Pleasure and Pain

These two pictures represent the last 5 weeks of my life! A whole lot of chaos and little bit of peace and quiet. Three weeks before we left on our trip all 4 kids were hit by the flu and hit hard! I literally had one child on the couch or on a makeshift bed on the floor by the couch for two-three weeks straight! And man was I sweating it cause we were suppose to leave for Mexico. Luckily they all were better before we left except for Cal who still had his stuffy nose and cough that he had for about 4 weeks. We flew Travis's parents up to watch the kids and they all had a great time. It is so nice to know when you leave for a long vacation they are in good hands.

We were able to go to Cabo for about 5 days and it was so nice and relaxing. Weather was about 80 the whole time.

This is where we stayed in Cabo. Pueblo Bonito at Sunset Beach. A little slice of Heaven! We stayed in the top left grey building in the picture. We love staying at the top cause the views are incredible!

This is the view from our room. The sunsets there are fabulous!! Hence the name "Sunset Beach".

Because the resort is still on the Pacific Ocean and not the Sea of Cortez you can't get in the water. The current is too strong and there are sharks in the ocean. They even have guards on the beach to make sure no one breaks that rule.

We don't do much while we are there. Just read, eat and lay by the pool. A little rejuvenation for the chaos I was to return to! And I mean that literally. The day after we got back I was at the doctor with Cal with a sinus infection and conjunctivitis and two more times that week with Strep with Harry and Lydia. One day my life will get back to normal! One sad part of all this sickness and trip is that I have fallen way behind on my photography class. Kids just aren't willing subjects when they feel like crap plus not being able to get out of the house to take pictures doesn't help. Luckily it's something I can still do on my own even though I did not get all my assignments turned in to be critiqued.

Oh Come ON!!

As much as I enjoy doing laundry this gets a bit ridiculous every four days!!

Bad Habits

Cal has had a horrible habit of biting his fingernails. So bad that literally half his fingernails are gone from his nail bed. Nasty I tell you! So I told him if he can stop biting his fingernails enough that I can see the whites of his fingernails I would buy him two Star Wars figures. It took him a couple of weeks of having to remind him and then a couple of times finding his toenails in his mouth biting those and then finally success! He was able to go to the store today and get his prize. Instead of a two Star Wars figures he opted for a Star Wars gun. Like we don't already have a million guns around! We do not have a Star Wars one though!

He played around with it for a while and then started to just get bored cause Lydia and Harry are down with fevers and coughs and he just didn't have anyone to bug or do something with. So I said, "Cal, go upstairs get your Star Wars people, line them up on the stairs and shoot 'em!"

And that's just what he did. I had no plans of taking pictures of him until he came over to me and said,"Mom can you take pictures of me shooting my guys for your class?" So of course I obliged. I have been taking a photography class online for the past 3-4 weeks and am really liking it and really frustrated with it. I was getting most of it until this last week on exposure. That pretty much went straight over my head. Maybe if I finished reading that lesson it would make more sense.

So we went to Bauman Farms the other day on a Monday thinking we would miss most of the weekend crowd, but not realizing that most of the cool stuff was not open on the weekdays. Needless to say we were a little bummed. The kids still had fun and I tried to get a few pictures and then just got too frustrated with myself. Here are a few of the decent ones.

And the Hubby

School 2009

School started a month ago and as you can see I am right on the ball. So on the ball that we did not even get first day of school pictures of Ryann and the ones of Harry were just not very good. Reason being that he was so nervous for his first day of middle school that he was ready with backpack on about 45 min. before he had to catch the bus and was so bad he couldn't even sit still for me to take pictures. He was just mad at me for having to do it. Kept saying he was going to be late! Whatever!

The kids all started on different days this year which kind of threw us off. Harry started a day before the others and Ryann left an hour before the rest of us even get out of bed the next day. Travis takes care of the older two and I handle the other two. Bless him cause I get an extra hour of sleep!

