1st Day of School

Yesterday was Sammi's first day of school, and was technically Riley's too. Riley actually had a half day on Tuesday that was just for 7th graders so they could get a feel for the whole locker & 5 classes thing.

As I tried to get Riley to let me take her picture... she refused. So as she was headed out to her carpool I called her name and snapped this one really quick when she turned around. haha!

Sammi had no problem posing for me, and I'm just guessing that Olivia will be more than happy to pose her little heart out today when I take her to preschool.

It's several hours later and I was correct. Olivia gave me quite a variety of poses, some hands on hips, some with one hand in the pocket, you know... all your basic super-model poses.

Hair Cuts

The girls got haircuts on Saturday as part of the whole "getting ready for school" ritual. I think they look pretty cute!

Kamikaze Dragonflies...

We've had a couple of big wind storms this summer, and both times the girls found something strange in the netting of our trampoline. This time I had the presence of mind to take pictures.

Apparently in high winds, dragonflies become shooting missiles and impale themselves into things, such as trampoline netting. The first dragonfly they found was a pretty bright green. They get stuck becuase they manage to get their heads and front legs through, but the wings obviously won't co-operate.

This time around the dragonfly was brown and green. We've now figured out the best extraction process... take a trowel and push on it's nose to push it backwards through the netting. And.. zippp... they fly off.

Click the pictures to enlarge... they're pretty cool.

Kamping...

We went camping at Jordanelle recently with Mark & Tricia & their family. It's been a hot summer... so of course the weekend we picked to go was cold and kinda rainy.

We had adjoining campsites, and Riley, Kenzie & her friend had their own tent close to ours. We had a lot of fun... but man were the nights COLD! Matt and I had stupidly opted to sleep with blankets instead of sleeping bags. We also didn't quite get our air mattress blown up all the way. That first night I was freezing and couldn't sleep. I finally got up and got our 5 towels out of the car and laid them over the top of the blankets. Ahhh... sleep... but I kept dreaming about my butt hurting. First it was the right side... then I woke up and rolled over... then it was the left side... yeah... my butt was pretty much resting right on the ground all night.

The next day Tricia and I ran to Wal-mart (yes.. we were WAY out in the wilds.. hehe) and bought some cheapo blankets for both of us. I do have to say though... even though we weren't really rough camping it.. we did see a deer. And on the way home we saw a squooshed mountain lion in Parley's Canyon. I'm REALLY glad we didn't see the mountain lion on the way there... I think I would have been too scared to sleep.

We went boating on Saturday... with cloud cover and wind. The kids enjoyed tubing behind the boat. Riley kept reaching in the water and splashing on herself because the water was warmer than the air. We had to cut the boating short because it started to sprinkle and everyone was shivering.

All in all, it was a fun time. We roasted smores, chatted, quoted movie lines from Zoolander and The Princess Bride. And the last day Tricia and I sang every good 80's song we could think of as loud as possible.

Our campsite... Matt, me, Sammi & Livie in the blue tent, Riley, Kenzie & Devon in the green tent.

Mark & Tricia's site. They were basically Base Kamp.

Sammi, Riley & Kenzie roasting smores.

Livie didn't like her feet to get dirty. Ummmm.... try keeping the water shoes ON.

Sammi, you can't really tell from the picture, but her legs were bright red from the cold water. She didn't seem to care though.

Oakley & Sammi riding the tube.

Riley & Max. Riley trying to splash the 'warm' water on them.

Max turfing it in spectacular fashion.

Riley having a thrill ride. She refused to let go and quit, it was like a personal thing for her. She's getting pretty tough.

Riley doing her version of Trogdor with a leg instead of a beefy arm.

2 Peas...

People have always said Olivia looks like Matt. I agree, but just this last weekend I took one of those pictures that so classically illustrates the comparison. Click the picture for a closer look.

It almost looks like an ornery version of Blue Steel... or is that Magnum?

Love it.

4 Going on 14

Olivia is our girly-girl. She was just born that way. From the first time I heard her pathetic little "oh poor me, you guys are all so mean" cry in the O.R. I could just tell... this little one is ALL GIRL.

