Let's just start where we're at

Dear faithful readers,

I know you check daily to see if anything new has been posted here, but there never is. Well, hold on to your hats. We have a new post... and it's about an activity we had YESTERDAY. I know. A recent event. I try to please.

This has been a hard year for us. Christmas especially has me worried about tears and crying at the drop of a hat. No, this isn't 5 year old drama, but adult crying. It's been hard, but we got through last night without a tear (well, from the adults anyway). Randy started a tradition about 8 (?) years ago of giving the kids Christmas pajamas and they got to have a sleepover at Grandpa's house. That was not in the cards to happen this year, but we did get to enjoy the PJ's he picked out for the kids. Beef and Megan were kind enough to host (and boy did they host. Sorry for the ridiquious mess!) us for dinner and movie night with the annual PJ present opening and pillowcases from Megan.

We had great food, and marginal conversation (not that the company wasn't lively, but it was the topic that left a bad taste), and good memories.


This had to be posted because we have Matt sitting at the kids table. Not really because he was supervising, but because he is a gimp, and no one wanted him spilling his french dip on the carpet.
I know you just saw Rachel in the picture above, but I loved her face when she was posing for just a bit too long.This reminds me a bit of Danny. You always have to appease him with a silly picture to get the good one out of him.All the grandkids. They sure are a cute bunch. We are so lucky to have such great family, and be able to get together so often. We love you guys.
BoysCutest girls EVER!

Dear Blog,

I had such high hopes, such lofty goals, for you today.

Alas, it was not to be.

I am sick, sick, sick. And whiny.

Loves,

Mandi

Rachel's Halloween party

Isn't she adorable. I gave her a choice of costumes at the store. She could have been Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty, whatever, but she decided she wanted to be a bride.

Fun Family Activity

So when Mike was growing up, they would have this activity where they would go to the store and each get $ 2 to spend toward a dinner for the whole family. Then everyone would combine their "winnings" to have a fun and random dinner. Some of their creations were a box of cereal, mac & cheese, and the like.

Mike decided that we would take our $3 each and go to Harmon's last night for dinner. It sure was fun!

So, here's our spoils. We ended up spending $3.30 each, but overall, it was a pretty healthy dinner!

Our plates were so full, we ended up not eating everything.
Thanks, Mike for a great tradition!

Edited to add: It has been brought to my attention that I need to label the items:
Mike: All beef hot dogs, crescent rolls (to make pigs in a blanket) (yes, that is ketchup and mustard next to it on my plate: the best condiments are a combination of the two...at least for pigs in a blanket)
Mandi: pears and string cheese
Mitchell: 2 small logs of pepperoni (standard fare for this 12 year old)
Austin: yogurt (he's a genious, what can I say)
Rachel: peaches and fruit leather (who still loves fruit leather? Me, that's who!)

This is The Place!

Becca and I planned a fun outing to This is the Place on August 19. It is such a cool place. First we took the train to Brigham Young's house (although, he never really lived there).


Sorry, but Austin had to have his own picture with the statue.

I'm still trying to picture Rachel in a dress walking across the plains. Especially with how hot it was on the day we were there. On the train. We loved the train. I think we rode it about 20 times. The park is situated on a hill, so I would recommend taking the train around once to get the layout of the stops, then get off at the top of the hill (with the Teepee's and Hogan's), and walk down.

Here's Brigham with the kids. He was great. He was very good at answering all the kids questions (and Austin had a lot!). We also loved that we could walk all around the house, and touch stuff, and really get a sense of how they really lived (with out A/C).

The gazebo in the back is where people get married. If you were to get married here, would you have to have a bonnet?

This is the Deseret News building. We spent a lot of time talking about how Mike would have worked here. He would have had 6 twelve hour days, a lot of it spend setting type (a VERY laborious task), and making paper out of old rags. He would have come home all ink-y, and not done a whole lot of writing. This was showing us how the type was set, and how the press worked. Austin, of course had many questions for him as well.

The Heber C. Kimball house (actually a mirror reproduction). This house was so cool! We weren't allowed to touch hardly anything because a lot of the items in the house were really his! Also, my kids loved the window into the cellar, and talking about the advantages of having a refrigerator. President Kimball had a kind of wacky floor plan because he was continually adding to his home to keep men working. He was very generous.This home was a home that held 9 family members. All these log cabins on First West were small homes that were built to house large families. How grateful I am that we each have our own room, and not one large room to share between the 5 of us.

