Day 3?

Day 3 was a Sunday, so we did typical Sunday things...church, a big family dinner, some relaxing...Gearing up for the next three days of driving, hiking and swimming.

But how could I forget our Saturday night???? How fun was it to be able to attend Jessie and Dallin's wedding reception in UT and see SO many familiar faces!! A mini Manassas reunion in Kaysville, UT!

Jessie and Dallin looked so happy!
So did Sue and Tony! And so proud.
The cake table was beautiful!
So was baby Clay!! What a sweet baby...
Any chance I can get to be around the Botts, I'll take!
And look at the little girls around Jessie, the princess!
Congrats to Jessie and Dallin!

The Simple Life

We've still got pioneering on our mind. We had lots of fun at Heritage Park and This Is the Place monument. Great price for all of the fun!!! And another reminder of the great sacrifices those before us have made. And seriously...what would those pioneers be thinking now as they looked over the valley??!!



After the park we had a quick visit to Grandma and Grandpa Kunz's home. G'pa Kunz has been ill and just returned home from the hospital. Garth and Rob gave him a blessing that definitely did not leave us dry eyed! What a great life he has led and legacy he will leave behind (one day). I was really touched when G'pa Kunz knew all our children's names (first and middle). They have 64 great grand children!! I asked him how he remembered everyones names. His answer, "I pray for them." Ghah! I love this man.

Travelogue. Day 1

We arrived safely in UT. Our flight out was uneventful (yay!!).
We took it easy that evening and just hung out (what vacation is all about!!). The kids found some new favorite toys....

(Check out the old school bike, Jared found! Love the banana seat!!!)

Lots of fun to look forward to this week!

A Test for You

While on vacation to Utah, Rob likes to...


A. Go hiking with his family.

B. Swim in a river.

C. Get strep throat.
This is two years in a row!! What luck!




We hope you feel better soon!!

Some must push and some must pull

Well, our pioneer journey is complete. Our bodies are not only physically exhausted, but emotionally and spiritually exhausted. We now will try to recuperate for our next journey...to the real Utah (in five days). This time we go by plane.

It is hard to write in words the incredible experience we had with the ten youth that were in our family. They worked hard and played hard and hopefully learned even more. I think they did. We learned from them. Their strength is admirable. Their lives are not all pleasant, but they keep going. They face the trials of youth with so much courage and joy. I want to be them when I grow up!

I'm sure there are pioneers of old, looking down on them, saying "This is why we did it. For you. Press forward and enjoy your journey."

I hope they (Micaela, Adam, Dave, Jay, Emily, Christina, Mary, Chloe, Morgan and Ryan)remember the feelings that they felt during their trek experience and use that memory to help carry them through their personal trek on earth.



We were not able to take our real camera to trek and I honestly don't think I would have wanted to risk it, but our little point and shoot was able to capture some of our journey along the way.

Enjoy...

Sweet Seven

I'm a little sad today. I'm missing my Jared. Today he turns 7. Happy Birthday, Jared.

Jared and Tyler are off, enjoying life in Buffalo with their cousins. Did I mention that I miss them? Really, really missing them. Sigh...

I seriously can't believe that Jared is already 7!!! I still remember the tender moment when I first held him in my arms and knew that this crazy cowlicked, big blue eyed baby was mine. Choking up now...


And now look at him...All grown up. Such a dare devil. Jumping off the top of a boat. This child has no fear (maybe that's why he has no teeth!).

Happy Birthday, Jared!

I need answers...

At what age can I "safely" turn my back on my children?

All fixed

The video is no longer private.

Ride On

In celebration of Denise's 3* birthday, we made it a day and went to King's Dominion WITHOUT kids!!! And had a blast, OF COURSE!

The Dominator was our first roller coaster (and one of my favorites). And lucky for you, Rob filmed the whole thing!

Enjoy!

Denise, me, and Melanie are in the row in the row in front of Rob.

We're looking forward to this yearly tradition! Ride on!

A fun filled day

Yesterday was so fun!

Rob and I started our day at a Pioneer Trek training. We spent the morning cooking turkey, stew, and bread over a fire. We are so looking forward to our weekend with the youth!

