Last Day of School

I can't believe how much these two have grown over just this school year! Cruise went up a size and Jett went up two sizes! It seems likes I kept buying shoes every month. Oh! And I finally got Cruise to start wearing underwear! Anyway, here are their last day pictures:

They were sure excited for school to be out. I, on the other hand, had to increase my anxiety meds just in anticipation of there being no school. It must have started when Cruise said to me, "Mom, I can't wait for summer to be here! Then you'll have to entertain us all day long!" And then he laughed maniacally.

BLUE! Go Kart

Let's face it, we live vicariously through our children. Particularly Dave. He always wanted a go kart growing up (I think we all did thanks to the 90s movie Little Rascals)He brought home the bare bones of a go kart one day and before I knew it, he had attached a motor, wheels, a roll cage, and a bunch of other stuff. We're still waiting on the brakes, so there is no driving it until those are all in and working. 

Anyway, Dave decided it was time to paint it, so he and the boys got to work. 

I'm pretty sure all the neighbor kids think they're going to get to ride the thing. Sorry kids.

Dave added pool noodles and blue duct tape as well so if there was a chance the thing flips, at least they won't be hitting metal bars. I did, however, ask him where the air bag was. I got a blank stare.

Jett's Dance Festival Performance

Every year, the school does a dance festival for all the parents. Cruise chose not to perform with his grade because he "hated the song", which after hearing it at the actual performance, I can't say I blame him. It was from High School Musical and I was not a fan either. But sadly I didn't get to watch him dance.

The Kindergarten, luckily, was a little more cultured in chosing a song: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins. It was the best dance of all of them! It was just adorable and Jett did an exceptional job. 

I loved watching him dance with that adorable smile that makes his eyes disappear. It's like his whole face smiles. Love that Jett!

Cruise's New Do

The day Cruise got home from Fathers and Sons, I took him to get his hair done. We have a neighbor who has a salon in her home, so we just had to drive down the street. Earlier in the week, I had told him he needed a haircut but he wanted it to be long. The problem was, I can only do one haircut. So I pulled up "boys haircuts" on Pinterest and told him to find a haircut he wanted. Well, he came across the one he wanted and it had highlights as well. I asked if he wanted that too, and he said, "Yes". I definitely couldn't do that myself. So I made an appointment and took him to see Virginia.

He was so cute the whole time. He talked Virginia's ear off! At one point she asked him if he wanted to watch in the mirror, or if he wanted it to be a surprise. He answered, "I want to look in the mirror so I can see how a handsome man becomes handsome!" 

It turned out great!

Meanwhile...

While the older boys were off on their campout, Miles and I met Abby & Liev at the Thanksgiving Point deli for dinner. Miles liked visiting with his baby cousin, although he was hesitant to let him touch his toys. 

After dinner, we headed over to Farm Country for their Baby Animal Birthday Party. We got to meet all the new baby animals and enjoy some birthday cake. Miles really really loved the bunnies. I'm sure if they had allowed him to hold them, he probably would've run out of the door with one. 

The goats are always the best. Miles got a kick out of them. And the little baby goats were so adorable! Surprisingly I didn't get a picture of them, but I left really wanting a baby goat. 

As soon as Miles saw the ponies, he HAD to ride them. Unfortunately, the line was ridiculously long, but I was very impressed at how Miles kept it together and waited until his turn. I will say though, he did try to sneak in a few times.

Miles loves riding horses. It's like riding a giant doggy, which he's always trying to do to poor Lucy. After going in circles 8 times, the pony came to a stop and then he proceeded to scream bloody murder when I had to peel him off of the poor, scared pony he had just finished riding. 

Miles finally calmed down when we got in the line for the wagon ride with Abby & Liev. Luckily he didn't scream after that one.

When it was time to go, Miles did what all 2 year olds do, throw a giant fit. But at least I know he had fun! Thanks Abby for hangin' out with us!

Fathers & Sons 2016

Here it is, Dave's annual post:

We headed up to the Lehi Stake property this year, which is above Heber. Emily and I got everything packed up to the sound of the boys asking, "Can we go yet?" Once on the road, the boys were content until about Deer Creek, then the asking of "Are we there yet" started up. That lasted until we got there. The campsite is about 1/2 hour outside of Heber and high up in the mountains. On the map it looks close to Heber but you go up in elevation so much that it is actually a pretty long drive. It was a very pretty campsite up in the aspen trees. There was running water and porta pottys, so that's better than just an open meadow we are used to.  On the drive up, we got some rain and the clouds looked very threatening, so I assumed we were going to get poured on. Right when we got to the campsite I cooked dinner as quick as possible so we could eat before the rain started. I think we got lucky because it never rained; just a bit of wind.

The boys wanted to set up the tent so I let them do that while I cooked. They needed a lot of help but it is nice they are starting to put some effort into helping instead of scattering into the woods to play with their friends. We ate burgers off the volcano grill with chips and rootbeer, and then even got a campfire going for some of the guys in the ward who were struggling getting theirs going. Within minutes and the help of our Volcano Grill, we had a fire going so they could cook their Hot Dogs and we could eat s'mores for dessert.

