Pictures from Zion National Park

Kids Say the Darnedest Things!

This morning, I was determined to be on top of things. So, as I was getting Emma ready for the bath, I decided I would just get in and shower with her. Nathan and Hannah were occupied in the living room- watching through the window, waiting for the garbage man to come. So this was my chance. I hopped in the kids' bath with Emma and showered. I was very proud of the fact that I was showered by 9:15 AM- in fact, it could be a record! After getting out and getting dressed, I was wrapping my hair in a towel when Hannah and Nathan came in. They looked at Emma, and back at me.
Hannah: "Did you take a shower in here?" (As if it is something strange.)
Me: "Yeah."
Nathan: "You got in all the way?"
Me: "Yeah."
Nathan: "You fit in there?!"

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Last week, Hannah was holding one of the kittens we named "Oreo". She turned to me and said: "I know that 'oyo' is black and goes in cars."


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Tuesday night after dinner, Randy and Casey hadn't returned form scouts yet, so I took the kids to Arctic Circle for ice cream cones. When they got back, Nathan ran up to Casey and yelled, "We got pine cones and you missed them!" (Ah man! I was hoping to get one of those!)

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I will post more of my favorite, all-time classic "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" another day. In the meantime, I would love to hear from all of you and some of the funny things you have heard kids say! Just leave it in the comments below....

Mom, come quick!

Last week, I promised the kids that is they all got their rooms clean, I would take them to a new park in town. So, after dinner, we loaded up the car and off we went. There was not much daylight left, but I had to keep my end of the bargain. The kids were excited to play on the new playground and even better- Daddy was there, too. One of their favorite games to play with him is what they call, "Beautiful Freak" (It used to be called "monster", but the song "Beautiful Freak" from Shrek changed that!) Basically, he chases after them making some moaning and wailing sounds and they all scream and run! It is really quite cute to hear Nathan ask to play "Bootifo Fweek"! Anyway, after playing that for a while Randy was tired and sat down on a bench to rest. I joined him and we were actually having a conversation. Anyone with kids knows this is a rarity. Then Nathan shouts from across the playground, "Mom! Come quick! See what I found!"
"Just a minute," I replied.
"Hurry!" he said.
"OK" I half-grudgingly got up to go see the neat rock or pine cone he found.
"Look, Mom, a snake!" he shouted.
I was looking at the bark trying to find a piece that looked like a snake.
"Right here, Mom." he pointed.

Sure enough, there was an honest to goodness, real-life snake! I don't know how in the world he saw it. It was the same color as the bark, and it was practically dark outside! He was so proud of himself as each of the kids took turns holding the poor thing. After a while, I ruined the fun by telling them we couldn't keep it and making them put it back where they found it.

I am OK with my role as fun-ruiner. You see, they love Daddy so much because he is the "fun one" that it is easy for me to leave them with him.! :) But seriously, I am so lucky to have a husband that values his role as Daddy. He is the greatest! My kids and I are so lucky to have him.

And some day...when my kids are grown, they will call and ask for "Mom". After all, it is my name Nathan called out when he wanted to share the treasure he found.

A Camping We Will Go

Aaahhhh...the smell of campfire- in our clothes, our hair, the car, and everything else permeable. We just got back from Zion's last night, and I have done no less than 7 loads of laundry today- and still goin'. Some of those have been washed more than once just trying to get the smell out. I love the fire, but when we return to civilization, I want to smell like clean laundry- that's one of my favorite smells.

We were determined to go camping one last time this season but our plans of going to The Little Sahara and rock-hounding at Topaz Mountain were ruined by the weather. This came to no surprise, as this is our life. The weather forecsated the lows in the 20's, so we headed south. Zion's it was. Of course by the time we figured this out, it was too late to make reservations anywhere...again, this is our life! We are so spontaneous!

We took off Friday around noon, after Hannah's first kindergarten field trip! She went to the Nature Center and got to ride the bus!!! YIPPEE! She had a great time!

After a few stops for last minute things (firewood at the neighbor's. oil at Checker, and back home for some bungee cords and booster seats) we actually hit the road at 1:00. Not too bad, considering!

We got to the park around 6:00 or so and found the campground full. Our back-up plan was a commercial RV park about 1/2 mile outside the park. For any of you who know Randy, this goes against everything he believes in. Luckily, we go the last tent site by the river. Of course, not long after arriving, Nathan fell in the cold water. Luckily there was not much water in it.

