BEAR LAKE

We decided to rent a cabin at Bear Lake last weekend. Bear Lake Lodging has a variety of condo's and cabins available and we were able to find one that slept 25 people. More than enough to accommodate my side of the family. We were wanting to go on a camping trip, until we really thought about how much work was involved in camping. A hotel or cabin is much more my style! (I would rather have someone else clean up for me and make my bed while I am on vacation.)


On Friday we went to the North Shore beach. We all think this is the best side of Bear Lake. The shore is shallow, good for kids and there are no rocks. Reagan loved playing in the sand/mud, chasing the seagulls and running out into the water.



The temperature was only 69 degrees on Friday so the water was pretty cold! We rented wave runners and the coldest part was walking out to the machine to ride. The ride itself was awesome. Our Seadoos were fast, we got them up to 64 miles per hour.


That evening my mom put together a family challenge game night. We split up into teams (guys against girls) and had a trivia game about different members of the family. After that we had a crossword challenge to complete. The girls won both games of course because we are the smarter gender. My mom even bought prizes for the winning team, although the girls shared in the winnings with the male species in the family out of pity.

FLIP FLOP PARTY

 Madi had her 10th birthday on August 12th. I think they should call it birth week instead of birthday. It seems the celebrations as a child go on and on and on.

The Friday before her birthday her Nana took her shopping so she could pick out exactly what she wanted for her birthday. Madi really enjoyed spending the time with Nana and being able to shop for clothes! They went to Fashion Place Mall and headed to Limited Too, where everything is in fashion. Madi picked out a darling black glitter skit with a red tank top and white sweater. She also got a pair of shoes. After the Limited Too, they ventured over to Nordstrom where Madi purchased a robe. (She wears it every day) After their shopping excursion, they picked up Grandad and went to dinner. I know Madi felt extremely special and will always remember this one and one time with her Grandparents.

The Sunday before Madi's birthday, we invited my family over for ice cream brownie cake. It was a beautiful night and we enjoyed the weather by playing the bean bag game outdoors. Madi was given some beautiful, hand sewn barbie clothes from her Grammie and Papa and a new book entitled "Daughter of a King". She also received a Justice GC, I-Tunes GC and every ones favorite "money," from her aunts, uncles and great grandparents.

On Madi's actual birthday we took the family to Olive Garden for dinner. It was a short celebration considering the work day and school the next morning. Her favorite presents were tickets to the Carrie Underwood show coming up in November. Madi and I both love Carrie and the guys don't mind her too (considering how beautiful she is) Jaxson likes to call her Carrie Underwear. She also received a new messenger bag for the school year.

The highlight of her birthday had to have been the friend, flip-flop party. Madi and I had been planning this for months. We ordered flip-flop, sun-catcher, picture frames and the girls all got to paint them at the party. We also took every one's picture with Madi at the beginning of the party and had them developed, so the girls could put them in their picture frames. Every girl picked out a pair of flip-flops and ribbon in order to tie their own pair of flip-flops to take home. They turned out super cute and they had a great time listening to the Jonas Brothers while creating their new footwear. (I forgot how noisy twelve, 10 year-olds could be. Wow, they are screamers and I thought little boys were bad!) We ended the party by singing happy birthday with a flip-flop cake. I believe the party was a huge hit. I know Madi had a really good time.

I'm glad it is over... this was a lot of work for mom. But I'd do it any day for my kids!

STEPHENIE MEYER FEVER

August 2nd couldn't have come soon enough for me! Jen, JoLynn, Melissa and I all decided to go to the Breaking Dawn party at Barnes and Noble, Friday night so we could be one of the first to get a copy of Breaking Dawn (The 4th and final chapter of the Twilight series). Because Edward and Bella were going to get married, all the book stores decided to make the party a wedding reception with all the usual wedding festivities. There was an ugly bridesmaid competition, pin the tail on Jacob, tossing of the bouquet, pictures with the bride and groom, etc.

Our fetish with the Twilight series started last fall when everyone started reading. I couldn't go anywhere without running into a friend who was reading it too. I even made Dan find a bookstore in Orlando, while we were on vacation because I finished new Moon and needed to start Eclipse on the airplane ride home. I dreamt about Edward and Bella for weeks and couldn't get the characters out of my side. I think some of us even wished (not even secretly) that we were vampires. Needless to say many us of were excited about Breaking Dawn. Months before the book was to be released we all put our orders in for a copy. When we found out about the book party we thought it would be fun to go. JoLynn even went to get wristbands for copies of our books the day of the party. Our wrist band numbers were in the six hundreds. The book party was bridesmaid attire; however we decided not to attend in our best dresses, although it was fun to watch everyone else. We knew there would be a lot of crazy fans, but I don't think any of us imagined the kind of fans we would run into at the party. There were both Bella and Alice wanna-be's and some of the ugliest dresses I have ever seen. The actors they hired to play the roles of Edward and Bella, definitely got into their roles. Edward was almost creepy, as he couldn't stop undressing Bella with his eyes. Not to mention the make out sessions which happened quite frequently. Well, we had to get involved in the festivities some how so we decided to be the wedding crashers and get in on the pictures. This was truly fun and we all laughed out loud! As Barnes and Noble closed up the book stores and pushed everyone out the door to get ready to bring all the books out for midnight selling, we decided to walk across Jordan Landing and get a drink somewhere. As we passed Deseret Book we realized that they were also opening at midnight to take advantage of the crazed Stephenie Meyer fans and the line here happened to be much shorter than Barnes and Noble. (There were over 1100 people waiting outside of Barnes and Noble). After all was said and done we waited in the Deseret Book line and we had our copies of breaking Dawn by 12:15 after which we headed home to start reading. It was an eventful evening, full of fantastic people watching, good girlfriends and completely worth it!

CAREER MOM AGAIN

Well after much thought and consideration, Dan and I finally came to the conclusion that our family needed another source of income so I headed back to work. It makes me sad to know I won't be home to see the kids off to school or when they return home from school. I worry about who will be loving enough to tolerate my busy, busy toddler Reagan. (Nobody loves that mischievous little girl like I do!) I'm going to miss the days at the pool with the neighborhood girls and play dates with all our crazy kids.

The last few weeks have been an adjustment for the entire family. Dan has taken on the role of Mr. Mom or what we like to call the "Manny". Although he is the most loving father in the world, he can't quite get it together. Bless his heart for trying, but men can't multi-task! The house is a complete wreck, Reagan is totally off schedule, laundry (although clean) has been sitting in the laundry room for days waiting to be folded. I'm so busy getting back into the swing of things, that I haven't been much help at home either. I'm exhausted by the time I get home and now I have to think about dinner and cleaning the house. Lucky for me I prepared and made about 15 freezer meals prior to returning to work. It's a good thing, otherwise we would be eating cereal every night because who wants to cook dinner at 7:00 in a dirty kitchen.

Although all the above seem like I am complaining (which I am), I am truly grateful I have the ability to support my family and that I can keep them happy without having to "Rock their World" with a move from our home, new school, new friends, new ward family, etc. I am also very lucky that my previous company AMC, loves me enough to take me back and offer me the same position of VP after I quit 15 months ago. I do count my blessings and if I have to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off, so be it! Hopefully my kids will forgive me for not being the best mom, will tolerate my mood swings and yelling as we figure out the best way to get it together.