Villanueva State Park

For Labor Day this year we decided to go on a little adventure someplace new. Together. All of us. I only emphasize this because it feels like Rus and I spent the entire summer taking separate vacations. Rus decided to take us to Villanueva State Park because he somehow had never been there before. It's northeast of Albuquerque, and we learned, quicker to get to heading east on I-40 than going north through Santa Fe.
Villanueva State Park has the Pecos river running through it, a super brown river that was maybe two feet deep (at the deepest parts) and had a steady, but not too fast current. These conditions made it perfect for the kids to play in. Rus and I knew there was a river but prepared poorly for it, instead insisting that the kids wear their hiking shoes and socks. When we arrived at the park (after about a two hour drive via Santa Fe), we ate our picnic lunch and the kids played on the playground there. Then we found the footbridge and crossed the river to the other side, where minutes later the kids had shed their shoes and socks and were stepping gingerly into the water.
What is Beau's mouth doing in this picture? I'm not sure...

Check out those super chops!! I think Rus is adding a quarter inch of sideburns per year of marriage. That's eleven years right there. When he runs out of face I'm afraid he'll go for length...Marianne loves wearing hats. She's just like her daddy.

Such brown water!!

It wasn't too cold, but it was muddy and even though it was only a foot deep in most parts, you couldn't see the bottom. The kids enjoyed playing in it, but the rocky bottom proved challenging for their bare feet, and after about ten minutes they all had their shoes back on, in the water. Rus and I enjoyed walking in it too, and sitting on the big rocks in the middle of it while soaking in the perfect pre-autumn air. Marianne liked throwing sticks in the water and dipping her toes in it, but that was enough.
Here is Bekah helping Beau cross the river. Rus and I made a bet about which kid would be the first to get soaked before the kids even stepped foot in the water. I bet Beau would be first, followed closely by Bekah...I was right. It was only Jacob's careful and slow demeanor that saved him from ever falling down.

 Marianne finally decided to try walking around right before we had to leave...

 After our short play time was over, we loaded up in the van with four wet kids and a wet dog. (I forgot to mention Colonel came. He probably enjoyed the water more than anyone else.) We headed south this time and then west on I-40 and the drive only took an hour and a half. No one really cared because we were listening to The Lightening Thief on cd and the kids were enthralled.
It was a great day! I love family adventures!

Vaqueros

Rus made me breakfast today, fashioned after his favorite breakfast meal at Vic's Daily Cafe. Hash browns on the bottom, chicken fried steak, red chile and cheese, and egg over easy. A true blue heart stopper here! Both the husband and the meal...make me a bed of hash browns any time, honey

First Day of School 2013

The first day of school came too quickly this year. It was just a few days after our return home from St. George and I felt like we were getting robbed of the laziness of summer. I knew it would mean not taking four kids shopping everywhere, and I was looking forward to that, but it also meant just me and Marianne at home. Don't get me wrong, having three kids in school sounded like a terrific thing, but I was just worried as to how we'd fill our time and if I would get anything done at all without other kids around to entertain Marianne. So I greeted the start of school with some trepidation...and then caught a stomach flu and greeted it clutching my stomach in bed with a bowl nearby, just in case...The first day of school sucked. For me. I was especially mad at feeling so crappy and wanted a redo. Luckily the first day of kindergarten was two days later and I was able to feel a little better and really enjoy sending Beau off.
I will tell you that taking Bekah and Jacob to school their first days was wonderful: I didn't shed a tear, in fact I might have cheered. But as my little Beau climbed on that big bus with his two older siblings at his side protecting and guiding him, my heart did a little painful lurch. I missed him the second he left. He had a great time and practically bounded off the bus and into my arms at the end of the day. But it made me realize that I'm officially on "the other side" of parenting with more kids at school than at home and late nights because of soccer and homework, not colic and baby feedings. It's bittersweet.
Anyway, school has been great. And my time with Marianne has been wonderful - she doesn't complain if I go to two or three stores in a row (Beau hated shopping), doesn't complain when I have to fold laundry (she tries on all the clothes before I fold them), and takes a terrific nap nearly every afternoon. Now I have time to paint and work on other projects (or nap), and my day feels much more balanced.
So here are some pictures of the first day of school for each of the kids:
Bekah is in fourth grade this year. FOURTH! I remember fourth grade - we had just moved back to Sierra Vista from Germany and I was so worried about making friends. I wound up with "the mean teacher" who I actually loved, who gave us sugar daddies when we were quiet. I can't believe Bekah is that same age...Her teacher is Mrs. Weeks and she seems to enjoy her so far.

