Fun in the Hot Sun

We spent Friday at the local amusement park in connection with Burke's job. We dropped Adrienne off at Grandma's and took the older kids with us. We had lots of fun playing BINGO (Burke won as a part of the biggest loser round they were having). We also finally have kids that are big enough to go on the really fun rides (aka rollercoasters). I am grateful to have some buddies who have stronger stomachs than Burke does. We took them on everything at the beginning of the day, but after the shift changed in the evening and they had new people measuring, Annika didn't make the cut by an inch. We are going to try to go back this weekend and make sure Annika has really thick soled shoes on, and maybe some big hair. We did have a few mishaps during the day, including Burke overdoing his ride quota and getting sick after being there for a few hours. Kade took it upon himself to kick a wasp's nest and was stung, and Annika and Kade mixed it up and ended up doing face plants into the asphalt. Despite these setbacks, we had a great time and didn't leave until after 10 PM.
Saturday morning was the big belt test for Kade to progress from a blue belt to a purple belt. He was so nervous and excited that he forgot some of what he needed to know. We will find out tonight if he will progress when he goes to class. He is really looking forward to it, but we will have to see what they say after his performance at the test on Saturday. These are some of his moves...He is the second from the left.

Fishin' In the Dark

Well, Nathan did have lots of fun at Day Camp on Wednesday. In fact, the highlight of the day was when he purchased his very own pocketknife at the Trading Post. I was a little frightened of what the consequences of such a purchase could bring. Burke, on the other hand, was very excited that Nathan had made such a great buy. (Burke feels about knives the way I feel about shoes--you can never have too many).

Anyway, Nathan wanted to try his knife out on something that he wouldn't get in trouble for, so we decided to go fishing Thursday evening after dinner. We had a lot of fun, but caught mostly minnows.
Each of the kids and I caught at least one fish, but poor Burke was so busy tying on hooks, baiting them and then removing the fish that he didn't really get a chance to catch anything. (I wasn't touching them!)
After a while Annika and Adrienne got tired of waiting five seconds for a fish to bite, so they decided to go throw rocks into the water. That didn't help the fishing much, but we all had a good time anyway.
We didn't leave until after dark. Nathan did get an opportunity to use his knife to clean the one fish that was considered large enough to keep. He was thrilled.

Burke got another chance to redeem his fishing failure on Thursday by taking the boys fishing again on Saturday. They went with a friend from work who has a boat. They didn't have much luck, but did get to see some beautiful scenery and the boys dined on the poor guy's cookies. They caught one fish that was a pretty good size. We will be eating him and the other small guy for dinner tomorrow.

Keeping Busy

Nathan is out to Cub Scout Day Camp today. He is so excited. I finished putting on all of his patches so he would be up to date with his uniform. Burke wanted to go with him, but an emergency came up at work at the last minute, and he had to go to the daily grind. I am sure Nathan will have a great time.

In other exciting news, we have gotten the first strawberries of the summer from our garden. The kids have been eating them like crazy, but unfortunately, they became a little overzealous and picked some that were barely pink on the tip. I gathered some of the ripe ones up and put them in one of the bowls I made in my ceramics class.

Lovin' Free

I love free stuff, especially free activities! This is the place heritage park had free admission day yesterday (there will be another free day on the 12th of July). I took the kids and we had a ball. There was so much to do and see, we couldn't get it all in before it was time to go. We are looking forward to coming back because we didn't get a chance to tour through Brother Brigham's house and see him. Annika was quite upset about not getting to see him. I think she believes it is actually him, and not an actor. The best things were seeing the boys get their first shave with a barber who loved to ask questions, but was hard of hearing when it came to the answers. The girls really loved riding the ponies. All the kids enjoyed going to the pioneer school, and I liked pointing out the paddle kept on the teacher's desk. And they thought going to their rooms was rough...

The Slugger

Nathan has been enjoying baseball and is improving with each practice and game. Thankfully, he is already better than I am. There is a big family joke that I cannot catch anything, so if you don't want it to land on the ground, don't throw it at me.
Tonight Burke has whisked away the "boyses" as Adrienne calls them, to a miniscule "town" in Northwestern Utah. They will be engaging in four-wheeling, eating, sleeping, shooting the bull, and other manly pursuits.
The girls and I will be staying close to home and are planning on painting fingernails and toenails and getting Father's Day shopping done. I figure the fewer little eyes that see the gifts I get, the fewer little mouths will be able to share the info.

Everything I Need to Know...

My kids taught me at the park!
1. Cooperation is good, but a little competition can bring out the best efforts of even the littlest racer. There was a triple wide slide at the park that my kids used to race against each other. Surprisingly, Adrienne was usually the winner.
2. It is important to impress yourself once in a while. Annika climbed to the top of a "rope web" and was quite impressed with herself, and made sure the 12 year old boys climbing up after her got to hear about it.
3. A mom and a dad are both needed. Moms make sure that kids don't do anything that will hurt them. Dads make sure they do. A balance needs to be achieved for kids to experience the best life has to offer.
4. Parents need to know when to let go. Adrienne was trying to climb a ladder to get up to the slide. I was "helping" her to make sure she didn't fall. She kept telling me, "I can do it, mom!". I just kept helping until she finally got mad and told me to let go. When I did, she was able to climb it even better than she could when I was holding on. Letting go brought out the best in her.