Utah State Fair 2011

Yesterday I picked up Weston from school and took the kids to the State Fair! I love going to the fair, so I was pretty excited. We somehow missed it last year, but not too much had changed. Our favorite parts were the "Little Hands on the Farm" exhibit, the construction machines, the giant slide, and the hot dogs.

When we first walked in we ran into this bee character. I'm really not sure what he was all about, but Weston ran up to him an the bee covered Weston in stickers. Weston thought it was hilarious. He shared a bunch of stickers with Davin because he is such a good brother. :)
Weston was finally tall enough to do the giant slide by himself! Davin went once with Ian, then decided he was done with it. Weston gladly finished using the rest of the tickets.
The Little Hands on the Farm exhibit is so much fun. The kids run through the different parts of a farm and collect wool, milk, and produce in their baskets while learning about how a farm works and what the different animals give us. Then they "sell" their harvest at the farmer's market for $1, which they can then spend at the little store on a snack and milk. The boys both got this delicious root beer milk. It tasted like a root beer float. Mmm.
I bought an ear of roasted corn and we went and sat on the grass to eat our snacks. The construction vehicles were right by us on the grass, so we stayed and played there for a little while. It was also right next to the Walmart display. They had these cool stationary bikes that would blend a smoothie when you pedaled them. We made a peach smoothie. It was delish.
***Incidentally . . . if you live in the vicinity of the Walmart on 6200 S. and 5600 W. . . yesterday they had peaches and plums both on sale for .25 a pound!
We wandered through the animal barns before meeting up with Ian. Weston got to pet this adorable baby calf. The boys both liked the goats the best though. The rest of the time with Ian we went on the giant slide a few more times, got hot dogs and corn dogs, and watched the skydivers come into the rodeo arena carrying the Utah and American flags.
I met up with my friend Jackie while we were eating and she and I headed over to the grandstand for the Wilson Phillips concert! Ian is such an awesome dad and husband. He took all three kids in search of cotton candy then took them home and put them to bed.

It was SO fun to see Wilson Phillips! Definitely a big dose of nostalgia. I remember listening to their cassette on my little walkman on family road trips. Good times. They played about a 60/40 mix of covers (including the Mama's and the Papa's, the Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, ABBA, The Eagle's, Joni Mitchell, etc.) and their own songs. I really liked hearing their own songs the best.
There were quite a few die hard fans in the audience. It was kind of weird because this show was the first day of filming for their new reality tv show that is going to be on the TV Guide channel, so there were cameras around the whole time. Also, if you are a Dancing With the Stars fan (Mom) Chyna (the blonde lead singer) is going to be on it this upcoming season. Anyway, I am really glad I went and got to hear some great songs live. I don't know why I didn't record video on my regular camera, but for whatever reason I used my phone. Sorry for the low quality. . . And that you can hear me singing along. :)

Busy Busy!

Holy cow! Life with kids in school is crazy. Or maybe life with 3 kids is crazy. Or maybe I'm just crazy. Whatever it is, I feel like we are always going. I am exhausted and in bed before 10pm every night. With Weston in school all day, Davin in school half days on Monday/Wednesday, Weston doing karate twice a week, YW mutual activities, Ian's bishopric meetings, early morning Zumba and swimming workouts 4-5 days a week . . . not to mention grocery shopping, laundry, dishes, keeping Talia on a relatively stable nap schedule, and getting everyone fed I am just wiped out!

I have to admit that part of me enjoys the routine of school and my life as the mom of school aged kids. I like getting up early, exercising, and being ready for the day before 9am. I like feeling like it matters if I'm ready for the day at all. Sometimes when you have little ones it's hard to find the motivation for any of that. The other part of me misses our lazy mornings and the ability to keep my eyes open past 9:30 at night to watch a movie with Ian.

Don't forget there is a non-school-aged child along for the ride! Talia is such a trooper. She takes being woken up from her naps and being hauled back and forth to the school, karate, the church, etc. with all the grace an 8 month old can possess. And she looks good doing it. Usually.

Today was unusual. Ian's new car was in the shop . . . did I mention Ian bought a car? Well, anyway, it was in the shop getting some routine maintenance done, so he had gotten a ride to work this morning. That meant that I picked up Weston from school at 3:45, had to be at karate at 4, and then go straight over to pick up Ian from work so he could pick up his car from the shop before they closed at 6.

