Summer 2011

I don't want summer to end. I'm in denial that our pumpkins are turning orange, that the last weekend of summer is this weekend, and that school starts tomorrow.

We've had a great summer, its just gone by way too fast! In May we made a list of 50 things to do this summer. And we have 14 that haven't been crossed off yet.

 Summer of Fun 2011
1. Picnic
2. Go to beach
3. Go swimming
4. Camping
5. Float Lava River
6. Minature Golf
7. Sno Cones
8. Watch fireworks
9. Watch a parade
10. Movie Night
11. Plant a garden
12. Grandma Camp
13. S'mores
14. Make Ice Cream
15. Summer Reading Program
16. Go to Lagoon
17. Go to Dinosaur Park
18. Splash Pad
19. Blow Bubbles
20. Ride Front Runner
21. Water Fight
22. Pudding Paint
23. Sidewalk Chalk Art
24. Stargazing
25. Play Frisbee
26. Pizza Party
27. Rootbeer Floats
28. Airplane Museum
29. Fishing
30. Watermelon Bust
31. Launch Rocket
32. Rainy Day Fort
33. Science Camp
34. See Cars 2
35. Go to the zoo
36. Go bowling
37. Baseball game
38. Cruise-In
39. Summerfest
40. Cache Valley Food Tour
41. Hike Wind Caves
42. Roadtrip
43. Movie at the pool
44. Fly helicopter
45. Raspberry Shakes
46. Rodeo
47. Fair
48. Ride in a boat
49. Wash car
50. Eat lunch at First Dam

But in all fairness when we made the list we didn't know we'd be going to Indiana, or to Lake Tahoe, or buying a house--so our summer has been even better that we were hoping. We may not have floated the river in Lava or taken in a baseball game, or even gone camping, but we did catch fireflies in Indiana, visited Lake Michigan with Deidra, Bear Lake with Karisa, and Lake Tahoe with Tameka, we saw Nauvoo, Adam On-Di-Amon, Winter's Quarters, and Carthage Jail, logged well over 7,000 miles and visited 11 states, road RZR's in Island Park, and climbed on red rocks in Arches, we bought a house! and painted and painted and painted, spent nights laying on the trampoline looking at the stars, ended up with 2 gardens, and get to mow our own lawn. Yep, it has been a really, really good summer and we are sad it is coming to an end.

Summer 2012 has a lot to live up to!

Kindergarten Bound

Tomorrow Bentley starts kindergarten. It's the lastest school start date I've heard of and we've needed every single day to get settled before a routine kicks us in the face. I've worried about what school we would send him to for a really long time. We tried the Edith Bowen lottery, considered Thomas Edison, talk to other moms about switching to schools both in and out of the district and hemmed and hawed about what to do. And now I think we've found where we are supposed to be. And he has decided this kindergarten stuff will be okay and is super excited. Which he hasn't always been.

When we went a couple weeks ago to register him, he refused to leave the car and go into the school.

Last week at the back to school night, he had both arms wrapped around my leg as I drug him into his classroom.

The next day, when we went for his assessment and to meet the teacher, I had to remove his little fingers from my hand so he could seperate with his teacher.

And yesterday he told me that he knows how to get to his school and doesn't need me to walk with him. He can do it by himself.

Where did this kid come from?

He's consented to let me walk him on the first day and then he'll let me know if I can walk him after that. He is so excited and wears his backpack around the house.

What changed?

His teacher let him pick out his "person" or bathroom pass, and he picked the blue one. Apparently a bathroom pass can make all the difference in the world.

(Oh, and she repeatedly told him how smart he was during his assessment--which didn't hurt either.)

Work In Progress

I feel like August has escaped me--things have been kind of crazy. August 6th we returned home from Lake Tahoe. August 7th Chod burned his hand. And August 8th we closed on our house. I had a few hours from closing until family arrived to help us with projects in the house. Which means we had a few hours to pick out paint colors and remove the cabinet doors because my dad was bringing his spray gun. My mom, dad and Karisa all came that night and helped us get a huge jump start on the projects on our list. Chod's parents came the next week to help with electrical projects and to move us in. It feels like a whirlwind of a month and we are still living in a state of chaos with unfinished rooms and there are still alot of boxes to be unpacked. Which means I don't have one single "after" picture. It's not pretty, but here's a photo dump of what we've been up to:

A naked kitchen. I've always wanted a white kitchen and Chod said I could paint these. Good-bye oak.

