Crankiness

So last week was a hard one for me. Don't know why but I was just cranky. Maybe it was that I had no quiet time, not even when in the bathroom. I do not do well if I miss out on my few minutes of alone time and usually that involves something crafty. So last week when I was having a bad day- Took the kids to the kids swimming and had missed quiet time again-Ben and I had a little chat that went something to this effect.
Ben- What's wrong?'
Me - nothing
Ben- Are you o.k.?
Me - No! I need just a few minutes by myself-alone- no one talking, or whining, or crying at me. I just need to do something crafty. CAN YOU TELL I HAVEN"T DONE ANYTHING CRAFTY LATELY! It makes me really cranky when I can't be creative!
The last thing I made was at the beginning of summer and that was just the job charts!
Ben- yes I can tell you haven't done anything crafty.
The conversation continued and it was actually pretty comical. So in the works are a few crafts and Ben has been pretty supportive and hasn't rolled his eyes too much at me wanting to change the kids' bedrooms. I know, big undertaking but the to younger boys need better nap time. So soon I will be painting and such-yea I can't wait.
As for now here is my last project - the job charts. I think they turned out pretty cute and since they're so cute I make sure the kids use them-everyday!

What could possibly be more American?

So each year my side of the family all get together and go camping throughout the summer. This year was no exception although we cut it down to one-2 night camping trip. This year was so busy for many of us that the only free time we had was the 4th of July weekend and even then KristyAnn was unable to make it-yea I know you're reading this and yes we missed you! It's always such a lot of work and is exhausting and yet each year we have such a good time. This year our family and Lauras family had purchased camping trailers and were breaking them in. Good thing we did, there are a few things we learned which will help on our 2 week trip to Washington next month. I was a little worried when we got up American Fork canyon and it rained for the first two hours! (definitely a blessing to have the trailer!) but after that we had great weather. The kids had fun exploring, hiking, swinging in the hammock, roasting marshmallows and eating smores. The annual treasure hunt was fun-Laura and I had a blast mapping it out and were informed upon return by some cranky husbands and kids that we had been gone for an hour and a half! I guess we were just having too much fun without the kids!!! Anyways grandma did some over the top spoiling (great job mom) and the kids were on there way to the best sugar rush of the year -may even top halloween. They loved the treasure hunt but oh man those kids all needed naps! After the treasure hunt we headed to silver lake and the kids did some swimming and Ben/Payton caught a fish- pretty funny that Ben left Payton with the fishing pole and Payton put it down and left, when Ben came back there was a fish tugging. No one knows who to credit who but Ben was pretty excited- more than Payton was. How's that for a big kid. Later that night it was fried and eaten by almost everyone. What a great camping trip-Amylyn and Andy were able to come and Scott made appearances a few times -once with a girl!!! We were able to do our dutch oven cooking in there and no one went hungry. Although the kids were hoping for dutch oven popcorn- we may have to do this in the backyard sometime this summer. So saturday the 4th we headed home and cleaned up and to celebrate a little more we had Kentucky Fried Chicken and the kids did poppers on the back patio. Not our typical 4th- usually we go to the stadium of fire- but camping was exhausting enough and I was headed to work. Thank goodness pioneer day is just around the corner and I promised our kids real fireworks then. I think they were so exhausted they didn't even complain!

Beautiful!

Last week we had a chance to go through the Oquirrh Temple open house. What a beautiful temple. The kids were amazed and we were so happy to share part of the temple experience with them. They had lots of questions and we were so happy to answer them. Riley was so cute he kept saying the temple was "awesome". And it was -Awesome and beautiful. What a blessing to be so close to so many temples. The kids never grow tired of seeing them and as we drive through the valley they call out each time they see one. I hope they will always feel that excited about the temple.