O-H...

I was on the highway last Friday and when stopped at a red light, I heard some wild honking and screaming coming from the Benz behind me. When I looked back, there were three 20-somethings outside of their car signaling and screaming O-H (to which any Ohio State fan knows to respond I-O...spelling the letters with your arms). I responded appropriately. Buckeye fans are fanatics and can apparently be found all over the world. Even in Texas.

I thought my Ohio friends would appreciate knowing I'm in good company out here. Thanks again for the Ohio State licence plate frame, Abbey. Without it, these crazy people would have had no idea I'd respond to to their screams.

McDonalds Mishap

I haven't entertained with a good story about my crazy life in quite sometime. Truth is, I tried to block this story from my memory. But last week my mom took the crazies to a fast food playland and the memories flooded my mind. So sit back and enjoy. My pain is your entertainment.


On the second day of our drive to Utah, Spencer and I decided to stop for lunch at "McDonalds with a slide," as my kids like to call it. They had been cooped up in a car for a day and a half and could really use the time to get some energy out. Spencer and I had finished our meals and the older two were busy crawling, sliding, running and climbing. We needed to put gas in the car before we were back on our way. I suggested Spencer going to get the gas and coming back to get us so the kids could play a little longer. He asked if I was sure I could handle it. Of course I could...I handle three kids alone all the time. That's my life. And this time, the older two were content to play on the playground, which only makes life easier. So Spencer left for what would be the longest fifteen minutes of my life.

Parker came down to use the bathroom shortly after Spencer left. Luckily, the playground had an individual bathroom right there. I peeked my head inside but sent Parker in alone. Moments later I heard Reid whining from the top of the playground. I tried to coax him down from ground level, but he started to cry a little harder. The bolt on his prosthetic leg was caught on the playground net. Just then, Parker came out of the bathroom stall completely naked from the waist down with a request for me to wipe his bum.

I looked around...the only other people there were two men with a brood of children each. They were exactly the kind of men you'd expect to meet in a small town in the middle of nowhere...big and burly with mountain men facial hair and plaid flannel shirts with the arms torn off. They were there with their kids so I assumed they were capable of helping me out, but was sure they would not be interested. I quickly assessed the situation and decided the naked child took priority over the crying child at this moment. Reid was stuck, but safe.

I scooped Gray out of the high chair so he wouldn't try to get out and fall or choke on any of the food still at our table and I left him to crawl around the nasty bathroom floor. There may have been other options but I couldn't think quick enough. I expected to wipe quickly and get to Reid. But of course it could not have been one quick wipe. This was a messy one. I had to stop periodically to keep Gray from getting into anything too disgusting and to poke my head out to make sure Reid (who is now hysterical) hadn't passed out. He has been known to pass out from crying before.

About 300 wipes later...I left Parker in the bathroom and made him swear on his life not to come back out until he was fully clothed and his hands were thoroughly washed. I found a new high chair for Gray. The previous one had a broken seat belt and if I am going to leave him unattended, he had to be properly strapped in...and scooted far enough away from the table that he won't try to eat anything he shouldn't. At this point, I hitched up my pants and shimmied myself right on up the playland. I unhooked Reid who was way too upset to climb down himself. I had to squeeze my large self and my two year old back down this contraption.

I got down just as Parker was coming out of the bathroom. I got Reid settled down and cleaned all four of us from head to toe with the lethal combination of wipes and Germ-X. Everyone was finally calm, happy and sitting at the table finishing lunch when Spencer came through the door. I blurt out, "Oh, now you're here!" The two unhelpful men who had sat back and watched the whole thing bursted out in laughter...which luckily made me laugh too. Otherwise, there would have been tears.

A Nose is a Nose

Ok, today's flashback doesn't include any pictures. I wasn't a blogger back in the day and just didn't carry my camera around like I do now.

My best memories of my friends take place in the summer. Obviously we're out of school and everyone has no homework and later curfews. Plus things like youth conference, girls camp, and EFY are scheduled during the summer and all make lasting memories. My summer memories are filled with night games at the park, youth dances and trips to the beach. Summers have not been the same since I graduated college. Though I still love summer, a day in June is no different from a day in January (aside from the weather). Maybe that will change when my kids are in school and get out for summer break.