Jacob is in second grade. I had Mrs. Skaza in second grade and loved her because she taught us how to make fried rice. Jacob has Ms. Grady, the same teacher Bekah had for second grade. I already know that I love Ms. Grady - she is incredibly energetic and helps the kids engage in and enjoy learning.

Beau, as you know, is in Kindergarten. His teacher is Ms. Rozzell, the same teacher Jacob had for kinder. I already know that I love Ms. Rozzell, as well. I am so grateful she is teaching Beau! He has loved playing at recess, doing projects, making friends, and buying school lunch. (Bekah and Jacob are terrified of school lunch, but Beau wants to buy all the time. I'm having to limit him to one time per week just to save my budget.)

And here is Buggy pretending to be Beau. She's wearing Beau's back-to-school-outfit. I told you she liked trying on their clothes...

One other fun thing about this year is that I have worked it out to volunteer at the school one day a week. I asked the art teacher if I could volunteer in her classroom and thankfully she said she'd love to have me! I have two ulterior motives here - one, I volunteer on the day Beau has art, and two, I'm hoping to see if I would enjoy being an art teacher myself. (It's on my short list of "what to do when all the kids are in school.") I've gone once so far and I can tell already that it's going to be a rewarding experience.

Bear Hunting

We've had a wild visitor lately...A bear. A real bear. A 250 pound black bear who enjoys the scraps in my trash can more than my kids enjoy the real meal. This bear visited us the first time three weeks ago, and then has been coming nightly the past week. A rational bear-fearing person might think, "If I put my trash away in the garage then the bear won't come to my house." A true blue manly man would contest, "If I leave the trash out and use a baby monitor to monitor any activity, I might get to see this bear!" This gun-toting-independent would then wish he had an airedale to send out after the bear (once spotted), in hopes of getting him treed. And only a true blue redneck would say, "Well if this bear has been caught twice before then this is a third strike and they'll have to put him down...maybe they'll let me have the pelt!"
It was a combination of the three - manly man, independent, redneck, who diligently stalked the Game and Fish Office's phone lines until he was able to convince a ranger to bring a trap out to our home and set it up on our side yard. Honestly, my first thought when Rus said we'd have a bear trap in our yard was "Crap. One of my kids is going to trip that trap and die." But luckily this trap is actually a cage on a small trailer, and it is tripped when the bear fully enters it and steps on a metal plate, thus releasing a pin to slam the rear door and trap him in. (Phew. At least my kids won't die when they trip it, they'll just be stuck in a stinky cage with some rotting cherries.)
Now to back up just a bit: We first saw the bear on Saturday night. We were standing on the porch for this express purpose: Bear Stakeout, and we saw it scamper across the road and up the hill across the street. We didn't get a great look at it, but we did see it! We learned quickly that Game and Fish won't come out unless law enforcement trees the bear. So Rus called 911 and then directed the officer in the direction of the bear, but no luck.
The next night Rus had the genius idea of putting the baby monitor right outside the garage door, with the receiver inside by the couch so that we would hear if the bear came up...And it did! At about ten that night Rus heard something over the receiver, so we both raced across the house to the garage, just in time to see the bear drag away a trash bag out of the trash bin he had just knocked over. He went to the middle of the road and paused there; we booked it across the house again so we could look out the front door. Rus was already dialing 911 and we both planned to just stay inside and try not to spook the bear so that the officers would see it when they came. But as we watched the bear climb the hill across the street, we saw that our neighbor across the street had come out to put his trash out for pick up. So we went out and yelled at him to go back inside (he was maybe twenty yards from the bear. This is "Rus talk". I actually have no idea how far twenty yards is. The neighbor was close). Minutes later the bear was still perched on the hill and the police came, actually spotted him this time, and the officer went up the hill after him. But the bear was too stealthy and got away...
So now we have a trap. Now we sleep with one ear primed to hear the loud slam of the trap door. He didn't come last night, we're hoping to get him tonight!
I'll keep you posted. :)
Here's the trap:
From the rear, peeking inside. Those little black dots are cherries. That dark black line on the bottom of the inside of the cage is the pressure plate. When he steps on that, the door slams shut.

