So I continue the Summer 2008 Adventures. After we went to Thanksgiving Point, we had a fun picnic in the park with another of my sisters, her husband, and daughter. We have kind of made this a family tradition. We meet and Sharon Park, eat KFC, and play. Well this year, my sister and her husband brought the most amazing form of entertainment. A plastic piece of plastic, a hose, and dish soap. Now before you get any crazy ideas, we made a giant Slip-n-slide. It was so much fun for the kids. And very entertaining for the adults.
This picture ought to give you a glimpse into the enjoyment the children had with the giant piece of plastic, a hose, and dish soap. The 2 boys are 2/5ths of my brothers' children. This next picture is of 4 of the 5 kids born between October 2005 and May 2006. I don't know if we all felt like we had to replace my dad after he died or what, but there were a lot of grandchildren for my mom those 8 months. It made it a little difficult for her work schedule trying to take the time off to help with all the grand babies. She loved every second of it, I'm sure. ;-)
After we got home, I took my little sister, my tennis racket (which I have had a sordid affair with the last summer), and a tennis racket found in the back of my mom's coat closet to show my sister how it's done on the tennis court. Lucky for me, I didn't have the racket that had sticky goo coming out of the 18 year old grip. We had a lot of fun hitting (and losing a few) balls. Next time I go down, we'll have to play some more. Maybe by then S will have remembered which lines are which ;-). Unfortunately, I have no pictures. Next time. I promise.
TRIP TO MONTROSE
For those of you who don't know or remember, we moved to IF from Montrose, Colorado. The Father had driven through Montrose earlier this year. He went on a turkey hunt and casually mentioned that he might drive through on his way home. I told him that if he did, I was going with him. Apparently Go Turkey Hunting with Wife was not on his list of things to do. And he called me from Montrose and said, "Guess where I am?" Neiner neiner neiner. He casually recommended that the girls and I return and visit our friends, our old house, and ask myself, "Why did we leave?" So we went to Montrose. We got there Friday afternoon and hung out with one of my really good friends. She kept saying, "When are you coming back?" Our children are going to get married and produce beautiful children of their own. How can they date if they live 11 hours apart? We'll figure it out, Tracy. No worries.
We got to stay with another set of good friends. You know, its really sad that you don't realize how fun and interesting your friends are until you have to leave. Needless to say, we had a ton of fun getting reacquainted with the Taylors. Again, I got to get my tennis racket out and played with Mommy and Daddy Taylor and Sydney who has the potential to be a great player. I was glad I took my shorts, t-shirt, racket and shoes.
Saturday the girls and I went to hang out with our friends from the old 'hood. On the left is my
neighbor T, her 10 day old baby, and my other friend T. On the right, T, baby, H (whose kiddos M1 & M2 loved to play with when we lived there) and obviously, me. It was so nice to see them
and catch up. I decided that we are going to go back more often than every 2 years. So silly to be gone that long. Plus, then we wouldn't have to go to 6 hours of church to see everyone from our old ward! Just after we moved, they split the 2 wards into 3. So to see all our friends, we had to attend all 3 sacrament meetings. Try it with 3 kids 7 and under. They did awesome, but it was exhausting.All the kids at our get together.
Monday we went to our old gym and saw friends there. Then we went to MVC where The Father had his first job after vet school. We were with them a little over 4 years when we left, and it was really good to catch up and let them see how much Triple M had grown. We had to get back to IF by Tuesday, so we left Montrose about 3 in the afternoon. I almost cried as we drove out of town. What a great place we came from. On to new adventures, I guess.
IMPLEMENTING THE IMPLEMENT
Palette Expander, that is. Tuesday we got home and went straight to the orthodontist. We got there and got a metal butterfly put in M1s mouth. She doesn't have to room for her teeth to come in, so we had to either pull a bunch of teeth or make her mouth bigger. We chose option b.
Every night for 3 weeks we had to crank the palette expander, ripping apart her upper jaw and making her mouth bigger. Now she has to leave it in until she gets braces to straighten out the crooked teeth. Joy. Since I'm sure you all want to see a picture of it, enjoy.
