A Little Outnumbered: August 2008

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Zion Ponderosa

Whey your father-in-law says, "Hey... do you guys want me to rent out a fabulous million dollar luxary home in Zion's Park over Labor Day?", it's kind of a no-brainer. He rented a house for Ryan's whole family to stay in this weekend at Zion Ponderosa. It was such a fun place. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera to take any pictures. Awesome! I know everyone else got a ton so I'm hoping to do a little blog-lifting after they all post their fun pictures, and hopefully by the time I go to print this up in my journal all of my photos will be replaced.

This trip was so much fun for me because it brought back so many memories of all the trips we'd take down there when I was a kid. Here's a few of the highlights.

Our gorgeous houseIt was so pretty. My favorite thing was being able to go, go, go all day and having such a comfortable place to crash at night. It came complete with four huge bathtubs, cable TV, foosball, and more. We tried our hardest to catch the place on fire when our entire bbq was consumed by flames in the worst grease fire I have ever seen. Luckily Mike B. was right there with the baking soda. Whew!

The trip to Moqui Cave:

I'm not sure how to explain this one... Not quite what we expected, but an adventure all it's own.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes:

So pretty, and so much fun! Maybe a bit too hot in August though... Hmmm... will have to remember that for next time. I have so many great memories of trips here when I was a little girl. Just running and jumping through miles and miles of soft, pink sand.

Swimming in the awesome pool.

Khursten loves waterslides. She must have gone down these slides 100 times.

Hiking 1/3 of Emeral Pools:

You heard me right... we only made it 1/3 of the way (life's a little different with kids). Hey, we made it to the lower pool, and it was the most beautiful 0.6 miles we'd ever hiked!

Riding around in a golf cart:

This resort offered a lot of fun things to do, but the prices were a little too steep for us. I wish we could pay the $225/ hour it would cost for our family to ride horses for an hour, or the $120/person to go repelling down Orderville Canyon. Ryan and I were feeling a Little bad that we weren't forking out the big bucks to do some fun stuff. We were just about to cave and hand over the dough when we saw a sign telling us we could rent a golf cart for $40 a day. What? Only $40? This $40 golf cart brought about some serious fun. We drove all around the resort and all over the little trails. Ryan and I went out by ourselves for a little while. Things got a little reckless. At one point I decided to flip a U-turn going a whopping 15-mph and I threw Ryan completely out of the cart and he landed in a big pile of sticker burrs. Good times. I can't wait to get the pictures of this.

Playing Red Sand Volley Ball. I couldn't find a cool picture for this one. We had so much fun playing volleyball in the fine red sand. The kids all sat in the corner of the court and built some seriously cool sand castles. It was fun for all ages. When we got back to the house and threw the kids in the bathtub, we left a nice, red ring around it. The bottoms of my feet still have a nice red hue to them.

The Tunnel:
Jen & I reminiscing about the 'magic' we felt driving through this mile-long tunnel as kids. We tried to explain to our husbands how rolling down the windows, honking your horn, and screaming at the top of your lungs would be a super fun thing to do. They were not convinced, but they did agree to try. I think the shrieks of delight they heard coming from the girls in the back seat may have finally changed their minds. By the 4th time we went through, I'm pretty sure they were feeling the magic.

Lizard spotting:Never did catch one, but we had fun trying. We saw quite a few of these cute little guys running around. And quite a few of these freaky-looking dudes too:Dutch Oven Dinner: We got to go for a ride in a wagon to a secluded spot where they had prepared a delicious dutch-oven dinner. It was perfect... beautiful night, amazing view, succulent dinner, swarms of bees.... oh wait... let's just forget about those darn bees.

Thanks guys for such a fun weekend!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Ghetto Bowl

This is part 2 of yesterday's disastrous family-day post. Right after we went to the Gateway Fountain, we decided to go bowling as a family. We had driven past this place several times that said, "Bowling and Family Fun Center" in big huge letters. It was a bowling alley/pool hall/arcade all in one. It had some serious potential for being really cool, but it fell just a little bit short.

