A Princess and her Knights.......

This blog is in dedication to my sweet little Dallin who has just finished his last year of riding the sheep. Yes, the sheep...once more...the sheep. I know, I am paranoid and I let originally my four year old get on the back of a sheep...not just a sheep...a moving sheep. I don't know what ever possessed me except the fact the Dallin was wanting to so bad and I thought in the past I had laughed along with everyone else while these cute little kids came trotting out on these sheep, slipping to the side until BOOM they hit the ground. Not so funny when it's your kid hitting the ground. I remember the first time Dallin rode the sheep. It didn't help that when they announced Dallin and his age everyone around me seemed to gasp because how young he was...I shrunk and pretended like it was someone else's kid. No, just kidding I cheered and tried to videotape the whole thing. Problem being that I was shaking so bad that you could barely see what was going on. He did great but he didn't win the trophy or the prize. He was disappointed but still had the rush of riding on a sheep. Last year he was more determined to win the trophy. This time I sent the video camera with Greg because I thought he would be able to get a perfect shot right down there in the shoot or whatever you call it. It was perfect, he had a nice shot of Dallin getting ready to ride his sheep....one problem. Greg followed Dallin with his eyes and not the camera. We do see Dallin take off and then he disappears at the top of the camera. We laughed and laughed. What a funny, typical, Greg story. Well, this year was different. Dallin was older and very determined to win it all. He thought that there was a $100 prize if he won and he kept saying, I am going to win and I am going to give the money to my mom and dad so they are not poor anymore. Ahhh, what a sweetheart...if only $100 made us not poor....dang wouldn't that be nice. Needless to say, Dallin didn't win and to make it even more crummy,....the sheep stepped on his "whoo-hoo". Poor guy. He cried and cried when he saw his beautiful, gorgeous, lovely, mommy...which is me of course!!! ( I'll always take a confidence booster even if it comes directly from....ME!) I love him and I am so proud that he would even have the courage to ride the sheep. So here's to Dallin, my courageous, brave, and strong son!!!! Yee-haw....(let's hope the rodeo'in is out of his system)

Other than that, life is great...it is summer days by the pool and summer nights by my hunk...okay, okay, even I am puking over that one. No really I just love summer. I love being with my kids and I seem to want to eat healthier and excercise more. I said I seem to want to...I didn't say I am actually doing it. It is the thought that counts...right??? The one problem with summer is that it goes to quickly and then a new school year comes and it goes so fast and before I know it, my kids are another year older and life only gets faster. Sad...I love the stage that I am in. I have never been so satisfied and happy with my life. I am so content and comfortable with the life Greg and I have made for ourselves. I am so blessed. Anyways, enough of the soap box...time for Dallin's baseball game!! Did I mention he is the best little player on his team....he get's it definetly from............................................................................Greg, ofcourse!!!! Tootles!!

Yeah, we are home. I always love coming home and of course it is nice to come home to a clean house even if it is overtaken by laundry in the first five minutes. We had an absolute blast though! We stayed at a great hotel. I was so happy when we drove up. I had booked it on priceline and after our hotel in Phoenix, I was a little worried, but yeah, it was great. It was nice to actually have a maid come in everyday to clean the room. We were in Phoenix from Sunday until Saturday and the maid came in once! We went to the beach on Monday and that was great. The boys had so much fun. We then did Disneyland for three days. I have never seen it so busy in my life. The average wait was 1 hour at least and the new Nemo ride was a 3 1/2 hour wait. We obviously decided we would have to try Nemo on another trip. The boys loved every second of it. In fact in church today, Alex was looking through a hymn book. He was trying to tell Greg something and Greg wasn't understanding so Greg sent him down to me. He was looking at the picture on the front of the book saying, "See, there is Mickey's house." We went with Jeff and Kerri and we had so much fun. I was so glad they were there because we were able to trade off and do stroller passes and the boys loved having Cooper there. It was fun to see the kids having somuch fun and of course the kids all walked away with all pirate stuff. The funniest was when Colton saw Mickey Mouse. I don't know why but he went crazy when he saw him. He just started jabbering away at Mickey and trying to hug him and kiss him. He was in awe of him. He didn't do that with any other character. It was funny to see. We had thought about either going to Sea World Friday- Sunday or going to Las Vegas, but we have been gone since May 31st and so we decided to make the trek home on Friday. It was long but it was nice to have Saturday and Sunday to recover. There is no place like home!!!!!

