Gymnastics

I got pregnant with Clara right about the time Tessa turned 2.  I was tired and just wanted to sleep on the mornings that Spencer was at preschool.  But that wasn't fair for Tessa who was already missing her playmate while he was at school.  So I decided to enroll us in some mommy-baby class.  I tried the Little Gym which was fun, but pricey.  And I kind of had an issue paying all that money for self-esteem and felt I'd rather pay it for instruction.  So I began looking into actual gymnastic places that took little 2 year olds for baby gymnastics.  My friend had her 2 older girls at Bailey's gymnastics (by IKEA) so I tried them out and loved it.  So for about 6 months I took Tessa to gymnastics once a week.  She LOVED it.  Here are some old pictures I have from this class.

 

In this little class the instructor would show what to do at each station and then she would stay at the one requiring the most assistance and the moms would  help the kids at all the other ones.  I liked the equipment, instructors, and the skills that were taught and Tessa had a lot of fun.  But then we quit going for summer as I was having Clara and we do a lot of other things in the summer.  The next year I enrolled her in the older class in the main gym but I also enrolled her in dance.  I couldn't afford to do both at the same time and it seemed she was enjoying dance more so we quit gymnastics and just did dance.  This year she was adamant on doing gymnastics again so we're back and loving it.  Each week they rotate between the bars, balance beam, floor, and then either the trampoline, foam pit, rope swing, rock wall, or a combination of those.  Here's a more recent picture of Tessa at gymnastics:

Back when our neighbor gave us tickets to the U of U basketball game the tickets had a coupon for a U of U gymnastic meet to buy one ticket and get the whole family in.  There is also a get the whole family in free in general admission coupon in the Hometown Values magazine and Bailey's gymnastics has the same family pass coupon so I'm sure it's all over.  We decided to go as a family for Friday fun day.  We drove down and parked at the football stadium.  We then took the free Trax ride up to the Huntsman Center.  I didn't bring the free family coupon since I wanted to pay for a ticket in the lower bowl and get the whole family in free.  However, the lower bowl was sold out so I had to pay $5 to get the whole family into the general admission upper bowl.  Still a good deal, but I could have saved $5 if I had brought the other coupon.  The meet was against Utah State.  I love watching gymnastics and the U has a great team so I had a really good time.  Tessa enjoyed watching the bigger girls doing such amazing tricks on the same type of equipment she does gymnastics on.  Spencer enjoyed watching the uneven bars and the big tumbling runs on the floor but was pretty bored otherwise.  Clara just loved climbing on and off the chairs and my lap.  There was no flash photography but Tessa was having such a good time I took her picture while they were rotating one time.

Boys and basketball while the girls go to the mall

Spencer got 2 tickets to a Utah Jazz game from his Jr. Jazz.  Even though I'm more the sports fan than Brodie is I always try to send Brodie and Spencer when we get 2 tickets somewhere.  Spencer's more of a mommy's boy so I try to take advantage of opportunities for he and Brodie to bond.  So off they went.  I asked Tessa what she wanted to do while the boys were gone and she requested "the big mall with the dinosaur playland".  Between her love of nail polish and going to the mall I sometimes wonder how she's my child.  But I'm glad she is.  Of course she also requested a ride in the train that runs through South Towne Mall.  It is way overpriced at $3 per person.  Really it's just a little thing that runs down the length of the mall and back.  But I wanted to make it special for Tessa so I paid the $9 for us to take a ride through the mall.  I mometarily stopped thinking of all the better things I could have spent my $9 on to watch the girls enjoy their train ride.

After the train ride we had a lot of fun playing at DinoTowne.  I mentioned it previously on this blog and have more pictures of it back then but here's one I took this time:

Clara was a maniac on the slide.  She just kept climbing up the ladder and sliding down the treacherously slippery and fast slide without letting me hold her hand to slow her down.  And 90% of the time she would look shocked at how fast she went.  Then she'd smile and run to do it again.  A few times she bonked her head but didn't cry and just kept going.  Tessa also had a blast running around, going down the slides, playing in the treehouse, and climbing on the bones.  We played here for a good hour before I told them we needed to head home.  We stopped in the food court for a snack first and then made it home just before the boys showed up.  They didn't stay for the whole game cuz they were both tired and it was a school/work night.  Another reason I sent Brodie with him rather than myself cuz I would have stayed for the whole thing.

School programs, The Nutcracker, and Jazz scrimmage

My little princess had her first school program this week.  She has been so excited every time I pick her up from preschool and she tells me about the songs they sang practicing for the program.  She was also excited to be able to perform on a real stage.  Brodie was subpoenaed for court for the day and didn't have to be there until a little later so he was even able to come.  Tessa was so dang cute!  She knew all of the songs and sang them so loudly that I could even tell her voice apart from the other kids.  They got to wear Santa hats for some songs, angel halos for some songs, and even had some moments with instruments and a glove that had bells.  I loved watching her.

