off we go....

The kids and I are off to Utah in the morning. We are going to stay with Tamra for a little while and Mom for a little while too. We don't exactly when we are going to get home, it all depends on how the kids behave. We are going to the 4th of July parade in Provo with Tamra and her family. It is kind of a tradition. I think that in the past 5 or 6 years we have only missed one. That's pretty good. The kids are all excited about it. I can't say that I'm not. I look forward to this trip every year. We have fun!!!

This last Friday night, July 23rd, Bryr had another race. Todd entered Bryr in the Junior class instead of the Starter class like he should have due to his experience. It didn't matter tho, Bryr took first place!!! There was one kid in the first moto that beat him, but in the second moto, Bryr took the hole shot and stayed in the front and won, giving him the over-all first place trophy. He was excited!!! I didn't get to see him, because I was at our ward's Relief Society Time-Out for Women. We went up to Lary Walker's lodge (he's Todd's dad's cousin that is a lawyer). The sign hanging over the door is "Lord Lary's Lodge". It is awesome!! We stayed up until 4:30 am playing spoons. It was a blast!!! Saje went with me, but he slept ver nicely. I was grateful for that.

Everyone is doing ok, except for Todd. At Bryr's race, during one of the other races, there was a crash and the flaggers weren't getting the riders attention enough, so they moved to a better position so that the riders could see them better. While they did that, Todd and another guy jumped the fence and helped the fallen riders get their bikes off the track. In the process, Todd's right big toe nail was ripped off. Frustrating, because he just got the other one fixed. Anyway, he is cringing when the kids get near his feet again..

The girls are doing great. Shiloah and Cassie had their birthdays. Shiloah had her first real slumber party. She was on a high for a few days. Cassie had a little family party, but is looking forward to going shopping in Utah.

I'd better get finished packing. I hope you enjoy reading this.

summer fun!

Since school got out, I have been nothing but busy, busy, and some more busy. Today is the big Cherry Festival Parade in Emmett, and the boys are getting all ready for it. Bryr is going to be riding the Performance Cycle Center "float" with Todd (they are one of his sponsors). The trailer came home from the "beauty parlor" (Bryant Ideas - they put the logos on the sides of the trailer) but is missing a couple of logos, but it is ok for today. The local sponsor is on there and that is the most important one for this parade.

It was great having Tamra and her boys her for a couple of days/nights. My girls sure had fun showing them the tadpoles and the snakes and crickets and all the stuff that we have on an every day basis.

Saje is cutting more teeth and is rather cranky right now. He has two on the bottom and one on the top, but is working on another one on the top and another on the bottom. It makes for some cranky times, but we get through it.

I love the time that summer vacation lets me have with the kids. I see everyday that my kids are really pretty good kids and I am grateful for it. We were doing a "service" project kind of this morning helping a family in our ward with some yard work and we took the riding mower and push mower over in the trailer to help. My kids just jumped right in and raked grass and rose bush prunings until it was done without complaining. We had an instance where one of the other family's children got mad and was taking it out on our trailer and one of the first things out of the mother's mouth was that they would pay to take care of any damage (which there was some - the daughter took a metal rake and scratched the paint on the outside of the trailer and somehow gouged some divots in the wood paneling in the back doors. Not too major, but fixable with a little wood putty that we have and the rake scratches look like something my kids would have done riding their bikes a little too close and hitting the handle bars on it.). I know that they could not afford the cost to fix even the paint job and we don't expect the trailer to stay perfect forever, but I wasn't just going to say don't worry about it, so I told her that I will have her daughter over to help pull weeds for a while and help with some other things. This way she will learn that just because she gets mad, she can't just go and hit things or damage things expecially other peoples things without a consequence.

Bryr had a lesson learning experience last week. We were out shopping for party stuff for Shiloah's birthday party as we got to Walmart I noticed that Bryr had a bulge in his pocket. It was a sucker from the store that we had just been to, so after Walmart I took him back and he gave it to the checker, sobbing as he appologized. He said that he was hungry and thought that I wouldn't get him anything there, which was true - I would have had him wait until we got to Walmart five minutes later. The checker girl was very kind and told him thank you for bringing it back. I am just glad that she didn't say that it was ok and that he could have it, because that wouldn't have taught him anything. Anyway, another lesson learned.

Well, I'd better go rescue my in-laws from my kids. They are all swimming at grandma & grandpa's house and it is about time to get ready to go. I hope you enjoy the sagas of a busy mom.