Things that have happened in the past few days:
Cousin Megan came for a visit and we went to Lagoon with her.
Pioneer Day was yesterday. I tried to get all the kids to dress up. Aunt Suzie helped make dresses out of material without sewing so we could be pioneers. I grabbed a few things and dressed up too. Aunt Alice took some of our pictures.
Suzie and I made Apricot Jam, Hamburger Buns, and BBQed last Saturday.
Nathan and I weeded the yard and he mowed the lawns.
Nathan made homemade Oreo cookies with the girls. Zach ate some.
Zach enjoyed the chocolate fountain on pioneer day as seen in some pictures. We set off fireworks for Pioneer day let the kids play with sparklers, watched the parade on TV and the kids played football in the backyard with Joe and Aaron. Grandma and Grandpa S., came up and brought some homegrown chicken to BBQ. We had ribs, tater salad, southwest chicken salad, jello, punch, beans and chocolate fountain with all the fixins! We even threw in some Cream Puffs and 1/4 pieces of homemade Oreo cookies =)
The girls started school again Hailey moved on to 3rd grade and Sierra is now in 1st grade. They both have full day school now! except every Friday is a 1/2 day.
On the 1st day of school our newest neighbor Amy invited us over for cupcakes in her driveway. We visited and melted in the July heat but it sure was nice getting to know her a little better and letting the kids make some more friends.
Zach has been a pill. I’m not sure what is bothering him. he seems to hold his stomach a lot and had a temperature around 103* earlier this week. It’s been about 2 weeks with him just being a whiny pain. It may be the terrible 2’s. The girls had the terrible 4’s hopefully these will come and go with Zach super fast. We miss the happy little soul!
We went on a date night without the kids and got a 12 year old babysitter FINALLY after calling almost the whole neighborhood, church, searching the internet and finding a professional daycare provider to warch 4 kids. It was near impossible but we did get to go to Nathan’s parents and play Cranium with his parents, JoeNSuzie AaronNAlice, KathyNMeg and had a super fun time. Then we stopped by UncleMikenDenises to drop off Birthday gifts and visit with them for a while and that was REALLy nice.
Joe and Aaron have come over at least twice to “Game” on the computers with Nathan. I try to spoil them with food, candy, smooties, soda, and snacks while they are here. They are into Battlefield 2142 right now and seem to have a lot of fun getting together as brothers. So needless to say we have been busy. And my dears, that is why I haven’t blogged for a while. Enjoy the pictures!
Kathy that just gave me an idea. . .
You aught to have Most Photogenic Winner of the month contests and the winner gets 50% off their next order.
Hummm. . . Maybe you can do categories (baby, boy, girl, family, senior, bride, groom, couple, group, pet, etc!), and advertise those contests at the store front on the web and through postal mailings!!
My 1st few days with my new Hi-Def camera
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We got to take cousin Megan. I told here she was not there to babysit for me, as also, Brenda – Suzie’s babysitter, was not there to babysit for me. We played and had fun.
The older girls took Sierra on Rattlesnake rapids while I got some footage of their journey through the waterfall. I’ll be downloading pictures when I have some more time. We watched kids go on kiddy rides I took all 4 on the carosel by myself, We rode the ferris wheel and I took Zach and carolee – both about 2 years old on the “Tilt A Whirl”. Zach was a little worried but seemed fine. The kids all played on the bumper cars today too!
We rode the train together. Floated on the Lazy River. Where Sierra pulled me, while I held Aurora and Zach on my lap and Hailey hung on to my raft(sometimes with her teeth) When I go on rides I will occasional lift up both arms and shout WOOO HOOO! Little Zach decided he was going to do that while floating on the lazy river – All his idea totally. It was so cute. Hailey flipped out of her floatee when her teeth gave out on her she was laughing pretty hard about that. Sierra pulled her tube and 3 others behind it so fast that she collected about 5 more people in the whip of it causing a terrible traffic jam right when we were getting ready to get off. and i had to stand up holding Aurora and Zach , wehile catching my tube and trying not to get swiped under by the crowd.
