Priest Lake

Isn't it so beautiful?! Priest Lake. It truly is a beautiful place with awful sand and wind almost every afternoon. It's beautiful nonetheless and we went with B's family. Since we have this one,

And the fact that I'm a snot, staying in a tent was out of the question. Actually renting a trailer was B's idea. He just didn't have to do a whole lot of convincing. I agreed that it was a great idea before he even got the whole word, trailer, out of his mouth. Sleeping in a bed all week and having a bite size shower and a fridge was magical. When I say the shower was bite size, I'm not kidding. The tub was so so tiny that when we put her in it she almost touched the ends with her head and feet and she couldn't extend her arms out to the side without hitting the sides of the tub. But, it had warm, clean, running water so that's all that matters. The kiddos loved having bunk beds and they would shove cousins in the beds with them at night. M usually had two other cousins sleeping with her. You can imagine how cozy that was. But, they loved it and actually slept so that's all that really matters. Aaaaaaanyway, 

Going to the water. Some of us were way more excited about it than others. Little B could hardly wait to get there. Telling him that we needed to put on sunscreen was like telling a fat kid that there's no more ice cream. There were tears and protests but, he survived, barely, and made it to the water before 10 in the morning.

When they weren't on the boat, they loved playing in the water. They are brave humans that's for sure. If water isn't 100 degrees or close to it, like, 99.9, it's too cold for me. I was on baby duty and spent a lot of the week at the trailer reading. What book you ask? A Man Called Ove. It's amazing! The main guy reminded me so much of my dad. I laughed and cried and missed my dad a lot. It's so good. I digress. I had a love hate relationship with staying at the trailer. I loved the book but I didn't love being by myself. I know, A was there. but she was sleeping. I wanted to be at the beach so I could at least see my family. I did go down there one time when she was awake and she just screamed her head off. So I took her back to the trailer.

They got to go on the tube and they loved it. I don't know who took this picture, but I love that they did! I am so happy that they got to ride together.

One morning we went on a short little hike before they went to the water. What a weird sign right? Well, I thought that since there are arrows pointing in opposite directions for the same hike, that it must be a loop. The other folks we were with must have had similar thoughts. We picked, choosing the right, and went to the right. We made it about 5 minutes down the trail before we hit a dead end and had to turn around. Talk about a backfire when you're trying to teach your kids that life's like the sign and they should always choose the right. When we hit the dead end we had to add, and sometimes things don't go your way, so turn around and keep going. That earned us a couple of smirks from our oldest. Thankfully K was in his own little world and just kept whistling and walking. 

After the hike, they went boating. I love this picture! I think it looks like M's cousin, A, has plans to pull M off by her feet. I wish that she would have, that would have been so funny! Thankfully she didn't and M stayed safely on the tube.

Both M and K tried water skiing. The ski's didn't go small enough so they kept popping off. If we had had the right sized ski's, both of them would have been able to get up without any problem. They were both pretty nervous to try it, but they did awesome and I'm so proud of them for giving it a go!

M even tried wake boarding! B says that if she had been able to get the board out of the water more, she would have been able to stand all the way up. She really liked it. K was feeling pretty traumatized from trying skiing so he opted out of the wake boarding experience.

One of the days we did the waterslide hike. It's a mile long hike to this natural warerslide. One has to wear a garbage bag over your swim suit so your suit doesn't get torn up. That's what people say. I think it's so you can go a lot faster as you're sliding down but, I was on baby duty and couldn't go down so what do I know? M said she liked it but, the water was so cold, like burn your feet because it's so cold, that she only went down a couple times. The boys, on the other hand, loved it!

I wish you could hear him. He is laughing as he's sliding down backwards. K didn't care at all that the water was hurt your skin cold. He loved it!

I was a little worried to have little B go down by himself, but I shouldn't have been. He loved it and when he got to the bottom he would run up to the top to go again. 

 

After we got back from the hike, we went on the boat. I was tired of sitting alone at the trailer,(and I had finished my book) so, we knew that A would fall asleep on the boat. Off we went and she was asleep within minutes. She looks so big in this picture. She's not really. She still wears 0-3 month clothes.

WHOA!!!! M is on the outside edge, her 18 year old cousin, J, is in the middle and B is on the side closest to the water. They somehow landed back on the water dry, and none worse for the wear. When they got back in the boat they all said they thought they were flipping over on this one.

