The Olsen Corner

Monday, September 3, 2012

Oak City Days

Towards the end of Summer, we decided to head down to Oak City for Oak City Days. Every year we think about taking the kids down to Oak City for their celebration, but every year we end up changing our minds. I'm sure after this year our girls will insist we make it a family tradition.

The fun part about our trip, is that one of our very favorite cousins came all the way from Philadelphia to visit, so she was able to come to Oak City with us. We headed down Friday after Sadie got out of school, and arrived just in time for the parade. Every parade has something special about it, and I think what makes Oak City's Parade special/original is that they didn't have 1 float in their parade, not one...unless you count all the tractors, and kids wearing cowboy hats riding around in cars, or the very old man riding around on a motorized scooter with the words "One Cool Pop" embroidered to his back (by far that was my favorite). But the kids don't care as long as they get candy, and boy did they get candy. Here are the girls showing off their loot (if you can't tell they weren't happy posing for pictures)

Kylee, Samantha and Hallie with their candy

This picture is before the parade. Hallie and Samantha were too cool to sit by us, so they moved farther down the street to be on their own. Don't tell my brother, he wouldn't appreciate me allowing his daughter to be without proper adult supervision...but that's what small towns are good for.

Here we have some of the teenagers. Apparently they are too cool to even TRY to get candy, even for their mother who gave them life!

The Next day we spent some time at the park where they sold Oak City t-shirts, home made pies, and jewelry. They also had some fun bounce houses and slides that the kids were able to play on. Plus, for only $1 each, Hallie and Samantha could ride the train...which consists of water barrels that are attached to dolly's and pulled by a four wheeler. This guy was making a fortune. By far this ride had the longest wait and a constant line. I wish I was that creative.

Later that afternoon the kids all wanted to participate in the "fish catch". This activity is awesome! Basically it's exactly what it sounds like, they have 50 kids waiting around a huge pool of water, and they bring in about 15 fish, and all the kids jump in the water and try to be one of the lucky kids that actually catches a fish. Samantha and her age group were by far the biggest. And as you can see from the following pictures, Samantha came up empty handed. We had coached her to work in the corners, because frightened fish would swim along the edge of the pool, and if she was quick, she would be able to flip a fish out of the pool and pick it up once it hit the ground. Unfortunately, the stress of fighting 50 other kids, caused her to forget our instructions.

Poor Samantha with no fish :(. Thankfully she was a good sport, and handled her disappointment well.

Kylee was in the next group, and she didn't have a problem following the instructions. She caught her fish in the first 15 seconds!

Here she is working the corner, trying to knock a fish out of the pool.

And here she is below, putting her fish in a bag.

As you can tell, the sadness she felt about the fish dying, quickly passed.

Below she is posing for a picture with her cousin Bryce. Notice the size of their fish. That's me not bragging about my daughter catching a bigger fish than Brenda and Ty's son. Ha! Also, notice cute Samantha standing next to Kylee...don't feel bad for her, all the kids who didn't catch a fish were given a second chance, and thankfully ALL the kids were able to leave with their very own fish.

Samantha and her cousins watching the fish, and thankfully they all came away with a fish of their very own.

Caden, Samantha, Aubrey and Brianna with their fish. Yay!

Then I got to teach my girls how to clean their fish. Who knew I'd remember how to gut a fish. It's been years since I'd been fishing. When I was younger, my brother Adam and I would go fishing with my dad...and Adam would get a little queasy when it came time to clean the fish, so I was always the one doing it. After I showed the girls how to do it, Kylee cleaned her fish almost entirely by herself...meaning, she cut the fish open and let me do the rest.

Later that night, Bret faked sick, and the rest of us went to the Oak City dance, where we danced terribly to very old music no one had ever heard before. The nice thing about dancing terribly in Oak City, is that not one person even noticed.

We had a great time playing games, laughing, eating and spending time with family. And that's what Oak City Days is all about.

