September Activities

-Larry's Grandma turned 88 this month and his mom came down for her party on the 7th to celebrate, so we decided to go and catch up with them. It's crazy because even though we've been together over 20 years, I met even more of Larry's family I didn't know about before, I didn't realize that could be possible. His Grandma seemed to be in good spirits (she's gotten some bumps since moving to the assisted living facility and I'd heard she'd been in a lot of pain, but when she saw us come in she lit up!) and she loved her gifts (she got a lot of sweets, so I don't blame her). The facility she's at is really nice, they have a hair dresser and a theater and do movie nights. The dining area is really nice too. We also got to see her room, which looks JUST like her home! I'm glad we got to see her, I'm not sure how many more opportunities we'll have to see her after this. 

-We have officially transferred the girls from gymnastics to dance, which started this month, because apparently we need to be even more busy haha. I actually feel I was ready for them to move on. Gymnastics was fun, but they'd done it for so long it was nice to change things up. It's been fun to see them learn new ways to move and they seem love it so far. Luckily, with soccer, the new weekly schedule is just a bit easier now! However, it means this month has been FILLED with dance and soccer (we have dance on Mondays and Wednesdays, Soccer practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then soccer games Saturday mornings). Fitting anything else in is a very tight squeeze!

The S fell down this night haha

-On the 12th The Museum of Natural Curiosity had a STEM night and so we decided to hit that up (it was supposed to be just for members, but after going, I'm not sure how they planned to separate members from non-members because everyone was just everywhere). This included a fun science demonstration and we got to explore all that museum that night, which is always a fun one!

They don't look happy, but we DID 
Actually have fun!

-Our neighborhood pool officially closed on the 15th, so we made sure to go out ONE last time for the season on the 14th. I thought for sure it would be packed, but there was just one other girl swimming the time we were there, so we got to have a lot of fun. The other girl looked a little bored on her own so we had her play marco polo with us (though she didn't really play and ended up just wanting to squirt us with our own water guns). It was nice, and once we finished that I officially switched over to my Fall clothes! I'm ready for the new season, bring on the football, leaves, pumpkins, and new scents!

-I decided this is the year to get the kids some Trick or Treat bags (like pillow cases) instead of their old small buckets. I found some really cute ones on Etsy that were very reasonably priced so I had the kids pick out the ones they liked and got them ordered. I wanted to make sure to get them in early so we'd have them in time. Turns out the store was located in Utah so they got to us pretty quickly. They are super cute and super soft, so we're all really excited to have them now!

-We had a Packers V Cowboys showdown this month, on the 28th. It's so fun to have a Mom's team VS Dad's team game to look forward to. This time we decided to bet on it. I thought (and was convinced) the Packers would stomp them, but joked a bet would jinx the game. Larry ended up talking me into it so it was really intense to watch...it end in a tie! I can't believe that game, but now we have to decide if we both won or lost the bet, haha.

-Halloween stores are now open and I was so excited to check them out! We went to the new one at Traverse on 6th, but it was TERRIBLE. It felt like Spirit after Halloween when they just need to get rid of everything. Luckily, the mall had a fun scavenger hunt for the kids that they had fun with. I ended up checking out Spirit on the 20th (since Lucy was on a date with Dad so we didn't have to worry about her being freaked out). Unfortunately, we couldn't find a costume Lucy would like and Pierce said no to every idea and said he'd rather just wear a Halloween shirt. I need to hit up Zurcher's to see if we can find something. It not, we'll check out online stuff.

Pierce refuses to be in pictures anymore

-I made a decision this month to switch my laundry day to Friday's now (instead of Sunday). This is nice because it forces me to move more on Fridays (I go through mini workout withdrawals that day, haha) and now Sunday nights are for relaxing! It's kind of nice not worrying about laundry on Sundays, I can just focus on grocery shopping, football, and whatever cleaning I can fit in between those things, haha.