I love him! He loves boating. He loves driving it, skiing behind it or pulling people on the tube. He loves that it's something our entire family can do regardless of age. He has big plans to own a boat someday and when people tell him it's a waste of money, he will tells them they're wrong because of the great time his family had with their boat growing up. He says the best vacations were boating ones. He says a boat is worth every penny. 

Jumping off the dock is a must whilst visiting Priest Lake. The water is freezing, but worth the plunge. I don't know how the boys can jump in without plugging their noses. I keep every opening I have squeezed tight so there's no rushing water.

BAHAHAHA!!!!! I love this one! I love B's face! Right as they were getting to the end of the dock, little B slipped. Thankfully he didn't hit his head. Instead he came out of the water laughing and yelling,"did you see that?!" 

CANNON BALL!!!!!

All of B's siblings were there with their families except for one brother. Can you see how A is FREAKING out? Why oh why are we doing family pictures at 7:00 at night? I know for 98% of the people that were there, 7:00 is a great time. The sun's not beating in your face and it's not too hot. You've had dinner so kids won't be hungry. But by 7:00 babies are melting down. All of B's mom's siblings were there with most of their kids. It was a big group and some of them only saw A at the family picture. Or when we got together at 7:00 on Sunday night to sing hymns. Another, late night for a baby, event. One of them asked me if A was always so colicky because any time she saw her, she was screaming her face off. I told her she's usually a super happy baby, just not when it's bedtime and we're waiting in line to take a picture or trying to sing a song. In three years when we go back, hopefully it'll be someone else's baby freaking out. Of course by then, A will be three and a different kind of rotten for family pictures. The week went by too fast but, we loved Priest Lake. We loved being with family and can't wait for the next reunion!

Utah!

With summer comes a trip to Utah. Not that we wait until summer to go to Utah. We just feel no guilt because we don't have to pull our kids out of school to go. Now, we all know that my mom is nuts in every sense of the word. My grandma Jepson, my mom's mom, is 100 this year. When I tell people that they usually say something like,"wow! That's cool." They are in fact, correct. However, grandma died. In 2004. She would have been 100 in October. Two questions, why did we have a birthday party for her and why did we do it in June? Two very good questions. I am convinced that grandma does not care at all about her mortal birthday. I think she's busy. People would say my mom was just using it as an excuse to have people get together. I don't think so. I think my mom just wanted to celebrate her mom. With good reason, grandma was awesome! She was pretty short, probably like 5'0 and when she would sit on a chair, when she would laugh really hard, her feet would pop out in front of her. She loved to read and as a little kid when we would go stay at her house, she would read us the book, Twig. It's a really cute story about a little girl named, Twig. Twig turns into a fairy and lives in the back yard of her apartment building. I love the book and I love that grandma read it to us every time we were there. Grandma made amazing homemade white bread. She NEVER made wheat bread. I truly think she probably thought wheat bread was against the word of wisdom. She used Downy fabric softener and Bounce dryer sheets and her house always smelled so good. She always had ice cream in her freezer and would make us chocolate cookies. Fact, they're brownies. If you made the mistake of calling them brownies she would get feisty and tell you that they aren't brownies, they are chocolate cookies. She always had those oatmeal cookies with white frosting from the store. They would sit in her cookie jar for so long they would be crunchy. I went my whole life thinking those cookies were made crunchy. After she died I tried one right out of the package and two things happened. First I was able to bite into it instead of using my back teeth to break a piece off. Then I spit the nasty soft cookie out of my mouth. I was truly disgusted that it was soft. I haven't eaten one since because they aren't crunchy like grandma's. She had a pet bird named, Chirp. She would bring Chirp to our house when she came to visit. He was green and yellow and so cute. I loved listening to Chirp as he sat on the nightstand where we kept our shoes. Grandma always kissed on the lips and when I was a teenager  I would try to turn my head so she would kiss my cheek but she wouldn't have it. She loved cheese and candy. She was stubborn and very set in her ways and I miss her a lot. Annnnyway, we made the 12 hour drive down and A did so amazing until the last 45 minutes. Then she was done and just wanted to be out of the car. We stayed in Heber for the night because that's where grandma was born. There was a campfire where people shared memories of grandma. I heard it was great but I was trying to get a little baby to calm down. She finally gave into sleep and that made the entire family happy. We were staying in cabin's at a girls camp that the church owns. It was a pretty sweet set up. All the cousins wanted to be in one cabin. We thought that was genius because they could stay up doing whatever shenanigans children do at all hours of the night and the adults could go to sleep at a decent hour. That way we would have the stamina to deal with the cranky kids that were up being wild and crazy people until all hours of the night. Our plan went off without a hitch and the next day we played blindfolded tag.

