Weaver tending and Lou #43

Juge and Lance took a trip to Europe and had a schedule of tenders lined up for their kiddos.  We were part of that schedule one week end.  Having water wars erupt in the middle of it complicated things a bit, but we all had a good time while Paul slaved over them.  (Sad for him.)  Eden had a track meet in Cedar on Saturday morning, so I took her and Noah up for that and it was fun to see little Eden out there working hard.  We met up with Tavin and Kennis too and that was fun.  Pretty proud of all these kids doing hard things.  

We had fun watching the two Apple Dumpling Gang videos in the evenings...they are such funny old movies.  We also visited the Town Square and played in the water...more fun. 

It wasn't fun when we took them home and remembered at about New Harmony that we left our car keys at home and had to turn around and go get them...dumb!  

After we dropped the kids back home for Brynnli to tend, we stopped over at the Randall's and celebrated with Lou for her #43!  Bryan made really yummy pumpkin cookie treats which we were glad to share with them!  

Fun with grand kids!

Brenden was excited to show us his 1st Place flag football trophy and we were excited to get to attend his last soccer game of the year!  Way to go Brenden!

I'm not sure they would call it a good time, but we took the grandsmiths on a freezing hike to a pretty place while they were spending a little time with us while their parents were out of town.

We had fun around the house with Spot It, Risk and checking out the Desert Garden.  Bean has a great time entertaining the kids and they have a great time being entertained by him!

Happy Weaverween!

Juge and Lance had a wedding to attend in Hawaii, so between Lou and Bryan and us we tended the kids.  We just had them on the weekend of Halloween.  Juge had everything very well organized, so it went pretty smoothly.  We were pretty worried that Zion would hate us, but he had a good time other than not wanting to be a dog for Halloween.  Paul and the other kids went trick-or-treating and Zion stayed home with me to hand out candy and he was content to eat Skittles and look at the people who came.  Thank goodness the time changed and we had an extra hour to get ready for church the next morning!

Good times missed

I'm not whining.  All of my kids/grand kids live in-state.  But I am glad for pictures of the good times we sometimes miss sharing with them.  Juge sent me some that I was happy to see.  Noah's #4 birthday, Eden's #6 birthday and some cute bear hugs and swinging times with the siblings.  Thanks for sharing these missed good times with us.

  

I think the kids liked their presents.  Always glad to see that.  

Fun times with the left behinds...

Kennis, Gaige and Koen were left behind and came to stay with us.  They were left behind with good reason since their older siblings and parents (and a friend) went on a backpacking hike that was a little too hefty for them to come along.  To make the best of it, we did lots of stuff fun stuff including a trip to Fiesta Fun, visited a toy store and tried out lots of cool toys, rode the carousel twice, bought treats at Judd's, rested up and ate lunch and then headed to Pine Valley for a picnic and a hike.  After the hike we stopped in at the new ice cream parlor at the Brandin' Iron for treats.  Koen kept reminding us that we were "hiking for ice cream."  After a good foot washing and watching a bedtime story - Goodnight Gorilla - we hit the sack.  In the morning we went to Get Outdoors Expo at Tuacahn where the kids explored a cave, solved a dinosaur mystery, and went to loads of other activities about the outdoors and came home with a bag full of stuff.  Hopefully they didn't feel too bad about being left behind!

A very busy and fun time

Eden and Noah came to visit us for a couple of weeks while their new baby sister was getting to know mom and dad and quite a few doctors and nurses.  We have had a lot of fun getting better acquainted.  They also got to get better acquainted with all the cousins/aunts/uncles in the area in the afternoons when Grandma had to go to work.  Thanks to all the for their hospitality during those afternoons.  We didn't get pictures of all the visiting, but here are a few shots of saying hello to Sarai  and some of the fun we had around the house.  Thanks for coming to visit, Eden and Noah. 

Brady & Ellie keeping busy while Afton gets settled in

Brady and Ellie kept busy while Mom and Dad were getting Afton settled in.  Some of the busyness included visiting the duck pond, hiking on the Red Hill - we spied a fox while we were up there, playing Sorry with Grandpa, driving by a volcano, playing in the sand dunes and hiking to Jenny's Canyon at Snow Canyon.  We also visited Grandma Kurtz to meet her new puppy, Bandit. Visiting the Smith and Borrowman cousins was lots of fun for them too. 

Borrowkids beat the heat too

Another hot day - another chance to beat the heat - this time with the Borrowkids. I borrowed them while Ferf and Ryan went to the hospital for Ferf to have a test to determine if she has an ulcer - she does not. We hung out in the water and then checked out Never Ending Story and rested up until the folks got back. Then Moss, Christie and Brenden dropped by and we all visited and those who were hungry had dinner. It was fun and we are glad to find out Ferf does not have an ulcer - probably some gallbladder issue instead - they'll be looking into it.

