Last Ditch Summer

The great thing about Labor Day is it gives you one last chance at summer. After going back to school and getting settled into your new routine for a few weeks, you start thinking to yourself, "Did I really want summer to end?" And you get one last chance to pack in as much summer fun as you can in 3 1/2 days. That is exactly what we did last weekend. It started Thursday night for Zac and Steve and my brother Sam as they packed up and left us to go on an ATV trip with some friends. Sam and his wife Teresa just came into town from Dallas where they have spent their whole summer. They just stopped by for a few days before making their way to BYU Idaho. On Friday after the girls came home from school, Aubrey, Emily and I had Activity Days. We went for a little nature walk, pictured above.

After that we came home and went to the pool with my sister-in-law, Teresa. It was kinda cool outside so Teresa and I decided not to swim. We regretted that decision after sitting for a while in the hot sun. Here is Teresa wearing Addy's life jacket.

Aubrey going off the high dive
Emily

You can't tell because this boy in red stood up in front of my camera, but this is Aubrey standing on Emily's shoulders in the pool.

Em going off the high dive

Aubrey going off the high dive

That night my mom and Lauren came over for dinner. We had breakfast for dinner and then we watched Soul Surfer. The next day, Saturday, Lauren and Teresa came over and we all went to the new shopping center by my house. We went into every store to check them out, because we hadn't been yet. My girls were so confused. You see, we don't just go to the store to go to the store. We go to the store only when we desperately need something. Like if Zac tells me 10 days in a row that his shoes don't fit, then we will go to the store to buy new ones. Or if I say to myself every Sunday for 30 Sunday's in a row that I am gonna scream if I have to wear this dress again, then after 30 Sunday's I go to the store to buy a new dress. You don't believe how not fun shopping is for me, click here.

So anyways, my girls were so confused that we were just going to check out the stores, not to buy anything. They were not happy with that situation. Next time, I will explain our plans better BEFORE we leave the house, so as to avoid breakdowns in the middle of the store. s. Stores. Plural. After our non shopping adventure, we ended up at the last store in the strip. The grocery store. That is where we ate lunch. I do buy things at the grocery store on a semi regular basis. Here's Lauren and Addy eating their lunch.

Aubrey, Emily and Teresa eating their lunch.

After lunch we headed where else, but the pool. For three reasons. Reason 1: I started thinking in my head about how many times we had used our pool pass and was wondering if the pass was worth it. So I decided to make the most of it in the days I had left, which were not many. Reason 2: Teresa and I still had not cooled off from sitting by the pool the day before, fully clothed. And Reason 3: We just wanted to. Here's a picture of Lauren, Aubrey, Teresa and Emily in the pool.

That night the girls and I had another movie night and watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. Late that night Steve and Zac got home from their trip. The next day we went to church and Zac, who turned 14 on Friday (his first Birthday away from the woman who brought him into this world), was ordained a Teacher. After church everyone came to our house for lunch. Then I kicked everyone out so I could take a nap.

On Monday, Labor Day, Zac had some friends over for pizza and video games to celebrate another year of his life on earth. Then we all went to do what? Dude. I already told you before. I was gonna make the most out of that dang swim pass I bought. Sam and Teresa came with us. And HELLO! The girls were even able to talk anti-swimming-daddy-Steve into joining us. He was just going to go sit by the pool fully clothed, but I was able to talk him into his swim suit, and he eventually joined us in the water. Here is a picture of Sam showing off on the high dive. His dives and flips and tricks kept everyone at the pool entertained.

Sam and Aubrey

I didn't get pictures of anyone else because I didn't bring my phone or camera and after one of Sam's dives when he splashed water on Steve's phone, it started freaking out so I couldn't take any more pictures with that. So there is no actual proof that we were able to get anti-swimming-daddy-Steve into the water, but believe me, he was there. Farmer tan and all. After swimming, we all went over to my mom's house for a delicious dinner. It was a fun last ditch summer weekend!

I Know It's Green, But What Else Is About It?