Just a shout out to the wonderful men in my life. I am so grateful to my dad and the man that he is. He is such a wonderful person and an amazing example to me. I am also grateful for my father in law.....he is wonderful and raised an amazing son. Which brings me to Greg!!! I love him with all my heart. He is such a good dad and I think my boys are so lucky to have him as their example. Happy Father's Day!!!!!

We have a busy week ahead. Dallin has swimming lessons and on Thursday he gets to ride the sheep at the P.G. rodeo and Alex has two days of speech testing this week plus his speech pathologist and his occupational therapist coming!!! Oh, and Dallin has baseball too!!! And it is the Manti Pageant...mine and Greg's famous first date and Greg has inservice this week so we will not be seeing much of him!!! Back to life!!!!!! It feels nice!!!!!

Just have a few minutes to write. I am sitting on our hotel bed in the lovely Aneheim. I can see Disneyland right outside my window. It is wonderful. We went to Huntington beach today and it was great although when we got home I found sand in places I never thought it could venture. It was great. The boys just had so much fun. We actually got a picture of all of the boys buried in the sand. Yes, even Colton. We just sat him up and actually when we pulled him out he cried because he loved being in it. He was covered completely in the sand.

Life has been absolutely crazy the past week. We went up to Grandma Smith's funeral and that was great...well as great as a funeral can be...but hello, she was 103 and wanted to die so bad, so it wasn't like your normal funeral, it was mostly a happy day because we know she is happy. Well, Sunday we drove all night and got to Phoenix around 9:00. I really would have liked to turn around and come home because the "motel" that the EFY program had us staying in was beyond belief. I have never in my life been so scared in my life. I will just summarize by what I saw just outside my "motel" door: A homeless person going through my trash...right outside my door, prositutes....using the room right below us, a man being arrested...right outside my door, a drug deal going down,..right outside my door, two drunk men, naked,...okay, topless hanging over our balcony....two doors down,..more naked men barbequing in the parking lot,..right outside my door, a domestic arugment...beating is a better description..right outside my door, and may more interesting occurances happening right outside my door. To top it off one of the counselors at EFY was kind enough to share with us his story. You see about four months ago he decided that he would go out and take a walk. It was about 9:00 at night and he lived just a few block from hotel, supposevly in a little nicer area that what we were in and he said a car approached him and he thought they were stopping for directions until he noticed the back door open and a gun. At that point he started to run and was shot in the leg...yes he was shot. Just a nice looking guy. He ran to the neighbors house and rather than taking a chance with the door being locked he rolled under the truck in the drive way and proceeded to call the police. He then heard the car speed off. The officers later told him that he was so lucky because they found the empty shell on the ground and than another round on the ground. They think after that first shot that the gun got jammed. We even got to see the pictures of his leg. Crazy. We were lucky enough during the day to go and swim at some of our friends house who live in Mesa. It was a thirty minute drive each way but it was worth it. We are so thankful to the Lathams for being so nice to us. We really had a nice time when we were spending the time at EFY. Greg of course did amazing and the kids adored him. It was so nice because on Friday it was my birthday and he had told the kids without me knowing that it was my birthday and how wonderful they would be to write me a note, so on Friday I went to listen to his talk in the morning and all of the kids and counselors brought me birthday cards and notes. It was so much fun and they sang to me before Greg gave his talk. I of course, being me, actually loved the attention. It was also nice to have Greg's brother Jeff here and his wife Kerri. We have had so much fun together and the party has just started because we are going to be in Disneyland for the next three days. Yeah. We also got to spend the weekend with Greg's uncle Fred. It was so much fun to be with him and so nice to be in his beautiful home...especially after living in the hood for a week. Ahhh, vacation is nice.

Well, I better rest these beautiful eyes of mine j/k, because the kids won't care if I am tired tomorrow...hello we are in Disneyland!!!! I will write more when I get home!!!