cousins

Alyssa and Mason.

Just cousins.

From our recent family reunion.

photo by Jamie Cheatham, my cousin once removed.... I'm trying to get that straight.

Her Dad is my 1st cousin.

so what are second cousins?

Would that be my kids and my cousin's kids?

3rd time's the charm

So This week (ONCE AGAIN) I decided...

It's time to start exercising. I know from past experience it always helps me feel better, more energetic, and helps me get motivated to start eating better, etc. All of which I need very badly.

I have dressed in my exercise clothes for 3 days in a row.

Day #1 : dressed and ready to exercise, really not feeling it, knowing I need to anyway, TRYING to believe I can do it. A friend called who had need of me. Turns out, I had need of her too.

I walked right over, IN my exercise clothes but it wasn't very far..... We had a great morning of conversation, a few tears, laughter and hugs. That was as good for my heart as any cardio would have been. Thanks for the call Friend.

Day #2: Dressed and ready to exercise. Had my Ipod, my water bottle, my tennis shoes and my Rachel. We headed to the track. Rachel starts running. I start walking. Halfway around the track I start to realize that today is not my day. Exercise attempt ruined by.. um... lets say gut wrenching, WHERE is a bathroom, tummy trouble.

Day #3: Today I decided to stay close to home. ONCE AGAIN, I dressed in my exercise clothes, walked to the DVD player & popped in Leslie Sansone and friends to "Walk Away The Pounds". 30 minutes and 2 miles later I had succeeded in my attempt to BEGIN exercising. It only took 3 days but I was sweating and my heart was pumping.

Feels good.

Tomorrow.... I'll go for 3 miles.

How many days do you think it will take me?????

accidental overachiever

You know those tests everyone gets at some point in school. The teacher tells you to "READ THROUGH THE ENTIRE TEST BEFORE BEGINNING" and there's usually a time limit for the test so you glance through the test but don't figure you ought to waste a lot of time truly reading the ENTIRE TEST because there's a lot of questions and you gotta get through this thing. You start answering questions furiously and then you notice one or two students, with smug looks on their faces, stand up and turn their test in. How did they finish so quickly. You are irritated. You make it to the last question which tells you "to get an A all you need to do is write your name at the top of the page and turn it in."

I was never the one with the smug look. I was the one with the "oh crap!" look at the end.

Once again. Taking some time to read through the entire thing would have saved me some stress this summer. I am on my 2nd year as a cub scout mom. You'd think I'd have this thing figured out already but it's a work in progress my friends... a work in progress!

I have been anxious this summer trying to get Jacob's Bear requirements finished before he turns 10 next month on August 15th.

I felt like we had been fairly consistent about working on Bear requirements throughout the year but as we left to go on our little Toquerville vacation I took the Bear scout book to read in the car and started hyperventilating about ALL we had LEFT to do. I figured there was nothing more to do but dive right in and keep moving until we finished.

While in Toquerville I asked my Dad, a big pocketknife aficionado, (he never leaves home without one) to help Jacob with the pocketknife requirement. There was one about understanding the rules of using a pocketknife, one about sharpening it, one about carving with it, etc. Dad and Mom bought him a new pocketknife with the understanding that it would be in MY CARE the majority of the time and not his to use willy nilly.

Believe you me! If Jacob had a full time pocketknife in his possession~ there would be a LOT of Willy Nilly.

One of the pocketknife rules Jacob learned about with Papa and recited as part of the "Pocketknife pledge" was to never walk with an open pocketknife.

He sort of forgot that rule....

He was WALKING while closing the pocketknife and surprise! he dropped it on his toe and cut the skin between his 4th and 5th toe pretty badly. He came in hollering & bleeding everywhere. We got the bleeding stopped. Papa determined it didn't need stitches but bandaged it in such a way as pressure was continuously applied to keep the bleeding stopped.

After returning home from Toquerville and on a Mile bike ride with Jacob (another Bear requirement) I ran into another "Bear" mom and complained that I thought our boys were a little young to learn how to use pocket knives and how I wished it wasn't required. She said "oh, we skipped that one." I asked "how can you skip it, it's required isn't it???" She got the book and then showed me how the requirements were divided into sections

"For God"

"For Country"

"For Family"

"For you"

and so forth.

At the beginning of each divided section it told you how many requirements in that section you were supposed to do......

As in "do 1 of the 2 in this section, do 3 of the 5 in this section, do 4 of the 8 in this section"

oops.....

You don't have to do ALL of them. I did some quick figuring and Jacob had already earned his Bear + 33 extra. He had enough for 3 arrow points (extra points you receive for doing requirements above and beyond the Bear award). I was a little embarrassed at my lack of understanding but also grateful I was done with his Bear..... Took a little pressure off my summer.

