Anniversaries

Backyard Treasures

Thursday night I came outside at about 11:30 p.m. to turn on the sprinklers. I saw this gigantic, monstrous site and almost wet my pants. I decided the sprinklers could wait, went back inside and fell asleep. The next day the monster like creature was gone and I didn't think anything of it. This morning the kids were playing in the backyard, lifted up the tarp and discovered the creature. This time I was prepared with my camera.

Bruneau Sand dunes

Over the weekend we camped at Bruneau Sand dunes with our good friends, Thibadeau's and Walkers. It was HOT HOT HOT but that didn't dampen the FUN! I always think I snap more pictures than I do. I had Selina e-mail some of her pics. Below is a sampling of our fun.



Dig in the dirt kids, dig, dig, dig.....

Everyone piled in the car ready to hit the mountains of sand.

Some of the kids falling down the sand dunes.

Let's go fishing and swimming.....

Randy Walker- The master of dutch oven. We ate like King's and Queen's. Thanks Randy.

Trey trying to help Dad set up the tent.

Katie Thibadeau chilling.

Selina always comes prepared.

Cute girls playing in the dirt

Trey and Mom taking a break.

Bella and Quincy digging up something

Bella, Quincy and Lydia-

Nothing like cooling off in the lake.


I wonder what Quinn was planning on catching up on the sand.

Who's the babe with sexy legs? Oh my it's Susan.

Grass- What a nice surprise

One of our final landscaping projects was planting grass. We didn't want to fork over the dough for sod BUT we also didn't want to plant the seed ourselves. We compramised and paid JV Seed to prep the yard and plant the seed. They promised by the 4th of July we would have a yard ready for mowing. Despite my watering efforts the growth continued to look extremely sparce.

We left over the weekend to go camping (I will post about that later) and couldn't believe our eyes upon our return. From down the road we could see green grass. ( remember we have had dirt for almost a year- any color is extremely noticable).

Quinn: " Look at the grass. Look how much it grew"!

We drive closer to the house......

Quinn " It looks like someone has edged the yard- how did the grass grow that fast"?

In our driveway.......

Quinn " You have got to be kidding me- someone laid sod in our whole front yard"!

We knew who the culprit was. Phil Swinkels. He is in our ward and did our landscaping (minus the grass) for us. When we called him about it he said, " I don't know who would have done that! (he's lying, he totally did it and I know it) " The only thing I know is that someone mismeasured a big lawn job, happened to have 4 pallets of sod left over that they didn't want to throw away". He said he heard some of "our friends" got together and decided to throw it in our yard instead of the landfill. The sod was not thrown in the yard. It was very well placed. We have no idea who "our friends" are but we are so grateful to them. Both mine and Quinn's hearts were touched that anyone would take the time and effort to do such a nice thing. Anyway here are some before and after pics......

An afternoon in the sun.....

I picked Reece up from school, doused each child in toxic free sunscreen and headed off to the waterpark. On the drive over I lectured Reece and Quincy about being team players and working together (Reece can go off and do everything unsupervised, Quincy can do some rides solo but supervised and Trey must be in arm's reach at all times- am I crazy or WHAT???) Anyway I wanted them to understand that each of us would have to compromise in order to have a pleasant experience. We get to the park, I put the keys in the beach bag. Unload the stroller. Unload Trey into the stroller. Make sure Reece and Quincy made it out of the car. I lock and shut the doors and bend down to pick up our bag- you know the bag with our season passes, towels, toxic free sunscreen, water, my wallet, extra diapers, and KEYS. WAIT!! where's the bag?
Oh @!##$ (darn) it's in the car. I don't panic. I confess to the kids my mistake and we head to the main office to call a locksmith (ls)- because of course the punch code on the outside of the car hasn't been programmed and is useless. I call several ls's, trying to get one there in less than 15 minutes- no go. 30 minutes in the soonest anyone can be there. The park gives us one time admission passes so we can at least get inside, get settled and play in the water until the ls arrives. Just in case you were wondering- YES, we are all in our bathing suits, which of course means Trey is in a swim diaper- you know the diapers that aren't meant to contain pee. Trey starts leaking as we leave the main office. At least Quincy and Reece are still being team players. Upon arriving at the kiddie pool I spot a friend, sob my story and ask her to watch Quincy while I go and meet the ls with Trey. All is well. I get back to the kiddie pool wave to my friend, signaling my return and proceed to play in the water with Trey. I scan the area for Quincy- where's Quincy???? Quincy, Quincy- no Quincy. I talk to the lifeguard- she radios main office. No missing children are being held. Security is on the way. At this point I am cursing myself for being so stupid for buying Season passes- what a waste. Surely, if I survive this day, I am NEVER coming back. Security arrives and guess who else shows up? Quincy. I have no idea where she was or why I didn't see her. She wasn't lost. She was exactly where she was supposed to be.
We did make it through the experience. Everyone, myself included, ended up having a great time. I didn't get any pictures so we have to go back at least one more time, right. :)

I'll be taking the car in to get the outside key pad programmed-

I just try not to think about it........

