8 Years to Life

This crazy close-up is all we've got for the anniversary, but the point is that we had fun!

These people have been married for 8 years! Our anniversary fell on a Monday this year, so we had normal Monday things going on - Gary had work, and we had kids over for a water party. Actually, they were there anyway while their mom went to the doctor, so we made it a party. Even though we had regular stuff on the schedule, when Gary came home that day, he wasn't empty-handed -the bag held said Cheesecake Factory. Wow! So, after the kids were in bed, we stayed up and played Scrabble and ate cheesecake. Very fun, though Gary was 100 points ahead the whole time.

On Tuesday, Gary arranged for a baby-sitter, and we got to go out. We played miniature golf, and although I felt like a college-kid as I walked up to get my wrist band, I quickly got into the golf game when I sunk my first hole-in-one. Lucky me, I got two! We played twice (we each won one), and then threw caution to the wind and went on the Dragon Rollercoaster (think Puff the Magic Dragon). Afterwards we ate at Cracker Barrel, yum. It's so nice just to be together. 8 years doesn't sound like a lot in the comparison of marriages, but if you think about the fact that 8 years prior to us getting married we had just graduated from high school, I think wow - you can pack a lot into 8 years. We sure have!

The boys started a their own basketball league this week. Without my knowledge, Josh wrote a note saying that practices would be at our house at 3:00 on Wednesdays and games would be at 3:30 on Fridays. No cleats, no flip flops, he said. He then copied it, and handed it out to all of the kids in the neighborhood. They told me about it before they handed it out, and I thought it was cute, so I let them. Noah planned to be the coach, and said that their friend Brooke could be his "insistent coach." Some of the neighborhood kids were sick when the appointed time came, but they still had a great time. They wanted to buy treats for the game, so I took them to Walmart and let them pick out chocolate milk and fruit snacks. It made it official.

Plugging in the iPod dock outside was a favorite this week, as well. They would turn the music up, then run, jump onto the trampoline, and do a roll off of it. Lissy wanted to jump, (she says, "Jump, mama, jump!") so I held her and jumped on the side while the boys did their extreme sports, and Gary mowed the lawn. One of those perfect nights where everyone is having fun, and the weather is beautiful.

I was getting out of the shower one day, and my boys barged in on me. Noah quickly closed is eyes and said, "I don't want to see your private parts." Andrew came running up to the door and said, "I do!" 3 year olds are hilarious.

Kickboxing is amazing. I never go because it's on Thursday, but since I had been doing to many things and not getting enough sleep my body and mind were shot. I didn't want to do a single thing, but since I know the medicine is exercise, I forced myself to go . . . and it worked! It's like being inside a video game for an hour, but it did the trick.

We worked hard this summer to earn enough reading minutes to win all of the library prizes, the highest level being their end-of-summer swim party. So, on Friday we got to go! Lissy floated it out in her baby-tube, and Andrew smiled it out in his life-jacket. That kid is so much fun - he just loves it, the whole time. There were some Tooele City pageant winners there, to make the swim party more of a party I guess, and they adored Lissy. Every time they'd pass her, they'd comment on her. One of them was standing by the pool smiling at the kids when Noah did a huge (but graceful) belly-flop - gave her quite the splash. Sorry. Josh was big enough to go on the high dive and water slide, so he had the time of his life, and I went around the lazy river and the kiddie pool with the others. I just love taking my kiddos swimming . . . also, the party topped off with an Otter Pop, so hooray for the library prizes.

If you want to see something adorable, I recommend watching Andrew hold up a flashlight to his face in the dark to tell a "scary" story. Oh, my word. My kids got a hold of a flashlight on Friday afternoon, and invited me in to hear their tales. At one point while Andrew was talking, Josh said, "This is getting scary. Cough, Andrew." He did, and it cheered up a bit. When it was Josh's turn he flipped on the lights and watched himself dribble a basketball in the mirror while he told us the Legend of Josh. It included, ". . . and he knew, that if the team was going to win this game, he was going to have to dunk from the 3 point line."

Random - Andrew's torso was covered in an itchy rash this week. Not hives, definitely not eczema, no other symptoms, none of the other kids got it. Poor guy. Also, strange.

On Friday night our ward had a camp out. We joined in the dinner, kickball, some-game-where-I-threw-sticks-at wood, and socializing fun, but then slept in our own beds. We were tuckered out, and Gary didn't want to put everything away by himself while I went to a baby shower the next day. So, we paid our kids out for lack of camping with a doughnut breakfast the next morning. I went to the gym first in preparation, and we had a fun family date at the doughnut shop. I got to see my friends Jennie and Michelle from college at the baby shower (it was for Jennie), and wow, I don't get to see them often enough. Since Gary was there and I had his phone, I got some cute shots of kids at the ward camp out.

These two love being silly together. The trickle of water activity lasted for a very long time.

Josh rounds the bases!

Such a ham - Josh poses while in line to kick.

The location of Noah's outfield assignment was hilarious to me. Some kids also played behind the other fence.

This was Andrew's pose.

Looking for snails in the bushes - all of the kids have spent hours and hours doing it the last few weeks. After they find them, they run and put them on a stool, or whatever the current nest is. They find other amazing things - leaves, sticks, rocks, bugs . . . so much to do! I have loved seeing that Lissy joins in like one of the kids.

On Sunday night we went on a walk, and stopped every few minutes to talk with neighbors. Our walk around two blocks ended up being a very long one, and near the end we saw a couple looking through a house who asked us how the neighborhood is. Really incredible!