Memories for Daddy Part 5

"Only 3 more sleeps to go!" That's what I keep telling the kids (I think I'm the one who get the most reassurance from that)
Kalei has gone from constantly asking, "Where's Daddy?" Or saying "I DON'T KNOW!" If you'd ask her where Daddy is.
To calling every male close to her "Daddy" (Tyler, Trevor, Jeremy and Luke all have been given the title at one point or another)
She's still trying to select a daddy but now she'll proudly say "Faamoaaa" when asked where her daddy is.
Been so crazy the past couple days haven't gotten a chance to blog.
Friday I cleaned while the kids lounged.
Headed to the waterpark for the day. Gees and Hoovers where there. Having friends always makes it more fun. As we were getting ready to leave Brayden was "STARVING" He was "Hungrier than an empty snake!" Promise of lunch waiting in the car was screaming his name but he really wished he could have a hamburger from the concession stand cause "it was the best smell in the world"
Suddenly a lady came up and asked if we wanted a meal voucher. They had an extra and wanted to make sure it went to someone that would appreciate it.
Brayden was elated and asked, "Why has everyone been giving us so many free tickets lately?"(Stadium of Fire, the parade, meal vouchers etc).
I replied, "Cause Mommy must not play the part of single mamma very well and people can sense it!" haha
Rest of the day was spent playing with friends, running a few errands, and heading to bed early. Well, they did, I never get to sleep early when you aren't home.
Oh, and we may or may not have had Macey's ice cream cones for dinner. And they may or may not have had one apiece! Don't worry I made sure they had a healthy snack before bed.
Here are the flowers I planted out front. Why do you not see the plant you ask? Because Tavita picked several of them, then took a picture as proof of his crime.

Highlight of the errand running, FIREWORKS!!! The kids have been eying them all weekend and can't wait for Monday!

Saturday morning we woke up ready to kick off the 4th of July weekend. Oh how I love this weekend. FAVORITE weekend of the year. Really wish you were here to enjoy it with us.
Started off the morning with the usual chaos mostly compliments of Kalei. By 10 am she had
1. Emptied the sink and climbed in for a bath. Not too bad of a thing except she kept using the hose on the sink to spray everything down.

2. Flooded the mud bath. (this girl and her obsession with water!)
3. Picked all the flowers as fast as I was planting them (and there already weren't many left after Tavita had gotten through with them). I just decided to think of it as pruning, and many more beautiful flowers will come in their place.
4. Gotten a bag of cornmeal and dumped it EVERYWHERE. Then Bowzer followed behind licking turning it all into a nice thick paste to clean up.

Decided to get her to where no more damage could be done so we headed out to pick cherries. Man there are a lot of beautiful red cherries up top that we can't get through. In fact, I'm no where near the acrobat you are so we only wound up with about 1/4 of a bowl. The boys had fun picking though.


While one person picked, the other two would swing!

Got cleaned up from our chores, ate a quick lunch then headed off to the Freedom Festival.
Started off at the Crandall Printing Museum. All three of the kids were absolutely enthralled with all the different types of printers and other gadgets to look at. I was enthralled with the house and it made me want to buy a turn of century home!


Then it was off to Colonial Days segment. We wandered around for a bit. Aside what's in the pictures, the kids also really enjoyed watching the guys that was melting metal and making different objects. Not really a blacksmith because he was just working over a tiny little fire.
The boys thought the cannon was way cool. Brayden however did not like it when the actually fired the cannon. Scared him to death and he took of running out of the yard!

These cute ladies were taking donations to support all the reenactment. I fully intended to donate as we left but didn't get a chance as I was chasing a very scared little boy down the street.

They thought living in a tent was a pretty cool idea but didn't like the idea of selling our house and giving it a whirl. Their favorite part of the tent was actually the feather pen on the desk. They thought they'd be a cool way to color.

When you get home I'd like you to build one of these to put in our yard please. I think it would do wonders for discipline problems.


We then made our way down to the Freedom Days carnival.
Luckily we go there just as the Scales and Tails show started. The kids loved seeing all the different animals as much as they do every year.

Recognize this? They were in there for a LONG time. I was very impressed with how good they did at taking turns with each other on one of the diggers.

Went back to Scales and Tails to try on a snake necklace.


Watched the JuggleNuts as they juggled knives and fire.

My favorite part of the show: They were slicing a carrot to show how sharp the knives were and sent carrot flying everywhere. Tavita ran around to gather pieces and eat them. I told him they were too dirty to eat. He then faithfully held on to one of the pieces the rest of the day (it turned completely black) and when we got home asked me to wash and peel it so he could eat it.

Went and got ourselves some patriotic art done on our faces for the show that night.

Made some rocket balloons.