OUCH THAT HURTS
My inlaws took Triple M to the Ranch and Cabin for a week and a bit and I was so grateful. For a few reasons. I had to work for the Father for 7 days because our receptionist had vacation plans. Since I was the only other option, I stepped in. In addition to working, I had a tennis match on Monday night. During the course of my match, I chased down a ball that I apparently should have let go. While running after said ball, I ended up on the court, in agonizing pain. My ankle swelled up to softball size and I was really unable to do anything but focus on breathing. Luckily I have good friends who took me to AVH to get an x-ray. It's a lot cheaper than the ER. Besides, why buy a digital x-ray machine and not use it for fun stuff? Like taking pictures of our own bones. Unfortunately, the picture showed no fractures, just a sprain. I say a severe sprain, because boy did it hurt severely. I got to do ice bucket therapy, wear vet wrap and use crutches. All 3 firsts for me. I still haven't been running, played a tennis match (it has about killed me--I'm captaining a team I can't even play on), or really done much of anything. Pretty ridiculous. Last week I did go hit some balls, and boy did it feel good, but I'm in no shape to play in a match. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks.
WEREWOLVES, ANYONE?
A few of my friends and I went to the midnight release of Breaking Dawn here in IF. The only thing I'm going to say is I didn't like the way she ended it. That's all. If you'd like to discuss it further, we can use another forum ;-). Needless to say, I had a very enjoyable evening with my friends. First we went to Carino's for dinner, then we went to the mall--my friend had some coupons that needed to be used before they expired. What a bunch of teenage girls. Hanging out at the mall on Friday night. I ran into another friend while we were at the mall and we decided that we had nothing to do for the next 2 hours--amount of time between mall closure and Breaking Dawn release. So we went to a family fun place called TSR. We raced go carts (I won), played air hockey, some of us (myself not included because of my bum ankle) Dance Dance Revolution-ed, and generally had a fun time. We headed over to B&N to make our way in. My friend K that we found at the mall had won her copy on the radio that morning so she got to go in with the 7 other lucky winners. Then I was 3rd in the "normal" line. You know, with all the skanky vampires. Did they read the same books I did? Because I don't think the Cullens would've looked the way a lot of the vampires wandering around did. By the way, a great big shout out to my friend K (yes, a different one) for letting us cut with you ;-). I got a bunch of books, and out I went. I met my buddies and we exchanged our goods, like drugs or something. I tell you what, though. It's a good thing we don't drink because we were how do you say it nicely...ridiculous as it was. I couldn't imagine what would happen if alcohol was in the mix. I got home at 12:30 am (not bad, huh?) and started reading. I read for about an hour and decided I needed to go to bed. Good idea.
By the way, no I'm not pregnant again, I was just caught unaware and didn't hold in the excess. Oops. How embarrassing is that?!?
HENRY'S LAKE
Every year (mostly) we go up to Henry's Lake and spend time at the Cabin. This year, my in-laws took Triple M early (as I already mentioned) and I got to go up and spend a few days. Luckily I had something to do (read Breaking Dawn) while I propped my ankle. I was still having a bit of a time walking. We went to the rodeo I'm sure you all have heard of it. Oh wait, I don't even think it has a name besides the Island Park Rodeo. It's one of those that is advertised by those tent things on the side of the road. Anyway, we go (mostly) every year, so we kept the tradition alive. M1 chased the steer with the $5 tied to his tail. M2 didn't want to. Triple M rode the horse drawn carriage and had a great time. We went to our annual Play Mill show. We saw Hello, Dolly and enjoyed it. I saw a couple of people I know from IF up there, which for some reason surprised me. We missed the Dutch Oven dinner because we were at the PlayMill. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.