OK well since happening upon the website http://cosmeticsdatabase.org I haven't been able to stop thinking about all the toxins we put, for the most part unknowingly, into or onto our bodies. If you haven't tried this site I highly highly recommend it. Please tell all your friends about it too. It is overwhelming and a little discouraging but we can only do better when we know better. While at the store, searching for a toxin free sunscreen, I ran into a friend. As I was revealing to her my new found knowledge I could see her eyes gloss over. She was gracious enough to listen to me rant but in the end her comment was, " I just try not to think about it". WHAT???? "We" are our own best advocates! Aside from the Savior NO ONE cares about me as much as I do. If I don't care what toxins are going into my skincare, makeup, deoderant, lotions, etc. WHO WILL???? Certainly not the companies making these products. Did you know that there are no regulations on what ingredients can or can not be put into cosmetics. Look it up.....Educate yourself. It is overwhelming and like I said in my previous post I have a hard time wrapping my head around all of this BUT I REFUSE to not think about it. I am grateful for the information available at my fingertips and I am so grateful the today I know a little better and consequently can better choices for me and my family.

I struggle to wrap my head around these issues

I try to be environmentally conscious but it's not top on my priority list. I find myself being overwhelmed with other challenges like parenting, scripture study, exercising, maintaining sanity, etc. I am not good at taking small steps- I either want to take flying leaps or do nothing. I guess when it comes to "going green" I become paralyzed by the enormity of it all and so choose to do nothing. Not to mention "going green" requires a monetary committment upfront that "experts" say "will pay off later". Well I am reluctant to make an investment that can't be quantified. I want to know when it will pay off and by how much. Nevertheless (my new favorite word that my kids hate because it halts all negotiation, see example below) I can take small steps and do little things to help. I guess if everyone did small things it would make a big impact. I wanted to include two websites I found and highly recommend. Not sure on the stats quoted by Annie Leonard in the story of stuff http://www.storyofstuff.com . That's the tricky thing about statistics-they are hard to verify. The second site, cosmeticsdatabase.org, I found extremely interesting. Call me crazy but I will be tossing my currnet brand of sunscreen (registered a 9 on the website) and purshasing new. I have had my reservations about applying sunscreen but the benefits appear to outweigh the potential side effects so I use it. However, now I that I am more educated I will make better product choices. What do you think?

EXAMPLE:
Nevertheless-it's a great word. Ever notice how often it's used in the Book of Mormon?

Me: "Reece and Quincy it's time for bed".
Kids: "But......." (the stalling tactics just start pouring on) BUT I don't argue- well ok sometimes, when I'm not on top of my game, I argue. BUT most of the time I just say, " Nevertheless, it's time for bed". I just keep saying it and saying it until they get the point. As long as I keep my cool and don't get sucked into debating it's fairly successful.

What an Equation.....

Two moms + too much diet pepsi + too little sleep + desperate for a good laugh + desire for sandal ready feet + not enough time = White trash pedicure.



Selina and I decided to take matters into our own hands. Selina took the pictures and conveniently neglected to include any of herself.

Don't knock it till you try it. :)

All in day's work

Building a new fence-that is one of the last projects on the to-do list. We redid all the landscaping after our remodel thus requiring a fence replacement. We got two bids to build it but in the end neither Quinn nor I wanted to spend that much money. We decided to attempt the project ourselves, well kind of ourselves-we have an amazing neighbor who knows everything about everything when it comes to building, fixing, fertilizing, planting, storing, canning, etc. Bob (our neighbor) and his wife, Corinne usually summer in Alaska but due to some health challenges they have to stick closer to home. Our family benefits immensely from this confinement. They are psuedo grandpa and grandma to our kids and Bob has saved us countless headaches with his wisdom. We really love our neighbors but I digress........

This weekend Quinn started the fence building process. I'll post the end result but these pictures were too cute to save. Trey, who idolizes his dad, had to be right out there in the middle of the action. Quinn is so patient with him and let's him help even though it makes the process much longer. I hope you can appreciate the seriousness in Trey's face. He is all business!