They come from many different kingdoms and have many responsibilities. Every blue moon an opportunity arises for them to have fun and share their talents outside of their castles. One princess can make all of the other princesses well up with tears of joy simply by sharing the beauty that comes with one stroke from her magic violin bow. Another princess can bring happiness with her art that is full of fun, humor and creativity. This same princess is also very talented bringing together the women from all over the kingdom. The strawberry-blonde princess is lucky to know so many wonderful women who add balance and happiness to her life. Who include her in their art and their fun and their triumphs and challenges and provide "Girl's night out (of the castle)" opportunities. (Ballet Performances, Dinner and a Chic flick as well as parties celebrating a new marriage.)

This princesses story is not yet over. She continues in her quest for "Happily Ever After" with her (still) VERY handsome prince and her two young princes. She no longer yearns deeply for her youthful escapades and is happily enjoying her fairytale life.