-Kiddo pics from the month:

Cara NEVER sleeps in the car, but she was
Happy to have a "cushion" for this late night

Gwen cracks me up!

Memory Maker Day at Red Butte Gardens

The kids had today off for a Teacher Work Day at school and so I took a half day off and had to think of something fun to do with them. My Connect Pass had Red Butte Gardens to check out still and I hadn't ever been there so I thought it would be fun (plus a good time, weather-wise) to go check that out. Because I wasn't sure if the gardens would be exciting enough for the kids, I also planned to hit up Sugar House Park playground afterwards.

Unfortunately, as we were driving up I realized I forgot to grab snacks for the kids (and I knew they wouldn't last long without those) so I figured we'd hurry and hit up a gas station for snacks on the way to the playground. 

I only had passes to get me and the girls into the gardens so I expected to pay for Pierce, but luckily, they were nice enough to *wink* say he's 2 and could get in for free. The gardens ended up being SO beautiful. The weather was really nice, too, so it ended up being a good time to visit. We hit up the Children's Garden first and the kids LOVED the fountains they could play in. They also had fun running around the grassy areas and checking out the amphitheater area. I looked forward to seeing the waterfall, but the only one I found was actually pretty small (NOTHING like Ashton Gardens). The flowers smelled so amazing though. 

I really wanted to see so much more of the gardens, but the kids were kind of winding down before we could see everything. Pierce also took a small nap on our drive up so he was kind of cranky and needed piggy backs throughout the whole thing, so I was worn down too (we've had a lot of late nights and early mornings and I've been dragging quite a bit). 

The whole thing ended up being more fun for them than I expected, so we took our time in the areas they liked and I decided we'd just hit up the gas station for slurpees and snacks to have on our way home. 

I told Pierce "hey, come take a pic with your sister" and 
This is what he did, haha!

Even though it's quite the drive to it, I'd definitely love to go back another day to check out the trails they have there. Seems like it would be fun!

A Real Date Night

Let me start this post by saying Larry and I don't do typical date nights. We have never felt the need for an out of the house, away from the kids kind of date night, we both have never understood the people who talk about how you need do one once a week or month (or any regular schedule sort of thing). I've always felt so guilty asking someone else to take care of my kids and the couple of times we've done small things away from the kids, I just haven't felt like I could relax enough during our time away. That's not to say we don't like to spend time together, we spend all day long together (working in the same office all day) and then we spend each night watching a show together. We have many discussions throughout our days and we have a regular Saturday night movie night each week (if we feel we need more, we've added one Wednesday a month where we trade off who gets to pick what we do. Mostly doing a game night or Lego night or puzzles or something else along those lines). That's always been sufficient enough for us.

The mountains were SO pretty tonight!

Well my mom has mentioned she'd be okay to watch our kids for us whenever we'd need. She even took the girls, back when I had my surgery, for the whole weekend, which was very helpful! I know she loves the kids, but going from no kids to 4 kids feels like a lot. Then I thought about if my kids ever have kids I'd jump to watch my grandkids and support my kids needing time away, so I knew Mom meant it when she said she'd be happy to do that. When I saw Three Days Grace was coming to concert, I thought this might be a great chance to try it out, plus the kids are much older and a bit more independent so I know it shouldn't be too hard. The other thing that made me excited for this concert, is the last time we saw Three Days Grace we left it early (mostly because we had just gotten Minnie and I just wanted to go home and cuddle with her) and I've always regretted not seeing the full show.

I was so excited the radio played music we were
Going to see in concert. Then remembered, this
Isn't Satellite radio, it's city Radio, of COURSE
They'd be playing the concert music! Haha

With that, I sent Mom a message asking if she'd be okay watching them that night and she said of course! I got tickets and got excited about going. Later, my mom mentioned she'd love to come early so we could go out to dinner. I thought it might be fun because I keep saying how I miss going out to dinner just Larry and me and ordering only what we'll eat and not HAVING to eat what the kids don't eat. So I took her up on it (plus I wanted to try Tepanyaki again, just us).