I am so in love with the weather we have been having the past few days! It is perfect. I feel like we kinda missed out on a spring this year, so I am glad that we are having a little pre taste of fall. Fall is my favorite...uh....what are those called? No really. See what having four kids does to your brain? SEASON! Fall is my favorite season. Wow Allyson. Can't remember what a season is. Right now I am sitting at the computer in front of an open window with a fantastically cool breeze blowing in on me. I LOVE it!

Steve has this extra special talent and he has passed it along to some of our children. He can catch a fly. With his bare hands. He catches them all the time. Disgusting, I know. Well, apparently fly catching can be an...uh...WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY BRAIN??? I probably should not be typing anything right now. Inherited trait. Sigh...I really think half of my brain has been sucked out of my head. Anyhoo. Aubrey and Zac also have this fantastically disgusting talent. I don't know why I just told you that.

So we have had this chicken who has been brooding all week. She will not come out of the coop for anything and she is sitting on all the eggs. Poor gal. I really tried to reason with her and get her to come out. You see, we have no daddy rooster. And with no daddy rooster, no matter how long she sits atop those eggs, ain't no baby chickens gonna come poppin' outta there. I tried for days to get her to come out, but every time I got close to her, she puffed herself up and started hissing at me. I was scared. So finally, when I had used my last egg from the fridge, I knew I had to get that girl offa those eggs. I turned to Aubrey, our chicken whisperer. She helped me (she isn't scared of the chickens) and it was so sad. It made me feel like a horrible person. That chicken did not wanna give up those eggs. I felt like I was ripping a mother away from her children that she was never going to see again. Aubrey held and stroked and comforted the poor gal for a while.

My mom and sister and sister-in-law were over at our house eating the other night. We made pancakes and hash browns and scrambled eggs. I put my secret ingredient in the eggs. Yellow crookneck squash. OK, so I know what you are thinking right now. DISGUSTING! But you are so, so wrong. It is dang good. I put the eggs and the squash in the blender and bend it all up. It makes the eggs so light and fluffy and moist. And they are good. Ask any of my kids (except Zac who refuses to even try them). They love 'em that way. So we were sitting at the table eating and my mom tried the eggs. She said, "I am so pleasantly surprised by these eggs! They are so good!" Listen. That's what my kids say. Only they say "This is surprisingly good!" Why is everyone so surprised? It's not surprisingly good. It's expectantly good. Everything I make is EXPECTANTLY good. Except those muffins I made last week for Steve and Zac to take to their home teaching families. I realized after they had been delivered that I doubled everything in the recipe except the zucchini. They were not good, and I am so embarrassed.

My kids and I have this new addiction. So last week while they were at school, I stumbled upon this video on youtube. It was hilarious. I was laughing so hard I was crying. And my Mo-dar instantly told me they Mormons too. I could not wait for the kids to get home so I could show them. I started telling them that it was this video made by brothers and they are acting out stories about when they were growing up, but their kids are telling the stories. My kids were like, "Oh yeah, Kid History! We love those!" Then they started quoting parts of it to me. Anyhoo, we have watched them a million times and we don't let anyone leave our house without showing them a Kid History video. So you can't leave my blog without watching one either! Click here to watch. You know what you have a sweet tooth means? I doesn't mean that you like candy, IT MEANS THAT YOU WANT SOME!!!

Perverted Turtle

Sooooo. I've decided to work really hard this week towards getting some type of window coverings at my bathroom windows (seeing as how we've lived here for over 3 1/2 years now). Either that or I'm gonna try really hard to remember NOT to take a shower when I have someone scheduled to come spray the outside of the house for bugs. In my defense, they did tell me it would probably be afternoon before they came and I usually don't consider 9:30 am to be afternoon. Poor kid. I probably scarred him for life. Am I really old enough to be calling someone old enough to be working in the middle of a school day a kid? Yeah...I guess so. He couldn't even look me in the face when he came to the front door to give me the invoice.

I was trying to come up with a title for this post and my thoughts went along the lines of this...

