Monday, August 29, 2016

Weekend Guests

Mikayla and Guy were gone all weekend, in California for Clay and Jill's new baby Tillie's blessing.  Brick, Cora, and Kila got to come spend the weekend with us!  What a lot of work little people are, but what a lot of fun, too.  The house was a semi-disaster the whole time they were here, but everyone survived and we enjoyed our time together.  We had a walk every day, we played outside every day, and we all slept pretty well.  Here are some pictures I took through the weekend, in no particular order.




 Although this is blurry, I love it because it shows that Brandt was moving fast and Cora loved it!


 
Cora loved to jump, and Brick loved to jump big and knock her over.
So much fun!



 

On our way to pick up the big kids from school. 

Although it isn't a long walk home, it was long enough for this tired boy
who really needed an afternoon nap.
I didn't give him one, however, because I wanted him to go to bed early.

This one with a glimpse of the dog, too.

This final picture makes me smile.
I opened the cupboard under the sink and discovered my hairbrush in the kitchen scrubby bin.
Cora carries all sorts of things around and puts them in all sorts of funny places.
You've got to watch her like a hawk if you don't want your stuff to go missing,
stuff like the TV remote, the phone, your flip flop, game pieces, or a brush.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Dominic, Our Newest Family Member

Dominic Lorenzo Russell DeMartini arrived today.  Bryan reported all went well, and everyone, including his siblings Donovan, Evie, and Mila, are glad to have him here.  They have been so excited for him to come, especially Donovan.  The last time we saw Donovan, he told us all about how he is getting a little brother and how excited he is to play with him.  Dominic looks just like Donovan.  I imagine when Dominic is a little older, they will be inseparable and practically indistinguishable.  Maybe they'll be know as Don and Dom.  He also arrived on Melissa's birthday, a welcome present, I'm sure.  We are always happy to welcome a new little person to the family.


Friday, August 19, 2016

DeMartini Family Campout--Field Trip Friday #66

We've waited all summer for our DeMartini family campout.  This afternoon we went for a swim at Grandma Sue's, then pitched tents in Christopher's yard for an easy, hardly roughing-it sleep over.  Like last year, we played cops and robbers, with three teams of cops driving cars around looking for three teams of robbers.  I ran with Blythe and Makenna, and Brandt ran with Christopher and Griffin.  Kent was one of the driving teams.  We hid behind bushes and cars, in dark spots of people's yards, and were apparently not as sneaky as we hoped.  At one point during out trip back to the house, Blythe, Makenna, and I were lying in the front yard of someone's house when the man who lived there appeared above us with a flashlight, saying gruffly, "Hey! What are you doing?!"  Talk about startling!  I felt rather foolish trying to explain why as an adult, in the company of two little girls, I was lying in his yard.  We did make it back to the house unseen.  We were the last group to make it, but unlike last year, this year all the robbers made it home free.

We slept pretty well, except sometime in the wee hours, Brandt woke up cold and Kent took him home.  I don't know what happened, but when Blythe and I woke, we were the only two in the tent.  They did come back for breakfast, and then all headed home.  We really did have a great time.  So much fun, in fact, I took only one picture, of Brick in our tent.  The others are thanks to Mikayla.




Brick has my phone and is taking pictures.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Biking Buddies

All summer long, in the early morning, I have been biking with Maureen, Janie, and Janie's friend Jessica.  The mornings have been nice and cool, though of late.  I love the time to be on my bike, with friends, to exercise and talk and enjoy the beauty of a quiet morning.  We've seen lots of deer and managed not to be hit by a car.  I have had four flat tires, three in one day, but all in all, it has been a lovely biking summer.  I hope to bike outside until the end of September and am eagerly anticipating Goldilocks, an all-women's bike ride, on September 24th.  Here's to riding!
Maureen and me.

Janie, me, and Jessica
To give Jessica a bit of a break, she is standing on the sloping driveway and is not
really as short as she looks in this picture.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

First Day of School

We can hardly believe that school started again today.  It's come around too soon.  Well, maybe not too soon, but sooner than we thought.  The new school is finished (well, enough to begin school), and we've been over a couple of times to help set up and have a tour.  Because I helped push the bond, I got a special invitation to go have a tour, so Brandt, Blythe, and I got to see all the behind the scenes stuff, including the roof access space!, before school opened.  We missed back to school night because I got distracted by other things, but we had met both Mrs. Miller (Blythe's teacher) and Ms. Cooper (Brandt's teacher), and we checked in with them again yesterday just to make sure we had all the information we really needed.

But today was the big day!  I went early to help with the book fair, and Brandt wanted to come with me.  We didn't really have anyone to help, but Brandt liked being in the library (so beautiful now!) and feeling somewhat "in charge," and Blythe came along with Kent who walked them both to their classrooms.  They have been excited to go to school, and we have desperately needed to get back into a routine.  We've had far too much TV watching, not enough reading, and way way way way too much whining.  I ran out of entertaining energy, and even when neighbors have come over to play, the kids still somehow end up in front of the TV.  Like this.


