The joys of summer

Taz has some friends that are at that ripe old age of pranking. So we were fortunate (for the second time this year) to be the recipients of their sleepless nights. I had actually got home from book club (at 12:30am) and had seen their designs the night before, so this is Taz and Cynjyn seeing it for the first time.

They thought it was cool and funny until I made them clean it up all by themselves!!

Our ward had small group dinners Friday night. Garry was on an 11 year old campout with Taz, so I went solo with the wife of another 11 year old campouter. I had to bring a dessert and so I made Snickers Triffle. It was a hit and I had never made it before. Super easy!!

Garry had spent all of Thursday night throwing up. Literally. He woke up at 2:00am with terrible stomach cramps and threw up basically nonstop until around 5 am. So he skipped work and slept all day until 3, when he got up still feeling pretty weak, but proceeded to get ready and leave for the campout at 4. This was a stake campout so he was just going as Taz's dad. They go up to tour some mines and then do the canooing merit badge. They actually ended up having fun.

Merry Christmas to us!!

For Christmas this past year, we gave everyone tickets to see Tarzan at Tuachan. Well, the time came and we went. We left LV at 3 and got to SG at 5, checked into our hotel and went to Chuck-a-Rama for dinner. The kids love that place, it's only o.k. for us adults. Talon and Tiffany stayed in LV because Tiff got a new job at Aria and had training until 5 (They got there just after the show started). We headed up to Tuachan after dinner. It is so beautiful up there and so much fun. The weather was perfect, not scorchingly hot and not jacket required cold.

Why the lady behind me has a blanket, I don't know??

The show started before dusk and we literally had front row seats. We couldn't get 7 together, so Talon and Tiffany were about 5 people away from us, but we were front and center!!

This is intermission. Talon and Tiffany didn't spend the night with us because Tiffany had to be at work by 9 the next morning and they are night owls, so they drove back after the show.

Our favorite part of Tuachan is getting to meet the actors after the show. We stay in our seats until the crowd disappates and then we meander up and meet the cast. Here is a gorilla.

This is Tarzan's mother, she has such a short part at the beginning then she's dead. The man was Jane's dad.

This is Kala, Tazan's gorilla mom.

This is Turk, his little friend, the comic relief.

This boy played little Tarzan and his real name was Talon G!!

I snuck in for the picture with Jane and Tarzan at the end.

We snagged this photo at the end on our way out.

The other play Tuachan is doing is CATS, but we aren't going to it. Garry and I saw it along time ago and it wasn't our favorite, so we didn't bother this year. After we got back to Vegas, we all watched the Disney version of Tarzan together because Taz and Cynjyn don't remember ever seeing it, that was fun to compare it to the play. This was a great family activity!

School's out

I love summer. I love having the kids off for 2 months. I love coming up with things to keep them occupied. This summer, we are doing BINGO cards. The kids get a card Sunday night and they have until Saturday night to complete it. Each card is personalized to match each kid. As they finish off a row, they get a ticket. The tickets can be redeemed for certain things. If they complete the card with a blackout by Saturday night, they get $5.00. These are the rules: When they get up in the morning, they have to make their bed, pick up their dirty clothes and put shoes away and practice the piano. When those everyday chores are done, they can start their card. A square common to all three cards is "exercise for 30 min." "Play a board game with your siblings" "read for 30 min." "cook dinner" and "make a treat from a recipe". Then, Cynjyn has things like: Practice math facts for 30 min. Do a Faith in God requirement, Read an article in the Friend. Taz has things like: Do 100 volleyball sets, sweep and mop a room, vacuum the stairs and practice his Saxophone. Tanner's card has: Read AP History book for 1 hour, Read an article in the New Era, write in your journal, wash the cars. Each time they do a requirement, the get a sticker. Their tickets are good for: 1=ice cream treat, 2=extra hour tv or video game time, 3=movie rental, 5=sleepover. So far the kids have had fun doing their things and Cynjyn told me yesterday that everything she accomplished made her feel good about herself and she felt much better than watching TV all day. Here are Taz and Tanner playing a board game together (Heroscape).

Tanner's bed is made for the first time all year practically.

