::the brigham city temple::

On Saturday (the 25th) we got to go to the new Brigham City temple open house.  It is beautiful!!  We got to bright all the kids and walk through the whole thing!  Chloe thought it was so neat.  She got to see it already earlier in the week with her activity days group, so this was her second time through, but she was still way excited.  We looked for peach blossoms everywhere (Brigham City is famous for thier peaches).  The glasswork inside is really beautiful  I've never seen so much beautiful glasswork inside a temple.  Port loved it, I think.  He kind of liked walking behind the signs and under the ropes, and every once in a while he'd show us a really pretty chandelier or something he thought was really awesome. Bubb kind of cried a lot.  He was hungry and tired.  He wanted Matt to carry him the WHOLE time-which was ridiculous and hard.  He was pretty difficult, but then once we got inside and things started to cool off and quiet down, so did he.  He saw the beautiful things, and I think he felt the Sprirt within, and was able to appreciate the temple and enjoy being in there.  He walked around on his own and was much easier to be around after that :]  Ave just stayed with me.  I held her the whole time.  She was a good little Teenieweenie :]  We all really loved it.  I'm so glad we got to go.  It was really neat to be able to take the kids in there.  I'm not sure if they'll remember it (definitely not Bubb or Ave), but hopefully Chloe and Port.  This temple is especially important to us because it's so close to home (maybe 5 minutes away).  We hope we can go often. 

It's right on Main Street here in town.  It's been kinda fun to watch it being built.  We can see it from our front porch (well if we go to the one end of our front porch).  

It was SUPER busy!  We heard that something like 24,000 (that's twenty-four THOUSAND) people went through on that Saturday.  It was hot, and we had to wait around a bit, but it was worth it.  

This is a mosaic painting of the temple just outside the concession area.  I'm sure they'll move it to somewhere else after the temple is dedicated.  It was painted by the youth.  Isn't it neat?

Here's our whole group.  My parents and Billy and Gloria came up to see it too.

Thanks for setting it all up for us, Jennie!  We sure enjoyed it!

More about LDS temples here.

::flag football::

Port's playing flag football again this year.  He had his first game a couple of Thursdays ago (the 23th).  He did pretty good!  He's a little older than last year and Matt's not coaching, so I think that made it better for him (when his dad coaches, he tends to want to baby it up a bit).

There were a few touch downs, a few tackles, a few belly bumps, one awesome touchdown pass, and lots of flags pulled--all on both ends of the field.

A little pre-game huddle...

Probably the best part of the night...

(the treat afterwards)

He's had another game since, and has another one tomorrow, and it's been pretty fun to watch him.  He has a couple of buddies on his team, so that makes if even more fun.  Matt says he's got a few things to work on with him.  He tells Port that he needs to watch more football so he can see what he needs to do.  Port gets excited about that...kind of like it's his homework.  The Cowboys play tonight, and he's all kinds of excited about that!!  He's wearing his Cowboys shirt at school today :]

::family pictures::

I finally finished our family photos!

(more here)

::cheer camp::

So a couple of weeks ago, well more like 3 or four weeks ago, our cute little neighbor girl came over and asked us if we'd had a chance to look over the flyer she had put in our mailbox.  I told her I hadn't really looked at it.  Chloe came to the door with me.  Morgan, the neighbor girl, with her cute little voice and her bright blue eyes asked Chloe if she wanted to come to cheer camp.  Chloe, of course, said YEAH!!  So we signed her up.

She went a couple of weeks later and had SO much fun!  They learned 2 cheers and a dance in 3 days of practice (Monday-Wednesday) and had their performance of Thursday.

It was a hot 3 days of practice!!

Performance day.

This is her group waiting for their turn.

While they waited...

Their cheers...

(My videos are WAY overexposed!  I guess I need to learn more about the video side of my camera!)

I wanted a little photo of her with the cheerleaders in charge of her group.
(Morgan is the girl to Chloe's right.)

