Firestation with Josh

Monday was Josh's last day as an intern for the Provo Fire Department (Yeah!) and he got permission for us to come down and have a tour of the firestation and look at the fire trucks. The kids had a great time. The fire truck was amazing. It was like a transformer. They pulled the truck out, turned on the lights, siren and horn for the kids. The engineer checks the truck and the truck engine every Monday to make sure things are working correctly and they waited until we got there so we could watch. The steps were hydrolic and came down automatically and went up automatically when the door was open/shut. These big legs (don't know any technical terms) came out to secure the truck as the huge ladder went up. The engineer (forgot his name) lifted the ladder all the way up and turned it around for the kids. Then he lifted the cab of the fire truck up so he could check the engine. He had some things to check so the kids couldn't get in the cab, but they got to get on the ladder in the back. Then when he pulled the fire truck back into the garage (ah.. garages, one of Sam's favorite things thanks to his dad) he showed us that the back wheels turned as well so that the truck could make turns in tight spots.
Then we went into the garage and Josh let Sam put on his fire gear. The hat and coat were really heavy. (AUGH, and my camera ran out of battery... so no pictures of this part). Josh then put his gear on quickly to show us how quickly he has to get dressed. He even put on his scuba gear (again, not sure the term is right) and showed us how they have to breathe with the oxygen. It sounded like Darth Vader. It must have been HOT and heavy. It was almost 100 degrees.
Sam was mesmerized the whole time, he was shy but when it was time to go, he didn't want to go. He asked if we could just stay for a little bit longer. We are so proud of Josh! We are glad he gave us the opportunity to come down and see what he does. Thanks Josh!

Bees Baseball Game

On Saturday, we went to a Salt Lake Bees game. Joey, LeeAnn, Sophie and Josh came with us. First of all, when we first got there, we just finished setting up our blankets on the grass behind the 3rd base. I handed my camera to Josh to take a picture of our family and we hear the crowd go crazy. We stop and look up and see that it's coming over the fence, it's a homerun! It's coming over the fence just in front of us. I see this guy dart up and go after this ball. I'm thinking to myself, "this guy really wants that baseball." Long story short... it was Michael! For those of you who know Michael and the die hard sports freak that he is, (and those of you who don't know him... I'm being sarcastic) this was a total shock to me. This was a shock to Josh as well, he got a few pictures, but he said he would have taken more pictures of the mayhem in getting the ball if he had known it was Michael. Neither of us knew it was him until he turned around, I thought he was sitting beside us still waiting for our picture to be taken. But, if I really think about it, I shouldn't have been surprised... it wasn't about the ball, it was about the competition and he won. But if you ask him, it was about Sam. So for those of you in Utah, that might have watched sports highlights Saturday night and you saw some crazy guy on the news and the homerun ball he just got... it was Michael. So, for Michael I think that was the highlight of his night. Later in the evening, we were behind center field (they had us move to set up for fireworks) and another homerun was hit up and over just in front of where we were sitting. If Michael hadn't gotten up to take Katelyn to get a drink, I'm certain he would have gotten that ball too!
For Sam, on the otherhand. The highlights were the fireworks, Sophie, Joey, LeeAnn and Josh. I don't think I hardly saw him the whole game while they were there. He had a captive audience... and a never ending supply of treats. As you can see from the picture in the bottom left... he was THRILLED about the fireworks, he was not smiling at the camera, he was smiling that way pretty much during all of the fireworks. I brought some glosticks, which were also a hit. The kids LOVED them, and Sam faithfully puts his in the freezer so they will last and he can have them again another night. Katelyn on the other hand... plays with hers non-stop. She doesn't care about the glow part. She just wants to connect them, and take them apart, make bracelets, necklaces and "honkin" circles (honkin is her new word). You can see the struggle on his face when he sees Katelyn play with hers. I will ask him if he wants to play with his, and he will say no, he wants to save them until dark. Sadly, when it gets dark it's time for him to go to bed... so he doesn't get as much play time out of them.
I have to say that the highlight for Katelyn was probably the Nachos Joshua bought for her. I think I could have snapped a hundred pictures of how much she loved those nachos. We tried to be careful to just let her eat out of ours, because as Josh sadly found out, she is a major double dipper. She does fake bites, to get nacho cheese off. She liked the fireworks as well, but played with the glo-sticks more.
What fun night!

