SPT- 5th Element of Summer

The 5th element of Summer is Ice Cream according to Lelly. If you're Mormon like we are you know that ice cream is a food group. Since we don't drink alcohol, coffee or tea or smoke or do drugs, we have to have some kind of an addiction. If we could only find a way to put a few ice cream shops close to the temples we could make a fortune. Luckily for us, we live right across the street from the owner of JoJo's, our local ice cream shop. It is soft serve with all kinds of flavoring that they put on it. They also have Hawaiian ice, shakes and sundaes. Our good friends Scott and Jodi

My favorites are the pineapple shake and the butter pecan dipped in chocolate. So Yummy! The owner treats us to free ice cream regularly- which is a good thing since we love it so much!

Trying a Video Again

I'm just trying out my videos again. The only thing I am unhappy about is that I can't put on a bunch of music I have downloaded and paid for, because it says it is protected. Anyone know how to get around that? I paid for it, I should actually get to use it!
Here is just a couple days of summer fun.

Trip to New York, Birthday's and exhaustion

We had our last summer vacation last week. We went up to New York and saw the Hill Cumorah Pageant Max showing you his Helaman figure that he loved while on the top of Hill Cumorah. Looking down at the 7 layer stageand all the Church History sites. See the Palmyra temple in the distance looking onto the Smith family farm. It was wonderful to walk in the Sacred Grove. While we were there we had wonderful runs along the Erie canal every morning, encountered our first antimormon group (I don't understand how anyone makes it their life goal to insult others religion. It's a very odd way to spend your life), saw Niagra Fallsand lost another one of Joseph's teeth. Rob pulled it out with his bare hands, because we didn't want him to swallow this one. He has swallowed the other 2 that have come out- at least we never found them. So after Rob pulls it out, he gives him the tooth so I can take this picture. And Joseph drops it. We search and search and can't find it. Sam gets up to look after we have been looking for like 10 minutes and finds it right off. He hands it to Joseph and we all do the dance of joy. Then Joseph hands it to Rob and drops it, again! We search and search, even Sam, but no luck. The Hill Cumorah has a part of our Joseph now!

Niagra was beautiful. My very first time in Canada- sort of!

We loved going on the Maid of the Mist- all except Max who went to the middle of the ship, put his head down, gritted his teeth and stood there until we were almost back to the dock. Then he did a "I'm so good, I made it grin."


On the way home we stopped in Hershey, Pa and got more chocolate than one family deserves. There is nothing better than a fresh Reese's cup. It is so much better than the ones you buy at the store.


Now we are just trying to ride out the rest of the summer without a complete blow up. I have never been this is exhausted in my life. I have never said "no!" so many times in my life. I don't do entertainment director well when I am trying to run a household and work. Emma has always needed an entertainment director and the boys aren't far behind. Kids just don't have much of an imagination anymore as far as thinking of things to do- at least not mine. Maybe, my problems is that I thought I might accomplish a few things this summer and so I get frustrated that nothing is getting done. I might have to reorient my goals. We did have our last summer birthday the other day. Joseph turned 6. While we were in New York, he decided to play like he was Indian Jones and got Rob's belt and kept whipping it at the boys. Then, when I wouldn't let him do that anymore he tried to get it around things, so he could swing like Indie. One breakfast he spent the whole time trying to whip it around a tree limb. Finally he asked Rob to put it around the tree, so he could swing. Rob said, "I gotta see this, " so he wrapped it around the tree and let Joe try to swing. He didn't do so well, but he sure enjoyed it. So for his birthday, I just had to get him this whip when we found it. It is soft, so he can whip his brothers and it makes real whipping noises and plays the Indian Jones theme song. What more could a boy want? Much better then my Dad's bull whip he bought in Italy, I think!


How is your summer coming and are you getting anything accomplished or are the kids driving you crazy?

SPT- Summer Grass

I am way too cheap to pay for a professional landscaper to come out and do our 6 feet of grass, but what I want to know is how they do it. We are willing and really do have enough time to put a little work into it, but we just can't seem to get rid of the weeds or the crab grass or make it look so green or make it feel so nice and soft. I'll tell you one thing, though. It would be infinitely better if I just stayed out of the whole thing and let my husband take care of it. This is the hole I put in the lawn last winter when I threw a bucket of salt water from our ice cream maker onto the snow, not thinking about the grass that would need to try to grow there that summer. See, I was really thinking of all those cars parked on the street- no one uses their garage around here. I didn't think people would appreciate the salt water splash that may corrode their paint. But I have to admit that I have done worse than this. I ortho weed and grass killed the lawn 2 years in a row when we lived in Wyoming. Not one of my finest hours. Just call me ol' black thumb!