It was fun to go watch her.  She had lots of fun all week (even though it was SO hot!  She loves her shirt!  Port was kind of awful at her performance-which is annoying because he has kind of (kind of) out grown the being awful stage, but he was so bored.  We had to explain to him that sometimes it's not all about him.  In a couple of weeks, Chloe will be bored at his soccer and football games!  I think that made him feel a little better.

In other news...
Bubb called me homegirl yesterday.  He told me I "could go tell that, homegirl!"  It was SO funny, but I tried not to laugh.  He said it so seriously...like a boss.  Like he thought it would make me mad or something (he's been a big poo lately).  So I just kind of said "uh!!" and he kept saying more stuff and ended it all with "homegirl." 

::When in doubt, stay at the Hilton::

Last Saturday was Mantua's Little Valley Days celebration.  We only got to go to the fireworks.  Matt usually golfs in the tournament during the week (which they didn't even have this year because his dad wasn't there to organize it), we usually go to some kind of activity during the week, I run in the dam race on Saturday morning (which I LOVE), we watch the cute little parade, we have dinner up at the park where we watch fireworks, and then when it's dark, we watch fireworks.

We missed it all (well not the fireworks)--because we went to Idaho.  Yup.  Idaho.

The annual Twin Falls trip fell on the same weekend.  It wasn't terribly fun.  It's getting a little old (for me anyway).  The older kids love it (Chloe and Port), Coop even loves it, and probably Ava does too.  I have a hard time entertaining 4 kids for that long when you have to be out all day with only a hotel room to go "home" to.  Ave is too little for movies, and, well, it's Idaho, so what else really is there?  The shopping's not great, it's tough to take 4 swimming by myself, and it's too hot to do much outside.

This trip had an extra snag in it too.  I want to preface this story by saying that I wanted to stay at the Hilton in the first place.

We booked rooms at a hotel that we've stayed at lots of times in years past.  I didn't go last year on account of Ava being only 3 months old (and I just don't love golf trips that much).  So I guess maybe it all went to H in the one year I didnt go?  So we get in our room and it smelled a little iffy.  Eh, sometimes they just do.  Whatever.  Not bad enough to be a deal breaker.  Then, we're getting the kids ready for bed (showers and such), and we discover that the tub doesn't drain.  Nice.  We pull out the sofa bed, and there's trash under it.  Gross!  Then I start to wonder what else they missed in the room.  I start to pull down the covers on the beds-looking to see if the sheets look clean.  They didn't.  I called downstairs to ask for clean ones.  They front desk said it'd be about a half hour because housekeeping was on a break.  Uh, ok.  So I decided to go fill the ice bucket (you know me and my ice).  I took the lid off, no liner, and it was wet inside, AND there was hair in it, AND the lid was dirty-straight dirty! OH NASTY!!  So Matt and I started walking around the room looking to see what else was dirty.  By then it had been close to an hour since I had called about the sheets.  I walked downstairs myself with the ice bucket to show the girl at the desk and to ask if I could get sheets myself.  She said they keep the sheets in a different place.  I told her I have kids I have to get to bed (it was 10:30) and that I wasn't too happy about the wait.  She apologized.  I showed her the ice bucket.  I told her I wasn't too sure the room had been cleaned.  She looked at her computer and said it showed that it had.  I said well the room says otherwise.  She apologized.  I thanked her for the clean ice bucket and went back upstairs.  So about 15 minutes later (10:45 pm) the housekeeping lady shows up with "clean" sheets singing "doo duh doo duh doo" as I opened the door.  Doo duh doo duh doo??  At 11:00 at night?  When I called over an hour ago?  And I've got 4 little kids who need to get to bed?  Doo duh doo duh doo?

The next morning, after a HORRIBLE night's sleep for all of us, I got up at 7 to go for a run.  I finally got to run down the canyon.  I've wanted to for years, but never could because of tee times or babies or whatever.  It was beautiful!  I (sort of) ran past the big waterfall, I got to hear it and smell it, I ran past a lot of smaller trickling waterfalls.  I loved it!  I got back and was just about the step in the shower when I saw a bug crawling on the towel that was on the floor (that you step on when you get out).  I yelled for Matt to come see it.  I asked him if it was a bed bug.  We yahooed it.  I swear it was one!  Matt squished it and put it in a cup.  We were outta there!  In a matter of 10 minutes we were packed and the hotel general manager was in our room trying to talk us into staying in one of their extended suites.  What?  Why, are the bedbugs smaller in there??  I told her thanks, but I think we'd be more comfortable somewhere else. (Like THE HILTON!!)