I took off early to meet a bunch of "strangers" for lunch! A group of ScrapMatters girls who were in the Northern VA area met up for lunch. I loved meeting these ladies who I'd only known from looking at their avatars and chatting with at speed scraps online and working with at ScrapMatters (an on-line digital scrapbooking site). Having met these gals "live" makes this on-line community even better now! I can't wait to get together again soon!I didn't get home from lunch until almost 3pm and we were leaving again at 5 pm for dinner and a movie. I spent some time with the kids and took Tyler out for ice cream to celebrate his SOL (Standard of Learning) scores. The schools spend all year teaching what is needed to pass the tests and then the last semester is spent preparing for the tests (waste of time in my opinion). Tyler had for tests (History, Science, Math and Reading) and scored a perfect 600 in three of them and a "pass-advanced" in all of them!! We couldn't be prouder of all of his hard work!

At 5 pm we took off to dinner at Carrabas with The Beatty's and Rachelle and Dave (one of the ScrapMatter's gals and her husband). I started to not feel so good during dinner, but didn't want to miss the movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, so I decided I felt fine, but even before the movie started, I knew I wasn't fine. I spent the entire movie hovered over a toilet. Joy!

My night was miserable and so was Jared's. He woke up in the middle of the night sick and we commiserated together the rest of the night and morning. We must have passed something to each other after a week of giving medicine and cleaning his mouth, teeth and stitches.

Rob took all of the kids to church and Jared and I chilled at home, sleeping, moaning in pain and hanging out in the bathroom. TMI?

This is the only thing that has made me smile yet today...When my daughter is supposed to be sleeping, she is busy playing dress-up with her dirty laundry. Silly, silly fashion diva!

Looking Good!

It's amazing how quickly our bodies heal! Four days later and here's where we are... Jared says it doesn't hurt at all. He only winces while I brush his teeth or when he takes his medicine.

This is one tough kid!

Chewing is still difficult because the inside of his mouth doesn't look much better then the outside and his gums and teeth are still sore. He's excited that his tooth is now loose, though.

I'm not because it won't grow back until he's 11 or 12, but Jared so badly wants to be tied in the never ending battle of sibling rivalry (Tyler--9 teeth lost, Jared--8).

Tyler thinks Jared is cheating...loosing them the unconventional way!

What ever it takes to win, right?

Busted

It has been a loooooong day! Jared is passed out on the couch next to me. Not even Goblet of Fire could keep him awake!

After finishing up his first day of art camp, he fell and hit his mouth on a large metal pot. His lip was pretty mangled and it looked as if his teeth had went through his lip. The Warners did a great job taking care of him. And Jared was so brave. Little did he know that this was the beginning of a long day!

I arrived a few minutes later and dropped off the kids with Denise (you ROCK!)and took Jared to the ER. He was in so much pain but he was such a trooper. The ER Dr. was able to "fix" his lower lip and align it just right. His lip was pretty much reconstructed. But the Dr. was concerned about the swelling of his upper gums, so we were sent to the dentist for an x-ray. (And we know from past experience that PW Hospital does not touch dental issues).

The Dentist took some x-rays and sent us to an oral surgeon because he feared that something may have been broken. Thankfully, the oral surgeon gave us good news and nothing was broken. She straightened his tooth and let us know that the tooth won't make it, but no reason to pull it, since the adult tooth won't grow in for another 4 years.

So, Jared survived yet another traumatic oral injury! We'd include pictures, but no need to gross anyone out. Maybe in a few days when the swelling has gone down.

Keep him in your prayers.

In preparation...

In a few weeks, Rob and I will be going on a Pioneer Trek as chaperons with the youth from our church. We will dress like pioneers, eat like pioneers, pull hand carts like pioneers and walk far like pioneers...all in the name of appreciating and understanding what those before us have gone through so we can have the blessings which we have today.

And we can't wait to go!

Over the past week, we unintentionally began our preparations for this trek. We walked all over the hilly Hershey Park and D.C. National Zoo. Stood on our feet all day while touring the Air and Space Museum. Then walked around Gettysburg. Next it was off to camping...sleeping without an air mattress and using our new dutch oven for cooking. And let's not forget the 3 hikes (each 1.5 miles) that we went on. All in one weeks time!

Needless to say, we're tired! But we feel ready!