The day of the concert, Lucy had a birthday party to go to right before we had to leave, so I took her to that and stayed for a little while (which helped because the family throwing the party is a Spanish speaking family so they'd give directions in Spanish and then English so Lucy would get confused easily). I came home right before Mom got there and we got everything all ready so we could leave once she did arrive. When she did show up, she mentioned there was a lot of traffic on Redwood Road so be prepared for that. Unfortunately, that traffic and a little on Bangerter caused us to not get to the Tepanyaki restaurant until 5:45 and they said it would be a 45 minute wait (the concert was at 7 and the venue was 15 minute away from the area we are in), so I knew that wouldn't work.

Luckily, Larry remembered Applebee's was nearby and we used to go there ALL the time on our date nights before kids. We haven't been in many years and thought it would be fun to relive those days a bit, so we headed there for dinner. We had to rush a little, but we did see a few other people there that were obviously going to the concert as well, so we knew we weren't the only ones out this close to when the show would start. We ate dinner quickly and headed out. On the way Larry mentioned we could maybe go out for ice cream after the show (which I'm a sucker for!) since the kids would be asleep by then so we aren't really missing anything.

The concert was AMAZING! We hit up the bathrooms and the merch "store" before TDG actually got on stage. We even got to see Rachel while we were in line, she stopped by to say hi and pick out a shirt. We were able to get back in our seats as the first song started, it was so cool! They had both singers on stage (since they had a new singer back in 2013 but the old one came back recently) and they'd interact with the crowd between each song (they'd have us chant their band name or tell a story that was related to the next song they were planning on playing). At one point, I told Larry I just really hope they play Time of Dying and then that ended up being the next song, it was so exciting! I loved scream singing along to their songs (there were only about 3 I didn't know ALL the words to, but knew the chorus at least). I told Larry I really hope I lose my voice (which didn't happen, haha).

I absolutely loved their set and watching them perform. I loved head banging and jumping along. I loved screaming along and cheering. It was SO great! We stayed for about 5 Breaking Benjamin songs, but they were a bit more softer and didn't interact between songs (not even a little bit, they literally ended a song and then would immediately start onto the next one). I also didn't know their songs as well (I was hoping they'd start with Diary of Jane, but we never heard that one, and the ones they did play I didn't recognize at first, it wasn't until they got more into it that I realized I did know it). So I decided I was ready to just go get ice cream. We headed to Leatherby's in Taylorsville (which I accidentally called Taylor Swift, haha) thinking it would be bare bones, but it was surprisingly packed! It was nice to talk about the show and just have a great night out. It felt like a real date night with dinner, a show, and ice cream! We also got to tell each other silly kid stories (because I don't care what people say, I'll talk about my kids on a date night!).

We got to stay out so late and just enjoy our time together. Everyone was in bed all cozy and content when we got home so everything seemed fine (mom is staying the night since she didn't want to drive home that late). I'm very happy we got this time away. I don't feel like we need to do this more, but I did enjoy the night out. Surprisingly, we saw a TON of kids at the show, I'm not sure why anyone would take their kids to that sort of show (there was a lot of smoking and you could clearly smell pot in the air), but I guess to each their own! 

Our Socially Packed Week

This week I've had to go against all my natural instincts and had a very social filled calendar! I'm an introvert by nature, I get a little anxious being around others too often. BUT this week I had to tamper that down for the kids.

For one, this was "bring a friend" week at the dance studio, so I had the kids each invite a friend and all turned out to be available. I also offered to pick up the friends, which all parents agreed to (which I really don't mind, honestly), so I had to prepare myself for that. 

Second, I also had found out the previous week that Cara only has 5 girls in her class (including herself) and since she's at a new school she doesn't see any of her old friends. So I decided it would be a good idea to reach out to some of the mom's I had numbers for to see if they'd want to do a play date. I figured I'd ask about a date anytime in the future, but they all were available this week so when she didn't have dance she had a play date. When all that was done, she had soccer so it was a lot of friends for her.

