Swim Lessons and a Family Vacation

We had Eden, Tanner, Carter and Lily doing swim lessons for several weeks this summer. They really liked it. Luke wished that he was in the water too. Eden especially showed a lot of improvement this year.

Lily's teachers just loved her with all her affection and cuteness.

In August, we headed out for a vacation to Idaho/Utah.  I was very proud of our packing job.  I packed enough outfits for all of the kids for one day in each bag and labeled it.  It made every morning and evening go quickly and easily.  Definitely the way to go for us.

This was another trick that worked really well. The kid's school does something like this so I copied the idea. Each kid got a clip color and if they needed a warning for any reason we moved them to yellow.  Once they changed their attitude back to happy and helpful, they could go back to green.  If not, they would go to red.  Every 30 minutes we passed around a bag of little candies and everyone on green could have one.  It worked great and no one ever went to red. They were seriously great little travelers the whole trip.

We had a great visit with my parents in Idaho Falls.  One day we went and toured BYUI and ate at Big Judds.  Their eyeballs got so big when they saw the giant hamburgers.

Grandma gave Eden an art lesson.

Playing in the yard.  My parents have a great piece of land.

The kids had a blast doing tractor rides for hours until they got a flat.

The chickens were well loved.

There is a great little zoo their and my grandma came to join us.

My dad bringing Lily back to the group....again.

The hippo drinking fountain was a big hit.

One afternoon, we found a nice bouncy house place for the kids to burn off their energy.  This one was a water slide so the boys pulled off their shirts and went for it.

We were the only ones there so it was even more fun. I love it when that happens.  There weren't even any workers out there to boss us around.  After we were done we cooled off even more with some snow cones.  Then we headed back to my parents for my grandma's birthday party.  It was fun to see her and other relatives and grill some burgers.

Rides on my dad's motorcycle.  It was just up the driveway and back, but pretty awesome stuff.

After visiting for a few days we headed to Utah.  I am adding the the following journal entry from when it was all fresh to tell you what happened over the next few days:

We have been on vacation for more than 2 weeks now.  Peter came to Utah on August 8th to do a 200 mile relay (like Hood to Coast) with his brothers and friends.  On the 10th The kids and I drove down to Idaho Falls area (with the help of my Father in Law) to visit my Parents and Grandma.  Peter met me there that night when he was done with his run.  He filled in a couple of extra legs and joined some on theirs so he ended up running about 35 miles in 2 days.  Crazy stuff!

We stayed with my parents for about 5 days and had a few fun adventures that I will write about soon.  Then we drove to Utah to visit friends and family.  We stayed in Heber with our friends Heidi and Greg and enjoyed their huge house and property for a few days.  We saw Peter's siblings who live there as well.  The highlight of that part of the trip was a visit to 7 Peaks water park.  The kids had a great time and it was CROWDED!  Luckily, I was the only one who got sunburned.

On our way out of Provo, our van's transmission started slipping out of gear. It felt like suddenly we were driving in neutral.  It was 5:45 on a Friday night, but we were able to find a mechanic that was open until 6 to drive the van to.  We had to drive really slow to avoid the gear slip, but we made it to the mechanic who agreed to wait for us.  He said he would look at it on Saturday, by the afternoon.

We got a ride in 2 different cars back to Heber thanks to Greg and Heidi and waited to hear from the mechanic the next day.  He thought he could get us back on the road by Thursday! The original plan was to leave Monday. He was not in any hurry to put a stranded family back on the road so Peter made some phone calls and found a transmission specialist that said they would put us in front of everyone to help us get on our way.  So Monday morning, instead of Peter and the kids leaving for home, we moved the van to the new mechanic.  That was a great move.  He worked late and had the transmission rebuilt and ready to go before noon on Tuesday! He even made sure that we had it checked at home with a sister shop and included a good warranty.

The other part of our plan was for me to stay behind in Utah and go to BYU Education week.  Peter convinced me that he could handle the kids on his own for a couple extra days at our friends and dropped me off on campus after we had moved the van.  I was feeling very uneasy and stressed about it the first day.  I almost didn't go, but we decided to continue with the original plan.  Peter drove the kids home on Wednesday so we only lost 2 days and a big wad of money on the whole ordeal.  There were many blessings of course.  If that had happened in the middle of nowhere I can't imagine Peter having to stay in a hotel for a few days with all the kids.  That would have been a nightmare.

Education week was a dream.  Once I felt at ease about the family being okay that is.  I enjoyed the solitude and uplifting classes.  Walking around got me a little sore from being pregnant so I bought some super squishy flip flops at the bookstore and had no more problems after that.  I was anxious to get home to my babies, but the rest and relaxation did wonders for me as a person and a mommy.  I learned a lot and came back with a renewed spirit.  I sure do love BYU. There is something very special about that campus, it feels a bit like home to me. I flew home on Saturday morning, and squished chubby little legs and kissed soft sweet cheeks the rest of the day.