Then Spencer had a program at his school.  Each grade came out and sang two songs.  I had to park forever away and walk all three kids in and we were way back in the cafeteria where we couldn't see anything.  But I was there and zoomed in the video camera so I could see him.  And he also loved the songs he learned and had been singing them for a week so I'm glad I got to go watch him perform.  Spencer also had a Holiday party at school and at his Up With Kids play practice.

Ever since I was a kid and had a friend in the Mountain West production of The Nutcracker I've loved it.  I went quite a few times when I was younger and took my kids for the first time last year.  They loved it, especially since the main character's name is Clara.  I bought both Tessa and Clara different versions of the books and Tessa has loved me reading it to her over the last year.  So we went for our Friday Fun night.  The kids loved the first half but were getting pretty tired through the second half.  Although Tessa was quite excited to see her former ballet teacher's daughter (who also helped teach Tessa's class) as the snow queen.  I really enjoyed the performance.  I think they do such a wonderful job of costumes, scenery, choreography, and absolutely everything!  I do think it's a couple dollars per person overpriced, but I'll keep going because I love it so much!

On Saturday we took the kids downtown to the free Utah Jazz scrimmage.  We were originally planning on parking at the Gateway and taking Trax a little bit to Temple Square to see the lights and then come back to Energy Solutions Center to watch a bit of the scrimmage and then go home.  We were waiting for the train FOREVER (at least it sure seemed that way) and plenty of trains were going the other way but none were coming our way so we played around for a while.

Then Tessa had to pee really bad.  Since we were right outside Energy Solutions we decided to go in early and wait for the scrimmage and then stay for a little bit and then see the lights after.  They had a few sections behind the basket blocked off and the rest of the seats looked pretty full so we headed to the upper bowl.  Quite a few others had the same idea but they had it closed off.  Apparently they weren't expecting such a crowd despite it being a free game and a lot of people being starved for some NBA action after the long lockout.  So just as we got there they opened up a section and we sat down.  We took off all our coats, hats, gloves, and everything else and settled in.  A while later an usher came and told the bunch of us up here they didn't want anyone up here and they were opening the blocked off area down below.  As we looked we saw people flooding in that area.  So by the time we packed up all our stuff and got the family down there we found 5 seats together on the second to the top row.  Then they still ended up having to seat the upper bowl.  And when it finally was time to start they started off by interviewing each player and having some Jr. Jazz kids ask them questions and they they had a good chunk of time warming up.  By the time the actual scrimmage started our kids were ready to go home.  We stayed for one quarter and then left.  Spencer did enjoy watching actual basketball players and seeing the large arena.  I enjoyed actually seeing basketball.  Of course this was before I realized the Jazz really suck as a team this year (I'm hopeful they'll get better really fast).  And it was so late that we just decided to go home and come back down a different night for the lights.  The older kids were very disappointed so we told them if they didn't whine or cry about it we'd stop at McDonald's for holiday pies (like the apple pies but they were room temperature, filled with a pudding, and had colorful sprinkles on them.  They tasted like a birthday cake).  Which we did.

Okay so I know this post is long but as I was posting the pictures from the scrimmage I realized I didn't mention the University of Utah basketball game we went to.  Our neighbors had tickets and couldn't make it so they brought them to us.  This was before the Jazz game so it was the first actual basketball game Spencer got to go to and he loved it.  Tessa loved watching the cheerleaders and was dancing herself anytime they came out.  And unlike the Jazz scrimmage it was empty.  This made it possible for the kids to run all over the place without bothering people.  They went down to the row in front of us, the row behind us, over us, and back again.  I think the University of Utah team was even worse than the Jazz.  But the kids didn't care, they had a blast!

A couple busy, fun, mostly free weeks

WARNING:  It has been a long time since I've been here so this blog is bound to be quite long.

Okay so I actually had to pull out my calendar to see all the fun things we've done since my last blog post.  I'm going to try to put it all in here--more for the sake of my children in the future as I'm planning to do one of those blog book things for them, but read on if you're interested.

Back to July 11th.  Slurpee day!  On 7-11 the convenience store with the same name gives free 7.11 ounce slurpees out.  I first took my kids a couple years ago as their first introduction to Slurpees.  Since then every time we pass a 7-11 my kids beg for one.  I take them a few times a year, one of which being on July 11.  So we went after lunch, around 1:00 pm.  The free slurpees are quite small for an adult, but perfect size for my children.  And we only waited about 5 minutes in the line.  I shared mine with Clara--who LOVED it!  Later that night for our Family Home Evening Activity we went to the Family Skate Night at the Lone Peak Skate Park.  Sooooo much fun!  Spencer brought his skate board and scooter, although he stuck with the scooter the whole time.  He's a very cautious kid, always has been, and I don't think he's comfortable with the lack of control he has over the skate board.  I need to work with him to get more comfortable and understand how to ride it.  The Wii skateboarding isn't much help.  Tessa brought her scooter and tricycle.  She kept mainly to the trike, as that's her favorite thing.  We brought the little push car for Clara.  They were giving fruit rolls and water bottles out to people.  Also Chik-Fil-A was there giving away chicken sandwiches and coupons.  They do have the best chicken sandwiches around.  The kids had a blast for about an hour before it started sprinkling rain and we packed up for home.  Spencer can't wait to go back!

