Bear Lake 2012

 What's better than Bear Lake in July? Bear Lake in July with cousins.

 Nathan spent most of his time on the beach.

 But Clara ventured out on the water a little more. Later, I was pretty far out in the water and she decided to come find me. She got a ways before it got too scary and she started wailing.

 The beach was a lot less intimidating.

 Luckily she kept her "beach hat" on so there was no scalp sunburn.

 Austin planted himself firmly and wouldn't walk on the sand anymore. That stuff sticks to your feet.

 There's something about this girl and sand.

 The shade tent was pretty popular; she drifted off to sleep without complaining.

 What's so interesting about a stair?

 Lizard in the rain, that's what. Levi later caught it and let all the kids touch it.

 We certainly can pick a time to go to Bear Lake. The last three times we've gone it's rained. Luckily, we can just go inside. It's a pretty wonderful way to do Bear Lake, thanks to some generous people my parents know.

 And many thanks to Linnell for bringing games to keep the chillins occupied while the rain fell outside.

Happy birthday

 You know what happens when you leave me alone on my birthday?

 I throw myself a party, that's what.

 Actually, we combined Josh's usual water-birthday party and had it on my birthday, at my house.

 During the day I dropped my older kids and had a relaxing lunch at The Oaks. I've always wanted to go, and it did not disappoint (like stupid Zanavoo up Logan canyon).

 And then I came home and started party preparations.

It was nice not to be alone on my birthday (husband at scout camp, by the way. We survived.) (So did he.)

Fashion Forward

Clara's been learning to dress herself. These pictures, taken in June (yeah, I'm only a month behind), show only a part of the wardrobe transformations she effected in one short afternoon. Above, she's shed her shorts (probably at least the second normal outfit of the day) for some Halloween pants (size 12 months, found in her sister's room).

And now she's completed the look by putting on a shirtdress, backwards.

She's getting pretty good at dressing herself, thankfully. Because she usually won't accept help. Any offer of assistance is met with screams. Ditto to any suggestions that her clothes might not match, are backwards and/or inside out.

She's also really into shoes. She loves her own, of course, but also the bin of baby shoes in Alice's closet. She'll ask Nathan to get it down, and then happily try on pair after pair, not at all discouraged that they don't fit. "These are too big," she'll say, then agree when I suggest maybe they're too small. Small and big, so hard to keep them straight.

Yesterday, after watching my cousin's little girl do the same, she put on a small pair of wooden clogs sitting on my grandma's lamp table. Luckily my grandma didn't care, because I think this may become a tradition for all girls of a certain size.

Tonight, asked to get some pajamas on, she came out of her room so proud of her "crazy jammies": shorts and a shirt dress, again inside out. As long as she thinks it's comfortable, I'm not saying anything. I don't fancy a fight tonight.

Craft Tuesdays

 Nathan, missing preschool, has spurred me to action. So one day I herded up the children, went to the dollar store, and stocked up on art supplies.

 Hence, Craft Tuesdays is something I try to honor every week. And the kids have been loving it. Clara will ask, "Mom, I want to do art supplies."

 These pictures show painting with finger paints in shaving cream. It was a big hit, and they stayed surprisingly clean. And when they dried they looked pretty cool, so I didn't throw them right away. When Levi walked in from work, hours later, he knew right away we'd been into his shaving cream. That nice menthol smell still lingered.

Fingerpaints and watercolors are both a big hit. And one day, using markers and stickers, we made city maps. Nathan named his several different names and he used it later in the day for a game, something to do with chasing bad guys and arresting him, I think. One of his city names was Police. Another was Roy. I don't remember the third, it was something he made up.

We didn't make it to craft Tuesday yesterday, but sometime we'll get around to the project I had, making binoculars from toilet paper rolls. It's going to be great.

We're coming to America

We're coming to America ...today! (Think Neil Diamond, it will make more sense.) And here I am chipping away at yet more of the blogging back log I've built up over the last month. So I don't really remember when these pictures were taken.

 

 But one day, playing outside (yeah, I don't think Clara is wearing any pants), I put Alice in the umbrella stroller so she could see what's going on. Summer is too hot to hold a baby all the time.

 She loved the stroller. And so did Clara. She started pushing it around. I managed to keep her in the driveway at first, but soon she wanted to follow Nathan as he rode his bike up the sidewalk.

 I went along. Clara let me come as long as I didn't push. I was only allowed to help if she pushed it crooked and got stuck on the grass. This happened a lot. So Clara pushed forward and I managed to get her to let me steer. Once we got this system down, she decided we were on a trek: "Let's go to America!" So we headed down the street to find America. When it was time to turn around and come back, she decided she wanted to go to Utah. I had a hard time convincing her that our house was really Utah. She was pretty sure it was farther up closer to the corner.

Maybe I need to teach my kids more about geography? With all this talk of Canada, America, Mexico, and Australia, not to mention Roy, Utah, and Idaho, things have gone a little skewampus in her mind.

Glow Golf

 The day after returning from our epic Bullfrog trip, we wanted to spend some time with our visiting cousin. We'd decided we wanted to go miniature golfing, and were lucky enough to find a groupon for Glow Golf at the mall. And so Erin and I ended up taking seven children miniature golfing.

 Luckily the place was deserted, because soon there were cousins in every direction. Some cousins are a little more proficient than others. But the younger cousins still had a wonderful time.

 And they even had cool animals on which to climb. What could be better?

 Many thanks to Erin for emailing me her pictures, since I forgot my camera.

And we're glad we got to spend at least a little time with you on your visit. Let's do it again sometime.

Choose the Right

Levi did a great job at family home evening tonight. He taught the kids about Moses and the ten commandments. Then he made them each their own set of stone tablets out of construction paper. We talked about how the commandments help us to choose the right.

Nathan then went on to talk about how the commandments will help you if you're lost to find another direction, to find your mom and dad and sister.

All true, but in a slightly different sense.

Clara's also been saying some great things lately. A few weeks ago she referred to a knee as a "leg elbow." And today she said, "Does grandpa have feet?... yes. Where are his feet? At the store? No... his feet are on his toes."

Again, all true.