The front of the building was wood siding and each slat was painted a different, beautiful color. There were two different casino-style carpets butted up against each other in the doorway. There seemed to be a total lack of air conditioning. We had promised the girls pizza and nachos, but when we asked the one, lone employee who was running the snack bar he put down the shoe spray he was using and started walking over there. We quickly changed our minds and decided a family dinner afterward might be a better idea. The floors were so warped and pitted that nothing would roll straight. Not to mention the balls. Those require a visual demonstration:
This was what every single ball in the whole place looked like.

The girls love to bowl and weren't swayed at all by the low star rating Ryan and I gave the place. Both girls take after their daddy and are already better bowlers than I am.

I love this look of concentration.

Here's an action shot of Nicole.

Audrey wouldn't even touch the ball and we couldn't figure out why. Finally in frame 6, we realized she just wanted to use the ramp. After that, she couldn't wait for her next turn.

After bowling we hit up the local Dee's for some fine dining and delicious milk shakes which made our family day complete. Ya gotta love ice cream!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Not-So-Awesome Family Day

On Friday I decided that since it was the last day of summer, I wanted to do something super fun as a family. Everyone in my ward is always talking about how fun it is to go and let your kids run through the fountain at The Gateway. We hadn't ever done this before so I figured it would be a great thing for us to do on our last day of Summer. I called Ryan, asked him to knock off of work a little early and meet us downtown. We headed out and I was super stoked! This was sure to be an awesome day!
NOT! General consensus of the Gateway Fountain.... Not fun at all! As soon as we arrived, the girls stripped down to their swimsuits ready to have some fun. They didn't get more than a few steps out onto the pad when BOOOOOM!!! The music starts with no warning at all. This scares Khursten so bad that she slips and falls, catching all of her weight on her hip bone, giving her the biggest bruise I have ever seen.

Needless to say, she was very reluctant to go back out and play. Shortly after this fiasco, Nicole got shot right in the eye by one of the jets of water and slipped and fell, landing on the back of her head, giving her a whopper of a headache and a very sore eyeball. She too, came over crying and decided to sit things out. Audrey, seeing the disasterous fates of her sisters, opted not to even venture into the water. When we finally left, both Khursten & Nicole told us that The Gateway Fountain was the stupidest place ever and they actually made me promise never to take them back. What a fun family day I planned!
All was not lost, however. After a good 20 minutes of sulking, the girls did decide to give things another chance. They tiptoed ever so carefully so they wouldn't fall again, but they did at least get wet. I did get some good pictures though.... If you didn't know better, you'd think we had the time of our lives.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Audrey's Owie

"Settle down you guys. I don't want to spend all night in the emergency room."

These are the dreaded words. These are the words my dad used to say to my sisters and I when we got out of control. These are the words we learned quickly to listen to, because if we didn't, someone would inevitably end up with stitches or worse. These are the words I said last night when Khursten was chasing Audrey around the house laughing and squealing maniacally. I should have known not to utter these dreaded words. Once I did, there was only one possible outcome. And when Audrey collided head-on with the banister, I knew we were doomed.

Ryan and I couldn't decide whether or not her cut was bad enough to drive 35 min. to my parents' house, drop the girls off, head to the ER, wait another 3 hours, drive back to my parents' house, pick the girls up, and drive another 35 min. back home. I ran over to my friend's house because she's a nurse and I was hoping she'd have the expertise to decide for me. No luck... she wasn't home. We finally decided that since it was on her face, we didn't want to risk a scar so called my parents and off we went.

2 1/2 hours and $100.00 later, Audrey was all fixed up with three little stitches. I'm glad we took her in. I didn't think she needed stitches. I thought they'd just crazy-glue her back together like they did when my sister's little boy cut his head. She was such a brave girl the whole time. She didn't even cry and she did everything the nurse told her to do. All she kept saying is, "Audrey got big owie" I had the pleasure of watching the whole thing. Urghhh... I could never be a doctor.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Khursten's 1st Day

This photo sums things up pretty darn well. Khursten was thrilled to start school today. I still can't believe I have a 2nd grader! Crazy! I took Khursten to school today and met her teacher. Her name is Mrs. Isakson. I think she's going to be so much fun! I found out today that she's in the 1st / 2nd split. I'm not sure how I feel about that? Any thoughts on the subject? We will get to do one year at this school and then our brand new elementary school will be open next fall. I can't wait for Khursten to get home and give me the scoop on the 2nd grade.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Reward Day

