A summer update

As usual, I am running behind in my postings.  I’d like to do a quick re-cap of the first month of summer to get me caught up.  (Please note, this also includes some of the end-of-school-year activities because I haven’t blogged them yet!)

 

Kenni’s dance team traveled all over this spring doing competitions.  The last one was nationals which was at Lagoon. They did really well.  It has been fun to watch this little team grow and progress over the last two years.  I tease that Kenni wasn’t born to be a dancer, but she is really getting to be good!

team prayer before their performance.  Isn’t that cute?

And of course our spring was full of lots of soccer.  This was Noodle’s first year & he loved it.

soccer!

We took the little ones to the dinosaur museum for a field trip. They had a fantastic time.

Baby J’s first slide!  (She loved it- you just don’t know it yet)

Preschool graduation.  Noodle happily sang all of the songs & did all the actions, but Smurfy just looked at the ground.  I think he was wishing he could crawl into it.  He is definitely his daddy’s boy.  (P.S.- Noodle is off to Kindergarten this year, but Smurfy has one more year of preschool.  It was really fun having them in the same class this year, even though they are not the same age.)

This year, Kenni & Sparky both took classes from Morgan Academy of Dance.  Kenni took hip-hop & tumbling and Sparky took an all-boys tumbling class with his two cousins.  It was his first year and he really loved it. Its hard to get that boy excited about anything that involves physical activity, so I was glad to find something he enjoyed so much.  (Honestly, I think he really just loved spending time with his cousins rough-housing, but whatever floats your boat, right?) Anyway- the following pictures are from their end-of-year review.

 

I just had to throw in that picture of baby J because i think it is adorable!  She saw her brother in the tub & thought she should join him. 

Kenni & her cousin got to go to a special sewing day at Grandma Ree’s house.  She called it “sewing camp” since my kids haven’t gone to any camps or done any lessons this summer.  (Due to the move, which was supposed to take place last month, but has been postponed till mid-July.  More on that later).  Anyway- they made these adorable hats & Grandma told me that Kenni did ALL of the sewing on hers all by herself. Grandma took them to a sewing store & let them choose fabric & Kenni was in HEAVEN!

Sparky’s first ever pinewood derby!  He turns 8 in July, so they invited him to come even though it wasn’t quite his birthday yet.  He & Seth worked on his car for a week and he was so proud of it.  As far as the racing goes, they didn’t do so hot, but Sparky didn’t care one bit.  That sweet boy doesn’t have a competitive bone in his body.  He was just glad to be there!

And last but certainly not least, there was baby J’s first birthday party.  I have at least 100 pictures from the event that I’ll probably have to save another post for, so for now I’ll just say that my sister & I did a combined party for J & her cousin Lena because they are less than two weeks apart.  We sat them down & tried to take pictures of them beforehand to use for a birthday card, but those little stinkers wouldn’t cooperate!  So, this one was honestly the best that we had.  I still think they are pretty cute, though!

 

PHEW- I believe that brings me to the end of June.  Actually, I just realized I still need to post the ABC’s of summer & our hardscrabble camping trip.  This post is entirely too long, though, so look for those to come.  Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday Baby J

Ohhhh…… I can’t believe its been a year! My baby is ONE. My last baby. I have really enjoyed this experience, knowing it was the last time I would get to sit around and love on my baby- trust me, I did! This girl has so much personality- I never dreamed she would be who she is. She is spunky, feisty, girly, social, curious, and so much fun. She spit up in her first year of life more than I ever knew was possible! I think she will go down on record as the pukiest baby ever! She is a bit of a diva and such a girl! She loves to be the center of attention and loves going out in public & being around crowds. She is impatient and lOUD- sometimes she yells at me. I mean, YELLS. She thinks her siblings are the greatest people ever and they all can make her laugh like nobody else. Oh, and she’s in love with her daddy of course. Absolutely gooey-eyed for the guy. I mean- hel-lo0? Mom here! I’m the one doing all the dirty work!


But seriously-We all love her to bits & are so glad she is in our family. To quote Jerry Macquire- She completes us. :) Happy Birthday my baby girl!!!



And in case you feel like reminiscing about old times, here is the link to her birth story- one of my favorite posts ever. Have a great June 29th!

My New Chest! Ha Ha Ha!!!!

I am the proud new owner of a totally amazing, authentic, antique chest.  It belonged to my great-grandma Anna Moser & it contained all of her worldly possessions when she set out across the Atlantic from Switzerland to make her new home in America.  It has been in my parent’s home for as long as I can remember & I always loved it.  But, my mom says she doesn’t have room for it anymore & she wanted one of her kids to keep it, so somehow I ended up with it and I couldn’t be more excited!

Isn’t it cute?  Its always been this awful green color which I totally love, and its bright (I mean BRIGHT) red inside.  It has this fabulous keyhole on the front that looks like once upon a time one of those huge old skeleton keys fit inside.  The lock & latches have long since broken off, so opening & closing the beast can be challenging, and I have already had to warn my kids not to hide inside there because they might never get found.  (Yes, I did this as a child- it didn’t go well for me :)

Anyway, I don’t know as much about my Grandma Moser as I would like to, but the part of her story that I know is pretty incredible.  She came from a poor family in Switzerland, so she was sent to live with a wealthy family as a teenager to be their housekeeper.  The man of the house had his eye on her, though, and at some point she became pregnant and was going to be thrown out by the lady of the house, even though her jerk husband had most likely taken advantage of the poor girl. Anyhow- somehow during this period she found the missionaries and was baptized.  One of the missionaries was from the states & told her that he knew of a man back home who had recently lost his wife & had 8 kids with no mother to care for them, oh, & who by the way, also happened to be Swiss. The missionaries arranged for my grandma Moser to take her now young child & sail to America to meet the man (my great-grandfather, Gotleib Schwartz).  How scary that must have been for her!  She was in her early twenties, traveling alone with her daughter (my grandma’s older sister), going to meet a man with EIGHT kids of his own who wanted to marry her & have her mother all those kids!  Anyway- they did marry & had 2 more children together, one of which was my grandma. My grandmother today still speaks swiss & german & talks on the phone to all of her cousins who still live in Switzerland.  I love that part of my heritage.  Grandma always made us Swiss food & treats at Christmastime & she spoke often of her family back in Switzerland.

