This is the Place

On a whim, we decided to visit This is the Place Heritage Park yesterday (for those who don't know, it's a "living history village" about Pioneer life. The employees are "Pioneers," and there are about 50 buildings that have been relocated or are replicas of Pioneer homes and businesses). I hadn't been there since I was a kid, Quentin had never been there at all, and we've been talking about going there for a couple of years but hadn't made it. So we finally went! And boy, we were impressed! We thought we'd be there maybe an hour or so - we didn't realize how much there is to do and how much fun the girls (and us!) would have! We were there for 4 1/2 hours and probably could have stayed nearly an hour more if they hadn't closed for the day! We had an absolute blast. We saw a blacksmith and tinsmith make stuff, rode a train, panned for gold, and the girls rode a pony, made cornhusk dolls, ate penny candy, played in the schoolhouse, and got a "loan" from the banker. What a fun experience - Kiera kept saying how much she loves visiting the "Olden Days."

First Day

Well, we did it. We dropped Kiera off for her very first day of first grade. She was so brave, and I was brave too - till I got out into the empty hallway. I started getting teary-eyed. Then I ran into 4 of my neighbors and we all laughed and gave each other hugs! A few days ago I clipped something I saw in a magazine ad and put it on my fridge: "There will be bigger hallways and bigger kids. There will be new sounds, new friends and new teachers. She'll line up, look back and file inside and at that moment you'll realize this is your first day of school too."

I'm sure Kiera will do fine. She loves school and learning and she's a social butterfly. Yes, she'll have fun and be happy. I'm just sad for me. I miss her. She's my friend, my helper and my entertainer for Makenna and Kasidee. My neighbor says Kiera is sunshine - full of brightness, happiness, goodness and is always thinking of others. This time will be good for me to be able to focus on Makenna and Kasidee. Makenna will be going to preschool in a couple of weeks, we have "standing" playdates arranged, and I have a list of fun things we can do. But I'll still feel lost and a little empty - at least for awhile.

Treasure Hunt

It's our last day of "freedom" till school starts tomorrow. *Sigh* Yesterday we went to Lowes for their bi-monthly FREE building project. I can't believe how much the girls look forward to this and LOVE doing it! Yesterday they made a truck - how cool is that?! I'll tell ya - if you have kids, you gotta get over there. Check it out at www.lowesbuildandgrow.com. I've heard Home Depot does something once a month too. After that, we had lunch at Olive Garden then went on a few geocaches (another thing the girls LOVE - treasure hunts!) Check it out at www.geocaching.com. You can type in a location, it will give you coordinates to a "cache," then you follow your GPS unit - it will point you in the direction and guide you within feet of the "cache." (There are hundreds of thousands of caches all over the world!) When you find the hidden cache, you can open it up - inside is a dozen or so trinkets that you can choose from, then replace with one of your own. Kiera chose a coin from Seattle and Makenna chose a bubble necklace. You can also log your journey into a journal that is enclosed in the cache. It is so fun.

So tonight the back-to-school jitters have begun. Kiera's so excited, but she's afraid she'll have nightmares tonight. She's so sad she won't be in class with her BFF (I feel like a teenager writing that!) Sophie. But she's excited to have 3 (3!) recesses AND lunch with all of her friends. It will be an adventure!

Misc. Stuff 'Cuz I'm Addicted to Blogging. . .

A few random things that I feel the need to document since I'm hoping to print my blog into a book by the end of the year (sorry to make y'all put up with it!)...

When we went to the County Fair last week, the girls weren't the only ones enthralled by the clowns who twisted balloons into animal shapes. I thought they were awesome and I figured I could learn a few tricks for my future in the clowning business! Anyway, the girls and I got some books at the library, some balloons at Zurchers...and then we made Quentin figure it out! Here's his first "balloon sculpture" - can you tell it's a black hummingbird?? Well, I'm impressed!



Quentin was lucky enough to have the day off again today, so we took the girls swimming. 'Tis the last "real" day till school starts on Monday. Kiera's SOOOO excited for school, but I'm sad - I'll really miss her being gone all day. And I'm dreading the "sitting down and doing homework" thing, plus I'll miss the "whatever" schedule we've gotten so used to. Oh well. It will be good to have a "real" schedule and new goals - for me it's like a New Year!