The next day, we went back into West Yellowstone and tried to get Old Time Pictures taken. My in-laws have one of everyone (except The Father and Me because we aren't up there at the
same time and M3 because we hadn't had the opportunity yet) hanging at the entrance to their cabin. We thought we should replace the M1/M2 picture with one of M1/M2/M3. No problem. We got there and they loved getting dressed up in their pleather chaps, their shirts that don't really button up the front, and their pistols. We took aforementioned picture while Grammy was trying to convince my niece, who was having the biggest meltdown I have ever seen in my life that she needed to dress up to so that we could put one beneath the "Thank Heaven for Little Cowgirls" at the Ranch. You should have seen us trying to get K to put on her get up. She wouldn't have a thing to do with it. So we got Gus, my bil's dog to sit for the photo, but we couldn't get K to do it. After an hour (if you think I'm exaggerating, ask my mil and sil, they'll both attest) of trying to convince K it was ok, this is what we came up with. It was hilarious because we didn't have to worry about Gus in any of the pictures. He looked the same in all of them. Good Boy, Gusser! Yee Haw!
WHAT ELSE HAVE WE DONE THIS SUMMER....
I'm sure there is more. School starts this Thursday. As I'm sure it is for everyone, it is a bitter-sweet relationship. I'm excited for the girls to go to school and get back in a good solid routine, but man, I didn't get to spend enough time with them this summer. It feels like summer just started because of our ridiculous snow-in-June weather. What can you do?
M2 is going to be at M1's school this year and she is so excited she doesn't know what to do with herself. It will make life a lot easier on me too. No more driving to and from Montessori every day. That sure was a pain, but it was really good for her. She loved her teachers and learned amazing amounts, but the ease of public school...I'll post pictures after the first day. Maybe they'll be up by Thanksgiving ;-).
So I think that's it. I finally mopped my kitchen today. For the first time in, dare I admit, a month? I haven't been able to do it because of (you guessed it) my foot. I know that sounds like a lame excuse, but I could barely hold myself up on my toes. I'm a hands and knees mopper, not a mop mopper. I can't stand all the excess goo when mopping with a mop. So I mop on hands and knees. I know, more than you needed to know about my mopping habits, but it sure felt good to walk around the kitchen and not step in sticky spots. I hate that.
I'm pretty sure that's all. If I think of anything else, I'll be sure to post. Until something happens, I hope all of you have enjoyed our adventures. I'll share more...eventually.
This picture ought to give you a glimpse into the enjoyment the children had with the giant piece of plastic, a hose, and dish soap. The 2 boys are 2/5ths of my brothers' children. This next picture is of 4 of the 5 kids born between October 2005 and May 2006. I don't know if we all felt like we had to replace my dad after he died or what, but there were a lot of grandchildren for my mom those 8 months. It made it a little difficult for her work schedule trying to take the time off to help with all the grand babies. She loved every second of it, I'm sure. ;-)
After we got home, I took my little sister, my tennis racket (which I have had a sordid affair with the last summer), and a tennis racket found in the back of my mom's coat closet to show my sister how it's done on the tennis court. Lucky for me, I didn't have the racket that had sticky goo coming out of the 18 year old grip. We had a lot of fun hitting (and losing a few) balls. Next time I go down, we'll have to play some more. Maybe by then S will have remembered which lines are which ;-). Unfortunately, I have no pictures. Next time. I promise.TRIP TO MONTROSE
For those of you who don't know or remember, we moved to IF from Montrose, Colorado. The Father had driven through Montrose earlier this year. He went on a turkey hunt and casually mentioned that he might drive through on his way home. I told him that if he did, I was going with him. Apparently Go Turkey Hunting with Wife was not on his list of things to do. And he called me from Montrose and said, "Guess where I am?" Neiner neiner neiner. He casually recommended that the girls and I return and visit our friends, our old house, and ask myself, "Why did we leave?" So we went to Montrose. We got there Friday afternoon and hung out with one of my really good friends. She kept saying, "When are you coming back?" Our children are going to get married and produce beautiful children of their own. How can they date if they live 11 hours apart? We'll figure it out, Tracy. No worries.
