Having fun on Discover's dime

Keith has been covering for his boss at work for a couple of weeks while he was on vacation.  Keith, of course, did an amazing job and handled everything.  To say thank you his boss gave him $100 for Keith and I to spend, but he said we had to do something fun with it. I was so glad that he got recognized for his hard work.  We decided to go back to Lagoon, but this time to leave all of the kids home.

It was so much fun!  Ataiya came and watched all the kids yesterday while we spent the day riding rides.  We finally got to try Wicked and the Spider.  Wicked was pretty scary and Keith wasn't a fan.  He hates the free falling feeling.  He went on it twice for me, but that was plenty for him. 

We both loved the Spider.  We went on that over and over.  The lines were really short yesterday and the weather was great.  It was so fun to just do what we wanted and not accommodate anyone else.  By 7:00 PM we were so tired.  We are definitely not young anymore! It was so fun to have that time together.

Caitlyn helped Ataiya out a lot.  She is so good with the kids.  Hallee and Caitlyn have been having fun playing together after school. 

 Caitlyn had a hard time this week at school.  She tried so hard to have a good attitude, but it was so hard for her to not have any of her friends in her class.  She said she didn't have any one to sit with at lunch.  On Tuesday she asked someone to be her partner and they said no and I think that was the last straw.  She was crying after school and I felt so bad for her.  Keith, who is amazing, pulled Caitlyn in his arms and asked her what time she ate lunch.  He told her that he would be there the next day to eat lunch with her.  She felt so much better after that.  He went and ate lunch with her and all of the kids loved him and that helped Caitlyn a lot.  Now she is playing with the girls in her class and she seems to be happy with school.  No matter what mistakes I make as a mother I always take comfort in the fact that I picked a wonderful Father for my children!

Jonah has been loving school.  He is excited to come home every day and tell me that he got class money for behaving.  I sure hope that keeps up.  I'm so happy to see him so excited about school.

I think Wyatt is enjoying the quiet house.  He looked so handsome for church today.

Wyatt was thrilled that he got to play with Rockwell twice this week. 

Hallee and Tessa were cute playing in these chairs together.

First Day of School

This beautiful girl started 4th grade today.  Last night Keith gave her a blessing and he talked about what a wonderful light she is to everyone.  I couldn't agree more.  She is the sweetest girl and loves everyone.  She was really excited this summer when she found out that her good friend Katelyn was in her class.  On Thursday we found out that they pulled Katelyn out of her class and put her in a 4th/5th split class that they created at the last minute.  I'm glad Caitlyn isn't in the split class, she has done it for the last two years and it was getting hard for her to concentrate.  This morning when we went to school we looked at her class list and realized that they pulled out all of Caitlyn's friends that she was excited about being in class with.  I was so disappointed for her.  I was so impressed with how she handled it, she said, "all of my friends are gone, well I guess I will just make new friends."  I can't believe how far Caitlyn has come from the shy, anxious little girl she used to be.  She is a great example to me of being positive!

I'm glad my kids will still let me walk them to their classes.  Caitlyn came home and said she had a great day and she loves her teacher.  I guess the two 4th grade teachers split subjects so she will have two teachers again.  She loved everything about school today!

This handsome guy started 2nd grade today.  He wouldn't admit it, but he was so excited.  He woke up early today and got ready so quickly.  He hates how many pictures I take, but he is usually a good sport about it.

He is thrilled that his best buddy, Gaven is in his class.  Gaven was waiting to show Jonah where his seat was.  There are a lot of good boys in his class.  I'm so glad, I hope he will chose better friends than he did last year!

Jonah came home and said, "I had a great day and I didn't even get in trouble because I was so good."  He had fun seeing his friends and he is excited that his teachers are nice.  He has been worried about his English teacher because she is pretty strict.  I told him he will be just fine as long as he follows the rules.  I think this is going to be a good year for both of the kids.

I loved having my kids home for the summer.  We had so much fun and did so many fun things.  This is the first year that I was really ready for school to start.  The last couple of weeks have been rough.  A lot of fighting and getting bored.  I was also ready for my house to be clean again.  I could not keep the house clean this summer to save my life.  Wyatt and Hallee helped me get it cleaned up this morning.  It was nice to have a calm laid back day and get caught up on things.

Hallee was in time out for hitting and fell asleep again.  Unfortunately, she took a short nap and never took the long nap she needed.  I guess I need to put her in time out some where that isn't as comfortable!

Emily is my girlfriend

Wyatt loves to tell us all about his girlfriend Emily.  He was so excited that she came over to play on Saturday.  He was worried she would want to play dolls with Caitlyn, but they played together and had a great time.  Caitlyn and Jonah both invited a friend over and everyone was happy.

Earlier that morning I took the kids to the park so I could walk.  Hallee had fun on her motorcycle for a while, but then she wanted me to carry her the whole time.  This girl is killing me lately.  She is always screaming and mad about something.  I keep telling myself it is a phase, I hope it passes quickly!

Caitlyn and Jonah had fun roller blading.

Wyatt loves to ride his bike. 

