What A Summer!

I haven't been posting for a while because after I get done working, I just want to go to bed and get some sleep. That doesn't mean we haven't done anything fun this summer. We have been doing a couple of things a month since May. The best part is, my husband has been able to join us. He is usually busy even if I have planned to do something so we go when he is at work but this year, he said he wanted to do "stuff" with the family.

We have been to Lagoon, the local amusement park,

Red Butte Gardens,

took the new boat out for a spin,

visited the ranch at Antelope Island, the biggest island in the Great Salt Lake,

and went to the George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park in Ogden.

We also took swimming lessons, went on a few picnics at the park, saw an actual movie in an actual theater (Disney's "Up"), went to the natural history museum (cool traveling frog exhibit), and went to a couple of family reunions.

I am sure there are one or two things I am forgetting or overlooking or maybe I just thought we did more things this summer than we actually did. I would still like to go camping which I was looking forward to but we haven't been able to do. I would like to go to Dinosaur Land and see the museum where one wall is a real dinosaur dig but it has been closed and only recently got funding to rebuild. I guess we will wait a couple years until it reopens.

I am hoping to do one or two more things before they go back to school. School starts on July 27th. Although I am not excited about school starting so early or the summer essentially ending, I welcome the structure that the school year brings. I will miss my children when they go back to school but I have one more at home for at least a couple more years.My youngest turned 3 in February.

Grandmother Webb

My husband's Grandma Webb died yesterday. She was very sick and ready to go. She thought she was seeing and speaking to her husband who has been dead for 37 years. Being LDS, I believe that our spirit lives on after we have passed away. I believe she was seeing and speaking to her family that has passed on. She is out of pain now, for which we are thankful. I did not get to know her as well as I would have liked. She was very creative and made many things for her family. She knitted, crocheted, did plastic canvas and cross-stitching. Her husband died when my husband was a child so she has been widowed for several years. She raised 9 children4 boys and 5 girls. We will miss her.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day we went to my mom-in-laws for dinner. My son was wrestling with his cousin and hurt his left arm. (thank goodness he is right handed) After dinner we went to visit my mom also. He was running and tripped. On Tuesday, he said it was still hurting so we took him to the doctor. They did an x-ray. They had to send it out to get a final reading on it but they did give him a splint for his arm. They called today and said they had the final reading. He does have a small fractor and they'd like to have my son get a cast on his arm. He is afraid of getting a cast on it for some reason. I'l tell him when he gets home from school. I am not looking forward to it.

Kittens

I promised pictures of my little balls of fury so here they are. I haven't downloaded mine but my son has so I'll show you the ones he's taken. There are more to come as my son spoils these little guys! Yes, they are both boys. No, they are not currently fixed. Yes, they will be.

Preschool - Manners

Today we talked about manners and polite "key words" and when we would use those words. Polite "key words" are please, thank you, you’re welcome, I’m sorry, excuse me and let’s share.
We practiced our coloring skills by coloring our "key words".
We had yogurt and pretzels for our snack. Yum!
We played some file folder games. They teach me visual discrimination as I match the shapes and letters. They are lots of fun.
We played outside with our preschool friends to get some exercise. My favorite outside activity is playing in the sandbox.

Nickelcade!

We went to Nickelcade! My sister and two kids plus my niece and her two kids went with me, my husband and my kids to play video games. I really wasn't looking forward to it but the weather was awful and since my sister was going with my neice and their children, and I didn't want my children to miss out on any fun since they do so much without us anyway, we went. I didn't take my camera so for pics you can visit my sisters blog at http://diabeticdilemma.blogspot.com/2009/04/another-spring-break-activity.html. In case you don't know, Nickelcade is an arcade-type place where you pay an entrance fee and then all games, rides, etc are just a nickel. We used coupons which essentially got most of us in at half-price. We had an odd number of people in our family and it was buy one get one free so we bought three and two got in free so not quite half price.

Kitties

One of my cats died this winter. It was very sad and I went to pieces even though I knew it was going to happen. I still have my Cuddles and really wasn't sure if I wanted another cat. Of course, my children did. My littest decided she wanted a "black kitten". I thought that was amazingly specific, even my older children had just said cat. So, I started looking for a black kitten. I found some, 10 weeks old, already litter box trained. It was a long ride but we went to get one more kitten. We came home with two. What?! Well, they will play together and sleep together so they won't keep us up all night crying. My older cat is NOT happy. She doesn't like any other cats at all. We have told her she needs to be nice but I don't think she's buying it. She has growled and hissed at them but hasn't hurt them. The kittens seem sufficiently scared enough to leave her alone even though they are extremely curious. I will post pictures when they are more comfortable here. I feel really bad about the little boy from the family that gave us the kittens. He really didn't want to let them go. He stood crying at the door as he watched his beloved kittens being taken away by strangers. Poor child. To you I want to say that I love cats. I love these little kittens and I promise to take good care of them. They are already loved by me and my family especially my little children. And I will keep my promise to send you updates on our kittens.