A very late SPT- summer shade

This last week we went up to the Hill Cumorah Pageant in New York. It tells the stories in the Book of Mormon and how the gospel was restored to the earth. It was wonderful. The lighting and effects and all the costumes. It was totally worth it. That day before the pageant we went to all the LDS Church history sites. One of the places we visited was the Sacred Grove. It was a beautiful, peaceful grove with light coming down in between the trees. The shade was wonderful on a hot day, too.

Are you Smart or Stoopid?

http://www.flashbynight.com/test/
Here is a fun test. Be prepared though, it is fast and you don't have a lot of time to think or even read the questions. I was smarter than the average person. How about you?

SPT- water

The second element of Summer is water, according to Lelly.

Always remember to bring your own water to the free (OK, it cost a dollar this year, but it goes to charity!) movies at the AMC theater, so you don't have to pay $4 for one of theirs.Because $4 x 5 is $20 and then a free movie for a passel of children ends up being kind of an expensive outing. PS. Shh, don't say anything, but we brought our own popcorn, too! :)

My Boy, Casanova

I have written before about my 5 year old, Joseph and the girls fighting over him and how he comes off with smooth lines like, "but I love you all!" Well the other day at church he asked a girl out. Yes, he did! He asked a 14 year old girl who had come over to babysit a couple times, if she would like to come over to our house. She told him that he would have to ask his Mom and Dad about that. So I officially invited her over for S'mores. The S'mores were left over from our beach vacation and Scott and Jodi were bringing them over to do that night. Later, I called Dana to tell her what time and let her know that she didn't have to come, but she did. Joseph was hanging on her most of the time. Wait, it gets worse! The next day, Joseph asked me if I know the girl who likes him to hug her all the time. I said, "no, I don't know that girl." Of course I knew who he was talking about, but I don't think she actually liked him hugging her all the time. Anyway, he explained that she was the girl that came over with Scott and Jodi and said that she was going to eat lots of S'mores, because she liked them so much. "oh, you mean Dana?" "Yes, her. Can I call her?" "hu, no, no you can't!" Rob was laughing and laughing. I said, "yah, you are laughing now- you just wait until he's 16. We are in trouble!" My son, Casanova! Well at least I never have to worry about him telling me that he is gay! Here is a picture of Joseph's first date, making her S'mores!

To Be Watched by Consenting Adults only! But Funny

You have to see this to understand what we are making jokes about half the time! Conditions are Perfect!

I have a Question!

This one's new obsession: Pockets! "Do you have pockets? I have pockets. See? Do you have pockets?" This is a constant question popping up these days. I'm not sure why pockets are facinating, but they definitely are at our house!

SP(W)T- My "Sun"shine Son

This is a picture of my son and I playing in the North Carolina Sun. Sun was the word for this weeks SPT. My son just had his 9th birthday,so I thought it was an appropriate picture for the Sun title.
He is a wonderful boy. He makes life easy on me. He can entertain himself, loves to read and learn at school. I go over his homework with him every night, because that is what good mom's do, but I don't ever really need to. He has perfect grades and loves to learn and try new things. He is polite and always worried about others feelings. He has always been protective of his younger brothers. I remember when Joseph was just 1 and Sam was 4, I found them in the bathroom and Sam was leading him around the tub which was filled still with the remnants of that morning's bubble bath. He had a sword and a shield and he was protecting him from the yucky bubble monster. Later that day, I took them with me shopping. I went around a low aisle to see what was on the other side. All the sudden, I hear, "Mom, don't forget the King, " and here comes Sam pulling the cart with Joseph inside. I told him that he must be the Knight in Shinning Armor who was protecting the King. Some girl will be very lucky to get my Knight in Shinning Armor when he grows up, but until then, I think I will enjoy him a little longer!

OBX fun

We have been on Vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We haven't ever done something like this before, but we rented a beach house with a couple of other friends and stayed for a week. It was so fun and relaxing. I definitely recommend it. Of course, the other day, I was recommending it to one of Emma's friend's Mom and she started telling me how they had a time share in Cancun that they had used for years and so this year they were going to try out St. Maarten's. Ok, I guess I will just shut my mouth about beach vacations!

But truely, if you go, I read so much stuff on the internet about Duck being the best place to be at, but after seeing it first hand, the place we got in Corolla was so, so much better! I definitely recommend Corolla.

We mostly hung out at the beach and built sand castles and buried each other and played in the waves.

At night we played lots of games and even had a crown for the present winner. I got to wear it once!We also did fireworks- shh don't tell anyone- one night and went crabbing. The beach is filled with tons of little "ghost crabs" as they are called. See him?Even Max caught one all on his own. We also had to catch a few jelly fish one day, but that is in retaliation for them stinging us a couple of times. They came in on the warm tide. It was fun to play in, until you got stung a couple of times.

We went jogging on the beach and saw the wild horses and played tennis and biked and even took a trip to see Kitty Hawk.

It was indeed an amazing vacation!