Peeping Tom
Thomas Peter
Perverted Turtle

Completely rational line of thinking for several people out there. You know who you are. It made me laugh, and I hope it does you too. Then I tried to google for a picture of a turtle standing up against the glass of a tank, and I found this lovely table and I had to wonder. Would anyone really buy this table? It does have a great introductory price of $2,150 if any of you are interested. If I were rich, I would totally buy each of my sisters this table for Christmas, just to keep our childhood memories alive and well in their hearts and their living rooms.

Monday Morning Musings - That's The Way My Chickens Roll

I really should just start calling these Tuesday Afternoon Musings, shouldn't I? But that doesn't sound as fabulously fantastic as Monday Morning Musings, so the name stays. Oh well!

I had the opportunity to be in Jr. High last week. It was so awesome! The way they do it here, at the beginning of a new school year, is like this, yo. So they have a back to school night for the parents. You get to go and get your schedule, which is really your child's schedule, and then you get to go to all your classes, which are really your child's classes. You spend 5 minutes in each period and the teacher tells you all about their class and rules and what to expect. You get to sit in the desks and the bell rings and you get to change classes and wave to your friends in the hall. I even got to sit next to a friend in Algebra! (Sorry Z! PRE Algebra!) ("MOM! Why are you so insistent that I'm in ALGEBRA! I'm in PRE ALGEBRA!!!") Listen, algebra is algebra to me. It's all the same and none of it makes any sense, therefore they are interchangeable in my mind.

Zac has some really good teachers this year. I am so glad. In fact, dude. I wanna go sit in on his History class every day. His teacher sounds so awesome and excited and I think I would love her method of teaching. She assigns them a historical fiction book to read each term. I was so excited. I love historical fiction. I wrote them all down so I can read them too!

I think he is just glad we were able to get him out of Choir. Uh, yeah. They put him in choir, for some unknown reason. Seems to me like that's the kind of class you'd have to willingly sign up for. If you know anything about Zac, you would know that his being in choir would be pure and utter torture for him. Every second would seem like an hour. When we went in for registration during the summer and saw that it was on his schedule, we went straight to the counselors office to change it to metals, a much better fit. We had to pay $10 for the schedule change. A part of me really had to wonder how many other kids they put in classes like "Choir" in order to extract a $10 change fee.....

There was a star party at Zac school last week and I took the 3 older kids. We were coming home late that night and right by the front door was this big huge jamomma spider with a billion little tiny baby spiders on her back. It is the most disgusting thing to see. If you've never seen it, google it. But try not to vomit. Anyway. *shudder* It was poised to enter the house along with us, so we had to do something to prevent it. I've killed a spider like that before in my laundry room and it is a mess. I didn't know that the gross stuff on the back was a billion tiny baby spiders, I just thought it was a scary nasty deformed spider. Well, you kill the momma, and a billion little teeny tiny miniscule little spider babies go everywhere. Well, the girls and I were all in flip flops, so we assigned Zac the job of stomping on the momma. However, He was not willing to accept that assignment. So I took off my flip flop and smacked the momma. And then the whole porch was alive with a billion little baby spiders. So the four of us started stomping like crazy. My kids felt bad, being baby killers and all, but I reminded them that those baby spiders would not stay babies for long, so they better stomp away.

We had some crazy chicken calisthenics going on around her yesterday. Now that we have a fence against the trail, the chickens have been free to wander. Only they don't wander too far. Just to the front porch or back patio. They have pretty much set up camp on the back patio and they stay there all day long. I wouldn't be surprised if they started sleeping there too. So it's pretty much poop city out there. I have a really hard time dealing with that, so I don't know how much longer this free roaming is going to last. Anyway, the calisthenics. So the kids had just come home from school. We are all in the kitchen and I look out and this one chicken keeps standing up, sitting down, rolling onto its side. Stand up, sit down, roll. And it was doing it very slowly and methodically. Over and over and over again. After a few minutes, another chicken came over to join her and they both did it a few times. Then the first chicken walked off and the second one kept doing it. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen and the kids and I were cracking up. Stand up, sit down, roll. Stand up, sit down, roll.

