More Fun with Friends

We love having visitors. It's so nice that we have a place to put them up now! We've had a very enjoyable day with our friends, and now we are all tuckered out. I feel a little lame doing this little post, but I'm much too tired to stay up longer to do more. So just know that it was a fun and full day. :)

Independence Day

Let's travel back in time nearly a month ago. Because the Fourth of July is where I need to start my most recent batch of catching up.

We really had a fun day. I can't remember if we slept in, or what, but for some reason we were a little late to the parade. As we were finding a parking spot, we heard fire engine sirens. Figuring that Ethan would really like to see them since he's all into trucks and cars and he showed interest in the sound, we hastily parked and ran to the parade. We nearly missed them, which is maybe a good thing. His reaction to the noise up close was very unsure.

But once they passed and other interesting things came along, he seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit.

This pirate ship was about the only real float that we saw. I thought it was really cool, but there wasn't much of a reaction from the crowd in general.

The trailers with squirt guns sure did though. Ethan and his daddy had fun getting sprayed.

This frisbee was one of the few things we came away with from the parade. (We also got a tomato plant!) We didn't seek candy, so we didn't get much thrown our way. One guy came up and tried to hand some  to Ethan. When we told him thanks but no thanks, he looked at us like we were crazy.

 After a while Ethan got a little bored of things. We had toys with us, but he was more interested in playing with the umbrella.

 I think this was a highlight for him. This man rode his horse right up to us so Ethan could pet it.

Later in the day, we met up with our friends the Mabbs for dinner. We were super glad to see them because they moved to Arizona and we don't get to see them very often anymore. We were lucky enough to have them stay for a couple of nights with us. Emily loved Ethan's little workbench. She spent just about the whole time at that thing.

 While Terral was making breadsticks, Ethan decided he wanted to try some and he made this hilarious face.

 And later he really went to town on the watermelon.

 Mmm! Goodness.

 This is the best picture I got of the feast in progress.

The next day, the Mabbs treated us to dinner at the pizza factory.

And then we met up with some other friends at the greenshow. 

All our "E" kids: Emily, Ethan, Eric, and Emmett. If you can't tell, some of them were a little tired by now.

 So we took them home for a bit, gave Ethan a bath and prepared him for bed, and then we went to the high school parking lot for fireworks. Because of all the wild fires, fireworks were restricted to certain places. Ethan had some fun reactions to them. The noisy ones made him a little afraid. I don't really like those ones either, buddy.

I love the principles this country was founded on, and I am so grateful for my liberty! And it made the holiday extra special that we got to spend it with the Mabbsies.

Hippo-pool-omus

Today was kind of a weird day. I think it's the first day that I would say Ethan drove me nuts. He just kept getting into things he wasn't supposed to. Of course, that's a pretty normal toddler thing, but it was like he kicked it up 10 notches today. It probably didn't help that I stayed up late reading last night.

In spite of the craziness/frustration, some really good things happened today. I made a little cape for Ethan. I was pretty proud of my idea. I'll talk about it a little more when I get some pictures. I've been doing more little sewing projects lately because I don't want to move them all undone.

We (I) also did some other things that needed doing. But the highlight was going over to a friend's house for dinner and some pool time. I've been seriously tempted to get Ethan a pool this year. Heck, I've been tempted to get a big enough pool for all of us! But in the mean time, it's nice to have friends who share. :) It's just nice to have friends.

Whack it with a Racket

Well, we have had quite the exciting day around here. More on one of the reasons later. . .

This evening we got together with some of our friends to play tennis. It felt very good for several reasons. One, we actually got together instead of just saying that we need to. Why is it so hard sometimes to do something with people you like? Two, it has been so long since I've played tennis. I was out of practice, but it was sure fun! I wish we had taken advantage of living so close to tennis courts more often. Three, it was really nice to play outside. I don't get out as much as I'd like. Too many of my have to's are inside. Four, it felt so good to do something physical! I love going on walks and being outside with Ethan, but it sure is nice to have some variation and to do more playing instead of watching. And five, Ethan had a lot of fun and I wasn't worried about him wandering off, which increased my enjoyment. Yay for fences! ;)

One of our friends' little boys rode his tricycle there, and Ethan thought it was the coolest thing. Although he did play with the balls, most of the time he was riding around on the trike. He got to where he could handle it pretty well, in spite of being just a bit too short.

 I told Terral to give me his best tennis pose. :)

 And oh, yes, I was there too. :)

Friends and Flour

Last week Ethan and I went to play at a friend's house. They had fun playing with the regular toys for a while, (Ethan especially since they were new to him), but then we broke out the big guns. We mixed flour and oil together to make a kind of moon sand for the kiddos to play in. It didn't work quite like we thought it would, but they had fun getting messy. Well, mostly A. had fun getting messy. We all played and got messy, but Ethan was surprisingly clean afterward. 

Here's my beautiful friend playing with the kiddos. She and I were kept busy forming little sculptures for the kids to squish. Ethan did sound effects every time.

 He was very enthralled by this little car. (Does anyone else hear the Low Rider song when they look at this picture?) A. really loves her car too, so there were a few little squabbles over it. It was pretty funny when they tried to get in at the same time. We found peace by having one push the car while the other rode.