Cal has school three days a week this year and of course loves it! The other day I was getting him out of the car and before I lifted him out I said, "Look at me." He looks at me and then says, "Mom, you're not going to do that lick thing are you?" I laughed so hard cause that was exactly what I was going to do if he needed it!

Cal had his first field trip the other day. The pumpkin patch. I'm trying to figure out how many pumpkin patch field trips I have been on. A lot and at least two more after this one!

Some of the reasons I love this boy is cause he will hold my hand wherever we go. And hold it hard. In fact he reaches for my hand more oft than I do. When we are places like these field trips he doesn't really care about his friends. Just wants to be right with me. That's why he is the only one running down the corn maze. Just wants to hold my hand so we can go our own way and not be with the others and take as long as we like. Takes after his mom a bit in the social department!

The State Fair

So we ventured out to the State Fair for Labor Day this year. I think the last time we were there was about 7 years ago. Let's just say it is not one of our favorite spots. Well, particularly not mine. And for a couple of good reasons. One being I had to work and the freakin' thing the last two weeks of summer before my senior year of high school. So what if it was the only job I had to that whole summer! Yeah, I know I had it good. I happen to get to work in probably the biggest food booths they had back then. We sold everything!! Luckily my brother worked the same booth with me so it wasn't too scary. Man, can I just tell you there are some of the biggest jerks out there. I remember one lady had me in tears one day yelling at me cause I supposedly helped someone before her sorry butt! Hey, it's not my job to tell you adults to form a single STRAIGHT line. I helped whoever came up to the counter. After I served her she ripped her change so fast out of my hand it went flying. I just was so shocked that someone could treat someone that way that I just didn't take it too well. I was a little wet behind the ears I guess. Luckily the people behind her saw how it had affected me and were so nice by telling me to just forget about her. Well lets just say that ordering food from one of the foods booths today really made me remember how bad it sucked and I couldn't say thank you enough to those girls for getting my food for me.

After one of those great nights at the fair my sister, brother, my best friend and I headed out to ride some rides. Well lets just say rides and me DO NOT go together. Well, let's say FAIR rides and me. We were having a good time until I rode the dreaded swing ride. What could be so bad about a swing, right? Wrong! When the ride ended we got off and started walking. As soon as we got just a little ways I knew something was wrong. Before I knew it I was throwing up! Yep, there I was throwing up on myself in the middle of the fair! Remember when I said "we" started walking. Well as soon as I was done retching on myself I looked up and my little butt-hole siblings and friend were no where to be seen! Jerks! I would have stayed and helped them wipe down the vomit that was all over them! So you see, the fair does not have too many pleasant memories for me.

And tonight's adventure adds just one more. Three of my poor kids suffer from motion sickness like me. I was only able to ride the ferris wheel tonight and that had me slightly wishing that thing would soon end. The two girls have it the worst and Harry suffers more on things like..........wait for it.......wait for it............. fair rides. We were winding down the day and for one of Lydia's last ride she wanted to ride the swing ride again. Yep, the swing ride. Lydia, Harry and Ryann decided to join her and I could tell thirty seconds into it that we were going to have a problem. When you see one of your children with there eyes closed and there nostrils open as wide as they can possible stretch you just know there will be some sort of disaster. "Please Harry! Please! Just make it till you can get off the ride!!" I am silently praying to myself. Luckily my prayers were answered and the little bugger let it all hang out next to one of those fun houses! And that little stink even had a Dramamine in him!

I believe whole hardily that it will be at least 7 more years till we visit that establishment again!!!

Summer '09

As those of you who bother to read my blog have noticed that I have done horrible at keeping this thing up to date lately. So I decided to just lump our summer into one LONG post. We didn't do a ton of stuff but life was busy nonetheless. The day after school let out Lydia had her summer performance in ballet. They performed Mary Poppins and she was dressed as a duck as her part in the show. I was fortunate to be able to help back stage in this and let me tell you there is a ton that goes into these things! We were there from 12:30 till 9:30 that night. We were pooped but they all did a great job.

