Memories for Daddy Part 1

Junior is currently in Samoa for his grandma's funeral. We are missing him like crazy over here and it's even more difficult because we can't communicate with him over the phone or Internet. That's one of the beauties of Samoa, you can really enjoy the simplicity of life. However, it sure makes it hard for those of us over here. Figure this would be a good way to record what we've been doing over here.

We spent all day Friday at Seven Peaks. Had a few first there: Kalei learned to jump off the side unassisted. She was so proud of herself and kept doing it over and over. Tavita has gained the confidence to start swimming underwater. He has discovered his ability to hold his breath and he can do so for a pretty long time. Brayden's first wasn't quite as positive but it was helpful. He is VERY confident in the water and can swim quite well. However, he thinks he can tackle the wave pool with no problem. He found himself in rather deep water with waves crashing over his head and tubes plowing him over. He made his way over to me half drowned and pretty shaken. Luckily after a breather he was ready to tackle the water slides again. Next trip we are planning on taking the wave pool back on. I was so sad for him that he had such a scary experience, but glad he had a lesson in respect for water.
We came home from the water park to find that Brayden's new bike arrived. He was excited beyond words. I attempted to put it together Saturday morning, luckily Tyler was here to put the finishing touches on it. He paraded it around to all the neighbors and asks everyone if they want to see it.
We did a little practicing on Saturday and yesterday and he's doing great. His balance is great, just need to instill in him the confidence to go on his own. Little John (our neighbor/friend for all my other readers info) is going to take him to the park tomorrow to give things a whirl. John and Kristi (Little John's parents) stopped by this morning while Brayden was practicing on our driveway and volunteered his services. Thinking it might be better if he's with someone he's trying to impress rather then someone he relies on for comfort/support.
Since I don't have three hands I haven't been able to take pictures of him actually riding the bike but here he is with his now prized possession

Saturday morning was nice and eventful with yard work etc. We did spend the afternoon at Macey's carnival(previous post) then went to the park to ride bikes.

Church on Sunday was quite eventful. The kids sensed they highly outnumbered me and decided to behave accordingly. One of the highlights was Tavita thoroughly saturating a foam puzzle piece with spit then wiping it on the back of John's neck (John being the father of the dear boy that is going to help teach Brayden to ride his bike). Luckily he was more then a good sport about it. He pulled Tavita up with him and kept him company the rest of sacrament.
As I said we spent Monday at the park riding bikes and playing with the Halls and Goods. For family night we made chocolate covered strawberries then the kids filled in as my visiting teaching companion (she's gone for the month)and we stopped by to deliver treats and a quick little message.
We came back had a killer dance party then may or may not have watched movies until almost midnight and chowed on chocolate covered strawberries. Had a sleep over in our bed then slept until 8. Tavita and Brayden to move until 9! Then we may or may not have had leftover strawberries for breakfast.

Macey's Carnival

Wow, six post in 24 hours! Another on the way for tomorrow, just too tired to do it tonight!
I had to have a post that was soley dedicated to our killer grocery store. That's right, I LOVE our grocery store. I have never seen any business to do so much to provide a good experience for their costumers. I have NEVER had any employee be rude, in fact they're always friendly and will go to any end to help you. Their produce guys are always giving my kids apples and bananas to snack on. If that's not enough they do weekly free cooking classes and have TONS of free kids activities. They have pirate day, Dr Suess day, annual french toast breakfast, annual pancake breakfast, free pics with Santa (and cookie decorating and reindeer dress up) for Christmas, trick or treating at Halloween. I could go on an on. The latest thing they had on Saturday was a kids carnival. They had blowup slides, face painting, baloon tying, they only thing that cost was the food and everything was a quarter (hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones etc)
In case you can't tell I'm sold on this store and shop there simply because it's so much more enjoyable then anywhere else.
Bounce house fun


Time for face painting!

A tiger, zombie and butterfly (yes my four year old asked to be a zombie. The girl asked him 3 times to make sure she was understanding him right) My little butterfly didn't realize she was a cute little butterfly. She was roaring and walking like a zombie right along with her brothers!