 


Tuesday, July 12th was the Draper Days Childrens' Parade.  We brought the kids favorites, same ones shown above--Spencer's scooter, Tessa's tricycle, and Clara's push car.  The kids were able to decorate them with streamers, flags, and balloons.  They loved this!  Then the firetruck signaled the start of the parade and the kids rode down the street and around the park.  The only thing was that when we told Spencer it was a kids' parade, he thought that meant people would be sitting on the side watching and clapping, which they weren't.  Maybe I should have asked a grandparent to sit along?  A thought for next year.  Brodie pushed along Clara and Spencer rode by them.  Tessa's a good pedaler, but she's small and so is her trike so she was a bit slower and I stayed back with her.  Occasionally I gave her a break and just pushed her along.  At one point passing the park Brodie stopped by a statue of a blacksmith.  Sure enough it was the one dedicated to his ancestor, Lauritz Smith, who was a pioneer who came to Utah with the Mormon Faith.  Brigham Young sent him to Draper, saying they needed a blacksmith, and told him to remain in Draper.  So he did.  At the end of the parade they were giving out watermelon and cans of root beer.  They had a band playing and it was a lot of fun.  Except Clara let go of her balloon.

Wednesday we went to the Draper Library for a Library Luau.  I love the activities at the library.  They're fun, creative, and free!  We got "grass skirts" made out of the cheap vinyl tablecloths I'm guessing and the kids were able to make themselves a lei with a ribbon, cut out pieces of drinking straws, and various paper flowers with a ribbon hole cut out the middle.  The kids enjoyed these.  I made a lei for Clara, but didn't get her the grass skirt.  Then we went and read a couple of books before heading out.

Thursday night Draper Days was showing Megamind at the Draper Amphitheater.  Usually my kids are in bed, lights out by 8:00 so I kind of cringed at the idea of taking them to a movie that started at 9:15.  But it's summer and I thought it would be fun--besides being free.  We got there around 8:00 and set up our blanket.  I really loved the set up of the Draper Amphitheater.  It was tiers of grass so you got the benefit of the stadium seating with the feel of a movie in the park.  Then we went back out front where Water Pro was giving out free hot dogs, bags of chips, cookies, popcorn, and water bottles.  Of course we had already eaten dinner a couple hours earlier, but we still got some snacks.  They had a girl--I believe her name was Ellie Duke--singing and playing her guitar.  Now I generally don't remember names, especially 3 weeks later, but she really impressed me!  She kind of reminded me of Taylor Swift.  Then they blew up the large outdoor screen and we proceeded to watch Megamind.  The kids had fun watching the movie, although Clara was a bit of a handful (totally understandable for a barely 1 year old 2 hours past bedtime).  It was fun to be outside with the family although we got home after 11 p.m.

On Friday we went to the Country Bear's Fair puppet show at the Sandy Library.  Seriously good fun.  I love their puppet shows.  All three of my kids love them as well.  And during the school year Spencer doesn't get to go so he was really excited to be there.  We then read some books and chose some new books and DVDs to checkout.  Tessa loves sitting on my lap and having me read her all the Dora, Blue's Clues, and now Barbie books she can find.  Clara just loves tearing out all the books from the shelves which I am then obliged to re-file correctly.  This was the first time Spencer didn't want me to read him any books, he just wanted to read them all by himself.  I also showed him the huge collection of Magic Treehouse books, hoping to inspire him as his reading has died down a bit lately, but he told me he would check out other books and only wanted to read Magic Treehouse books that he could keep forever.  He owns and has read the first 8 along with their awesome research guides.  I think they are great (especially the Research Guides) so after we got home I suckered in and bought the next 8 off of Amazon.  Anyways, after the library we headed over to good ol' McD's for a Happy time.  I knew I wouldn't get out of the Star Wars and Strawberry Shortcake toys.  Luckily I convinced my sister to come along so I had someone to hang out with and the kids had extra fun by being able to play with their cousins.  I'm now trying to get out of the Smurf set that came out today and hoping to make it to the next set of toys which Spencer told me at 7:05 this morning were going to be Ben 10 and Twinkle Toes.  How sad that the first thing my 6 year old does when he wakes up is to log on to McDonald's site and check their Happy Meal Toys?  Anyway, the kids at least had apples with the chicken nuggets and got some exercise in the playland with their cousins.