Then there was an ordeal with a girl (I'm guessing she was dehydrated/overheated) and the ambulance came and eventually took her away. Brayden kept asking what was happening I told him that she probably didn't drink enough water or wasn't used to the heat.
He was then very quick to leave, "Mom, lets get out of here. I don't want to wind up with a needle in my arm like that lady". Then on the way home he said he was going to spend the rest of the day inside until it was time for Stadium of Fire and asked me to make sure the RVS (aka AC) was really cold in the house so we could all cool down.
Your very independent daughter making the long trek back to the car with her rocket baloon and her boppidoo wand.

Despite his worries about needles and ambulances, brayden did stop to do a little Irish jig as the bagpipes passed by.

Came home and took naps had dinner then headed off to STADIUM OF FIRE!!! It was so nice of the McMoils to give us the tickets and they were thoroughly enjoyed.
Getting ready for the show to start. The boys were a bit bummed about missing Cul-de-sac of Fire and thought they'd been duped when they sat in chairs for 45 min with nothing really going on.

Then NFL star/former BYU player Chad Lewis came on stage to get things started. There was a spark of excitement in their eyes.

Then as they started singing "God Bless the USA" (as you know, my all time FAVORITE patriotic song) some planes flew over head and dropped a few things out. Their eyes were glued to the sky while trying to figure out what was headed our way. They went nuts when the realized it was people falling from the sky. One of them unfurled the flag part way down.

All made perfect landings....except for the guy with the flag. He clipped a barrier and went tumbling, all entangled in the flag. It was really cool to see everyone rush to the flag to get it up off the ground, one or two people did help the skydiver as well.
However, everyone was so worried about the flag and skydiver, it took a little while to realize the poor guy in the corner there had been taken out along with the barrier. Fortunately he was ok too.

They then sang had a video of 13 year old David Archuleta singing the Star Spangled Banner 7 years ago at Stadium of Fire which after a few lines was taken over by the live 20 year-old David Archuleta. They had fireworks going along with the song. It ended with fighter jets flying low overhead and a live feed from the one of the pilots giving a message to both those in attendance and military personell oversees (did you know they broadcast Stadium of Fire to the troops?)
Needless to say, by this point the kids were fully hooked and rivited in their seats.
A bunch of dancers performed a few numbers.

Meanwhile they let these giant beach balls go for a stadium version of volleyball. The kids loved having the balls come flying at their heads.

One of their cool formations, also made the Statue of Liberty after it got dark.

Next good ole' hometown hero David Archuleta came on stage to perform.

The lights then dimmed and out came Brad, accompanied by roaring screams. Gotta admit, the man puts on a great show!

Too close up to really see but Kalei was having the time of her life dancing along to Brad Paisley's music. The boys on the other hand enjoyed the first few songs, then got impatient for fireworks.

Sadly at this point my camera died. Apparently the kids had been playing with it alot more then I thought that day and didn't realize the camera was drained til we got there. I did however make sure the video camera was fully charged and got it all on video, along with some still pictures on there, just don't know how to load them on the computer.
Anyway, after Brad Paisley the dancers performed a few more numbers with fire works going off. Then it was time for the Firework Spectacular, and spectacular it was. They had patriotic music blaring as a continuous stream of fireworks just kept going and going (they played Neal Diamond's "Coming to America" made me think of my dad"). The entire stadium was shaking from the noise. Your kids (including the one who turned tail and ran from the cannon) loved every second of it. Can't wait for you to see their faces on video. HILLARIOUS!
Few of my favorite moments from that night, not yet mentioned.
- Tavita nailed himself hard on the door handle a few days ago, got a killer goose egg. But it's a very precises goose egg, small and high. He kept saying, "Mom, my horn is hurting so bad" Tyler and I kept laughing everytime he mentioned his "horn"
- The guy that was caught popping his girlfriend's pimple on the jumbotron while we were waiting for the show to start. He was hard at work for quite awhile before either realized what was going on. INSTANT red faces!
- Kalei rubbing Tavita's head on and off thorughout the show. She liked the feeling of a buzzed head. I liked seeing the two of them actually getting along!
- Upon hearing that fireworks are now illegal in Hawaii Brayden responded with, "That SUCKS!" Tyler and I couldn't help it and busted up laughing. I regained my composure and tried telling Brayden that while he may hear that term used, it's not a nice thing to say. His response, "Well, people making it so other people can't play with fireworks isn't very nice, so we can say not nice things about them."
Couldn't really argue with his reasoning, but still told him not to say it anymore!

