Overheard at our house

Wanted to write this before I forget too much...

After picking our kids up from our friend's house, on our way home from the hospital from having Tyler.

Michael: Mom, why do you still have a huge belly?
Brinly: It's a girl! It's a girl this time!

Overheard at our house...

OVERHEARD #1
Michael and Dan went to a Father son's campout.

For breakfast they were having sunny-side up eggs. (Michael has only had scrambled. I'm not that fancy...)

Michael cut into his egg, and some of the yolk squirted out on his arm. Dan was helping to cook.
Michael: "Uh....dad?! We have a slight emergency over here!" (loud enough for everyone to hear, cause that's just his normal volume...)

Dan: "What's wrong?"

Michael: "Someone put MUSTARD in my eggs!"


OVERHEARD #2
Michael had his friend in the neighborhood over to play.

Michael: "Let's go to your house."
Friend: "No, my mom doesn't want people in the house right now."
Michael: "Why? Is she naked?"

OVERHEARD #3
Brinly: "Mom? Can you shake your booty?"
Me: "No." (I've been trying to discourage this kind of talk and dancing from Brinly...)
Brinly: "Why? Are you too big to shake your booty?"

Rhino Mud run

Have you seen those fun pictures of the crazy people doing "extreme" 5K races?

You know, the ones where they are crawling through mud...

Or it looks like something from a war movie...

...and they have to jump through fire?

Well, Dan signed up for one of those. 

And he signed Chelsea up for the kid version. 

I think it would have been lots of fun, but not sure the belly would have cooperated. 

Unfortunately, it was a BIG disappointment. 

Here is Dan's before:

And the after:

Yeah, not much of a mess, eh? Shoes are a little muddy, and socks have changed color, but that's about it. 

Obviously I was in no shape to chase along side of him to get pictures of all the obstacles, but you can get the idea.

They had two hay bale hurdles about 100 meters from the start of the race. Yeah, kinda wimpy. 

 This is the "fire" at the end they were to jump over. 

L.A.M.E. 

It was just smoldering hay. Probably could have been hot, but definitely NO fire. 

Regardless, of the mediocrity of the race, he still did awesome, especially since he didn't have time to train. I can't remember how many were in his heat...maybe 100? He came in 11th or so. 

Then it was Chelsea's turn...

Hers was only a 1/2 mile run, so Dan jogged along to try to get pictures.

The first obstacle was this tower. A.KA. major people jam. 

Of course, Chelsea is too sweet to get her elbows up and charge her way up. When there was finally a spot, she took it. 

Finally!

She said this one was the toughest....

They also had some monkey bars, but I guess they were super slippery and she lost her grip on the first rung.

Lastly, they had the tires to run through. 

I didn't bother timing her, since it was mainly a just-for-fun race. 

I think Michael wants to do it next year. 

Brinly was super excited to see her again. :) I was a long 7 or 8 minutes. 

We'll find a dirtier race next year...

Happy Birthday Brinly!

I know why I don't blog very often. Our internet is being really cruddy lately, which means it's s...l...o...w......

So, I'll sit for an hour and wait for my pictures to upload. But then, I'll get distracted. And when I come back, someone has closed the window. 

Argh.

I probably should do more frequent, shorter posts, but I don't. 

Anyway, without further ado, 

Brinly's 3rd Birthday!!!

Brinly has been talking about her Birthday, for months. MONTHS. 

She was super excited when it was finally HER day. 

The traditional run-through-the-streamer-to-oficially-turn-a-year-older.

We opened her presents before school, so she could play with them while the kids were at school.

But then waited to have her cake until after Dan got home from work, and moments before we loaded up in the car to go to Grandma's house.  Hence the giant Costco cupcake....

Brinly has been obsessed with Dora, so I was excited to throw another Dora party. However, the last few weeks before the party, she discovered she liked Diego more. But, I was already in Dora mode...besides, they are practically the same thing...

She invited just four little friends (one couldn't make it). 

We held the party during Dan's lunch break, so we hosted a little BBQ and invited the moms' and siblings to join us. 

After lunch, we brought out the cake, but...

So the girls had to go on a quest to find Brinly's cake!

First, you need your map and backpack.

(Aren't they the cutest!?)

 The first stop, was to go through the gate. 

Brinly found a clue that said in order to open the gate, they had to go in the dark cave and find the missing letters to Brinly's name. 

Enter: Big dark cave. Er...as dark as you can make a tent in the middle of the day...

First they looked in their backpacks for something that might help them see in the dark cave, and found mini flashlights. 

I missed the final picture, but they were able to complete the task. 

Next, they had to go down the silde. But a grumpy OLD troll stopped them, and said they needed to have frienship bracelets in order to pass. So, they looked in their backpack to find supplies to make their bracelets. 

I found these super cool bracelets at Hobby Lobby, the fits pony beads perfectly, and connects to the opposite end easily, but securely. It was perfect for little fingers. 

With bracelets done, they were able to pass by the Grumpy old troll, and go down the slide to continue their adventure. 