St. George 2013

Dear St. George,

Oh how I love your sparkling blue pool and hot summer air. I love your cute little town where the older (more logical part) is laid out in a quaint grid and the rest of the roads curve enough to send you south for two miles and west for three and then north for four and east for one. I LOVE your thrift stores (my heart still lusts for those tassled cowgirl heels at urban renewal...) I even love your outskirts where sushi and theater will live forever in my heart and stomach.
I also love your beautiful temple. I love that its foundation was built with lava rock and a cannon. Be proud of that. (Look it up if you don't believe me...)
But most of all I love that you are the place that brings us all together: my mom, Lindsey, her mom Linda, and brother Bryan and friend Dagen, and Amy and her kids. And even Mike (Amy's husband), for a few days...
But oh how I wish that you weren't so far away. Because as my sister will readily affirm, I am not a great traveler. Even Rus will concur with this one simple truth: driving long distances starts out as great fun with me, but eventually it is just grumpy edginess with a side of white knuckles and clenched teeth. My life long goal will be to change this, but until then...
Simple evidence of my mileage-induced temper flares can be confirmed by the campground host at Jacob Lake. We like to stop there both to and from St. George because they have the best cookies in the world. On the way up to St. George, we had stopped to get our cookies and then decided to pull off and eat our lunches at the campground picnic tables across the highway. We had done this years before and assumed it was no problem. This time, after pulling the kids out of the van (after a 3 hour drive), and handing them their lunches, the camp host woman (let's call her CHW for short), walked towards our table and stated, accusingly, that lunch at that table would cost us nine dollars and that I had driven into the park way too fast. A vicious exchange ensued and abruptly ended with me driving as quickly as I could (on purpose), out of the campground. Tears fell, a few choice words were said, and I determined that she had forever soured my delicious cookie stop. Anyway, more on CHW later...
The rest of the week in St. George was very fun, and quite honestly a little bit stressful. My kids are beautiful choice spirits, amazing creatures in a million ways. But they are not perfect. They can be trying to the most patient observer. They whine. They cry. They are irrational. Bossy. Picky eaters. They have to go to sleep on time every night because if they are sleep deprived they are all of the above, magnified. Sometimes they are not nice to each other and to anyone within a half mile radius. They ask a lot of questions. They are used to me, I am used to them, and sometimes, most times, I am the only one who can calm them down or set them straight. I find myself easily irritated by their non-mellowness and non-perfectness, especially when we're around other kids who are so mellow and closer to perfect. And I hate parenting in public.
Anyway, after that admission of guilt, here's what we were up to in St. George:
A whole lotta swimming!!
Jacob was a lot braver this trip than in times passed; he actually jumped off the diving board and did a lot of swimming underwater with his goggles.

Sarah and Bekah...

The kids had a lot of fun making up different routines where they all jumped in, one right after another. Luke and Joshua spent hours doing back to back flips into the pool. All of Amy's kids could do flips, so sometimes they would each flip into the water, one right after another.




Hiking. At noon. In 112 degree heat. Not the smartest idea ever.

Playing on the awesome splash pad and river in downtown St. George.
Momma Blau actually made the swimsuit Marianne is wearing for Bekah. Lindsey gave it to me as a gift for my baby shower!

My beautiful girls...
Yes, Bekah got a hair cut...a SHORT haircut! And she loves it because I never have to touch it.



Whip cream war!





Also, everyone but Beau and Marianne (and Bryan and Dagen their babysitters), went to see "Starlight Express" at Tuacahn one of the nights. It was awesome. The songs were great, and only became catchier the more you had them stuck in your head, the actors were terrific, the weather (it's an outdoor theater) was perfect...My favorite part was how Jacob's favorite part of the play was the bats that kept darting in and out.
Here we are, minutes before departing for home:



I spent the entire week reflecting on my awful encounter with the CHW in Jacob lake. By Friday I was full of guilt and remorse for letting her bring out the worst in me. I bought her some flowers, Impatiens, and stopped by her campground on the way home. I drove in very, very slowly. I apologized to her and she seemed to not even recall the encounter. I wondered later if it was even the same lady. She told me over and over that I didn't have to bring her flowers...but I knew I needed to and I felt so much better after talking to her. Maybe she didn't ruin Jacob Lake after all...