Caitlyn has been asking to get her ears pierced the last month or so.  She was going to do it for her birthday, but changed her mind.  I told her that we don't have a problem with her getting her ears pierced, but we do have a problem just handing her money because she wants something.  Our kids are suffering from some entitlement issues!  She saved her money and we let her do extra jobs to earn some money.  She worked hard, she babysat Hallee and Wyatt, cleaned the van and did extra jobs around the house.  She was thrilled that she had enough money to get them pierced before school started.  I could tell it hurt her, but she didn't complain at all she was just so excited to have them pierced. 

Hallee has been spending a lot of time in her room for time-out lately.  She is constantly hitting and teasing everyone.  When she gets mad she will run across the room just to hit someone.  She loves to take things away from the other kids and run off with them.  When we put her in her room she gets her pillow and lays down and sucks her thumb.  She has started falling asleep during time out.

I like to look at that sweet face while she sleeps and remember that she is still my little angel, even if she likes to hit me!

Lagoon

The other part of our plan for doing something fun as a family was to go to Lagoon.  I have a hard time leaving the little two home when we do family activities, but we decided this time it was best to leave them home.  It was so fun to have this time with Caitlyn and Jonah without worrying about the little two. 

We started out with a roller coaster.  Caitlyn was really nervous, but she went on it.  I was thinking that she would be nervous before and then love it, but she wasn't a fan of the roller coasters.  We did the big white one and she hated it the whole time.  Poor girl. 

We found plenty of rides that Caitlyn liked.  We all loved the log ride. 

For the first couple of hours we were able to just walk right on rides.  It was great.  Keith and I did the colossus a few times.  We couldn't get the kids to go on it with us, but we sure enjoyed it!  The kids loved the rattle snake rapids. 

We did it twice and Caitlyn got soaked!  She was wet the rest of the day. 

We were all pretty wet, but I think Caitlyn and I got it the worst.

This kid cracks me up.  When did he start looking so grown up?

Caitlyn was nervous about the sky ride, but she ended up liking that one.

They both loved the bumper cars and the haunted houses.

We all liked the swings and the train.  We made the kids try the screamer and they both liked that even though neither one of them wanted to go on it.  After that I stopped pushing them to try rides and we just did what they wanted.  Caitlyn had to wait for us on a few of them because she didn't want to do them, but she was a good sport about it.

About 5:00 PM it started raining.  It was pouring while we stood in line for the swings, it was one cold ride!  After that we went in the pavilion to eat and see if the rain was going to stop.  It didn't stop so we decided to head home.

We were all soaked from the rain.  I wish we could have stayed later, but I'm really glad we went.  It was much needed time with Caitlyn and Jonah.  I love getting out and having fun with my kids.  I will spend money on entertainment for our family and totally feel like it is worth it, but I won't buy myself a new purse or other practical things.  I should probably be better with our finances, but that is no fun!

East Canyon

I decided a few weeks ago that we needed to do an outing as a family before school started.  I wanted to get out and enjoy some time together without the stress and distractions that we have at home.  After a ton of going back and forth we decided to go to East Canyon for a night. 

Yesterday Keith left work early and we headed out.  We were thinking about camping in a tent until we saw this cabin.  It was perfect for us.  It was a little bit of a walk to the bathroom, but other than that it was great. I'm not a huge fan of camping so this is a good compromise for me.

When we got there the kids had a blast looking around the cabin and picking beds.  After we got unpacked a little we headed down to the water.  Our cabin overlooked the water.  It was a great location. 

We had fun playing in the sand and the water.  The kids all got to work on making a little pool, collecting rocks and playing in the sand.

Wyatt was so excited to go camping.  This kid kills me, he is so cute!

It was really pretty at the reservoir.  For the first time in a long time I was able to completely relax.  We just played and relaxed and I didn't stress like I normally do. 

They have water toys that you can rent.  We should have rented a kayak while we were down playing on the beach. We decided to wait until the morning and by then it was too cold and we were all so tired that we decided to bag it.  Poor Caitlyn was so disappointed.

Wyatt had to show me how strong he was when he picked up this rock.  Wyatt cracks me up.  He is always telling me why he can't do things, usually cleaning up.  He says it will give him a "stumey ache" and his latest excuse for not being able to pick up crayons is because it would make his hair soggy. 

Jonah loves to show everyone how strong he is!

Hallee had to join in and show off how strong she is.

Caitlyn had fun collecting rocks and drawing in the sand.

Keith was excited to have some time off work.  He is so good at getting down and playing with the kids.

I love Hallee's hair.  It is so long and pretty.  It also has the perfect little curl at the bottom. 

The kids had fun jumping on sand castles.

It was a great temperature.  It was a little cold for swimming, but it was sure nice for me!

I tried to get them all to jump at the same time.  Hallee liked smashing the castles with her hands instead of jumping on them.

After we went swimming we went back to the cabin for dinner and watched a movie and played games.  Before bed we went for a walk and saw a porcupine. Trying to get everyone to be quiet and go to sleep was a little rough.  Hallee would talk and sing and play and then when the other kids laughed she would say, "be quiet Jonah, mom Jonah not being quiet."  We didn't get a lot of sleep, but we weren't really planning on it.  Hallee kept waking up and screaming out. 

This morning I took the kids out for a walk so Keith could get some more sleep.  It rained a lot throughout the night.  I was so glad we weren't in a tent!  It was cold this morning.  We walked around a little this morning and then packed up and headed home.  It was a great get-a-way.  I think we will need to go back next year.