Utah Lake

I think in all the years I've lived in Utah, I've only gone to Utah Lake once and never swam in it.  My sister recently became part owner of a boat and so for the Fourth of July weekend, we took the kids tubing there.  The water was murky, but very warm and there was not many people on the lake so we had a lot of room to play around.  Rowan's last experience boating didn't go so well when some crazy teenagers were trying to throw some men off a tube at a father-son campout, so he was a little hesitant.  But by the time we were done, he declared it "the best time ever."

Nadia was, once again, my little daredevil.  This girl is so brave about stuff like this.  She had her thumb up almost every time we went, which was the sign to speed up!

L-R: Elsa, Nadia, and Caroline.  You can see her thumbs up.  After a while, Elsa started putting her thumbs up too, but I'm not sure she knew what that meant.  She was also quite the little daredevil for a three year old and loved every second.

Going easy on Payton and Nadia for the first time.


Going a little less easy on Payton and Rowan. 

All the cousins getting pulled into shore at the end.

It was a good time had by all.  It's nice to have family with fun toys.

Belly Flop Crawl

Sage is now mobile!  She's been getting around by rolling, but now has mastered the belly flop crawl.

Rub a Dub Dub

Three girls in a tub!  Sage is now sitting up really well and likes taking baths with her older sisters.

 This is from the first time we put her upright in the tub on May 1st.  She was thrilled!

2 Kids, One Piece of Clothing

It's been fun to put Sage in dresses that my other girls have worn.  I only have a couple that Nadia, Elsa and Sage have worn and I'll get pictures of those, but here's some that Elsa and Sage have shared.

The notorious "Juicy" swimsuit.  I don't know why I find this swimsuit so funny, but I do.  Sage is at least 4 months older than Elsa was when she wore it and as evidenced by the pictures, a lot more wiggly.

You can see Sage's red hair in these pictures.

Yep.  Cutest baby ever.  Her sisters adore her.  So does Rowan, but he doesn't adore getting his picture taken. 

Elsa in the same outfits:

Radkids

Yes, I have rad kids, but the title is in reference to a self defense class Nadia took through her BYU kindergarten.  The BYU police force run it and it was a fun experience for Nadia.  She was very hesitant about taking it because apparently my explanation to her about learning to fight bad guys was just a tad intimidating.  After the first class though, she was sold.  She came home excited to show us the "hammer stance" where you attack someone's midriff and how next week she was going to learn the "low hammer stance".  Apparently that was enough to terrify Rowan and he was so nervous around Nadia that he fell down the stairs when he saw her approaching a few minutes later.  Thankfully, she also learned that she doesn't have the right to utilize any of her newly found skills unless she feels physically threatened.

We were able to attend a graduation ceremony from the course where the kids showed off their defense strategies.  The police officer is in the black padded armor.

 Elsa LOVED the presentation.  She was enthusiastically clapping and cheering after each kid beat up on the police officer.   They were handing out lollipops afterwards, but Elsa was more interested in trying on the helmet.  I think she'll be excited to try her hand at this when she's in preschool at BYU.  I wouldn't want to be in that police officer's shoes.

Nadia did an awesome job!  It was interesting that she had no troubles beating up on the officer in front of an audience, but she ended up being too scared to talk to 911 on the phone and demonstrate her ability to verbalize an emergency.  She's a lot like her mom this one.

The first time they are supposed to just run away when they are approached by a stranger.  I love that the second time she went for the eyes.  Hopefully that sticks with her.  Love my brave girl!!

Do you believe in magic?

The "Weekend" Project

Back in March, we decided to tackle a project that we initially thought might get done in a weekend.  The reality of being DIY homeowners quickly set in.  This took 4-5 weekends.  I've lost count.  When we first moved into this place, there was a cute little 4x6 garden box in the yard.   It was a shame no one had done much garden-wise as far as we could tell in the 60 years this house has been around.

When we bought the home, the first thing Steve put on his wish list of home upgrades was to make a good garden space.  There was a slope on the far side of the yard that was difficult to mow, had no use, and received good sunlight for a decent portion of the day.  And so our garden space was born.

The first weekend we rented a sod cutter to take out the grass.  What should have been an easy removal turned out to be surprisingly difficult due to the slope.  The sod cutter had to be pushed up the hill because it did not have the horsepower to take it on and this machine is no light weight.  Not to mention the weight of the sod removal.  Steve was completely wiped by the end of the day.

 It would be fun to print these off and flip through them like a cartoon.  Steve soon realized what a tough project we were taking on.

The kids have been such good little helpers from start to finish.  I've been really impressed with them both. 

Another little project we did along with the garden.  I really love patio lights, so we put some in.  The kids helped out with that too by painting the support poles.

Someone would not give up her paintbrush.  It was a little tense there for a moment.

We're ready for some summer siestas.  Especially once we get our fresh salsa ingredients growing.


The following weekend was spent taking out the remaining sod that the sod cutter missed and getting everything prepped for Grandpa Luke.  He had graciously offered to come help us install the terraces and get it together.  After a lot of shopping around, we settled on the materials and how we would go about getting it done.

I think Grandpa felt his age as we were trying to pull off getting it all done in the weekend he came down.  I felt my age taking the retaining wall blocks off the truck from the driveway and down a decent slope to the other side of the yard.  There were 240 of them.  Insanity.  Everyone, especially Steve and his Dad, worked really hard to pull this project off.  Hauling 5 cubic yards of dirt in and using the rototiller to mix it all in it took its toll on the guys too.  Steve's never been so buff.

 Rowan helping me take the blocks down to the garden site. 

My mom surprised us with a quick visit while this was all taking place.  Thank goodness as it was nice to have someone hold Sage while we were trying to pull it all off.

Elaine also helped out with baby holding duty and raking/leveling of dirt.  We would be working on this long into the summer if we hadn't of had their help.

Rowan and Nadia hard at work.  Elsa playing in the "jungle" probably chasing Spaz.

I just sat around taking pictures and holding Sage at this point as my mom had left.

 I planted some hostas, primroses and a few firefly coral bells and arranged some rocks on the side to meet up with the other ground cover we have under the tree.

 In South Carolina we used weed barrier fabric in our garden and loved it!  Enough work has been done to this garden, we didn't want to spend the summer weeding it too.  Grandpa Luke got us some soaker hoses to help keep watering an easy task as well.

These are the fabulous stairs Steve built.  Most, if not all of the rocks are ones we uncovered as we were ripping dirt out.  We can pretty much expect to hit some major rocks anytime we want to plant anything here.  The stairs lead up to a gate to our neighbor's yard, but we're mostly using it to access the garden.  Our kids love them!  I planted two different ground covers- creeping jenny and irish moss.  We'll see if one or both will take.

There was a lot of adjusting of the blocks and many trips to the store after Grandpa and Grandma left.  Steve was very kind to my OCD by trying to get it all as level as he could.  It's only now that we can officially say we are done with the installation of it all.  We're glad we have some time to rest before we have to work on the actual produce of the garden.  Looking back at it all, we can truly say that this was a labor of love.  We're so thankful for those who helped us put it together.