  It was so funny! Everyone playing had to be blindfolded and they stood inside a circle. Each player had a guide that told them where to move. The person that was it had a bopper and their guide tried to guide them into people. It was so funny! Some people would guide their players right into the bopper. Truly, it was pee your pants funny!

There was a very small zip line that they got to try. Well, the actual zip part was short, but they had to climb up a 30 foot pole to get there. The littles were pretty nervous about it. I was so proud of them for shimmying up to the top.

That afternoon, T was awesome and taught K had to long board. He told him that he would be a pro by the end of the week. K feels like he is in fact a pro and wants a long board of his own, even though the picture above was the last time that he's used a long board. 

Playing a family softball game was a must on my list. I loved playing it but it did make me miss my dad a whole lot. He loved playing softball with us and could be heard in the outfield chanting,"swing batter, batter, batter, batter, swing!" I missed seeing him sit on a chair next to my mom. Nonetheless, the game was awesome!

Little B didn't like understand the concept of taking a turn in the outfield. He batted after almost every other batter. He loves it because he can usually hit the ball. He's so dang cute standing up there in his little hitting stance that no one insisted on him waiting his turn in the line up. 

I think M lasted one time before she was off playing with the other cousins that didn't want to play.

Little B up to bat.

K running home. He almost passed his little cousin, C, who was running the bases in front of him.

I know this looks like the same picture as the other one. It's not. Little B just batted so often that the other people in the pictures don't move much.

This is the only time little B was out there. He stood there for a few minutes and then he ran back in so that he could hit. Again.

We borrowed B's mom's boat and went boating one day. Oh the fun that was had! There was tubing and skiing and wake boarding. 

I did go tubing with four of my sisters and a niece. I didn't want to get wet because Deer Creek is         fa-reezing and there was a breeze which made a wet body feel even colder. I agreed to go tubing in the hopes that I wouldn't get too wet. I had no intention of falling off. I was so confident that I didn't even take my $2.50 specials off my face. Welp, I didn't fall off but I got a lot more wet than I wanted to. The stupid rope kept splashing me in the face. G was on the tube with me and she kept laughing at me. I should have pushed her in. Rats! I wish I would have thought of that then. Next time G, next time.

Little B wanted to kayak and G's husband, J was so nice and jimmy rigged a tow so that he could pull little B around. What a guy huh? So nice and kind and helpful. Unlike his wife who laughs at people in their time of need.😉 We loved our time in Utah. B was able to go to a couple movies and I was able to have some much needed sister time. Our kids got to play with cousins and friends and when it was time to go home, we cried. We love our family and it's always hard to say goodbye.

Silverwood

The last day of school finally came! I swear, June 9 felt like it was never going to come. When school get's out I honestly don't know who's more excited, me or the kiddos. I am not one of those crafty, amazing moms that has hundreds of activity ideas written on popsicle sticks in an adorably painted mason jar that their children can pick from so they don't get bored in the summer. Nor am I the kind that makes them do math sheets and so many minutes of reading a day. I just want them to be kids. If they get bored I tell them that's ok and if it's bothering them so much, then do something about it. I love having them around. I love that even though we don't sleep in, much to my extreme dismay, we don't have to wake up and be somewhere. We don't have to get dressed and out the door. We just get to be and I love that!

Last day of school picture. Yay! What a wonderful, glorious day that filled us with total jubilation! B was on call which was a total drag. But since he was on call all weekend, he got Monday off. To beat the crowds and before it got too hot later in the summer, we decided to make the pilgrimage to Silverwood. It's the theme park for these parts of the world and the little's had free tickets from school.

The weather was fabulous, the crowds, almost nonexistent and the kiddos had a great time!

She got to hang out with me and little B for most of the day as B took M and K on the big roller coasters. I did go on a couple of the big rides but, I just don't love them. I am so content to watch little B as he runs from ride to ride. 

He found out that he's tall enough to do the bumper boats all by himself. 

At first, he was so happy to drive his little boat around and squirt the rocks and the plants.

