Enjoying our Utah vacation

Last week the kids and I went bowling with Ben's sister Emily...it didn't go well. Well, it went well for Samuel and Henry. (Samuel 75, Henry 74, Emily 71, Sarah 70). It was a lot of fun and wasn't it nice of me to let everyone else win?

I got to see my roommates from BYU last Wednesday and Thursday. We had a lunch Wednesday at one of their homes and then on Thursday I was able to see one of them get married, have lunch together and go to the reception. It was great! Two of the guys that we hung out with came to the reception also. What a great 2 days!!
On Friday we went up to the Uintah's to Ben's Grandparent's cabin. Saturday we spent the day at the lake where Sadie caught 2 fish!

Still in UT

So, to catch everyone up on our UT vacation: Sadie also got strep, so off we went to the doctor again. Then on Sunday she had a rash--so back to the doctor. Sunday we had a get together at the park with Annette's (mother-in-law) side of the family. Monday the kids and I helped up at Grandma Blanche's. Today I took the kids down to Payson to my aunt and uncle's house. We saw them for a few minutes and then spent a couple of hours chatting with my cousin while the kids played. I hadn't seen them for 2-3 years. After that I took them up to Provo to visit with my best friend since birth Laura. I haven't seen her in probably 5-6 years, but there are some people that it doesn't matter how long it has been, it seems like yesterday. I hope to see a few other friends while I'm in town. Tomorrow we are off to the dentist and then I have a get together with 7 other girls that I roomed with at BYU. I'm very excited.

pics from Grandma Blanche's house

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27822012@N05/?saved=1

Vacationing in Utah

Here we are in UT vacationing with Ben's family. We have been here for 5 days and we have already done a ton. On Saturday we had a family reunion and Samuel was sick. On Sunday Samuel was still sick so Henry and Sadie went to church with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Emily. Sunday night Samuel was up until 2:00am just miserable because his rear end hurt. Monday morning Emily watched Henry and Sadie and I took Samuel to Urgent care, where my suspicions were proven correct...strep (both in his throat and on his rear). Odd you might say, but my boys have had it before. Thankfully antibiotics clear it up in no time. The city here has a free summer lunch program at the park near my in-laws, so we have been getting the free lunches each day. This has been nice. Monday night we went to the cheap movies (50 cents) and saw Horton Hears a Who. Tuesday we went to Ben's grandparents house to help with the cleaning out (didn't do much, but the kids were good). That evening we drove to Manti to see the Manti Pageant. I told the kids to pick some pants and a sweatshirt in case it got cold. A couple of minutes later Samuel came out and asked me what his coolest pants were. I told him I thought his jeans were. He wanted those because he wanted to be the coolest kid at the Pageant. Unfortunately those were wet in the dryer so, this is what he ended up with. Henry really liked it, Sadie wanted to see Mickey Mouse (she thought that the temple was the castle at Disney) and Samuel wanted to go home, until Grandpa convinced him that he didn't want to leave his Mom there. We had fun. Today it was lunch at the park, and a bug presentation at the library where we touched and saw a Madagascar hissing roach, tarantula, scorpion, boa constrictor and 2 different kinds of parrots. Henry and Sadie liked it, Samuel wanted to go home (are you sensing a theme here?)

High School Musical 3

We made it to Utah on Friday. Poor Samuel is pretty sick though. I put him and Sadie in bed really early last night and then Henry and I went up to East High (which is where Ben went to school) and watched them film a couple of scenes from High School Musical 3. It was fun to be with just Henry, and he had fun watching them film. I even remembered enough of my college education to tell him what was going on and some of the names of the equipment they were using. We went to a family reunion for Ben's Dad's side of the family yesterday. Henry and Sadie had fun, Samuel slept in the car for most of it.

Differing Wildlife

Moving to Pennsylvania has offered our family an opportunity to get to know different wildlife.

We have gone from snakes, dinner plate sized turtles, raccoons, squished armadillo's (I never saw a live one), a fox, lizards, squirrels, birds, frogs and yes an alligator---to runny babbits (Sadie's word), chipmunks, more squirrels, more colorful birds, deer (not in our yard thankfully) and groundhogs.

