ben

With my camera still in the shop getting fixed, I have kind of neglected my computer as well, but sometimes a break from it all is good. There are a couple of things to write about though, so here I am, camera or not.

I love this picture of Ben I took back in June--to me it shows what a fun and crazy kid he can be at times. I love it when he sneaks over to me and asks me to go jump on the tramp with just him--it's our thing. So, a couple weeks ago Ben was going on and on about how great it would be to be the parent, because then he would have all the money in the world to spend, blah, blah blah...as if that's all I do! Well, I took him up on his request and suggested we switch roles for a day. That way I could read all day, with a few minor jobs around the house to do. Our day to switch was last Thursday. First thing when he got up (about 7-ish) he had to get Will ready for school. He got Will's breakfast together (Cheerios) and packed Will a lunch and made sure all of Will's homework was in his backpack. At 7:21am Ben said to me, "Mom, if I start to get really annoyed by doing this parent thing, can I just stop doing it?" That didn't take long at all!! However, I still took full advantage of our switch by making sure Ben knew he had to clean up and put away things from breakfast, and that there was lots of laundry to do. Did I purposely load him up? He might say yes, but really it was just a typical day's worth of stuff to do. By noon he was ready to throw in the towel, and we were leaving for the afternoon anyway, so he got out of the rest of it, but I think he learned a thing or two about running a house. And he didn't spend a dime for that kind of education!! I think I got ripped off, though, because I didn't get any reading done or play any video games.

We have been feeling a bit Ben-less around here this week. He left last Sunday to go to California until tomorrow (Friday) to spend time with Gma and Gpa Airplane, Gma Waterwheel, and other family. It was kind of a brutal send-off: first of all, I had to pay $100 just to accompany him through security to his gate, and then I had to wait to leave the gate until the plane had taken off. Didn't sound too bad until his airplane's engines couldn't get started and they sat there for almost 2 hours!! He made it there safely though, and had a touch of homesickness the first night ("Grandma, it wasn't allergies earlier. I just miss my mom and dad."--Ben talking about his watery eyes earlier), but he has been having a blast ever since, and isn't sure he wants to leave. We have missed him around here, so we'll take him back.

So that's our life with Ben right now. He makes me laugh all the time, and we love him for it!!!

this past week...

...So, it's more like the past 10 days, but really, who is counting. This is just a bunch of different things we have been doing for the past little bit. For starters, one morning I got up and heard some talking going on in the tv room, and walked out on this scene. We exchanged "good mornings," and then Ben and Jake turned to each other and carried on with their conversation. Usually they are nagging at each other so this was cute to see.

I love how my friends growing up and I stay in touch. This time our get-together was to go out to Wendover, Nevada, to see Bret Michaels in concert. Bret is known for being the lead singer for the awesome 80's big-hair, make-up wearing rock band, Poison, (one of my favorite groups from the 80's) but he's out touring on his own now. His concert did not disappoint!! After the concert his band came out and mingled in the halls, so we got pictures with them and bought t-shirts from them (cuz they were the ones behind the counter selling them). We stayed overnight and had too much fun together. "Nothin' But a Good Time!!"

Last Tuesday I went up for the day to girl's camp. I thought I'd pass along a bit of a secret I learned...baby powder. If you cover your body in baby powder before you get dressed it helps absorb the sweat and you don't get as sticky. It really works!

Ben has been so good to watch the boys at home while I run to the store from time to time, so I let him get the Harry Potter illuminating wand. It came in the mail last Friday and Ben and Jake were thrilled beyond belief. (The following few pictures are taken with my phone camera cuz my camera died at girls camp while I was taking pictures of girls riding the zip line. Bummer!!)

At the crack of dawn Saturday morning I woke the boys up to go to the hot air balloon festival in Sandy. They were still half-asleep when we got there, but they endured and ended up having a great time. Unfortunately, the winds above were too strong so the balloons couldn't take off that morning.

Does this picture look sharp or what? It's Julie's camera I borrowed for a day, and cousins were here for me to practice with it. Marissa (on the left) was visiting here from California and stayed with Ciera (holding Sydney) and Garrett (on the right) most of the time.

one tomato plant

The plant you see behind the boys is ONE tomato plant...and it is still growing!! You can't really tell by the angle I took this at, but it's as tall as Jake and much taller than Will. Now if it would just start producing some of those tomatoes...