I love that I now have this little piece of my family’s history!  I hope it stays with my children & their children for generations to come!

The Big Run

I’ve opted to call the 1/2 marathon this year a “run”, and not a “race”, because “race” I certainly did not.  However, RUN, I sho’ did! I got the privilege of running with 5 of the greatest ladies eva & we had such a great time! We decided we were going to be a slow & just for fun group, as we all had our own issues to deal with.  I have to say, relaxing and enjoying the run at a leisurely pace is WAY more fun than running fast!  (a little disappointing when you cross the finish line, but otherwise, a total joy!)

 

Our group: Amberlee, Tricia, Liz, me, my sister Janna & my s.i.l. Michelle

I loved these two pictures so much I bought them off zazoosh for my friends.  Tricia & Amberlee are hilarious in the first one, & the second one is for Liz because she just rocked her first 1/2 marathon & I was so proud of her!

Oh, and this one, too.  Isn’t it funny!  We kept waving to all the photographers & laughing :)

Here’s me & Liz about 4 blocks from the finish line.  I am crying because I just passed my mom & dad & my little brothers.  I always cry when I see them, even though I know they are going to be there & they are always in the same spot.  Its silly I know, but I can’t help it!

These are all of my family members that ran.  Why didn’t I run with all of them, you ask?  Because they are faster than the wind, that’s why.  Well, except for Janna :) And Michelle only ran with us out of pity (and because she was secretly pregnant & didn’t want to jeopardize her little dumpling!!!!) 

Marty, me, Andy, Janna, Michelle, Heather (my mexican brotha Jace in the background!) and Lisa in the front.

 

Final words: Ogden puts on the absolute BEST 1/2 marathon!  It was such a blast & my favorite running experience to date.  Apparently I am signed up for the St. George marathon this fall & I am terrified!  I’m not sure if a full marathon is included in my skill-set, but I am going to TRY. Wish me luck.  Until next year’s 1/2.

Memorial Day Trip- a slot canyon travelog

As I mentioned in my last post, we went on a great camping trip last weekend. We did loads of fun things including bike rides, early morning trail runs, campfire smores, exploring around Kodachrome State Park, hikes, and late afternoon trips to the ice cream parlor in town :)

But probably the most noteworthy were the slot canyons.  We visited four really awesome ones. And, since that’s also the only time we had our camera, this post will be a re-cap of our slot-canyoneering adventures! So, here we go!

1st slot canyon- Bull Valley

First you hike along the edge of a cliff for about 1/2 mile. Yikes!

Then you take your turn “dropping in” via the human waterslide.

Next, enjoy wandering through the meandering canyon, complete with obstacles, scenery, and lots and lots of mud.

You know you’re almost to the end when you look up and see a CAR wedged between the rocks.  crazy!

Apparently its been there since the 1950’s, and its made such a nice plug there in the slot that they decided to go ahead & build a ROAD over the top of it.  Wow, that was cool!

From here we hiked a little ways further, then billy-goated up a huge boulder field to get out of the slot.  (btw- this is NOT a good idea with more than 8 people in your party.  Since we had around 50, lets just say there were some scary moments with some rocks flying down the face and nearly hitting other people in their face)

 

Slot #2- Peek-a-b00

Peek-a-boo was the opposite of Bull Valley in that in order to get in, you needed to scramble UP a wall, instead of down.  When we arrived we found an older man who was traveling alone & had fallen & injured himself trying to get in.  Luckily there was a doctor in our group who was able to set his shoulder (he had dislocated it, which I am told is incredibly painful!)

Baby J getting a lift into the canyon.  So spoiled!

 

Once inside, you could choose to crawl UNDER…….

or OVER…..

Or just make your way through!

We made it!

Slot Canyon #3- Spooky

No technical entry on this one.  You just walked right in. 

It didn’t take long to find out why they call it spooky, though.  It is by far the narrowest slot I have ever been in. 

We had to take J off of Seth’s back & hold her out in front because they couldn’t fit through together!

I screwed up this next photo by turning my camera on an angle, so you cant tell that the kids really were holding themselves UP on this rock!

Here come the Whitemyers! Nellie was the best child canyoneer I have ever seen.  She couldn’t get enough!

On the way out the kids found a lizard.  They wanted to keep him, but us adult hippies told them “take only pictures, leave only footprints” :)

Ahhh, that was fun!  Well, I just realized that we forgot to take our camera into slot canyon #4, so I’ll explain.  We drove down past Escalante to go to calf creek falls, but when we got out of the car the wind nearly blew us over, so we all hopped back in the car & kept driving.  We ended up driving over the spine (the dreadfully scary section of road just before Boulder) and then a little ways down the burr trail (apparently this will take you straight to Lake Powell), where we stopped to admire a tiny, easy as pie slot canyon that we discovered last year.  It was just what we needed after all those hard hikes! The only picture I have is of Seth & Rich snuggling on the bluff after we stopped the car to clean up throw-up.  awesome.

OH we had so much fun!!  It was a great trip!  To end with, I’ll leave you with a group photo (our group was HUGE!) from a camp potluck dinner that we hosted for all the non-campers.  Thanks, ya’ll!  It was real!