Saturday my sister had to go somewhere so Bailee and Afton got to come to our house and play for a couple of hours.  Sunday I don't have anything on my calendar so I'm not sure if we did anything (my awful memory).  So on to the next week.

Monday, July 18, Spencer had a playdate so I took the girls to Macey's for grocery shopping and an ice cream cone.  Macey's will give kids a free balloon at the customer service, a free cookie at the bakery, and a free kiddie ice cream cone at the deli.  I generally go there twice a month with the kids (a couple times a month by myself) and let them choose one of the items.  For a while they were on a big balloon kick, but now it's ice cream.  I decided to let Clara try an ice cream cone, vanilla for a little less mess, while Tessa went with the twist.  Holy cow that baby grabbed the cone and shoved the whole thing in her mouth!  I tried to grab it away, fearing a brain freeze, and she screamed while grabbing the ice cream itself with her hand.  I should have thought that out better.  As we were fixing dinner our great neighbor from across the street came over and invited us to FHE at their cabin in Millcreek Canyon.  It is so nice to be so close to the mountains and escape into the cool, fresh air up there so quickly.  Our neighbors have a beautiful cabin in the breathtaking Millcreek Canyons that they invite us up to sometimes.  We enjoyed hanging out with our neighbors and the other family they also invited.  We had ice cream sundaes, visited, and the kids played and played.  The teenagers were so good to take the kids around.  We were coming down the canyon around 9:30 and all of a sudden Tessa started whimpering.  I asked what was wrong and she told me she was scared of the dark.  It is quite dark up there without any street or building lights and she was really scared.  Then that made Spencer get scared.  They were very relieved to make it out of the canyons and into the lighter neighborhoods.

Tuesday my sister and I took the kids down to the Gallivan Center for Radio Disney Days.  On our way I decided to let the kids listen to Radio Disney, which I've never listened to before.  Spencer and Bailee thought it was so cool.  I laughed when Spencer and Tessa could recite which "Kidz Bop" the song was from.  "This is from Kidz Bop 20!" and such.  Too many television commercials...  I couldn't find a parking meter near the Gallivan Center and am too cheap to pay the $5 to park right under the center so I dropped off my pregnant sister and the 4 older kids then went across the street to a parking garage that only cost me $1 per hour.  I then loaded up the packed picnic lunches Janelle and I made for the kids and put Clara in the stroller and headed over to the Gallivan Center.  The problem with "free" events is the crowds.  I don't particularly like them, but I know it comes with the four letter word.  When I got there Janelle and the kids were in line for the 1 bounce house.  Yes it was free, but it was quite the wait for the little time they got to bounce.  While in line we went to the "Got Milk?" booth for some free string cheese and milk mustache stickers.  After the bounce house we went to the Ebay booth to play games to win squirt guns.  Then we headed over to the inflatable water slide.  All of a sudden Spencer freaked out and refused to go.  So Janelle took the 3 girls and waited in line while I took Spencer to the line for face painting.  The girls had a lot of fun once they got a turn to go down the slide and get their butt and feet wet.  By the time they joined us we were told the face painting line was shutting down.  The event went from 11 to 1.  By the time I got all the kids out of the house, then met up with my sister, then found a parking place, we were only at the event for about one hour.  But one hour with a lot of lines doesn't allow much to happen.  We then got a free bag of licorice from a sponsor table, ran through the water dropping down, and went to the petting animal corral.  Janelle, Bailee, and Tessa sat this one out.  I took Spencer and Afton in to pet a pony, baby lamb, goat, and bunny rabbit.  Then we anti-bacterialized the kids hands and had them eat their picnic lunches.  The girls were freezing so I ran back across the street to my van and got changes of clothes and ran back over.  As Janelle was helping her girls change in the bathroom she aggrevated her toenail that has been trying to come off.  So she was limping and bleeding and in pain.  I took Clara in the stroller along with all the picnic stuff and wet clothes and headed back to the van to come around and pick up Janelle and the other kids.  Although we didn't do a lot, the kids really had fun, mainly because their cousins were there.  I only took a picture in the bounce house, so here's one of them:

Wednesday we were going to the Draper Library to make a boomerang.  We left the house about an hour early and stopped by the park just East of the library.  The kids played, although Tessa mainly just wanted to swing.  We even ran into some neighbors there.  It was a really fun park, but it was sooo hot and of course the playgrounds didn't have shade and weren't covered.  I once again would really love to have some covered playgrounds around here.  We're in Utah.  If it's not 90 degrees it's raining or snowing.  So why not cover the playgrounds?  Still fun as was making and practicing with our boomerangs and reading a couple more books.  Then we made a Costco trip and got the kids some berry smoothies while we were there to cool them down.