Last month the girls and I made a deal. We decided that dirty rooms were no good and it was time we cleaned them every day. We made a sticker chart with a square for every girl for every day for a month. I told the girls that when the chart was full they would get to choose a reward. We would do one thing together as a family, and they could have one special prize. They immediately agreed on going bowling as our family activity. We're going to do that tonight. The individual prizes were a little bit trickier. I was thinking maybe giving them a few bucks each and heading off to the dollar store. Nicole had a different idea.
When we were moving she noticed a box labeled 'porcelain' dolls. (well... to her it was just ......dolls) Every year as a little girl, Santa Claus brought my sisters and I each a porcelain doll. These were fabulous treasures as a child. In my adult life, they haven't brought me quite the same thrill and have found themselves in the depths of our storage. But remembering the soft spot they used to hold in my heart, I couldn't bring myself to just throw them away. So... to the new house they came.
Nicole decided that for their sticker chart reward, they all should have the chance to choose one of my precious dolls to keep for their own. I couldn't be happier about this idea.
The girls did a wonderful job keeping their rooms clean for a whole month. Even Audrey has figured out how to make her bed (kind of) and put all of her toys in the right bins. We put the last stickers on our chart this morning and out to the garage we went to hunt for porcelain dolls.

.
I don't really think they understood my description of what a porcelain doll actually was. When I opened the box, their faces were priceless. They were so excited.

After unloading all of the dolls, and thoroughly checking out each one....

Each girl chose her favorite one.

We spent the rest of the morning washing, combing, and braiding hair, dusting the dolls off, re-tying bows, and over-all prettying them up. Now I'm sure they're the fanciest 20-year-old porcelain dolls around.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Kinda Feelin' Blue

I've noticed a pattern with my blogging. I seem to mostly blog the happy things in my life and let the other things fade from my memory. My goal is to print up my blog for the whole year, bind it into a book, and call it a journal. That got me to thinking... if this is my journal...am I being honest with myself if I sift out the bad? Should I blog the days when I'm feeling a little blue? It's not fun for others to read, but maybe it's good for me to remember???

So that leads me to today... I know we've only been in our new house for a little over a month, but I'm feeling like it's time that I started getting to know people. I've been going to the enrichment meetings and the weekly playgroup, but I stil feel like I'm looking out onto a sea of nameless faces that are stil kind of all a blur. There's yet to be someone who I just 'click' with and it's really bumming me out. Where are you magical person from my imagination who is exactly like me? I was looking forward to your three little girls becomming BFF's with mine. If you're reading this... give me a call! We can take the kids to the splash park and then do lunch and get pedicures...

Darn it! I guess life doesn't really work that way. Woe is me.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

I'm Not Complaining, But...

What just happened here? Last night after an hour of family games, the girls were begging Ryan and I to have some more 'family time'. I was tired and pretty much ready to just put a movie on for them to watch so I could veg out and talk with Ryan for a while. I'm not sure Ryan was feelin' it either because when they kept hounding he said, "Well... we could go out back and dig some trenches for our sprinklers." I laughed thinking that was the end of it. But to my amazement all three girls thought that was the best idea they had ever heard of. I'm talking jumping up and down, squealing in delight, excitement. So outside we went! I'm pretty sure we're breaking some child labor laws, but they worked and worked and worked. When we came back inside Khursten said, "That was the best family time ever!" I'm not sure how I feel about this... we try to do a lot together as a family, and I always try to be so creative. Who knew I just had to put them to work?

Monday, August 18, 2008

Digital Olympics: Triathlon

Triathlon: Create a scrapbook page using the following three Photoshop techniques:
1.) Drop Shadows – Customize the drop shadows on your page.
2.) Extraction – Use the selection tools to cut part of a picture out. Need help? Read this.
3.) Hue/Saturation – Change the color of your background paper or change the color of

a portion of your extracted picture.

