Sprucing Up & BYU

One of the fun things we did with Ian's parents was to re-plant out front planter!  Denny weeded it for me and then Tuesday after Weston got home from school we headed off to Home Depot to pick out some plants.  I have never planted anything before, so I was pretty clueless.  We bought mostly flowers and a few shrubs.  When we got home the kids played outside while we dug holes and planted and watered.  I love how it turned out!

 

 Unfortunately a week later the black eyed Susan's are looking pretty sad and I don't think they are going to make it, but the rest of the plants look ok.  I haven't killed them yet anyway.  I'm trying really hard to keep them looking nice and it's fun to have something out there that I had a hand in choosing and planting.

On Wednesday Ian stayed home in the morning for a couple hours before heading into work.  Then we all got ready and headed down to Provo.  We stopped first at the RC Willey Clearance outlet to see if they had a patio furniture set I had seen in their ad that was on sale.  I was so excited that they had it in stock!  It was a steal at $50 for the set.  It definitely completed the sprucing up of the front yard/porch.

 

After the furniture detour we headed to BYU campus for some serious shopping at the BYU Bookstore.  Grandma and Papa spoiled the kids with new BYU shirts, hairbows for Talia, and a couple things for the new baby.  I added some BYU socks for the boys and got a couple books and some fudge.  We ate lunch in the Cougareat before heading home with tired kids. 

This pic was taken on Thursday when the kids all wanted to wear their new BYU clothes.  :)

Later that afternoon it was time for Grandma and Papa to pack up and head to the airport.  We had such a fun visit with them and wish they could have stayed longer!  We will get to see them again in October though when they come out to meet the new baby and catch a BYU football game.

First Grade

Tuesday was Weston's first day of school.  He had a hard time sleeping because he was so excited.  It was adorable.  We all got up and walked him to the bus stop.  He made Grandma tear up, but I was surprisingly un-emotional.  Not that I didn't care, just that I wasn't sad about sending him off to 1st grade.  I was excited for him.  I think he's going to have a great year and make lots of friends and learn new things.

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for him to come home from school on Day 2.  Mostly I included this for the belly shot.  I am starting to feel huge and uncomfortable and ready to not be pregnant.  Four more weeks!

 

 

Today is Friday of the first week and he's already combing his own hair in the morning and walking to and from the bus stop by himself.  I watch from the driveway.  I'm so proud of my big kid and love to watch him become more and more independent.  I like it for now anyway, while he still blows me a kiss as he walks away from me.

Grandma & Papa Visit!

We have had a fun, busy week so far.  On Sunday afternoon Grandma Denny and Papa flew in for a visit.  Ian picked them up from the airport and we got to hang out and play for awhile that afternoon.  Mel and Brad joined us for dinner and games that night too.  It was really fun and I was the big winner in Mormon Bridge, so no complaints.

Monday was a packed full day since it was the last day we had Weston home from school.  His request for his last day of Summer was to go to the Children's Museum, so we got ready and headed downtown to the Gateway.  Grandma and Papa had never been to the museum and we hadn't been since Talia was a tiny baby, so it was all kind of new.  Talia loved it.  Her favorites were the balls, the tiny piano in the house, the water table, and the magnets.  The boys already knew their favorites and had a blast playing and showing all the cool stuff to Grandma and Papa. 

 

 

 

 

 

 We stayed until we got hungry then went to In N Out for lunch since Grandma and Papa don't have it in Oregon.  Lunch was delicious.  After that we drove out to Riverton to look at a bike for Davin that was on KSL.  The lady ended up having two bikes for sale that were Davin's size, so I let him choose between an older Spiderman bike and the newer Tonka bike.  He went with the Tonka one.  It's a good bike and he's having fun being on a big boy bike with Dad and Weston.  Grandpa put the training wheels on when we got home and helped him ride for awhile.

 

 

 Grandma went with me and Weston and Talia to Weston's Back to School night, which was actually at 3 in the afternoon.  We went and met his teacher, Mrs. Peterson, and explored her classroom.  Weston was excited to see the Fox Hollow Elementary fox mascot too.  We were a little confused trying to find out about when and where the bus would pick him up, but we managed to figure it out. 

 

We also found out that he is an early bird.  I had requested the later gator schedule, so I was kind of bummed that he had to go early, but Mrs. Peterson's later gator class was already more full than the morning so I didn't bother trying to switch him and so far it's worked out ok.

