The Beginning of the Summer trip 2010

June 18, 2010

Pre-trip:

We spent the week getting ready for our trip to Utah. We also bought a blow up pool for the kids to cool off in. They were so funny. They used the snow tube to take turns floating in the pool and moved the deck chairs over to put their feet in. Silly kids! We also took a walk from our house to the high school and found that it took 56 minutes. Good thing Bob picked us up on his way home or that would have been a long trip home.

Tyler and Alayna finished up band camp and Alayna had another fun day at ROAR.Marisa said she is enjoying her orchestra camp at BYU. Hopefully she will write it all up on her blog when she gets home.

(My lilies in back of the house)

(got some auburn highlights in my hair- but clearly you cant see that in this picture)

On our way:

We left early Thursday morning and drove about 10 hours to Ogallala, Nebraska. We stay at the Stagecoach Inn every time we head out to Utah. We arrived in time to fit in 2 hours of swimming.

(Rest stop where we ate lunch.  Thought the word “corn” should be added to the bottom)

(waiting to check in to hotel)

Friday was about the same amount of driving but took us way longer: construction, lunch at the park, and a need to search out a Wal-Mart because of forgotten goggles.

(In front of the Stagecoach Inn)

Made it to Utah:

(Kayla taking a picture of Bridal Veil falls)

(The lake where we had lunch)

(The bridge by the lake where we had lunch)

(Wyoming-in the middle of nowhere- totally my kind of place)

We got into Provo on Friday night. We showed our kids our 1^st apartment (when we got married long ago) and it was still there! And looks the same! How is that place still standing?? Then we showed them our 2^nd apartment and Kayla took a picture of Bob and I in front of us. We can hardly believe we lived there so long ago. We got to the hotel in time to hit the pool for 1 ½ hours. Tomorrow we will take the kids on a tour of BYU and see both of Marisa’s concerts.

(In front of our old apartment)

BYU:

We headed to BYU for Marisa’s 3 concerts. I will give you the short version. First, we showed the kids a little around the campus and showed them where I first told Bob we were pregnant with Marisa. (BTW- Bob didn’t remember that) Then, we met up with my mom, Grandma Cunningham and Uncle Andy to see Marisa’s 1^st concert with the chamber orchestra concert. Then we went to the BYU bookstore and bought some BYU shirts! Then we went to the Cougar Eat for lunch. It is AMAZING how much that place has changed since I attended there. Then we went to see Marisa’s choir concert in the HFAC lobby. It sounded so cool! Then my mom took the younger 3 kids up the canyon to go to my cousins wedding reception while we went to Marisa’s last concert (Missy and Jackson came too!) The concert was incredible! Over 100 teens in a symphony orchestra and they played William Tells overture, the overtures from Carmen, and the Gypsy Baron. I think, overall, that she had a great experience.

(Picture with the “Y” in the mountain)

(In front of the student center)

(In front of the hotel)

(Eating fancy desserts in the HFAC building where my dad broke up with my mom when they were dating at BYU. Hows THAT for family history?)

(Marisa at BYU orchestra camp)

(Choir Concert)

(Symphony Concert)

Then we went to Jamba Juice (our favorite place in Utah) and then to In and Out for dinner. Yummy!! Then we headed up to Logan, but got stuck in hideous road construction traffic for what felt like hours. We were 15 minutes late to the movie theater (that my brothers now own). We attended the comedy night and it was Hilarious. By the end of the evening my face hurt from smiling so much. The Comedy night featured Aaron Burrell (who had us rolling in the aisles) and Headlined Karen Rontowski who has been on comedy central who was very funny. The host (Brad Bonar) was this amazing magician. He came up to our kids after the show and did some absolutely magic tricks that still have us all baffled. (Especially Kayla who still cant figure out how he magically got 2 balls into her closed fist).

We have now officially begun the Ribera reunion so I will post all the fun stuff we do in next weeks blog. Happy Father’s Day to all you wonderful Dad’s out there!

(With Karen Rontowski)

(With Aaron Burrell)

(magician Brad Bonar- showing us his magicians badge and doing magic tricks)

A blog book and Another embarrassing moment

What can you do to stay busy in the summer?

1. Playing badminton with your siblings

2. Dipping your huge crop of strawberries in the chocolate leftover from the chocolate fountain. A HUGE hit!

3. Get new haircuts (see blog entry below) Marisa donated 10 inches of her hair to “Locks of Love”.

4. Attend band camp (Concert band camp for Kayla and Tyler. Jazz band for Tyler.)

5. Attend ROAR ( a reading program at school every Wednesday this summer) for Alayna.

Who won the “You –are-super-sweet” award?

And the award goes to (insert drum roll)…Tyler! He bought beautiful roses for me this week with his own money! Maybe its because I appeared as though I was losing my mind while deep cleaning the storage room?

Where did Marisa go?

Well, I drove Marisa to the Moline Illinois airport on Friday to fly to Salt Lake City. She had a quick change of planes in Memphis, TN, and landed in Utah around 10:00 our time. This was her 1^st time flying alone! My parents picked her up (thanks gma and gpa!) and took her to Logan to hang out until today. She checks into the BYU Summer Musicians Camp tonight.

Where will we be going?

We leave Thursday to head to BYU to get Marisa. Then up to Logan for a mini-Ribera reunion and then Colorado for the Hart reunion. It will be a very busy, but fun few weeks. Hopefully I will be able to blog along the way.

Another embarrassing moment to add to my huge list!

