Visiting the Splash Pad

Earlier this week we went to a splash pad with my friend, Jamie. She plays basketball with us on Tuesdays and she has had a difficult life. I so admire her willingness to accept trials and smile her way through them.

We have been trying to get our kids together for a play date for a while now and we finally succeeded. They have a big new splash pad in Bluffdale, but we decided to go to one of the quieter and less busy areas. It was actually windy and the water was cold, so the kids were reluctant to get wet.

We sat under a tree and ate sandwiches. Jamie took the kids to the playground and I snoozed a bit using my purse for a pillow. (It was the day after Lagoon and I was totally exhausted.)

I think I need to simplify my life a bit. I'm so tired of never getting enough sleep.

Cherry Hill Resort

I can't believe that after yesterday's post I am even considering putting this up, but I just love adventures with my kids and they are even better when they are free. So you know I'm a member of the US Family Guide group of bloggers and even though they are a national company, every once in a while they will offer something that is specific to Utah.

That's what happened today. I guess they just knew that I would LOVE to try out Cherry Hill Resort. It's located in Kaysville, Davis County, near Ogden where Prima Donna lives and it is a water park, mini-golf course, rock wall, jungle maze, campground, and more. It is definitely just my kind of place! Family-owned and operated for 50 years and this is their anniversary year so they are doing something a bit crazy... they are giving away $20,000 in prizes!

All you have to do is check out their website and follow them on Facebook. Prizes will be given away every day of the 2017 summer season. They have brand new slides called the Little Dipper I'm sure Baby Doll and Scout will love.

We can't wait to see you there!

No More Teacups!

Well, they finally did it. On Monday, they kept me so busy and crazy for the day that this morning I felt like mush... not for breakfast, I mean my brain, and pretty much my body too.

Wait, let's start over and I will tell you about my day. Bossy got a new job and she started this week, so I get to watch Chip. All was fine and dandy until he heard that Drama Queen was taking the kids up to Lagoon for our Bounceback day when they got home from their swimming lessons. My task was to wait for Sport to be finished with class, and then to drop off Chip on our way out of town.

So I loaded Chip into my car and we drove off to run some errands about the same time the kids left with Drama Queen. He likes hanging out with me, so he didn't seem to mind. We did a bunch of stuff: dropped Scout's glasses at the eye doctor for repair, took some paperwork up to my sweetie's doctor, made returns to Lowe's and Kohl's, gassed up the car and then just to kill the last 15 minutes, got an ice cream cone from McDonald's.

At 3:00 we picked up Sport and headed for home. By 4:00 we had the car loaded and I was ready to drop off Chip. I drove to my sweetie's company across town and picked him up, then we drove the rest of the way to Lagoon.

The kids immediately got us to work on the rides. It was busy, but not terribly so even though the temperature hovered near 100. We rode Rattlesnake Rapids 3 times, getting totally soaked. Then the girls convinced me they would not spin the teacups if I would ride with them... yeah right.

By 10:00 when the park closed, I was exhausted, but my sweetie was hungry, so off to Chili's we went for a late dinner. Did I tell you I was soaked? Still?

The food was good, but the ride home was still long, so we climbed into our vehicles and drove to my sweetie's work, picked up his car, and finally arrived home about 1:00 AM. I literally could hardly walk into the house. I dragged myself upstairs, peeled off my wet clothes, and stood in a hot shower for about 20 minutes.

Then the bed just looked so inviting I couldn't help myself. I curled up in a ball and didn't climb out until this morning. I'm still a bit groggy and unstable. I blame those ridiculous teacups...

Happy Birthday, Prima Donna!

You must get tired of listening to me chatter on about birthdays. Today is Prima Donna's 19th. It was fun to see her and spend a little time with her. She loves working at Trefoil, and all the walking and smaller portions seems to be a good thing for her dieting goals. Except for this cake...

All of the kids were here today at one time or another. Beauty and The Beast just returned from a few days in Texas for a friend's wedding. Our other major news is that Sport was ordained a Teacher today. That is one of the levels in our Aaronic Priesthood. I can't believe how fast all the kids are growing up!

Bossy and Gamer both have new jobs. Gamer started his a couple of weeks ago. He is working for Jerry Seiner Nissan in Bountiful and Bossy starts at Medicaid tomorrow. Life just keeps changing, it won't be long before I am that little old grandma in the rocking chair... maybe I need to go to work with Prima Donna at Trefoil. At least her diet plan seems to work.

