Friday Fun

Friday we were able to get out and do some fun things. I dropped the girls off at the rec. center so they could swim and play (and buy crappy food and drinks . . . ). The boys and I, plus a friend Aiden, went to the RATs near Ridgway - RAT = Ridgway Area Trails. We had a blast mountain biking - I really love it there!

Jonas, Miles, and Aiden almost to the top.

Jonas and a full Ridgway reservoir in the backdrop.

 Groupie.

 The flowers were really beautiful - even if my pictures don't show it. :)

This was at the bottom - sooooo beautiful!

A short video:

After our ride we stopped in Colona so the boys could get some doughnuts. Then we went to the rec. center. The girls had had a fun few hours on their own. The boys joined them in the pool and they all had fun splashing around for a bit.

These videos were taken in slow-motion on my phone - the girls loved watching them. But they only transfer to my computer in regular-motion. Whatever. It shows Lucy and then Emmy going off the slide and then off the high-dive.

That evening we went "shooting." We have an extra BB gun that we borrowed for Ben's trip last weekend and so the kids all took turns (and we adults did, too) shooting. It was pretty fun.

Lucy shot, too - I guess I just didn't get any photos of her.

We had a chilly rest of the weekend - highs barely reaching 60! Rain and hail, too. What a way to start summer! But the forecast for this week gets up in to the upper 80s so I think summer will be here soon.

FAMILY

When we repainted our walls 1 1/2 years ago, we had left this wall blank - it had been ridiculously covered with holes and pictures before us. We just sort of used the existing holes and hung up random pictures. It was kind of messy. I wanted to display our family photos from years past and so I finally got around to working on it - with Ben's help. This time we just used "sticky things" to adhere the frames to the wall - I hope they work; it's so much nicer than making holes in the wall.

I love how it turned out!

Lucy and Ben's Duet

Lucy had been practicing this piece for piano. Her teacher encouraged her to play the duet with her dad. So they did! It took a few times to get it just right - but Lucy finally did!

Father Ben

Ben likes to call the boys (when he asks them to say a prayer) Deacon Jonas or Teacher Miles ('though now they are both teachers, so they both get that title). So we'll call him Father Ben for this post.

Fathers' Day was a nice day - hopefully Ben thought so, too! I'm sure he thought that as soon as he finished speaking in church. :) He gave a great talk on fatherhood!

He got lots of "treats" from us - cheese, vegemite (so gross), fun sodas, european crackers (cookies in America), a couple books, and a t-shirt that has yet to come. :)

For dinner Ben made some delicious chicken, I made bread and potatoes and homemade ice-cream, and Jonas helped me with a strawberry-rhubarb pie. Everyone decided they like plain ol' rhubarb pie better!

Anyways, we sure love and appreciate Ben in our home!

If I had never met your father how would you describe him to me? 

Miles –Average height, a beard, balding.

Jonas – He’s got bald on top, he’s not that tall, uhh, and he likes outdoors.

Emmy – Short for a man. Baldish on the top. Good-looking. And nice.

Lucy – He is short, nice, almost bald, and is a nurse at the Black Canyon Surgical Center.

What do you think is your father’s favorite food to eat?

Miles – Swedish meatballs.

Jonas – No idea. Chicken, I don’t know.

Emmy – Chicken.

Lucy – This is hard. I think his favorite food is (can you give me a clue/me - “no”) . . . chicken.

What is something your father loves to do?

Miles – He likes to do things what Lewis and Clark did. Like things in that time era.

Jonas – Camp. Hike. That’s all.

Emmy – Definitely not give talks. Camp, hike, backpack, be with his family, go to Utah, maybe swim.

Lucy – Camp, hike, spend time with his kids, jump on the tramp with Emmy and Lucy.

Which of the kids in our family is most like dad?

Miles – I don’t know. None of us.

Jonas – Jonas, well Miles’ feet are big and I’m skinny and Dad is skinny even though he calls himself fat.

Emmy – Emmy.

Lucy – Lucy.

What is something that dad does that makes you laugh?

Miles – He has bad jokes that are funny.

Jonas -  Toots a lot.

