Tina McBeena

Oh how I love {My Tina}.  She is one of my top besties ever.  I'm so glad she moved to Utah from Washington so I get to see her every summer.  Tina just gets me and all of my weirdnesses.  I get to spend some time with her later in August at her new house -yay!  Her kids are beautiful and so well behaved.  Both of our kids get along well which is an added bonus.

Such a great family!

 Allison

 Aiden

 Ammon

 Robyn

Emma

Some slip-n-slide fun.

 They had fun playing ds linked together.

 Look at all those kids!!!

Goofballs.
***

Plus a random shot of Allison wearing a burka (from Pakistan) and Grandpa.

Visit to Smithfield

I always like to visit my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Earl.

Their house and yard have good childhood memories for me.  I also like to show my kids a real working farm.

Family Fun

We hung out with my brother Shawn's kids the other night and were able to paint some t-shirts.

My kids absolutely LOVED doing this.

 I freaking love my niece, Corinne.

 Jacob's shirt in the making.

 Corinne helping Ammon paint a Plants vs Zombies shirt.

 Isaac got carried away on his shirt, but he likes it.

 My shirt rocks.  

My nephew Nate who just returned from Argentina on his mission.  

Later that night we watched a show called Idiot Abroad.  Hilarious.

Lagoon!

Grandpa, Jacob, Isaac, Allison, me, and Dax (cousin) had a great time at Lagoon.  Not too super hot all day, the only tears were from this ride, Wicked.  Allison was a little freaked out, but then also hit her head.  She ended up liking it in the end, except for the head bump.  This was my FAVE ride - SO great!  All the other kids liked it too which was amazing because it's scary!  We lost our bounce-back tickets on this ride.  They flew out of Grandpa's shirt pocket.  I love that my dad is game for any ride.

It's funny to me how my kids favorite rides are the oldies, tilt-a-whirl and the speed scrambler.  

I did puke Arby's later in the middle of the night.  Curly fries.  Not fun.  

C to the power of 2

I had the best time with two of my nieces, Cortney and Corinne.  I LOVE these girls!  There was lots of laughter and even tears.  Shaved ice and Crazy bread.  Three bodies on a hammock with blankets that smelled of grandmas house.  Grandpa thinking he was being sneaky.  I won the contest.  Secrets divulged and memories made.  

I love family.  

A Lovely Saturday

It was a hiking morning!  Jacob, Isaac, Dad, and I met up with Gideon and Ginger to conquer the Crimson trail in Logan canyon.

 Logan river is raging this year and there is some flooding happening.

 Steep trail.

 Utah can grow some manly dandelions.

Gorgeous vistas all along the way.  My dad, as always, is insightful about interesting plant and geographical things.  We figured it was about a five mile round trip trail.  The river trail had lots of flooding, but made for some exciting bush whacking and hopping on wobbly rocks through a couple of flooded areas.

***

I took a glorious nap in the living room with Mom's glorious fleece blanket.  I was waking up in that blissful state and heard Allison come in with a friend, Bella looking for a popsicle.

Allison:  Be careful when you open the door.  Sometimes stuff falls out.

Allison:  Did you find a grape one?

*bang*

Allison:  Cramma.

I guess I need to explain this better.

Ammon used to call my dad Crampa (and his other one too) which fits him because he often has leg cramps.

I decided we should call my mom Cramma because she's always trying to cram things in the fridge or cupboards etc.  This little episode with Allison cracked me up.

***

Walk with Ammon and Isaac.  There was a nice thunder storm this evening that cooled it off and made it smell divine outside.  I love to go for walks in the evening here.  It's nice and cool, there are sidewalks, and I feel safe.  

We didn't go far, Ammon wanted to bring his red bike (we forgot it last year so there was a happy reunion for him and all the other kids).

 A somewhat drab sunset for Cache Valley, but even this is still amazing.

 Isaac did a handstand that got out of control...

and he fell over backwards and knocked the air out of his chest.

Visiting the Great Grands.

This morning, I took the kids to visit their only living great-grandparents, Phil Cardon and Bonna Lue Pack Cardon (after over a decade of marriage, I still have a hard time remembering to call her Grandma Cardon).

  My kids like to go there and play in the back room or outside on the swing set.  Grandma always seems so happy to see us and gives us hugs when we first get there and on the way out.  They are both looking well, although Grandpa Cardon has had lot of his legs/feet removed due to diabetes.  

In the afternoon, I took Jacob and Isaac to get haircuts from Corinne while I got a pedicure.  We had an hour to kill so we went to Somebody's Attic (thrift store).  They were having great sales so it was hard to leave, but we got Jacob to Shawn's work only a few minutes late.  He was excited to be earning money.  He thought he'd earned some good money until I told him about tithing and half to savings for his mission.  He laughed after he redid the math and seemed okay with the results anyway.