We spent Saturday hiking around the east side of the park and exploring some cool washes. Hannah came across the freakiest looking bug we have ever seen. We thought surely she had discovered a new species. We were thinking of names for the new insect when our plans were dashed by the ranger who identified the Jerusalem cricket. Here is a picture of the giant creepy thing:

Saturday night, Casey slept in a shelter he made down by the river. Randy and I ended up with Nathan and Emma in our bag and Hailey and Hannah shared a bag because we inadvertently forgot one of theirs. And we all froze.

Sunday we hiked to all three of the Emerald Pools. We were proud of the kids for making it the whole way. Never mind that Randy and I each had a kid on our back the whole time. After lunch, we hiked the Riverside trail to The Narrows. Randy took four of the kids up the river a ways and I stayed back with Emma (who FINALLY fell asleep) and Casey. We opted out for the reason that the water was FREEZING! We were still trying to thaw from the night before.

Sunday night, I decided we needed to huddle together to stay warm so we did a little musical sleeping bags. All 8 of us slept in one half of the 8-person tent. And we stayed warm!

Monday before we left, we did some more exploring on the east side again. We had heard we might be able to see some some big horn sheep there. It was sure nice of the rangers to put a stuffed sheep on top of this rock by the road! It made for a really cool picture...

We found a really neat wash with a giant fallen tree, and a tunnel that went under the road to another canyon. We hiked up that one until it got too narrow to go any further. We found lots of pools of water and some fun climbing rocks. The thing that is different about Zion's versus Arches that we are use to, is the vegetation. There are trees and other plants all over Zion. And Nathan stopped to pick up every stick, pine cone and cool rock he found! He trailed behind singing as he dragged his sticks in the sand. I called him 'Giddy Boy". He was so happy to just be him. It was hilarious! The kids all worked on their climbing skills and Tyler amazed us a few times with his "spider-like" abilities. I must also mention that he started the fire on Friday with 1 match. Every fire we started was the remnant of that first fire. He was pretty proud of himself and his "magic match". He also got pretty good at chopping logs with the hatchet.

We discovered something new on this trip. Apparently, we are a tourist attraction. 'We' meaning, our family. I guess people haven't ever seen a family with six kids- let alone all with blond hair and blue eyes. My favorite (I regret not snapping a picture myself) was the Japanese tourists. Randy had gone to park the car and we were sitting on a rock wall waiting for a shuttle. Two Japanese ladies come up and in broken English and a heavy accent ask, "Seex? Seex?" I nodded. She points to all the kids and then to me as if to gesture, "Are they all yours?" "yes," I replied. She pointed to her camera and asked, "OK?". "Sure," I said. She snapped a few and then along came her buddies. They each snapped a few and then one of them decided he needed to pose in the picture with us- I guess to prove to the guys back home that he really saw us! My kids were soaking it all in like movie stars. You know how hard it is for me to get all of them to sit still for one pose? They sat there through an entire photo shoot! I should have asked for their e-mail so I would have a picture for my Christmas letter this year!

They weren't the only ones staring. Everywhere we went, every time we boarded a shuttle, people looked, and counted and I heard a lot of whispering, and some out- loud comments. They were mostly good and I felt proud of my little brood.

I'm Good at Math

Sometimes I am utterly amazed at the incompetence of some people- namely cashiers. Let me illustrate:

I went to Payless Shoes today to get Emma some shoes. I had a "One Time Use" card good for $25. These cards can only be used the one time (hence the name) meaning, I can't use part today, and come back next month and use the rest. Since Emma's shoes were only $14.99, I thought I'd get Nathan some, too. And as always, there was a BOGO (buy one, get one half- off) sale. The shoes I picked for Nathan were $17.99 (way more than I like to pay for his shoes, but hey- card and sale- how could I go wrong? Boy was I wrong.) Are you with me....$17.99 + $14.99/2 = ? Now, I have been helping my kids quite a bit with their homework the past several years and have come across many math problems similar to this. In fact, just tonight, Tyler had a whole bunch just like it. Tyler is in 2nd grade.

OK, back to Payless...So, the girl rings up the shoes and tells me the total amount...$36 something. I question her. "Well, there's tax." she says. I question her again. "There's tax" she says again. So, I break it down for her. If I am buying one pair at $18, and one at half of $15- that being $7.50, my total should be around $25.50 + tax. I am assuming because I didn't automatically calculate the exact amount for tax in my head; she then replied, "Let me get Bertha, she's good at math. That is why I am only in Algebra 2." (Remember, my 2nd grader could figure this one out!) I simply replied, "I'm good at math, too!" OK, so I'm not as good as say, my math teacher sister-in-law, my husband or my dad or my brother, or...OK,that's depressing. But I'm not dumb, either. And I can certainly figure out an addition problem.