Emmy –His like dad-jokes are kind of funny but kind of stupid so it makes me laugh.

Lucy - Tells funny jokes and does funny things.

What do you think you do that you learned by watching your father?

Miles – I really don’t know. I know I’ve learned things, but . . . 

Jonas – I guess pitch a tent.

Emmy – I don’t know, umm, do I have to give an answer?

Lucy – I learned how to hike, camp, and make stuff like chicken.

What qualities do you think you inherited from your father?

Miles – Well we agree on a lot of stuff.

Jonas – I don’t know. Being alive maybe.

Emmy – Maybe liking to play “The curling game” and reading.

Lucy – That I like camping, hiking, laughing, jumping on the tramp, that’s it.

What are some of your first memories of dad?

Miles – My baptism.

Jonas – I can barely remember the old house, so it wouldn’t be there. I remember him driving his blue bug.

Emmy – When we went fishing and he would gut all the fish and I would think he’s so brave and mean at the same time.

Lucy – Oh him carrying me in the backpack when we’d always walk and me sucking on my boo.

What do you think dad wants you to become?

Miles – To be a good person, to obey the commandments, to be honest, I guess that’s it.

Jonas – A good husband and a good working man.

Emmy – A good mother, and what I want to become he wants me to become.

Lucy – A mother, a nice girl, a nurse, a surgeon I mean. And live in a good house. And be nice.

What do you think dad loves about being a dad?

Miles – Having kids.

Jonas – I don’t know. Umm. I don’t know. (Jonas these are lame, think of something . . . ) I don’t know.

Emmy – Having children. Being married to mom. And getting to go on really fun adventures with his family.

Lucy -  That he could have children, raise them, and have fun with them, and do funny jokes with them.

What do you think dad dislikes about being a dad?

Miles – Also having kids.

Jonas – When the kids argue.

Emmy – having kids and they fight all the time. And he has to work all the time and get money for his family

Lucy – When the kids fight. And some of the work that he does (because sometimes he complains about it).

What makes dad happy?

Miles – History.

Jonas – When the kids don’t argue.

Emmy – When we don’t fight. And, umm, when, ummm, we. No. Going hiking and spending time with family and riding bikes with mom in the morning when he gets work off.

Lucy – When we all get along. Getting outdoors and camping.

What makes dad sad?

Miles – Death of a loved one.

Jonas – When Wilson died.

Emmy – Getting news about Uncle Joe. When we don’t follow God’s commandments. Having to work more.

Lucy – When he comes home to the house a mess and he’s so mad about it he can’t get over it and when his kids fight.

What makes you proud of your dad?

Miles – The things he does. Like everything he does – organizing campouts. He was the bishop, that’s cool.

Jonas – That he’s a hard-working dad.

Emmy – That he’s my dad. He knows how to do a lot of things. He was the bishop. And he’s a good man.

Lucy – That he’s short, that I got to have him as my dad, that he’s a surgeon, that I get to be a Maxwell.

How do you know that dad loves you?

Miles -  (Why did Dad make all these hard questions? That’s not the answer.) By everything he does.

Jonas – Well cuz if he didn’t that wouldn’t be good and I don’t know. Good parents are supposed to love their children. 

Emmy – Cuz sometimes he jumps on the tramp with us when he doesn’t want to at all. He goes to work every day so he makes money for us. He tells us he loves us.

Lucy – Because he hugs me, he tells me he loves me (no der), and that he gets to take us on fun trips.

Deacon's Mini-Backpacking Trip

Ben took his Deacon's quorum on a mini-backpacking trip. I think it was a first "backpacking" trip for all the boys - except for our boys of course (who, of course, are not deacons but were permitted to go, of course - how many times can I say "of course" in a sentence?!).

