Lake Powell Trip

After a 7-year absence, I made my reluctant return to Lake Powell on Thursday. I barely survived the trip in 2006 and that was without kids and I wasn't pregnant. But this time around, Justin's parents generously rented a houseboat so I knew I could at least survive the trip, if not enjoy it.

Captain Henry taking us to "a party."

 Sarah the little swimmer kept her life jacket on most of the time so that she could jump into the water at a moment's notice.  "Is anyone going swimming?"

 Eating chips on the way to our spot.

 This is the only picture of me on the first day, on our drive to our spot and that's intentional. It was all downhill from here on hair and makeup.

Poor little guy got so tired of his life jacket.  That was part of the reason we only stayed two nights, he just couldn't handle it anymore.

 This little lady on the other hand could have stayed for a week.

It takes Henry a little while to warm up to the idea of water.  This is how Kristen eased him in.  If you called it splashing and let him splash water in your face, he'd have fun.

 Henry's favorite job was to yell 1-2-3 for others to jump into the water.

 1! 2!

 3!

Sarah is sad because she had to come in and take off her life jacket since it was rubbing her armpits and chin raw. And we'd all been up since 5 am.

Friday. Anytime the boat stopped, Sarah asked to jump into the water. We also wised up and put Henry's rash guard on her.

 Henry wouldn't wear his new hat so Justin did.

 Melissa brought these goggles and Sarah adopted them. She rarely took them off her face.

And I mean rarely.  Here's our dedicated swimmer.

 Saturday. The second-best activity was making mud pies or throwing rocks into the water.

 Henry loves anything that requires mud and not putting his lifejacket on.

 Tube Wars 2013

 Henry zonked out after keeping us up half the night. Nadine kindly held him for over an hour.

 Swim nerd eating some chips.

Sarah would only ride the tube if it was going super slow and straight. It was such a boring ride for everyone else. Corey even fell asleep driving the boat.

The thing about Lake Powell is that the entire time you are there, you are either wet or hot. I think there might be an hour in the wee early morning where one can be dry and cool and that's when you get all your sleep for the night.

The first night we were there, the neighboring party boat blared their music until 2 am (my kids slept through all of that) and when Justin and I finally laid down on the roof and dozed off, Henry woke up downstairs. He and Sarah were so hot and sweaty so Justin brought them to the roof to sleep too. We all slept until it got a tiny bit light and then Henry was awake and ready to go.  Total sleep that night: maybe 3 hours. Maybe.

The second (and predetermined final night for my family) couldn't possibly be worse, right? We were off to a good start. We all started out on the roof (knowing that's where we would end up with the heat), the night was cooler than the previous night, and we had successfully bullied the party boat into turning down their music with a combination of honking and yelling.  All 10 of us laid down at 9 pm and went to sleep.

And then came the wind just when I was in the deepest sleep and so were my kids.  Justin and I took the kids inside which was fine since it wasn't too hot in there. Then it got even windier. The houseboat blew off the beach and drifted sideways into the rocks.  That was exciting. It was like Titanic. We're all sleeping and then we all feel this crash and it takes us a minute to figure out what happened.  We didn't sink; we just had to add a third anchor. That was at 12:30.  Calm down from that then came the rain.  Roof sleepers scrambled to stay dry, some came inside, some huddled under the awning.  Back to sleep. Then a mouse crawled on my hand. (This would get more attention but when it's in a series of events like this, it just gets mentioned).  Once my heart rate returned to normal and I laid down again, Henry woke up hysterically crying and wouldn't be calmed down. He cried and whined and wanted to go outside or see anyone else in the boat but me.  Finally Justin took him out to the deck but that was after he had fully woken everyone else on the boat. They stayed out there until morning. If we weren't leaving that day, we would have been kicked out for sure. Total sleep that night: maybe 4 hours.

We drove home Saturday afternoon.  I'm pretty sure I have just this morning caught up on rest and hydration which is good because Dallin comes home from Brazil tomorrow!

Cute faces, squashes and vases.

Remember how Sarah gets attached to inanimate objects? A few weeks ago, I was going through the house getting ready for a garage sale. I pulled this vase out that Justin bought at a garage sale thinking I would repaint it and use it.  I never did.  But Sarah was so adamant that I not sell it, the only way I could calm her down was if I let her take a picture of it to remember it always.  It sold for 50 cents.

Here's a little game for you. What kind of squash are these?  It's a trick question.  They all came from the same plant and I don't remember what it was.

"Fix m-uh?" means "I'm going to lay down wherever I choose and you spread my blanket over me."

We play a lot of cars around here. Henry likes to run them down his blanket.

His turn to slide down. (Don't judge the pile of junk back there, that's g-sale stuff.)

Henry always asks for a pb&j just like his sister but he always eats it by opening it up and sucking the jam and peanut butter off.  Then he's a mess and still needs lunch.  Here he is cleaning himself up at the sink. He can stay here for a long time.

 You missed a spot, buddy.

There were a few hours last week where it wasn't 90 degrees.  Sarah's reaction was to put on pants, boots, and her winter coat. She found me some weed flowers on the neighbors lawn.