Here's a slide show of our camping trip to Shenandoah National Park with the Zamora's!

Hershey

We had such a fun time at Hershey on Saturday. Like a dream come true for the boys. Tyler has become braver ever since our trip to Sea World and even though he was a bit anxious, he was willing to try everything (and made it on 8 of the 11 roller coasters). Jared doesn't know what the word fear is. If his height hadn't gotten in the way, he would have been on EVERY roller coaster, without hesitation.

The park was very crowded, so we missed the BIGGEST and BEST rides (two hour waits) and the water park was a bust and complete waste of time...who waits in line to go in a kiddie pool, lazy river or wave pool for an hour). We didn't.

Evan loved all of the kiddie rides and was even really brave on the family rides--a step up from kiddie. We heard him say several times, "I think I'm going to throw up" or "I think I'm gonna die now", but he never cried or said he was scared.

Anna didn't care for much there. She'd go on a ride without much reaction. She was happy with her snacks and icee.

Rob score twice with his Wacky Wire skillz!! We now have Kung Fu Panda and Florescent Snake to join Leonardo! Lucky us!

I just enjoyed spending time with my family. I love when the kids are able to spend time with their cousins, especially in a situation like this. They had the best time which in turn made it a great birthday for me.

Surprise!

When I turned twelve, my friends from school planned a surprise party for me. It was the end of the school year. I was moving from Maryland to Pennsylvania during the summer, so I guess this was supposed to be our final farewell. But I ended up hating the whole process. Not knowing what was going on, I started to get upset because my friends were always whispering behind my back and giggling when they saw me.

Call me an insecure girl, ready to enter middle school.

How was I supposed to know they were in the midst of planning my surprise party and weren't doing a very good job at keeping it a secret.

Fast forward...seventeen years later (oh, I mean twenty-three). I didn't hear much whispering and giggling or maybe I'd given up my middle school ways, but this surprise party completely blind sighted me. Completely shocked, I was. And I felt completely spoiled.

Thank you everyone for making my birthday extra special this year!!

Making a wish...
that your next birthday will just as fun and exciting!

Joy. Dawn. What's your preference?

Rob loves his daughter.So much.




Anna loves to play in the sink. Washing cups. Making bubbles.

Rob is usually very thirsty. Especially after mowing the grass on a HOT, HOT day.

Anna meant no harm.

Rob was VERY thirsty.

Rob doesn't like the taste of dishwashing liquid and antibacterial hand soap. YUCK!

And he's feeling it now.

It's a good thing that Rob loves his daughter SO VERY, VERY much!

Chris Lee Style

We have had our fair share of rain over the past few weeks (or has it been months?).

Why not take advantage of it!

S-L-A-M!

The boys sure have taken a liking to baseball this year. It is so fun to watch their enthusiasm!! On Monday night, Rob took them to a Potomac Nationals game.


This photo was a highlight of the evening...

Notice the size of his bat...Notice the the black streak to the right of him...

The boys were giddy as can be that he broke his bat while hitting a ball.

Oh, the possibilities.

And Rob still doesn't think we need to lower the deductible on our comprehensive car insurance.

Keeping up with the Haley's...

...is pointless.
So we'll just be grateful to have them as neighbors! Thanks for sharing!

Signs of Summer

Well, the boys are officially finished with school for the summer! And summer is very well present already at our home!

Yesterday before Jared left for school, I noticed a bunch of scratch marks on his neck. I asked him about it and he said it just itched. Didn't think anything of it after that.

After school, I noticed some red blistery bumps on Tyler's neck. We had went geocaching on Sunday and I know that poison ivy shows up a few days later, so I had our culprit. I quickly realized that this was probably the cause of Jared's scratches and sure enough, upon closer examination I saw that Jared, too, had poison ivy on his neck and jaw line.

I asked Tyler if it had been itching for awhile and he said it had started at school that day and he told his teacher, but the teacher thought it was just a mosquito bite (at the time it was just a bump or two). I asked why he didn't tell me when he came home. "Because Mr. Trexler said it was a mosquito bite."

Oh, the innocence of youth. I wonder how much longer we have of the kids believing that the adults have all of the answers?

From the mouth of babes. Take 2.

Here is how the conversation went down last night...