Then at 6 PM Joe and Suzie brought pizza for dinner. We supped and I got to go on a ride without kids!!! I went on The Spider with Brenda. It was about 30 minutes out of Suzie’s day to watch the kids. by 7 I was ready to call it a day, soI tried to get home by 8 to get kids in bed. Zach zonked to sleep in the car on the way. Nathan put him to bed. Nathan had a bad headache all day that made him want to throw up so he stayed home all day and worked. After we got the kids to bed Nathan and I got to watch a movie and have a snack. I ate some of my homemade zucchini bread and he had Cherry Garcia ice cream while we watched “My Super X-Girlfriend” it had some pretty funny parts in it. I think Nathan was more amused than I. but we got a few good laughs.
Today I spent about 3 hours with Zach in the sandbox triple sifting the rocks out of the sand to make it suprema soft. Zach said, “Jet” as one flew overhead. He keeps calling out, “Mom, Mom”. He said, “Popsicle” the other day, and the way he says Aurora is so cute! It sounds like “Aworwa” . He was so helpful today while she laid on the grass beside the sandbox. Zach would put her pacifier in her mouth when she would get fussy. It ended up being a welcomed help! The sandbox is now pillow soft and the kids are having more fu
n than ever playing in it.
For dinner tonight we got to sit out on the new patio furniture under the shade of a gazebo with water misters and ate my grilled teriyaki chicken kabobs, zucchini bread and rice. It was Swell!
Gotta run give Zach a bath and send him to bed.
Or schedule went a little like this.
3rd of July
Molly and Allen and their 4 kids joined us for a horse carriage ride and tour of Temple Square in SLC.
I headed to Suzie’s for blow up beds. and ran to McDs to pick up some dinner. Molly and Allen went to The Golden Corral for dinner.
Met up at my place and had a movie party.
4th of July
Dad, Janika and her 6 kids and my Mom arrived. Later Thomas and his girlfriend Vicki came into town.
We had a BBQ at my house about 21 people were there. We exploded fireworks – Fountains and had Tank Wars in the Cul Du Sac. Some of out Neighbors joined us for that. Then we headed out to Lagoon for their fireworks show. It wasn’t a long as we had hoped it would be but we did get to see a show.
Some people camped and others stayed at my house.
5th of July
We woke up and got a move on the day. Molly and Allen went with my parents to do Baptisms at the Temple and we took their kids and went to Antelope Island for the Museum, Picnicking and a dip in the Great salt lake. We also went for a drive along the island to see the buffalo. There were tons and we got to see them run across the road and we got to see the little baby buffalo. The kids all head a pretty good time even though they didn’t get to go to the real Swimming part. 103* weather with no wind in the heat of the day on an island in the middle of nowhere was no cool place for kids to swim so we hustled out of there and into the cars with A/C. they were all still able to put their feet in the water at the side of the road in the Great Salt Lake but it was a lot smellier and pretty dirty with all the seagulls around.
Then Nathan took us all out to The Golden Corral buffet for dinner and I think we all had a pretty good time except Zach who was exhausted by then and VERY ready for bed.
I took the girls and went to the campground to camp with Janika, Thomas and Molly’s families. We made smores on my camp stove, I brought glow sticks and necklaces for the kids to play with, and we played “telephone” and laughed out pants off joking with each other until 2 AM. I didn’t get to sleep until almost 3 and woke up at 5:30 to head home and take care of Zach so Nathan could work in the morning. And I had to start making the Creamed Eggs for breakfast.
6th of July
I lived with only 2.5 hours of sleep it took a Dr Pepper to keep me going. But I was able to make Creamed Eggs for breakfast.
Then we lounged around the house contemplating a trip to Dinosaur park. We had already reserved it but with the weather turning to about 105* We were thinking twice about going. At about 3 we finally got around to going. But it was very hot. That’s when the kids started the rounds of Puke. First, Janika’s step kids.
It was hot we did get some good pictures and got to see the inside museum the park outside and loads of dinosaur sculptures. The kids all got along with each other and we hit the gift shop on the way out.