Thursday I had a playdate arranged with Tessa.  We decided to take all the kids to the Days of '47 Float Preview Party at the South Towne Expo Center.  This is an event we attend every year.  However, this year there weren't as many floats.  When we watched the parade on Monday there were a few floats that weren't at the preview party, but it still seemed there were fewer this year.  The kids enjoyed watching and listening to the marching bands as they came down the aisles.  We loved seeing the floats.  The creativity and hard work is amazing!  Some of our favorites included the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's float that had African animals including a hippo that was singing in a microphone and a monkey that was swiveling around video-recording it.  The colors were beautiful, the animals well portrayed, and the animation was a lot of fun!  We also loved the Chinese boat with the dragon who breathed steam.  One of the sponsors of this was the Chinese market on 90th South just below State Street where we shop frequently.  Spencer of course loved the Kung Fu Panda 2 float, simply because it was from a movie with a character he recognized.  Then the kids had so much fun watching the parade on Monday on televion and seeing all the floats they had just seen up close.



On Friday Spencer went to a friend's birthday party in the afternoon.  My neice wanted to come over that evening and have me help her with some summer school math packets so I decided to order pizza and rent Rango for the kids to watch.  Then to bump it up to Friday fun day level I told them I'd sleep out on the trampoline with them.  Turns out Rango wasn't a show my kids liked.  Tessa was scared and Spencer was just bored.  But Papa John's pizza was good!  My cute neice stayed for a few hours, eating, watching a little Rango, and working on math.  After she left the kids got their sleeping bags, pillows, water bottles, and stuffed animals out onto the trampoline.  I figured it's been so warm I would be fine with just one blanket and a pillow.  I also brought out my Sony Reader with an e-book from the library and a bag of Sweets taffy.  See my post from our fun, free tour of the Sweets Candy Factory to see my favorites, but I'm now quite addicted.  After eating all the taffy, giggling, and bouncing around I finally asked the kids to please settle down while I began reading.  Then we saw some aerial fireworks not far away.  Then around 10:00 Tessa told me she was too scared of the dark and needed to go sleep in her bed.  Spencer walked her to the sliding door so she could go sleep inside with daddy and Clara.  Without Tessa and with me reading a book, Spencer curled up in his sleeping bag and went to sleep.  I stayed up reading for a while before going to sleep myself.  Some bug kept flying around my face and I was continually swatting at it.  Spencer woke up with about a dozen little red bumps on his face so I think the bug left me and went and bit up Spencer instead.  I also had a few mosquito bites.  And while a blanket would have been warm enough for me, I didn't think about the cold air under the trampoline so I was cold and uncomfortable most of the night.  Spencer woke up around 6 and finally around 6:30 I sent him in the house and I rolled on top of his sleeping bag where I was finally warm and comfortable and went back to sleep for another hour.  I was too tired and sore to get up the motivation to go to the gym so I watched Barbie A Fairy Secret with the kids instead.  I'm glad my kids prefer Disney movies.

Saturday my neice came over for a while to work on math homework again.  I love my neice and I love math so it was kind of fun.  The kids were a little crazy having me tell them I was busy for a good chunk of the day so I decided to go to Rocky Mountain Raceways with them.  Of course if you read my last post you'd know I really wanted to go this night regardless, so I really just used that as an excuse.  Turns out my dad was going to be there and my brother was thinking of going.  After my youngest sister caught wind she also decided to go.  It was so fun having my dad, brother, and little sister go.  But Brodie didn't want to spend the $20 or to come home late and have a busy Sunday, so he opted out.  I thought it would be better for Clara not to go, so I left her with Brodie.  Our favorite section is section M, the Family Section closest to the start/finish line.  And if you know racing, or read my prior post, you'll know the further back you sit, the better the view.  But they had the back 4 rows of this section (about 80 seats) blocked off "Reserved for the Young Family".  Okay I know they own the track, but really 80 seats?  And not one was filled until about 8:00.  Then I think there were only 8 people back there at all.  So we had to sit further up front than we usually like.  Aww, but the the races were good.  The modifieds put on a good show.  And the Figure 8's are always entertaining.  Then the Southwest Touring series (Late Models) were racing.  And they are what race cars should be.  The sound, look, and the way they move.  Yes, it was a good night.  Then they had the trains race (3 cars hooked together--first car has an engine and driver but no brakes, last car has brakes and a driver but no engine, middle car is just a shell) in the Figure 8.  None of the T-boned or flipped upside down, which usually happen, but there were still a lot of close calls and barely misses.  During the races I only had to take Tessa to the bathroom 3 or 4 times, much less than last time.  And Janelle and I brought coloring equipment for the kids which helped keep them entertained for the 5 hours we were there.  Then my brother brought his 2 oldest kids.  Carson is only a couple years older than Spencer so the two boys had a lot of fun chasing each other, kung fu-ing each other, and playing around.  The younger girls adore their older cousin, Alexis, and spent a lot of time oogling over her.  I caught one picture of them gathered around admiring her 20+ lip glosses she had in her purse.