Digital Olympics: Baseball, Basketball, or Soccer

Baseball, Baseketball, or Soccer: Create a scrapbook page about baseball, basketball or soccer using the sports kit on the Oh Boy CD.

Digital Olympics: Pole Vault

Pole Vault: Take your creativity to new heights and learn about clipping masks. Read this tutorial, and then create a scrapbook page where you “clip” at least one picture into the letters of your title.

Weekend at Bear Lake

For as long as I can remember, we have always gone up Aunt Shirley's cabin every summer. I can remember when I was just a little girl and Aunt Shirley invited my sister Jill & I and a bunch of our cousins up to her cabin to help her 'build' it. We all piled into the back of her rusty old pick-up for the three-hour trip up to Bear Lake. I must have only been about 6 or 7 and not a care was not a care was given to the fact that there were a dozen kids sitting in the back of a pick-up and driving such a long way. She threw a bunch of blankets in the back for us to cover up with, and we headed out.

When we got to the cabin there were no walls. They were just working on the framing. Aunt Shirley made us a make-shift bathroom out of a portable potty and some blanket walls. We spent all day on the beach until we were burnt to a crisp, and then spent the rest of the trip blistered and sore but blissfully happy. We were introduced to the joys of skipping rocks. building sandcastles, & eating Bear Lake raspberry shakes on the beach. At night we all camped out on the deck, and had the time of our lives.

This marked the beginning of a wonderful family tradition. Every year we have gone back up to the cabin. Each year more and more niceties were added and things got just a little more comfortable. The walls went up, the scaffolding came down, and Aunt Shirley's cabin was finally complete.

Our whole extended family still goes up every 24th of July. There are too many people to fit in the cabin so the lot gets filled with campers and tents. At night Unk lights a fire and we all squeeze around it on the old yellow restaurant benches that Aunt Shirley got for just this occasion.

In recent years, a weekend in August has been reserved for just our little Gaster family to come up. Grandpa Gaster flies in from Maryland and we all go up there and spend the weekend. It's fun watching that same look of amazement appear on the faces of my children as they are now experiencing the wonder and magic of Aunt Shirley's cabin. They now look forward to our annual trip. Their eyes light up as we come out of the canyon and they get their first glimpse of the lake. The second we pull up to the cabin, the girls are ready to throw on their swimsuits and head down to the beach.

I hope to spend many more summer weekends up at Aunt Shirley's cabin. I look forward to the day when my girls tell my grandchildren about all of the joys they can remember from their childhood summer trips to Bear Lake.

Thanks Aunt Shirley.

We really missed all of you who couldn't come this year.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Digital Olympics: Sailing

Sailing: Make a scrapbook page with cool blue colors.

Digital Olympics: Archery

I'm doing the Digital Olympics, so pardon my random scrapbook pages.

Archery Page: Since archery requires accuracy, we think the scrapbook page you do for this challenge should too. Create a page with 6-12 picture squares that are the exact same size. Line up the squares so that they are lined up straight and evenly distributed wherever you decide to put them on your page.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

So Thoughtful

Babies, why don't you take my bed.

I'll be just fine on the floor.

Every night I like to go in and cover the girls back up after they've fallen asleep. Last night this is how I found Audrey. I thought it was very thoughtful of her to give up her bed for the comfort of her babies.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A Little Slice of Humble Pie

If any of you have ever played games with my husband, you know he very rarely loses. If he does lose, it's always neck and neck and his opponent miraculously pulls it out in the nick of time. Well... a few nights ago we had some friends over for a rousing game of Settlers. Things didn't go so smoothly for Ryan. At the end of the game, the score was 13, 12, 12, and poor little Ryan with 6 points. I didn't really think too much of it. Maybe I'm used to getting stomped. But that night as we were laying in bed the following conversation took place:

Ryan: "That was a really good experience for me tonight."

Sarah: "What was?"

Ryan: "I've never lost like that before. I've never played a game where there I had absolutely no chance of winning."

Sarah: "Really? Never?"

Ryan: "I know you're used to getting slaughtered (ha ha ha), but that's never happened to me. It's not a good feeling. I can see why you don't like playing games with me."

