Long Week

I've been so busy this past week, which is why I'm posting on Tuesday in stead of Monday this week. I didn't get a lot of pictures because it wasn't necessarily playful busy. But I did get some!

On Wednesday this week we got to attend a birthday party for my niece who turned 10. We had a lot of fun in the water! Apparently the water was colder than Jeremy anticipated! :) And then they played a game where the looser had to get a bucket of water dumped on their head. Who knew that could be so much fun!On Thursday I turned in some coins that I had been saving since I was 12. I was able to purchase my mother a GPS to help her out as she drives around her new place.

On Friday I drove a moving truck for my sister. I met my Mom at her new house and she and my sister, Emma, watched Clara along with Clara's 5 cousins while I hitched a ride to Tremonton and drove the moving truck back down to their new house. It was a long day, but a fun adventure.

Saturday was spent unloading that truck and then helping put beds together, hooking up a washer and dryer, unpacking and putting away all the kitchen stuff, and many, many other things. I'm tired of moving and I didn't even have to pack it all up! The sad thing is that after I left on Saturday, they weren't even close to being done unpacking.

Monday I offered to take all the kids so the adults could stay behind and get a lot of unpacking done that otherwise couldn't go so fast with having to take care of kids and unpack.

Jeremy and I took our nieces and nephews to the discovery park in PG. (Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that.) After we exhausted ourselves in the heat, we headed to a McDonalds for lunch. The McDonalds had a play place so we spent a couple of hours there too. And then we headed to a splash park. The kids had so much fun getting all wet, especially on such a hot day.

• Clara was trying on some shoes and I asked her if they fit. Her response was, "They're just size!"

Baseball Games and Day Camps

We had such a fun week. We were able to attend at baseball tournament for a nephew. I don't remember the scores very well, but he barely lost his first game and won by a land slide in his second. Great games Cooper! During those games, Clara got to figure out how to eat sunflower seeds. And she got to wear a beautiful sun hat!Also this week, I took the girls in our ward who are ages 8 - 11 to a cub scout camp for a stake activity days. The girls had a blast. They made boats and raced them in rain gutters by blowing on the sails. They got to shoot BB guns and bows and arrows. They got to race in a boat and they made bracelets.Clara rarely lets me do her hair these days. I was able to bribe her into letting me do her hair yesterday by putting in these "sparkly flowers."

• While we were waiting for the baseball game to start, Clara asked, "Is it time to shout for the game yet?"

• Cooper's grandpa came to watch the baseball game and sat next to us. He was wearing a hat (I'm horrible with names of hats, so the best way I can think of to describe it is a manly sun hat. It had a brim, but was definitely not a cowboy hat.) He came over and patted Clara's head to say hello. Afterwards, Clara looked up at me with the happiest eyes and said, "The cowboy patted my head!"

• Clara fell out of a toy wagon while we were playing outside. After asking her if she was ok, she said, "Yes because my brains are still in my head."

• After saying a slew of nonsense words, Clara announced, "That's how you say it in Spanish."

• A few weeks ago, we were playing outside and a little boy wasn't listening to his mom. Clara mentioned that he was a bad boy. I explained to her that he was a good boy, but was just making bad choices. I didn't think much of that until this week Clara got into trouble. After my short lecture was over, Clara looked at me with hopeful eyes and asked, "Am I still a good girl?"

Relaxing Weekend

So after an extremely busy week, we had a wonderfully non-eventful weekend. But I still wanted to post about Clara's funny sayings.

Clara used to love getting her picture taken, now when I get the camera out, she runs from me. So I took this as I was holding her down, forcing her hands away from her eyes.....

• As we were walking around the museum in Libby, I pointed to a mounted goat head and said, "Look Clara, it's a goat." "No, that's just a head."

• As I'm typing this, Clara keeps marching around the room singing (as she is banging toy symbols together) "Scripture power is safe from sin!"

• Clara smelled a wild daisy by touching it to her nose and said, "It smells soft."

• Randomly said this week: "I'm trying to think, but it's not working."

• I was telling Jeremy that I wasn't feeling well. Clara piped up and said, "Sorry Mama, I can't help you."

• Clara has developed the 'talent' of telling stories. This is the one she told us at the dinner table the other night. "Once upon a time there was a girl named Clara who had a monster in her closet. She got really scared so she looked in her closet and the monster scratched her. Clara ran away screaming."

• This next one isn't as funny, I just wanted to record it. I tell Clara stories about Christ as we sit through the Sacrament on Sunday. Yesterday I had Clara tell me one and she said, "Once He was a baby, but then He grew up and got on the cross. Then some angry guys hurt His hands."

Toad the Wet Sprocket

About 6 hours after getting home from Montana, Jeremy and I headed to a Toad the Wet Sprocket concert. It's a band that Jeremy really likes and we ended up getting our tickets for free (thanks Eric!) So we went. The band announced at the end of the show that they would be hanging around to mingle with the crowd after the concert. So were were able to get all of their autographs!My favorite part was definitely meeting the band. They were so friendly and personable!
Drummer Randy GussBass Dean DinningsGuitarist Todd NicholsLead Singer Glen Phillips

Montana

Right after the Stadium of Fire, we drove all night long to Montana. We made it to our destination at about 1:30 Sunday afternoon. We had so much fun visiting with family. I always bring home so many pictures of Montana. It's such a beautiful place.

Monday morning we went on a hike as an entire family. The kids loved it I loved the scenery! That night we had a firework show. We had some glow sticks that Clara loved using to pretend to be a bug.My brother lit all the fireworks.Clara decided to take all the credit for it (she kept taking a bow.)We ended the night with sparklers. Those are always our finale for our family.We also went to our local museum. It's a hodgepodge of old stuff from Libby's history. Clara loved running from one thing to the next. This was the first fire "truck." This is an old drum in their Kootenai Indian section. I had seen this huge frying pan all growing up. What I never knew was that it was originally owned by the church I attend! The rest are pretty self explanatory. There are many cool things to do at the house I grew up in. We had fires in our outdoor fire pit, played badminton, and just had fun playing on the 6 acres of forest.The last thing we did was visit my father's headstone.As much fun as it was to be home and get only 4 hours of sleep a night because there were at least 3 games of monpoly going each night, I'm so glad to be home!

Stadium of Fire

For those of you who don't live here, the Stadium of Fire is the local firework show. But it's more than just fireworks. A top entertainer comes to perform, many people are honored, and the firework show is put to music. It's amazing. This year, Brad Paisley performed. I LOVE Brad. I own almost every album of his (I have 8 out of 10.) Jeremy took over 100 pictures too...... So you are lucky I've narrowed it down to only 6!

The show started with a fly by from air force jets and then parachuters. Then came a lot of local talent followed by David Archuletta. Then came wonderful Brad. He is such a good entertainer. I sang a long to every song - there were only a few from his newest album that I only knew the chorus. It seriously made my week.The fireworks were amazing. They last so long that I was wanting them to be over! They actually had fire too. It was so hot that I could feel the fire from our seats at the very farthest corner from it!