July 24th Pioneer Day 2010

At the end of our walk...thank goodness!!! (I'm pooped!)

"Boys will be boys"...

The bees were ALL OVER the flowers!

Red Butte Garden

Richard was volunteering for the Outdoor Adventure Program on Hill AFB and so went on their Jackson Hole, WY trip though he had a boring job of standing in line to get the group some good seats at the Bar J Wranglers show. He also had to be a driver because the guy in charge, Chris just had knee surgery recently. While Rich was away all weekend, we celebrated Pioneer Day by first taking the kids to SLC for a picnic lunch at the place where Brigham Young was burried (right next door to Paul & Shelley's Brigham Apts.). The kids and I read the signs located in this little memorial and sang some hymns and saw all the grave stones. We ate our lunch on our mexican picnic blankets and visited with Paul & Shelley for an hour or so. Afterwards, we drove up to the Red Butte Gardens located up from the University of Utah campus because on Pioneer Day, they have free admission to the gardens. It was nice, but really hot (about 95 degrees!) and hard to take all 5 kids all by myself. We walked around the pretty gardens along the paths and then stopped by the pond where kids could feed the fish. Aleah decided that she would rather feed the fish Rachael's pink water bottle! OOOPPPSSS! I sent Jacob to crawl down on the stones under the water and try to splash the water bottle toward us...no luck! By then, it was late in the afternoon and Aleah was HOT and ready for her nap so we put her in the stroller (which she did NOT like at all!) and pushed the stroller bac to the visitor center. We told the lady at the front desk about our water bottle and she said to try back on Monday and they'll fish it out for us. We went to Costco and then to Payless to get shoes for Rachael. It was almost 6:00 p.m when we got home. We ate dinner and then watched The Happiest Millionaire old musical with actor Fred MacMurray...the kids really liked it! So, it was a full and tiring Pioneer Day!

Our 12th Year Anniversary!

Richard and I went out to eat at the Bombay House in Salt Lake City. It is supposed to be the most authentic Indian restaurant in the area and it sure was yummy! I should have taken a picture of us with the Indian waiters because they had their turbans on their heads and looked really neat! Oh well, such is life...I am not the best photographer and so didn't think about that until now!

Richard had a post-op infection a few months after his tumor removal surgery...not good...

As you can see, he was in a lot of pain. Aleah on the other hand was as happy as could be and thinking she was pretty cool too!

Farmington Parade

There's Jacob and you can see a kid with his nunchucks

behind him wearing the green belt. The order of belts are as follows: white, yellow, orange, purple, green, blue, brown, red, red/black, black.

Jacob's Tiger Crane Martial Arts group with Master Oliver
Mom...look at all the pretty horses...
Aleah liked the minature train!

Qaiden actually caught a ball that was thrown by the bear that you see in the previous picture...GREAT job Mr. Q

As you see, my kids are not HOGS...they wait till things come to them! I have taught them to let the other kids around them get some candy and stuff and to share!

Luke wonders what all the commotion is...

Luke: "What's going on???"

Aleah: "Mom...when are we gonna get some candy?"

Rachael: "Will you hurry cause the sun is hurting my eyes..."

Qaiden: "Let's see how silly I look with my candy bag on TOP of my head!"

July 10th was the Farmington Parade in which Jacob as part of the Tiger Crane Martial Arts group participated. We weren't going to attend but thought it would be good to support him. Rich stayed home to fix our outdoor faucet in the front before leaving for his Uncle Merlin's funeral in Arizona that night. He spent all day fixing it so I took the kids to the parade...I'd like it to be my LAST parade but I can't promise that being that my children will most likely participate again in one of them! I just know that it brings the worst out in people...most people become REALLY selfish and mean! Here's how it went...After dropping Jacob off at the parade participants area, I drove home, picked up the other kids, and drove back to find a parking spot. Our friends, the Grolls were right in front of us and when they parked along the road, we found a spot just behind them. As I was just about to parallel park, I backed up and almost crashed into some lady that zoomed in! I couldn't believe it! I was sure she knew that I had pulled up to the car in front so I could parallel park behind, but she just rudely snuck in! Well, that just made for a BAD start to the parade. I just kept driving about 4 or 5 cars ahead and found another spot. Pulled in and as I was getting the kids out, the lady that stole my spot, came up to me and apologized for taking my spot. At least she was kind enough to do that! After walking 5-7 minutes down State Street in Farmington we were sitting there on the curb watching the parade floats and the kids were waiting for candy and such being tossed toward them. Well, the float for Wild Hair Salons went by and tossed some little goodies out. One of the items they tossed to the kids was a hair rubberband with a pretty brown flower attached to it. My daughter, Rachael went and picked it up and put it in her bag. No one else had seemed to notice it laying on the ground. All of the sudden, the lady behind and next to us started yelling, "that's my daughter's", "that's my daughter's"! I didn't know she was talking to us, until a minute later she walked over to me and said that her friend from the float was meaning to throw it to HER daughter......yeah right.....oh well, I gave it to her without a fuss although she made the rest of the parade not fun for Rachael who was sad that she didn't get the hair band/flower that she picked up off the ground. I was not very happy after that and told myself that was the LAST parade I'll go to! Then when I went to pick Jacob up at the end of the parade route, I was trying to drive out of the parallel parking spot and NO ONE would let me out! It was SLOW moving cars and still NO ONE was courteous! When I did eventually get out, I was nicer than the other cars (which I usually am) and let all the pedestrians walk across the road which NONE of the previous cars did (each one of the pedestrians waved and smiled to me and I could tell they were grateful)....HELLO....have they ever heard of "YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS"???? I am sick of RUDE Utah drivers!!! I get more kindness from drivers EVERYWHERE ELSE...shouldn't that be just the reverse???

Aleah's 2nd Sleep Study

I love this photo...it looks like the nurses were having a bit of fun with Aleah!

Nice hat there...

Oh, Aleah looks thrilled to be there doesn't she?

Aleah (like Rachael) sucks her two first fingers!
Aleah is such a character...she does the funniest things!

July 6th, Aleah had to have another sleep study (at Primary Children's Hospital) done because she had severe mixed Sleep Apnea and so she had her tonsils removed to make room, so when she slept, she would be able to get more oxygen into her lungs. She often stops breathing for a few seconds during the night. She was on oxygen for a couple of months and now the Dr. wants to know if she still needs oxygen at night or if she'll be ok now. I think she may have to be on oxygen her whole life...she has a low lung copacity which won't change, but we'll get the results back in 2-3 weeks and let you know...

4th ofJuly Family Hike

Monday, July 5th. We love to go hiking, and the Farmington Canyon is a nice hike up to a waterfall where we have been a few times as a family. When we get up to the waterfall, we have a picnic lunch. It took an hour and a half to hike up (we were slow with Aleah walking 1/2 the way, then I put her on my shoulders for 1/4 of the way and then she walked the last 1/4. She's heavier than you'd expect!), and then it only took about 45 minutes to come back down because Rich carried Aleah on his shoulders all the way back to the car. Richard was taking the picture and Luke was sleeping in his baby backpack in the shade. Jacob is the only one who couldn't go with us because he had Webelos camp all day on July 5th and July 6th. It was a nice hike but sorry the pictures aren't great quality...I had it on the wrong setting!