#MantiPageant

We are finally just relaxing at my dad's house, getting ready for bed. We got up early this morning, dropped Sport and Crafty off in Taylorsville for their parade, and then we made our way through the crazy traffic to Drama Queen's house.

We spent the next 3 hours working on touch-up painting, caulking, and miscellaneous small tasks. The upstairs is nearly habitable, which is good because Teach and Twiz will be moving their little family in there next week.

After we picked up the kids from the parade, we finished up and then ran home. It was a mad dash to get out the door in time to pick up Prima Donna from Trefoil before heading to Manti to watch the Mormon Miracle Pageant.

It was awesome, as usual, but my favorite part was running into a favorite childhood friend and visiting for a few minutes. She and her family were staying in Ephraim just so they could participate as members of the cast. I hadn't seen her in about 30 years...

Grandpa was swarmed with people who knew him as a teacher and he was loving it. It was a busy, but definitely good day.

Happy 14th Birthday, Sport!

Today was Sport's 14th birthday. We started our morning celebration by going to Seven Peaks waterpark It was just after 12:00 when we got there. The Dog Walker, Baby Doll, and Curly had been there for a couple of hours by then, but the Dog Walker had to leave for work.

We only stayed until about 2:00. It was 80 degrees, but the water was cold, so we decided we would plan to come back on another day. I didn't take any pics at the park because I didn't want to get my phone wet, but I did get this one after we stopped by McDonald's on the way home.

We don't normally do birthday dinners on Friday nights, but with Prima Donna working at Trefoil Ranch and only available on weekends, we thought we better celebrate hers on Sunday. Sport wanted a German Chocolate cake, tuna casserole, and rolls.

I got to watch the baby.

Drama Queen bought Klondike bars instead of ice cream and the kids were thrilled. We had a few missing. Beauty and The Beast are in Texas for a wedding, and Princess and The Frog were stuck at home, but we still had a great time.

Sport loved his gifts, especially the mostly gone water bottles Curly gave him for flipping and the Nike socks. But I think his favorite gift was the Broncos hat chosen by my sweetie.

Happy Birthday, Sport.

And many more!

My Hanging Basket from CommercialSilk

I'm pretty sure it's a well-known fact that I kill plants. Not intentionally, of course, I just can't ever get the water right; it's either not enough or way too much. The kids laugh at me every time I buy a poinsettia at Christmas because they know it will be a miracle if it makes it to the end of December.

About 10 years ago I convinced my sweetie that I was changing my ways and I could handle real flowers, so he put up a bunch of porch hooks and bought me some beautiful hanging baskets full of petunias. The first one started dying just over a week later, and it wasn't long before they all looked like ridiculous pots of dirt swaying in the breeze.

Of course I took them down, but the hooks have remained as a testament to my failure.

That's why I was so excited when CommercialSilk contacted me about a product review. I hopped online and immediately started looking for the hanging baskets. We found one we liked and it took about 10 days for it to arrive.

Drama Queen opened the box for me and hung it on one of the porch hooks without adjusting a single branch. A blossom or two remained in the box, but I couldn't even tell they had fallen, and we have had it up for about 10 days now through a windstorm and a light rain and it still looks as great as ever.

This morning when I was taking pictures of it for this post, Baby Doll wanted to know what I was doing. When I told her it was for a blog post, she seemed confused, then she asked, "You mean they aren't real?"

**I received this hanging basket for free in exchange for my honest review.**

A Special Date

Crafty and Sport are both participating with the SLCC Spirit Marching Band; Crafty is playing her clarinet and Sport is carrying the banner with Bean Dip. Fajita is also playing her flute, so it is a real family affair.

Tonight they had rehearsal downtown so my sweetie and I dropped them off and then drove to City Creek. We decided to take advantage of their two hours marching and find a quiet place to have dinner and talk for a while. I've hardly seen him all week.

We eventually settled on the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where Grandpa serves his mission. He had already gone home by then, but we climbed in the elevator anyway and got out on the 10th floor. They have two restaurants up there and we chose the cheaper one although at the Garden, the views and food still cost us $60.

Yes, that is the Salt Lake Temple right outside the window.

I wanted to show you the meal I paid all that money for and the beautiful view behind my sweetie's head. It was difficult to get a picture of him because the sun was shining in my eyes, but I finally managed with the flash.

Butler steak... delicious!