We ended our whirlwind day with a trip to Target to pick up a bike helmet for Davin, some school supplies I didn't have on hand to send to school with Weston on Tuesday, and an alarm clock to get him up in time for the bus.  Dinner was low key,  followed by baths and a quick school blessing FHE.  Then Weston set his alarm and tried to get some rest for his first day of first grade!

End of Summer Days

Summer is officially winding down.  Weston starts 1st grade next week.  The weather is still decidedly summery, but the days are getting a little shorter and I am starting to feel ready for school and routine and possibly even Fall.  We have been playing and enjoying our down time. 

Last week we went to the Lehi city pool with Brad and Mel.  It was fun.  I am so lucky to have such wonderfully well behaved kids on outings.  I am also lucky to have Mel and Brad around.  They are so helpful with the kiddos.  We have fun together. 

Since it's summer and I always have all the kids they end up running lots of errands with me.  Davin tried on this Hulk mask at Target one day.  It cracked me up because his angry face really looks like that underneath.  If his skin were green he'd be a dead ringer for the Hulk. 

I bought a Living Social deal awhile back for a Cougar Kids' Club membership and last week we went down to BYU campus to redeem it.  I was kind of stressed out about taking all the kids with me onto campus, but it was just fine and we had fun.  We started at the Student Athlete Building to register and pick up our t-shirt, poster, info packet, and sports ticket vouchers.  Then we drove over to the Marriott Center ticket office to redeem our vouchers for actual football game tickets. 

 

We ended the outing with lunch and ice cream at the Creamery on Ninth.  The kids were so funny and ran upstairs to change into their BYU shirts and hats when I told them we were going to go to campus.  They also were a little confused about what we were going to do.  When we were getting in the car after lunch and heading home Davin got a little upset and said "but Mom I didn't do a cwaft!"  He thought the Cougar Kids' Club was more like the library activities that Weston did this summer.  Weston also kept asking when he was going to the Kids' Club.  I had to explain it just meant that he gets to go to lots of BYU sporting events and activities for free. 

 

We are gearing up for a visit from Grandma Denny and Papa next week and school starting!  Goodbye Summer!

More Cousins and a Date!

Friday after the Henshaw cousins left we got to have more cousin time!  Emilee and her girls were staying in Provo all week with her family, so on Friday morning they met up with us at Thanksgiving Point for some Farm Country fun.  We wandered the farm, had pony rides, fed the animals, took a wagon ride, got rained on intermittently, and played in the farming exhibits.  It was a good time.  They came over afterwards for lunch and we got some time to visit and play.  So glad that they live closer now so we can see them more often!

 
The next Friday I took Weston out on a little date.  We went out to dinner at his favorite restaurant, The Old Spaghetti Factory.  He had earned a free kids meal there from doing lots of reading in Kindergarten, so we used that and had a blast.  There was even a balloon guy wandering around and Weston got a viking helmet and sword! 
 
After dinner I dropped him off at the Provo library for a Lego workshop.  He got to build with tons of Lego's, and even got to experiment with building something that included a motor.  At the end they made a couple of spinning platforms with the motors and then the kids could make spin art.  Weston had a blast and I did some shopping and errands while he was busy with Lego's.

We ended our date night with Weston's favorite treat, frozen yogurt.  He loads on the toppings and can eat more than I can.  :)  I sure love my big kid.  It's so fun to hang out with him.  He talked my ear off the whole way home about an animated How to Train Your Dragon show from Netflix.  I think he really enjoyed getting some one on one time with me and staying up late.  I'll need to carve out some time to take Davin on a date next. 

Henshaw's Visit!

When we got home from the family reunion on Sunday we realized that the air conditioner was not working.  This was a very sad realization since it has been so hot!  It was 89 degrees in the house.  I took a long, cold bath that night and planned to sleep in the basement, but luckily a storm blew in and we opened up all the windows and doors to cool things off. 

It was really annoyingly bad timing though because we were having some very important visitors!  The Henshaw family came to visit for a couple of days!  They extended their trip and came all the way up to Salt Lake to visit with some friends in Willard and spend some extra time with us.  We have never had them visit before and the boys were super excited to have their cousins come and see their house and play with them.