Henry put this on all by himself and said he was "Supa Why."  I've since made him super hero cape but he won't wear it. He likes to point to it and say "supa tape?"

The kids were playing outside while I was making lunch. Every couple of minutes, I'd get a knock on the door and there was Henry with a flower. He can be sweet.

Sarah filled up the first stage of her job chart today.  She gets a sticker every day she does her 5 jobs (making bed, taking care of her dishes, putting her clothes away, putting her toys away and Mom's daily choice).  After 10 stickers she got to pick a BIG treat at Macey's and after looking at every sugary thing at the store (doughnuts, cupcakes, Little Debbie, chocolate milk), she decided on a big bag of Starburst. She's already tearing into them when I snapped the picture. Twenty stickers is a movie night with Mom and Dad after Henry goes to bed and 30 is a trip to Coldstone. This kid will do anything for stickers.

After I put Henry down for a nap, I found her like this and I got all sentimental. She's going to be 5 in a couple of months and I just really feel like she should always be 4.  She just embodies all the sweetness and imagination and curiosity of a 4-year-old.  She's just so good at it.

Now here's the rest of the story

Please tell me someone else's mom listened to Paul Harvey on the radio too??

So last time I shared about the puking of my children but that was only the half of it. I feel it's time to come clean with the rest of the story.  I was sick most of July too. And it lasted way more than 24 hours. And it made me lay on the couch a lot and cook very little. Their puking didn't cause my puking as my nauseousness was from a completely different source.  Is this the most cryptic paragraph about puking you've ever read? It's the most cryptic I've ever written.  Have you figured what I'm trying not to say? No? Well you'll have to wait until February 13 because I refuse to be any clearer at this point.

Onto the rest of the rest of the story of Pioneer Day.

Before we headed to the rodeo, Henry had to fill up on some cereal.

 He's saying please which comes at as pees and I have no choice but surrender.

 Meanwhile Sarah got all cowgirled up in her shirt and vest. The kids loved the rodeo.

A couple of days later was actual Pioneer Day and we headed to Mapleton for the morning breakfast, parade and park games.  Here the kids are with cousin Mason in their animal chairs.

 But once the parade and candy started, they abandoned the chairs.

 This boy loves firetrucks.

We played a few games at the park and won lots of candy.  I really wanted to try this one as I love the Price is Right and this is the closest I'll ever get.

That evening we headed to a different park in Mapleton to watch the fireworks. Sarah wanted silly hair for the occasion.

 Why does playing with dad always end up in a wrestling match?

 My sweet girl loves this day almost as much as I do. The fireworks were awesome then we went home.

 Sarah is getting really good at swatting flies which is fortunate since she's the one that lets most of them in.

 It must be the Dye hunter/fisherman in her.

I have this baby who thinks it's a game to put his blanket around him and play baby.  If your baby pretends to be a baby, does that mean he doesn't think he's a real baby?  Well I don't like that.

This was one of those days were a big cup of water on my kitchen floor could hardly make my house any messier so I let the kids run through it for awhile. I'm cool like that.

Sarah was not excited to wear her new dress to church on Sunday (I still don't know why).  But with a little bribery and blatant flattery, Justin got her to wear it.

Not pictured: The Baadsgaard family reunion. There were actually some of my cousins there this year.

Can I tell you how excited I am that it's August? July is the new January and it was miserable.

Just a few summer things

Want to know what I've been doing 3 of the last 5 weeks? Cleaning up barf.  I don't know why my kids keep getting stomach bugs but it's gross and totally puts a cramp in my style.  It feels like winter because the weather keeps us inside and my kids are sick so I don't dare take them anywhere. Is it bad I'm already looking forward to fall? And I haven't taken many pictures the last month since most of them would be of sick kids or piles of laundry. But I have managed to find a few.

Sarah and I made a jar full of ideas of activities that we can do together during Henry's nap.  There's like 20 ideas in there but invariably she sifts through the strips of paper until she finds the one that says "paint fingernails".  I let her to do the clear polish all by herself.  

Justin bought this cooler at a garage sale but it's really a train car.

On the 4th of July, Justin and I had tickets to see Stadium of Fire but of course we had a sick kid that day so instead we went to my parent's house in Mapleton and had Driveway of Fire.

This picture pretty much sums up how my days go around here.

Last Saturday Sarah was in our town's children's parade. She was so excited to be in a parade. I'm not exactly sure what she was envisioning in her mind but she seemed thrilled when it was over so I guess it didn't disappoint. She got to ride in the back of a trailer pulled by a 4-wheeler then got a popsicle at the end.

As long as no one throws up, we're going to the rodeo tonight and to Mapleton's Pioneer Day celebration on Wednesday.  Maybe summer can redeem itself after all.

Henry says a new word every day. I am astounded at how much he understands and annoyed at how good he is at ignoring me. He's a little brother in every sense of the word. Any tips on getting a 2-year-old to stop hitting? Every day I think he is the sweetest boy in world but then the next moment I fear I am raising a monster.

Sarah is a very patient big sister considering what she has to put up with.  She's also very helpful and will do just about anything Henry asks her to do.  She starts soccer this fall. Most of the time she's excited about it but every now and again she'll tell me she doesn't want to play after all. We'll see how she feels the first week in September.