Friday, July 13, 2012

So far this Summer

Every year I tell myself that I will make sure we enjoy our Summer Break. We'll take it easy, and enjoy the fact that we're not running in 6 different directions every day...Silly me. We are more than halfway through our Summer, and it has flown by. Of course, I guess that always happens. Those moments you want to last seem to fly by. Thankfully we've been able to spend it together, and we've been enjoying every moment. This is what we have done with our Summer so far.

My mom has a membership to the Zoo, so we were able to get together with most of my sisters and their kids and visit the Zoo with Grandma. We actually went the day before the new exhibit Rocky Shores opened (typical), but that's okay, we plan on going again before this summer is over. My girls had a great time taking care of their cousins and helping them enjoy the Zoo. We went to the bird show, my favorite part, and really relaxed and enjoyed our first Official day of Summer Vacation.

I had a Brilliant idea to take my kids on 1 hike every week during Summer Vacation. I told myself it would be easy and cheap and keep us all active this summer. This is all true, but I made the mistake of telling my kids we would be going on a hike every week. NEVER tell your kids your plans, every week I'm asked "where are we hiking this week?" I've tried to make this a weekly thing, but it's turned into a monthly thing instead. Oh well, I had good intentions. This picture is from our hike to Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove. It was a beautiful hike. I love our Mountains. We truly live in a beautiful place.

The next week, Samantha was "too tired to go on a hike", so we went to Bridal Veil Falls up Provo Canyon. It was a nice short walk, with absolutely no complaining from my youngest. Combine that with the beautiful view of the Falls and the cool water on your feet, and we had a great time.

We also celebrated Samantha's 9th Birthday. Yep, my baby is 9, and I'm getting old! She told me she wanted a "party with friends this year because she has NEVER had one!" Yes, I'm also THAT kind of mother. I HATE birthday parties, and I've gotten away with family parties up until this year, so I count myself lucky. And seriously, a party at Jack & Jill's in Lehi, where I don't have to do anything and I get to play Laser Tag with the kids, is my kind of party. No clean up, just play. Love it. Samantha had a great time.

Our first game of Laser Tag was against a group of 10 year old boys. The girls were nervous to play against boys, but we kicked their butts! Mostly thanks to my incredible laser tag skills. Yes, I'm taking all the credit for the win. I may not have had the most hits, but my accuracy is incredible. So if you're ever playing against me in laser tag...watch your back.

We also went to St George for a week in the sun. This is how we spent every minute of our time there. It was over 100 degrees every day, so we stayed cool in the pool.

We were leaving St George on Thursday to go to Bret's Parents house, in Oak City, for the Olsen Family Reunion. But on Wednesday night Bret's parents were evacuated because of a fire that started just outside of town. The girls were very worried about their grandparents, so we prayed as a family that everything would be ok and Grandma and Grandpa would be safe. Thankfully our prayers were answered and the fire moved up the canyon instead of through town.

The girls were very happy to be able to go to Oak City to see their grandparents and cousins. They stayed very busy. We played outside,

We played games inside. (we sleep in this trailer, with AC, thankfully) It's hot inside their house.

Grandpa put Kylee to work on the riding lawn mower. And later that night, he even taught Samantha to ride it. Sadly I didn't have my camera handy.

The girls spent hours shooting their arrows at the target. Samantha was the first one to hit the target, so Kylee spent the next hour trying to get closer to the center of the target than Samantha. Got to love sibling rivalry. Thankfully they are best friends.

On the 4th of July we went on a hike with our friends, the Leatherwoods. We hiked to the "G". I was glad we woke up early, because when we made it to the "G" it was HOT. But, the view was worth it.

That night, after the hike, we had a BBQ with friends, and were able to watch fireworks. Apparently someone in their neighborhood puts on a fireworks show every year. I have to say, it was amazing! No need to drive an hour to Provo, or an hour to Salt Lake anymore. The fireworks were great and we were only minutes from home. Perfect end to our 4th!

