Ds's latest creation on his Etch A Sketch.

What I did on my summer vacation Part 8

Part 8: Make new friends and keep the old

I love that so many of my friends have kids who are the same ages as my kids. Instant playmates! During our vacation we were able to meet with several friends I have made throughout many years. Some of these wonderful women I hadn't seen in 15 years and it was such fun to see them again. With my old friends and my kids' new friends we toured BYU; the Bean Museum, the MOA including an incredible Walter Wick exhibit, Earth Science Museum, bowling and of course the Creamery on Ninth. We enjoyed the amazing gardens at Thanksgiving Point, had sleepovers, got wet and had a lot of silly fun. I can't believe I didn't take any pics of my freshman roomate Villi and her kids, or my friend Lisa and our kids painting rocks.

"Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends." -Richard Bach

What I did on my summer vacation Part 7

Part 7: See a temple The newly finished Oquirrh Mountain temple was having its open house, where the general public is invited to tour the temple. There are about 130 temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the world right now, with about 20 more in the planning or building stage. Because of the blessings available in the temple, individuals can continue their family relationships after death. To find out more about why my church builds temples and what they are for, click here and here.

What I did on my summer vacation Part 6

Part 6: Vegas, baby

Las Vegas to us means time with the cousins and trying not to melt. It also coincided with the opening of Harry Potter 6, the first HP movie my kids have been old enough to watch in the theater. This was probably the most exciting thing Matthew had ever done in his life. Its all he could talk about for weeks ahead of time ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is opening on July 16," he'd tell anyone and everyone.) And afterwards, ("Why was the Weasley's house in a field and why did it get blown up? That's not in the book.") Its hard to tell, but the kids have the obligatory lightning shaped scar drawn on their foreheads.

What I did on my summer vacation Part 5

Part 5: Hied to Kolob

The northwest part of Zion National Park has a separate and less traveled entrance. Called Kolob Canyons, it has gorgeous views and the second-largest freestanding arch I believe, though it is at the end of a longer hike than we were prepared for. Two things that are essential for hiking with children: they must have comfortable shoes and their own water. I highly recommend these. It cut the whining and complaining by nearly 75% I'd say.

What I did on my summer vacation Part 4

Part 4: Lived on the farm

I love that my kids have the chance to live on Grandma and Grandpa's "farm" because they have to do chores! Collecting eggs, exercising the goats, cleaning stalls, raking leaves, picking apricots, riding bikes to the post office to get the mail, its all good. Of course there was plenty of time for climbing trees, making twig fairy houses, roasting marshmallows in the fire pit, stargazing, water fights, catching grasshoppers, even lighting fireworks in the street. My kids had their first experience with sparklers, much to the surprise of my sister. These things just aren't allowed in suburban CA.

Another fun thing mom and I did this year was canning and drying fruit. Apricots and cherries were in season, and almost every night we'd be found in the kitchen making a batch of jam or starting a batch of fruit leather in the dehydrator. Nothing in the world tastes better.

What I did on my summer vacation Part 2

Part 2: The county fair. My poor kids. Most moms would just buy their kids tickets to ride on the rides. Not me. I heard the fair was giving away 3 free ride tickets to each kid who turned in 3 book reports. So my kids earned their tickets! The first ride was the Zipper, which their friends had been raving about all week. It was a hit, though ds was a little short and kept getting tossed around the basket so much the ride director made him get off. Then came the Gravitron (no photo). There are good and bad sides to attending the fair on a slow day. Good: no standing in line to get on rides. Bad: the bored, toothless, questionably educated ride operator may let the ride run extra long because there are only four kids on it and none standing in line. Bad again: small children are not astronauts in training. Good again: the ride operater has to hose off his own ride. One last bad: the poor kids will remain green so long that all they want to do is lie on the grass moaning. Eventually they gave away their final hard-earned tickets to some other children, along with a stern warning about the Gravitron.

Best things about the County Fair:

1. Dragon's Blood snow cones

2. Candied Almonds

3. Corn Dogs

4. Kettle Corn

5. Funnel Cakes

6. NOT riding the Gravitron

What I did on my summer vacation Part 1

I have made it a yearly tradition to take the kids on a month-ish long vacation during the summer. Dh joins us when he can. Mostly we visit Utah, where I grew up. Over the next few days I'll share some great photos of things we did this summer.

Part one: Ride horses. I grew up with horses and my parents still have some. This was a great trail ride with me, my mom and my dd, three horse crazy girls. These are the mountains to the southeast of my hometown. Our mounts for the day were Zoe, Pie and Candy.