James (neighbor boy, t-ball teammate and baseball game observer): Hey, Mr. Kunz! You have hair in your nose!

Rob: Yep, I do.

James: How do you know? Can you smell it?

Rob: No, my wife tells me.

Andrea: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...sigh...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...(catching my breath now)HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!


Thanks, James for giving away our Father's Day gift!! And we thought Rob was going to be completely surprised!

An intruder?

You'd have thought that our home was broken into today. But nope! Just two unfortunate accidents which happened within 10 minutes of each other.

I came downstairs after blow drying my hair to find that a thief (named Anna) had gotten into our money jar. Gratefully, no one was injured in this incident.

Because we were in a hurry to get out the door, I left the glass clean up for later. I got the kids loaded in the car to deliver chairs for tonight's Enrichment meeting and when I turned the corner, the chairs came crashing down, smashing out our side window.

I've been reminded that bad things happen in threes. Keep me away from your glass! I'd run from me if I were you!

Life.

Evan likes it.
(He's just not ready to admit it, yet...to me...so he sneaks to eat it under the desk.)

Summer TV

Not having as much TV to watch is a good thing. But I'll tell you, I love my summer TV almost as much.

So You Think You Can Dance has started!!

And ABC has finally decided to finish of the seasons of two of my favorite all-time TV shows, Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone.

Because who doesn't love a quirky pie maker and pals...

and a group George Michael sing along.
I know I do.

I secretly still love George Michael.

And I'm not embarrassed by it at all.

A Little Education

It's late. I really should be sleeping and you'd think after our fun filled, yet exhausting weekend, that I would be fast asleep but instead I'm up "thinking"...

about the word "midget".

First, I am grateful for a quick acting husband who was able to educate our children on the offensiveness of this word. (He's always so calm and rational. It's a good thing I wasn't around. I'm not like that.)

Yet, there are others who for whatever reason, still do not understand that to most of the dwarfism community (and that includes their loving family members), midget is a very highly offensive term. Like calling an African American a n**ger. Or a mentally challenged child a retard. Gasp! "Andrea, I can't believe you said that."

Yep, that offensive.

I know this term gets thrown around casually and is often not used or meant to offend, but if you see a LP (little person) or dwarf (the politically correct terms) DO NOT call them or refer to them as a midget. It's offensive.

Consider yourself educated.

(P.S. My DH is concerned about my use of offensive language in this post, so he kindly edited the "n" word for me. Who would have ever thought that my husband would be the one to think before he speaks! I'm sure those reading know that this was not meant to take offense, but to make a point. I think he should edit the other words, too! Love ya, hun! Thanks for looking out for me.)



On a side note...

Here is a photo of Evan climbing near the top of Cunningham Falls...
And here he is making it to the top!It's a good thing I wasn't there to witness this jump. I think I would have had a heart attack!

Like Father Like Son

Have I seriously ever wondered where Jared gets his personality from?

Crepes. Yum.

I made crepes yesterday. Mmmm. Mmmm. Good.

My favorite way to enjoy a crepe is sprinkled with powdered sugar and with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Evan just enjoys the powdered sugar sans lemon juice or crepe!
Silly boy.

Fitting in

Well, we finally "fit in" with the whole baseball thing...


Pants!
Cleats!
And dirt!

By the wayside

I'm done with my creative blog. So, I'm now going to be posting some of my digi scrap layouts here. It's part of our every day, so why not, right?


Cafe Latte by Sugarplum Paperie and Tracie Stroud


Underwater Escape by Erica Zane


Sya's Movie-spiration templates and Britt's Imperial Girl


Erica Zane's Underwater Escape, Tropical Escape and EZ Templates 5


Off Tha Chain by Tracie Stroud and Krystal Hartley

Casual Sunday

After reading Alanna's blog post here, I couldn't help but to giggle about today's happenings...

I've had a wonderful Mother's Day, so far, by the way. Jared jumped in bed this morning to cuddle (I love that he still loves to do this) and at 7:30, breakfast and gifts were brought in to enjoy. I relaxed for awhile and then realized I needed to get going! I had the Mother's Day gift for all of the women at church and I didn't want to be late. So I quickly got ready. While throwing myself together, a sister from the ward called and asked for a ride. We had no problem doing this, but this took another ten minutes off of our already dwindling time. I quickly grabbed a clip for Anna's hair, threw some snacks in a bag, Rob put the gifts in the car, made sure the boys had shoes, ties and scriptures in tow and off we went.