Then this lady made the mistake of spraying him. Oh dear, he turned to face her, pulled his water gun trigger and didn't let go of it. He just kept spraying her.

She finally had to turn her boat and drive away. I wish the sun wasn't so bright on him because he has a huge smile on his face. When he got off the boat he told me he had sprayed her a lot and then he died laughing. As we were walking away I heard a guy as he nodded his head in little B's direction say,"There's that little kid that wouldn't stop spraying us. I had to move out of his stream of water." Little B can dish it but he can also take it. He was totally soaked and we had to take off his t-shirt and put on his jacket for the rest of the evening.

We told M and K that they didn't have a choice and had to go on the big roller coasters. We only pushed them because we knew they would love them if they gave it a go. K was nervous and fidgety but said that he would go. M was mostly excited but a little nervous too. 

Yes we take pictures on the rides. We know that one is supposed to keep items stowed away but, we don't listen. They loved the ride and wanted to go on it over and over. Silverwood was a total blast and we're so happy that we were able to go.

The big reveal

The day and time have come! I know that you've been losing sleep over seeing this picture but, tonight you'll be able to sleep in heavenly peace! The floor was done, the counter tops were put in, and then the guys came back because the stove wouldn't slide back as far as it had before the counter tops were put in. They put the counter top on and told us that we couldn't slide the stove back for 24 hours so the counter tops would have time to set. They told us we couldn't put a lot of pressure on the counter tops or it might make them move. The next night B and I went to put the stove back in place and instead of sliding back all the way, there was a four inch gap from the back of the stove to the wall. We tried pushing and shoving it into place but, to no avail. I understand that we didn't get marble counter tops and so we didn't pay one million dollars for them, but they didn't come from the dollar store either. Since it was after 6:00 in the evening, B said I should call the place the next day and tell them the stove wouldn't fit anymore. I was fired up and ready to call them and insist that we hadn't put pressure on them so they hadn't been moved from where the guys had placed them and it wasn't our fault the stove no longer fit. The girl that answered the phone was so nice and I didn't even have to defend myself. She just said ok and they would send someone out to fix it. The guys came and looked at it, measured the counter tops on either side of the stove, only to find out that they were totally straight. I stood there imaging them having to rip off the counter tops and ruining the cabinets as they pulled the counter tops off. Of course that lead to the need to redo the floor because we needed to take the demolished cabinets out. It was not great to imagine how much money it was going to cost. As I was picturing what life would be like after we had declared bankruptcy due to this unexpected kitchen remodel expense, the nice men said, "There you go, it's fixed."  I almost cried because our impoverished life picture was zapped from my mind. I came to look at it and sure enough, the stove was back to it's original spot. They told me that the problem was the cord from the stove had been bunched up and making it so the stove couldn't go back. They pulled that out of the way and slid the stove back. I was so embarrassed. I apologized profusely about wasting their time. They were very nice and told me it was no big deal and they were happy it was an easy fix. I am sure that when they got back in their van they talked about what idiots we were. We will probably be asked to be in their next training video on how to handle stupid customers. Anyway, So, the floor was done, then the counter tops, then the backsplash went in and then..... the cabinets! We have hated the ugly flat faced, honey oak cabinets since we moved in. The boxes of said cabinets were in great shape so we just wanted to find someone to reface them. Because we live in the middle of no where, it was hard to find someone to do it. We finally found Jodi. She is an angel and an artist that paints pictures of horses and wedding dresses. She also does cabinets on the side. Weird I know but we live in a weird place. She was so nice and did an amazing job! Just in case our ugly cabinets haven't been burned into your mind like a bad kissing scene, I'll remind you.

Oh man, those are so ugly! I think it just doesn't do the floor, counter tops and the backsplash justice. Here are a couple before before pictures.

 

This one shows the nasty floor and the laminate counter tops.

This one shows that we had a white dishwasher, that was probably the first dishwasher ever made. It was nasty. We also had a black fridge that sounded like a jet. You don't see the white microwave that was cracked on the bottom or the white stove. Ok, Ok, Ok, I'll show you the final picture that was two years in the making.

AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! Doesn't that look so much better?! I love that the cabinets are now shaker. Jodi just added the trim and then sanded everything down and painted them white. Holy cow, I love it! When we lived in Florida and had white cabinets, I said I would never do white again. But, in Florida the floor, counter tops, cabinets, appliances and walls were all white. It felt very sterile. But, With our flooring and the dark appliances I feel like it just looks clean. I know that not everyone will like it and that's fine, they don't have to live here. But we love it and are so happy that we were able to redo the kitchen.