San Diego

The first time I met my future husband, he was with his cousin Tom. They had just moved up to Flagstaff to go to NAU as transfer students from Eastern Arizona College in Safford and were living with Tom's parents, Clay and Mary (my third parents after my own and Rus'). I thought, "now there's a scruffy redneck, but his cousin is cute..." I soon fell in love with and married that scruffy redneck, of course, but Tom has always held a tender place in my heart, too...I think because he likes my cooking so much. He's the type of person to "mmm" through an entire meal, not just after the initial bite. And he loves our kids, joining his place right next to their actual uncles as Uncle Tom. And he still makes trips to visit us, even after our numbers have increased and our sanity has plummeted. And he reads my blog. And he calls me for recipes. And he lets us visit.
Anyway, marriage has been a long time coming for Tom, a fact which Bekah remarked on several times after she learned he was engaged. "You and dad got married ten years ago! Why did it take Tom so long?" Well, luckily his new bride Suzy loved him enough to go to the San Diego temple to be married to him for forever.
We were so happy to be able to go to their wedding and enjoy beautiful San Diego at the same time. So after that lengthy intro, here are the details of our trip:
We left Albuquerque on Tuesday night. I had felt rotten for the previous two days and I was just praying to feel better before we reached San Diego. We drove that night to Rus' parent's home in Lordsburg and stayed in their trailer because the inn was full. It was a space meant for four and we crammed in six, which meant we slept horribly but were just grateful for a roof and bed. On Wednesday we hung out (me and the kids), napped (Rus), and then decided late in the day to go swimming at the Lordsburg public pool.
Now Lordsburg may not have much going for it, but the pool is awesome! It isn't huge, but it has a beach entrance on one side and a fun slide on another. The slide is probably two stories tall with a couple of turns and it empties into a four foot pool. Bekah was instantly a pro at the slide. Jacob took a little bit of encouragement, but before too long he was going down by himself and swimming underwater to the side. Beau wanted to go down but thought he needed to be on someone's lap. So Grandpa took him down the slide. I was at the bottom, waiting for him to make his big splash and I thought that maybe they were taking a little longer than normal. I tried to look past the curve of the slide and heard some squeaking - skin on plastic kind of squeaking - and then finally saw Grandpa's feet and legs and then his hands, pushing on both sides of the slide to help lurch him and Beau a little farther down the slide. It turned out the Grandpa and Beau put together were a little too much for the trickle of water that was supposed to carry the willing down into the pool. They inched forward, little by little until they finally made their clumsy plop into the water. Of course I thought this was hilarious!
A little while later, Grandpa finally convinced Beau that he could go down the slide by himself as long as Grandpa was there to catch him, and he did, everytime, and Beau would yell, "AGAIN!" and run back up the stairs to slide again.
Then Grandpa decided to try the slide again, by himself. He stood at the top and used the bar across the top to swing himself onto the slide with a little momentum behind him. Again I was in the pool watching, and this time I saw the water splash out of each curve of the pool and knew exactly where Grandpa was as he was making his speedy descent. We warned the kids to back up, knowing that Grandpa's reentry would come with a splash. He came out the bottom of that slide like a torpedo, making some serious tidal waves that grandkids and grown ups alike enjoyed!
I neglected to mention that we were the only ones at the pool that day, for some reason, and we thoroughly enjoyed having the whole thing to ourselves.
The next day we headed to San Diego, early in the morning, after having another rough night in the trailer because of a freak storm that had me convinced we were going to be struck by lightning. (It did hit pretty close at least once). The drive was looong. The kind of long that you only understand if you have traveled with four children, one of which looses her ability to speak in any octave lower than that of a screaming banshee for the entire nine hours.
We arrived in San Diego, found our hotel, moved into our hotel room (it felt like that, at least, with all the luggage and food we were carrying), and then immediately changed and made our way to the pool. Driving that close to Mexico (in a crazy dust storm) just makes a good clean pool sound inviting.
Later that night we headed out to Suzy's parents house for a fourth of July barbecue/wedding celebration. One awesome thing about Tom and Suzy is that they are both so laid back, and all they really wanted to do was be married, without all the stress and craziness of formal gatherings. So they had a barbeque and it was perfect. All of Tom's family was there (he's one of seven), and most of Suzy's family was there (she's one of nine, I think). Clint and Nicole came and it was so fun to see them and have our kids play together. And I got to hug and love their baby Maverick.
We watched fireworks that night at an elementary school and then headed back to our hotel, late.
We slept GREAT that night, everyone with their own bed!
Friday was the wedding! My uncle Bill and his wife Jeanne actually lived about five minutes from our hotel, and we conned them (actually "him", his wife was at work), into watching our kids while we went to the sealing. The San Diego temple is stunningly beautiful, both inside and out.

