Ryan & Erinn's Family

We were pretty impressed by Aspen Grove last year. So much so, that we decided to spend our last few days of vacation at "Family Camp" again. I mean, they babysit your kids, it's cheap, and you don't have to cook. I don't see a downside here.

During the opening activities we decided to combine with another family to boost our numbers - there are a lot of huge families and reunions at Aspen Grove, so we felt reproductively inferior. I can't remember their names, but this family was a lot of fun. They, like most of the people at this late session, were from California (Utah schools were already in session.) Team "Brown Monster Spies" did not, however, win any of the contests.

The kids thought the bunk beds were the coolest thing ever. We have bunks in their room at home, but they're still separate.

This is me being totally proud of myself. I kinda sorta did part of the ropes course! Amazing, huh? Last year I absolutely refused. Heights make me want to die. It's caused a bit of marital discord, actually. For some reason, though, I decided I wanted to try just the climbing log this time. When I got to the top of it, the belayer convinced me to attempt the wall part, and I did it. I wouldn't do the ropes, though. Maybe next year.

That's Ryan, not me.

At frontier night, there was an awesome double rainbow, but you can't really see it in these pictures. Ryan and I spent one afternoon riding "diggler" scooters down the Sundance ski runs, which wasn't as fun as I'd hoped (the trails were too bumpy and narrow for me, but Ryan loved it.) I didn't get any pics of that, sadly.

On the last night, the kids' groups did their little performance. Connor was a "bobcat", and Elise was a "tromper" again. (Last year she was moved up an age group because there weren't enough kids.) At the end of the show, as people were clearing out, Ryan told Elise she should run up on stage and dance. It was a joke, but she totally did it! She got a round of applause, then all the other kids in the audience wanted to do it, too, so we hung out for half an hour while kids danced and ran around in the dark.

Bobcat Cheer

Tromper Cheer

"She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain"

"The Wheels on the Bus"

Connor was going through a self-conscious phase.

Elise picks weird times not to be shy.

I can't believe I'm almost four months behind. This is beyond pitiful. Let's see if I can fix it a little.

First, I have to mention this deer. He visits our yard all the time to eat our apple trees. Ryan gets mad at him, but since the deer can't walk on one of it's hind legs (it limps everywhere in a pitiful way), we have to be nice to him. The kids and Ryan sometimes throw him apples just to laugh at how goofy it looks (deer mouths aren't very big, and the apples kinda are.)

Our summer can basically be summed up in three stages: San Diego, Spanish Camp, and Utah. Seriously, this is the shortest summer I can ever remember, and I think it's because I have a kid in school (well, kind-of in school anyway.)

So, school got out the end of June, and we did our family vacation to San Diego. Then, the second week in July, Connor started a month-long Spanish day camp. He loved it, because he got to earn "pesos" for speaking Spanish, which he could spend on fabulous dollar-store toys at the end of each week. I think we'll do it again next year, but it really ate up a lot of our summer. I just don't feel like we have time for Spanish lessons during the school year, and it's something I promised myself we'd do while the kids are young.

In the middle of August, I scraped together all my courage and drove my kids up to Utah by myself. I'd been wanting to try that for years, just to prove I'm a grown-up, but I didn't dare until now. It's funny, but having three kids is easier than when it was just Connor. Now I can say, "Give Evan some crackers!" or "Is the baby choking to death?" To my children's credit, we made it from L.A. to Saint George without a single stop (yeah, the gas was a little low.) We packed plenty of snacks and nobody had to potty - I was pleasantly surprised. We stayed in a Motel and made it to my mom's house by afternoon of the next day.

While there, we were able to attend the County Fair! It was a tiny little production, mainly made up of 4-H projects on display, but I loved it. That weekend they held their Demolition Derby, and since my mom graciously volunteered to watch both Evan and cousin Felix, I was able to take the other kids. Kelli already blogged about this, but for those of you who missed it, a storm front blew in after the first competition, and they evacuated the arena due to lightning. We hung out in our van for about 45 minutes, until somebody gave the all-clear, and finished up the show. It was pretty sweet. Ryan totally should have been there - he loves gratuitous car-smashing.

Elise was scared that it would start raining,and water would get in her face.

One late afternoon a different storm came in. (FYI, this is one of my absolute favorite things about summers in Utah - the heat lightning and evening storms!) Connor got so excited to see weather (remember, we live in L.A.), that he ran out in the rain, shrieking. He kept coming back to the covered porch, giggling, then running back out in the rain. It even hailed for a minute or two. After awhile, we all decided to join him, and had a great rain party.

My friend Adrienne recently taught me to make old-fashioned sauerkraut, so my mom and I decided to try it on our own. Basically, you just shred cabbage, pour salt water on it, and stuff it in jars. We also added a culture powder to make sure it worked right, but supposedly that isn't really necessary. The final step is to let the jars sit at room temperature in a dark place for a week. When you open them up 7 days later, you have something that is not only edible, but AWESOME. I don't even like sauerkraut, and I love this. Anyway, we were so proud we had to do a photo shoot.

My mom has been doing Atkins for nearly a year now, and I decided to take advantage of her willingness to cook for me by attempting to break my sugar addiction. I also wanted to see if I could lose a few pounds, so I went almost completely off carbohydrates while I was in Utah. I felt so much better. I didn't have that crazy hunger I'd get at home after eating a high-carb meal, and I lost ten pounds! I'm still doing a modified version (I pretty much just avoid all grains and sugar,) and feel tons better than I did before.

Oh, and speaking of breaking habits, Elise stopped sucking her thumb while we were at Grandma's house! We finally bought that "Mavala Stop" nail polish, and it totally worked. She was ready to stop - I'd promised her an Easy-Bake Oven as a reward when she was through - and I sweetened the deal by giving her a lollipop or some other treat each time I put the nail polish on. She tasted the "yucky stuff" half a dozen times the first couple days, then just stopped. No tears or anything - it was a miracle. Good job, Leesie!

It was good while it lasted.

I got my mom a miniature lure-coursing machine for her birthday, and we finally got to see how it works. It's a tool for exercising really fast dogs (or cheetahs, if you're into that). Basically it just pulls a lure (plastic bag) around a course of pulleys while the dogs chase it. It was fun to watch, but hard to photograph.

Coda the puppy

Circe (the grandma)

Kyle and Kelli invited us to crash their friends' slip-and-slide party, which we expected to be kinda lame. We were imagining "Crocodile Mile" in somebody's backyard while kids took turns sprawling on the ground. So . . we didn't bring our swimsuits. Too bad for us. It was amazing, and the kids had a great time. (Connor was worried he'd see kids he didn't know, and that they'd wonder why he was there. It took him about thirty seconds to get over it.)

On our last day at the whippet ranch, I decided to take some decent pictures of the place. I love my mom and stepdad's house, it's the perfect antidote to Los Angeles sprawl.