What Do You Do in The Summer Time When All The World is Green?

Last Tuesday Dee Dee and I took the kids to Thanksgiving Point for $2 Tuesday. We wanted to get into the Dinosaur museum, but the line was around the building- so we decided to go to the gardens instead. This is Kate, Spencer and Clark next to the biggest man made waterfall.
This is just a little view of the beautiful gardens they have there. We didn't even see all that was there.

Last week we also went to the Sweets Candy Factory in Salt Lake City. We went on a guided tour through the factory and got to see them making jelly beans, salt water taffy, raspberry bars and cinnamon bears. It was quite fascinating to see how they do it- and they even gave us samples along the way. Needless to say, we bought some candy on our way out!

Clark got a bike finally. Is he potty trained? Well, no. But I cracked and we got him one anyways. So now we go on bike rides around the block at least twice a day.

Kate riding her bike. I must say it took them a little while to figure out how to work the petals, but now they're doing really well.

Last Sunday night the weather was beautiful and all the neighbors were outside enjoying it. We ended up over at our neighbors, Jodi and Dave's where Clark and Spencer found a whole bucket of nuts, bolts and other odds and ends. Dave is a mechanic for big construction equipment, so naturally has all kinds of stuff in his garage.

Clark and Spencer in hog heaven.

Dave and Jodi also have 3 boys who are all into BMX racing. So the boys got the ramps out and were doing tricks on their bikes. Dee Dee and I, with all our kids came over to join in the fun.

Clark going on the ramps.

Kate taking her turn on the ramps.

This is just a little snip-it of what goes on in our neighborhood in the summer time!

Happy Birthday Rye!

Tomorrow is Ryan's 30th birthday, and I wanted to take a minute to write how wonderful he is and how much I love him. So here's the Top 30 reasons I love you honey!

1. You work so hard to provide for our family and would give up everthing you have for me and the kids.
2. You are still a little boy at heart.
3. You make me laugh.
4. You know when I need to cry and let me do it.
5. You wrestle with the kids and wear them out so they'll sleep.
6. You can walk into any building and tell me how it was made.
7. You can fix just about anything- blow dryers and flat irons included.
8. You like to watch movies.
9. You only wear 4 colors- while, black, blue and grey.
10. You let me steal all your funny sayings.
11. You are very generous to others.
12. You share your beliefs with anyone.
13. You are ambitious.
14. You own a gun.
15. You can build just about anything with toy blocks.
16. Your favorite pair of shoes is your work boots.
17. You don't go anywhere without your razor blade knife.
18. You know how and like to work on cars.
19. You buy me things just to see me smile.
20. You give me back rubs at night even though you hate doing it.
21. You scream like a little girl.
22. You love me just the way I am.
23. You get along with my family.
24. You can't keep secrets from me.
25. You make me want to be a better person.
26. You are sensitive to other peoples feelings.
27. You can say I'm sorry and admit when you're wrong.
28. You're not afraid to tell me when I'm wrong.
29. You give the best hugs.
30. I can see in your eyes how much you love me.

Those are just the Top 30- there are lots more! Thanks for just being you. I hope you have a great birthday even though you have to sleep and then work through all of it! I love you.

Tired

I'm going to use this post to vent about all the things that I'm tired of right now! Like it or not- here it comes!