So August pack meeting we will stand up proudly to accept Jacob's Bear. And those arrow points. We will confidently progress to Webelos, our 3rd year in cub scouting and hopefully, I will FINALLY understand what I'm doing.

birthdays interrupted

This year Both Carly and Rachel's birthdays were overshadowed by other events. They were both a little disappointed but didn't make too big a thing out of it.

Rachel's birthday was the same day as Samantha's baptism so there was a lot of focus, of course, on Samantha. However we had lots of family on hand and they did their best to make it special.

Uncle David traditionally calls us on our birthday to serenade us with a very loud, very embellished version of "Happy Birthday to you"
This year he was on hand to do it in person.

It was impressive. She loved it.

CAKE #1: This was her 13th birthday cake choice. Lemon cake decorated like an Ipod, her favorite possession at the moment.

The cake wouldn't light outside in the breeze so she blew out the lighter.

CAKE #2: Her church classmates from her Young Women's group showed up that afternoon with a pink cake with a very silly decorated apple on top. It was so sweet of them to remember her.

Her dad thought it would be funny to take a bite right out of the middle.

yum.

CAKE #3: Her Aunt Abby brought a very pretty little cake decorated just for her with her name on top. We lit that and she finally got to blow out some candles.

That cake was especially tasty. We need to get your recipe Abby.

Now Carly..... Her birthday fell on the very week she'd be at Girls camp.

CAKE #1: The Young women leaders did a great job of remembering and making it special. I sent up a sort of birthday cake the night before. It was more of a birthday dessert I guess.

Apple Bars.

I was looking for something that would feed a large group and travel well and wasn't chocolate as they were having chocolate cake the night before her birthday with the Relief Society President. I knew it was something she liked and you could stick candles in it so it fit all the important criteria.

CAKE #2: Her Auntie Maury was here the day she got home from Girls camp and wanted to make her something special. Look at her wishing for something important.

She's trying to get that last little flame before she runs out of breath....

CAKE #3: Then last week we had a little birthday party for her. She invited 10 friends but only 5 could show in the end. Summertime is difficult for coordinating schedules. We BBQ'd hot dogs, had chips, soda, cantaloupe and frog eye salad. She LOVES jello cake so this year we made white cake with raspberry jello. We made a big mistake however in thinking the recipe just couldn't be right in calling for 2 C of water boiled with 2 packets of jello when we were pouring the jello on the baked cake. It looked like it was drowning so we stopped at one cup. Big mistake. Although the cake was still good, it wasn't as moist and flavorful as we have made in the past. My problem was I couldn't find the recipe we had used before and so went to Allrecipes.com. There were some recipes calling for 1 C of liquid and some recipes calling for 2... so we weren't sure who was right. Drat! we made the wrong choice. I wrote up the recipe so we won't repeat our mistake. I HATE mistakes!!!!!

They played some games with water balloons and watched a movie on the big screen that Mark set up. She had fun and was happy at the end of the night which made me happy. yea!

So

my girls learned an important lesson this year...

Don't worry if your birthday looks like it's going to be interrupted by other things~

People who love you will try so hard to fix it you'll end up with much more birthday in the long run!

Snow cone syrup

If you like these....

and happen to have a handy ice shaver at home or an Auntie Christy who will send you one......

Ours looks like this...

And think the little bottles of snow cone syrup at Walmart or wherever you shop are ridiculously expensive--

I have a recipe for you.

Snow Cone Syrup

1 1/2 C water

1 1/2 C sugar

Bring to a boil and boil one minute.

Then Add:

1 package Kool-Aid

I have made mangoberry, ice blue raspberry lemonade and pink lemonade. All big hits with my kids. Mark needed something stronger so I added 2 packets of pink lemonade to the recipe instead of 1 packet and then it was just right for him.

Way cheaper.

cold.

icy.

yum.

yum.

Papa's got a brand new boat.

On Friday of our Toquerville week of fun, my parents took us to Sand Hollow Reservoir which is a State Park within 15 minutes of my parents home.

Dad got a new boat this year. He's always wanted one and so a couple months ago he found the boat he wanted and went for it.

This was a pretty exciting development in our vacation plans. I mean do we ever need to vacation anywhere else but Toquerville?? We've got Zions 30 minutes away with an Aunt and Uncle who are very familiar with trails for advice and trail guides... We've got a Papa with a boat and this beautiful lake nearby among others I am told... We've got Grandma/Papa's cabin up the mountain only 90 minutes away, if we have a hankering for mountain weather. The possibilities are endless. There are comfortable and plentiful beds in the basement and the best dog in the world! I say again-- Where else in the world would we want to go?

The first night we were there Jacob gave up a bed to sleep all night on the floor with Charlie.