We got to stay with another set of good friends. You know, its really sad that you don't realize how fun and interesting your friends are until you have to leave. Needless to say, we had a ton of fun getting reacquainted with the Taylors. Again, I got to get my tennis racket out and played with Mommy and Daddy Taylor and Sydney who has the potential to be a great player. I was glad I took my shorts, t-shirt, racket and shoes.
Saturday the girls and I went to hang out with our friends from the old 'hood. On the left is my
neighbor T, her 10 day old baby, and my other friend T. On the right, T, baby, H (whose kiddos M1 & M2 loved to play with when we lived there) and obviously, me. It was so nice to see them
and catch up. I decided that we are going to go back more often than every 2 years. So silly to be gone that long. Plus, then we wouldn't have to go to 6 hours of church to see everyone from our old ward! Just after we moved, they split the 2 wards into 3. So to see all our friends, we had to attend all 3 sacrament meetings. Try it with 3 kids 7 and under. They did awesome, but it was exhausting.All the kids at our get together.
Monday we went to our old gym and saw friends there. Then we went to MVC where The Father had his first job after vet school. We were with them a little over 4 years when we left, and it was really good to catch up and let them see how much Triple M had grown. We had to get back to IF by Tuesday, so we left Montrose about 3 in the afternoon. I almost cried as we drove out of town. What a great place we came from. On to new adventures, I guess.
IMPLEMENTING THE IMPLEMENT
Palette Expander, that is. Tuesday we got home and went straight to the orthodontist. We got there and got a metal butterfly put in M1s mouth. She doesn't have to room for her teeth to come in, so we had to either pull a bunch of teeth or make her mouth bigger. We chose option b.
Every night for 3 weeks we had to crank the palette expander, ripping apart her upper jaw and making her mouth bigger. Now she has to leave it in until she gets braces to straighten out the crooked teeth. Joy. Since I'm sure you all want to see a picture of it, enjoy.OUCH THAT HURTS
My inlaws took Triple M to the Ranch and Cabin for a week and a bit and I was so grateful. For a few reasons. I had to work for the Father for 7 days because our receptionist had vacation plans. Since I was the only other option, I stepped in. In addition to working, I had a tennis match on Monday night. During the course of my match, I chased down a ball that I apparently should have let go. While running after said ball, I ended up on the court, in agonizing pain. My ankle swelled up to softball size and I was really unable to do anything but focus on breathing. Luckily I have good friends who took me to AVH to get an x-ray. It's a lot cheaper than the ER. Besides, why buy a digital x-ray machine and not use it for fun stuff? Like taking pictures of our own bones. Unfortunately, the picture showed no fractures, just a sprain. I say a severe sprain, because boy did it hurt severely. I got to do ice bucket therapy, wear vet wrap and use crutches. All 3 firsts for me. I still haven't been running, played a tennis match (it has about killed me--I'm captaining a team I can't even play on), or really done much of anything. Pretty ridiculous. Last week I did go hit some balls, and boy did it feel good, but I'm in no shape to play in a match. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks.
WEREWOLVES, ANYONE?
A few of my friends and I went to the midnight release of Breaking Dawn here in IF. The only thing I'm going to say is I didn't like the way she ended it. That's all. If you'd like to discuss it further, we can use another forum ;-). Needless to say, I had a very enjoyable evening with my friends. First we went to Carino's for dinner, then we went to the mall--my friend had some coupons that needed to be used before they expired. What a bunch of teenage girls. Hanging out at the mall on Friday night. I ran into another friend while we were at the mall and we decided that we had nothing to do for the next 2 hours--amount of time between mall closure and Breaking Dawn release. So we went to a family fun place called TSR. We raced go carts (I won), played air hockey, some of us (myself not included because of my bum ankle) Dance Dance Revolution-ed, and generally had a fun time. We headed over to B&N to make our way in. My friend K that we found at the mall had won her copy on the radio that morning so she got to go in with the 7 other lucky winners. Then I was 3rd in the "normal" line. You know, with all the skanky vampires. Did they read the same books I did? Because I don't think the Cullens would've looked the way a lot of the vampires wandering around did. By the way, a great big shout out to my friend K (yes, a different one) for letting us cut with you ;-). I got a bunch of books, and out I went. I met my buddies and we exchanged our goods, like drugs or something. I tell you what, though. It's a good thing we don't drink because we were how do you say it nicely...ridiculous as it was. I couldn't imagine what would happen if alcohol was in the mix. I got home at 12:30 am (not bad, huh?) and started reading. I read for about an hour and decided I needed to go to bed. Good idea.