So today I'm reminiscing about a favorite summer memory. This one began at girls camp of all places. I didn't really like girls camp, but I do have memories of good times there. One Wednesday night at girls camp, a group of us got together to share some cookies and milk that we snuck out of the kitchen. We were laughing our heads off. The kind of laughing that shoots milk out your nose and someone inevitably ends up peeing her pants a little. You know...typical girls camp memories. For some reason that year we were WAY into quoting the movie "Little Rascals."

We decided that night that we would meet up every Wednesday for the rest of the summer for cookies and milk and to watch Little Rascals. Of course that didn't happen, but I didn't want to let the summer go by without meeting up with these girls. So about two weeks after camp, I invited everyone over. Part of the fun of this group of girls is that we didn't normally hang out. We were from all different wards and high schools and hung out with different groups of kids. The combination made it all the more fun. Several of us brought cookies and we turned on Little Rascals, though I don't know that we watched even five minutes of it. We were way too busy having a good time.

Now this is where the real fun started. At about 10:00pm, we had had all the cookies we could possible stuff down our throats, but we still had leftovers. We decided to put together our leftover cookies and deliver them to boys from the stake. My very generous parents let me borrow their suburban so we could legally stuff all eight of us inside. And then we set off delivering these store bought (never homemade) cookies to the guys. We wanted to remain anonymous, so we came up with the code name "NOSE Girls" and signed all our cookie packages that way. (NOSE standing for Nutter butters, Oreos, Striped Shortbread, and E L Fudge...the leftovers we had that first night.)

The NOSE girls had such a good time that we of course had to continue this...we didn't get together every Wednesday like we hoped, but we had several adventures throughout the summer. I think every adventure included a white pick-up truck that either honked, winked, waved, or we followed them 'til they did. We always rolled down windows and sang at the top of our lungs. And occasionally drove through the fast food joints where boys from the stake worked just to order 8 waters.

For a while no one knew who the NOSE girls were, but one night Garren Holmes figured it out and crashed our party (it wasn't fair that his sister, Randi, was a NOSE girl). And when I say crashed...I mean crashed. He snuck into my house without the knowledge of ANYONE (including my parents). I have a hard time imagining that Garren was so sneaky and stealth-like. We must have been having a good (loud) time because he had been listening for quite awhile before we realized he was in the room. He was on the list to have cookies delivered that night. So we took a bite out of every cookie in his package and left that on his door step.

This is one of my first and favorite memories of such a large group of girls having so much fun...with no fights. I had a great time that summer. I'd name all the NOSE girls, but for fear of forgetting someone, I don't think I will. We wanted to remain anonymous anyway, right? (Although I already named Randi Holmes...sorry Randi for giving out your identity). Feel free to give out your identity on a comment...I'd love to hear all of your thoughts on our NOSE girl parties. Thanks for the summer fun girls!

Long live the NOSE girls!

I met a man in Rome...

...and he's handsome and brilliant and we're getting married.

All those who guessed my movie quote was from Father of the Bride (part 1), you are correct. That is the only movie ALWAYS at the top of my favorite movie list. I never tire of it. And I cry almost every time I watch it. I think there is something about George Banks that reminds every girl (in some small way) of her own father.

I give it two thumbs up. Way up.

The In-Laws

I hate that expression, "in-laws." What does it mean, anyway? We're legally bound to these people? I don't want to be "in-lawed."

Another movie quote...any guesses?

I'm getting a little tired of posting about Utah. I'm ready to move on, but I want to record my whole trip for my own sake. So I'll try to get the rest of this finished in one post.


We visited the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point. Reid was scared out of his wits. He kept saying, "Dinosaurs....AAAAAAAA." Then after he caught sight of this giant prehistoric fish hanging from the ceiling...

...his eyes filled with tears and this is what ensued...

Grayden was busy making cute funny faces.

The boys dressed like dinos.

And they enjoyed the same 4 square inches of sand on an archaeological dig.

We celebrated all the recent and upcoming birthdays at my in-laws.

I got to have a lunch date with Zac and Crystal and their cute family. Zac works in downtown Salt Lake like a real grown-up. He met us for lunch at the Gateway all dressed up in a shirt and tie. (Zac is a high school friend and Crystal and I met at AFY when we were 16 or something.) I had a really good time with these guys. It's a shame we don't live closer. Zac left when I took the kids to the bathroom so I have no picture of him (and I didn't even say bye). But the rest of us went over to run through the fountains.