It was a tiny-hike to their campsite - about 1 1/2 miles. The area they went is just about 25 minutes from our house so it's pretty close. The boys hiked, set-up camp (they were to build their own shelters), ate dinner, cooked marshmallows, and went to bed. Ben gave out some pretty stern threats about being loud . . . and they were much better than times past. :)

In the morning they got up, ate, packed up, and then started hiking out (it was a loop and so that was cool). They set up a little shooting range (pretty much all the boys had brought a BB gun) and Ben held a "Biathlon" of sorts! Ben said that was really fun. The boys had to run down a hill. Grab their gun and take 5 shots at paper-plate targets, run around the pond, and then shoot 5 more times. You got points for your aim (how close to the middle on the target) and for your time. Jonas was dead-last in time, but claimed 1st overall because of his shooting accuracy! Miles' gun didn't shoot and so that was a slight bummer, but he still had fun. They shot the guns for fun afterwards and then hiked the rest of the way out.

Ben said it was a great trip!

 Eight boys ready to go - flag and all, especially as it was Flag Day! Boys: Illanuci, Jonas, Garen, Miles, Asher, Jakai, Kyle, and Andreas.

 Hiking to their campsite . . .

 Illanuci and Jonas.

Still hiking - some struggling more than others! :)

 At the campsite getting their sleeping shelters built - some struggling more than others. :)

 Jonas and Illanuci shared their shelter.

 Miles (mainly) and Jakai made a teepee for their sleeping arrangements - super cool.

 The boys carrying over their campfire sitting log.

 The boys had an old flag to "retire" (i.e., burn) and that was pretty cool.

 Good morning to Jakai and Miles - their teepee worked out pretty great.

 Haha, Kyle and his dad Curtis had quite the shelter. :) Ben was giving Curtis a little bit of a hard time and Curtis shot back, "We're not all shelter-builders like you!" In a joking, but not joking, manner. :)

 Miles had an accident with a gigantic marshmallow . . . so he had to cover up the mess with dirt so it wouldn't be so sticky. It washed out just fine!

 Getting the shooting range set up.

 Ready, set, fire!

 The biathlon.

 Awards "ceremony" for the biathlon!

 Jonas, 1st and Illanuci, 2nd.

The three cool leaders/dads: Logan, Ben, and Curtis.

Ben's Early Father's Day Present

So Ben had a busy week this past week - he was working on a talk that he'll give tomorrow (Father's Day), plus he had a Deacon's Camp-Out Friday that he was organizing and planning for.

Ben takes the boys mowing and they had a full-load to do this week. So Tuesday I came up with a pre-Father's Day surprise: I would take the boys Wednesday morning and we would get them done. So we did and we even met up with Ben for some shaved-ice when he was done with work and totally played along with all the lawns they'd have to mow afterwards. When Ben got home he saw the "Happy Early Fathers' Day" note from the boys and was so happy! He was able to spend the evening writing his talk, thus freeing up some of his anxiety for the week.

On Thursday the boys got two "extra" mow jobs to do that day - and, as it just so happened, it had to be me that took them. One job was for a family in another ward who is moving to Utah and they were having a showing at noon and . . . nevermind, long and boring story. But the husband needed our boys STAT and so I ran them over and boy-oh-boy was that a HUGE backyard! (It was an acre, but seemed like so much more!) Luckily (and oh-so-fun for the boys - Miles especially) he had a ride-on mower. So Jonas trimmed, I helped with our push-mower, and Miles drove the ride-on. We got it done and I think it looked nice. Then it was a rush home, get the kids ready for their swim practice plus me ready to do laps, swim, back home, and back out with the boys to mow Lucy's music teacher's lawn. She was surprising her husband and so I thought that was pretty great and funny. :)

Here are a few mowing pictures:

 Go, Miles, Go. He wasn't too bummed about doing this lawn . . .

 Jonas got to do a few laps . . . but he's the runner-up to trimming when Ben's not available (although Miles did do a bit and I think he's a fine trimmer, too).

 Jonas working hard.

 The HUGE yard. :)

What a cool and lucky kid.

Bella Can Swim

I guess there is some debate if pugs can swim or not, so we thought we'd test it out with the free pool we found at a garage sale:

Our Trip to Utah - short, but sweet!

We made our kids all watch PBS's show of Les Miserables (Everyone except Jonas wanted to watch it - in fact, now I remember that Jonas opted out of most of the shows). It was a 3-part series, each 2-hours long. There was no music and it followed the book very well (as opposed to the musical version). While I love, love, love the musical, I ended up loving this as well. Les Mis is just one of the best stories ever written.