The water is so clear & beautiful. The kids were so excited to see fish flitting around in the water as they sat on the dock waiting to get their turn in the boat. Dad ferried us over to a beach in groups because there were quite a few of us. Besides my crew & Mom and Dad, My brother David and SIL Jena and SIL Emily and her 3 girls were there. I took this picture from the boat as we left the dock.

I loved the orange sand next to the blue water.

The kids got in the water right away and started calling for me to come out too. The beaches were so clean. There were some spiny, rough plant remnants in the water from sagebrush type plants that had been growing there before they damned the river to make the lake that were hard on bare feet so I kept my Teva's on. But other than that, there wasn't much debris or slimy plant life in the water which suited me just fine.

We'd been there about 2 hrs when the wind came up. We'd all been swimming (glad I didn't wait) and were just getting out the lovely picnic we'd prepared when it started. It was no slight breeze and towels were flapping, plates flying through the air and wet kids shivering. It turned our lovely day at the lake into no fun at all. We felt blessed to get 2 good hours though. Dad started to worry about the whitecaps on the lake and he took off with my brother in the boat. Luckily my mom had driven her car around so she would be parked near the beach we were enjoying so he didn't have to ferry us all across. He had some trouble docking as the wind was knocking them about. It got a little scary for him. There was another couple with a boat that were struggling to dock as well. They decided to combine their efforts. They helped each other and both got their boats in safely.

Mason & Bethany playing on the beach

Samantha Grace (dubbed "Sammy G" by her auntie Jena)

enjoying the waves

Carly and Grandma Carla

Rachel found these 3 perfectly round stones on the beach as we walked away in the wind. We thought they were pretty cool. They looked like that porous volcanic rock, is it basalt? Anyone know what it might be? My college geology class, interesting as it was, was 18 years ago. PLEASE... No one tell me they're petrified poop of some kind. That will just take the fun right out of it.

I LOVED the contrast of the light green color of the plants on the shore with the orange sand. I don't understand when people think desert landscape ugly. I grew up in it so I've had a lot of time to find beauty there. The desert landscape of my childhood is different than this, more Joshua Trees and Yucca Plants and such, but pretty too. I love the Wasatch front with it's seasons and grass and I am grateful to have more grass than dirt in my yard for the kids to play on but I love this more barren look too. There's nothing like a starry night or a full moon night in the desert. Those are some of my favorite things that I miss.

Daddy Daughter Nerd Night

The Young women (church youth group) planned a Daddy Daughter Nerd Night for their midweek activity. My crew REALLY got into it. They had so much fun getting their costumes together. The girls didn't even ask for help from me although I heard Rachel lamenting for a while she didn't know what to do in exasperated tones at Carly. She pulled her look together quite nicely in the end. Mark, however, required a bit more help from me. I found and taped the glasses. I fetched his shoes and attached his suspenders. There was a LOT of giggling as we watched these 3 pull together their outfits.

The shorts add a bit of sporty fun as if to say... "I may have tape on my glasses & pencils in my pocket but I know how to PAR-TAY!"

"I love technology"

Rachel goes completely academic with her science book and a pencil in her hair, while Carly pulls inspiration from several angles... She's got her "I conquered homework" t-shirt, a star wars clone wars mask AND she's carrying something with a DRAGON. (which she was really into in 6th grade by the way... we're lucky we pulled her back from that dangerous precipice or she'd be a full on Dungeons and Dragons Babe by now.)

"Don't bother me, I'm reading"

Rachel tried to go "Napoleon" and wear snow boots but they were too big and clumsy so she opted for the ever popular "socks with sandals".

The evening was a success. They came home in good spirits having won the most coveted award "Most nerdy overall". Rachel was very disappointed she lost a pie eating contest "by one bite"!!!! . Mark won the eat a marshmallow off a string contest and Rachel made a good showing in the eat a doughnut off a string contest and Carly discovered "I have a really small mouth" so competitive eating is really not an avenue she'll be pursuing.

Thanks to Julie and the other Young Women leaders for planning such a fun night!

Carly's NEW man plan....

So, you may remember Carly's ambitious Man Plan from several months ago.....

She has a new Man Plan now that is somewhat more attainable I believe, but scares me just a little. I believe she's lowered her standard more than I would have liked.

I was hoping the man of her dreams would have a good education & be ambitious as to provide well for her and their future family. He would be handsome but not Too good looking as those pretty boys are more trouble than they're worth.... He would be serious where he needs to be regarding religion and work and so forth but have a great sense of humor to make her laugh during those hard times but alas... these things are not on her list.

The qualifications for catching her eye these days are slim. They involve wearing a red apron, a jaunty white hat and flashing a friendly smile as he says those romantic words....