Tameka removed all the vinyl on the walls.

Karisa filled in the grooves of the paneling in the basement. The goal is to bring this room from the 1970's to the 2011's.

We also took down layers of wallpaper and the sheetrock paper with it--arrgh. And removed bout a bajillion nails.

Gave the boys room a freshening up.

Hello white doors.

Prepping the boys room for board and batten.

While this was going on the boys hung out in the office with some toys and the iPad to keep them busy. They were bossed around and told not to touch this wall or that wall and did remarkably well considering.

We decided the spacing for board and batten upstairs.

Chod removed these beautiful spindles.

The boys' room almost finished.

Texturing over the paneling.

The crew installing board and batten above the stairs.

Chod and the nail gun.

Thankfully we only have a few more projects left before upstairs is finished--painting closet doors, nailing down the board on the stairs and painting over the demoed ceiling. And we're making progress downstairs. The family room is primed and ready for paint and the pink room needs to be un-pinked as soon as the family room is finished and we can move the toys out of there.

The plan is to start working on outside projects this week. The goal is to get grass planted this fall, so inside might have to wait until the snow falls before it gets finished.

Can She Fly?

We're loving having a yard and our neighborhood and are going to soak it up as much has we can for the next few weeks and pretend that summer isn't ending (and that Bentley isn't starting school this week!). There are still a handful of items on our list of 50 summer activities we're working to get crossed off.

Friday night we drew a line through the "fly helpicopter" one. The boys gave Chod this helicopter for Christmas, but it's needed some calibrating and has never really flown.

We took our ice cream cones outside to see if she could really fly.
 

It took some tweaking.

And a little more tweaking.

And she got off the ground.

But needed some more tweaking, the instruction made an appearance too.

And ta-da. Not the best picture but the best I got before it landed hard and was sent to the repair shop.

So we headed to the park that's just around the corner. Linky loves the rock wall along the cemetery.

They played on the playground.

And threw rocks in the creek. This is really one of the best parks around and we're lucky to have it so close.

Dead Man

Our backyard borders the cemetery. Which has it's pros and cons. They haven't started burying in the big section behind us yet, so there's a good buffer zone before the headstones start. So it seems more like a field back there. Plus, no neighbors (or a lot of neighbors-depending on how you see it) to the back--it is very quiet. So far we like it.

Except when I was playing dead man on the trampoline with the boys the other night. For some reason chanting, "Dead man, dead man, come alive." has a totally different feel to it at dusk in our yard than it did when I was growing up.

Extortion!

As we've been working on the house, the boys have kind of taken the chaos to mean it is a work zone and not a house. Now that we are settling in they have to be retrained that we don't draw on walls, throw garbage on the floor, smear boogers on the walls, or eat wherever they'd like. We no longer have the luxury of having floors covered with drop clothes. At the end of my roped the other day I yelled "Things have got to change in this house!"

And with that opening Chod quickly threw out the new rule that the toilet seat would remain up in this house. (It was so fast I think he's just been waiting for the chance to propose it.) Being outnumbered 3 to 1 I had to stand my ground. So I approved it with the addendum that whichever way the toilet seat goes will also dictate who cleans the bathrooms. If the seat is up, the boys of the house are responsible for the bathrooms and if it is down the girl is responsible. Chod claims that is extortion!

Want to guess which way the seat goes?

Our Smell

It's our last sleep in the apartment, cause ready or not our beds will be at the new house tomorrow! Which is exciting and weird all at the same time. It's strange because we've lived in this apartment longer than we've lived anywhere else--over half of our married life. And even though it doesn't seem like we are going far, we are hopping 3 towns over. And since Smithfield has their own grocery store, chances are we'll make the trek to "town" once a week or so. No more walking to Old Navy or Sam's Club for me. And we have to start over, meet neighbors, make friends, and find our place in a new ward--which are hard no matter how old you get. Thankfully, we will still be close to friends and family.

Tonight as the boys were getting ready for bed Bentley asked if I was going to miss all the "great things" about this place. I asked him what great things he was going to miss?

"Just the smell."