1. I'm tired of not having a husband. Ryan is still working 7 days a week and about 100 hours. After 4 and half weeks- I'm really tired of it. It sucks that we never have time to be together just the two of us. He stays up for about 2 hours when he gets home to unwind and play with the kids and then he's off to bed. Then I get about half an hour with him when he wakes up and gets ready to go back to work. The night shift just sucks.
2. I'm tired of sleeping by myself. You might think- it's great- no one to bother me while I'm sleeping! But not me. I'm quite the snuggler and it takes me about 2 hours to fall asleep every night with out Ryan. It doesn't help that I have an overactive imagination and think every noise is someone breaking into the house.
3. I'm tired of temper tantrums. Kate and Clark are going through the "test Mom on everything and throw temper tantrums over everything" stage. Since there's two of them in this phase- I have to deal with twice as many tantrums; which usually means we've had at least 5 tantrums by noon. I feel like such a bad Mom because I'm constantly on edge. I get so frustrated so quickly and don't have the patience to deal with it. So I either yell and get angry or turn on a movie so I don't have to deal with them for an hour. I've tried so hard to do fun things- the park, the library, the candy factory, the gardens at Thanksgiving Point, bike rides and playing with friends - but they throw fits no matter what.
4. I'm tired of Kate and Clark fighting. That pretty much sums it up.
5. I'm tired of having to run and do P90X to exercise. It's getting kinda old. You can only do those videos so many times before you go crazy. It's just hard to stay motivated with no variety and no one else to exercise with. Plus Kate and Clark are getting kinda heavy pushing in that baby jogger.
6. I'm tired of not having any friends. I know I need to invest some energy in trying to make new friends, but I'm having a hard time being motivated. I just want to hang out and talk with all my friends who already know me. I don't want to have to walk on egg shells until I know if they can handle the real me or not! I miss hanging out at my Mom's house and just talking to her or seeing my sister Nancy and just talking about everything and nothing. Talking to 2 year olds all day is not very stimulating conversation. I miss Book Club and Bunco and all my friends at church. I miss Ellen and Josh coming over for 'bake off' every Sunday night.
7. I'm just physically tired. Not sleeping well is catching up with me. I know that's probably the reason I'm so fed up with so many other things- I just don't have the energy to deal with anything anymore.

So there you have it. I hope you're not too depressed after reading that! I just had to get it off my chest.

Arizona Trip

There is really too much to write about our trip to Arizona- so I'll let the pictures do the talking. We had a ton of fun hanging out and visiting everyone. Too bad it's just so dang hot! I think I started sweating when I got there and didn't stop until we got back to Utah. A special thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson and Bridgett and Rob, for letting us stay at your house and make a huge mess!
The pictures are kinda backwards- from our last day to our first day, but I'm too lazy to move them all around!

Clark, Paco, Kate and Nana

Playing ring around the rosie with Rachel, Becca and Emily

Why are kids drawn to water? At least it was outside!

Clark with his new best friend, my brother-in-law, Warren

Basketball with Warren

Kate and Nolan- Why does she do that when I ask her to smile?

Clark with his cousin and other best friend, Jacob

Tiffany, Nolan, Rebecca, Sara and Hannah hanging out in the shade while everyone else swam

Mom, Heather and Warren

Kate and Clark with Paco

Ok, this one needs some explaining. Saturday morning we were at Bridgett and Robs house, I was iroing my skirt for my niece's baptism and talking to Rob in their master bedroom. We were so wrapped up in what we were talking about, we kinda just let the kids do whatever in the bathroom. When we finally went in to inspect- this is what we found. It's a good thing Rob is so laid back- we both just laughed!

Nancy, Rusty and Hannah came over Friday night to BBQ at Bridgett and Rob's and Hannah made cupcakes for the kids to decorate.

Nana's are the best. Where does she come up with all these cool things to do? Must be the 21 years she's been a grandma!

Clark in the airplane with his new toys, Lighning McQueen and Mader

Kate in the airplane with all her new goodies- braclets, rings, books and a new teddy bear

Extended Stay Vacation

We just found out a few days ago that we will be staying in Utah until Christmas. Kind of a shocker to me, but I'm actually ok with it. Here's why. 1. Ryan still has a job. He will be working on a HUGE project in down town Salt Lake. For those of you who know where the ZCMI mall used to be across from temple square; they tore down that whole city block and are re-building it with office buildings and such. So this is a really great career opportunity for Ryan. He'll be working with the best Superintendents that Okland has, and get his name out there. 2. I'm glad we get to see some snow. I acutally don't mind the cold weather and am looking forward to having a real winter. 75 degrees on Christmas is not a real winter! 3. I'm kinda enjoying this time with just our little family. I also like flying under the radar. Easy church calling, no committments to family events and no hair appointments! It's nice to just take a slower pace to life and just take one day at a time.
So if you want to come up to Utah for conference, to go snowboarding or to just see some seasons- come on up! We'll be here for a while!

