Birthday Boy

Gavin is officially 9! That means in less than a year he will turn 10...and then 11-- Gasp! HOW IS TIME GOING SO FAST???

The day started early--6:15am to be exact. Gavin and Jenna were both up to check out the streamer tent....which I FAILED to do properly because I forgot to do his bedroom doorway too--since when was that part of the deal? I also didn't have a present for him to open first thing. He made some comment about how his birthday was starting off "boring." Thinking back, I think I did do that for him and Jenna last year--WHAT possessed me to start that tradition? After this last week of birthdays, I think I may just start a new tradition next year and let them open ALL the presents the second they wake up and just get it over with!!

I think the best part of G's day was Brent going to eat lunch with him at school. They sat with the whole class and Brent made sure Gavin was the coolest kid in the lunchroom. He is so proud of his dad!

After school Gavin was so fixated on opening presents he couldn't function. We would have just opened them then, but we were missing Jenna who was still at Paiges. I thought Gavin was going to loooooose it!---so I caved and let him open just one present: a motorized plane. He was appeased for about one second before it BROKE on the first toss! Boo! It was a cheap filler present anyway. Cousin James showed up just in the nick of time with a cool Lego set for him to put together.

We decided to go miniature golfing and then come home and do dinner and presents. Gavin wasn't taking "Wait" for an answer any longer--he grabbed all his presents and loaded them into the car. We made him wait until we at least pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car, but he couldn't physically wait one second longer! This years presents: cool rockets to build and then blast off, an Erector set and...COINS! Gavin has been wanting a Sacajawea dollar for the longest time, but I think the big hit of the night was the sack of 50 random coins from all over the world. WHY didn't I just give him those this morning? We could have saved $50 and a lot of agony for both of us. :)

Happy Birthday G-Man! You add a whole level of sweet to our family. Thanks for being a great big brother and the best 9 year old son I could ever ask for. I LOVE YOU!

**A cute p.s. side story: After I finished this post and went to bed last night, Gavin came into my room at about 3:00a.m. He couldn't sleep and wanted to sleep in my bed. I, of course, started to groan because that meant I would be kicked and my blankets would be pulled off and my good sleep night would end right there at 3:00a.m. Then, suddenly, this memory flashed through my head and my heart melted. I pulled him up on to the bed and got him settled in his blankets and then told him this story about this exact moment 9 years ago. Ready for another story? :)

***I was induced at 11:00a.m. on a Saturday. I had gone in for a quick blood pressure check, but it was so high they did some testing and said I had Toxemia pretty bad and they would be taking Gavin out right now for both of our safety. I was six weeks early, and it was my first baby, so I thought that this was something comparable to an early Christmas present!

Because of the Toxemia, they had to start me on this crappy medicine that made me feel like I was severely drugged. It was absolutely terrible--everything was in a long slow motion slur. They had to put this stupid oxygen up my nose that dried out my nose, mouth and eyes. To top it off, NOTHING was progressing! My body was just not ready to give birth yet. After a L O N G 18 hours of nothing--including no sleep because of this medicine, they determined that Gavin's blood pressure was dropping to a scary rate and they needed to just get him out as fast as they could. He was finally born at 6:05a.m. and taken away quickly for a little special attention to get his breathing stronger.

That day I had lots of visitors and all that fun stuff. I was riding on an adrenaline high, like every woman does after having a baby, and I didn't take any opportunity to catch a nap. They were weaning me off this crappy medicine that made me feel drugged, but said it would take at least 24 hours so I still felt awful. By that night, I was EXHAUSTED. I really needed some sleep and asked the nurses to keep Gavin in the nursery overnight (well, from 11pm until 5am or so) so I could catch up on some sleep.

At exactly 3:00a.m the nurse came into my room with a screaming baby. She said, "Sorry to wake you because I know you needed some sleep, but Gavin has been screaming for the last couple of hours and will not calm down. We think he wants his mom." She handed him to me and he immediately started to calm down. Sure enough, he just wanted his mom. We spent the next hour or so just staring at each other. His HUMONGOUS dark eyes peering out of that mummy wrap. He looked just like a scrawny little baby bird without any feathers and I was totally in love. Fun memory that I had kinda forgotten--fun to tell it to Gavin at almost that exact moment 9 years later!

Sluffin church...shhhh

It was ward conference and the only thing the kids heard was "conference"-- which usually means no church...right? So Brent and I kinda looked at each other and..well...neither of us had to teach...so...Uintahs? Done. Stop judging. You KNOW there are some Sundays you want to to the same thing--but you don't....I guess I just do.

It was such a BEAUTIFUL, crisp day up at Trial Lake. A slight breeze, 54 degrees and not one mosquito in sight. We hung out by the lake, ate White Corn Chili and Gavin fished a little.

Then we decided to hike up to Star Pond--which we hadn't done yet this year. Easy one mile mosey and not much fighting. So, so lovely.

Star Pond is never a disappointment.