Anyways, I wanted my kids to watch the musical and did a google search of Les Mis in the Denver or Salt Lake areas. Official performances are way too much money for us to take our family of six to attend. But I found the next best thing: Les Miserables School Edition. It's basically a legit (i.e., author approved) condensed version of the real deal. Put on all by kids 18 and younger.

So we left Saturday morning (the boys had a stake dance on Friday they wanted to go to) and drove straight in to Salt Lake City. We parked our car in a parking garage and the kids wanted us to park on the very top. So we did! It was tall and we went around and around - Lucy said, "It seems like we're just going in circles!" Ha, we were - just circles that were rising. We all got a little sick feeling looking over . . .

We met my parents at the theater and had a wonderful time watching the show. It was so very good! Utah's got talent, that's for sure. Afterwards, we went to the Last Course to get our first course of dinner - dessert, ha! The kids had fun ice creams:  three of them had "breakfast cereal" and it was delicious. Miles had "rosemary and honey" ice cream and it was good, too. Ben and I shared a lemon crepe-like cake. My parents shared something, too. Fun!

We spent the evening lighting fires in my mom's oven - really, my mom started a fire. Ha! Ben and I drove back with the boys and so we missed the actual flames (but were engulfed in a VERY smokey house!). Emmy kept telling me that the fire was just like a "camp-fire" and was "huge" and that Grandma screamed, "FIRE!" My mom did all that to make a fun memory for my girls, haha.

My dad displayed some of his "things" from the old-days. :) Pictures of his helicopter crash and burnt body, military ribbons, pictures of girlfriends, etc. The kids really enjoyed seeing it all!

Sunday was a special treat, too. I went back to my ward I grew up in - the Granite 5th ward, now called the Willow Hills ward. Some good friends of my parents were called as mission presidents in Seattle and were giving talks so my parents wanted to attend. Since I was there, I thought it would be fun, too. It was crazy. So many people that I recognized! It's been almost 20 years since I've been there . . . it was weird and awesome. Emmy went to the same YW room where I began YWs 28 years ago . . .

Then we had a yummy and filling lunner (lunch/dinner) and drove back home.

It was a quick trip, but totally worth it!

Pics:

Looking down from our parking spot . . . Ben was especially scared. :)

 Love these people!

 It was a ways down . . .

My dad, Miles, and Jonas waiting for the play to start.

The girls really loved the show! Ben said it was his favorite-ever performance of Les Mis that he has seen!

 The kids eating their first course at The Last Course.

 Emmy wearing my dad's old helicopter helmet.

 Lucy loved it! She wanted me to send a picture to her teacher! And today she had to show the picture to all her gym friends. :)

 My kids (on a cold morning - like 35 degrees!) standing in front of my old ward building. Fun stuff.

Like I said, short but sweet! Thanks mom and dad for hosting us!

Some Random Summer Pics

Well the first 2 1/2 weeks of summer have been cRaZY! Sick kids, St. George, Yard Sale Fundraiser, and then Slime Camp. Then a quick 24-hour trip to Utah coming up! I'll be excited to go to work and get a little "break." Haha.

One of Miles' friends told him they should drive to Sonic in Dalilah one night . . .So on Monday night (the only night this friend and his sister could make it - they are moving) Miles had a group of teenagers over. It was awkward. But only for Ben and myself as we watched them. :) The kids played some Secret Hitler (such a fun game!) and another card game. Then Ben and another kid drove them all to Sonic. It was a fun night for them, I think!

In the middle of our busy week, we celebrated Brigham's 4th birthday! He ate his carrot cake piece so fast we couldn't even catch a picture! :) We sure love Brigham and he's the perfect addition to our family.

 

The girls have been waiting for this! Business was slow at first, but picked up. They ended up earning $50. Lemonade buyers are so nice. I want to be more like them. :)

Slime Camp

Well Csilla did it again . . .she convinced me to help her run a Slime Camp during her first session of summer camps she's organizing. :) She had five camps going on - Skateboard camp, Wrestling camp, Paddleboard camp, Spa Camp (Csilla ran that one, as well as over-saw and organized, etc. all the others), and Slime camp. Slime camp was super popular and filled up right away. Talk about pressure!