Lydia back left

I think her favorite part though was putting on all the make-up!

For the rest of June we had girls camp, finished up Harry's last baseball tournaments, Ryann had Saxon basketball camps, and the three oldest started piano lessons.

July 4th was kind of lonely cause that was the day Ryann and Harry flew to Utah for the sports camps that I mentioned earlier. So the fireworks were fun but not as fun!

This is the first year Cal would even hold a sparkler. He was even brave enough to light a few and take off running.

We had some loud ones!

And this one of Lydia cracks me up! It's like she was totally thinking of something else, but mom told her to look and smile so she was doing what she was asked but like:

"Huh, smile? Uhh, okay."

Look at the pure joy on Cal's face. Cracks me up!

The rest of July was pretty low key. My sister Court came into town and that was great but didn't capture that very well! We then headed to Utah the first of August for Travis's little brother's wedding and to visit lots of relatives.

So there was the wedding

The happy couple: Josh and Brooke

And a chance for some family pictures

Lydia, Harry Calahan and Ryann

Travis's parents Bev and Tom with all the grandkids

And our attempt at a family photo. Sure wish someone would have told us to move Ryann to the other side so we weren't so lopsided! I swear! One of these days we will get a decent family photo!

Cousins

Devin and Ryann at Thanksgiving Point

Aiden, Hadley, Lydia

Cal and Gavin

Jordan, Brody, Ryann, Devin, Lydia, Aiden and Harry after riding the Tram up while in Snowbird, UT

Gavin, Braden, Corbin, Cal, Harry, Ryann, Lydia, Taylor and Ashlynn at Josh and Brooke's reception

Family Reunions

All of Travis's siblings (except Josh) and his Grandpa Prestwich. (left of his mom in the white shirt) His brother John is in the grey and his sister Jen is is in the purple.

And just having fun

Zip lines

Bungy Trampoline

Alpine slides

Trampoline wars in the backyard

Hiking to the Timpanogas Caves

Getting there!! It was a 1 1/2 mile hike and it was pretty steep. We climbed a little over a 1000 feet. The little ones were pooped!

And getting to see what's inside.

I had the opportunity to run a 5K with my 15 year old niece Devin. It was a blast! Just ignore the look of disgust on my face. This was her first race and she was pretty nervous. I didn't really run the race with her just started it with her. Meaning she came in 7 minutes before me!! She got first place for her age group! I was so proud of her! She kicked butt! Years ago when I was running Hood to Coast I told her that maybe one day we would run that together. We might just have to do that! You get all the uphill, long legs though Devin!

We always have the best time in Utah and we are already looking forward to next time!

Harry is 11

Harry turned 11 in June! Of course we did not have his birthday party till July cause of baseball. The poor guy always gets shafted on his birthday. He invited some good friends from school for swimming and a volcanoes game. They had a blast!

They were able to make it on a night where they were passing our free t-shirts and balls and the players were out signing them that night. So the boys were pretty stoked!

I can't believe he is entering 6th grade this year. This child has never given me one iota of stress all of his life. He is as easy tempered as his dad and is just so fun to have around. He always wants to help me in the kitchen, but then once he does it only lasts for a max ten minutes!! Although he did cut up a whole butt load of potatoes the other day for some mashed potatoes and claimed "this is fun."

He and his sister Ryann were able to go to BYU for some sports camp this summer and they had a ball! They were able to stay in the dorms all by themselves and eat whatever they wanted. I think that was the most exciting for him. Not having mom and dad there to monitor the eating and sweets! When we met them off the plane he was of course excited to see everyone but when he saw Cal he was just so excited and later told me that he missed him the most.

This is what I found in the rear-view mirror when stopped at a red light the other day. I knew he was watching a movie, but still trying to figure out where the goggles came from since they are always in the pool bag! He was obviously enjoying the movie.....

Excuse the quality of this picture. It was taken with my phone.