I love going out with my sweetie and spending time with just him. After we ate we roamed the Disney store and then the Fanzz store. Sport's birthday is on Friday, so we grabbed something I think he will really like (Sorry, Sport, you thought I was going to spill the secret, didn't you?)

When we finally picked up the kids at 8:45, Sport was carrying the entire banner. Apparently we get to take it home with us and clean it before the parade on Saturday...Hey! Is this really in his job description?

Father's Day 2017

I know I'm a bit late with this post, but when I went through my phone looking for a pic of me and my dad, I realized I didn't have a decent one of just the two of us so I fixed that.

On Sunday we had a big family party. We tried to make it much bigger, but most of my brothers and sisters are actually out of town so only one of my sisters and her cute daughter and family joined us for our typical Sunday family party. That made about 33 of us or so, but who is counting?

We served Grandpa's favorite meal, spaghetti and meatballs, and my sweetie's favorite, German Chocolate cake for dessert. I must confess that Drama Queen did pretty much all the cooking, and it was fabulous!

At one point during the party, I handed Baby Doll my phone and said, "Go take some pictures." She is so funny, but she took me very seriously and for the most part, we got some pretty cute shots, but I will let you be the judge.

Sorry, Sweetie, next year will be different... you can pick the main course!

Prima Donna's Grand Adventure

Prima Donna began a new adventure today. She wasn't happy with her job at Burger King, so she decided it was time to make a switch for the summer. About 10 days ago she applied for the job as a camp counselor at Trefoil Ranch which is a Girl Scout resident camp and on Thursday they made her an offer.

Today we spent a couple of hours acquiring her gear and getting her ready to go. Then Drama Queen, Scout, Baby Doll, and I drove her up the mountain. That's right, no cell service or internet unless she comes home on the weekends. Just fresh mountain air, lots of bugs and mosquitoes, sunscreen and horses; sounds like the perfect summer.

For her... not me...

Girl Scout Lagoon Day

My girls were so excited for Lagoon Day to finally be here! Me, not so much.

We left the house at 8:30 AM so the girls could be there in time to check in and for the awards ceremony. Baby Doll and Scout as well as my sweetie and I all got in free because each girl sold over 1000 boxes of cookies this year. (If you don't live in Utah, Lagoon is a large amusement park and the cost of tickets is about $50 each.) Their passes also included lunch and ice cream, so it was a pretty big deal.

Waiting in line... there were lots of long lines since it was Saturday.

On the Skyride.

After they were presented their certificates and we took pictures, we had lunch. Prima Donna had also joined our little adventure and the girls were excited to head off into the park. Just before 1:00, I got the call from Drama Queen that she had Curly, Crafty, and Sport and they were waiting for me in the parking lot. Yeah, we decided to make it a fun and exciting day for everyone.

We won a giant banana-monkey by tossing ping-pong balls.

Usually Sport and Crafty had a ton of fun riding together.

But not always.

Prima Donna had invited me to ride the JetStar with her first thing, so I did. From then on, my stomach just didn't want to settle down. Even when Drama Queen brought me some Dramamine, I was still unhappy. I rode a few rides with the kids and thoroughly enjoyed Rattlesnake Rapids, especially when my sweetie, Drama Queen, and Prima Donna were all doused in cold water! I got a little wet, but not too bad.

We always have to have a least one trip around the carousel.

 Time at the park stretched all day and then into the evening. Prima Donna had some friends in the musical theatre show there so I sat with her and watched it, but it was so loud... I really am getting old.

Stopping for a few minutes for dinner.

Family train ride!

 The kids were diehards, especially Baby Doll and Scout, and we stayed until 11:00 when the park closed. It took us an hour to get home, but I stayed up until about 1:30 AM when Drama Queen finally pulled in. She had gone the rest of the way to Ogden with Prima Donna to bring home a bunch of her things. Prima Donna got a job at Trefoil, one of the Girl Scout camps here in Utah and she starts tomorrow. It will definitely be a fun summer adventure for her, living in the mountains and working with girls. She can hardly wait to begin.

I really did have fun, see?

British Soccer Camp

You know I love some of the fun things our family has been able to do because of the US Family Guide. Curly has been waiting for months to participate in his very first British Soccer Camp! Actually, it's his very first soccer camp of any kind. Although he loves all kinds of sports, soccer is not one that he has much experience with, but in typical Curly fashion, he rose to the top and became one of the best players of the week.