24th of July...

I grew up with the 24th of July being almost a big a deal as the 4th of July. (For those of you not in Utah... it is a holiday.) I have memories of my mom telling me that on the 24th of July they would hike to the top of the "This is the Place" monument in Salt Lake City (across the street from the zoo) with her dad and then go to the zoo. Of course hiking to the top of that hill was the object lesson about being grateful and remembering what the pioneers did when the pioneers came into the valley on that day and Brigham Young declaring "This is the Place" (or whatever, you know the story) and what a hot hot day it must have been and they only had to hike to the top of the hill and the pioneers had to come across the plains and that was only the beginning of their work...
So, I always felt like the 24th of July was always a day I felt like you were supposed to feel grateful that you didn't have it as hard as the pioneers. Kind of like Thanksgiving but with picnic food instead of Thanksgiving dinner. We usually went to the zoo as well, as far as I can remember, but I don't ever remember having to hike up that hill, which I was grateful for.
Even though my mom was big on traditions... I am afraid this is a tradition that I am not carrying on. First of all, Michael is not a fan of the zoo. He claims he never went to the zoo until we were married... something I'm not sure I believe... a childhood without the zoo! He is less of a fan of outings on a holiday, especially the really hot ones... with crowds.
We still had a fun day at Taste of the Valley! A fun little outing, with crowds, in the heat, on a holiday! Wonders never cease. We went last year, and it was awful... but we brought our kids. This year, I got a babysitter and it was fun! I don't think Michael would have done it otherwise. For those who don't know, at Taste of the Valley you go and pay and you get to taste the food of about 25 different places. It was fun and yummy, even though it was hot, and we walked away stuffed. No family picnic, no fireworks, no zoo... no mention of pioneers even, just us, kidless and gorging ourselves on food. We still had the heat.

Cousin Sophie

My kids love their cousin Sophie (and their Uncle Joey even more). We were up at Grandpa's house and the girls looked so cute on the picnic table together. Sam must have heard the camera because he felt the need to squeeze into the picture. The last picture is probably my favorite. Sam adoring Sophie, Katelyn bored and Sophie still ready for the photo!

Painting!

I finally convinced Michael to do some painting upstairs. I think this is the second time I "won" in the years of our marriage... the first time Michael documented it in our calendar somewhere, I'll have to look it up to tell you the exact date ;) Just kidding. But he was hesitant because it was a big job... Joey ended up babysitting for us and we couldn't have done it without his help!

Anyway, it looks great and I'm so glad! (Michael will debate me on the looks great part, probably on this whole post actually.) There is a little touch up to be done but I still love it. Everyone asks me, "What color?" and I'm at a loss for what to say other than the name of the paint color, which is "tequila". In the picture the plants make it look greener than it really is I think. But for those who have asked for pictures... here is one. We only painted the entry way wall, the dividing wall (both sides) and the north wall of the living room.

To blog or not to blog...

New to blogging...
This is something I thought I would never do. But I have to say I have a couple of friends and some family that "blog" and I have enjoyed looking at their blogs and seeing what's going on in their lives. I feel like it's so hectic to keep in touch with people sometimes that at least this way I am able to see what's going on in their lives and see kids grow etc. and so I thought maybe they might want to see what's going on in mine.
But still, with this being said, I never thought I'd do it. So, for those who I expressed sentiments that I would never do this... I'm eating my words.
So here's our blog, for our friends and family who may or may not want to look at what's going on in our lives.

Swimming this summer...

We got a free pass for a week to a go to a swim/tennis club up the street from us. We went every day for the entire week. The kids had so much fun, I'm really sad about not having a pass there. Not sad enough to pay for the incredibly expensive membership fee... But it was truly fun while it lasted. Katelyn is a little water baby and loves the water so much, she is absolutely fearless. The couple of times she accidentally went all the way under she didn't cry. She gets cold really quickly though and will scrunch up her arms and say "freezing" or "towel" and will sit out and eat crackers until she warms up and bit and then wants right back in. Sam loved it as well and is very sad about us not going there anymore.