So one chicken says to another chicken, "Hey watch this, I bet I can make those humans stand and watch me do nothing for 10 minutes...stupid humans."

Please Pass The Zucchini

It's that time of year. My garden is producing like crazy! We have our share of veggies and then some. The thing we have the most of? You guessed it! Zucchini. It's pretty much coming out of our ears at this point. Here are a few things I have done with my Zucchini. First. These roasted veggies. This is my favorite way to eat vegetables. I started making them this way several months ago and my family and I love it so much, I make them like this once or twice a week. It is a great way to get rid of extra vegetables you have laying around. Especially the ones that your kids won't eat when you serve the one vegetable by itself. Like bell peppers, for instance. I just cut up whatever vegetables I have on hand and throw them all into a big bowl. I think this time I had cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, bell peppers, onions, potatoes and tomatoes. I make this different every time because it just depends on what I have. I throw them all in a bowl, add some fresh herbs, olive oil, salt and pepper (if you use carrots and potatoes, cut them smaller than the other vegetables because they take longer to cook). I mix it all up and then pour it on my big Pampered Chef stone bar pan. A regular cookie sheet works fine also. I put that in the oven and depending on how much time I have I either cook it at 350 for about an hour or 425 (because that's as hot as the stone can handle) for 30 minutes or so. There is something about cooking the vegetables this way that really brings out the flavor and makes them so extra yummy. Really, when I make them like this, I fill the whole pan (and its a big one) and it is piled high and my whole family gobbles the entire thing up.



Last night I made yummy fried zucchini. I just took corn meal, added salt and pepper and mixed it up in a bowl. I sliced the zucchini, dipped it in water and then the meal and then cooked it in hot canola oil until it was brown and crispy. It was so good. Next time I think I will try baking it instead of frying it. You know. For health reasons.



Earlier this week I made the best muffins I have ever had. I LOVED them. And so did my kids. They were zucchini muffins, but you could hardly tell there was zucchini in them even though there was plenty. And they were so light. You know how zucchini bread or cake is really dark and heavy? Not these muffins. They were perfect in my opinion. I made it without the optional items.

Zucchini Muffins Recipe

3 cups grated fresh zucchini
2/3 cup melted unsalted butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
Pinch salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup walnuts (optional)
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries (optional)

You don't need a mixer for this recipe.

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the zucchini mixture and mix in. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir these dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture. Stir in walnuts, raisins or cranberries if using.

2 Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray. Use a spoon to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown,and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick or a thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done.

So all these things have taken care of a portion of our zucchini crop. Now what about the rest of it? This weekend, and for several weekends hereafter, I plan to chop and grate and freeze enough zucchini to last us all winter. I will put enough in each bag to use in one recipe. Like the muffins. The recipe calls for 3 cups grated zucchini, so I will freeze several bags with 3 cups in each. And if we get tired of zucchini over the winter, well, it will be a nice treat for the chickens.

What do you do to dress up your zucchini? Please share!

Back 2 School 2011

Last Friday was the last weekday of freedom for these children for the next 9 months or so. HA!Who am I kidding? They get a million days off during the school year. I was just writing the days off on my calendar for the next year and it's crazy. They go back from the Christmas break and then a week and a half later BAM! 2 days off. What's up with that? But I digress. Last Friday. So I decided to let the kids have a few friends over to roast hot dogs and marshmallows around the fire and enjoy their last day of summer. They did and they had a fun time.

Zac and Gus who graced us with their presence long enough to stuff their faces and then make a quick exit to play video games.

And then came Monday. The first day of school. Zac started 8th grade. He survived his first year of Jr. High and is ready to go back for more. His friend Gus' brother passed away in a car accident last month and everyone at Zac's school wore pink the first day to remember him and his pink Van shoes he always wore.

Emily is in sixth grade. Her last year in Elementary School!