Today was relatively uneventful aside from the fact the kids didn't get to bed until almost 1am and were up by 8 so we had A LOT of crying. In fact Tavita cried the entire way to the park when we took Bowzer on a walk.
Sad thing was we got to the park and it was totally trashed from the night before. There were fireworks EVERYWHERE and very little effort to clean up. The boys were devastated. "Why would anyone do this to our park." "That was so mean of them, I feel really sad inside".
We cleaned up the sand pit which had a concentrated amount of fireworks in it and they felt a bit better but it was really pathetic to see people put forth so little effort to clean up after themselves.
Made it to church in one piece despite the fact NO ONE would take a nap. Kalei has taken on the habit of letting out her ear piercing scream everytime Tavita comes near, which made things exciting.
The Winters invited us over for dinner. It was really nice taking a bit of a break and enjoying some adult conversation.
Anway, off to bed. Gotta head out for the Balloon festival in 7 hours!

Memories for Daddy Part 4

Been missing you BAAAD today. I've never gone this long without talking to you and it's driving me insane. Good thing we have 3 beautiful munchkins to keep my mind off of things!
Sorry no pictures, got too busy and kept forgetting to grab the camera.
Morning was mostly spend hanging out with Kalei. She was in the cutest mood, couldn't stop talking, wanted to play all kinds of games.
The boys played at the Shorts.
Headed over to swim lessons. Final Day!!! Both boys got shining progress reports. Tavita's teacher loved how fearless he was. Brayden's loved that he was always so happy, willing to learn, and impressed with how long he could hold his breath. They both recommended they advance to the next level, only Tavita can't until he's 5.
Quickly loaded up after swim and headed straight for the library for lunchtime/storytime. Stayed for awhile after having races down the hills. Checked out some books and headed home.
We had another epic marshmallow war then I shaved Tavita's head! That's right, when your gone and a hair cut is needed only one style is available, and that's a good ole' summer buzz! He looks adorable.
I asked him if he likes it and he said "Yeah, now I don't have to pet Bowzer cause my hair feels the same as he does"
Found yet another gash in his head while cutting his hair (it was on the small side). HOW does that boy keep cracking his head open and us not knowing? At first I thought it was something sticky in his hair and trying scraping it out, then realized it was a scab!
Almost convinced Brayden but he decided he wante to wait til you got back for his haircut.
Went in to make some cookies, we had the idea when it was windy and rainy this morning. When we got around to it, it was beautiful summer weather.
By this time we had the neighborhood gang over and the cookies were disappearing as fast as they were coming out of the oven.
It was loud and crazy but I love it. Lets me know the kids are making memories and enjoying life. Kalei was right in the thick of it. She was running up and down and all around with everyone. Joined right in the gun fight. Wrestled with the best of them.
That basically sums up our day!
Few funny moments:
Found Kalei on top of the counter stealing goodies. I took her down and explained 1. She wasn't allowed on the counters and 2. She can't eat goodies without asking. Her reply in a very matter of fact way, "But I'm KA-YAY!" (She loves saying her name now)
Well in that case, by all means, do whatever you want. Who am I to stop you?

I asked Tavita why he was ignoring me when I was asking him to get ready for bed, "Because, that's what little kids do!"

At dinner, I told Brayden Uncle Tyler and Risa broke up because he was too stinky. Brayden leaned over and smelled him. Tyler asked if he thought he was stinky. "Nooo, she must have a crooked nose or something"

Memories for Daddy Part 3

One more week and you'll be home!!! Until then, here's another day in the life of the Shum Zoo.
Yet another typical morning of weeding and a bit of preschool.
Then we packed up and headed off to Lowes to purchase material for marshmallow guns. The boys loved helping pick the stuff out and put it in the basket.
Then our little Houdini struck again. Took a quick detour through the garden center. Tavita was there one minute then gone the next.
I ran through all the garden area trying to find him with no luck.
Finally decided (in complete panic) to have him paged. Walked up to the front and realized all the talking I though went in one ear and out the other actually settled in between. He realized he was lost, went and found an employee saying he needed help finding his mom. Only problem is that his cute little voice gets even more difficult to understand when he's nervous/scared. They thought he was saying "Lisa" since he only says the "Rissa" part of my name. Every time they'd repeat what they thought he was saying he'd say "No!" So they weren't quite sure what to announce.
Headed off to swim lessons.
Boys are already going through with drawls about lessons.
Promises of future lessons didn't do much, they want the same teachers.
Went and ran some errands. Gone a total about 3 hours.
Walked in and heard water running.
Brayden had left the hose on FULL blast to water the flowers. The ones right next the window well.
The window wells were full. One with about 4 inches, the other with about 7. The one with 7 was above the window base.
Panicked for a 2nd time that day and ran down stairs imagining more water damage, as if we didn't have enough of that over Memorial weekend.
Luckily just a bit of water on the window sill.
The two heart stopping moments (along with all the other usual daily stresses) caught up to me. I snapped, wanted to through a fit just like the ones I had been listening to that day, but realized I was about a quarter of a century too old for that.
Recovered, apologized, and we were good again.
Had a good lunch, took some naps. During nap time we had a crazy storm. Went from clear skies to howling winds, black skies, thunder and torrential rain, back to sunny skies again. Kept going through the cycles.
Tried to hit a clear patch and plant the flowers (I almost lost a child over them, figured I better make sure I put them to use) Didn't stay all too clear, but they're in.
Headed to the park for some bike riding. Little John didn't think thunderstorm and rain made for good biking weather. Brayden thought otherwise so we went. Sadly he took a pretty bad fall (escaped with only scraped hands) early on and wasn't too into riding after that. Started pouring so we headed home.
It was marshmallow gun making time!
We measured!