Another clue took them to Boots' house. But Swiper had been there already and swiped all the colors from Boots' house! They were asked to help Boots put the color back into his house.

(Side note: This dang thing almost had me in tears before the party. We were running late getting things set up, and I finally got the darn thing together. It was awkward and flimsy, as one can only expect from cardboard, and I had to tape it together. 

....only to discover it wouldn't fit through the door. I had to take the whole thing apart, re-tape it together, plus all the parts where it was starting to rip, and then made a mad dash around the house to get food out on the tables, somewhat decorated, and try to tidy my house, all in 10 minutes. Luckily, the guests were running late too. My sincere apologies to those who received this as Christmas gifts! Hopefully it lasted longer for you!)

Finally, with all the tasks completed, the lost cake was found. 

This Brinly keeps us all laughing. She was the one who sang the birthday song the loudest "happy BIRTHDAY to BRINLY...." She knew it was her day. :) 

We love you!

Ensign Ranch

My family is having a reunion at Ensign Ranch this summer, recommended by me. However, I had never been there. So, we decided this would be a great weekend to check it out.

I was worried about the temperature, but it was quite a bit warmer than I had thought. Nights were pretty chilly, but there were some days we wished we were wearing shorts and T-shirts!

There was tons to do!

We went canoeing a few times. FREE!

Yes, Dan's boat looks a little low. It had a small leak in it. :) 

This rope swing sure looks fun....but it was a little too chilly to try it out.

Lots of critters to find! 

It was only in the upper 60's or low 70's, but we had to try out the giant slip in slide. Brinly went down twice and was done. It was COLD. Chelsea, Michael, and Dan went down several times. Hopefully in July it will be much warmer, and we can spend a lot more time here!  (FREE!)

They had these cheap-o tubes for sale for $3 a piece. They weren't required, but there are some rocks under the tarp, so they certainly made things more comfy!

Sorry for the poor quality, but I wanted to show you how fast you can get going on this slip in slide!

There was a huge rock wall, but we would have had to have our own certified rock wall climbing instructor in order to go on it. Which, we did not. :) Hadfield family: Anyone want to get certified so we can have this as an event/option? (FREE!)

Of course for Michael, the best part of the trip was making fires. Dan gave many many lessons on building fires. It took them a while to understand they had to start little with tinder and tiny sticks, before they could dump on the logs.  (FREE! :))

We played (okay, not me) "Hot Lava" on this camp fire setting that was across from our campsite. 

The trees you see in the above back ground, are actually this:

Pretty eh? Lots of people brought their bikes and road all over the campsite with them. 

There were plenty of wrestling matches. I beleive this one was called "She's my sister!" Brinly and Michael were trying to smother Chelsea with kisses and repeatedly said "She's MY sister!" 

Ensign Ranch is a popular place for handcart treks. 

Hadfield family: We have reserved 4 of these for a few hours on Friday, so start working out now! $10/cart)

We had these beauties for dinner, or at least the appetizer. Fishing is free by permit, but if you keep the fish, it is $2 per fish. 

This could be fun for the family variety show...although it is out in the open and we might get some extra audience members!

Chelsea managed to get her hair stuck in the zipper. Not quite sure how....

The final afternoon, we went on a horse-led ride. I was surprised that they wanted the parents to lead the horse. SOME of us have NO horse experience whatsoever. I was afraid the horse would take off, or get feisty and would buck my child off, but everything went smoothly. The horses sauntered on a nice slow pace, and the only challenge was trying to keep them from snacking on the grass. 

($3 for a 15 minute ride. They also offer a trail ride for 8yrs and older for $15 for a 40 minute ride, plus 30 minutes of instruction. We should sign up for this when we first arrive, as the spots fill up fast!)

Brinly LOVED this. She even said "Gracias Horsey" when she was finished. She was also excited to show me that she could ride with out holding on!

The rest of this is mainly for Hadfield Reunion info:

These are the family cabins we have reserved. There are seven of them. I was surprised at how large they were. 

(The picture below is one I stole from someone's blog on the internet, as mine turned out VERY blurry). The main floor has a kitchen type area with a refrigerator, microwave, and a picnic table cut in half and placed next to the walls. Also, a wood stove. The Door to the left is the stove is a fairly large room with a queen bed and twin bunkbeds. (pictured bottom right) These beds are furnished with a mattress. 

See what I mean by blurry?! But as you can see, you could still put up some cots, or mattresses between the beds.

Each cabin has a large loft. A whole family could easily fit up here, although there are not any mattresses up here. 

If we ever come here again for a reunion, we might want to get these: the summer cabins. They are more bunk-style, but are close together, have lots of picnic tables, and even a small play structure. I think this would have been ideal. I checked with the office, but it is already taken for our days of the reunion. 

HADFIELD family: The family cabins are nice (although quite rustic!) but are spread out quite a bit. I was hoping they would be closer. I was thinking we could still reserve four of the closer ones, and double up with families, or some could bring tents and set up around the cabin. What do you think? Do you want to be spread out, or closer together?