Aubrey started third grade. This is her fourth year in the Spanish Immersion Program. Hola chica!

Little Miss Addy. She still has one more year at home with her momma before she starts Kindergarten.

Making our way to school for the opening Flag Ceremony

And the moms celebrate by going out to breakfast!

I must say, this year was different for me. I feel like the summer just flew by us. I was both ready and not ready for the kids to go back to school. I wouldn't have minded a few more weeks of summer. But alas, they are in school and it is back to regular life.

Monday Morning Musings - Who Do You Think You Are?

Monday Morning Musings on a Tuesday Afternoon. Hey, I meant to muse all day yesterday. However my yesterday was not all that I envisioned it to be. It was a good day. It was just an exhausting day. First day of school! Back to School Morning which lasted for forever. Breakfast with friends. By the time I got home I was literally home for 20 minutes before I had to leave to pick the girls up from school since they insist on having early out day for the first day of school in this district. I do not understand it in any way and if someone would like to explain it to me, I would love to hear the explanation. Because I have my own theories. Mother torture. I mean, what else would it be? Get the moms all excited for the first day of school and BAM! As soon as they get home with all their plans of cleaning out all the summer clutter from their home and putting things back in order - you make them turn around and come pick the kids up. And I am so smart. I decided I wanted to walk to pick the girls up. I think yesterday might have been our hottest day ever this summer. By the time we made it back home we were all half dead. It left me with absolutely no energy for the rest of the day. But there is no rest for the weary or the heat stroked. There were a bajillion papers to read and fill out and sign. And homework. And organizing notebooks and backpacks. And dinner. And family home evening. And trying to get kids to bed at a decent hour. And the most disgusting messy kitchen that I could not in any good conscience leave for morning. I HAD to clean it before I went to bed. I sound like I'm complaining, don't I? I'm really not. Yesterday wasn't a bad day. I don't mind all the things that happened, except the heat stroke. But I'm just sayin'. It was a full, busy day yesterday. Which would explain why I'm just gettin' around to musing today.

I do have to say this one more thing about yesterday. Because it kinda added to the longevity and tiredness of the day. So we had Family Home Evening. We had a lesson. We sang songs. We read scriptures. And then we needed a treat, right? Well earlier I had talked Steve into going for snow cones. Which is a big deal. Really. When he gets home from work, he likes to stay home. He isn't a big dessert person. And I don't think he has ever been to a snow shack in his whole life. I was so excited, and after suffering my heat stroke, a snow cone was just what the doctor ordered. So we get there. It's closed. I was so mad. I wanted that snow cone like I have never before wanted anything else. Across the street was a convince store. So we say, let's go there and get a slurpee. We get there, drag all 6 of us into the store. None of the slurpees were frozen. They have frozen yogurt there, so we say, let's get that. No cones or cups left in the store at all. Really? It's like the dessert gods were conspiring against us. So we loaded into the car again and made our way to the grocery store down the street. We let everyone pick out a package of frozen treats and took them home to eat them. Oh well. I guess it was for the best seeing as how we needed milk and, hey, we were in the grocery store so we bought some of that too. And all the boxes of treats probably cost as much as buying 6 snow cones would have and now we have frozen refreshment for the rest of the week.

So my kids have this thing with my phone. They CAN'T LEAVE IT ALONE. I never know when my phone is ringing because I don't recognize my ring tone because my ring tone changes on a daily basis. Addy is constantly calling and sending texts to random people. She is also really good at deleting contacts. And now, do you know what they have done? They have turned on some voice thing. My phone now says everything it does. I plug it in and a voice says, "Charging!" I go to my contacts, "Contact list!" I go to send a text, "H-o-w-space-a-r-e-space-y-o-u-space-t-o-d-a-y-question mark. Sending message." (I really says space when I type a space) Before my lovely, calming 'voice of nature' ring tone I have set as my alarm clock goes off in the morning I hear, "Alarm!" And I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO TURN IT OFF!!!! AND IT'S MAKING ME CRAZY!!!!! Somebody please help me! PLEASE!