I don't really know what this means exactly... but I'm feeling like this was a breakthrough of some sort. I know this experience won't make Ryan ease up on his intense strategizing, and I know he won't throw a game my way out of sympathy. But maybe, just maybe, he'll reflect back on this experience the next time wiping the floor with me.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Priceless

One bag of frozen burritos: $3.99

One Jar of Peach Mango Salsa: $2.49

One bag of Mexican shredded cheese: $1.88

One cup of sour cream: $1.19

One dinner without complaints..... Priceless!

It was one of those rare, peaceful moments. Dinner without any, "I hate this" or "how many more bites until I can be done?" All I did was put frozen burritos in the bottom of a 9"x13" pan, pour in a can of mango peach salsa, sprinkle with shredded cheese, bake for a half hour, and top off with a dollop of sour cream. Doesn't sound too fabulous, but everyone cleaned their plates! Times like this bring joy to a mother's life.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

My Life Is Complete

Can grass make someone's life whole? It's a pretty good start! Today they finally came and finished off our front yard. Hooray Hooray! Our house finally looks pretty. There's grass, sprinklers, trees, and flowers... Yes... life is good. The girls sat on the porch the whole time the workers were outside. They were absolutely fascinated by the whole thing. They were a little sad to lose their giant sandbox, but I'm happy to be done with all that dust. It finally feels like we're all moved in. Ryan's downstairs right now designing the sprinkler schematics for the backyard. Soon we'll be complete.

p.s. I couldn't resist posting these pictures so I'm doing two posts in one day, but please please please... don't skip my first post from today. I'm dying to know everyone's thoughts on Breaking Dawn!!! :)

Finished it... Finally!

Okay all my fellow Edward & Bella fans. I finally finished this book. Loved it! I thought it was a perfect ending. My only critique was that I didn't think she could have possibly come up with a worse name than Renesmee Carlie, but in the grand scheme of things, I guess that doesn't really matter. I don't want to give anything away in case some of you haven't had the pleasure of reading this yet. Chime in! Tell me your thoughts. We can all have a nice virtual book club and discuss in detail all of our favorite parts! For those of you who haven't read this yet... Spoiler Alert! Use caution when reading comments. :) Hooray. I love it when a good book leaves you with a residual high.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

What to Blog...

I got tagged my cutest cousin Carolyn and I really wanted to do it, but I've been posting me, me, me, me and I'm afraid that it's me-overload so I finally decided against it.

So then I was thinking that maybe I'd pull another slip out of my blog jar. A couple of my friends have been joining in the fun and I feel I'm letting them down by not keeping up my end of the bargain... but I've had no luck there. Every slip I pull out is L-A-M-E! I just pulled one out that said, Tell about where you lived while going to college. How much was your tuition? books? rent? :( Sadly, there was no college for me. I guess that slip goes straight into the trash. Others I pulled out asked me about my favorite outfit... LAME! My current health... LAME! and current political issues.... probably not really lame, but LAME! So I'm striking out all around.

I want to blog something today so I'll try one more blog jar topic.

What do you wish you knew about your grandparents?

I have been reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (FABULOUS book by the way) and it has sparked an interest in me. I found I really enjoy learning about what life was like for my grandparents and their parents. The idea of living through the great depression and the world wars at first seemed so inconceivable to me. Scraping together every possible penny to buy stale bread and a week's worth of rent is so foreign to the way most of us live today. Then I started thinking about how the news is always talking about how we're on the brink of a recession and a world war, and I realized that we could really learn a lot from our parents. My grandmothers were strong women. One was a single mother with 5 kids in the 60's. The other a small-town girl who gave birth to 10 children. I would love to know how they survived and thrived. What was it like for women working in a male-dominant work force? What were their money-saving tips? What were their priorities in life? What goals did they work the hardest for? What things had to fall by the way-side? How was the childhood they were able to provide their children different than the ones they had for themselves?

We've become such a comfortable generation that it's easy to forget the need to prepare. When there are 5 grocery stores within 5 miles, it's all too easy to let our stock-pile fall. I wish I could have just a portion of knowledge that my grandmas and great-great grandmas had.