Crazy Day.

Troy works for a really good company called INTEL. I am sure a few of you have heard of it. This year they held a family night at Cliffs amusement park. The kids were extremely excited about it.
Troy and I were not excited about it.
I had taken Troy into the ER that morning for back pain. They drugged him up, told him it was a muscle problem and sent him home. So off we went to cliffs with 5 kids in tow and Troy was a little on the "drugged side". Not my idea of a good time. I will NOT be showing you a picture of how I looked.

This was Olivia's first taste of big kid rides.
This is one of the greatest joys in life.
To see the smiles on your childrens faces when they go on rides.
I got goose bumps.

I got goose bumps for a whole other reason here. To watch your child go on a ride like this.
Not fun.
He was having a blast.
Why would anybody do this to themselves?

The kids made it back to the Hopper.

Olivia thought this was the worlds greatest thing.

Every time she went around in this, she would give her Father a high five. I kept telling her to keep her hands and feet inside the aircraft at all times.
She didn't listen to me.
She never does.

The girls waited about 45 minutes to go down this ride. Craaaaazzzzy!
The kids had a good time and fell asleep right away when we got home.
It was worth all the stressful fretting that I was doing just to see all the kids smiles and to hear them talk about all the neat rides that they got to go on.
Troy is doing better.
He is now coherent.

My Dad.

My Dad is amazing. He has been married to my Mother for over 50 years and has 9 children.
He is
Kind
Patient
Funny
Musical
Generous
Loving.
I think that I was pretty blessed to have the Father that I have. Thank you Dad for all that you have done for me. I love you! Your daughter Emily.

Better late than never.

That is my new motto. Better late than never. Soren's birthday was in May and we just had his party. Soren has become a little Wrangler, so we had a cowboy themed party.

This is typical attire for him. Doesn't matter if it's scorching hot out or not. Golly gee, I want to pinch him he is so cute!

I thought it would be fun to have straw bales around. Soren liked the fact that it made him look more cowboy. I was just scared he was going to choke on the stuff.
Note to self:
NEVER HAVE STAW AT A BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH A LOT OF KIDS!
=
HUGE MESS!

Could he get more red neck than this? I threatened him that if he ever acted like a red neck again, I was going to take his boots away.

Our lovely Ella and our Izzie dog. I put a clothes line up on the tree house with old jeans and aprons on it.

Ok, so this was soooo Olivia acting the spoiled little girl that she is. She was throwing a fit that she didn't get to have her picture done before Soren. As she was pitching her fit, Fred whacked her with his tail and totally ticked Olivia off.
Can you tell she wasn't happy?

Soren has so many of his good buddies over for the party. It was fun to see some kids that we haven't seen in a while. I got a kick out of watching all the different personalities that the kids have.

This is a picture of Troy running for his life.
REALLY.
I had the kids all blindfolded and they had to catch Troy.
Good in theory.
The kids could see through the bandannas.
The kids are leavel with Troy's you know what, so when they are runny semi-blinded, full throttle into Troy........
Not good.
REALLY.

Soren wants to marry this girl. If only life was that perfect.

These two little jumping beans are twins. Look how high they are.
Was I ever able to jump like that? I couldn't get two inches off the ground now. I don't even want to try. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

This reminded me of a scene from Tomb Raider. Watch out boy's, this little gal is going to be the first female James Bond. It does help that she has this in her genes. Her father is a policeman.
I wonder if he could pull a stunt like this? Hhhmmm?

Leave little boy unchaperoned for 2 seconds and they all have their shirts off. What's with that? I was just thankful the girls still had theirs on. Whew!
We all had a great time with some great friends. It's on day's like this that makes me want to do more with my friends. Hopefully this summer we will be able to do more.
What am I thinking.
I could wish can't I?

Thanks you all for loving our little cowboy. I had him on Mother's day 7 years ago.
Best Mother's Day present I ever got.
Things I love about Soren.
Dimples.
His squishy ears.
How he rubs my arms.
His hugs.
How he loves everyone.
The way he says "breakfast"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOREN
(only a month past due.)

Cheering up.

Not from out yard.

Here I am, home alone. Troy has ALL the kids at a flag ceremony down town to celebrate Flag day.
I am at home with my foot up.
This morning as I was getting the kids ready I tripped over one of the dogs, twisted my ankle and stubbed my toes.
Yes it does hurt.
Really bad.

So I thought I would post some really pretty pictures that I have taken of some of the plants in our yard. It is making me feel better just looking at them. I try not to think of how much it cost to water them. Just focus on the beauty.

Camp Gorham Scout Ranch

Before the yucky stuff, I thought I would show you all some nice peaceful pictures. Troy taught the Wilderness and remote first aid to the staff up at the camp. The four older kids stayed there with him and I stayed home with Olivia and 3 very rambunctious dogs. On Tuesday morning I went back up to the camp and picked them up.

I got there just intime to take a few shots of the kids riding horses and the final scenario for the first aid course. Yay me!!
Of course that means that I got to put fake wounds on the kids and make them look all injured. My kids are pro's at this now. They are always helping Troy out with his classes.

So before we get to the discussing things I will tell you how much fun the kids had riding horses. The staff were wonderful to the kids. My children felt so special with all that attention they were getting. Soren has everyone wrapped around his finger. The girls are all inlove with him and the boys all think he's the coolest.

While everyone was up at camp, Olivia and I had some peaceful quality time together. Actually it was way to quiet for me and for her. She definitely missed her playmates.

All I wanted was one good picture of the kids. Is that so hard? Apparently for Logan it is.

Now the gross stuff. This was suppose to be a stomach wound with his intestines hanging out.

I created an amputated hand for Anna. Lovely isn't it?

As a joke for one of the guys who had a fascination for pregnant women, we decided to give him one. Now that was funny to watch.

My kids love to play act these things out. This is Ella.

Anna doing a good job.

Soren REALLY goes all out for this.

Logan took the class with the staff and did a great job. Soren knew all the answers to the CPR course. He just didn't have the arm strength to do the chest compressions. He sure is a character! By the time that he's old enough to go to scout camp he will be able to teach the staff himself.

I am glad that my wonderful Husband and crabby kids are all home with me again. Back to the grind of daily life. I just have to keep Soren from trying to teach CPR to all his friends. Especially the girls.

A major breakthrough for Anna.

This picture right here is a miracle. Ever since we can remember, Anna has been afraid of anything in costume like this.
Or
Tooth fairies,
Santa Clause,
Easter Bunny,
you have a big furry colorful costume on and Anna would
FREEEEEEEAAAAAK out.
Intel had it's big birthday party and put on quite the shin-dig. Lots of yummy food and plenty of sugar to make our Soren have a migraine.

After years of being traumatized by big purple dinosaurs, she has taken the first steps to know how darn ridiculous it is that people will put themselves into big purple dinosaurs for the amusement of people.

This she would not do. Nope, not even remotely close to this one.

Tigger made her laugh.

This was so funny. The Intel people had the kids dress up in their "clean" clothes. This is what the people who work in the Intel Lab wear.

It was even funnier to watch them try to get the clothes on.

Olivia almost attacked Boots. She loves
loves,
loves Boots.

The kids highlight of the day was having Ariel from the Little Mermaid do face painting on them. There were Clowns doing it but the kids thought that was a little creepy.
All unanimous.
Hands up if you think Clowns are creepy.
Fred just raised his paw. That was creepy.

Olivia was so enthralled. She sat so still for Ariel.

Over all I thought is was a fun outing for the younger kids in our family. It was exhausting chasing Olivia, chasing the characters. Next time I will let Troy go it alone. To many creepy Clowns.