By the way, no I'm not pregnant again, I was just caught unaware and didn't hold in the excess. Oops. How embarrassing is that?!?
HENRY'S LAKE
Every year (mostly) we go up to Henry's Lake and spend time at the Cabin. This year, my in-laws took Triple M early (as I already mentioned) and I got to go up and spend a few days. Luckily I had something to do (read Breaking Dawn) while I propped my ankle. I was still having a bit of a time walking. We went to the rodeo I'm sure you all have heard of it. Oh wait, I don't even think it has a name besides the Island Park Rodeo. It's one of those that is advertised by those tent things on the side of the road. Anyway, we go (mostly) every year, so we kept the tradition alive. M1 chased the steer with the $5 tied to his tail. M2 didn't want to. Triple M rode the horse drawn carriage and had a great time. We went to our annual Play Mill show. We saw Hello, Dolly and enjoyed it. I saw a couple of people I know from IF up there, which for some reason surprised me. We missed the Dutch Oven dinner because we were at the PlayMill. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.
The next day, we went back into West Yellowstone and tried to get Old Time Pictures taken. My in-laws have one of everyone (except The Father and Me because we aren't up there at the
same time and M3 because we hadn't had the opportunity yet) hanging at the entrance to their cabin. We thought we should replace the M1/M2 picture with one of M1/M2/M3. No problem. We got there and they loved getting dressed up in their pleather chaps, their shirts that don't really button up the front, and their pistols. We took aforementioned picture while Grammy was trying to convince my niece, who was having the biggest meltdown I have ever seen in my life that she needed to dress up to so that we could put one beneath the "Thank Heaven for Little Cowgirls" at the Ranch. You should have seen us trying to get K to put on her get up. She wouldn't have a thing to do with it. So we got Gus, my bil's dog to sit for the photo, but we couldn't get K to do it. After an hour (if you think I'm exaggerating, ask my mil and sil, they'll both attest) of trying to convince K it was ok, this is what we came up with. It was hilarious because we didn't have to worry about Gus in any of the pictures. He looked the same in all of them. Good Boy, Gusser! Yee Haw!WHAT ELSE HAVE WE DONE THIS SUMMER....
I'm sure there is more. School starts this Thursday. As I'm sure it is for everyone, it is a bitter-sweet relationship. I'm excited for the girls to go to school and get back in a good solid routine, but man, I didn't get to spend enough time with them this summer. It feels like summer just started because of our ridiculous snow-in-June weather. What can you do?
M2 is going to be at M1's school this year and she is so excited she doesn't know what to do with herself. It will make life a lot easier on me too. No more driving to and from Montessori every day. That sure was a pain, but it was really good for her. She loved her teachers and learned amazing amounts, but the ease of public school...I'll post pictures after the first day. Maybe they'll be up by Thanksgiving ;-).
So I think that's it. I finally mopped my kitchen today. For the first time in, dare I admit, a month? I haven't been able to do it because of (you guessed it) my foot. I know that sounds like a lame excuse, but I could barely hold myself up on my toes. I'm a hands and knees mopper, not a mop mopper. I can't stand all the excess goo when mopping with a mop. So I mop on hands and knees. I know, more than you needed to know about my mopping habits, but it sure felt good to walk around the kitchen and not step in sticky spots. I hate that.
I'm pretty sure that's all. If I think of anything else, I'll be sure to post. Until something happens, I hope all of you have enjoyed our adventures. I'll share more...eventually.
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