August in a blur

We went in for Hunter's semi annual dentist cleaning. While there we discussed with the dentist about how we have been trying to pull his bottom tooth but it refuses to come out, SERIOUSLY! Bryant wrapped floss around the tooth and around his hand on several nights and yanked as hard as he could and couldn't get the tooth out! In fact he even hurt his hand a little. So I asked the dentist if he would just pull it while we were there. He obliged and it was a good thing because the root was really far down and we likely would have been back in a couple of weeks to get it pulled anyway. At this office they have video glasses so Hunter watched an episode of Wild Kratts while he was being numbed up and the tooth pulled. He didn't even realize it had happened. 

We had some kid friends over for dinner. Everyone loved sitting around the table together. 

August was $2 Tuesday at Thanksgiving point. I missed the first Tuesday of the month without even thinking about it but the second Tuesday we went to the awesome dinosaur museum that Tucker and Hunter thought they would never return to. We got there early and were the second family in line. I forced them to take a picture before we went inside so that I could remember what they were wearing just in case we got separated. 

This dinosaur was so long it was impossible to capture in a single photo. 

There were always things above our heads to see and so much around us that we often forgot to look up!

This is the sand/water table. Children get to learn the effects of erosion and such things. Mostly they just bury toy dinosaurs and find them again. 

Baby dinosaurs are the coolest, especially when you get it to yourself!

At the end of the museum is a sand excavation area. The last time we came here (3 years ago) we didn't have time for this part and Bryant and I did not really want to deal with all the sand. This year they got to dig and enjoy both sand areas while I fed Connor some snacks. 

Afterwards we sat outside and ate our lunch. It was a fabulous time. I loved that my whole family went for only $10 instead of the crazy $12/child and $14/adult. The kids all did such a great job listening that I told them we could hit up another museum the following week. 

Quite the curve ball hit us that week, when we received the news that my father had passed away while traveling with my mother in Idaho. I drove with my Aunt Charlene the morning after to meet my mother and Aunt Tricia in Idaho and help in whatever way possible, even if just to give a hug each time one of my siblings asked to share a hug with mom. I stayed in Idaho overnight and returned the following evening to meet all of my family that had traveled from Arizona that day. When we arrived at my small house people filled every available area possible. The walls were lined with people sitting on the couch, floor, and chairs from the kitchen. Only Bryant, Daniel and Ian were found out of the mass in the space of the kitchen. We were all well worn that evening and looking forward to getting to bed. We lucked out in being able to rent a house across the street from my grandmother in Provo that was vacant only through the weekend. Many of my family stayed in that house, while others were in a house across the street and next door. A couple of siblings opted for the privacy of the nearby motel. I didn't realize it was also graduation weekend so the hotels were well booked and charging the higher prices :(. I drew everyone a map to get them where they were headed so they could get to bed. 

While the event that brought all of us together was truly tragic and heartbreaking, being together as a family was beautiful! My father always knew how to throw a good party and he sure made this a good one. Someone in my ward offered to gather people in the ward to provide meals for my whole family (10 siblings with spouses/significant others and lots of children!) They provided all three meals each day my family was in town and even brought them to the "rented house." The food was good and there was always plenty, something my father would have been proud of. The only member of my family missing was my sister Emilee who was in the hospital in Arizona having been intubated to help slow her heart and keep her alive. (She is doing better now but her heart is greatly damaged and she has little to no energy for tasks). The services for my father were beautiful. The "family luncheon" after the services included most everyone that attended the services because so much of my father's family/relatives and great friends live near enough to Provo that they could all come. (which is why my mother decided to hold the funeral in Utah and have all of her children travel).

My brother The "Cool" Uncle Jacob purchased some fire arms and grenades and got all the grandchildren and younger aunts and uncles to enjoy a game of shooting each other in the back yard. This eventually led to quite the game of duck duck goose with many adults playing too. We ended the evening with roasting smores. It was fun to see some of the nieces and nephews roast a marshmallow for the first time. 

All of my family drove home on Sunday, except Isaac and Juli with their kids. They figured that since they had driven all the way from Pittsburgh they might as well stay for a couple of days before heading back. I was glad to have some family stick around for a little longer. 

We had fun playing outside in the swimming pool and sprinklers.

Connor learned he could fit in the ice chest :P

Isaac and Juli even stayed an extra day so they could join us on $2 Tuesday at the Museum of Curiosity (and man am I so glad that they did!) We were not permitted to take our strollers into the museum based on the expected crowd. After getting in and being there we could not have even imagined how someone with a stroller would have been able to maneuver around the museum with a stroller because it was difficult enough without one. I was so grateful to have an extra set of eyes to keep track of everyone. There were a couple of times that one person would be in charge of staying with those that were found while the other two went off searching for those that were missing. I don't think I'll be able to do this museum on my own with our children on $2 Tuesday myself, it is just too crazy!

Brylee had fun dancing on the stage in the "little" town

The line for the zipline was super long so those that wanted to do it only got to do it once because we refused to sit around waiting for them to have another turn :/

Here is Clark on the zipline

And Hunter

And Tucker

This water table was awesome! Connor was able to sit and play and I didn't have to worry about him getting run over or crawling away!

Here is Elliot

Some parents who have been before actually brought a change of dry clothes for their kids. I opted to just take off Connor's shirt, figuring he could be in a shirt and diaper if necessary.

All of the dangling feet was super cute!

Brylee and everyone else got completely soaked. We realized we should have come in the water room before going to the outside playground, oh well we are beginners!

The day of Isaac and Juli's departure my children started school!

Tucker is in 2nd Grade

Hunter is in 1st grade!