So on Monday, Cara had dance with a friend from her class (Kiki). After her class was over they asked if Kiki could stay at our house to play for a while, her dad was okay with it so I dropped them off to play at home, while I went back for Lucy's dance class. She invited a friend named Annie and they were both so cute together! After those classes, both girls talked about wanting to sign up for dance too, so I hope they are able to, I think the girls would like having their friends with them.

On Tuesday, Cara had a play date with Brooke and Ellie, twin sisters from her old school. They were always so close, it didn't really surprise me when the mom asked if she could stay longer than we planned originally. She stayed for a few hours and then we picked her up after one of the soccer practices we had.

On Wednesday, Cara had a play date with her friend Lucy (who just happened to be the older sister of Lucy's friend, Annie, so Lucy got to go with her and they both got to have a play date that night). Gwen was supposed to have a friend come to dance with her that night, but she couldn't make it so we had Cara go with her after her play date. Cara loved ballet and said she wants to do it next year. 

Cara also had a Munch n Mingle at school for lunch. So I grabbed her some McDonald's she wanted (plus I got to try their returned snack wraps that looked yummy) and met her for that. We ended up sitting with a couple of her friends and their families, but they ended up being really nice and fun to sit with.

Tonight Cara had her soccer practice, which she always has fun with. Overall, I'm glad she had fun catching up with her friends. I'm also glad this week is pretty much over and we can relax, for the most part. It's hard for me to talk with others, especially people I'm not too familiar with, but it's worth it for the kids to have a good time with friends! I won't lie, I look forward to when they are old enough to have phones so they can go off with friends and I'll have a way to reach them and get them home when it's needed.

Harry Potter Symphony with Cara

What a night I had with Cara tonight! She had chosen her "date with Mom" coupon this month and I asked her if she'd like to go out to an arcade or go to the Harry Potter Symphony (she's REALLY getting into Harry Potter these days, which is so exciting). I was really happy when she chose the symphony. She'd been talking about it all week long, so I knew she was excited, too.

She asked me on the way there if they might sell wands and I told her they might. She asked if she could have one, and I told her it depends on how much they cost. She asked if they were $20 and I said that would be okay. Well we got there and the only merchandise they had was a shirt (that was pretty basic and didn't look like something kids would wear), a tie (why would a kid want that?), and scarves. The scarves were only $25 so I told her she could get one of those if she wanted, she got a Gryffindor one, of course!

I also let her get any snacks she wanted, so we both loaded up on those! We found our seats and got ready for the show. Unfortunately, a guy sat in front of Cara and he was a bit taller than her. I had an older, much shorter lady in front of me so I offered to switch seats, but she didn't want to. The movie with the music was so awesome! The crowd REALLY went wild for the whole movie, they literally cheered for EVERYTHING (even when the school was on the screen!). The only boos I heard were for the Dursley's, the 2nd time Malfoy showed up, and the end when Tom Riddle is in the chamber (for some reason they didn't boo the first time they showed up). They were REALLY loud, Cara had to keep covering her ears haha.

We got out around 10 and Cara was saying she might actually sleep in the car since she has her scarf (she says she can't normally sleep in cars because she doesn't like sleeping sitting up, but the scarf was so big it was kind of a small pillow for her). By the time we got home (about an hour later), she was passed out! Larry had to come get her out of the car and carry her up to her bed. This was really fun, I definitely look forward to more of these in the future. Maybe when they do one of the next movies and I can take all the girls (if Lucy is up for it, I know Gwen was bummed to miss it this time). 