Link to news article

Here is a news article about the hospital where I delivered Sadie and had my miscarriage.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/09/parents-who-lose-babies-find-healing-brandon-hospi/

Samuel turns the Big 5

Today is Samuel's Birthday. He had a great day. He told me he wanted corn on the cob with dinner, and then when he didn't eat any he told me he didn't like it much...whatever! The miracle of the day concerns Henry though. He ate dinner! I have tried a new recipe every night for about the last 5-6 weeks. He rarely eats any of it. Not only did he eat tonight, he told me it was good....everything on his plate. Samuel got the ball pictured on the left for his birthday. It's pretty cool. When you throw it to someone it changes colors from orange to green. We leave for 3 weeks in UT this Friday. We are all very excited, but sad that Ben doesn't get to come.

My purse

Ever since Samuel was born I have used a crosspack that Ben got as an Olympic volunteer as my purse/diaper bag. I don't like carrying around something really big. After 5 years of abuse the crosspack has definately seen better days. I have been looking for a suitable replacement for a while. I think I found it....what do you think?

Time Alone

Tonight is the Stake Father & Son Campout. I am very excited since it means I get the house to myself--almost. Of course I can put Sadie to bed much easier and quicker than if all three kids are here. I plan on lighting the candles I have in the living room and watching a movie on the laptop. As this is to be a comfortable evening I won't watch one in the basement as we have no comfortable furniture down there. I haven't figured out what's for dinner, but dessert is probably some sort of ice cream on a stick. I haven't had the house to myself since I moved here. I got so used to it when Ben was Stake Executive Secratary, that now I miss just vegging out by myself. I know the boys will have fun as it is not so hot and buggy here as it is back in FL. Oh, by the way I am wearing the pants that Samuel finds so unflattering.

My image deflating moment of the day

So, I decided to go to Goodwill yesterday to get some capris. There were many options and of course I had to try them all on. I had Sadie and Samuel in the dressing room with me, which they were not at all happy about since they wanted to play with the toys. I tried on about 5 pairs. On about the 3rd pair Samuel informed me that they made my butt look fat. Lovely. Well, I guess that will teach me to take the kids in the dressing room with me.

Mt. Lebanon Police

Here in Pittsburgh we live in a borough named Mt. Lebanon. This is the reason for the title of the post. Yesterday was a lazy day for us. Ben isn't feeling well due to kidney stones and slept late and I was still in my pajamas while the kids were in the basement watching TV. At about noon (Ben was now up) one of the neighbor kids came asking if the boys could play. As he was leaving I heard an adult male voice ask him if his parents were home. I went to the door (in my pajamas with the broken drawstring) and saw a Mt. Lebanon police car and a policeman coming up my steps. What on earth? I told him that I lived here and he asked if everything was ok. I'm sure I looked very confused as I said, "Yes, should it not be?" Evidently they had received a 911 call from our house and when they tried to call back it went to the answering machine. We never even heard the phone ring. Of course we assumed the kids had been playing with the phone in the basement (which is rotary). Henry said that Samuel had been playing with it, but didn't know if he had moved the dial. Samuel said that he never touched the dial, just lifted up the handset. The police officer asked the kids if there was anything wrong (lovely, good thing it had been a nice peaceful morning or who knows what the kids would have said.) The officer said that on rotary phones if you pick them up and put them down enough that it sometimes places a 911 call (weird). Ben went downstairs and unplugged it. I thanked the officer for checking on us. I guess the phone had been left off the hook and when they tried to call back it went on call waiting through to the Voice Mail, because there was a VM from the police. We all figured Samuel had been the unknowing culprit (not his first visit from the police). Later that night when I was putting Henry in bed he told me that he might have called 911, because he had been moving the dial (of course when I asked him when the officer was there, he said he hadn't). I asked him if he knew that moving the dial was making a phone call, and he said he didn't. So I guess this means one police visit for Henry and one for Samuel. Any bets on when Sadie gets a visit?