Ian and his 2007 Hyundai Elantra

I had to wake up Talia from her nap to leave at 3:40. She was pretty happy. When I went to put her back in her car seat after getting Weston from his classroom I had poop all over my arm. Gross and gross. I had to change her in the front seat while Weston put on his karate uniform in the back. I didn't have a clean onesie in the diaper bag, so she got to ride to karate in just a clean diaper. I dropped Weston off then drove home to get Talia dressed. Needless to say it was a hectic afternoon. We made it on time to all our commitments though. There is really no point to this story except for me to marvel at how nutty life is with lots of little ones and to be able to laugh at it in the distant future.

Really, truly, life is good. I am blessed. You know why? See below.

Some much needed down time after school. Watching Avengers with juice and fruit snacks. Can't beat that.

My cutest BFF!

Pretty in pink

The boys built robots to enter into a Lego magazine contest.

Talia's first outfit of today. It sure was cute while it lasted! (which was only until about 11am) Also Talia was busy Labor Day weekend cutting her second tooth! On the bottom right next to her first tooth. :)

Kindergarten!!!

My big kid started Kindergarten this week!

Side Note: When I first got the letter telling me who his teacher is and that he got extended day I told him, "Guess what?!? You got all day kindergarten! And your teacher is going to be Miss Butler!" He giggled. I just stared at him straight faced and said "what's funny?" He kind of looked at me weird, didn't answer, and stopped giggling. :) Hee hee. I couldn't let him think his teachers name was funny, but I did get a kick out of the fact that he's a 5 year old boy and he knew better than to tell me that it's funny because her name sounds like "butt." Smart kid.
He goes to school Monday-Thursday 9am until 3:45pm. On Friday he goes 9am to 1:30pm. He loves eating lunch at school, but is still getting used to having to eat quickly. The first day he ran out of time and only ate his apples and half of his sandwich. I was very impressed that he didn't eat his Zinger first! I let him eat it after school. Yesterday he bought a lunch because he wanted chicken and noodles. Turns out he didn't like it very much and didn't end up eating hardly anything. He decided lunch from home is pretty good.

Monday morning was a little emotional. I was surprised that I teared up. I have been sending Weston to preschool at this same elementary school for the last two years, but leaving him all day. Not spending lunch time with him. It was a little hard to let go. He had no problem running into the classroom though. He had a couple friends from preschool in his class, so maybe that helped him adjust.
Yesterday he told me that his best friends that he plays with in class are all girls. I told him that it's fine to be friends with girls. I asked him if there were any boys he likes to play with, but he said he mostly sticks with the girls because the boys all play rough and mess around in class. But not him. He's such a funny boy. I love him. I hope he does find a boy or two to be friends with though.

I quite like his teacher. She seems very organized. Weston has a little 10 minute homework assignment each night plus 20 minutes of reading. So far he's been a little cocky about his homework, saying that it's too easy for him. It kind of is true, but I'm attempting to teach the kid some humility, so I point out the things he can do better on with writing his name, learning to read, etc. Needless to say Weston is more than ready for this leap into school and I am so proud of my cute, smart, sensitive kindergartner!

As for us non-kindergartners . . . we are bearing the absence of the 5 year old tolerably well. The first day Davin asked where Weston was three different times. Today we went on our first outing without him. It was fun. I met up with a friend and her little girls at Wheeler Farm. I am enjoying having some more one on one time with Davin and Talia. The house is MUCH quieter with Weston gone. Also I feel like I can finally get and keep my house clean. It's amazing how much more chaos and mess there is with 3 kids home all day compared to just 2.

I think we are all still adjusting to our new schedule. It will change again next week when Davin starts preschool on Mondays and Wednesdays. I asked Davin if he likes being home with me and Talia. He said "Yeah, but I wike to go to school too." Mixed reviews for Mom. :) Anyway, here's some photos from our farm fun today!

10 Years

Has it really been ten years since I graduated from high school? In some ways it feels like that ten years has flown by, but in other ways it has been an eternity. We finished off our California trip with a night in downtown Fullerton for my 10 year Sonora High School reunion. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it really was a ton of fun and I'm very glad I went. I got to see lots of old friends that I had lost contact with or just hadn't physically seen in a long time.