Melissa and I had our first "official" bike ride for the summer. It's called Antelope by Moonlight, and we had a great time. Since the ride took place at night, we were required to wear headlamps, and I think we looked great...not nerdy at all. This was a fun ride, but it was crowded! Thankfully we were able to pass all the kids and big groups, and have a smooth ride. It definitely feels different riding your bike late at night compared to early in the morning. There was pretty steady hill at the end of the ride, and we were able to finish strong. Of course I stopped at the top to take a picture of the moon, which FINALLY decided to make an appearance, but apparently you need a better camera to take that kind of picture.

We also celebrated Kyle's Birthday, and Mikayla's Birthday...but I don't have pictures yet. Kyle is 20 (Man I'm OLD), and the girls helped me make him a "tie" banner. Kyle loves ties, so we sent him a birthday banner that says "Have a tie-riffic 20th B-Day". Plus we sent him some things he needed for his birthday. He is doing so great. We are proud of him every day.

This picture is Elder Olsen with a young man in his ward who baptized David, and Elder Harding. David has been doing amazing since his baptism, and Kyle mentioned in one of his e-mails that he hopes to find more "David's" during his time in South Carolina.

Mikayla turned 14 on July 7th (did I mention I'm old?), she is so beautiful. She is my first to always offer help, and she a special talent of helping out with little kids. My sisters are always glad when she is around because they know their little kids will be entertained and watched over. She is amazing. Sadie is excited that she is old enough to go to the Stake Dances, and she is determined to drag Mikayla along with her. (Mikayla is NOT excited about dances, so Sadie might have to drag her).

It has been an incredible summer so far, I hope that the last 5 weeks go by slower. But I doubt they will.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter 2012

Just wanted to show you a picture of each one of my girls. They are growing up so fast. I really can't believe it. I told Mikayla this morning that she looked beautiful, and I told her she must have gorgeous parents ;). Truthfully, they are beautiful girls inside and out.

My friend Michelle, made the skirts that Mikayla, Kylee and Samantha are wearing. I can't thank her enough. My girls love their new church clothes. We took these pictures to send to Kyle on his mission. I'm sure he'll be surprised how much they've changed in the 8 months he's been gone.

Easter

Kylee and Samantha's Color Festival

I decided that Kylee and Samantha would really have enjoyed the color festival. So I saved a few bags of the colored chalk, and let the girls have some fun in the back yard.

They definitely enjoyed being able to throw color on each other in the comfort of our own backyard, and I didn't have to try and keep track of them at the real color festival, it was a win win.

I learned from the Spanish Fork color festival, that the color doesn't wash out as good as they said (I was glad we didn't wear anything we loved). So that's the reason my girls are dressed like homeless children.

Kylee loved getting covered in chalk, and Samantha only ended up crying once. On a different note, Samantha won't take a "Normal" picture these days. She told me she thinks pictures are weird, so she would continue to make funny faces. This one actually scares me a little, I certianly wouldn't mess with her if she was making this face.

Spanish Fork Color Festival

Sadie, Mikayla and I decided to go to the Color Festival in Spanish Fork this year. It was very crowded and very colorful. But we had a great time. We basically ended up having a girls weekend. Bret had taken Kylee and Samantha to Oak City, so he could help his dad with another home improvement project (his dad is the King of home improvement projects). And we spent the early morning in Spanish Fork.
That first picture was only a few minutes after we got to the festival. Apparently everyone loves when you come in "clean", so as we walked into the chaos everyone who walked past us shared some of their colors.

The girls had fun throwing color on strangers and each other. Every 2 hours they have everyone throw color into the air at the same time. It looks really cool for a few seconds, but then all the colors mix and it looks like a brown cloud hovering over everything.

That building behind the girls is the Hari Krishna temple. I think the point of the whole event, is to celebrate Spring, and to remind us that God created everything, and so no matter how different we all are, we are all beautiful...I'm pretty sure most of the people there just wanted to throw their packets of colored chalk on each other. But they had good intentions :)