SO MANY MEMORIES. I can remember riding on my dad's shoulders while balancing the picnic box on his head. I can remember the humiliation of him stripping down to his "G's" and jumping in when our COUSINS were with us one year--any of you Bob VanCott family remember that? I remembered how my mom was always busy by the camp stove--and now I can TOTALLY relate, and I am only cooking for 5 not 11! LOVE all the great memories and love sharing them with my kids even more. Here's a couple I had to pass on:

BIBLE ROCK

Walking around the pond--love that single pine tree on the island that hasn't changed in what--30 years?

We were sad to leave, knowing that it was the last trip until next summer, but a roaring fire and S'MORE'S waited for us down at the lake.

We soaked up the last few minutes listening to Jake grunting & groaning. That poor dog was SO stiff from the walk that we almost had to carry him to the car--we DID have to heave him up into the car--and back out once we got home. We sure love our Jake.

Brent took advantage of the increasingly rare snuggle time with Kesley, who is growing up WAY to fast.

Perfect day. Hard to feel guilty for missing church.

BIG birthday for the BEAN *5*

Mixed emotions about my baby turning *5*. That's a big birthday, you know? She's been 5 years of sunshine (well, 4 1/2...the first 6 months were pretty iffy...). Sunshine is the only way to describe her. She literally skips through the day. Love my little lady.

The plan was for me and Jenna to head up to Sundance and ride the ski lift up for a picnic lunch. After an entire morning of Gavin HOUNDING me to let him come, "Mom, I jussss feel kinda sick-I think I should stay home....Mom, I jusss really wanna come--can I juss come?? PLEASE." I was holding to a firm no. As I was dropping them off at school, Gavin turns back as he is getting out the door and says, "Mom... Come get Kesley and take her with you and Jenna. I would juss really love it if she could go. K?" Melt your heart and drive you crazy at the same time, that kid.

Anyway--Brent decided to come too and we surprised them at lunch time and checked them out for a family picnic at the top of the mountain.

I loved this picture of Jenna's DEATH GRIP and her cute feeties:

I dropped the kids back off at school and Jenna and I headed out to WalMart for some cake supplies. It's hard to be an excited 5 year old who has been up at 6:00am all week in anticipation for her big day:

We let her open her presents from Aunt Tiffy, Aunt Amber & Grandma and Grandpa this morning (Which she LOVED! Thank you all!) but the rest of the day I heard, "Mom, can I open a present? Just ONE present??" every five minutes until 5:30 when we finally opened presents. She had been squeezing this present all day and thought it was going to be a bag of cotton. Seriously--a bag of cotton! and she was excited about that prospect! Anyway, she was pleasantly surprised to find the mini pillow pet she had been eyeing:

Her biggy was a lava lamp. Her filler present for the year was....drum roll.....

A BAG OF GRAPEFRUITS!!!!

This lady loves her some grapefruits and this may have been her favorite present of the night!

I can't get enough of my Jenna Bean. Happy Birthday beautiful lady.

Hello WORLD!

2 weeks without a computer = SLOW torture. I never realized how much I love a little thing called the Internet. The only problem is, now that I have it back, I cannot remember why I needed it so much. Facebook updates? Depressing news stories? Nie Nie Dialogues? I was really better off without them! Although I do love Google--I. LOVE. GOOGLE. I can't live without that one.

So, update? I added some picks to the last post. Cute first day of school & sick Jenna...so check those out...what else? 

 

GARDEN update! This garden thing is frustrating. After a summer of watering, feeding, weeding, nurturing--Now that it is finally starting to pay off--I am so sick of looking at it I can hardly bring myself to harvest anything! My cherry & pear tomatoes went CRAZY about the end of July and took over the entire garden. We have cherry tomatoes coming out our ears and just in time for the whole family to collectively decide they hate cherry tomatoes. But I have LOVED my big tomatoe plants and have already done 2 big batches of chili sauce.

I also have had TONS of zucchini and cucumbers. I've grilled, sauteed & baked enough zucchini for a life time. We did get 2 great watermelons which was a very pleasant surprise, Oh and about 5 green beans a day--seriously, no more than 5.

The real surprise was my much anticipated sunflower garden. It was A LOT of growing for a very small *blip* at the top, and the giant sunflowers only bloom for a couple days before falling over with the weight of the sunflower seeds. It was very pretty for about a week but I'm not to sure I will do it again.

Broken computer...

I'm here at Emily's house--our computor broke so I have been detatched from the world for a few days. Apparently I haven't missed out on much. Had to make a quick list of the happenings before they are forgotten.

1. Kids started school! I couldn't get the camera t focus--so this is the best picture I got. :(

Gavin was VERY upset by the teacher he was assigned, "BECAUSE SHE MAKES KIDS SING!!" Of all the nerve. Happy to report that he came home after the first day and said she was the BEST teacher EVER! So that's good. Kesley has a brand spankin new girl just out of school...crossing my fingers it will go the "full of energy / I love to teach!" way and not the "O crap / I hate kids-what have I got myself into" way.

