Life in These Parts

Because my sister and I are master planners, we'd checked out the weather sitch and discovered yesterday was to be a rainy day. PERFECT for walking over to the Wilk at BYU and bowling a game with the kids. They were all excited and the perfect thing about the Wilk bowling alley is they don't look like we're freakishly odd for coming in with 9 kids. Come to think of it, not many places have looked twice at us. If we were having a Vegas vacation I'm sure we'd garner a lot of comments. But we're not. We're in happy valley and I could live here. I really could. I'd have to talk myself into the bubble, but once here I could see myself loving every minute of it. Maybe in retirement. Then Tyler could fish on the river everyday and I could hang out in the BYU Bookstore.

We WERE going to peruse the campus, but by then the rain had come and our cityfied kids don't like wet grass, so we headed to the Creamery on 9th for an ice cream treat . . . and french fries. Holy toledo the fries were as good as the desserts. AND, and, and they have big vats of ranch, fry sauce, AND ketchup to fill as many cups of dips as you want. Now that's a generous eatery, if you ask me. There's nothing worse than having a ration of fry sauce, if you want my opinion about it. And here's something else I've noticed on our trip. There are REALLY friendly sales clerks here. They're chatty and easy to talk to (well, except the chic at Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart is not so "happy valley" anyway.) AND the cashiers are super patient when people write checks (like at Taco Bandido). Because I have also noticed a lot of people writing checks when they cash out and I'm rolling my eyes thinking "DEBIT CARD PEOPLE!" I even heard a guy ask his friend to pay for his lunch at Carl's Jr. (the other day) and that he'd "write [him] a check for his own portion." Are you kidding me? I don't think they realize how good the card swiping feels . . . or maybe they worry others will think they're charging it all and getting into debt. I don't know, but it kinda makes me laugh to see such an antiquated practice in full glory. ANYWAY, back to the brainwashing we do with our kids so they'll want to grow up and go to BYU:

While we were gorging on our treats it did start to sprinkle again and we all walked home in the rain. Then I relaxed with some of the kids while Erin ran some errands. One of the things we've had to fight with Briggs is the stairs. Since there are two sets, we've had to barricade them so Briggs won't climb up them since coming down is not something he's mastered yet. However, the longer we're here, the more he's figuring out ways around our plans.

The kids have had a real stressful week. Can't you tell?

Today was a beautiful Sunday morning and we all got up to go to a church service in Payson. We were late, by about 8 minutes {I know, shock, gasp, gulp! Not Sarah!? Late?}, but I thought that was decent for such a large troop. Afterward we totally invaded the Rices, and on Father's Day no less. Heather and I went to high school together and she was my one and only college roommate (unless you count Tyler.) I have loved her ever since I was friends with her and her generosity is only one of the reasons why. Her home is beautiful and SOOO impressive with all the projects she and her hubby Chris have completed. I think it's fun, too, that our kids are similar in ages. I will totally be puttin in my order for Briggs to date her Bridget OR for Brevin to date her Katelyn one day down the road. They are a wonderful family and I REALLY loved spending time with them all. It's hard when they come to Vegas to coordinate everything, so it was a real treat. And Chris, I totally owe you that foot massage. Next Mother's Day at my house.

Lunch

Future BYU roommates?

The giants and Beauty!

Seriously what a great family!

After we left the Rices, we decided to take the kids up to the Provo temple where they could run off some of their energy. Of course that energy was spent whining about the pictures we made them take with us and the temples in the background and having breakdowns over the games being "unfair." At one point Erin and I watched a full blown smackdown with 3 of my 5 kids and while I should have probably chastised them for acting like raging lunetics, we just watched and laughed and commentated about the whole thing. It was over some kickball game that excluded Caylee and Brevin so they were all mad at Mackenzie. Caylee started mocking Kenzie and pushing her, but Mackenzie put on her cool and just agreed with everything Caylee was saying which REALLY made her mad. When the pushing didn't get them into the game, Brevin stole Kenzie's new shoes and started running away with them while Caylee started drawing on pages of her new notebook. (Both of those got a huge reaction from Kenzie.) Anyway. Kids. Can't live without them and I surely am getting tired of yelling at them for that kind of stuff. *sigh*

Ok, not that you can see, but I had to crop a couple who were laying next to the fountain on the next picture. That's something else I've kinda laughed at on the trip. It seems every park we've been to we've been a witness to a cheesy college date. Tyler would love it. The couple were very into each other and I'm sure there's not a sweeter date than going up to the temple on a Sunday afternoon.

We got home and once the kids were in jammies we made them a gourmet meal. (Minus the Coke . . . that stuff's only for me.) Ah yeah, some pigs in a blanket action. Go ahead. Like your lips. They're tasty.

And to cap off tonight we wrote Uncle Mike some birthday cards for his birthday, which is Tuesday. I can't believe he's 21 and coming home from his mission in just about 8 weeks! To make him super trunky I sent him an itunes card and some pictures of my kids so he "can know what faces he's looking for as he comes down the airport escalator in August." I know, so mean, huh! I love the squirt, though, and can't wait for him to be home.

Tomorrow I'm really excited to go back to the "This is the Place" park and spend a few hours and then we'll be having dinner with Tyler's aunt and uncle. Always good times with his family. It'll be awesome. (Note: People say "awesome" a lot here. It's awesome.)