After the races were done they warned us they would be dimming the lights for the fireworks.  Another 5 mintues went by so I let Spencer continue to chase Carson.  Then all of a sudden all the lights went out and it was pitch black at the same time there was a loud BOOM.  My kids have never been to a firework show before and never saw aerials until they were allowed from homes this year.  I knew Spencer would freak out so I basically dropped Tessa and ran over the people on the aisle to find Spencer.  He was huddled in a ball crying and screaming that he was lost.  I picked him up and carried him back to our row and held him while telling him he wasn't lost and it was okay and so on .  He finally calmed down and then went to sit with his other cousins.  Then I turned my attention to Tessa who was curled in a ball by my feet shaking.  I picked her up and she took much more consoling before not being afraid of the fireworks.  My dad was sitting by me and I was reminded that I have only been to one firework show ever in my life that wasn't at the race track.  I spent most 4th and 24th of Julys at the track and only once did I go with a boyfriend to a park for a show.  Watching the fireworks at the race track brought back a bunch of fun memories.  We ended up getting home at midnight.  And as we all smelled of car exhaust and cigarette smoke that meant another morning up at 6:30 am so I could get all the kids and myself showered and ready for church as I had to meet with the Bishopbric at 8:40 before our 9:00 church to be called as Primary Secretary.

Sunday evening we went to Brodie's Aunt and Uncles for dinner and to visit with some of his cousins, who I really like and enjoyed visiting with.  We went from there to my parents for our own firework show.  My parents had 1/2 a smaller Costco box and we had 1/2 a larger Costco box and my brother brought along a few aerials.  It was fun.  But another late night.  At least I got to light off fireworks!  Every year Brodie has been the one lighting while I maintain the kids.  This year for the Fourth and 24th I lit off all our fireworks.  It was fun.  Don't know that Brodie would say the same...



Now those of you who know me well know I like to stick around my house.  I like my house.  It's comfortable.  I have plenty of things to keep me busy--housework, cooking, taking care of and playing with the kids, and so on.  And my kids are usually on a routine--Clara still takes 2 naps.  So leaving my house can be a headache at times--timing around or missing Clara's naps.  Packing lunches, stroller, diaper bag, snacks, drinks, blankets, bikes, etc. depending.  Driving, parking, late nights.  These two weeks really took a toll on me.  So this past week has been much more low key.  I took some time for myself and read all 3 books in a trilogy.  I caught up on some housework, did some schoolwork stuff with my kids, cooked dinner every night, and even made homemade blueberry muffins, cinnamon rolls, and a triple layer chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse covered in chocolate ganache and surrounded by chocolate covered strawberries.  Oh.  I used to be wondering why even after trying to make healthier meals and hit the gym a couple times a week I wasn't losing weight.  I'm no longer wondering.  In any case we finally made it out to the Aquarium today but I've enjoyed not doing much this week as much as I enjoyed doing something every day the prior two weeks.

One of my favorite sounds at Rocky Mountain Raceways

My current favorite sounds are probably from my children--their laughs & giggles, their soft breathing when they're asleep, their cute little voices & baby coos, and so on.  But as we stepped out of our car in the parking lot of Rocky Mountain Raceways I couldn't help but smile, hearing another one of my favorite sounds.  It had been too long since I'd heard those cars.

We had bought the Pass of all Passes that included entrance into 2 oval track races at Rocky Mountain Raceways.  We headed to California on one of these days, so I wasn't going to miss my chance this past Saturday night.  Brodie wasn't too excited about a July race--being outside in the heat and all.  On our way there the wind almost knocked us off of I-215 near the Maverik Center.  We even got a few drops of rain.  But really the weather turned out to be perfect!  I had a few drops of sweat, but not bad.  And it didn't rain on us the whole time we were in the stands.  Nor did it cool down enough to feel the need for jackets or blankets even after 10:00.

So racing starts at 6 but after getting the kids fed and ready to go, we didn't make it there until closer to 6:30 so we missed some of the heats.  But I didn't really care to go watch the mini-cups, hornets, or midgets anyway.  After walking up the steps on the drag side we headed over to my old familiar Family Section right by the start/finish line.  I realized I was searching for someone I knew.  I had already talked to my dad and knew he wouldn't be there.  As I haven't been for years I really didn't know if anyone I used to know still attended.  I didn't recognize anyone from behind but spotted an empty row right around where I used to always sit with my dad and all his racing buddies so I headed there.  Just as I reached that row I heard a "Hello Stranger" in an all too familiar voice from the row behind the one I was looking at.  Yay!  My second parents from my childhood (he had been racing with my father since before I was born and we used to get our families together quite often--and have a BBQ scheduled together in a few weeks) and my cousin and his sons were all sitting there!

