Bahamas!

I went on a cruise with my sister. We worked out for my parents to watch my kids so that Scott could keep working. She does not have a significant other to go with her. So, she invited me! We went out of Miami and visited the Bahamas. We went kayaking, snorkeling, and went to Atlantis. I loved all that we did on the shore. We did a spa treatment on the cruise ship. My sister even humored me and we went to the gym a couple of days It's amazing how much easier it is to run at sea level!

We were able to eat dinner with the captain and one other crew member. Somehow we were picked out as one of the 3 "couples" to eat with them. The captain was surprised to hear that we're sisters and that we actually wanted to go on a trip together. I don't know why that's surprising! I love spending time with my siblings. I loved being able to spend some one-on-one time with my sister who lives a few states away. I loved having a break from reality. 

My thoughts on a cruise are that I would do it again. I enjoyed seeing snippets of cool places. I'll never have the money to really give each location its due, so this is a way to see at least a bit of it. However, I don't know if I would have paid to do all of Atlantis, because I didn't have TIME to do all of Atlantis. So, for next time, I would pick something that I felt was more appropriate for the allotted time. The cruise ship itself was fine. Not spectacular. Kind of like a cheap Las Vegas hotel on the water. So, since I don't drink, I don't gamble, and I don't watch "adult" shows, we pretty much were out of stuff to do by 10:30 at night. Oh, except sleep. I do enjoy a good night's sleep.

I'm not sure it's obvious we're sisters. The two of us are not that similar looking.

Happy 4th of July

We celebrated small-town-style like we always do. We showed up to the parade about 30 minutes before it started and still got a front row seat (notice we're sitting right in the middle of the road that comes perpendicular to the street. Yeah, you can do that). We watched a parade that only lasts 30 minutes. Most importantly to the kids, they STILL throw candy! We also watched fireworks the night before. Happy Independence Day!

Aren't I clever to put all my boys in red and white?

Camping

I went camping sans Scott with a bunch of my friends and their families. Why? Because I like my friends and I like being with them and I like my kids to be able to do fun things and I don't want Scott's lack of presence to get in the way. All the other adults were very helpful. I was lucky enough to have kids that wanted to go to sleep, and so I was able to put them to bed at a decent time. My kids loved it and had a great time being spazzy and being with their friends.

Family Reunion

We went to St. George in June. I planned the family reunion for my side of the family. We went to Zion Canyon a couple of days, Snow Canyon, Tuacahn, and some other little things around St. George. I tried to balance out hiking with other activities. Things seemed to go well and I think everyone had a good time. My family was all pretty supportive of my efforts. All were able to come except my sister-in-law and my niece, and we missed them. I had a great time despite the heat.

Who's the cute baby girl you say? Well, we didn't have a masculine hat with a strap to prevent a baby from pulling it off. I'm frugal and decided against buying a hat when I already had one. He's a baby and didn't seem to mind. The pink flowers did tend to confuse people.

I carried Thomas. Scott carried the food and the water. It worked out well!

This is the beginnings of our group. Several others arrived later in the day and then a few more arrived the next day. 

 The kids and several of the adults played in the river after hiking the first mile of the Narrows.

The kids playing at a park with a pool, river, and splash pad.

We hiked on rocks in Snow Canyon. Fortunately, we were in the shade for this portion of the day.

This is also at Snow Canyon once the sun came out. The temperatures skyrocketed in a hurry. 

Scott's birthday

Scott is older! Yeah! We celebrated with a super awesome yummy double chocolate torte. We had my sister and her family, my brother and his family, my other sister, and Scott's brother at the house to help us celebrate. We gave him presents and had a grand old time!

I love Scott dearly and am so glad to be married to him. Happy Birthday my love.

Rashes

So, rashes weird me out. They always have. My dad tells stories of my waking them up in the middle of the night because I was afraid I had a rash. I remember trying to cover my exposed skin in the bathrooms at our church built in the 70s, because the tiles on the walls looked like they had a rash. I worried my skin would want to look like the tiles. I know I'm odd. I'm over the tile thing. 

All my kids except Richard got a fever for a couple of days. He was always fine. Audrey only got the fever. However, when this popped up on my kid's legs, I was a bit disturbed. Peter's legs looked HORRIBLE. He had a few on his fingers as well. Marie had a few scattered lesions behind her knees and on her inner, upper thighs. Thomas was scant, but they were scattered on his arms, legs and face. The presentation was so different, but I figured it had to be related since they all had the fever and then got some kind of rash. 

Being the child of a doctor, I had no desire to actually bring my children to a doctor. So, I took pictures and e-mailed them to him. We also did a google plus chat so my dad could see the rash. I was worried that somehow the chicken pox vaccination hadn't worked. However, the rash stayed off the trunk which is where chicken pox typically is the worst.

We finally just quit worrying about it. Then, a week or so later, I found out that my niece, who had stayed at our house for a couple of days (and left the same day Marie first got her fever), also got a rash. However, she had the text book presentation of hand, foot, and mouth disease. So, the reason Richard didn't get sick, is because he had the disease when he was about a year old. Case solved. Nasty rash is healed.

How we practice letters

A couple of weeks ago during lunch, I only let Peter have two corn dogs even though he wanted three. He gets too full and then won't eat his dinner. He kept playing with the sticks at the table even though I told him he was done. He would say, “Mom look! Here's a big T-- and here's a little T. This is like an A.” Then, he said, “This is a broken Z because you won't let me have three corn dogs.” I though it was pretty funny!