First Family Camping Trip

Back in June I started thinking about how much Marie (mother-in-law) is ALWAYS coming down to Utah to visit with us and we hardly ever go up there. This year things are a little complicated with taking time off, but I remembered Larry and I both had Labor Day off so maybe we could go visit her then? I text her about it, but she mentioned they already had plans to go camping that weekend. I told her that was a bummer, but we'd figure something out another time. Then she text me saying we could always just come camping with them. I asked Larry, but he was VERY iffy about it (he wasn't sure Pierce was ready and we didn't really have a tent or anything that would fit all of us). Eventually I remembered my Mom had this big tent we used to use growing up that should fit all of us (and she has a nice camper now so I doubt she needs the tent) so I mentioned it to her around Lucy's birthday and she said we could totally have it. Marie mentioned she even had a bunch of sleeping bags that she didn't use and we could have. Mom even gave us some blow up mattresses as well (I LOVE hand me downs!). The only thing we really needed to get was more camping chairs (we only had 2 and I knew the kids would fight over them), but that's not too bad. With that, Larry was convinced...enough that he couldn't really fight it at least, haha.

Our car all filled up!

So now Labor Day weekend was upon us. We drove up Saturday, right before lunch, we decided to stop at a Cafe Rio on the way up to make it easier, and ended up getting to the site before her (around 3 ish). We were able to get our stuff unpacked and mostly set up as they were getting their RV parked. The bathrooms, unfortunately, were REALLY gross. I guess I've been spoiled with KOAs where they have bathrooms with showers...that was not this (the toilets were basically glorified holes in the ground)! BUT we were in the middle of a forest and it was just so peaceful, since we had an RV bathroom with us I was okay with it. There was even a really awesome overlook nearby that we could walk to and see out over the canyon/Pocatello city in the distance. It was really just so nice. That night, we made burgers for dinner with some yummy sides and then had s'mores for a dessert. I'm so glad Marie brought so much food (we packed what we could, but with only a cooler it really limited what we could bring), we mostly provided buns and some fruit (plus snacks we knew the kids would eat if they wouldn't eat anything else). Larry absolutely loved building the fire and showing the kids what to do. There was even a point where it started to die down and Larry breathed on it a bit and it roared back to life, we joked he could breath fire like a dragon!

The kids loved playing the games Grandma brought

Before this trip, we decided we should grab some glow sticks for the kids to use as night lights. We had a new Wal Mart open up near us so we went to check that out and found these fun handles with glowing fiber optic strings coming out, which I thought would be more fun than just regular glow sticks. Unfortunately, it turns out they have a button you have to hold down to keep on OR you can switch it to always on, but then it just strobes! NOT ideal for trying to sleep, so they were shut off. The kids kind of freaked out with the darkness. The tent was set up with Lucy and Pierce in one room/area together, Larry and I in the middle/entry area next to them, and Gwen and Cara at our feet, in their own room/area. Pierce didn't like being where he was, so Cara offered to go sleep with him (so freaking sweet!) and Lucy wanted to hold my hand while she fell asleep (which might have been my favorite part). Gwen got nervous being alone in her area so she kind of reached out to touch Larry's foot, haha. The kids took so long to get to sleep Larry almost dragged them out around 11 to go see stars, but I'd say around 10:30 they were all quiet enough. Then we ended up having to get up a bunch throughout the night to help Gwen find her lovey and found out the forest has cows that love to moo - a lot! There were a bunch of them all around us starting up around 2 AM (and apparently throughout the night, but I didn't hear them). 

I was worried about not having our white noise (fans) from home to help us sleep (plus I forgot to grab my eye mask, which I usually NEED in order to sleep), but luckily there were LOTS of crickets around us that helped me relax and I ended up getting a decent amount of sleep. Not fantastic (and definitely not the best sleep I've had), but I imagined it to be way worse. Once that first morning started, though, I thought I heard someone awake (outside the tents) so I decided to get up and see who it was, but then it turned out one of the trees was kind of raining down pine cones (which was probably really a squirrel knocking them down, but I didn't see anything...it was a really tall tree). No one else was up so I just sort of soaked up the quiet. I realized later I should've grabbed my book so I made a mental note to do that the next morning. Eventually, everyone got up and we had breakfast (we forgot our cream cheese for a bagels, so we had to have them dry, but Marie also had some really yummy muffins and made hot chocolate and cider for us). After that we got ready and the kids played some outdoor games that Marie brought (she brought so many and I'm so glad, the kids really entertained themselves a lot with those). 