I have a feeling that the person who turned this evil voice option on is the same person who added a new contact, "A Smelly Fart". And this same person takes great pleasure in going to my contacts, going down to this particular contact and making it say, "A Smelly Fart" over and over again until it runs my battery down.

The other day, I had been outside and when I came back in I sat down. Addy came over and sat on my lap. I said, "I'm so hot." Now, remember, Addy is a four year old and whenever she hears someone say anything about a person being hot, it is usually her sisters talking about how a boy looks. So I said, "I'm so hot", meaning I was hot temperature wise. She looked at me with a look that said, 'Are you crazy woman!' and then she said, "WHAT? Who do you think you are?" Thanks for the self esteem boost Addycakes.

I've said it before and here I am to say it again. My dear, loving husband works harder than anyone I know. He has been working such long hours lately. He works long hours all the time, but usually not for days in a row. I was really worried about him last week. He worked four 18 hour days in a row. He would get up early and leave for work and work all day long (hard exhausting back breaking work) and then get home anywhere between one and four in the morning. Poor boy. Thankfully he did survive last week.

So it has been 3 1/2 years since we have lived in our house. And for 3 1/2 years, our living room has been empty. Except for the chair I bought last march that has been sitting in there all by its lonesome. Well, it is alone no longer! We had a party here a few weeks ago (still need to do that post). And we moved all the furniture out of our kitchen/family room and put it temporarily in the living room so we could have more room in the kitchen. Well guess what? We have decided that we love having furniture in our living room more than in our kitchen! And it gives such a different feel to our house when you walk in the front door. So it is staying put. Until we can afford to buy the actual kind of furniture for the living room that we want. This is in no way the way I would choose to decorate this room, but for the time being, it works. Except for the kids who now have to sit on hard chairs in the kitchen to watch TV or play video games. They keep begging us to move the furniture back. So sorry kids! It's staying right where it is!

A Day At The Beach

Last week we spent the day at the lake with some of our friends. It was such a fun relaxing perfect day. We all had a blast and came home exhausted.
Zac's way of sneaking up on people. He would swim around under the baby floating device and then pop up and scare the girls.

The moms trying to have "mom talk". The kids were pretty set on not letting that happen. Every time they would come get all up in our business we told them that we were talking about Christmas presents and they had to swim somewhere else so they couldn't hear what we were saying.

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of ATV's

Last weekend we went camping in Manti Canyon. It is one of our favorite places to go because it is so beautiful. We had a fantastic trip. Here are some of the highlights.

We were able to stay in our favorite campsite which has a little path leading from our campsite to this lake. You can't get to the lake from any other campsites and I guess a lot of locals park at that campsite when it ISN'T IN USE and walk down to the lake to fish, rather than parking on the other side of the lake like everyone else. One night a guy and his wife pulled up into our campsite and asked if they could walk through to get to the lake. Well, what were we gonna say? It took them about 15 minutes to get their gear ready and then as they were passing right through the middle of our camp they said, "Hey, my brother will be joining us in a little while!" It was after 10 PM when they came back through and spent another 15 minutes loading up to go home. AWKWARD! Here is my sweet Addycakes:

Steve wanted me to include a picture of our first nights dinner because it was so yummy. We had pulled pork sandwiches and asparagus. We have never had asparagus camping before but we had some at the house and I stuck it in some foil, added butter, salt and pepper and cooked it over the coals. It was by far the best asparagus we have ever had and my family gobbled it all up. We might be cooking it that way from now on.

I had to take a picture of Steve, Emily and Zac all sitting by the campfire reading their books.

We spent a couple days riding ATV's. The weather was absolutely perfect. The sun was warm and the wind was cool. Fantastic riding weather.

Taking a break

We rode all the way up above the tree line and the landscape changed from woodsy to big beautiful fields of wildflowers. Then all of the sudden we came around a corner and BAM! The most beautiful lake I have ever seen. The water was absolutely gorgeous, crystal clear blue. This place was so beautiful I just kept taking it in over and over again. I didn't want to leave this place. We did pose for a picture by the "Great Western Trail" sign.