I had never heard of Challenger Sports' British Soccer Camps before and I was definitely surprised to learn that they are available all over the country. In fact, when I first pulled up their website, I almost dared them to have camps near my home, and I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few choices.

Lindon was actually quite a drive for us, but because we wanted this particular week, we signed him up anyway. Later in the summer there are several camps that are much closer. (Year round school does make life difficult at times.)

The camp was split into two different classes. The morning class had 2 coaches, Charlie and Corey, and there were about 18 kids under the age of 12. If you remember, Curly is 8, so that put him squarely in the middle of the group. The camp ran from 9 - noon and then they had a break for lunch.

Most of the kids did not choose to participate in the extra afternoon training although at $57 more, I thought it was a bargain for the 4 days. There were only 4 kids signed up and they got 2 kids to each coach attention on specific moves and tips for another couple of hours.

Curly was on the Ecuador team and they took 2nd place in the "World Cup." He also turned out to be a pretty good goalie for someone who hadn't played soccer since he was 3. A couple of things... Curly had a difficult time understanding his coaches for the first little bit. They are from England and they do have pretty thick accents, but they were good at soccer and it was easy for them to show the kids how to improve their games.

Next, have your child bring a jacket and plenty of water. It was mid-June here in Utah and it still got pretty cold. A backpack stocked with treats would also be helpful since they are given breaks, but food is not included. And last but not least, if you coaches are getting the kids all excited about a "World Cup," then you'd better have at least something that looks like one for them to see. Curly was disappointed when the "cup" turned out to be nothing but a soccer ball wrapped in a shirt.

He loved the personalized ball and the encouraging comments from his coach. He is already talking about attending the camp again next year...


***We received a free week-long morning camp in exchange for our honest and thoughtful review.***

Three Sports in One Day

Last night I was all excited to come home and write an amazing post for you! I had been to the Leader Appreciation Dinner after Curly's baseball game so it was pretty late when I finally walked into the office. Something was different.

At first I thought someone had blown the circuit and my computer had just been shutdown. But when I pushed the button to turn it back on, nothing happened. My sweetie was consoling, but not surprised. When I called Bossy, she said, "Mom, your computer is 12 years old..." Yeah, that's more than a decade... Technology has changed a bit.

My problem is that I'm running xp. I know, totally archaic, but I like it. So my sweetie got online and ordered me a new power supply, but if that doesn't work, I'm afraid I will be forced into an upgrade.

Now, to share a bit of the post I had intended to write.

Here is my amazing Curly. He started Tuesday morning with 6 hours of soccer camp. Then he changed his uniform and played baseball for 2 hours (he was excited to catch for the first time ever this week). Then after a quick supper, he went with me to play basketball.

Oh for the days when my body was young enough to handle 3 sports all in the same day... I got tired just watching him play 3 sports all in the same day...

Discovering Pigtail Flippers

It had been quite a while since I heard from my friends over at Cave Tools. I thought we had reviewed pretty much all of their products, so I was quite surprised when they asked me if I wanted to try something called a Pigtail Flipper. I had never heard of such a thing and since this is barbecue, you can imagine what I was thinking about with a name like "pigtail."

I was wrong.

Pigtail flippers are actually these neat little long-handled tools with a curved metal skewer on the end to grab and turn meat. Because they barely touch the meat, they keep it from spilling all those delicious juices. I'm starting to sound like a commercial, aren't I?

So a few days ago my sweetie decided he was sort of fed up with the diet Crafty has put us on and he went to the store and bought a small package of nice steaks. He waited until the kids were all in bed and then he headed for the grill. It was a bit dark outside, so my pics aren't the greatest, but I convinced him this would be the perfect time to try his new Cave Tool. (It also gave him the perfect excuse just in case he got caught by one of the kids.)

He pulled the steaks from the grill using these nifty little tools just as the Dog Walker came in from work and the three of us settled into making sure they were grilled (and flipped!) to perfection. I've got to tell you, they were so juicy! And according to my sweetie, they were so easy to use. Any tool that makes him want to spend more time cooking is my new favorite tool...

But seriously, if you are looking for an inexpensive Fathers' Day gift, check out Cave Tools' website. If you want to try out the Pigtail flippers, I can hook you up with an awesome deal. Our friends at Cave Tools wanted to make it even easier for you to buy them, so they gave me a coupon code to save 15% if you order from the Cave Tools website. Just enter PIGTAIL15.

Amazon or at Cave Tools

***We were given a free set of Pigtail flippers  for our open and honest review of the product.***