Just to Make you Jealous

The high today was 68 degrees! That's right- we had our long sleeved shirts on and pants. A storm blew in yesterday and cooled everything way down and today it was mostly cloudy and COLD! I loved it! I kept the windows open all day and look forward to sleeping with my big quilt tonight since I don't have a husband to keep me warm. That's right. Ryan is now working 7 days a week and about 100 hours a week. So those of you who work 40 hours a week- BE GREATFUL!
So you go on enjoying that 115 degree weather and I'll enjoy my 68 degree weather. HA!

Bowling

On Monday Aunt Jean invited us to go bowling for Family Home Evening. It was a blast- except for the part where Kate peed her pants TWICE! The first time was my fault- we had just got there and she told me she had to go, and I got distracted getting shoes and she peed her pants. I had spare pants and panties in my purse, so at least I could change her clothes. Then about 45 minutes later I had to go to the bathroom, so I took her with me. I took her in the stall with me and after I finished my business and was flushing the toilet, I look over and she's peeing right there in the stall! I was livid! She knew what she was doing, and could've held for 2 more seconds but didn't. So the mean Mom that I am, I made her stay in her pee-pee soaked panties and pants. (I did put a diaper on her on the way home)

Other than that- it was great. They had this ramp, that allowed you to just push the ball down the ramp instead of having to throw it- so Kate and Clark got to bowl quite a bit. We'd usually take the first shot on our own, then line up the ramp and let the kids push the ball and get the spare!

Aunt Jean and I had a great time seeing which one of us could get the most gutter balls! For me bowling is hit or miss. I either to awesome or gutter ball everytime.

Thanks Jean!

Aunt Jean and Clark

Jean, Cydnee, Travis, Erin and Kate

Kate and Clark using the ramp to help me

Roberts Family Reunion

Last week was full of visitors! On Wednesday afternoon, we had a friend from Mesa, Aaron Ellsworth, come up and stay the night. He was here to do music recording with some friends before he goes on his mission. Also Wednesday we had Ryan's Mom, Evelyn, and his brother Rick (or as I call him Ricky- lou) come up! I was so excited to have a house full of people! It was really nice to not be alone at night. On Thursday Ricky-lou and I took the kids to the Lehi pool. It was great, because with 2 adults, Kate and Clark finally got to go down the slide! I was never able to take both of them by myself. Friday Rick was a good sport and went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house with me. It is a beautiful temple, as all temples are. There were lots of people, but it surprisingly didn't take too long to get through. On the way home we stopped at the Golden Arches, so needless to say, the kids liked having Rick around! He was awesome about helping me out with the kids and keeping them entertained.

Saturday we drove to Vernal for Evelyn's family reunion. We all met at the church for a luncheon and then went out to the cemetary. Evelyn's brother Frank has a business making decorative headstones, and made new headstones for Evelyn's paternal grandparents and great grandmother. So we had a little dedicatory prayer at the gravesites. I also learned something I didn't know about Evelyn's parents- they lost 3 children. 2 of them died the day they were born and the other only lived 5 days. I just couldn't believe it. I have no grandparents of my own, and so have adopted Grandma and Grandpa Roberts for my own. I love grandma Roberts, but after having learned that, I have a whole new respect for her.

Grandma's Babies

The new headstone

After visiting the cemetary we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Roosevelt and stayed the rest of the afternoon, then made the 2 hour drive home. It was a long day, but good to meet and learn new things about family. I am facinated in learning things about our family- and realize that I need to do more family history. I constantly have the thought in the back of my mind and need to just get started!

G and G Roberts with Kate, Mason and Clark

G and G Roberts with Kate, Clark, Evelyn, Rick and I

G and G Roberts and their children,

John, Frank, Neil, Wendell,

Evelyn, Jean and Wendy