Here is a picture of them after they walked home in the 100 degree heat--sad it waited until the first week of school to hit before it finally got hot.

2. Gavin got the throw-ups in the middle of the night Sunday night (hours before the first day of school). He came up into my bed at about midnight and threw up every half hour or so until about 3:30. After the first throw up I asked him how he felt and had a good laugh when he said, "I feel AWESOME!" At about 3:00a.m. his tune had changed and he was in tears moaning, "I just want to be done throwing up..." He was still eager not to miss the first day of school so when he was able to keep his breakfast down and felt ok I let him go to school -fingers crossed I wouldn't be getting a phone call a half hour later. ...now let's see if half the kids in his class are out with the throw-ups tomorrow!

3. Jenna got the throw ups yesterday. She was very proud at first, I don't think she remembers having the throw ups before. She wanted to make sure everyone knew she was sick and if she could've gathered an audience for the second throw up, I think it would have made her day. After the umpteeth hour of dry heaving, I think she too was ready to be done. This is her crashing after a good 6 hours of the throw ups. I washed my sheets only to have her throw up on them again 5 minutes after putting them back on my bed!  Cousin Paige had the throw ups at the same time (I think we all caught it at the same place--not mentioning names *cough* LIZ) and this morning when Jenna woke up feeling better, we called Paige and took them both out on the boat for a few hours. Brent and I both watched them kickin back up in the front of the boat: legs crossed, head back, apple juice in hand and a snack at their side--they were both in heaven and content to just cruise the lake. Don't we all need a morning like that after a night of the throw ups?

Demoliton Derby!

I took Gavin & Kesley to the Demolition Derby out in Nephi. It was....AWESOME! I hadn't ever been to one and we almost bagged the idea because Brent and Jenna were worn out from a day of boating with Brents family (so fun!), but I really wanted to go so I made Gavin & Kesley come with me and we were all very glad we did.Don't they look happy? Well, none of us were at first because it was SO HOT and we were stuck way up at the top of the bleachers. I sat up there and watched those dark clouds in the background slowly make their way towards us. It reminded me of a black and white cookie--just a dark wall of clouds cutting through a beautiful blue sky--very ominous. We had a front row seat to the huge dust cloud that just preceded the wind, and boy did it BLOW! We found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a very crazy MICRO-BURST! At one point I had Gavin & Kesley crouching down in between the bleacher rows for protection because I really thought the aluminum roof was going to blow off and we were already being pelted with debris. Kinda scary! The announcer said we were all going to try and ride it out for a few minutes, but shortly after said the fire marshall wanted everyone to calmly EVACUATE. So, as calmly as we could, we made our way back to our car and waited out the storm for about 20 minutes. I'm glad we didn't leave because as soon as the worst had blown by they resumed the show.

Beautiful clouds after the worst was over

I'm telling you, a derby is an AWESOME family fun night. Cars crashing into each other is surprisingly exhilarating! We loved every second of it--even the micro burst.

ROUND 1--right before the storm hit

The best crash of the night

A fleet of tractors to pull all the dead cars out after each round

Can't wait for next years Derby!

Settle in...it's catch up time!

How to sum up one month of summer fun? You can't! But I'm gonna try.

TIMP CAVES: Uphill 1 1/2 miles--in 90+ heat...fun? Kind of. The cave was nice and cool but our tour guide was from Uganda or something and we couldn't understand a thing. Don't ask Brent about that part....
Hollybusco. (to be said very fast with a slight accent) My friend Holly Busco has been married for 14 years now--but I still refer to her with her maiden name and always with the first and last names together. always. Why? It has a ring to it I guess. My kids all call her Hollybusco too. I think they believe that is her name....Hollybusco. Anywho, she and her 4 kids have been in town for a few weeks and we have been having a blast. So far this trip: lots of swimming, Movies 8, Payson Lakes, South Fork river, Uintah trip, boating at Deer Creek, making goo...Loads O fun and at least 5 pounds.

TRIAL LAKE
Proud Gavin showing off his fish. He caught it all by himself!

Hot dogs & S'mores

Fishing Jenna

PAYSON LAKES:

Hollybusco & Miles

Dock jumping! No chickening out this year! All the kids getting warm

Glitter Toes with Aunt Amber! Who doesn't love a good glitter toe outing? Thank you Amber!BOATING! We sure are loving our new boat--even though it has broken down on us twice. Brent and I both had a blast wake boarding and the kids LOVE the tubes. I think we found our family bonding time activity!That about brings us to TODAY. Another lovely day up the Uintahs, this time with Aunt Amber. Tinfoil dinners, s'mores, little hiking, little bit of fishing, lot's of nothing...doesn't get any better.

Today's spot--except you can't see the ONE BILLION mosquitoes that are all the sudden out and about.

The kids stayed busy building this dam--Jenna wanted to be sure we documented this for the blog!

I think that about brings us up to date--except for the fact that we have been swimming about 3 times a day and I do not have any pictures of it--but I do have brown kids to prove it. This summer has been so much fun! I hate that school is only a couple weeks away. Boo.