So, I was asked to speak in church today. I was well prepared, as usual, but my body is never convinced I am not nervous. I swear this anxiety has worsened with age- shouldn’t it be getting better? By the sacrament song, my mouth was so dry that my lips were starting to suck up my face (despite water and gum). I swear that when my body gets nervous, all the water in my entire body immediately evaporates. It’s a complete mystery to me where it goes. Anyway, when I got up to speak, for some stupid reason I was seriously shaking. Not barely shaking, but I seriously looked like our mini tree when we have a tornado headed our way. So, I did ok through the first page (even though I read straight from the paper because I was giving all I had to make sure I didn’t pass out). Then the lips started sucking up my head, so I had to open my bottle of water to get some liquid in. But I was shaking so bad that I almost missed my mouth. Then, a few paragraphs later, same problem. But this time, I was shaking worse and the water sloshed out and ran all the way down my arm. So, I finished my talk shaky, dry-mouthed, and with a wet arm! Ugh!

(Poor Kayla was sick this week)

Something to be proud of

I’m so excited because I finally finished my 1^st ever blog book!!! It is so much better than scrapbooking and pretty easy too. It just takes a small time commitment. I use a place called blurb.com and I “slurp” my blog entries into it and organize it into a book. Then I can order it and they actually make it into a book! I have been wanting to do this for a very long time. Anyway, I finished 2005 and have started on 2006. I am hoping to download everything I need so I can work on it over vacation. The finished book should arrive this week, but maybe after we leave. I will take pics when it arrives so you can see.

(Here is a copy of the front cover)

The Great Unveiling of the Hair

Alayna Before

Alayna After

Tyler Before

Tyler After

Kayla Before

Kayla After

Marisa Before

Marisa After (she donated her hair!)

Oh what do we do in the summertime…?

Oh what do we do in the summertime…?

School is out (insert massive whoohoos here) and we are SO ready to rock (insert rendition of We will rock you!)! Here are some of the things we did this week to start out the summer with a bang…

1. We learn how to Train a Dragon

We celebrated immediately by going out to see “How to Train Your Dragon”, which was a brilliant movie. We absolutely loved it! I can’t wait to see it again! I wish I had my own dragon. I would be a super cool teacher if I did. (PS- we have our fingers crossed we might get to see Lightning Thief at the new theater in Logan? I hear the owners are pretty awesome!)

2. We are surprised by how fast our garden is growing.

Our garden is flourishing and we are loving it! We love the fresh vegetables for our salad, and we even have apples growing on our trees for the first time. We have tried strawberries the past couple of years and they have bombed. So, this year we decided we wouldn’t do them. Lo, and behold, they ALL started coming up and now we have strawberries coming out of ears! How amazing is that??

3. We learned that riding your bike while wearing shorts and being related to Marisa can be a deadly combination.

For Memorial day, the family and grandparents (minus me who was sleeping, and Alayna who was sick) went on a really cool trail to ride bikes. Tyler chose to wear shorts even though I remind him often that’s not a good idea. He went around a corner and crashed. His road rash looks remarkably similar to another bike-crasher we know! Anyway, he had his leg wrapped for several days and it is finally on the mend. Then the group went to the Memorial Day ward picnic, but I was home with Alayna so I don’t have any amazing pics to share.

(It actually looked worse in person)

4. We get on a Mexican Train

Corey and Hal introduced us to this great new game called Mexican Train (although I am pretty sure they may never play with us again). It is such a fun game!

5. We babysit Maggie

Our friends went out of town and asked us to watch Maggie. Alayna was especially happy since Alayna was sick the whole time and Maggie just snuggled up next to her all day! Alayna is finally better, but now Tyler is sick.

5. We Slip and we Slide and we Bob for Strawberries

The first day of summer the kids RAN outside. Before I knew it, they had set up the water rocket and the slip and slide all by themselves. I have smart kids, you know…Kayla ran and got the snow tube out of the garage and they rode that down the slip and slide so they wouldn’t get so many bruises from the hard ground! Now, THAT is smart thinkin’. Then, they filled up the tube with water and strawberries and “bobbed” for them. I bet you have never heard of THAT before. Kayla said the strawberries were so small, though, that they all kept bonking their heads against each other.

6. We find interesting and Creative ways to spend our time.

Example #1: Making a pirate pancake.(Made by Tyler)

Example #2: Have a laugh attack until you cry. Note to self: never let Marisa drink Sunkist again!

Example #3: I FINALLY finished my puzzle (1000 piece Glow in the Dark)

7. We have a Daddy/Daughter Hoedown

Alayna had her very first “date” with her daddy this week at the Activity Days Daddy/Daughter Dance. Marisa and Kayla went as DJ’s and to help teach the “Cotton-eyed Joe” (yes that still exists) and the “Cha Cha Slide” (see pics of Marisa’s party). All 3 girls got all decked out and had such a wonderful time. Tyler had several friends over for a slumber party: wii, computer games, impossible creatures (the computer game- I’m not calling the kids names), Night at the Museum 2 (the interchange between Kahman Ra and Darth Vader is priceless) and a serious nerf gun war (that can be rivaled by no other). Tyler claims it was one of the best nights of his life! I don’t have pics of the sleepover thought because the girls took the camera to the dance.

(Kayla and Justine)

(Marisa and Alyssa)

(Apparently Bob is “knee-slappin’”)

(Prepping with the pretzel)

Tune in next week for such headlines as …

“Dude! What happened to my hair”?

“Where the heck did Marisa go?” and

“How many camps can we fit into 1 week”?