He loves the smell of our house and has been so worried about leaving it. As we've looked at houses Bentley always--always says it smells weird, gross, or freaky and that we can't buy it because he doesn't like the smell of it. That's right, every house we've looked at stinks to Bentley. Luckily, he got his sensitive smeller from me so I know exactly what he is talking about--while Chod is left wondering what in the world we are smelling.

Fortunately tonight I got to tell him that we get to take the smell of this house with us! And as soon as we cook a few meals, wash a few loads of laundry, and the smell of paint fades it will smell like our home. So while we all adjust to the new place at least we'll be able to walk through the door to a familiar smell.

Swamp Monsters

We've spent all week working on the house. As of last night the upstairs only has a few projects left to complete before it is done. While we've been inside working, the boys have been outside playing. The backyard sure makes them tired! Thursday night Bentley fell asleep at 6 and didn't wake up until 7 the next morning!


Our backyard isn't finished. Actually, it isn't even started. We have a lot of work to do back there and are hoping to get grass planted this fall. Until then there is plenty of dirt for the boys to play in.

They really like jumping on the trampoline with a sprinkler underneath. But may like the resulting mud hole even more.

Until it is time to clean off....

The Grill Master

Sunday we hurried home from church. Our plan was to quickly eat and then head to Ogden to see the new cousin. After the corn was husked I sent Chod out to light the grill and raced to get the rest of dinner ready. Then I looked outside to see the grill engulfed in flames. My first reaction was to grab the fire extinguisher (I'm still impressed at my lightning speed and that I knew just where it was). By the time I made it to the other side of the kitchen, through the door and to the patio the flames were calming down.

Chod was hurrying around and it took a minute before I asked if he had been burned. He answered yes and I ordered him to start running cold water on it and I watered down my flowers that were on fire.

After about an hour of me asking if he needed to go to the hospital and diagnosing his burns as most likely 2nd degree (I'm basically an expert: pain and blisters=2nd), he had had enough of the pain and off to Instacare we went.  He said he now knows how people could amputate their own limbs, as he was ready to get rid of his hand that night.

Want to know what happened? He had lit the grill but it wasn't getting hot. So he shut it off and undid the hose. Apparently, some propane came out and met with something hot and boom-fire.

There was some nice hair singeing-hair, arms, eyebrows, and eyelashes. The nurse says it was probably a good thing he was wearing his glasses.

They sent him home with a mummified hand, some painkillers and silvadene and told him to watch it closely for 48 to make sure it wasn't 3rd degree. Oh and orders to stretch that thumb so he doesn't end up needing surgery.

 I suspect that this "accident" could be a way to get out of packing and painting.

He had to sign the papers for the house with his left hand.

But 3 days later he is doing much better and only the thumb remains bandaged.

Call in the Closer

We've looked, offered, and been under contract on a number of houses this year, so many that even our families became skeptical when we said we were buying a house. Rightfully so, as we've been under contract on 4 in the last 8 months! We were quickly turning into the boy who cried wolf--so we haven't said much about this one, you know, in case it became one of our "almosts". It isn't our dream home, but it covers the must haves. And it just feels right.

We knew there was work to be done, and thanks to family that rolled into town just after closing, we are already transforming it into our home. We can't wait to see what it becomes and are excited to have a yard both for the work and play aspects.

The boys have worn themselves ragged the last 2 days in the backyard. We finally opened the Tonka tucks they got for Christmas, and a trampoline appeared back there too!

Family Vacation

Because it was a work trip, it was also somewhat of a family vacation--Whit and Brian, Ty and Tameka and us!

We took a paddle boat tour of the lake.

It was a booze cruise and here Whitney and I are enjoying the shade of the bar and Lincoln is sleeping. It was a snooze cruise for him.

We saw the castle in Emerald Bay.

The island of Emerald Bay with the Tea House on top. No castle is complete without a tea house.

Link like the paddle wheel.

Chod thinks this is the best family picture we've taken all year.

#6 on our list of Summer Fun was to go miniature golfing, so when we saw this course while wandering after dinner we took advantage.

Chod tried to teach them proper form.

And Lincoln was okay with the first stroke, and after that would pick up the ball and put it into the hole.

We had to wait on every hole for the family in front of us, so we tried get Bentley to play around them, but he refused to skip a hole.

That's Boodles two-thumbs-up face.