3 moms = 9 kids

What Happens when 3 moms take their 9 kids to Sundance for a lifty ride, small hike and ice cream?

1.) You get a lot of stares from the old and young alike. Apparently children are very scarce creatures at Sundance on the weekdays. I think our 9 kids made up the entire child population and Sundance that day. When you have a pack of 9 kids 8 years and under you tend to get some attention and stares of wonderment and concern. Once in a while when 1 mom would go to the bathroom and the other was slightly out of sight you would even get some sympathy stares. (yes even in utah)

2.) You feel very outnumbered and some how the oldest 6 kids convince all 3 moms that they can ride on the lift all by their big selves. We spared the lives of the 3 kids 2 years and under and made them ride with us.

3.) You are reminded once again that kids would rather play dangerously close to raging rivers, climb trees and chase each other on trails than relax and eat ice cream (imagine that). This leaves you finishing off more ice cream than you ever would on a normal basis...but you can't help it.

In the end you go home tired with disheveled hair and obvious signs of what you did and ate that day embedded into your clothing. You find yourself wondering if you would ever do this activity again. The answer from all 3 moms is an unexpected.... YES. I guess this activity it mother approved and recommended after all. (for a more enhanced experience some hired help or less kids is highly suggested)

running fiasco

(This is a picture of us running. Janelle is the one in the bra, Jen in the middle and I am the blurred blonde)

This morning a couple friends and I went for a run. We are doing this 10k on Saturday so we thought it would be good to practice the route a couple times. We took 2 cars and left one at point A and the other at point B. It was a good little morning run down to the parked car at the end of the route.This is when the fun starts. Janelle realizes she left her keys in my car at point A miles and miles away. So with 15 minutes to get home to husbands that needed to go to work and kids that needed to get ready for school we had to think fast. Really our only option was to run back the miles we came to the car. So that is what we started to do but the fastest way back was up the steepest longest hill EVER and the closer that hill came the more desperate we were! So we stuck out our thumbs in hopes of hitching a ride. Now I'm not one for hitch hiking. The last time I hitch hiked was probably at my home town in P canyon when I was 17 stranded covered in mud and delusional from a night of camping with no sleep. (to my partners in crime on this adventure what were we thinking? ha ha). So with desperation in our eyes we stuck out our thumbs like old pros and flagged down a very nice lady that passed us by but then decided to stop. I think we were all jumping up and down as if we hit the jackpot. We hopped in and I sat in the back with a dog that looked like the one pictured below. And the first thing this nice lady says is "I am sorry he loves armpits, I don't know why." Perfect..... just Perfect, I am sitting next to a dog that likes armpits and I am wearing a tank top. Needless to say this little white dog with a St. Bernard sized tongue licked my armpit all the way to my car no matter how hard i discretely tried to make him stop. I had to sit there smile and take it because after all the nice lady was was giving us a ride. Janelle tried to make things better by telling me "at least you don't have to shower the dog just licked off all your sweat" Nice try Janelle but I don't know what is worse in life than smelling like a mixture between sweat and dog breath. So thanks to the nice lady who owns a hot dog joint in town and her armpit loving dog, our luck turned around and we were only a few minutes late getting home. Looks like we need to go and buy a few hundred hot dogs from her now. We will forever be in debt. What a way to start a day!

school days

School is back in session and while I know the kids are kind of excited to start the new year. I am not so sure that I am ready for all the homework, schedules, and packing lunches. I got used to our carefree summer lifestyle of playing late in to the night and then sleeping in with really no order or schedule to our days we just did what we felt like. It was nice. Now we are back to business, well kind of anyway. Our first 2 nights after school started were spent at 7 peaks and out on the lake. I guess we have to ease ourselves back into the rigid structured lifestyle we are embarking on. So starting this week we will officially be back to business and I will try my hardest to be the responsible mother that I know is in me.... somewhere.

Canyon got the best teacher this year for 3rd grade we are so excited. After 3 years of hoping he finally got in the same class with his friend Felix (pictured above). He has a battle wound to show off for the first day. He got a huge burn leaning up against a hot motorcycle...ouch!

Ellie hasn't started school yet but she had her kindergarten testing and thought that was official enough for some pictures. She is such a funny girl. She was trying to convince me that if she was going to the school that she needed her lap top. We finally came to a compromise that she would leave it in the truck for the testing. The test went great when she was asked to write her name I think she was on a mission to impress. She wrote Ellie and then the teacher was ready to move on to the next thing but she continued to keep going writing Apsen and would not stop until the X in Cox was completed. Then she looked up with a big smile and said "There that's my name". When all the testing was over she hopped back in the truck whipped out the lab top and started typing. I asked her what she was doing she said homework. I guess she is ready for Kindergarten. I have a feeling she won't miss me very much.

Ellie with her homework companion

poor me

I guess I am feeling sorry for myself right now. For months we have had a trip planned with some friends to go to Havasupai in the Grand Canyon, those dreams of basking underneath a waterfall for hours on end and swimming in beautiful turquoise waters are now over and I am so sad...Boo Hoo. There was a big flood there recently and all the trails got washed away and everyone was helicoptered out including the Indian tribe. (see here for story). The area is now closed for the rest of the year. We were going to go in August (I think it was pretty close to the date the flooding took place) but changed it for September. I should just be grateful that we weren't down there but a bigger part of me is kind of disappointed we weren't. Everyone got out safely, so it would have been kind of exciting to be there and see it first hand get rescued by a helicopter and come home with a great story. Am I crazy?? maybe so I guess. So now we are trying to think of somewhere else to go. We are thinking maybe doing the Subway in Zions (permits pending) or maybe even taking a little Train ride to some hiking trails in Durrango. Any other ideas out there?? These trips have some pretty great potential so maybe I won't feel bad for myself for very much longer. Goodbye Havasuapi I will be seeing you in my dreams and then for sure in 2009. (please don't flood again thankyou!)

(the rescue mission)

a full set of.....

We thought it would be funny to see what Lucy looked like with full set of sparkling new teeth.

Here is the grand result...ha ha.. she's looking good.

(us in the bighorns)

This past weekend one of our favorite people got married up in the Big Horn Mountains (a 3 day camping wedding). So thanks to Grams and Gramps C we said goodbye to our little ones and took a little trip to see this event take place. After 9 hours of driving in boring desolate Wyoming (no offense wyomingers) we finally arrived at our destination. It was a beautiful wedding, it took place in the most amazing meadow. The bride to be was a real trooper getting ready for her wedding by bathing in a creek and using a generator to curl her hair...what a riot. It was a really fun weekend despite the drive through the pit of Wyoming. The towns our gas tank forced us to stop in were so strange and creepy yet entertaining. Let's just say Wyoming has many many hidden treasures.

(beautiful meadow)

(Matt and Hannah)

walkie talkie

She has changed so much this summer....a little walking and some more talking.

Some things always remain the same...
like her spunky attitude that has been with her since birth and has yet to abandon her.