Considering our time crunch, things went pretty smoothly. Truly, an awesome Mother's Day.

UNTIL...

I hear a "Psssssttttt, Andrea!"

Rob's trying to be discrete, as the sacrament is being passed. "Look at my feet!"

I look. In our mad rush out the door, Rob had forgotten to put on his church shoes! And had worn his crocs instead (which are the shoes he wears in the house because he hates going barefoot)!

And I didn't think my awesome Mother's Day could get any awesomer!


Thanks, hun!

National Stay Up All Night Night

It's tonight. National Stay Up All Night Night.

I dare you to do it.

Because we have 9 am church tomorrow, the boys celebrated last night. And ate pizza, popcorn and M&Ms and watched the Sandlot. I've been recuperating from a nasty cold, so I was in bed by 9 pm. (ah, it was so nice) I would have let the boys stay up as late as they could, but Mean Rob was in charge and National Stay Up All Night Night ended at 11 pm.

Evan was included in "the boys" last night. Eleven was too late for him. I was awakened from my slumber when Rob went to lay him down. He was crying hysterically, obviously over tired. And guess who was up right at 7 am this morning?

Geesshhh...this is the punishment I get for going to bed early! Cranky kids. Yay!

All in a days work...

She started the day wearing a pink tutu and striped shirt.

Then a swimsuit and cover-up.

Quickly this changed to a sweater jacket and zip-up jammies.

Next, shorts and a tank top.

That soon changed to a diaper cover and pajama top.

By naptime, she had on jeans and a dress.

When she woke up from her nap, it was just jeans.

Then it was back to the tutu and shirt.

She even tried on the 6-9 month pants that are a gift for a friend.

And that quickly changed to the tank top (again) and a diaper.

Which then she decided all this dressing and changing was too much work, so she lounged around the rest of the day in just a diaper.

I'm tired from just watching her. Anna must be worn out.

Play Ball!

(if you are here for the NSD blog train, please scroll down)

Not so sure if I'm ready for this...

Look at all that dirt!
Oops, no baseball pants OR cleats. Slacker Mom!


Evan found entertainment by running 3/4 of a mile. I may join him next time.

Anna loved bugging her brothers, stealing their hats. Such a little annoying sister! Doing her job well!

I can't believe I gave in! I'm really not into busying up our lives, but we've decided to make this a family affair. Rob is helping to coach Jared's team and worked it out that Tyler and Jared's practices are on the same evening and most of their games are on the same day. It's a non competitive Baptist league. No announcing winners. Cheering for the other team. I am so for it!

It was a muddy, drizzly morning. We were there for hours. BUT the boys had a blast. And we'll be back at it next weekend and the next and the next. We'll just be a little more prepared with activities, snacks, and coats for the little kids!

Happy [inter]National Scrapbook Day

For National Scapbook Day, Scrapmatters is having one monster of a blog train!!! Welcome to my little space in the blogging world!!

So far, you should have stopped by...
1. Andrea http://andilynn.wordpress.com
2. Britt http://brittishdesigns.blogspot.com
3. Heather Lee http://joyrevisited.blogspot.com
4. Denise http://www.denisebeattyoriginals.blogspot.com/
5. Tater http://taterscraps.blogspot.com/
6. Kimbytx http://kimbytx.blogspot.com/
7. Melanie http://melanie3boys.blogspot.com/
8. Kim http://geekydiva.wordpress.com
9. Emilee http://morelovemorejoy.blogspot.com

Next you'll be heading to Jaime's blog...
11. Jaime http://jaimeward.blogspot.com

Our Creative and Design Teams have created FREE 5x7 and 8x8 scrapbooking quickpages for you using the new kit Hawaiian Happy Hour!!

(This kit is FREE with a $15 purchase!!!)

And here is my little portion of all the goodness!!

DOWNLOAD HERE

As part of our blog train, we are sharing "my idea of paradise"...Quiet, deserted beach, warm day and with my family. Nothing could be more perfect then that!