Spencer actually seemed to enjoy the races, until near the end of the Main for the Modifieds.  He would pick out any black cars to cheer for.  If they didn't win he would say, "Well, I liked all the cars anyway."  He also enjoyed the crashes.  Near the end of the Modified Main and during the Late Model Main he and Brodie took a few walks while I watched the races (best as I could with two little monkeys climbing all over me).  Tessa would pick out a white car when the next class of cars would come out.  But then she hardly looked at the track again until the next class came out.  She did love the music during intermission and spent most of her time dancing on the asphalt in front of the track.  She also spent a lot of time in the little girls' room.  Which meant so did I.  Between her little bladder and too much fruit over the prior couple of days I think we visited the not-so-conveniently located restroom about 6 or 7 times.  Clara did amazingly well for being so far past her bedtime, the loud noises, and somewhere she didn't have a lot of room to explore.  I could have brought in her stroller but that would force me to have to sit on a front row.  For those of you un-experienced motor spectating--front row is the worst seat.  You can see better the further up you sit, so no stroller.  I put my jacket on the cement ground in front of me and opened up the diaper bag stuffed with toys and books.  Of course the jacket is pretty much the only place she never sat or crawled on.  But so far she hasn't come down with anything.

 

Aaaaah, the sound and feel when the modifieds came out.  They put on a pretty good race.  The Super Stocks need more cars.  And then there are the late models.  My favorites.  Love the sound, look, and racing of these cars!  And there were even some names I remembered!  Some with good memories, some not so good. 

For those of you who haven't known me forever, I probably started going to local oval track racing when I was a couple of weeks old.  My dad started racing stock cars before I was even born.  I have sooo many memories of Saturday nights spent at Suntana and Bonneville Raceways.  Running around with cousins & siblings under the dirty bleachers, buying the surprise goody bags that always had a Chik-o-stick in it, playing on the tires surrounding the track to keep the cars safe if they ran off the track, running across the track into the pits after the races to find my dad or walk around and see the dents in the cars or climb into some of the cars, running down to the fence to count how long the driver's kiss with the trophy queen lasted.  Oh, which reminds me of an old childhood dream.  I didn't dream of being a Disney princess or a ballerina.  No, I used to dream of becoming a trophy queen at the local racetrack when I grew up...hmm, glad I took the Accounting path instead.  I'm sure my parents are as well.  Enough reminiscing...except for this old picture of my dad.

Clara got a bit fussy around 9:30-ish.  By 10:00 Brodie was really ready to go.  Around lap 100 of the Late Model Main I started packing up the diaper bag, drawing it out to lap 115 before catching up to Brodie.  We walked back down the steps on the drag side, stopped by the restroom one more time, and were walking out as the race ended.  At least we saved a few minutes leaving a little early plus getting right out of the parking lot.  Besides, Jeff Hillock won the race he had been leading since lap 10 so we didn't really miss much. 

But I sure did have fun!  I think the kids overall had a good time and will think of their experience at RMR when they watch the weekly NASCAR races with me.  Spencer reminded me he had been to a "Jeff Gordon race" before as we took him to the Bud Shootout at Daytona when he was barely 3 years old.  Obviously these kids won't be going to near as many races as I did, nor will they get to experience the thrill of watching their father race, or the fear when he'd crash, but they did get to experience a live stock car race.  And I'm really eye-ing the Southwest race coming up on July 23rd.  The Southwest Series should put on a good race.  Plus they'll have the Figure 8s and Train races that night.  Those are always entertaining, even my kids would get a huge kick out of those.  And they are having fireworks that night!  As I mentioned in my 4th of July post, I haven't been to any kind of a firework show other than in front of my house for over 10 years, besides one time at Disney World a few years ago.  My kids have never gone anywhere to watch fireworks, except that same time at Disney World when Tessa was 3 months old and Spencer was barely 3.  Of course it would probably be an even later and hotter night.  Maybe a babysitter for the kids?  For 5 hours?  Not to mention the money.  I of course feel the races are well worth the price of admission--normally  $15 an adult and $5 a kid and free for ages 4 and under.  This night they are up an extra $5.  Still worth the cost.  But that's $50 to come up with.  Hmmm, maybe I'll drop a hint of an early birthday present?

