Randomness

Ever had one of those days when you have a monologue running through your head all day long?

If you honestly read all the way through this post, I'll owe you a candy bar or a batch of cookies! Consider that your own warning - random thoughts all over the place - recorded for myself and no one else!
In no particular order . . .

*Summer days are long with kids.

*My kids are really great kids.

*My husband is a really patient man.

*Not being able to run SUCKS. Just sayin'.

*But I am more than just a runner . . .

*That being said, finding yourself is hard and humbling, but everyone should have the chance to
do it sometime.

*Friends bring a lot of strength in hard times.

*Family means a lot all the time.

*Kitty treats taste bad - and aren't worth eating even if your parents offer you a dollar to do so.

*Even a dollar won't stop you from gagging and possibly throwing up if you eat kitty treats.

*I love the sun. Sunburns really hurt, and then really itch.

*There are worse things than death.

*Saying good-bye to someone that's dying is very hard, but very tender. Angels surround those that are dying, and if you're quiet, you can feel them . . . and there's nothing like it in the world.

*Rain smells so yummy.

*I love my flowers.

*My kids ARE doing their best. I need to be too.

*Everyone has a story to tell, and if you shut up and listen, you learn a lot.

*The key to happiness is not perfect legs and big boobs, which is a good thing, 'cause I'll never have either.

*Even in my grumpiest moments, I have much to be grateful for.

Children's Museum

The girls and I have a goal to take one "field trip," or visit somewhere new, each week this summer. This week we chose the Children's Museum, and decided to drag our cute friends Melissa, Zac, and their mom, Steph, with us!

As you can see,
we had a great time using our imaginations and
playing with everything there!

Parades!

More fun with our city celebration! We love the miniature float parade! The local wards build all of the floats in this parade, and it's amazing to see the talents and creativity that comes with each of them. I know (from unfortunate experience) how many hours go into each of these floats and all the costumes, and I have major respect for what these people pull off!
The theme this year was "Memories of . . . "
They were darling!

NOTE: We were also able to go to the Grand Parade the following morning, but after being knocked in the head with flying candy, screaming children (not my own) swarming me for more flying candy, and rude parents that did not control - or even pay attention to - their rude children, I lost the spirit of it all, and did not take a single picture. That's okay. It could potentially have ended up as evidence somewhere along the way anyway . . . 'cause I was about to knock someone out! :)

Horse Parade

We always love being a part of our city's celebration, and this year was no exception!

One of our favorite events is the All-Horse Parade. It has become a fun tradition to watch the horses parade down the street, and then go to the Rodeo afterwards. We missed our cute cousin Kaylee this time, so we took pictures of our favorite horses for her!

Swim Lessons!

Manti Pageant

The Manti Pageant . . .

With the Oviatt Clan

Some of us are never too old!


I took pictures of the temple when we first got there . . .

as the sun went down . . .

And right as the pageant was about to start!

Beautiful!

Special Customers

Guess who showed up to the girls' snow cone sale last week while doing their rounds . . .
The local firemen!
What a treat for the girls . . .
and for every other kid that made it to our house before they left!
They were so great to all the kids!
They pulled out pencils, stickers, erasers for each of them,
and even let all the kids climb inside the firetruck!

Needless to say, they were great advertisement for the girls,
and made them feel like superstars!
They were even nice enough to turn on the flashing lights as they drove off.
Same time next week guys?!?

Warms My Heart . . .

All of my girls have a soft spot for animals of all kinds, but my little Tyleigh has a
gift. Animals love her just as much as she loves them. When she was tiny, we took her to Zion's and let her feed Elk. She had no qualms about putting her entire little hand in their mouth! Yesterday, we took the kids to Wheeler Farm - and Tyleigh fed the geese - lots of them. She didn't even flinch as they gathered around and pecked at her hand - in fact, she went through two bags of feed on her own - and then used most of her sisters' bags!
What a kid!

Tuacahn 2011 - The Little Mermaid

Rod and I decided to take the girls to one of our favorite places to start off the summer . . . Tuacahn Theatre! As soon as we saw that Little Mermaid was playing, we knew it would be worth every dime it took to get down there . . . and it was . . . even though our trip started off a little rocky.

We arrived in St. George on Thursday afternoon - and had tickets for the opening night on Thursday. The girls couldn't wait! When we checked into our hotel, Rod noticed a sign on the front desk that said that the Thursday night performance of Little Mermaid had been cancelled. WHAT???
We were super disappointed and decided to check things out for ourselves. We drove over to Tuacahn, and sure enough - the play had been cancelled for that night due to intense special effects and technical difficulties. That meant that over 1900 people from all over the state had no play to go to. We begged the lady in the ticket office to find us tickets somehow for the same weekend - SOLD OUT. What a bummer!
Rod must not have slept at all that night as he schemed various ways to get tickets. He got on KSL at the hotel computer and begged those selling their tickets to let us have them - SOLD OUT!
We decided that we wanted to see it bad enough that we would take single seats all over the theater if that's what it took and drove to Tuacahn one more time. The lady at the box office agreed that we could most likely find seats for each of us all over the place - but none would be very close to the other . . .
Mom of the Year Award right here . . .
I was really going to let my 6 year old sit all by herself in a giant sold out theater just to see a play!?!?
Just as I officially lost any common sense, a kind lady reminded our ticket seller that there was always the overflow section on Saturday night. SOLD! We jumped on it!

This is a view of most of the theater from the top - if you enlarge the picture, you can see where we sat. No photographs were allowed during the actual play, so I have no evidence of how amazing this play really was. Our seating wasn't ideal - but far better than not seeing the play at all! The special effects in the play were nothing short of amazing, and the actors and actresses did a phenomenal job to say the least! The girls loved every minute of it . . . and if we could take them again this summer, we'd do it in a heartbeat!

The girls loved the place we stayed in (thank you Sal and Jer) - for several reasons, but the top three were to be able to eat breakfast out on the balcony . . .

swimming their guts out . . .

And the palm trees.

Their least favorite part of the trip was when I got a brilliant idea to drive them for over an hour in the car to see a ghost town that Rod and I had visited while we were dating.

It's a tiny little area called Grafton right outside of Springdale and Zion's. If you blink, you literally miss the sign to turn off to it.
My favorite part of the town is the cemetery (Morbid, I know, but I love history).
There are about 74 graves in it, and many of them read the same as the one below -
"Killed by Indians."

You'll have to enlarge the picture to read this - but the highlight of the drive was the sign in the picture. It says "PLEASE SLOW DOWN: HIPPIES SUCKING YOUR DUST." Classic!

What a great way to start off summer!