The kids climbed down to play on a huge chunk of snow by the lake

The whole time we were riding through this section, I had this strong urge to throw off my helmet, stand up on my ATV, throw my arms into the air and belt out, "THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC!" I didn't do the first three things, but as Addy, my little riding buddy can tell you, I did do the last thing.

After our ride that day the girls and I went exploring
Steve and Addy

Steve teaching Aubrey to skip rocks

It rained a little our second and third day so we had to eat dinner in the camper.

We were in such a hurry to pack up and get outta town that I only packed necessities. No games. What are you supposed to do in a camper while you are waiting out a rainstorm when you have no games? Addy found some clothes pins and made up her own game of snappy fingers. I'm still not clear on all the rules or the object of this game.

On our second day of riding we passed this beautiful Aspen grove. Addy said it looked like the place where Joseph Smith went to pray.

There were cows everywhere along the trails. The first time we saw some, Addy and I stopped and a little calf came over to Addy. Every time after that when we saw a calf she would say, "Look! There is another 4 year old cow about to turn 5! She wants to be my friend!"

The first time we crossed a stream, Zac got a really bad steam burn on his leg so whenever we crossed one after that, he always crossed like this:

My cute kids!

The End.

Monday Morning Musings - Women's Work

Life around here has been coo coo ca choo CRAZY. It's the end of summer, squeeze everything you meant to do all summer long into the last two weeks rush. Personally, I don't think we're gonna get it all in. We are on the final countdown. One week from today all our lives will be forever changed. Well, at least for the next nine months until we start the summer all over again. I really don't know where the time has gone. We have been busy all summer long, but still, I don't think I have done half of the things I had planned on doing.

One thing I haven't done much of is blog posting. I am so behind, I don't even know where to start. So since it's Monday, I figured why not start with Monday Morning Musings? Here it goes.

We went camping over the weekend. I had the pleasure of driving one truck with the trailer and ATV's attached and Steve drove his truck with the camper attached. The girls rode with Steve (I'm so glad he had the opportunity to bond with his girls that way) and Zac rode with me. Poor Zac. I annoyed the you know what outta him. I am not a good long distance driver. Put me behind a wheel for more than 30 minutes and I have this deep and sudden urge to doze off. So I have to do certain things to keep myself awake. Like singing at the top of my lungs. Out of all my children, my singing annoys Z the most. So you can guess how much fun that drive was. For both of us. He kept changing the radio station to songs I don't know. How am I supposed to sing along to songs I don't know? At one point he looked at me and said, "I wish I could just turn you off like a radio." For rudeness!

When we pulled into camp on Friday, the last song on the radio was the Taylor Swift song that goes, "You're the reason for the teardrops on my guitar". So the whole time we were setting up camp I kept singing that song and it was annoying everyone. Later that night, we were sitting around the campfire and Zac did something that made me so proud. He might look just like his daddy, but he definitely inherited my song writing abilities. I started singing that part of the song again and he busted out with his own version. "You're the reason for the deer droppings in my yard." That's my boy!

Last Thursday, I went with a group of ladies from my neighborhood to see the movie The Help. Most of us had read the book and loved it and were just waiting for the movie to come out. After it was over I came home and I was talking to my kids and I was talkin' in mah southeren ackcent. It was annoying my kids (it seems like everything I do annoys my kids, now doesn't it?) Zac looked at me and said, "STOP TALKING LIKE THAT!!!" And I said, "I ahm frum Teck-sas. I ahm allowhed ta tawlk lihke thawt if ah wont tuh!" And then he said, "What did they talk like that in The Help?" Dang it! How did he figure me out!?!

Last week was Zac's week to do the dishes. One day when I told him to go and do the dishes, he said, "Give me another job to do. I'm not going to do the dishes. That's women's work!" I should have smacked him, but all I could do was laugh because he sounded just like my dad when he said that.