So that's where we went for our 2nd night, and it was much better.  Matt kept saying how much better it was too, and that I should've listened to him and stayed at the Hilton.  Ha!  You'd think that after 10 years he'd listen to me in the first place, right??  :]

So the moral of the story:  When in doubt, stay at the Hilton.

Other than the hotel ridiculousness, it wasn't bad.  We went to Home Depot to look at house stuff, took Chloe shopping, took the kids to the smelly jumpy place (ohh it's nasty), and swam at the hotels.  We missed Richard and Susan a lot on our trip.  We missed them a lot during the whole week they were gone to the MTC.  They came home yesterday for the night just to do laundry and pack a few more things, then they were headed out today for California for the whole 18 months.  We miss them already.

Anyway, here we all are at the fireworks in Mantua.  We had fun there.  Matt didn't win anything in the raffle (he usually doesn't), but it's fun to try.  Jennie, Jared & Sarah, and Amberlee & George were there, so that was lots of fun. 

::swimming lessons::

The 3 big kids took swimming lessons for a couple of weeks, and it just got over on Thursday.  They loved it (for the most part).  Port and Chloe did...Bubb, not so much.  He had fun, but didn't want to get his face or hair wet.  Port was the EXACT same way, and now he's a fish, so we think there's hope for Bubba :)

Chloe learned some water safety (she had to rescue her teacher)...

Pencil dives...

Knee dives...

(the pool at The Peak isn't deep enough for real dives)

...and all kinds of different swim strokes.  The first week of class was swim strokes back and forth and back and forth, and she.was.tired!!

Portie learned how to just swim!!  And he loves it!!  He worked on his back floating, front crawls, and he got really good at opening his eyes under water (which I don't think was a swimming lessons requirement, but he was pretty proud of it).

Look at him go!!Bubba learned how to get his hair wet without getting his face wet (nice, Bubb!)...

Some water safety...

How to jump in...

He also learned how to kick and make big splashes, how to blow bubbles in the water, and how to hop on one foot in the water (again, not a swimming lessons requirement, but he was very proud).

And Poor Mae-Mae.  She looked like this most days.  Red cheeks (full of Fruit Loops) waiting for it to get over so she can go home and eat lunch and take a nap in the air conditioning.

On the last day they got some free time.  They turned on the fountains, and let the kids play with all the toys.  Avie was SO excited about this part!  She's been watching for 2 weeks without being able to join in.  This time she got to play too (a little).  She walked right up to the pool and started to step right in!  Good thing I was holding on to her.  She has no fear at all!  She splashed around kicked her feet, and when it was over, she was pretty wet.

Next year I kind of want to try the Brigham Pool for swimming lessons.  They have a diving board and much deeper water.  I couldn't this year because 3 year olds have to be in a parent/child class, and there was no way that would've worked for us (not with Ave).  We'll try it next year, and see how we like it.

::farewell::

We had to say goodbye to Matt's mom and dad on Sunday.  We had their official farewell on the 8th (July) and got to hear them speak in church.  They gave beautiful talks.  We got to hear their testimonies and why they felt like they needed to serve a mission at this time.  They were set apart on Sunday.  The whole family (minus Adam and his family and Jordan who's on a mission in Argentina) was there for it.  It was nice and a little sad at the same time.  

We took some pictures in the foyer afterwards.  It's kind of fun to see how everyone's changed when they get back.  They're going to San Fernando, California for 18 months.

See Chloe's face?  She was having a rough time.  She's known for a long time that they were leaving, but I think it finally hit her.  She realized that Grandma was leaving.  She started really crying right during a prayer, and hasn't quite mastered the quiet cry.  Poor thing.  All I could do is hug her and tell her shhhh softly.

