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.***