I've gotten sidetracked.  The big first day.  Both Brandt and Blythe were happy that school has started, they are looking forward to the new year, and I think it's going to be great.  Blythe asked me to do her hair for her, which is always a tricky thing, but we went over to the Drake's house last week to have McKenzie show us some cute hairdos we might try, and I managed to get Blythe's hair pulled back and clip worthy.  As evidence that Blythe, for one, was excited to be back at school, I am also including the picture she drew the first day of school, a self-portrait with the sentence, "I feel _______," completed with the word "exstadect."  When I asked Blythe a few days ago what she was excited about in going back to school, she said, "Meeting my teacher, art, recess, and love duty."  Love duty is a silly game she and her friends play where they spy of fellow students they are convinced are in love, and when they are spotted spying, they run away shrieking and hide in the bathroom.  Brandt asked if they were still doing to do it, and Blythe said, "Yes!  We'll do it until we're in college."  Brandt didn't ever tell me what's he's excited for.  Maybe he's not excited at all.  Either way, it's going to be great.  Here's to a new year at the new Rock Canyon!


Off to fifth and third grade!


Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Ice Blocking for McKenna's Birthday

This afternoon we went over Grandma Dawn's house for a birthday party for McKenna.  She is turning six and will be starting kindergarten.  Dawn had frozen a bunch of little toys and other things in large blocks of ice and then gave the kids each a screwdriver and a hammer and let them wail away.  

How fun is that?  

Super fun!  There were bits of ice flying around, items being un-iced, and lots of coldness on a hot summer afternoon.  The kids ate ice, threw ice, and tried not to slip on big hunks of ice on the ground.  We had a little birthday treat, and wished McKenna a happy day!  It was fun to be able to celebrate with her.

 

 


Monday, August 15, 2016

Cora

Cora came to visit today.
As usual, she arrived and began tearing through the house,
discombobulating.
She loves this drawer and the kitchen tools therein.
I love how she is on her very tippy tippy tippy toes so she has better access.
And I love her chubby thighs.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Friends Outdoor Movie Night

Since our super fun outdoor movie night in June with cousins, the kids have been begging me to have another movie night, but this time with friends.  The summer is almost over, school starts on Wednesday, and so tonight was the night.  I have been reluctant to do it because I knew it would be a lot of work and I feel like I spoil my kids, but I relented, mostly because I didn't want to hear a lot of whining.  That's frequently why I relent.  But anyway, we invited lots of kids to come over, we popped lots of popcorn, and I vacuumed the floor in case anyone over 10 came into the house and gasped at the state of things five days before school starts.  This evening the Drakes, Elders, Runias, Morelands, Oylers, Ellen Mason, Maggie Davidson, Blads, and Bushmans came over with blankets and pillows to watch a movie with Brandt and Blythe in the backyard.  We watched Kung Fu Panda 3 while eating the lots of popcorn, candy, and soda.  Most everyone was riveted throughout, and all the adults were quick to whisk children away as soon as the movie was over.  I did sort of indicate that anyone left would have to fend for themselves in the backyard, and I guess everyone took that seriously.  It really was a fun evening, and I will likely be talked into doing it again next year.  Even without the whining.


Bosom Buddies

This afternoon, Blythe got to go visit her dear friend Cailin Atkinson with Cailin's grandma Mary, our cul-de-sac neighbor.  Blythe and Cailin love each other and Blythe misses her a lot.  Cailin used to stay at Mary's regularly, but her dad, Bryant, died last year, and Mary hasn't had Cailin at her house at all since his death.  Mary arranged for Blythe to visit Cailin at her house, and took her up to Riverton to see her.  Blythe was ecstatic about the visit and came home on a friend-of-my-heart high.  Mary sent me a couple of pictures of Blythe, Cailin, and Cailin's step-brother.  I'm happy Blythe has such near and dear friends, even if Cailin isn't very near geographically.


Thursday, August 11, 2016

Park City Playing

THE END IS NEAR!  Of summer.  Only five more days and then it's back to school.  Truth be told, I think we're all ready.  I certainly am.  But as we're almost done with schedule-free days, we want to take advantage (I guess).  Today we spent the day in Park City at the Mountain Resort, doing all the fun sliding, climbing, speeding activities.  We went with Christopher and Tysen and all their DeMartinis, and we really had a great time.  We wore ourselves out having so much fun.  We went on the alpine coaster twice (my favorite--so fast!), the alpine slide twice, the Eagle zipline, did miniature golfing, and the kids did tubing, jumped on the trampoline with bungee cords, did rock climbing and a ropes course.  We thought we would get rained on and everything was closed for half an hour because of lightning seen within a ten mile radius, but we didn't get wet and took advantage of the break to have ice cream.  Blythe freaked out at the top of the alpine slide and refused to go down.  She had to be accompanied down the ski lift by a supervisor who was much more patient with her than I was.  We played and played and when we were all wiped out at the end of the day, we drove home for a relaxing swim with Grandma Sue and Mikayla and Brick.  All in all, a super fun almost final day of summer vacation.

A family picture with a sweet family addition.





Here is Blythe reluctantly on the sled.
The worker is trying to convince her to go down the slide.
She was unsuccessful.






























Waiting for the alpine coaster.







Blythe took these pictures.