Cooling off at the Town Square

The Smitherenes came over for a little bit this afternoon and we headed down to the best cooling off spot in town - The Town Square. It was so nice. Zade had to warm up a little to the idea of cooling off...he never did warm up to the splash pad, but he did have fun dipping and splashing with the little bootie cup that we found. Kaebri shot it up into the air on a water spout before Zade got hold of it and I saw Tasia take one little sip out of it before she decided it was really a hair wetting device. We stopped by the library first and picked out Lady and the Tramp II to watch back at the house while grandma made a healthy dinner of corn dogs, mac 'n' cheese and such. We all had fun and beat the heat for a little while!

Brenden takes a walk with Grandpa and Grandma

The other evening Moss and Christie needed to make it to the temple for their monthly goal. We got to spend the evening with Brenden while they were gone. He wasn't sure about this spending time with the old folks without Mom and Dad right there too, but he didn't cry...just wasn't his usual smiley self. It has been such nice weather of late that we decided a walk was in order. We headed off to the duck pond and then down to the Town Square. Brenden thought the best part was running around in the lazy river. The water was off, but there were still enough puddles to keep him happy. One time he got a little thirsty and thought slurping water out of a puddle in one of the rocks was a good way to quench his thirst...Grandma put the kibosh on that pretty quick. Lots of people thought he was "so cute" and one lady let him pet her "puppy". On the way down we stopped off to ride the horse statues and on the way home we visited the fire truck and rang the gong. Brenden was a good sport, but he was pretty glad to find Mom and Dad back at the house at the end of our walk!

It's complicated, but it can be done

Ferf decided to surprise Ryan with a little get away trip. With lots of planning, she was able to make it happen. She and Ryan dropped their kids off at Weed's Thursday morning, came to our house, traded us cars (so I would be able to pick their kids up from Weed's after work) and then headed off for their get away trip. Meanwhile the rest of us had a good time with the kids. Weed and kids kept them entertained until I picked them up. It was kind of a cold, rainy type day, so we played out a little, but then headed indoors and Kennis said how much they had been missing the Little Rascals. We decided to watch Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken and have a dinner intermission and then finish and see if we had any time for Little Rascals. After all of that it was time to be getting to bed. After teeth, prayers and piddling were taken care of we had stories with Genghis walking around the bed on us while we read and otherwise showing off. Grandpa put Koen to sleep. We have three available bedrooms now, so everyone was comfy. Everyone slept through the night, except Grandma worrying about if everyone would sleep through the night. Next morning Grandpa got the fire going and Grandma got the breakfast ready. After getting dressed and brushing teeth, the kids headed outside with Grandpa while Grandma got Koen taken care of. Pretty soon it was too cold so the Little Rascals kept us entertained. We had an intermission snack and pretty soon Ferf and Ryan returned. Thanks are due to the Stucki's who lent their cabin for the get away couple. I think everyone involved had a good time.

Blog changes and a pretty calm week end

In case you haven't noticed, I am changing lots of things on my blog. I saw Moss and Christie's new blog book (it's so sweet) and since it doesn't print any of the little side or big bottom gadget pics, I am changing the way I do them. I want everything in my book, when I actually print one someday! The movies won't be in it either, but I just couldn't do without a few movies here and there. As for our weekend, mostly we were lazy...we watched Ferf's kids a couple of times so they could attend Kensi's temple session Friday evening and also the sealing on Saturday morning. The kids ate dinner with us on Friday evening and we watched a boring movie, but ate lots of popcorn and drank loads of lemonade to make up for it. Saturday morning they came for breakfast and then we got them ironed, dressed and combed up really sharp to head down to the temple for pictures and to the wedding brunch. They wanted to sing the little ditty, "Here Comes the Bride" to Kensi and Josh as they exited the temple, but we did a little rewrite of the kids regular "big, fat and wide" version to read: Here comes the bride, her wedding knot is tied, here's her handsome groom, he makes her heart go boom! They decided that would be better. I don't know if they ever sang it or not. I'm spending the afternoon making bread, going to lunch with pop and updating this blog and Pop mowed the lawn, got a haircut and is doing a little job at the college while there are no kids on campus. We also checked out the newly remodeled and added on to Deseret Book, Mormon Handicrafts and distribution center.

My own Mr. Bony & Happy Halloween!