Cynjyn is passing off "read your book for 30 min. in a secret place" She chose the pot shelves in the stairwell.

Tanner chose to make something in the kitchen and is making Tapioca for dinner. He got so bored waiting for it to boil that he pulled the computer chair over and sat while making it.

Taz is doing P90X abs DVD for his 30 min. of exercise a day. This was today, yesterday, we all including Talon and I, did the P90X plyometrics DVD together. It's all about jumping and working out the legs. I am so sore today!!

Tanner decided to join him even though he had already done his exercise by going to volleyball this morning. I know it's only day two, but so far the kids are embracing it and it does give them something to do every day that is a little different, yet they still fell they have some choices. If anyone is interested in the BINGO card word doc. Let me know and I can email it to you and you an personalize it for your own family. Happy summer!!

25 Things you don't know about me!

I wasn't going to do this post because after reading my mom's, I thought there was no way I could come up with 25 things you don't know about me. So I commented on my moms and went to bed. All of a sudden my mind just started ticking with things I would post if I were to do this and I HAD to get out of BED and start making a list so I wouldn't forget anything by TODAY!! Therefore, you have this post:

25 Things you don't know about me!

( I fully expect my immediate family to know all these things, so they don't count)

1. I LOVE horror movies.
2. I've seen physical evidence of Big Foot and I BELIEVE!
3. I was driving through Yellowstone National Park during the big fire in the 80's.
4. I am a headbanger and LOVE the "hair bands" from the 80's. I've seen KISS, Bon Jovi, Def Lepard, and many other metal bands in concert.
5. In High School, I won the Arian Award in band. It is awarded to the best band student and if you knew my band teacher you'd realize this was a true award because he was a trumpet player and very partial to the trumpets. So a trumpet player always won. I however, played the clarinet, but I won my Senior year and I even played a solo at our last band concert (Trumpeters always got the solos).
6. I died giving birth to my first child: code blue and everything, they had to revive me. I saw "the light".
7. When Garry and I were living at BYU, my brother and his friend came up to visit, they must have been around 12 and Garry and I took them to a gay theater in SLC to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show, not realizing it was a gay theater. It was sure fun!
8. The first concert I ever went to was Night Ranger.
9. I had all four of my kids naturally without drugs.
10. I have killed an elk and a few deer and I've gutted and skinned several deer.
11. I once ate a dog treat thinking it was beef jerky.
12. In high school, jeans were popular and just starting to be worn by girls. I didn't want to be like everyone else though, so I wore a dress or skirt ALMOST every day to school just to be different.
13. I drove a pea combine during the summer to make money for college. I drove the night shift and it was cold, nasty and ever so boring!!
14. I've never had my wisdom teeth pulled.
15. While still in high school, I went on a 25 mile 5 day hike into the High Lakes with my dad and 2 friends to be the first in my stake to earn my 5th year girls camp certification.
16. I camped out all night to get Rick Springfield concert tickets.
17. When we lived in Maryland I was hit by a semitruck in my little Subaru and ended up suing the company and winning $11,000. It provided our downpayment to buy our house we now live in.
18. I got bucked off a horse and I'm pretty sure I broke my nose. It was swollen and purple for over a week.
19. I used to eat chicken bones with my Grandpa every Sunday after Sunday dinner.
20. Garry and I went camping on our honeymoon and my aunt and uncle and their 8 or so children were in the same campground and we spent most of our honeymoon trying to avoid them.
21. When I was a teen, I wanted to marry a farmer and have 12 kids.
22. I was babysitting my brother in my younger days and he was such a brat that I would have to chase him around the house with a butcher knife as a threat for him to be good.
23. I am Switzerland, white, I want everyone to be happy. I hate conflicts and debates.
24. My life long dream is to go on an Afican Safari.
25. I hate to make dinner.

There you have it. I dare you to come up with 25, go ahead, give it a try!

Geocaching

First off, our most shocking news of the weekend: Cynjyn played games with us!! AND she liked it!! We borrowed a new game from the Witt's called Pirates Cove. We all liked it. We also borrowed Guillatine and we all liked that. So not only did she play with us on Sunday, BUT Monday too!! She also played Dominoes, and Cranium!! But our most exciting part of the weekend was geocaching. I had done this with the Laurels for mutual a few weeks ago. I thought the kids would really like it. It is basically treasure hunting all over the place. We downloaded the free app on our Iphones and it gives you the three closest caches. So, here are Taz and Cynjyn ready to begin the hunt.