Doesn't Crystal look amazing? She has a 6 month old (Abree) AND is three months pregnant. And she's thin as a rail.

Hunter...her other cute kiddo.

Gray LOVED this. So did Park. Reid was a little cranky.

And speaking of visiting old friends...I got to see my old roommates!!! I have never had girl friends quite like these. I don't see near enough of these girls. Of the seven of us, only three live in Utah...soon to be two when Stutz moves to Omaha in a couple weeks. But the four of us (Jenni, Heidi, Stutz, and I) had SO. MUCH. FUN! We stayed at the restaurant for at least two hours after we were finished eating and then hung out at my in-laws until after midnight. We missed Brooke, Tammy and Carrie way too much.

We spent at least a few hours everyday in the sprinklers. Way too often it was fully clothed. My kids went through clothes like nothing while we were there. They went outside to play and inevitably ended up soaking wet. Even grandpa got in on the action (but I don't think he'd appreciate me including pictures).

Parker discovered he loves cousins. We don't have any on my side so he only sees cousins every other year. They are a novelty to my kids. Parker and Liam were best friends by the end of the week and neither Parker, nor Reid, has stopped talking about him. Infact Parker will say to Reid, "Let's play cousins. You be Parker and I'll be Liam."

You could frequently find these two sitting this close.

And we visited a dinosaur park with big fake dinosaurs all over the place that roar every so often. Fully equipped with a dinosaur playground.

Parker deciding what to see next...


The boys running away from a T-rex.


Again, Sharing the same spot of sand.


Grayden's bored face.


We are the dinosaurs.


Parker pretending to be eaten.

And even though we were leaving first thing on Saturday morning, we did manage to let off a few fireworks before the kids went to bed. It wasn't too dark out yet, but I couldn't handle keeping my kids up when we were getting them up before 5am the next day. I did NOT want cranky kids on a long car ride.

My cute, cute, cute niece McKenna loved being in charge of lighting off the fire works.

Nothing like three rowdy boys...

...finally holding still

Obviously a fantastic trip. There is never a dull moment at my in-laws house. There are seven people living there, plus us. And for a few days Spencer's brother Benny and his wife Amy drove down from Wyoming with their family to stay. That made 18 people packed into this house (with an air conditioner that went out). And we had non-stop laughs. You could garauntee that any hour you were awake, someone else would be around to hang out with. We spent late nights laughing with Joe, Benny and Amy....which I ALWAYS look forward to. And I enjoyed early morning walks and talks with Jodie in the crisp Utah air. I got to know Kirsti on a whole new level...she's out of high school and a real grown up know. I had a really good time with her. And I witnessed an Adam Sandler impression from Joe that will forever be imprinted in my mind and give me have a whole different view of Joe. I got to enjoy some old musicals I've never seen before with both RubyAnn and Mckenna. And Ben (my father in-law) didn't stop with the gifts. Sweet! We even got out to Steve and Marie's house for while one afternoon. Their kids are so grown up and Spencer and Steve have the funniest relationship. All in all...two thumbs up. Now it's too bad it will be two years before it happens again. We miss them already.

Uncle Mike

Jeff...that picture is for you. Duh!

More Utah...

I have the benefit of having a brother who lives in Utah. We see him more than most of our siblings. He comes down when we visit Mom in Arizona and we get to see him when we visit Utah. BONUS!

Mike is a very thoughtful and generous brother. He took us out to dinner and was willing to suffer through the craziness of three small boys at a pizza place. Thanks Mike...it was DELISH! He came with a new cd for us and had thought up some plans to do while we were there. He took us over to this farm after dinner for the boys to see some animals and sit on some tractors. Score one for Uncle Mike. It was fun evening. And my boys LOVE Uncle Mike.

It's nice to have some one around who doesn't have any kids. Mike wasn't worn out from children and he was more than willing to entertain...and they were more than willing to have him entertain them. When Parker said, "let's race," Mike had no idea what he was in for.

Driving the tractors.

Petting the animals...even Gray got in on this one.

Gray in his assigned seat.

Parker

Reid

Thanks Mike! We had more fun than we even expected.