Nature sizzles with crazy beautiful

The hills are alive with... Oh what a beautiful morning oh what a beautiful day...  Woke up with yawn it's dawning... Sweet Caroline ba ba ba...  High on a mountain top...
These are just some of the songs that went through my head when I was camping at Tony Grove. Sometimes life is very interesting when a song is added. Sometimes the scenery can get songs in your head and sometimes these songs pop out of your mouth really loud... well anyway they say that a picture is worth a thousand words so I will stop now...

A side note about camping: I never share forks, straws, food, drinks or anything with my kiddies. Sometimes I will throw out a whole dish of food because someone stuck a dirty spoon in. Sometimes I will literally throw up because something got into my drink before I finished drinking it. I can't even pour cereal without inspecting the bowl first. Somehow, when I am camping, my cleanliness paranoia flies out the proverbial window. It's never life altering, I revert back to my true ways, with a passion, when we get home.

For everyone that I have been talking to since getting back, I am NOT sorry that I have been gushing about Tony Grove. I love that place, it was beautiful, peaceful, and fun. I plan on going back for a nice hike around the lake before it snows. I want to climb the rocks and play in the water. I want some new picture perfect moments. This place was incredible. I am going camping again but that will have to wait until next summer, but it's a wait that's worth it.  

Everything Melts

Everything has the potential to melt, metal, chocolate, ice. I know my kids melt. They seem to melt when it's hot, when they are tired, when they are hungry, when they want candy, when there are lots of people around, when I am on the phone, when I am trying to have an adult conversation with someone, when I try to set up an appointment, etc etc etc. So it really shouldn't have been a surprise when they melted at the County Fair yesterday. It was combination of many things, it was hot, they were tired, there were lots of people around, and they wanted candy. Pure family joy!

The clip below is like a slide show, press play and then keep reading.  
There isn't any music and it shows most of the stuff we saw at the fair.

I didn't put this movie together so you don't have to watch it if you don't want to.

You see, I am sick. I have been for a while. I have this stupid summer cold. How am I supposed to treat a summer cold? Its totally lame. Its hot! I mean you can't eat soup, you can't cuddle under a blanket, and I can't keep the kids inside for long. It just doesn't work. Also with this cold I have what you call potential energy. POTENTIAL! That's it. When I have laid around all day I feel that I can get up and go go go! I can't, but the potential is there. That's why I thought that after nearly the whole day of rest I could go the the Cache County Fair. Oh so wrong. WRONG WRONG WRONG!

I get there and immediately I am tired. The heat is suppressive, the smell is pungent. The boys are really happy and excited to get out of the house. We go the fire station booth. They are so happy to have plastic firemen hats. We keep walking, they are handing out a lot of free stuff. We see huge tractors. <<warning first tantrum>>> The tractors had signs on them "please stay off, do not climb" Spay was very upset. I did let him sit in a tire but he still wasn't too happy. 

This is the only place we took any pictures that day...

Then we walked around the animals (now would be a good time to check on the video, then come back.) The animals were hot, we were hot. The animals stunk, we didn't. It was interesting to see all the animals. After we were done with all the live stock we started walking around the booths again, where we got COTTON CANDY! <<warning second tantrum>> This was my second cotton candy treat this summer, but because I am sick it wasn't that good. So sad. Well we bought one GIANT cone to share. Math started crying, then he started jumping and crying, then he started yelling. What?!? Oh yeah, he wanted his own. Ummm no, well actually yes. I really love cotton candy and I thought that I would share with Math and Ko would share with Spay. Math is a gross eater and guess what, he got his own. 

I could go on and on and on AND on about all the joyous episodes my kids had. The one about not going on the rides, the one about not buying the stupid toy, the one about not wanting to go home, the one about not wanting to hold my hand while we crossed the street, the one where I was being mean to his brother. And on and on and on. I could tell you that by the time we had gotten dinner I was ready to go back to bed or sleep on the grass at the fair. I could tell you that it was a great event and you should go. 

That last one is kind of a lie. I think that there were people were enjoying themselves. Ko loved it, it brought back a lot of happy memories for him. As for me, if I have so much as a sniffle next year, I am staying home. Ko can go enjoy his trip down memory lane and all of the many many many tantrums adventures with the boys. 

Cache County Fair, may you have a good rest. Hopefully by next year I will have forgotten this day and visit you again. So long!

Saturday is a Special Day, its the Day You Make Yourself Exhausted...

The Saturday morning started very late, because I felt like sleeping in. A friend came by while I was still sleeping and gave me some Wisconsin cheese. I know what you are thinking, I live in Cache Valley, it has its own cheese company (actually there are three companies that I know of here.) However there is just something so good about Wisconsin cheese. Thanks kmfm! I am still a little embarrassed that I was still asleep when you came over.

So in the afternoon we decide to take a hike up to the Wind Caves. This is probably the most popular trail and the most hiked trail. Why? Maybe because it actually has a destination. I don't know, it's really hard!  (Tangent start: I know this is popular because I knew about this hike the first month I lived here. I can usually tell when something is really popular because I have heard about it. For those of you who don't know me, I am really out of the loop on a lot of things. :Tangent done) So we went for a hike.

Normally the kids are really good hikers. They hardly rest and basically run up mountains. But man oh man did they need a lot of pit stops. I was really frustrated and ready to turn around after about 100 yards into the hike. I mean really did they need their fruit snacks right there... okay I thought we had enough snacks, but they ended up eating mine and when I am hungry lets just say I may get slightly mean and irritable. Lesson learned, go hiking after eating pasta and take lots and lots and lots of snacks.

We made it, barely. When we got to the top, it was so anti climatic. I really wanted a brass band to be playing a congratulations song. After everything we had been through to get there I wanted to celebrate and cry at the same time. It took us three hours up and one hour down. A four hour round trip, this wasn't a hike it was an outing. I can guarantee that neither Ko or I thought it was going to take that long. Then to make matters a little more crazy we had a date planned that night. We had left our house in a complete and utter mess. Meaning we had to run down the mountain, go home, shower, eat, clean up the house, pick up the babysitter, then make it to the Utah Festival Opera Co presentation of OLIVER before they locked the doors. We made it, barely.

During intermission Ko leaned over to me and said, "I recognize a lot of these songs even though I have never seen this before." Then I replied, "Maybe because I sing them A LOT at home." Yep back in the day (3rd possibly 4th grade) I was in the play Oliver along with basically the entire school. I got to play a part for one scene. I was Nancy when she threatens to turn in everyone and hang with them. I messed up the line really bad. But when that part came on during the play, I was really excited because I really did remember the lines. It was so fantastic to see, I am very pleased with the performances! Bravo UFOC!

I wish we had gone to more plays. It's just that the plays are really expensive if you want semi decent seats. We did go to two plays one year and bought balcony seats. Never never never will I sit in the balcony again. The seats are so close together. I made the mistake of wearing a skirt and guess what, if the guy in front of me turned around it would be a very nice close up view up my skirt. So we have decided we will go to one play and sit in the orchestra seats, no matter how far away we sit. I also wear dress pants too. I could go on and on and on about that Saturday. It was incredibly crazy. I think I need to limit myself to ONE activity a day. At least while the kids are young!