Rafting

I finally went rafting down the Kern river last night for the first time. I've only lived here my entire life, but somehow just never made it down the river. Bobby and his fiance Kelsie are in town this week so we went rafting as a family. Most of us anyway, Mom & Stef are at girls camp and the kids were too young. It was a lot of fun. Here we are getting ready to head out.

 

They cinched our vests up so tight I felt like I was wearing a corset. Unfortunately it did nothing to flatter the figure as a corset would.

Everyone jumped in for the "floating section", but I opted to stay in the boat and take pictures. I was fairly certain that my twig arms would not be able to get me back in the raft while it was moving.

 

Everyone took turns jumping off the tree. 

Thad had to show everyone up with a backflip.

And Bradon attempted a Karate Kid move, but this is how it turned out.

We were on the water for about an hour and a half and had a great time. We will definitely have to do this again.

When Daddy's away. . .

Okay, so last week with Thad being gone the kids got together and decided to make life really interesting for Mommy. Monday we had a dentist appointment for Andi. Her teeth were totally clean and healthy, oh except that while the dentist was cleaning one of her old fillings chipped. Yep, a little piece flew right off. So the options were, patch it, knowing that it would keep breaking and have to be re-patched, or crown it. So the next day we go back and Andi got a "shiny new tooth" as she calls it. I hate that she has a big metal crown, but it's on her very back tooth so you can't see it. But as you can imagine, dealing with the after effects and her mouth being numb for a while was not fun. She's so dramatic!
The next morning I was in the kitchen and the kids were in the living room, when I hear a crack, followed by  Sammy crying. They bashed heads, and Sammy chomped down so hard he chipped the corner off his tooth. Nice. Luckily the dentist said if he could still eat and brush teeth without pain, we wouldn't need to do anything about it. And thankfully it's not bothering him.That night they were chasing each other through the house and Sammy ran into the bathroom, then slipped and hit his head on the tub, so he has a nice purple welt on his eye brow.
Later in the week we were doing some grocery shopping. Andi has gotten into standing/holding on to the side of the basket, which make it really hard to steer, so I am constantly telling her to get off the basket. At the same time I'm usually wrestling Sammy to stay in the dumb seat of the basket. Again, their forces combined, and when I turned to grab something off the shelf they pulled the basket over right on top of Andi, and Sammy flew out. No one was seriously hurt, but you'd think every bone in Andi's body was broken from the screaming that went on. Yes, screaming bloody murder in the middle of Winco.
So now that Thad is home they get to rough house with him and seem content to do that instead of injure themselves. My mom and Stef and I took the kids to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie. It was cute, but thankfully only an hour long. Even for Pooh Bear and a bag of M&M's Sammy will not behave at the movie theaters.
I did get my chair project done. 8 chairs in total. I wanted a pattern on the back, and I have to admit it doesn't really go with decor in the rest of my house, but since they are only brought in when we have a large crowd to feed I think they will work just fine. Here is the before, and for some reason my grass is looking like neon green astro-turf. It doesn't look like that in person, I swear.

The after. 

It looks plain black, but it's actually oil rubbed bronze, so up close you get to see this lovely-ness.

 

I also managed to read a few books in Thad absence, one was a story of Charlotte Bronte's life. And now I feel the need to read her other novels, and well as her sisters.

Kid City, and Lot's of Firsts.

Every few weeks Andi likes to hit up the Children's museum with Paige. Tara is always prepared with a camera to catch all of their cuteness, and last week I finally was too. They love playing in the "Kid City". Here is Sammy in the fire-station.

Taking the 911 call.

Driving to the fire.

Breaking out the hoses. 

Andi ordering lunch from Paige's Restaurant.

This was funny. Hannah and Andi were arresting Nate for something. Hannah is doing the interrogating, and I believe Andi is the guard.

And yes, she is running around this place barefoot. She takes her shoes off everywhere these days! It's weird, and a little gross when she does it in public, and consequently her shoes are always lost. We are always hunting down shoes.
Last Saturday was full of firsts for me. I took my first trip to the Tulare outlets just up the road, as well as my first trip to Hobby lobby and Panera Bread.  All three were just minutes from each other. Hobby Lobby might be the best craft store ever, and though I wish we had one here, I'm also pretty sure it's a good thing we don't have one here. It would get me into trouble. Panera Bread lived up to all of Kelsies hype, yum. I was not super impressed with the outlets. They do have a Loft store, which made me very happy, but other than that it was the same old stuff we have around here. The whole purpose for the trip was to find outfits for Bobby's wedding. Don't worry, none of us found any wedding attire. But I did come home with stuff ;)
Thad is gone this week at scout camp, so we have been super lazy. Lot's of pool time, and hanging out, and lot's of late night reading for me. I picked up two new books on Monday, one of which I've already finished. I was tempted to start re-reading the 7th Harry potter book before we see the movie Saturday, but I'm not sure I could cram it in in the next 3 days.
Project of the week. Spray painting old metal fold up chairs that the church was getting rid of. Hopefully when I'm done they won't look like old chairs that were being discarded. Crossing fingers.

Happy Birthday . . .

To Me, and America. It has been a crazy busy, fun weekend. Friday evening Thad and I were able to go down to the LA temple together, which as always, was lovely. On the way down he told me my birthday present was on the seat behind me, but I told him it could wait till Sunday. He insisted I open it right then so I could use it over the weekend. He got me this cute little guy, complete with dust collector and carrying case.

Yes, I did ask for a sander for my birthday. I asked for a mouse sander, but I think since it was going to live in the garage with Thads tools he didn't want anything with such a dainty name in there. I broke it in Saturday and love it! I really should have used one of these the first time I re-finished the table, then I wouldn't have had to do it again. But the top was in horrible shape due to children scratching and stabbing it with forks. Today it's all finished and looking lovely.

Sunday was my birthday and our turn to host Sunday dinner. We cooked, but took all the food down to my parents to eat. Usually when we host we eat in the backyard because we don't have room for that many people in our dinning room, but as it was 106 on Sunday, we thought we'd keep it indoors this time. We ate too much and I was spoiled, so it was a great day.
Monday we partied all day. Seriously. Our friends Micheal and Cari Jackson were in town with their two cute boys so we hit the pool with them around 10 am. It was almost 100 degrees by then so it was time.

 The little guys on their snack break.

Andi & Anthony liked diving and posing for the camera. 

She was this happy all day.

After a lunch break and a short rest we went back to my parents for the big party. Since Michael and Cari were here we had a BBQ with our "back in the day" friends. Lot's of food, more swimming, and the totem pole of fire.  Here is the whole gang right before the fireworks. 

Michael, Tarin, Spencer and I have been friends since we were kids, and it was so nice to be together with our families all these years later and still enjoy being together.  Here are almost all of the kids lined up for their sparklers. Only the two babies are missing .

Sammy sat like this for the entire show. He kept telling me it was too loud, but at least he wasn't crying this year. Ignore my horrible posture.

Not bad for a homemade show ;)

This picture has nothing to do with the weekends festivities, but I wanted to post it because these two are constantly making forts, everywhere, out of anything.

It was such a fun weekend, but now we all need a nap. Too bad I have to bake and vacuum seal 120 brownies in the next few days. Yay scout camp.