Then we cut! (well I cut, don't worry I'm making sure all your kids fingers and toes are intact when you get back)

Then we sanded the ends to make em nice n smooth. (didn't want to cut lips on jagged edges)

Then we lined all out pieces out to make sure we had what we needed. (Well Brayden did, Tavita was having too much fun with Iron Man and the pieces)

We used out big muscles and pused as hard as we could to make sure everything fit together nice and tight.

Then it was time for war!
Two favorite moments of the day. Brayden had jammed two mallows in his gun before I could show them how to use it. I had no idea how fast those little guys come flying out and blew with all my might. They came zinging out and nailed Kalei (who was minding her own business, putting the finishing touches on her gun) right on the forhead. Shocked her a bit, the other three of us didn't breathe for a few minutes we were laughing so hard.
Then we moved things outside where Tavita crammed what I thought was 2-3 marshmallows in his gun. I tried clearing it out and UNLOADED like 10 on Brayden. Tavita had been blowing so long they had all gone soggy. They stuck to his neck, clothes and hair. Another good laugh.
Brayden had fun going around shooting the neighbors as they got out of the car (only ones I cleared first) He nailed Rach and Paul then Paul had him wait and get his sister-in-law as she pulled up.
Tavita is still working on strengthening his lungs to get enough umph behind his blows.
Kalei just like running around with her gun and eating the marshmallows.


Bowzer was in heaven running around eating all the marshmallows off the ground.
Babysat the Shorts. We made pizza and watched a movie.
Then, we collapsed!

Memories for Daddy Part 2

Alright here's a recap of our fabulous Tuesday. Only one more Tuesday til you get home!
Spent the morning getting a few chores done, hung a few pictures (when you get home you get to figure out what things I bought from Quilted Bear on my litle date with myself on Friday). Tavita clogged the toilet yet again. Thinking I need to hide all the toilet paper whenever he goes to the bathroom.
We went to the library for the make and take crafts and left with some killer 4th of July star glasses


After crafts we headed off to swim lessons. The boys are both doing great. Tavita can stay under the longest after the "all fall down" in Ring Around the Rosies. He's also getting good at floating on his back. Brayden is learning lots of new strokes and idolizes his instructor. I mentioned putting them in another session in August and he asked me to make sure Austin was his teacher again.
Came home had lunch and let Kalei take a nap. Then headed off for what we thought was a trip to Seven Peaks. Turns out I left the passes in the other pool bag so Seven Peaks was a no go. We turned around, grabbed Bowzer and some bread and headed onto the Duck Park.
The kids enjoyed swiming on their own without huge crowds of people and tubes.


Bowzer liked out choice of the Duck Park far more than 7 Peaks.

Next we experienced a novelty in the Utah Valley area. The ducks were actually HUNGRY today. The duck to kid ratio in Utah Valley is grossly unbalanced and the ducks are usually so overfed you couldn't cram bread down their throat. Yet everytime we go, we try. Today we struck gold! Not only were the ducks STARVING, there were TONS of them. The kids loved being able to feed them and Bowzer loved trying to jump in with them, sadly his leash would only let him go so far.


We then headed over to the playground for a bit. Kalei SCALDED herself on the giant slide. She went a fourth of the way down then sat screaming so I climbed up the slide and brought her down. She wasn't kidding, that slide was HOT. The swings were a much better alternative and Brayden loved snapping pictures of Tavita and Kalei on the swings. Brayden is mastering the art of "pumping" (most of the parks around here don't have swings so he doesn't get much practice) and he's doing great.

Came home, had some dinner and put 3 sleepy little kids to bed. Sadly Tavita doesn't seem to be feeling well and actually ASKED to be put to bed before it was time to go. He has a fever and I HOPING he's just exhausted/had too much sun. But his symptoms are starting to look like he might be getting the virus Brayden had.
We miss you like crazy and can't wait until you get back. Tavita has been telling everyone that you had to go to Samoa to give away some candy. Brayden prays every night that "Jesus will spend some time visiting with Grandma Fou".

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!"