We went out for a nature hike before lunch time. The trail started at a campground across the way, which had another really cool lookout. The hike was pretty easy and I think the kids really liked finding the signs that named some of the wild plants (their favorite was snowberries, which looked like yogurt covered raisins, haha). We spent some time there and at this little creek, which we called the island because you had to cross the creek to get to this other, small forest-y area. The kids really liked playing there. When we got back to the camp site we played a lot of card games (Apples to Apples Jr and Uno). I ended up getting a bit of a headache so I decided to take a small nap. Larry also rested here and there, so we'd kind of switched off. The kids were so good at entertaining themselves I was able to read a lot of my book (which was really nice). Larry had also taken the kids out to show them how to cut off fire wood from some of the fallen trees (which they loved!). We had been collecting wood all throughout the day so that we'd have enough for our fire that night, I think that was one of our smarter plans. Marie even had some fun craft kits she did with the kids, too. It was just so nice and peaceful and perfect for slowing us down and just enjoying the moment.

That night we roasted hot dogs on the fire for dinner and had more s'mores (Marie doesn't like graham crackers so she brought some fudge cookies for us to use). We decided to keep the kids up late to see the stars this time, but they were so very ready for bed (we originally wanted to keep them up till 11, but by 10:30 they were ready to crash so we went to the overlook area at that point). The stars were cool, but the moon was about half sized so we didn't see a ton (but still quite a bit). It was fun to share that experience with them. We decided to sleep with our flash light on at night that night (on, but on the ground, not pointed at anyone, so it wouldn't keep anyone awake) and they ended up falling right to sleep (however, Lucy still wanted to hold my hand. She said it made her feel brave). This night was okay for sleep, again. Not the greatest, but could've been worse.

Tried to capture the sunset here

This morning Larry got up and I decided I needed just a bit more sleep, so I waited until the last of the kids were up. It was kind of nice, honestly. There really wasn't a rush to get out of bed anyways, so it was nice to take our time. We ate a quick breakfast, got ready for the day, got everything packed up, and headed out. Marie wanted to hit up this nature trail that was nearby (I guess they camp here a lot so it's kind of tradition to do this walk each time they stay here). It was a nice 1/2 mile loop with some fun trails off the main path. Some had secret garden areas or hidden HUGE trees that were so cool.

The creek and "island" area

When we were done with that, we got some pics, and then said our good byes. We were lucky we were able to drive home without stopping (and I finished my book!). We got unloaded and went grocery shopping (I made the list before we left) and I even got all our laundry done (though I also did half of it before we left too, to make it easier).

I'm also so glad the tent mom lent us worked out (it's a very old tent and they hadn't used it in MANY years...like 2009, probably, so we weren't sure the condition). Parts of it are "broken", but the overall integrity of the tent is just fine. Though Larry says he'd like to get a new one for any future trips. The sleeping bags were also great. Marie had a couple brand new ones that had never been used and some older ones. The older ones don't really zip together, but they are heavier duty so they were warm and comfortable (at least for me) so I think we'll be okay with those for now.

I'm very glad we were able to do this trip. It went so much better than I expected. It was really nice to spend time with Marie and Jim, we joked a lot, played a lot, and just had a lot of fun together. I'm definitely looking forward to more camping trips in the future (I'm thinking Yellowstone and Moab next year!), but I definitely have to make sure we pick places with better bathrooms, we couldn't shower this whole trip so we were pretty dirty and, well I can't speak for the rest, but I was DESPERATE for a shower when we got back!