Then my mom and I got this crazy idea that since the kids were riding nearly every day and doing so well, we could enter them in the youth horseshow at the county fair. We excitedly turned in our registration money, found some great deals on Western clothes at DI, and started practicing. We practiced showmanship at halter, horsemanship and barrels. We didn't have any poles, but we set bottles out on the ground and had the kids run through them until they memorized the pattern. Matthew and I competed in the leadline class, where he rode and I led the horse, so I had to find some Western clothes too. Thank you again to Grandpa Clyde who brought my hat and belt to me from CA on his way back home.

This is the pole bending event. I was too busy alternating between yelling and holding my breath to take more pics. In fact, I don't have any other pics of the kids in any other events. Where is my personal photographer when I need him? It was a strange feeling to see my kids competing in the same places and with some of the same group of people that I did when I was a kid. It was a ton of fun, and I finally experienced the horse show from the mom's point of view instead of the competitor's. I appreciate all my mom did for me for all those horse shows I went to as a kid. In fact, she's still the one who got up early to feed the horse, bathe him, make sure he had good shoes, make sure the tack was in order, the trailer packed, etc. Thanks, mom, you're the best!

Registration fees: $24

Pink cowboy hat with silver sequins for dd: $3 at DI

Western shirt for ds: $3 at DI

Hamburger and soda from the snack stand: $5

Falling asleep in the truck with your trophy: priceless.

Here's a little something I wrote

Last week my article about our adoption experience was featured at Segullah.org. Check it out.

A boring post for my children's sakes

Ok kids, this is for you. I want you to know all the fun field trips and excursions we have done this semester for school and as a family -things you will have fond memories of when you are older. Or else. California Science Center Camping in Los Padres National Forest Symphony at the Walt Disney Concert Hall -Peter and the Wolf Tour of the tall ship Lynx Glass bottom boat ride Aquarium of the Pacific Legoland Riley's Apple Farm "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" reading and theatre intro Tour of the Warner L. Lawrence Fireboat 2 Griffith Observatory The Getty Museum All in addition to the swimming and art classes, the piano, violin and taekwondo lessons. The trips to the park and to the beach. Now I want you, children, to go play in the backyard. I'm going to take a nap.

Today's Lesson: Boogie Boarding 101

Go ahead and be jealous. This is what my kids and I did today. That's right, on Wednesday, October 1st. A glorious, hot, sunshiney day. First of all, the kids got their laundry folded and put away, their beds made and their rooms clean in record time with no whining, complaining or playing around! I think I'm on to something here.

Then we hit the beach. We had almost the entire beach to ourselves. We saw a few kayakers, some joggers, and couples strolling, but mostly it was just us and the freshly raked sand. Oh, and that guy who paddles himself around while standing up straight on his surfboard.

We built sandcastles, chased the sea gulls and splashed around in the waves, then the kids got serious about learning to use their boogie boards. They've had them for a year or so, but never dared go in very far. Usually they would just let the last few feet of muddy wave push them onto dry sand. Like in this picture. But today, I waded out with them and taught them how to hold on, lay on the board and get turned around so they could ride a big wave. They were thrilled! Even when they took a tumble and went under, they came up smiling. The waves were quite calm today, and the sand actually settled between waves enough for me to see a few feet down. I found two beautiful sand dollars! I forgot to take pics of them.

We often see dolphins at our beach, but every time is still exciting and they didn't disappoint us today. For birdwatching, we saw a new bird to me; I think it is a Royal Tern. Of course there were the ever-present brown pelicans, gulls, pigeons, and the little sandpiper-like ones I need to identify one of these days.

Today was a good day.

Happy birthday USA!

Summer has officially begun!

Finally! Yesterday was the kids first day of summer vacation! It was a glorious day. After all the stress and obligations and schoolwork, we were free to just spend the day as we pleased. It started off on an excellent note as I woke up at 9:00 am! Thank you children! My kids can pour themselves a bowl of cereal (actually dd is the omelet maker in the family) but they were hungry. "Can we have crepes?" they asked. Sure! "Can we have pink crepes?" Absolutely. It felt so good to say yes. We spent the day in leisure, playing games, hitting the library, watching Scooby-Doo Meets Batman. Dd and ds actually played together. We got to eat out because who wants to cook in this heat? And then, we hired our favorite babysitter and dh and I went to see Indiana Jones. Fun, fun day. Today dh spent $8 on a slip and slide. Best money we've spent in a long time. Happy summer!