Scouts

Tonight was Ben's first scout meeting. It was pack meeting so we all went hiking up the canyon. He was so excited to put on all his scouting gear and look like an official scout. They earned their conservation and no trace left behind wilderness awards and he has so excited he was jumping. He was excited to get badges before he even earned his bobcat. Too bad they don't keep this enthusiasm as teenagers. He is determined to get his Bobcat by next month and start on his wolf. Brandon is now a weebelo. Wow they grow up so fast. One more year and Brandon will be an official Boy Scout. Sean is already talking about when he is a scout. It was fun to see them so excited.

Mother of the year

So just thought I would add to my wonderful mom confessions. Bryan told me the other day Sam had a large splinter in his foot I needed to look at. Of course I's tired and forget. Last night Bryan asked me to bring home supplies to take his splinter out, and yep, tired unorganized, forgot. I didn't notice he has been walking on the side of his foot for over a day. Today as I'm running around trying to get ready to pick up the boys he is crying so I finally look at his foot really well. He has a huge, black, deep splinter that has a large red circle surrounding it. All this is bad enough, but he has had a random fever for a few days and is spilling protein yet again. Wonderful mother of the year, maybe if I hadn't been so tired and ignored his foot he wouldn't be having kidney problems. I'm so tired of being a rotten parent.

Happy Birthday to Brandon

So I'm such an organized super mom that yesterday afternoon, my child is reminding me I promised him a party this afternoon with his two best friends. He had already invited them but I hadn't gotten any invitations or much of a clue as to what to do. We decided on a movie at the theaters since he only wanted two boys to come. Nice easy, very unorganized, right up my ally. A quick phone call to the mom's to make sure they could come on such short notice, and we were in business. So they came over, we saw Battle for Terra, a very 'cool' 3D show at the theaters, a big treat for all these boys. They were in heaven and I didn't have to clean my kitchen. Then they came back to the house to play for an hour and got to make their own cupcakes. Which of course most organized mom's would have done already, so they hadn't made cupcakes before. Again, big hit. Procrastination payed off big, and everyone had a good time.
Then Brandon asked what I had gotten him for his birthday, ?uh nothing? ?me no organized? But wait, I had bought a ton of video games months before from the rental store, they were clearing out their old game cube games, and since I refuse to spend good money on a WII my poor children must make do. So he got to pick out a new game from my stash. The day was saved. And I got to sleep over 1/2 the day, after a 3 am night before and a full night of work tonight.
How any child makes it through life without permanent scars from their parents is a miracle.

Spring Break

So we ran away to Arizona for the week. The plan was sunny warm weather, no rain, or snow, etc. Well so much for well laid plans. The storm that destroyed Utah was huge and we did get some of it all the way in Arizona. The first two days were cloudy, and would have been warm, but we had 50+ mile/hr wind gusts. The third day there was no wind, but the temp dropped and we had beautiful sunny skies and a temp of around 35 with snow flurries while the sun was shinning. Interesting. The best day was Friday that we spent in the car driving home. :) I did get a bike ride in only out of pure bullheadedness. It was the sunny day and I had not brought my winter gear, expecting warm weather, but I was not going to pack my things 600 miles and not use them. So I climbed mountains, in shorts and a tee shirt, in 35 degree weather and snow. So fun.
We hit the Grand Canyon Tuesday morning, It's been a long time since I've been there. It was fun to watch the boy's reactions as they looked out at the big hole in the ground. We did a little hiking, it's nice they have many short paved trails, the little boys get tired easy and are way to heavy to be carrying for too long.

The Condo's are really cool. The whole place is set up like an old western town. There are condo's above the shops, etc. There is a horse ranch, but with the weather we weren't able to go riding. Of course the boys had to play games and hit the hot tub a few times. They also have a fun place to dress up like cowboys and take pictures. Sean really liked dress up time. With the weather being weird, we did have the boys do a fun tye-dye shirt afternoon, and they are all so proud of their home made shirts.

Wednesday we headed out to the petrified forest and the painted dessert. The wind was really blowing that day and we kept getting hit with sand and tumble weeds. We did watch a movie about how the petrified forest came to be, it was really fasinating. That was when the snow started to blow in so we would drive to a point of interest, count to three and all run out of the car in to freezing 50 mph wind - take a picture- and run back to the car. Ahh good times. The painted dessert was really cool. We'll have to go again sometime we can actually hike around. It is amazingly pretty and colorful.

Hopefully this won't take a week to upload for all those logging on. We really did have a great week, and got back just in time for me to do the Bike Tour at the Salt Lake City Marathon early Saturday morning. Busy week, now I need a vacation to recover. :)

Super Brandon

Before, I post all our Spring Break pictures I just have to brag about Brandon today. He was bugging me to go on a LONG bike ride this afternoon, we we rode our bikes out to Sonic in Pleasant Grove. This is just over 8 miles from out house and we took the back roads so it was pretty hilly. He was doing great until about mile 13. I didn't think he was going to make it back. I called Bryan to come pick him up, but he was adamant that if he could just take a rest he could finish. I wasn't so sure, but we stopped at the gas station for awhile and sure enough he rode all the way home. He even made us tack on an extra mile to he could get a movie for the night.
I was so proud of him. He was struggling, but really wanted to finish what he started. 17 miles for a boy who isn't even 10 yet. I was impressed.

Easter

Today was very nice. I got a bit of sleep and the easter bunny came this afternoon after things warmed up a bit. We had a nice dinner with Bryan's mom and Daniel. His family is in Colorado so he can do finals all this week. He played video games with the boys while I ran to work and Bryan drove his mom home. There is so much candy at our house it is crazy. It needs to disapear. Planning on a lot of hiking this coming week.

Mental Health

So I sat the boys down the other day to plan out a few day trips for spring break which is starting tomorrow. I was thinking we go hiking one day and to the park another etc. So of course it is supposed to rain the entire week, be clowdy, cold, yuck!!! I couldn't take it. I am so sick of winter it's driving me insane!!! So Bryan got a call at work about an hour later informing him we were headed to the Arizona desert for spring break. ? Yes the only place in driving distance not expected to rain once all week long. We have a time share that had openings out in the middle of nowhere this week, so were off. Bryan wasn't sure he was going to go but I had had enough cold. He was going to stay home and work, but the boys guilted him into coming. It was really cute. They were all excited to go and kept asking him why he wasn't coming. Brandon can lay on the guilt thick when he wants to. "Dad, we are going on a family vacation. What do you mean you're not going? Don't you want to spend the week with your family? Is work more important to you than we are dad?" He was pretty ruthless, so of course Bryan spent the next day at work trying to get the time off last minute. I'm hoping for a warm, rain, snow free week with nothing to do.
Of course nothing ever goes completely according to plan.