Luckily, it wasn't a whole week and we weren't just making slime the whole day. Camp lasted three days, Tuesday - Thursday, from 8am - 4:30pm. But Csilla schedules the camp pretty wonderfully. From 8-10 is drop-off at the fieldhouse where bouncy houses are set-up. So all the kids from all the camps come sometime in that time-frame and have fun bouncing, playing soccer, tag, etc. 10-10:30 is a break and snack-time. At 10:30 the camps all go their own ways and begin their activities, including a lunch break. Then from 2-4 (later for the skateboards because they are hard-core. :) ) kids either go to the Rec. Center for some indoor, big-pool swimming - or come back to the fieldhouse for outdoor swimming or more bouncy houses. Kids get to do a lot and do a lot of awesome activities. Jonas got to go to skateboard camp and he LOVED it. In fact, he just bought a board today (just a board - the other parts, "axels" called "trucks" for skateboards, wheels, etc. are sold separately). He was quite good. Csilla's son, Levi, was the best of the group; Jonas was second. Lucy went to the Spa camp and had a super-fun time making edible face masks, doing foot scrubs, painting nails, making cute flip-flops and headbands, etc. Miles and Emmy were my helpers and they were very much appreciated!

For my camp we made two different slimes each day. Your basic slime and edible slime on Tuesday (oh what a mess edible slime was - I hate dealing with cornstarch!), metallic and glow-in-the-dark slime on Wednesday, and chalkboard and a big finale HUGE Fluffy Slime with the other campers on Thursday. I had 15 kids total in my slime camp (about 50 total with all five camps). A couple, one in particular, were pains. :) One was a HUGE pain (he was in my group, of course!). The others were little pains (again, in my group!).

Overall, it was great. My kids all had fun and it was pretty cool to be part of such a cool summer camp. Csilla's ideas for organizing camps are spectacular. She wants them to be rowdy, fun, adventurous, messy, etc. Some people, unfortunately, don't agree with her philosophy . . . but that's a whole other post that I will probably not do. :)

Okay, on to pictures! I have a ton!

 Stretchy slime - how far will it go!? So fun.

 She was a master slimer. :)

 My awesome slimey helpers.

 Lucy and a new friend playing at the fieldhouse one morning.

 Lucy's edible face mask she did with Csilla's camp: powdered sugar and water mixed. Then you dip your face in sprinkles. Adorable.

 A boy and his metallic slime beard.

 I saw this the night before and actually had straws at my house - win! Blowing slime-bubbles was a huge hit.

 He was a master slime-bubble blower.

 He wasn't too shabby himself! (Oh, guess what?! I had more boys in my group than girls - weird, huh? 9 boys and 6 girls!)

 We took a break one day and played a fun game of Red-Rover. The kids LOVED it - except for the ones who didn't at various times in the game . . . Emmy and Miles were popular kids in this game. It was fun.

 Chalkboard slime . . . my favorite.

 A cool creation.

 The googly eyes I brought were a great addition to our chalkboard slime.

 Awww, a girl after my own "heart."

 A crazy monster!

 A poop emoji.

 So cool.

 The finale slime! I didn't figure out what it was going to be until the night before - 2 giant tubs of fluffy slime for everyone! Spa campers and wrestlers were there to join in the fun.

 Squirting in some shaving cream.

 Oh it was getting messy = fun!

 Yep, that's my Emmy girl.

 Yay, it worked!

Miles, Emmy, and Csilla's spa helper, Destiny (who was fabulous). And two big batches of wonderfully fluffy slime. We broke off chunks for everyone. :)

My days were long - getting up around 5:30 and home around 5:30 (after swimming, changing, checking-out kids, and then finally getting to go back to my room and clean-up, it was late . . .). Then I would come home, make dinner, and then get ready for the next rounds of slime the next day. :)

Oh, here is a fun video of the "finale" slime: