Oquirrh Mountain Temple

I must say that we Utahns have been a bit spoiled this year, as we have had two new temples in the last year, along with their accompanying open houses and dedications. It's so fun to watch the temples being built, and then especially fun to be able to take our children to the open house before they are dedicated. After years of singing, "I love to see the temple, I'll go inside someday", they finally get to, even if it is just a look around. :)

Ellie and I missed our tour of the Draper Temple, since she was sick that day. So the older kids went with daddy. But today we were all able to go together as a family to tour the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. (A little trivia: this temple is located in South Jordan, Utah, as well as the Jordan River Temple, making South Jordan the 1st city in the world to have 2 temples.)



I thought it was a beautiful temple. I was pleasantly surprised as to how well my children behaved there. As I walked in, I was holding Jared and Ellie's hands, and Jared pulled his away so he could fold his arms. :) Of course, later, Ellie went running to an overstuffed bench and bounced her tummy off it while loudly proclaiming, "Bouncy!" Oh well....she's 3, what can I say?

As we left, all the kids were very excited to go get their cookie and water bottle.....when did the Church start that at temple open houses?! I personally think it's hilarious! I highly recommend taking your families if you are at all able to. The tours are very open, in fact, we were able to park right in the temple parking lot, which really surprised me! It's well worth it for the wonderful experience of visiting the temple and teaching our children about it.




I'm glad Ron had his phone with him, as I didn't feel like lugging the camera with us! :) Do you like Jared's hand?! He wanted it too look like he was holding Jesus' hand.....

Am I the Only One?

Am I the only one that has a purse cram-packed like the above photo when we are taking the family to a movie, or am I just cheap?!

We do buy a bucket o' popcorn there......

We saw Ice Age 3. Cute. Pretty much like the others, with the added feature of 3D. Although we didn't see the 3D version.....but everything was all close up and lots of stuff coming at the screen anyway, which I found irritating. Definitely not Disney, but we enjoyed it. :)

Family Fun & Fotos on the 4th

We had a fun weekend celebrating the 4th. We tried to take it easy, for Ron's poor eye. Yesterday we took a walk on the trail near our home and stopped by the river to wade and throw rocks. Then we headed to a new public pool in our area, which received an A+ rating from the kids. We'll definitely head back there.

Today, after dropping Riley off for her 3 hours at work, we went up to Alpine to Moyle Park, hoping we could find some good backdrops for pictures. It worked, we got a few good shots, when I could get the kids to cooperate! Jared wasn't in much of a smiling mood, and Ellie couldn't hold still even for the camera to catch her with a fast shutter! We got some cute shots though to commemorate our day. I even set up the camera and let Jared take a picture of mom & dad, and it turned out better than I expected! Then off to home for a nice dinner of chicken fajitas and homemade ice cream....I need to work on my ice cream making skills a little more....it was more of a soup than a set up ice cream!(What was with that?!) Ended the night with the "Sidewalk of Fire". No pictures of that...I was manning the punk to light the fireworks as Ron couldn't see well enough to do it. Happy Independence Day!

They are so cooperative....try to get a real smile, and you just get goofy laughing! I do like this picture though, it shows their true selves!

Mom set up the shot, Jared pushed the button! I'm pretty pleased with what he got.

My favorite shot of the day. Love her eyes.

Carry On

Four years. In some ways, it has flown. In other ways, it's been forever.

Four years ago my dad left this mortal existence. I'm glad he has moved on, and doesn't have the trials his mortal body was giving him. I am certain that my dad still exists. I know I will see him again. I have been privileged to feel his presence with his family since his death, and it was a beautiful experience. I hope for future times such as those. I am excited, although I'm sure it is a long time off for me, to be wrapped in his strong protective arms again and feel his love for me. My dad was, and is, awesome.

I love you Dad!

Unofficial "Pirate Day" at our house...

Ron has had a couple incidences of "Vitreal Detachment", which is when the vitreous humour(the clear jelly stuff in your eyeball) pulls away from the back of the retina. In alot of people, this doesn't cause any problems. But sometimes it can cause large "floaters" to become present in your vision. Unfortunately, Ron had this develop. His 1st detachment was about 16 mos. ago, in the right eye. He was dealing with the "floaters" okay, since his left eye was still fine. Until last Tuesday, when his left eye had the same thing happen, and it's all cloudy and has floaters now too....needless to say, impaired vision wasn't working too well with what he has to do for work! So we met with a retinal surgeon, and determined that he was a good candidate for a vitrectomy. Basically they stick a suction tube in your eye, suck out the gunk, and replace it with nice clear stuff, and viola! You have clear vision again. Ron thought about it for about 5 minutes, and scheduled surgery! Right eye was done today. The procedure went very smoothly, and we'll go tomorrow and have his patch removed. We have little doubt that his vision will be much improved. As soon as he knows how well this procedure went, and his left eye stabilizes for 3 weeks or so, he'll most likely have the same thing done to that eye.

For your viewing pleasure....a little video clip I took in post-op recovery so he could see his eye patch! :) (It was fun playing with his new iPhone to take this video....easy-peasy! Posts right to youtube with a touch of the screen. He heard youtube has been slammed with iPhone video uploads since the new ones were released.)

Wrecking Ball Wilson

Looks pretty serious, doesn't he?