After several years of helping the kids in the class make these in one of our centers, I finally just had to make one of my own. Very good project for dexterity. I found I could use some work on mine! Happy Halloween!

PS Here are some other fun Halloween pictures - a class picture and one of Brenden in the big cauldron!

The fine day with Grandpa & Grandma

 

One fine day with Grandpa & Grandma

We had a fun day with Brenden. He loved his bath, slept through a ride in the stroller, swung outside, ate yummy food while pulling funny faces and making funny noises, snoozed some, played with toys (some that his dad used to play with), and was just a good boy the whole time. Our only troubles were Grandpa trying to put a mitten on for a sock - "what's that funny thing sticking out from Brenden's heel?", a blast from the past that ended up on the shirt, a fountain of youth that ended up on the rug, and a small battle with the Fisher Price record player...the record player is harder than Brenden's head. We had one fine day together! Still, he was pretty happy to see mom and dad come back.

A Day At Grandma's

 

A day with the grand kids

Paul had a scout camp out and Weed and Derek were moving, so the usual week end past time of hiking was not an option. Instead I had a grand kid day with the little Smiths. We had a lot of fun doing assorted things. We started our morning out with a little hike up the Red Hill and over and down to the pond to feed the quackers some breakfast...they were very hungry. The would take whole pieces of bread right out of your hand if you didn't watch them. In route we stopped at the little amphitheater where the girls performed a short number from Lion King and Tasia performed the ABC song for Grandma and Zade. After hiking back (knock knock jokes were performed at the amphitheater on the return trip) to the house we made owl cards and pasted bird feathers that we had collected at the pond on them to make them more realistic. Genghis thought they were pretty realistic and kept sniffing the feathers up. After that we got out some old jewelry that Grandma Poulsen gave me and dolled ourselves up...then we looked liked so much like princesses that we made a tent castle, with neighboring jewelry store, cafe, dog kennel and nursery and sold goods and ate pretend food. Pretty soon it was time to head outdoors again to our tree house palace with Genghis guarding the entrance along with Zadegator in the mote below (he was swinging). We got hungry soon and needed peanut butter and royal jelly sandwiches in the tree house palace. Zade fell asleep at his post while eating and went in for some Zzzz. The rest of us had a story break and then we got the mail and enjoyed looking through all the catalogs and eating princess sized apples. As we perused the catalogs we turned down page corners on all the pages that had something we needed or that someone we know needed. Almost every page had something. With that job finished we then visited Grandma's beauty parlor for pedicures and manicures. We looked so good afterwards that jubilation was in order and Zade couldn't sleep through it and woke up. We decided it was time to head for the Town Square water park to cool off in the Lazy River. Almost no one was there and we got wet all over and had a great time. Then mom called and we headed home to meet up with her. A snack of Marshmallow Mateys was consumed in the tree house palace while waiting for her to get back. It was a fun busy day. The only thing on our list that we didn't get done was to visit the pet store. We'll just have to get to that another day. (Paul had the camera on the camp out, so I just had to use the cell phone camera...sorry for the poor quality.)

Family Camp Exploration & Mother's Day Get-together

We had another great week end. I got to tend Brenden Friday evening while Moss & Christie went to a show at Tuacahn. We did great. I'm pretty sure he likes swinging better than he likes me, but hey, we just want him to be a happy boy! He went to sleep swinging, I weeded the front flowerbed and Genghis was happy to have someone out there for company and attack practice. Then Jay and Brynn arrived and we had some good visiting until time to hit the sack. Paul was off on the Father's and Sons being the breakfast cook. Next morning when Paul got home Jay had an idea for a place to explore as a possible site for the upcoming family camp. Brynn was a good sport and sacrificed a day in the Dixie sun for a day in Paul's big truck as we headed up to Marysville and then up a canyon to check it out. It ended up being a pretty long drive and there was still quite a bit of snow so we couldn't get clear up the mountain. We did take a few minutes to explore an old mining site and had a good time visiting and made it back in time for our family get-together/dinner for Mother's Day/visit with Jay and Brynn. It was a bring your own meat party and Paul made yummy Dutch oven potatoes and Weed brought yummy salad. That along with rolls and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream left us all feeling fine and fattened. We ate out on the lawn and the kids had a great time playing with the cousins. (Zade enjoyed the dirt more than the cousins.) The Borrowman kids shared their poems with us too. Jay and Brynn were able to stay and go to church with us today and we had another great dinner before we sent them on their way back to SLC. When I look at all our great kids, in-laws and grandkids, I'm just amazed at how blessed I am to be a part of such a wonderful group of people. Thanks to all of you for being such a blessing and inspiration.

Our Exceptional Grand Kids!

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