My favorite part of the whole thing was seeing Tom and Suzy kneel across the altar from each other...a close second was seeing all of Tom's family in the temple. Two of his siblings had just been married to their wives within the last four months.
Here are "the boys"

Some of the girls:

 

The Hartman Family:

Three perfect heads (that's why they aren't covered in hair...)

The happy couple: (I loved Suzy's dress!) Sorry, Suzy for your candid expression, it was either this one or another picture with half of someone else's camera in it...

Later, after all the pictures had been taken and we had picked up our kids (intact!) from Uncle Bill, we packed a lunch and headed to THE BEACH! I LOVED the beach! I had no idea the effect it would have on me, I thought I'd just be content to sit and play in the sand. But it turned out that the water was cool but inviting and the waves were delightful to dive and roll and wade through. Bekah and I, and Clint and Nicole's daughter Marcy were champions of the waves. Bekah hated how the water was so salty, but she enjoyed everything else about it. Beau and Marianne stuck to the beach. Beau was scared of sharks, and no amount of encouragement would convince him that our beach was shark-free. Jacob tried it out for a little while, but the water was a little too cold so he took to the warm sand for the rest of the afternoon.



Here are all of the kids, Hartmans, Mortensens and Paynes:

Hours later we were back at the hotel enjoying pizza and conversation with Clint and Nicole and the Hartmans. I love how the Hartmans can talk and talk and laugh and share stories...
The next day was Saturday, Beau's birthday, and suddenly we were on the "descent" part of our vacation. We checked out of our hotel and met up with Clint and Nicole, Dave and Stacey, Clay and Mary and Clay's brother Kern at IHOP for breakfast. Beau was turning five, so he ordered breakfast with five silver dollar pancakes and a side of strawberries and whipped cream. Bekah, my completely unadventurous eater, is not really a breakfast person (where did she come from?!), so she had chicken fingers. Our waitress knew it was Beau's birthday and so she brought him some ice cream and then she and and a bunch of other waitresses sang "happy birthday" to him while he hid under the table, embarrassed. We spent the rest of the day telling everyone within arm's reach that it was Beau's birthday, and he loved that.
After breakfast we said our goodbyes and then headed down to the harbor for a sailing adventure! I had found a place online, the Maritime Museum, that had a tall sailing ship, the Californian, that sailed out the San Diego bay every weekend on a four hour adventure...And I signed our family up.
This is actually not our ship...:

But this is:

Now here I must confess that I know the exact moment where our delightful family vacation went a little sour: I gave all my kids, and myself, a dramamine pill, completely forgetting the "noticable drowsiness may occur" and just wanting to avoid any sea sickness. And thus it was that I had four zombie children who only wanted to nap on our four hour sailing adventure. I felt okay, just a little tired, and Bekah actually enjoyed herself, and Marianne actually napped, which was great, but the boys kept trying to lie down like rag dolls. Rus loved every minute of it, thank goodness. He didn't take a dramamine pill, and he loved seeing how different parts of the ship were made and talking to the crew about various sailing subjects.
We don't actually look too bad here:

Beau got to help our very stern captain steer the ship:

Marianne coloring on the deck:

When we finished our adventure and buckled ourselves in the van we had four little sleeping angels within the first mile. We were headed the general direction of home, with hopes to make it at least halfway before holing up in a hotel somewhere.
And telling about the rest of the trip would be like watching the credits roll - boring and tedious. So we'll leave it at that...I'll just say that it's times like this - having survived a long horrible drive that really revealed my true character - I am so grateful that my husband still loves me!

May, June, July

Oh my, I might be setting a new record for myself with "days between posting" adding up and up... It has been a very busy summer so far! Here's what we've been up to since May:

May was a mad rush to finish a comic book that was commissioned by my friend Melanie as a gift to her husband for Father's Day. It was consuming, stressful, and made for many late nights, but it turned out awesome. Epic, even. His comment upon receiving it was "this is pretty frickin' awesome," which I guess is quite a compliment. This is a blurry picture, but you get the idea...