The last 4 years have only reinforced this theory. She looooves pink, and she looooves kitties, and she looooves dressing up pretty, etc, etc. One of her standard exclamations is, "Oh, it's so cuuuuuuuutie!" Now along with this girly-ness comes a Princessy Diva attitude. Combine that with her sharp little mind and you get some pretty funny moments.

Recently she's been throwing up the "air quotes" while talking. Example: I was telling her that we should try french braiding her hair because she had such nice long hair. Her response was, "Are you trying to make me a 'stupid girl'? Then people will say I'm 'stupid' and they will 'be jealous of me'?" (imagine the air quotes and sassy voice)

Tonight she cracked us up with her comments during a movie. A scene came on with some kissing, all of a sudden you hear her say in a sing-song voice, "Awk-ward...." Apparently she didn't mean it as a joke because she got mad when we laughed.

Wild Ride with the Barf Sisters

And now for the final installment of the Cabin Extravaganza. Some of you may have already heard a version of this story, but it's so awesome that it deserves memorializing on the blog.

On the last day we packed up, cleaned up, and loaded the cars. While all the adults were busy cleaning, loading, etc. the kids snuck off to the creek. This was one of the times the Wyoming nephew decided to get into creek with long pants, long sleeves and "water proof" hiking boots.

We took a last couple of 4 wheeler rides before loading them up too. And bid farewell to S&C's beautiful cabin and the humingbirds and headed out.

Matt was driving a bit faster than maybe he should have on the windy windy road so... Olivia got car sick and started throwing up, which of course no one noticed but me when I heard a weird quiet sound. So I’m yelling at the other two to throw me a blanket or something. Riley is trying to grab the green one, while Sammy is holding on to the green one for dear life because it’s hers. Meanwhile barf is spewing and spreading all over Livie and pooling in her car seat... yeah... nice... Too bad I couldn’t have caught it in something... like maybe a BLANKET? So we finally wrestle the blanket from Sammy and I kind of just cover the mess so Olivia and everyone else doesn’t have to look at, smell or touch it.

Then Samantha says... “mommy, I don’t feel good”. Prior notice is a lovely thing. I tell her to grab the blue blanket (which was sitting right next to her, but she was so busy protecting the green one, that she couldn’t toss this one to us). I tell her to use it if she needs to spew. (If you need to spew, spew in this.) And sure enough... right when we’re almost done with the twisty, windies... barf. To which Riley yells, “OH! Not her too!”. I yell at Matt to pull over, he says, “Why? What can you do?”. Ummm… let’s see, make her feel better? Wipe her face off? Wrap her blanket in such a way as to avoid spilling the contents all over this child and her seat too? And in so doing, quell some of the stench that is rolling from the back seat?

We drive the rest of the way to the Wrangler Inn and the lovely little gas station next to it with the windows down and Sammy and Livie sitting grey-faced holding their breakfast covered blankets. (Actually Livie looked more white with purple lips and purple shadows under her eyes)
At the little store our clean up begins, and once we get a good look at Livie’s booster it’s pretty clear that a hazmat team would be handy right about now. Matt has to change her clothes while she keeps complaining that she doesn’t want anyone to see her. Meantime I’m trying to find the nearest garbage can for that blue blanket which is beyond disgusting and so old it’s falling apart anyway, and Riley freaks out. “No! You can’t throw that one away!” Apparently there is some attachment that only surfaced at that moment, because she never cared about that blanket before. In the end we have to find a garbage bag and shove both blankets in it and stuff it in the back of the car. (And OF COURSE Riley didn’t complain about the smell the whole way home... hellooo... )

So, Olivia is in a new outfit. I’m scrubbing her chair with wipes, as well as scrubbing the leather seats, and DOWN IN THE CRACKS of the seats. And I hear Olivia say, “Daddy, can I have a marshmallow?”

Ahhhh… good times, good times.

Actually we had a great time that weekend, it was just the ride home that stunk… literally.