YES!! they found their first ever geocache. Our code name is Goonytoons and you're not supposed to find the cache if there are a lot of Muggles (borrowed from HP) around.

We hunted 6 and found all 6. This is number 2. It took us the longest to find.

Number 3

Number 4

Number 5

Number 6

We have decided that it is a better hobby to do in the cooler parts of the year. Luckily, we had all brought a water bottle. AND our stop at Golden Spoon on the way home cooled us all down.

If you'd like more info on geocaching, just google it!! It was fun and we can't wait to do it again.

Books and goodies

It all started with a contest I won. I love Stacey Julian. She is a bigwig in the scrapbooking industry and I just love her approach to scrapbooking. I look at her blog all the time. I also enter almost every contest she has. Well, I actually won one. I didn't even know it until I got an email from Color Inc telling me how to redeem my prize. I have lost so often, that I never checked back when she announced the winners, but here is the proof I won!
This also give info on Color Inc and how to make your own book if you want. So I stayed true to my comment and made an "I can read" book for my nephew Beckham. His birthday was in April and I had wanted to do this for a long time, but couldn't quite put it together myself.

I can't wait to give it to him when he comes in a month to visit.

About a month ago, I got my blog from 2009 turned into a book. It is huge!

This book has made the rounds in the family. Everyone has loved looking at it. Talon kept it in his room for a good week and it stayed on the ottoman for a good month. I am so glad I blog and so glad I print them out into books with a years worth of my personal family history. If you're considering doing it, do it. Don't wait, they are worth the money!

I made these yummy treats for game night last week and my recital. They disappear quickly!

I know I'm behind the times, but we tried quinoa last night. It is a healthy grain that Garry heard about in the Friend about 8 months ago. I bought some and it's just been sitting in the cupboard. Well, last night I needed a side dish with our steak and so I sauteed some onion and mushroom and garlic with it and it turned out pretty good.

Random

Last night I was folding a load of laundry while watching Minute to Win it. When I took them out of the dryer, I found Garry's check stub from work all crumpled amongst the clothes. Luckily, he does direct deposit and so it wasn't really that big of a loss. So, he starts helping me fold clothes and he's folding a pair of his shorts and I hear "Oh crap". I say what and he pulls the Checkbook and ledger out of his shorts. They look like this: He had taken it to Tanner's summer volleyball tryouts to pay the fee for the travel team and forgot to take it out of his pocket!! Now, it just so happens that our credit union got bought out and is switching over THIS weekend and we are getting new account numbers and new checks and the whole shebang, BUT, it will be very difficult to BALANCE my check book without a readable ledger!!

Cynjyn got her hair cut after school yesterday. She loves it!! I think it's a good look for her too.

Tuesday, Garry had the scouts over to do the swimming and livesaving merit badge and this was Taz's audience as he attemted to take off his shirt and pants, blow air into them and float across the pool. Amanda (Tanner's "friend" had come over to get help with science and ended up staying for dinner and I took them both to mutual when we went). Cynjyn stayed here to swim and Tiffany and Talon came out to enjoy the nice weather. Taz didn't appreciate all the yells of help as he attempted his feat!

Talon is on a get in shape kick and has PX90. He's had it for awhile, but he's just now getting into it. His friend at work put him on a CRaZy diet where he has to eat something like 4000 calories a day and one day loads up on protein, the next on carbs and he can't have fruit. So, he was buying his own food. Here he is with Garry putting up the "chinup bar" above the garage door which has become his workout room.

He cooked up a huge steak and was eating it to load up on his protein. The plate was piled with steak, this is towards the end of his and Tiffany's eating spree. Luckily for all of us, he has done away with the diet and has decided to eat more sensibly, but last night while doing PX90, he came running in and threw up in the bathroom because the workout was too intense. Oh, he would make a good contestant on "The Biggest Loser"!! They love that throwup drama!!