Inspired by Nikki's recent post as well as a couple websites I've perused this week (www.laptoplunches.com and http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com), I LOVE the idea of posting what we're having for dinner!! I love seeing foods and recipes that other people post on their websites, so why shouldn't I do it too? :0) Many of mt friends have wondered what we (as vegetarians) eat - so maybe every once in awhile I'll show ya! Tonight we had brushetta (sp?) - simple and yummy!! I take rolls and cut them in half, put them under the broiler for a couple minutes to toast them a bit, then top them with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, a pinch of salt, and fresh basil. (I took the girls to the Farmer's Market last night while Quentin helped his sister and brother-in-law move into their first house; a cute little farmer tempted me with fresh basil and my mouth started watering. There's nothing like fresh basil!) Oh yum!


Again, inspired by someone else's blog (this time from Quentin's niece Jamie), Quentin took this picture of my grandma's hand, my mom's hand, my hand, and my 3 girls' hands. I love what Jamie said about her picture: "Much love, caring, soothing and hard work is held in this picture. It is so neat to see the beauty of a young hand, turned to a beautiful, wrinkled, aged hand. How lucky I am to have wonderful hands to follow!" What a neat idea, Jamie - you inspired me to have a picture like that of my own! Thank you!


Last but not least, Quentin and I got a VERY exciting phone call this evening from my cousin Aaron - he and his wife Lisa are expecting their first baby in February! Yahoo!!! We're SO happy for them - they'll be AWESOME parents! Yay!!

Field Trip

More fun-squeezing before school starts.... Today we met Quentin for lunch during his lunch hour. The girls think Daddy works at the coolest place 'cause it's just steps away from the Gateway fountains. Quentin and I grabbed some Subway sandwiches and watched the girls "frolick" in the fountains - well, except Makenna. She just watched from the sidelines. But even Kasidee got in on the action - she loved it! Afterwards, the girls and I went to the Salt Lake Library (my dad lets us borrow his library card!). We love it there! The girls played in the "Crystal Cave" and the "Attic" play areas and we got tons of books to come home with. What a fun day!

Bah Humbug!

So I'm trying to be a "greener" person and be a good example to my girls by recycling. We have 3 large garbage cans in our garage where our recyclables go till I can drive it over to Bountiful City's recycling station (usually about every 10 days or so). I have felt really good about doing this and am proud that my girls are more aware of "Reducing, Reusing and Recycling." When we went to drop off our stuff a few days ago, the recycling station was closed. I figured it was just temporary - but today my friend told me that Bountiful City has instituted a mandatory curbside recycling program and has discontinued their drop-off station. Aughhh! People in Centerville or Farmington have to PAY some company to pick up their recycling. Shouldn't they be paying US??? I'm so disappointed and frustrated - I don't know what to do. Plus here's another thought. I bought those cute little reusable shopping bags, thinking I was helping the environment. But now I have to buy plastic garbage sacks for my kitchen garbage cans. I guess it's all just part of the "things that make you go Hmmm...."

More Fun

As a "last hurrah" for summer, we're trying to squeeze in a few more fun things before school starts. We wanted to take Kasidee on a mini-train ride on her birthday last week but they were closed. The website said they were open today, so we went - but they were having a family reunion and weren't taking "normal" customers. Ergh! The girls were SOOO disappointed (we all were!), so we had to come up with Plan B pretty quick. The Farmington Pool was going to close in an hour, so we decided to fill up our little kiddie pool in the backyard. I thought the girls would balk, but they started jumping up and down with excitement. Whew! So we filled up the pool, turned on the sprinkler, and the girls got out their umbrellas. While they were playing, Quentin and I worked on a surprise we had for them. About a week ago when I was at the recycling center, I noticed someone had dropped off one of those Little Tyke purple dinosaur sandbox things. We've debated all summer about getting one, but Quentin wanted to add it to his "to do" list to MAKE a sandbox instead. But I couldn't resist. This sandbox was in pretty good shape - and it was free! So I nabbed it. We got some pea gravel (a little less, well, sandy than sand!) and filled it up. The girls thought it was the neatest thing. They got out their buckets and shovels and began digging - and throwing in pennies and nickels to see if they could bury them and find them again! So it turned out to be a fun day after all!