Talia finally warmed up to her cousins after seeing them at the wedding and the family reunion.  She even snuggled up to Mimi for morning cartoons on Tuesday.  :)

They got here late Monday afternoon after a long day of sightseeing at Temple Square and BYU campus.  We relaxed (in the hot house) and Brad and Mel came over for pizza and to hang out.  The kids all slumber partied it up in the basement while the men-folk went to see the new Batman movie and us women-folk got shakes and visited until very late. 

Tuesday morning we hung around the house waiting for the A/C workmen to come and replace our system, but they never showed.  It was annoying, but the kids had a blast playing in the backyard.  We finally gave up on the workers showing up.  We fed everyone lunch then headed out to the dino museum at Thanksgiving Point.  We decided to let the kids to the Jr. Paleo lab where they got to use different techniques to make/work on fossils.  Rachel and Davin did a fossil mold while the big kids prepared a fish fossil using an air scribe tool.  It was a fun souvenir and didn't take too long to do.

 

 

 

I got a call saying the workers were ready to install the new A/C (of course) so Joy took the bigger kids through the museum while I took Talia home to nap while I "supervised" the A/C workers.  It worked out ok and the house was finally pleasant again when everyone got home!  That night we had a BBQ and watched some comedy. 

Wednesday morning the Henshaw's loaded up and headed home.  We were sad to see them go and hope they will come back again someday.  The boys are still saying how much they miss their cousins, although Davin says he does not want to sleep in the basement again.  :) Thanks for the fun visit Henshaw's!

Olson Family Reunion 2012

Every 3 years the whole Olson side of the family does a family reunion.  That means my paternal grandparents and all of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren attend.  This year we actually had every single member of the family there.  It was so much fun!  I am so grateful that we have these reunions to stay in touch with all the aunts and uncles and cousins and make memories together.  I love that our kids know each other and that we all get along so well.

Putting together a family reunion is a lot of work, but it is well worth the effort!  This year the Olson reunion was held at the Pinewoods Resort in Duck Creek, Utah.  We all drove in on Thursday.  It was about a 4 hour drive for us.  We stayed in a big cabin/house with my parents and two of my sisters and their husbands.  We each had our own rooms and bathrooms and it was nice having our own space.  Thursday night the family had a group dinner hosted by the Williamson family.  After I put the kids to bed at the house I went back up to their area to visit.  Unfortunately we couldn't have a fire in the pit due to the weather conditions and the many wildfires catching in Utah, but we still managed to hang out there around the fire pit until pretty late.  I love visiting with my cousins!

On Friday we had breakfast together at the house.  Grandpa made his delicious pancakes.  After breakfast a big group of us headed out on a hike to Cascade Falls.  It was a little steeper and longer than I had bargained for with Talia, but it was absolutely beautiful.  I'm glad that we made the trek.

 

 

 

 That afternoon we relaxed and visited.  Talia napped and I helped my mom get ready for the family chocolate tasting event that night.  After everyone had dinner we gathered at our big cabin for a chocolate tasting.  There were over a dozen different types/brands of milk chocolate to taste and rate.  By the time I finished I was actually sick of eating chocolate!  :)  We tallied up the results and determined that the Olson family's favorite chocolate was Dove milk chocolate, with Milka and See's coming in at 2nd and 3rd place.  We stayed up way too late Friday night with my siblings watching videos and chatting, but it was super fun.

Saturday was a pretty chill day.  We all gathered after breakfast for our group picture, which was actually pretty painless.  :)  We thought about going to Duck Creek Pond to explore with the kids afterwards, but it started raining right after we finished pictures, so we ended up just kicking around the resort.  The kids played on the playground and together in the cabin while the adults visited and cooked.  There were horseshoes, trackball, badminton, bubbles, and Frisbees to entertain us.  We worked on a family puzzle and played an extended game of Yahtzee too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 That night we had a family dinner, dessert contest, and games at the pavilion of the resort.  I made my famous chocolate chip cookies for the dessert contest and won a prize! (ok, fine, everyone won a prize, but still)  My favorite was my dad's raspberry chocolate chunk homemade ice cream.  I think I had 3 bowls.  I claimed the second two were for the baby.  Anyway, my mom had a couple fun group games planned that involved wrapping each other in duck tape and throwing paper balls at each other.  There were also lots of fun prizes that kept everyone entertained for the rest of the evening.

 

 

 

 Sunday we had breakfast together again and then packed up and went our separate ways headed for home.  It was such a wonderful reunion and I am already looking forward to our next one in 2015! 

The lovebirds who started it all.