"Welcome to In N Out. May I take your order"

I'm guessing you want a little more of this story. How did she go from wanting gravelly voiced, sultry-eyed, millionaire David Cook to any random Fast-food employee????

It's all my fault really. I'm kicking myself. An innocent lunch and she's throwing herself at burger boys.

Whilst on vacation in Sunny Southern Utah I realize there is an "IN N OUT BURGER" only 20 minutes away in St. George. Growing up in Southern California, IN N OUT Burgers and fries were a happy part of my youth. When we went to the beach or Disneyland or serious shopping we tried to stop at an In N OUT. The best burgers and fries ever. EVER! It's true. I wished to share the experience with my eldest daughters.

My mom agrees to watch the youngest 3 who I'm sure will not appreciate such burgers and fries til they are a bit older and whisk Carly and Rachel off to enjoy their first ever In N Out burger. Uncle David and Aunt Jena also came along for the ride.

They witnessed it firsthand. Uncle David tried to be the voice of reason, but to no avail.

We order. We eat. We enjoy. Carly starts begging for a 2nd hamburger.

Carly: This is the best hamburger I've ever eaten.

Me: yeah! I told you they were good!

Carly: How am I ever going to eat any other Hamburger again????

Me: you'll manage.

Carly: *look of wild delight in her eye* Do you think if I married an In N Out Burger guy I could have all the hamburgers I want??????

Uncle David: I think you'd get sick of them.

Carly: I think not!!!!!

Thus the New Man Plan is born.

I'm working on the "marry a doctor, he can buy you all the burgers you want" angle. Wish me luck.

Good Golly Miss Molly

This is a little peak you can see from my brother's house in Toquerville. I might never have noticed it....

if not for a small plaque outside the little historical museum in town bearing it's quirky, unusual name......

The plaque had a drawing of the mountain and read

Molly's Nipple

"It's a butte"

AND inside the museum there was a little gift store with a few trinkets to sell..... indian bead bracelets, maps, photographs of the area and a darling little wall hanging with a piece of rock glued to it with the caption "I have a piece of Molly's nipple" EWWWWWW!!!!!

Wow! Poor perky Molly. Immortalized like that. A man totally named that peak. I bet she was young. Definitely pre-childbearing years. That peak ain't sagging

The tacky jokes are endless on this one. and you can betcher sweet termaters we came up with some doozies.

What did you do this weekend? Well I got a little winded climbing Molly's nipple...

What are you looking at? Well we've got a great view of Molly's nipple from here...

I know we should be ashamed of ourselves but it was great tacky fun to be trading nipple jokes with my 15 and 13 year old daughters.

We're home now and much more respectable.

No nipple talk whatsoever.

None.

I promise.

walking in Zion

We went to Zion's National Park with my sis-in-law Emily and her 3 girls. They know the park well and suggested we take the trail to the narrows and hike. Mom and Dad only live about 30 minutes or so from the park entrance. We parked, took the shuttle bus into the park and to the narrows trail. We had our sunscreen, we had our hats, we had our water bottles and off we went. It was beautiful and the weather was great. Not too hot to be miserable and running in sweat but warm enough to enjoy the cold water at the end of the trail, get soaked hiking up the water trail a ways and swimming where it got deep. We had a blast.

Mason is always ready to pose for a picture....

If you only knew how many I didn't take when he said "Hey mom take a picture of me"

obviously the whole group is not adverse to some posing...

It must be a family trait. Here is little cousin Cate "Aunt Jamie, you can take my picture now"

"Aunt Jamie, I have one hand"

"Aunt Jamie, I have no hands!"

Beautiful scenery

Scenery photos by Samantha and Rachel

Jacob on the shuttle

There were squirrels everywhere along the trail and we were warned with a pretty gruesome poster at the trail head of a bitten and stitched hand "NOT to feed the squirrels!" When we dropped our packs to play in the water at the trail's end we came back to them to find a squirrel scratching at them trying to get to our picnic inside. I shoo'd them away and saw lots of hikers with the same problem shooing away squirrels clawing at their packs.

Feeling triumphant after climbing up a large boulder

The Rock slide. Fun~ but hard on pants!
The end of the trail

chillin'

After a picnic on the rocks and playing in the water at the end of the trail we hiked another 10 minutes or so up the ankle deep water to a place where there was some shore again and a deeper place in the water where the current was pretty strong.

The 3 oldest were climbing/ walking up the sides out of the current and jumping into the current and letting it swirl them down 10 feet where it became shallow ankle deep water again. The water was SOO cold but they talked me into trying it too.

take my hand mom
walk this way..

Hold onto the rock, it gets slippery

Wheeeee!!!!

You Did IT!!!!
They were so proud of me.

Good times!