Great News

Want to know our great news? Our sewer main backed up. Again. Not really great news. At all. I guess I'm glad that the basement is already torn apart and that nothing new was put in yet, but seriously?! Enough already! So what does one do when they discover that their sewer main has backed up for the second time? You throw your arms up in the air and go boating to get out of the house, of course.

Echo is full to the brim, as in, there is no boat ramp. You just back the car up to the water's edge and hope you're in the right spot.

Jonas, Samantha and Amelia working up the nerve to jump into the cold water. Jonas was the first one to jump in for the 2010 season.

Megan enjoying the wind in her hair. She kept yelling, "Keep driving, Dad!" Every time we stopped to put someone in the water.

The captain.

Jonas popped right out of the water on his first try on the skis.

And he did it again about 5 more times.

Peter is so good at driving the boat, he can do it in his sleep. Good thing, too because he wasn't very happy when he was awake. He was not digging the life jacket - at all. And he freaked out the first few times we were pulling kids behind the boat. I guess he thought we were leaving them behind. At the very end, after a little sleep, he finally settled down a little bit and started waving to the kids and smiling instead of crying. He may not be invited back if he doesn't change his attitude.

Amelia in the tube.

Samantha trying to warm up. She took a turn on the wake skate and also popped right up but didn't stay up long enough for a photo.

Even hanging out on the boat with a crybaby is better than dealing with a backed up sewer main.

A fairly successful trip. The bigger kids were all happy and willing to get in the water and try things, and even got in and out repeatedly. They were awesome. We have to work on Peter a little bit, but I think we'll try again.

Summer Solstice Party

The big event, was, once again, a success. Fortunately, there were enough people to cover up all of the brown spots on the lawn, and I think fun was had by all.

I just love this photo.These were the kids that were here for a pre-party bounce and when the band started their sound check, they lined up all the chairs to sit and listen.

Peter enjoying a little bouncing before the crowd showed up.

Molly Nye, the opening act. She was great!

Some of the kids lining up for the pinata.

Duffy taking a swing....

Samantha taking a swing...

And mayhem and chaos...

Peter hanging out with the Boydens.

The band with a couple of their dancing fans.

Shawn

Jonas enjoying an otter pop and some tunes.

A photo of the Solstice crowd. Thanks for coming everyone!

Summer Solstice Prep Is Underway!!!

The longest day of the year is here - no rain and no swine flu - we need to celebrate! The bounce house is here....

and being put to good use. (Send the kids over.)

The stage is almost set up...

Party decor is hung....

Now, we just need the food and the people. Bring a picnic (grills available), a dessert to share and maybe a blanket. Starts at 5:00. Live music starting at 6:00. Hope to see you all there!

Duffy Turns 4!/Father's Day

A couple weeks ago, Duffy told me that she wanted to stay 3 forever, and I was thrilled. But then her siblings kindly reminded her about presents and birthday cake and she decided that she would have a birthday and stay 4 forever instead. I wish I could stop time for a little while. They are just growing up way too fast. But since I can't, we went ahead and celebrated her birthday. And of course, that means that the cake boss was in the house.

The birthday girl, getting ready to open some presents.

Opening a present before church.

It was such a nice day, that after church, we moved her "party" outside.

Unfortunately, her castle cake suffered some structural failure by the time we got around to pictures. (The cake boss was pretty limited in resources with it being Sunday and not being prepared before hand.)

Fortunately, it didn't bother Duffy. She was just excited to blow out her star candles.

But guess who forgot to get ice-cream at the store? (Like I said, we weren't quite prepared.) We did have creamies, though. So that's what we ate with the cake.

Unfortunately for Shawn, Summer Solstice prep and a 4th birthday kind of trumped Father's Day. (I told him we would reschedule for another day.) But he did get to open his new race t-shirt quilt. I think it turned out really well.

And the whole family can fit on it, so that's where we spent the afternoon.

Happy 4th Birthday to my sweet Megan and Happy Father's Day to Shawn and my Dad! (And all of the other Fathers out there.)

Swimming at Grandma's

As part of an early Father's Day celebration, the kids went swimming at my parent's house Saturday afternoon. (We thought last fall that we wouldn't be doing that anymore, but since the house hasn't sold, we have more opportunities to enjoy it.)

Peter is far too brave for my liking, walking right up to the edge of the pool and toddling as close to it as he could.
His favorite thing to do was to climb onto the diving board and bounce. I was so worried he was going to fall off - either onto the cement or into the water. There is definitely something to be said for having all your kids old enough to know how to swim!)

A brief moment of sitting still.

We took all the kids home and came back for an adults only Father's Day meal. It was pleasant and relaxing and nice to be with family.

One Day...

I hope to have the time (and desire, and oh yeah, the talent) for a beautiful garden. For now, I will just pick a few and hope to get them into the ground before they die. (But aren't all of the colors amazing?)This Day....

I was glad when I found the front door open (again), that Peter had just sat himself down on the step instead of attempting to follow the kids. I really don't like finding him walking up the middle of the street. (Seriously, he has given me major heart palpitations more than once!) Thank goodness for a relatively low-traffic, quiet neighborhood.

Access Denied

The basement saga continues.... because our floor and drywall tested positive for asbestos, we had to have some rooms sealed off for removal. We haven't really been using any of the rooms downstairs anyway, other than to retrieve a couple items of clothing or something, so it didn't affect us much beyond what we are already dealing with.

You know, I'm all good with the vinyl floor tile that was glued down in 1959, testing positive for asbestos, but the drywall that we installed less than 7 years ago?! I'm pretty sure that the dangers of asbestos were well established by then, so why in the world would we still be building houses with it?! Someone please explain all this to me.
(When you all come over for Summer Solstice, I hope you will be kind enough to avert your eyes from all of the holes and spots in the lawn. We've kind of been dealing with some other stuff and I'm sure we'll get to lawn care later.)

Trek

Shawn was off to Trek this morning, with the young men and young women from our stake. Here he is in his pioneer garb and his burlap sack filled with all of his belongings. He's off to walk and walk and walk, and sleep in the cold and rain with no showers for 4 days with a bunch of teenagers, while I'm home with asbestos-laden vinyl tile and dry wall. I don't know which is the better place to be right now. I'm sure Trek will be a very cool experience - if he can get over the withdrawal symptoms from not having his iphone or his sunglasses.

*@!$#!!!

We are experiencing a bit of anger and frustration about a little unscheduled remodeling project. We remodeled the entire place just over 6 1/2 years ago when we moved in and had no plans to re-carpet anytime soon. But a backed up sewer main changed our plans. The ENTIRE basement (with the exception of 2 small rooms) has to be re-carpeted. We are still waiting to see how much dry wall has to be cut out and replaced. We are not happy campers about this little project.

Yep, all of these rooms used to be fully carpeted and now... are not.

Aaargh!!!!

Read-a-thon

As part of a very loose summer schedule, we have planned a weekly read-a-thon. (Mostly, I think, to guarantee a little down time for myself.) But the kids have been excited about it. Wednesdays seem to be a good day for it, because many of the swim meets are on Wednesdays and, all of the music and dance lessons also fall on Wednesday, so a little quiet time is in order. We made a trip to the library and to the store for some snacks and then we all settled in to read.


I was really looking forward to being able to sit down and read a little, ignoring the dirty dishes and the mess spread all around the house, but of course as soon as I opened my book, the phone rang. And then Peter woke up from his nap. (I let him fuss for a few minutes just so I could read a couple of pages.) I tried to keep reading but eventually gave up and went ahead and did the dishes. I'm not giving up hope yet. I'm going to keep trying at the weekly read-a-thon.