And he is. Watching him in his practice runs around the track, you'd assume that we aren't gonna be sticking around the races for long since he just sorta takes it easy. Races are a different story. The kid is insane. Unfortunately since he is still young he doesn't have the experience and know-how of how to stay centered over his bike, and how to absorb some of the "air" that he catches. So he crashes and burns. :(

This last Thursday, he had two chances to make it into the semi's. He made it to the rhythm section in first place in his 1st moto. Then came the wreck. But he jumped right up, back on his bike, and finished 3rd. Then on to the second moto, which he took easily since he'd already beat the kids he was racing against once. And happily for all of us, he stayed off the ground!

Semi's time, and he made it down the starting ramp, and up the first hill and then his handlebars took over and he flew over the front of his bike and landed hard.....mom's nerves don't like this. Despite the full-face helmet he hit and skinned his chin. There was no jumping up and finishing the race after that one. But he got a round of applause when he got up, and told the announcer when he was asked that he'd be back.

This week's plans now include taking him to a 2-day BMX clinic. We are hoping with the extra time on the track, and some pointers from some experienced riders, that the crashes will decrease and that the extra "oomph" he puts out in the races will net him a win or two. :)

The Beauty of Organization

I finally finished a very long put-off project this week...

For months, the kids basement playroom has been uninhabitable.

You could not see the floor. They could not use the toys. It was completely beyond the point of them being able to clean it up, and I didn't want to do it and avoided the chore for as long as I could. I planned on getting it done before summer break, but put it off.

Then it was summer break.

The kids were home 24-7.

Then the weather changed, and we had the rainiest June ever. So, not only were the kids home....they were stuck INSIDE! Amazing what a little motivation for peace will do to kickstart me!

After a major purging, many trips to DI and the ward nursery bin, and a number of full garbage bags, the playroom is clean, neat, organized, and beautiful. The kids have also been threatened to within an inch of their lives instructed that they need to do their very best to keep it that way.






To address any questions that may arise from these photos:

• Yes, I am aware that the kids still have too many toys.
• Ellie has been wearing dress-ups since she was allowed to access the dress-up box again. She may never wear normal clothes again.
• The mural? I started that thing when I was pregnant with Jared. It's still not completed. He'll be six in a month. I have a serious problem with follow-through.
  

"Katie Cricket"

Piano recital time again. Last year's selection was Matt the Cat....this year, Katie Cricket. Honestly, I don't need to hear either of those songs again. :)

The only thing I wish is that she'd play her songs at her recital like she plays them at home, with the rhythm even, and the dynamics correct. It seems that once she gets on that grand piano and she can see into the piano box and see the hammers going as she plays, that ALL her attention goes to that curiosity and her playing doesn't get a second thought! I guess we'll just have to replace our digital piano with a baby grand so that playing on one at recitals won't be a problem. (If you watch the video, it's the videogpaphers fault...mine...that it starts in the middle of the song! I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing.)

Little update....

I've been a slacker as of late. Sometimes I find that it's easier to sum up the goings on in life with a facebook status or "tweet"! So, blame the invention of those social networking sites for my lack of verbage here. :)

How horribly boring too, as I have no pictures for this post!

It doesn't feel like I live in Utah lately. It's been unseasonably cool(not complaining about that!) and WET around here! It has rained almost every day of the last month....CRAZY! It will be nice to see my electric bill though, since the A/C hasn't been running. I can't remember when the last time was that I ran the sprinklers. It really is quite strange. Last night as we were getting ready for bed and the rain was pounding down on the roof, I asked Ron if we ought to start building an ark soon. :)

Jared is quite sad about the rain. Between other commitments for us, and all his t-ball games being scheduled on Thursdays, he hasn't done one BMX race this summer. He was going to skip his game tonight to go race, but now the rain has soaked the track to the point that they don't think they'll be racing tonight.....poor kid! Oh well....I suppose we'll just keep trying!

Riley is making sure we all know that she is bored out of her mind. Not that there isn't plenty of stuff around here for her to do, but none of it has been deemed "fun" enough for her to bother with. The other day she wanted to go to a friends house because she was "tired of sitting in front of the TV getting fat". So she went. I had to laugh when I found out what they did.....yep, sat in front of the TV at her house! :D A lot of her hours at her job (selling concessions at a local pool) have been cut. It seems the pool isn't too busy when it's cool and rainy, and there isn't a real demand for snow-cones then. She has Girls Camp next week.

Nicole is missing school...she's a bit of a social butterfly, so I think she's getting tired of having the same people (us!) around. We've been to the library and picked up some books. I've been having her help me try and get the playroom organized, but sometimes, I need the kids not around me so I can fill boxes and bags with things for DI. She's excited for the Mother-Daughter Enrichment meeting tonight. She'd be even happier if we could have a fun day at the pool, but again....the rain.....

Ellie is thrilled with the playroom overhaul as there are all sorts of toys that she never even knew we had! She is also getting a little too confident and trying to head out front on her bike without me knowing, which has led to a few problems..... :) It's so hard when she sees the older kiddos head out on their own, and that meanie mom won't let her follow! Oh well.

Life in a nutshell. Trying to get ready for Father's Day this Sunday (don't forget!). Oh, and hoping that it dries up a little around here....for just a few days!

The Queen is In.

It might be worth a try.....