Once we ate and the tent was set up, we set off on a bike ride. It was cool and looked like rain, so I had the boys put on their coats. We headed down hill because our campsite was at the very top of the loops. We got going pretty fast quickly on the gravel road. I stopped once to warn the boys to keep their bikes under control and to not go too fast. I could see a lake not far below where we were and I was curious if we could get there easy on our bikes, so we headed that way. The dirt road eventually seemed to turn away from the lake, so once we hit the asphalt I decided we had gone far enough and told the boys to slow down to a stop. Just as I was telling them to slow down, Brother Bretey and his boys in a truck turned and headed up the road towards the campsite, and I heard Jett wreck behind me. He must have hit his breaks too hard when he saw the car and slid out in the gravel. I headed up to him and he had quickly jumped up and was hopping around crying. I wasn't too worried because he jumped up so quick.  He was not too excited about riding his bike anymore so I asked Brother Bretey, who had stopped to make sure he was alright, to take him back to the top where our campsite was. So we put his bike in the truck and he got to ride up the hill in a truck. Cruise and I ended up walking or pushing our bikes all the way back up. Cruise loved the ride down, he said it was like a roller coaster, but he wasn't so fond of the ride back up.

We got half way up and Cruise saw some of his friends playing in the field and wanted to play with them, so I told him I was heading up to the top to find Jett and make sure he was ok. I found Jett, he was doing much better and was just sitting waiting for me. After I made sure he was fine, I told him to hang out by the fire and just relax and I was going to go check on Cruise. I headed down the road on my bike again and almost sped past Cruise's bike setup in the middle of some trees. I found his bike and started calling for him. I found him 50 yards down a trail. He and his friend had started exploring. I had checked the map on my phone and found that there was a lake just up the hill from where we were camped and I told Cruise I wanted him to come with me to find it. He came with me back to camp and we found Jett. Cruise and Jett both wanted to just play by the fire so I let them stay and I headed up the hill on my bike through a meadow. 

The lake was a beautiful, little, high mountain lake and I could see trout rising all around in it. I headed back down the hill on my bike to get my fishing gear. The boys were still playing around the fire and eating the leftover hot dogs so I headed up to the lake to fish for a bit before it got dark. I fished for about 15 mins and the boys came up to see the lake. They thought it was cool but they didn't stick around for long.

When it started to get dark, I headed back to camp and found the boys hanging out with their friends, David and Collin. Their Dad, Chris Brown, and I talked for awhile before the Fireside started. Cruise participated with the scouts singing songs (maybe a bit too much). He kept trying to get another round of songs to start up when leaders were ready to start the program. They tolerated the program they had prepared and then they wanted to go to bed. I took them back to the tent and they got in and went to bed pretty quick after I gave them each a melatonin. I sat around the fire and waited to make sure they went to sleep before getting into the van where I had set up my air mattress right after dinner. I haven't slept so well camping in a long time. Air mattress in the car is the right way to go for sure. I did wake up at about 3 am because the wind had picked up and I looked at the tent and one of the boys had turned on the lantern but no one got out of the tent so I assumed they were fine and went back to sleep.  I set my alarm for 7 AM so I could wake up before the boys and make breakfast, but of course at 6 AM, Jett opened the door to the van and got into my sleeping bag with me so he could warm up. After about 10 minutes of that, we got up and got dressed and started a fire.

For breakfast, we had cereal and hot chocolate with sausage cooked over the fire. After we had finished eating, every one else started waking up and came over to our fire to warm up. Jett ate breakfast twice and ended up throwing up because he ate too much. He kept on saying, "Dad, my stomach hurts," and I would say, "Ok, stop eating," and he would say, "Ok," but then kept on going. I could't help but say "I told you so" when he puked it back up.

After I had cleaned up breakfast and the tent and all our stuff, we went back up to the lake to do some fishing. Cruise didn't want to fish so he just explored around the lake and Jett and I fished. We caught 4 small Tiger Trout and one 16 inch Rainbow Trout. It was pretty fun.

After that, the boys wanted to go home so we walked down to the campsite and found that everyone had packed it up and gone home. It was like 9 am. I guess no one in our ward wanted to stick around for long. The ride home was long but exciting because the storm that was threatening finally hit with full force. The boys had a good time. I would have had a good night's rest if I had gone to bed a bit earlier and not been woken up by Jett an hour before my alarm went off. The boys said they slept fine by themselves in the tent which is a first for them.

Second Track Meet

This was the first track meet where it was against other schools. The meet was at Lehi High, but we had both Saratoga Springs and Pleasant Grove there as well. I luckily was able to get my visiting teacher, Lisa, to watch Miles for me, but the meet ended up going so long, that I had to have her drop him off on her way to taking her kids to their swimming lessons. It was insane and crowded, but it could've been worse. The boys did great on their standing long jumps and they did awesome on their legs of the 4x100, but the rest of the kids on their teams weren't super fast. Jett got 2nd in his heat of the 50 meter. Cruise lost focus on the 100 and stopped before he hit the finish line, so he was super upset about it. But I told him it was just one race and we have plenty more to go. Either way, it's fun watching them being active and trying their best. Even if it goes on for 4+ hours.

First Fire of the Season

After getting it going, I was regretting suggesting this activity. We did it on a really warm day, so it was almost unbearable. Poor Miles was sweating and face all red, but he wouldn't leave the fire, so I brought out a cup of water and started sprinkling him with it. We made our s'mores and then started to put the fire out. We agreed to do another on a cooler evening. 

 Just as we were finishing up, Cruise brought out his guitar and music and serenaded us.