Some of us went up to their house afterwards to talk and play some games.  I'm glad we did.  We got to spend some extra time with them and say bye at their house, and not in the church parking lot :)

They'll be home for one night at the end of their training at the MTC, so we'll see them then, then it's off the Cali. for 18 months minus a week and a half :) 

(yes, we're counting down)

::B's wedding::

My brother got married!!

My Aunt Karen was in town for it, and so was my dad.  The week leading up to it was one of the busiest weeks ever!!  We also had Matt's mom and dad getting ready to leave on their mission (more on that later) and Matt's brother and his family in from Minnesota.  AND we had our normal summer activities on top of all that (gymnastics, story hour, swimming lessons, activity days)...it was one.crazy.week!!

Presenting the new Mr. & Mrs. Denam...

This little grouping made me cry.  I'm not sure why.  I think just knowing what lies ahead for their little family and all the adjustments to come.  It can be pretty tough.  We wish them much much love and all the best.

Mae-Mae's not a bit camera shy.

Cousin convention...

Dad came.  We're so glad he did.  He and Gayle came up to our house on Thursday for a quick visit.  We took them up to Mantua to show them some stuff.  We talked, showed Gayle our house (she hasn't been out since Bubb was born!), had some snacks, and then we met down in Orem for a picnic with Billy and Gloria's family.  Then he and Gayle watched all the babies for us on Friday while we were in the temple.  They dressed them for us and everything.  When he got there I asked him how he did.  He kind of let out a big ol' sigh and laughed and said he was glad Gayle was here.

:]

The reception was pretty fun.  They had great food, an italian soda bar, and bubbles (which were actually supposed to be for when the bride and groom leave, but the kids didn't know that).

Dad gave a little impromptu speech.

One of my best friends came with her family.  We LOVE them!  I've known her almost my whole life. They live all the way in Pleasant Grove, so we never get to see them.  We tried to take a picture together, but we couldn't really figure out how to stand without feeling awkward...

nope

nope

nope

There!!

I think we got it!

Love you, Care!!

::willard bay::

We went tubing on Uncle Brandon's boat!

(Chloe tubed too, but no photo of that yet)

Played in the sand...

Swam in the lake...

Played in the sand/mud (she had to sit in a life jacket because the sand was too icky-not like in her sandbox at home)...

We also had dinner and celebrated some birthdays with some cousins from Minnesota.  Fun Summer evening.  

I want a boat, actually I want some Jet Skis, or maybe both.  

:)

::splash::

We went to City Creek yesterday to do a bit of shopping for my brother's wedding.  I had to find a shirt, some shoes, things like that.  Matt had never been there, so he came too (I don't think he really cared that much about it).  We told the kids if they were good shopping they could play in the little splash pad there.

Bubb was there too, but he didn't love the splash pad.  He's not too sure about water yet.  He'll get there.

And the teeny girl just wanted to walk in to the splash pad, and out.  In and out, and in and out, and in and out.  Then I picked her up and stood by one of the fountains and stuck her hand in it when it splashed and she loooooved it!  She's so fun!

So earlier in the week I told my mom we'd be down there that day, and she told me to call her and maybe she'd meet us there with my Aunt Karen (who was coming in to town for my brother's wedding).  So when we called, she was making dinner at her house.  We went down.  Aunt Karen was there.  I've never met her (other than when I was probably Ava's age).  She's been estranged from the family for close to 30 years.  The details surrounding the separation are somewhat unclear to me, and they don't really matter.  She's here now and we're glad.  I walked in.  Said hi.  We hugged.  For a long time.  She cried.  So did I.  I've tried to imagine living a life with no family.  No support.  No one to call if you're sad or lonely, no one to spend holidays with, not even a card at Christmas or your birthday.  No body to make you feel like you're loved or important.  I'm sure she had some friends and people to spend time with, but just the thought of no family... I just can't imagine.  I'm glad she and my mom found each other.  I'm glad she's a part of our family again.  I hope she feels loved and important.  I hope she knows she's a part of us and that we love her.