It was fifteen pages, including the cover, and the first panel of each page had Richard (a cow veterinarian), talking to the back end of a cow. I colored it with Copic markers, a new experience for me that I really enjoyed. I had it published at a local company called Subia. I love them - I gave them my finished drawings on Tuesday and had a proof by Friday (Father's day was Sunday).
In June I went to girls camp for a week as an assistant second year leader. I loved every minute of it. Except for being cold. But the girls were wonderful, as were the other leaders. My favorite parts were the zip line, archery, nephite/lamanite battle with pvc bows and arrows, the yummy food, and painting my youth leaders faces to look injured and sick for a first aid mock emergency. When I came home on Friday night, I seriously could have slept straight to Monday. You can imagine how my abandoned husband and kids made sure that didn't happen.
On the Tuesday after I got home from girls camp, Rus left for twelve days away at Philmont, a Boy Scout camp. I decided months ago not to mope and mourn through his long absence, and I planned a trip with my mother and mother in law to Pagosa Springs. And I posted already how amazing it was!
Rus came home on a Saturday and the next week and a half was filled with fun normal things like swimming, doing a woodworking project with DeAnn, and playing with kids.
The week of the Fourth of July we left for San Diego for Rus's cousin Tom's wedding to the beautiful Suzy. We left on the night of the second and spent two nights at Rus's parent's house in Lordsburg. Then we drove the long lovely drive on I-10 to San Diego. The kids really liked seeing Mexico from the road. They wanted to stick their arms through the fence. We were happy to finally arrive at our hotel and see numerous Hartmans. Beau said a couple months ago that he wanted to go on a trip for his birthday, so we said that he could go anywhere he wanted as long as it was to the beach. So Beau had his birthday in San Diego, at the beach, the day after Tom and Suzy's wedding.
Truly, the trip requires its very own post, so let me just say now that it was wonderful to see Tom and Suzy sealed in the San Diego temple.

We got home from that trip on a Sunday night and my sister Amy and her kids and my mom came to visit the following Tuesday. We played the whole week, going swimming, celebrating Bekah's birthday at Cliffs amusement park, and making a longboard with Joshua.

 

Joshua designed, cut out, and painted that longboard himself. He did an AWESOME job! He got home on Saturday night, and by Sunday afternoon he was riding it - that's how excited he was about getting it done!
When Amy left on Saturday she only took Joshua with her. I kept her other three kids for the next six days. We went swimming...and I would like to add here that swimming with seven children, four of which can't actually swim, and not having any of them drown, is in my opinion quite an accomplishment. We also visited the Rattlesnake museum and their dozens of live rattlesnakes, went bowling, went for a hike, made homemade ice cream, attended Apple camp (at the Apple store), made Luke and Bekah castles out of scrap wood, and did lots of lizard catching in the back yard.
Here are the kids in front of the Rattlesnake museum:

It was actually really fun to have seven kids for a week. We went to Target, just for fun, and got a couple odd looks...One older gentleman actually stopped and said, "I'm sorry, I just have to ask..." and I finished for him by saying, "No, these aren't all my children." (I figured out I could have actually had all of them, although three of them are just nine months apart and Luke was born a few weeks before I got married...)
And all of that brings us to this week, where I am finding that teaching paper making to seven children is a wet and messy experience. It's really fun too, but I've learned the hard way that deckles and molds are stronger when the wood is cut with the grain and the screen is a plastic pet screen and not an aluminum wire screen. And set-up and clean-up take a long time. And paper takes a long time to dry, which is not ideal for my back to back three day class. But the kids (ranging in age from seven to thirteen), have had a great time, and that's what's important! Here is our garage full of drying papers:

On Saturday I was able to volunteer as a face painter for Smilefest - an awesome celebration for families with at least one child who has a cleft lip. The woman who organizes it works all year to get a venue and coordinate volunteers and procure donations, so that the families are able to just attend and have a good time, free of charge. This is the second year I have been able to attend as a face painter and I LOVE it! Here is some of my handiwork:

Now it's one week of relaxing fun, one week of St. George, and then school starts!! AAAHHH!!! I'm not ready to be back on a schedule, but angels will be singing when I don't have to take all of my kids grocery shopping anymore!!