So Bertha comes over and immediately reprimands the first girl for not typing in the tax-exempt code. Unbeknownst to me, "one-time use cards" are tax-exempt. That makes the math even easier! Bertha gets on the phone and calls who I am assuming to be the corporate offices. After listening to her half of the conversation for no less than 5 minutes, she gets back to me. "OK, what I am going to do since the card has already been used and can't be used again is have you pay me $21.43" (Where did that figure come from?!!!) And then I will give it right back to you." By this point I do not trust her with my money and I am not willing to part with it, if even for 2 seconds. So I say, "How about I leave my money in my wallet and you pretend like I gave it to you." This is the ultimate... she says, "Once I open my till, I can't open it again until the next transaction." DUH! Please don't open your till. I am not giving you money, so it doesn't matter.

I would have walked out long before this if it didn't mean I'd lose the $25. "Fine." she says. Then she looks the figures over and does some sort of calculation. "OK, so you owe $0.91" She continues to amaze me with her lack of math skills. The total should equal $25.49 and my card was for $25. That leaves $0.49 if I rmemeber how to subtract. I almost reached for a dollar, just to be done with it, but by now I had to prove my point (this happened once before over a dentist bill- I had to change dentists after that one!) I explained that my remaining balance should only be $0.49. She argued with me back and forth a little, muttered something about $3 sales tax( ?!!) and threw my receipt at me and told me to expect a phone call from corporate. I might just call them first.

"It's a 'RIGHT NOW' Game!

With four kids in school in the afternoon, things are very different around here. Emma takes a nap and that leaves Nathan with no one to play with. He has never experienced that before. So last week, he decided he would change all that. I was busy with some things that needed wrapping up, and he came to me. "Mom!" he yelled, "Hurry, It's a 'right now' game!" How could I resist that?! I immediately dropped what I was doing and joined him in playing with his train set. We played for quite a while before I told him we needed to do some chores. He was happy to help me fold laundry for a while until he decided that was enough. Then it was time for another "right now game". I guess he figured that worked so well the first time, he'd stick with it. It reminded me of some poems from some needlepoints my mom did when I was little. I have always loved these...


"Cleaning and scrubbing can wiat 'til tomorrow
For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow
So quiet down cobwebs, and dust go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep!!"

"Baby is fretting, I can't find my shoe
Ironing piled high, there are dishes to do
I stand in the middle about to cry
WHEN... we sit on the floor and play 'rock-a-bye'"

"I hope my children look back on today,
And see a mother who had time to play
There will be years for cleaning and cooking
For children grow up when we're not looking"

So now, whenever he wants me to stop what I am doing, he proclaims, "It's a 'right now' game!" He is right though. Because someday soon, I won't be playing trains with him.

What a Weekend

Saturday I went to a baby shower for a friend I haven't seen since high school. She is an ER doctor now. So is her husband. Instead of playing "silly shower games" (which I happen to really enjoy) we went around the room telling about ourselves. Four out of the six introductions before me were nurses. Another employed at the university. Then it came to me. It has never bothered me that I didn't finish college. I had my kids instead. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. But at that moment, I felt a little out of place. So this was my introduction...."I'm Christie, I do not work in the ER, but I visit there often. I have six kids." I then proceeded to ask the doctor for a punch pass...visit 10 times, get the next one free....too bad, it was a good idea. I had a great time at the shower visiting and listening to everyone give the expectant mother little tidbits of advice. As she opened the gifts of tiny outfits and baby necessities, I couldn't help but get a little sentimental.

After the shower was the Relief Society broadcast. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to go at first. The weather gave me a migraine and I almost didn't go. As always, I am sure glad I did. It was a very good session as it was filled with confirmations that what I am doing is the most important thing I can do. I especially liked Sister Thompson's talk about families. Even though she has never married or had kids, like Sheri Dew, she has a unique perspective on the subject. Thinking of all this, I am reminded of a quote by UCLA's basketball coach, John Wooden. "You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give." My friends have great jobs and do a lot of good for people. I am very grateful for good doctors, nurses, and teachers to name a few. But my role as 'mom' is the best job there is. Even though at times I may feel overwhelmed or under qualified, I know there is nothing more important I could be doing.

Sunday was our ward's primary program. It was fabulous! Every one of them sang their heart out, and they each had a speaking part. They did a great job! Hailey had a long poem to quote, and Tyler sang and recited his part in the microphone (that is HUGE for him!) Hannah knew all the songs and Casey behaved very well for being the oldest kid in the primary (at this point, he thinks it is so childish) I was so proud of each of them. Nathan can't wait to be on stage next year!