I spent most of the night talking (more like yelling actually since the music was ridiculously loud). Ian was a good sport and came with me. He shook hands and looked handsome. :) I loved seeing how everyone's lives have played out since high school. I was definitely not the norm having been married for almost 8 years and with 3 kids, but this is exactly where I wanted to be in life. No regrets. I could have stayed and visited for another hour or longer since I was having such a blast catching up with people, but around 10:30 we headed home since we had a looong drive on Sunday.

Me and Steve Herring

Sarah Stein (friends since 3rd grade), me, Ian, Stephanie (drill team bff), Stephanie's husband, Ashley Glass

Some of my old teachers from HS . . . Mr. & Mrs. Clark, my swim coach Mr. Hawkins, and Mr. & Mrs. Boothroyd (they got engaged my junior year).

Victor, Kiren, and me. These are seriously two of the funniest people I know.

Me and Ashley Mains. I have been friends with Ashley forever. I think 1st grade? It was really great to catch up with her!

Stephanie, me, and Kristina . . . drill team buddies! So fun to see these girls!

Stephanie and me. I wish we lived closer!

Kristen, Kiren, Monique, and me. We always ate lunch together. Good times.

Me and Mackenzie. We were swimming bff's and worked on lots of projects for classes together over the years.

Sunday we drove all the way home. It was uneventful, just long. I sure do love California. The more I think about where I want to ultimately raise my family the more I find myself searching for a place as awesome as southern California. I don't know if anywhere else compares. In the meantime we will keep enjoying our trips.

It has been good to be home. We enjoyed every second of the last of our summer. It is still hot, but the pool will be closing after this next weekend and school has started, so the summer is mostly over. Speaking of school . . . Weston is at his first day of all day kindergarten right now. I sure hope he is enjoying it. Talia is napping and Davin is watching a movie. I think I'm going to like the school years.

Beach Day

Friday we packed up the car and headed down to Corona Del Mar for the day. It was absolutely gorgeous weather. Hot in the sun, but there was a cool breeze. The water felt good too. Not that we went in past our knees or anything, but still. The boys loved digging, but did NOT love the sand that they both managed to get in their eyes. Weston had to go to the showers to rinse his face and when he came back he zonked out on the blanket for about 45 minutes. I covered him all up with a towel so he didn't get fried. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of him sprawled out asleep in the sun. We love the beach!
Talia LOVED the waves! She would kick and giggle and make all kinds of cute noises while we just stood there holding her hands. Talia got a little 20 minute nap in my arms, but other than that she didn't sleep. I was impressed with how happy she was without a good nap.
After a few hours we got in the car and drove up to Long Beach. We stopped in to visit with Grandma Snowball for a little bit and also got to see Aunt Chris and Uncle Dick for a couple minutes.
We ended our beach day down at Pooh's beach for the Olson Family Beach Party. It was a blast! We roasted hot dogs, brats, and sausages, made smores, got to see all the family (including Brad and Mel!), celebrated birthdays, and the kids got to go on a pirate treasure hunt. Ian and I snuck away for a quick walk along the beach too. It was a long day and we were all pretty beat by the end, but we had so much fun. I sure miss living close to the beach.

Travis, Lance, Ian, and I at the Olson Family Beach Party

Uncle Rich and my dad. Such handsome guys. :)

Mel, Grandpa Olson, and Uncle Devar

Pirate Treasure Hunt!

Me and my sweetheart . . . Long Beach August 2011

More Cousins!

Holy cow I haven't posted in forever! Sorry! We have just been busy getting and keeping the house clean and trying to squeeze every last fun drop out of the last few weeks of summer. I can't believe that Weston starts Kindergarten next Monday. We went and met his teacher yesterday and had his assessment. He is more than ready for school, and I think he is going to have a great experience.

I never finished blogging our California trip . . . shame on me! This is from our second cousin day. On Thursday of our trip we drove out to Palmdale to spend some time with Aunt Teri, Uncle Mike, and Ian's cousins Todd and Jenni and their cute kids. They also hadn't met Talia yet, so Aunt Teri needed some good baby snuggles. We had a blast visiting, swimming, and letting the kiddos run around. It's always so fun to see the Williams'!

Weston and Preston were buddies and got along great!

Talia getting to know Brooke a little better. Such pretty little girls!