Rode-a-o

Whortly before our campout, Junior and Daryl to the boys to the Pleasant Grove Rodeo. It was more to expose Daryl to some of the crazy Ameican past times. They had to endure some insane wind but luckily it died down for the rodeo to start. They didn't take a single picture of the rodeo but as Junior said, "At least we have proof we were there!"

Palisade Campout!

On Father's Day weekend we headed down to Manti for the famous Mormon Miracle Pageant. We forgot the camera in the car but it was a good time. I loved Manti, it's such a cute little down.
The night before the pageant we camped out with some great friends at Palisades State Park. We have never camped in such a "parking lot" like atmosphere but it turend out to be a GREAT trip. We were right next to a lake that was warm enough to swim in and the kids had a blast. We got there at bout 5ish Friday evening.
First order of business was to blow up the boat. Kalei and Tavita were determined to get that sucker blown up on their own (Kalei is laying down so she could reach the plug to blow in)

Meanwhile Uncle Daryl and Brayden preped the fishing gear

Then we had a crazy pirate wonder into our camp

Tavita and Kalei pausing for a drink (one of the best parts of this trip, these two were total pals, a rarity!)

Daddy taking the kids out on the lake

At first Tavita was excited to go with Uncle Rodney until Rod announced he was rowing to Samoa and Tavita tried to jump ship cause he wanted to stay and go camping. (he eventually settled down)

Kalei LOVED picking all the flowers

Then giving them to Mommy

Beautiful girl, beautiful flowers, beautiful sunset

This girly lived in the water

Her brother would join her occasionaly

Not sure drinking the water was the smartest thing (notice the progession of her clothing, or lack there of a she spent time in the water)

Uncle Rod and Tavita skipping rocks

Proof this handsome little guy was on the trip. Poor kids was still trying to recover from a double whammy of strep and some other killer virus. He'd get a wind, go play for a few minutes then was laid out again.

A couple of posers!

Brayden and Uncle Daryl heading out for a cruise

At around 8:00 the rest of the crew showed up and the kids immediately introduced everyone to the glorious combination of rocks and a lake. (no that isn't Tavita in the front, it's his twin Trent. Even us moms confuse them when we're looking with half an eye. We accidentaly scold each others kids all the time!)

Polynesian blood runs strong in my kids. They NEVER have shoes on (it's a feat just to get clothes on them. bit of a joke in our neighborhood)

Tavita and Trent soon tired of little rocks and moved on to bigger and better

It was an incredible sunset

The campsite didn't have firepits so we smuggled a portable one in. You can't camp and not have smores!

Tavita with his gooey goodness

Brayden chowing down

The next morning Uncle Daryl took all the kids down to the dock while breakfast was being made. The prices to rent these little guys was INSANE, they were perfectly happy just peddling while they were anchored to the dock!

Brayden feeling a bit better and enjoying a nice breakie!

The hard working cooks (Rodney, Junior and Gary, in the background)

Nothing like kicking back in the boat eating breakfast, even better when done naked!

All the kiddos loaded in (this was shortly before Kalei took off streaking through everyones' camp. Any suggestions on how to keep her clothed would be appreciated!

The boys were warming up on the asphalt after swiming and started forming letters. Here's their J

And their T

Daddy and Kalei (she was never taken very far out cause she'd always try to bail out and swim)

Tavita taking Daddy for a ride

Kalei and Maddie were frozen for FOREVER watching a duck. Kalei wanted to go play with it. Maddie just stared it down as if to say, "Don't you dare take a step in my direction!)

Gary found a snake in the water and everyone came running to have a look

As if still having lingering effects of an illness wasn't enough, Brayden managed to rub up against some stinging nettle. We had him take a tip in the cool water to help sooth things a bit. Take a close look at his back. It looked MISERABLE

We spent a good amount of time having some good ol' foot races. Maddie left Rod in the DUST!

The spectators relaxing and taking an occasional dip in the water

Brayden and Adalyn taking of for a race. (even with being sick/stinging nettle his competitive side took over and he left the poor girl in the dust. He needs to learn a gentleman lets a lady win! haha)

Trent would start the races then run a "trophy" to the winner. He was so celebratory as he ran and presented it. HILLARIOUS!