Then we got home, got the kids to bed, and began to prepare our talks for Sacrament meeting 10 hours away.  Okay, prepare isn't the right word.  We were asked to speak on Pioneer Heritage and we had both been reading through family history material all week.  But after the races we tried to piece together all the stories and thoughts we had into a talk.  And even though church was at 9 I had to get up at 6:30 to shower and get ready plus getting all 3 kids showered/bathed & ready since we got home too late Saturday night and didn't want to go to church physically dirty & smelling of cigarette smoke (we sat in the family section--no smoking or alcohol--but wanting to be as close to the start/finish line as possible we were only a stairway away from the non-family section).  And although I'm usually late to church, I thought it would be a good day to be 10 minutes early.  I only managed to squeeze in a Dr. Pepper for breakfast, but no longer nursing, I got away with it.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

We bought the Salt Lake Pass of All Passes that included tickets to the Real soccer game against Beckham and the LA Galaxy last night.  I really enjoy going to soccer games and Spencer has been anxious to go to another one.  Because it was the season opener and because of who they were playing the tickets were close to a sell out before giving them to the Pass of All Passes holders so Spencer and I went down at 9 in the morning to wait in line to get tickets.  We have always sat fairly close to the field in the past so it was much different being so high up this time.

Those of you who know me and the family I was raised in will understand why we parked half a mile away and walked to the stadium in the freezing wind with all the kids rather than paying $10 for parking.  Brodie was sweet enough to go with it and carry Tessa on his shoulders while I held Clara.  Spencer didn't complain at all on the way to the stadium.  We all wore our winter coats and I brought blankets for the kids and a nice warm snowsuit for Clara but it was still cold.  I was very glad the snowcone booth was hot chocolate for the night!

As for the soccer game it was a blast!  I love how fast-paced soccer games are and how athletic the players are!  And Real was awesome!  They scored 2 goals within the first 10 minutes and finished the night 4-1.  Beckham who?  Spencer was also loving the game and was so excited that they won.  Tessa enjoyed it for a while, but she didn't like all the noise and hoopla whenever they scored.  She also kept complaining of being so cold.  Clara loved the drums and the wind and all the excitement.  She had a blast for the first half.  But she fell asleep during the second half, despite all the noise.  It was wet and even colder after the game, not to mention over an hour past bedtime, so the kids and I took a pit stop at Jordan Commons (movie theater) while Brodie continued on the trek to where we parked the car and then he came and picked us up.  We all had a lot of fun and can't wait to go to another game when the weather is better.

Hockey

There was no school on Friday, yet again.  As the district seems to take so many days off school, I decided we would have "mommy school" on all these days.  This made day number 33.  We spent about 3 hours having school, along with about 1 hour of homework.  And with me working during tax season, I'm not very good about getting the kids to keep the house clean during the week.  I have Fridays off so I make the kids clean their rooms and all the places they play before we can do our Friday fun activity.  This past Friday took quite a while to clean.  After school, homework, and cleaning there wasn't much time left other than feeding and taking care of all of us so it was a good thing we had already decided on an evening activity.

We finally got out of the house around 5:00 and headed to Raging Waters to redeem our Pass of All Passes.  Apparently quite a few other people had the same idea to redeem their pass, go to dinner, and make it to the hockey game.  Forty-five minutes after arriving, we were off again.  We were just able to stop quickly at In-N-Out to grab dinner before heading to the Maverik Center for the Grizzlie's game.

Spencer just finished learning about hockey in his Little Gym Sports Skills class and has been eager to attend an actual hockey game.  I think he was a bit disappointed at first.  We sat down and he didn't really know what was going on.  I used to think hockey was quite boring myself.  Then I had a guy explain it to me and I watched an adult league game where there was more playing than fighting going on and I decided it wasn't that bad.  So after Spencer started catching on to what was going on and what team to cheer for he started to enjoy himself.  He did wonder why the guys kept fighting and getting put in time out.  At first Tessa was so excited to be somewhere so different and full of energy.  She loved dancing to the music and watching the screen to see if they would put her on it.  Then the Grizzlies made a goal.  The crowd was loud and they blasted a loud horn or something that really scared her.  Near the end of the 2nd period the score was 3-2 for the Grizzlies and Tessa had had enough.  Between the loud noises and the fact that the game started at 7 and she is usually in bed between 7:30-8:00 she was whining and begging to go.  But Spencer had gotten into it and wanted to stay.  I had also taught Clara to clap, which she still loves to do.  Clara was having a blast, all smiles and giggles and having fun.  But it was time to nurse her and put her to sleep as well.  And a nursing cover wouldn't do much good with stadium seating!  So when the 2nd period ended we told Spencer it was over and we hurried out of there before the 3rd period started.

On our way home we stopped at Arctic Circle for shakes.  The kids were so excited to have their own shake (we usually share).  Tessa only ate the part overflowing from the cup and was done.  Spencer ate closer to 1/3 of his.  And that's why we usually just share.  But they had fun.

While I think hockey is kind of fun to watch, I'm not a big enough fan to think it's worth the full-price of tickets.  Hey, I'm not even sure it was worth the $6 to park while using the Pass of All Passes.  I'm trying to decide if we should go to another one in April with our pass or not.  We'll see.