Austin and Winston riding together. Mitchell was too cool to ride, so of course Colton was, too.

This petting zoo was so cool!! You got to go into the pen and pet the pygmy goats and cute sheep. There was even a baby sheep that was so soft. We also got to look at the pigs and rabbits (they WERE in pens). Their water came from a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the pen.
Becca and I loved the Relief Society Hall. Women would come to work on projects... and then they would leave them out! and just close the doors, without worrying about having the kids destroy them! This is a novel concept, and one I think we should revisit today.
The Pine Valley meeting house. We are still not sure why it's on the second story, but there was a stage, and they used this as an all purpose gathering place for plays, church meetings, and other group events.We rode the little train around the lake that supplied water for the mill right next to it. This is where you get the best view of the valley (as Austin is so aptly demonstrating).

We headed (walked/hiked) up to the Indian Village, and I discussed my new lashing skills with the Indian that built his teepee with his lashing skills (thank you 11 year old scout camp!)
We sat in these cool chairs where I proclaimed "These are pretty comfortable", and the girls replied, "Hey, these ARE comfortable!".We ALL made arrowhead necklaces in a Hogan that was very hot.
A visit to the millinery. The lovely milliner was gracious enough to let the girls try on her hats (which were BEAUTIFUL, by the way). This hat really fits Rachel's personality, I think). They just WERE NOT allowed to touch at all! She had a sewing machine in her shop, and I mentioned that it was an old sewing machine that she probably made her hats with, and she said she makes them all by hand. WOW!!
Ellie just HAD to visit the schoolhouse. So we did.
It was interesting to find out that the girls sat on one side of the room and the boys on the other. Austin, of course, had to know which row he would sit in if her was in 2nd grade... and was a bit disappointed to learn that she did not have a definative answer because it depends on which children were in the classroom.
Probably my favorite part was the chore house. I loved watching them do laundry, and beat the rugs clean. I think it really brought into perspective for the kids just how hard daily life was.
And here is where Becca and kids leave us...but we decide to stay and see a couple more things.We rode the train twice around to finally get off on the right stop to walk to Mary Fielding Smith's home. This was a beautiful home off the beaten path, but worth the walk. (Plus we loved the rest on the train. Have I mentioned that it was pretty hot that day?) Her home is off to the side to represent that she built (what a woman) her home in the Millcreek area away from the majority of the saints. Her home was fairly big, and light and airy. I loved it.Another view of our beautiful valley from a higher perspective.
We all decided that we wanted to see everything by this point...and we were pretty tired. However, there is a cemetary up above the main village, so we decided to walk up to it. We took a shortcut through a field, and ended up fairly close, and then we just had a little hike up on the sidewalk to get the rest of the way to it. Boy am I glad we made the effort. It was beautiful... and so serene. Even with Rachel throwing a fit (as evidenced in the above picture.).
A couple more out of the way houses (The Ashby Dugout, like the one the Ingalls family lived in in On the Banks of Plum Creek-Thank you Mitchell, The Ottinger-Little Hall, a firehouse), and were hoping to make it to the Huntsman Hotel, but they closed. Made it to Madsen Furniture and ZCMI, where we tried on these adorable hats:
We finished up the the Andrus Halfway House, a boarding house that had a beautiful kitchen.
It was such a great day; exhausting, but amazing. Even the kids said they loved it (including Mitchell), and wanted to come back with our neighbors. We opened and closed the place... and that's good enough for this year.

No more hippie

As many of you know, Mitchell wanted to grow a "shag" hair cut. We told him that was fine until his priesthood ordination. That date was quickly approaching, and he had his bishop's interview on Sunday. To make a long story short (I know, too late), we talked him into the missionary cut a couple of weeks early. A nice before and after shot.

July 3rd: horses, kitties and a parade

We had a pretty good day on July 3rd. First we went up to Mandi's witch doctor (I'll let her explain that one), then took the kid's over to Mandi's friend from UDA (Utah Dental Association) to ride her horse. There was a new litter of kitties by their coral that the kids named Sparky, Bob and Hidey. Later that night, Mike covered Real, but Mandi and the kids went to the Riverton Parade with Grandpa and their cousins.