Ammon sorted a new batch of tumbled rocks into piles according to certain traits:  big, tiny, clear,  pretty shapes, and items (ones that looked like something)

Took the kids and grandpa on a walk after dinner.

Loving the sprinklers.

 Grandpa introduced the kids to the edible "cheese weed."

A face painted reflector on Saddle back mountain (can be viewed from my parents front window).  I noticed that there is a new addition this year of a mustache.

Dad saw three people he stopped and talked with.   Fun to know so your neighbors and have people wave when you walk by.  I looked at a house for sale and dreamed of how it might be to live in North Logan.  There are so many things I'd miss about Minnesota, but I'd loooove to be near family.  Plus when it rains, it smells soooooo dreamy it's almost hypnotic for me.

We watched slides again tonight, taking in NZ trips 1 &2 (not loving the boy haircuts when I was 8),  4H animals in the 80's, family reunions, and other random events and trips.  

What is so magical about slides?  

There is something different about viewing pictures in the dark on a huge white background vs looking in a book or on a tv, hearing the whrrrrr of the slide projector and the chinky noised when it's changing to another slide.  Kids being nerds making shadows on the screen.  

Not to mention my dad asking for a light to be turned on.  

And tonight had even more excitement. 

 Isaac was laying/lying on the floor and said, "spider!" got up and was too slow to get anything to squish it with before it crawled under the wood burning stove.  We went back to watching slides, then about five minutes later, I noticed it on the ceiling.  Dad was in charge of its demise this time, so he got out the favorite old swatter, smacked it, and of course it fell on the ground, but he couldn't get it off the carpet.  He flipped it up in the air which resulted in the spider going airborne until it landed on the couch right where Isaac was sitting  - the room erupts with laughter.  

Tradition!

One thing I miss about being near Logan is the tradition of visiting the cemetery on Memorial Day.  I try to make a stop and pay respects with the kids once a year.  This year we came more prepared with flowers from my dad's awesome garden.  

We've only made it to the Logan cemetery so far, but there are quite a few relatives buried there.  (Delsa and Irwin Thomson, Arlo, Arlene, Norma, Grandma's parents, Alma and Veda Dittmer, Don Pack, Gray Thomson.) I think it's good for my kids to see me and my parents cleaning the headstones, placing flowers, and telling stories about their ancestors.  None of them groan when I tell them where we are going.  In fact, they all seem to enjoy it. 

 Jacob liked taking the petals that fell off and make decorations on the headstones.

 My dad had two siblings die young.  Arlene was only three days old.  If she had been born in more modern times, she could have been fixed by surgery.  Arlo was 9?,  younger than my Dad, may have died from complications of cystic fibrosis from reading accounts of his health history.  

He also had an Aunt (Norma) die when she was 8? years old.  She had been climbing in a tree with her sister (my grandma) even though they had been told not to be in the tree previously, and she fell and was impaled by a fence post.  

They also have a cousin, Gray, who was stillborn who would be eleven.

I asked my kids if they would put flowers on my headstone when I die.  Of course, the good littles that they are, said yes.

***

Ammon got a haircut from his cousin Corinne who is in beauty school.  He was mad about it though.  I didn't tell him where we were going so when we got there, the pouts came out in full force.   Even Corinne couldn't get him out of it.  We stopped for a smoothie at McDonald's after.

Jacob worked at Shawn's company, Brave USA, his first job!  

Mom made a fantastic dinner of peas, fruit, delectable bread, and perfect chicken legs.

Walked down the street to look at a Ward garden my dad is in charge of and saw some childhood friends, The Andersons (Ruth I hadn't seen in at least a decade, Roger, Nedra, and Tim).  I love that family.  

Ate a Fat Boy with Allison (dreamsicle) on the hammock.

Watched slides for over an hour.  It's so fun to hear my kids reactions to old photos.  We watched some with my first trip to New Zealand (1983), trip to California to pick up Bruce from his Mission, random house pictures, and some of my parents travels.  My kids LOVE these.  Isaac kept making comments that were making my the grown ups bust up.  That kid has an interesting way of thinking, he does.

My Mom has a thing for shopping and I might have inheritted a small amount of her love for it as well.  Our first stop of the day was at the DI (Deseret Industries, a church run thrift store).  It's always fun trying to find treasures and scour the newest racks that come out.  

Mandarin Garden for lunch.  Tiny spicy chicken was still amazing, but I ordered chicken chow mein and it was NOT what I was expecting.  

Isaac, Allison, and Ammon started working on their cabashon with Grandpa this afternoon, then tonight, all of us went mini golfing with Shawn, Stefanie, and Corinne.  Ammon has been asking to go for a long time, so this was a treat for him.  You can never got wrong with mini-golf.