It was a fun afternoon. We need to do stuff like this more often!

Wax On, Wax Off

Well, I was going to wax all philosophical on you tonight, but when I started to write it out, I felt kinda dumb. So I erased it.

And now I don't really know what to write.

I learned some very interesting things about spleens recently. I'm very passionate about learning.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll just write some random things that come to my head.

I have now been home from my mission 5 years. Or is tomorrow the anniversary? Obviously, it's been long enough that details have faded.

The one person I was blessed enough to teach from the very beginning through her baptism is currently serving a mission in Moscow. She'll be home soon. Crazy.

When she came to the MTC, Terral and I were able to meet her at the airport. That was something of a miracle trip. I had only hoped to just see her for a short while at the airport, but we were able to take to spend the night at my sister's house and then drive her to the MTC the next morning. It was so awesome to have that extra time to talk with her. She is such a sweet person and I just feel love every time I think of her.

(7 Dec 2010)

Sometimes I feel like my life before my marriage happened to someone else. I don't feel this way as much now, but I have sometimes felt as though I am a completely different person from who I used to be.

I often wonder how my children will think of me.

I enjoy the evolving relationship I have with my mother, and I am trying to see her as the whole person she is. Even when we spend years with someone, we still see just a segment of who they are sometimes.

The more I learn, the more I see connections in all aspects of life. Relationships, thoughts, spirit, emotion, energy, environment, diet, chemistry, form. . . so many actions and reactions.

Have I waxed philosophical after all?

PDP3

Three years ago, my sister-in-law Heather and her sister-in-law Wendy went on a hike at Red Cliffs on President's Day and ended up jumping in the frigid water. A tradition was born. Last year we had a lot of fun at the President's Day Plunge, and we (especially Terral) were really looking forward to going again.

It was so nice to be out in the sunshine for a while, especially since we woke up to blizzard-like conditions the day before. Gotta love Southern Utah!

Ethan was just so excited to get outside and explore. He wasn't feeling super great, so every time I told him not to do something (like play in the river or fire) he had a mini-meltdown, but in spite of all that he really enjoyed himself.

Here he is exploring the water spigot. He's been making an "oh!" face whenever he thinks something is cool lately, which I think is pretty fun.

Terral made him the blue shoes he's wearing over the weekend so he could explore uneven terrain a little better. They didn't come out exactly as he wanted and they're a bit big, but they stayed on and were pretty functional, so we were pretty pleased with them. Not bad for making it up as you go! They are made from PUL material, so they are practically waterproof.

Laura's boys brought some foam swords, and they provided a lot of fun. Zack and Ethan are playing with them in this picture.

I had to have a picture by the funky tree again this year. Maybe that will be a tradition too. ;)

Here's Chris at another fun spot on the trail

He and Zack couldn't resist posing for an epic battle pic.

And even I got in on the sword-playing fun. As Terral later put it, "Don't mess with a woman with a baby on her back!"

When we got to the jumpin' spot, Chris was the first one to jump in. I think I had my camera on the wrong setting, because it wasn't fast enough to catch several of the jumps. In any case, I thought the after pic of Chris was fun. Yes, he jumped in with the sword.

And here's Terral's dad. He dedicated his jump to Jay.

 He says, "It feels goood!"

Next up, newly-weds Mike and Wendy.

Even though Wendy was one of the founders of this tradition, she didn't seem very excited to get in the cold water this year. I think her face says it all. :)

Erin was a little more nervous this year too, since she found out how cold it was last year. She kind of looks like she's bracing herself against the water.

Then it was Heather's turn.

And then it was me!

Yup, all you get is a splash. You can see proof that I jumped when Terral makes the video. I actually wasn't sure I would jump, but I came prepared. I guess I was kidding myself that I was undecided though, because when I asked Terral on the way down if he thought I would jump, he said that I would as if there was no question. 

Speaking of my honey, I missed his jump too, but here he is swimming laps just for fun. Just kidding, he got out of there pretty quick. And then he did a monkey dance from the cold.

I was surprised at how I didn't want my towel right at first. I just wanted to drip and let the sun warm me. Luckily, there was no wind up in that canyon. I was also grateful that my hair dried out quickly.

Here are the soon-to-be-newly-weds Maycie and McKade.

And last, but certainly not least, little Rachel decided to jump in too. And yes, she did have an extra pair of clothes if you were wondering.

If you look behind me in this picture, you'll see a fully clothed gentleman who is rather wet. He was trying to get past the climbing spot with his dog and ended up taking a dunking. When he got out of the water he said, "Don't you all know that water is cold?!" We all laughed a bit and were glad he was okay. His wife just shook her head at him, because she told him not to try it.

This was the first time Terral's parents had been on this hike, so I had to document that they were both there. Unfortunately, the picture didn't turn out great. It was really fun to have them there, though, and I was really proud of them!

When it was my turn to jump, Laura was kind enough to watch Ethan for me. She took the three youngest boys back on the trail a ways to where they could play in the sand.

Can you tell he had fun with the rocks and dirt?

Oh, yes. It was a very fun day.