Gunnar and Brylee decided that making silly faces made it easier to say goodbye to their cousins!

And Connor just wanted back in the house :)

Holy July!

I forgot how jam packed July really was until I went back and looked at the pictures. Good thing I documented things or else I would never remember. 

Living in Utah we get parades and parties for Pioneer day (It's July 24th in case you, like me before moving here, didn't know). We enjoyed a breakfast sponsored by our stake in the morning with Bryant before he left for work and then we headed to North Park for the festivities there. 

We got to hop on the fire truck before it actually started because we were there early in hopes of beating the lines, it was great!

This year spiderman and this "not storm" trooper (I know someone in my family know what he is. I just don't rememeber, something like a speeder. I don't remember but he had a gun strapped to his leg) were taking pictures for free so  my kids were happy to have a picture with them

We enjoyed looking at the native american art and tents!

We went over to the pioneer village to see the cabins from when Utah was first settled. Many of them were moved from their original location so they could all be brought together. We watched the blacksmith work on a horseshoe that he was turning into a heart with two horse heads kissing at the top. After hoping on this carriage (which was the wrong one to climb in and take a picture in, oops) we headed back out to the park festivities that were about to begin. 

Last year as we were leaving Hunter was really sad that he didn't get an opportunity to saw a log, so this year we went there first and still had to wait behind a few people who beat us in line. Tucker and Hunter did a fairly decent job sawing their two pieces off to have "branded". Of course Brylee and Gunnar also wanted to participate and receive a wooden disk so I attempted to help them by standing on the same side as Gunnar and directing Brylee how to pull. THANK GOODNESS someone from our old ward was there with his family and saw us and came over to see if I could use some assistance. It is a lot of work to saw the disk off, especially when using a two man saw with only one person! I was so thankful to him coming and helping and making it happen for Brylee and Gunnar. 

Next we waited in the forever long line to ride on the ponies!!! The children went in the petting zoo set up next to it a couple of times, but ultimately they dug in the dirt around the trees that we were waiting next to. We rode the ponies last year so I was hoping to bypass them this year but everyone wanted to wait. We saw all the animals as they were setting up before the start of the activities and I tried to convince them to move along to no avail. When we finally made it to the beginning of the line the lady running it made the comment of "You kind of wish you had just sat and waited here earlier don't you?" And she was half right. It was getting hot by the time we had our turn and I was ready to leave but the children wanted to do some games and crafts. 

Hunter had another picture with the trooper while we were waiting in line.

When we finally got there, Tucker and Hunter had their turn first

And then Brylee and Gunnar. This year Gunnar did not freak out in the middle of the ride when his horse snorted so it was a win overall I guess. 

In the beginning of July we participated in Chick-fil-A's free food day if you dress up as a cow. This was our first experience with free day and with Chick-fil-A. The children loved it! We showed up early for lunch to beat the crowed that they were still serving breakfast. So we played on their little playground for a little bit and then went to get our food before the huge rush. They were super efficient. By the time we were done eating the line for the food was out the door and they had trapped our van in the parking lot because they were marking out the area for the long lunch line. We just arrived so early and stuck around so long that our van was the only car in the row and they had to move their cones and caution tape so we could leave but they were very pleasant about it. 

Connor's favorite place to play this month has been the gutter. As long as he is next to our car I don't stress but when he goes elsewhere I have to worry that he will wander out into the street. 

My children really wanted to have some spending money. They had been talking about various things they wanted to buy for a long time and wishing they had money with which to purchase them. So we decided to have a bake sale. Well I wanted their efforts to be profitable so I posted on our ward relief society page what my children were doing and took "pre-orders" That was both genius and crazy I realized as the orders came in. I made what I thought was a ton of cookies based on the orders coming in but ended up having to make a second batch of chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles. Thankfully, our ward is not a big fan of oatmeal cookies because I over cooked one tray by just a little but had enough from the one batch I made of those. I had the children help make some of the goodies as part of their effort. I also told them that they would be paying for the butter and eggs used in the cookies because it was an easy number to quantify. During the whole bake sale process I didn't let the kids know how much they were making until the end because I didn't want them to decide they were done mid way through. We had lots of conversations about how much tithing would be owed on $5, $7, $10, etc. We also learned that giving change doesn't mean we are losing money, but that we are giving back the extra that someone initially gave us. We also had a live table out in front of our house where the children worked on their people skills. They even went to the houses of two of our neighbors and asked them if they would like to buy anything from their table. I made Tucker and Hunter walk together to deliver the cookies and cinnamon rolls that were pre-ordered. They certainly earned their money. Ultimately, the 4 children each earned $20, paid me $10 for "supplies" and even had a couple dollars more that we gave to Connor rather than try to split up. 

Tucker and Hunter each bought a minion lego set. Brylee and Gunnar each bought remote control cars and rechargeable batteries to go inside them. I'm glad I made them buy the rechargeables because they wore the batteries out each of the first few days they had them. 

Gunnar turned 3 in the month of July! 

He has become super expressive and talkative. He is a super sweet guy and great listener and helper. 

He also took this short video (among a bunch of 2 second ones) for your view.

Tucker loves to be creative, he built things out of the cardboard that held Connor's baby food jars together. 

Tucker also built this lego creation.

Connor has learned to walk this month, although if you ask him to walk he will crawl, instead you have to tell him to dance and then he will stand up and start walking towards you. This started because the kids decided to have a dance party in the livingroom one evening. Connor thought it looked like so much fun that he stood up and started dancing too, not even thinking about what he was doing. He certainly still crawls everywhere but it is only a matter of time!