Little Walker

Kasidee's been taking a few steps here and there for a couple of months now, but the last few days she has really been taking off! (She loves pushing her dolly stroller, but she can walk without help now too!) She starts at one end of the room and toddles toward the other end. If she gets tippy, she'll sit down then start all over. She's getting pretty good at it - and she's very proud of herself (so are we)!

Home

I had a vivid dream last night that I've thought about all day today. I dreamt (dreamed?) that I looked out the window and saw a big wrecking ball in front of my front door. When I asked the person operating it what was up, he said, "Oh - didn't you get the notice from the City? We have to demolish your house." After much protesting, we realized it was to no avail. The wrecking ball guy was able to give us 12 hours to pack up our entire home and leave. I woke up with a heavy heart until I realized it was all just a crazy dream. But I've been thinking all day...I love our home! And not only just the house, but our neighborhood and the area as well! If we couldn't live here, where would we go? What would we do? I remember when we moved to Farmington nearly 9 years ago...I felt so far away and homesick. It took nearly a year for me to finally feel totally comfortable and "not homesick." 7 years later when we realized that we needed a new home, we knew where we wanted to be - we only moved about 2 miles south. We realized that South Farmington/North Centerville is where we want to raise our family. It is home. I guess that dream made me aware that I love my life right now - I love my family and our home. And I guess I'm so afraid of something taking that away. I've been thinking a lot about the "psychology of home" lately - how "home" means different things to different people (areas, floorplans, decorations, etc). But home is where our lives unfold. When I was little, my mom had a picture on our wall that said, "A house is made of bricks and stone; a home is made of love alone." Awwwww....

County Fair

So...we braved the heat and the crowds and ventured over to the Davis County Fair this afternoon (Quentin had the day off). Actually, there was a touch of Fall in the air, and it wasn't really crowded much at all. Perfect! The girls LOVED it! Makenna kept saying, "I love being on a farm!" We checked out the petting zoo, where a little goat was enthralled with following Kasidee around in her stroller. Then we saw the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack show, where they threw axes at a target, carved a big log into a bunny, had wood cutting contests and a log roll (you know, where the guys run on a log in the water and try to stay on while running the other guy off the log). We all thought that was pretty cool. Then we checked out the science discovery center and the "kid zone," where the girls all got a balloon animal (Kasidee was quite unsure about her swan). We were disappointed that the line for the free pony rides was reeealllly long, but we'll have to plan a September trip to Thanksgiving Point for one of their fun pony rides. Makenna tells us her life-long dream is to ride a pony. I guess we'll have to make that happen!




"MILKING" A WOODEN/PLASTIC COW!

Countdown

The pic doesn't have anything to do with what I'm going to write about - but isn't it a cute pic?! Anyway...so school starts in 11 days. I know most of you are jumping for joy, and in some ways I am - but mostly I am REALLY sad!! (I can't let on to my girls though!) Kiera will be gone from 8:45 till 3:25 - that's practically all day. And Makenna will be starting preschool 2 days a week. I'm looking forward to Kasidee-and-me time, but boy - it sure will be quiet! I have been absolutely amazed at how much fun Kiera and Makenna have had playing with each other this summer. They wake up, run to the toyroom and spend HOURS just playing with their dolls, or coloring, or whatever. It's hard to get them involved in anything else, but they just have so much fun together. It's fun to hear them in their "play talk." So Makenna's going to go through withdrawal when Kiera's in school. This time of year always gives me mixed emotions. Early Fall is probably my favorite time of year. But I also start getting a homesick-y feeling too (probably related to school jitters). I know my girls will have a blast at school. It's just hard letting them grow up!

You've Had a Birthday - Part 2

Well, it's been a 3 day birthday celebration! Makenna's 4th birthday on Thursday, a little family party on Friday, and Kasidee's first birthday on Saturday! We wanted to take Kasidee on a ride on a mini-train at the S&S Shortline Railroad in Farmington, but they weren't open. Rats! So we browsed at Bird World and looked at all the kitties, puppies, fish, birds, bunnies, and other critters. She LOVED it! (And we'll still take her on the train another day). We also visited Granny and Nana and just had an enjoyable day. My girls are growing up!...