Then we had a pizza party at my house. We ate 6 of the 10 pizzas at least. Later LeeJoe and his family of 7 arrived for all the festivities.
We talked a bit and headed over to the park for Family pictures which Vicki so nicely took for all of us! – Thanks! We brought Hailey and Sierras Fishing rods and walked to the lake to fish. Some people were catching catfish and I guess Allen caught one but I left with my family to get Zach into bed and left the video camera with Vicki to tape the goings on. They seemed to have all had fun. sept the mosquito bites. My niece Amber ended up with 31.
After everyone arrived to the house and Zach and Aurora were in bed we lit off the last 3/4 box of fireworks and that took about an hour. We would have all had a ton of mosquito bites if it was
n’t for the “Skeeter Vac” we got 2 weeks ago. It cleared 1.5 acres of skeeters from our area. I did get one bite out at the lake the whole trip! that’s it!
7th of July
We all went Lagoon ’sept for Grandpa who went to the Family History Library to work on names for the temple.
We went to the water park first and spent a couple hours floating down the lazy river.
We met grandpa outside the park at the campground right next to Lagoon for a quick lunch that I had packed for all of us.
Nathan and I got to ride the White roller coaster with all the people tall enough and brave enough to go on it. My head was hurting so bad on that one. The we skipped over to the new roller coaster Wicked. It was really good!! then we went on rattlesnake rapids with most everyone. we even talked Hailey into it with a poncho on. I didn’t get a single picture at the park but it was fun. Many of us took turns on babysitting duty. Janika’s Claire was throwing up all day and Aurora couldn’t go on the rides. I got a chance to sit down with Sierra and make jewelery necklaces bracelets and rings out of grass tied together with yellow leaves tied on for the jewel.
Nathan and grandma picked up Taco Bell an fried chicken and we all ate it up. we left at 9:30 PM and ran to the store for some milk and food for breakfast. Nathan went in cuz I was feeling sick. I rode home on my knees with my elbows and head resting on my seat, I was so sick. I put the kids to bed and puked 2 times. Later in the night I puked once more. I had caught the bug. It kept spreading like wildfire through all the reunion members! and it keeps going. We missed church Sunday I stayed in my pj’s all day that’s how bad it was. I didn’t cook for anyone I made them all eat leftovers and popsicles and then the power went out as we were trying to set up the pictures and videos from the week. So some of us sat outside with the misting hoses on while others preferred the basement and some braved it out in the house trying to keep the door shut. At about 4:30 people had enough of the power outage and went home. It just made for more family jokes about how to clear a family reunion party out of the house and such. The power came on about an hoar after some people left. Janika and my folks stayed and Janika’s husband was in town so we got to meet him finally. Hi Mike.
Monday was another semi-sick day. Tuesday all blends with Monday but Janika’s kids were with us for the morning and Nathan got the icky sickness overnight we stayed in bed pretty much all day Tuesday.
Today is Wednesday.
I was able to sweep and mop and get a little house work done. But now both babies are crying and need Mommy. Daddy is still feeling icky and we got a call from Janika telling us Mike was feeling cruddy and LeeJoe and Kim called to tell us they had conceived the airborne ickybug and it spread through their house. All my kids got it and Aurora was the only one that didn’t throw-up. Hummmm . m .m .m .m.m.m. what a way to end a reunion.
We have changed our Lay family reunion to every ODD year as the Lay family is a fairy ODD family so every odd year we will try to re-unite and every even year I think is already taken with Nathan side so it works out just right. The Normal – EVEN family and the ODD family reunions will be in the years they belong in. =) I love you all thanks for coming out. We did enjoy having you and all the cleaning up you did! It helped a bundle!
MaryAnne is in charge of picking the place for the 2009 reunion so start saving and planning now – she lives close to DisneyWorld 
She wasn’t at this reunion to say “Not it” when we were passing out assignments =)
We’ve got company!
Molly and Allen with Zeona, Alexis, Celest, and Shylin arrived at 2:00 todau to kick off the family reunion!
We’ve already sat under the misting hoses and chatted, watched Over The Hedge and A Night at the Museum in our newly remodeled “Movie Theatre”
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