Out with the old part II

 Today is the day folks that you get the rest of the kitchen! Just kidding! Not yet, patience Iago. After the counter tops, came B's back splash. I say B's because I was totally indifferent to having one. B really wanted one and thought it would make the kitchen look a lot better. A lady that B works with, is married to a tile man. B asked her how much her husband would charge for a back splash. She told him between $500-$700. He doesn't buy any of the material either. So, we would be paying him for labor only. We had never priced out the materials needed for a back splash but we were sure that it wouldn't cost that much. We were right. All the tile and mud stuff and grout and caulking and spreader thing for the mud was a lot cheaper than tile man wanted to charge us. We were going to wait until the next Monday because B was on call for the weekend. He didn't want to start on the back splash and then get called in whilst he was working on it. Well, on Friday the guy from our ward that has helped us out a lot with projects around our house called B and asked when we were going to do the back splash. B told him that he was on call so we were just going to wait until Monday and start on it. This guy told B that he couldn't help us on Monday because he would be at work. B told him that was ok, we wanted to try and do it ourselves anyway and we didn't want to take him away from his family so we would just do it Monday. The nice fellow told B that that wasn't a great idea and that his wife and kids would love to spend the day at our house on Saturday and if B got called in, they would just finish the back splash for us. B tried to tell him no, that we really wanted to wait until Monday and he just wouldn't let it go. So, we ended up buying all of the supplies on Friday night, picking up the rented tile saw early Saturday morning and busting out the back splash.

 You might be shocked to know that in this here town that we live in, there's no tile store. There's a home depot, but if you have a question you never know what kind of answer you'll get from home depot. Anyway, the only reason we knew to sand the wall was because we called a tile store in northern Alaska and they told us that the wall has to be rough so the mud will stick. B was very excited to add a sander to his minuscule tool cluster. Looky there! A snippet of exposed counter top! Just a little taste of the amazing reveal to come!

A lot of the day was spent out using the tile saw. The guy in our ward told us to just buy one. He's crazy. Do people in real life just go out and buy a saw? We've noticed that saw's are not inexpensive so renting one for $30 was the way to go!

Putting the mud on the wall. Ok, confession time. I don't really know if it's called mud. I just try to sound like I know what in the world I'm talking about but honestly, I usually don't. 

Pushing the tile onto the wall. We really thought that we would be able to bust this back splash out in about half a day. We got the bigger tile thinking that it would take less cutting and we would be able to just line them up. Ya, it took a lot longer than we thought. B was so thankful that P from our ward had insisted on helping us. He helped a ton and when one brain would get stuck on how to measure for a tile to make it look good, the other brain would come get involved and they would figure it out.

Trying to figure something out. This little section of the wall took for-ever! Truly, hours were spent trying to figure out how to line them up and make the right cuts around the bottom of the cabinets and around the window. While they did the back splash, I was in charge of taking pictures, taking care of the littles, making the working men lunch and talking to the lovely folk that were driving down our street and got hit when our amazing oldest son went flying off the sidewalk on his bike and rode right into the side of their car. Thankfully the lady had noticed K and had come to a complete stop so he hit a stopped car. But, he hit them hard enough that he flipped over the front of his bike and landed on the ground. He smashed their headlight and left a tire mark on the side of their car. Needless to say we are so so thankful that he didn't get hurt and that the lady wasn't flying down the street like so many cars do.

This was a wonky angle. They had to go around the outlet and the window. It took more than one attempt to figure out the template. I think it's a stroke of genius to use paper to make a template so that they didn't waste tile after tile trying to get the angles right.

We had to wait two days for the tiles to set before B could grout it all.We were virgin grout mixers and like so many other things, it took us awhile to figure it out. But, after the second or third time, we were professionals! He was able to smash the grout in where it sat drying for a day.

After the grout had dried, he was able to caulk it. Once he was done with that, I went through and sealed the grout. Now, hold your breath, here it comes!

Doesn't it look so lovely?! Ok, I know that with those awful honey oak cabinets that it doesn't look that great. But we aren't done yet peeps. I bet you can imagine what the last step to our kitchen fix is. You guessed it! Cabinets! But that post will have to wait. Don't lose faith in me yet, there's still one more picture that I can hardly wait to show you!