Highlights

As I've mentioned before, I'm quite the to-do list-a-holic. I'm addicted to it. On that to-to list I often jot down the things I want to blog about, and since we have been floating from home to home (while Troy continues slogging through the whole bathroom thing) the list has gotten longer and longer. Now I'm having a brief stop-in at home (every few days we just HAVE to come home to see Troy and get refreshed before heading out on the road again,) so I thought I'd try to quickly post a few of the highlights from the past month.

Highlight #1:
Stomper finished up Summer School

Stomper had such a good time doing his little summer school - I have to give major kudos to the teachers at Bennion for putting on a really fun program for these kids. Every day was packed with great art projects, science experiments, special guests, field trips and the like. I think my favorite art project of the year was the day they laid out huge sheets of paper on the sidewalk outside, and let the kids literally step in the paint and run all over the paper. Stomper ended up covered head to toe in multiple colors. It was great. Here's a picture of his class on their field trip to Red Butte Garden:



Highlight #2:
The 24th of July

Seems so long ago. I guess that's because it was. There were two days of celebration for us - thanks to the Mayfields, we discovered that the city of Bountiful holds quite the party the day before. We went up there to join our friends for a parade, a BBQ, and fireworks. The parade was kind of hot and long, but the kids loved it. Here's a video of Bitty showing off her moves as the floats went by:



My favorite part of that day had to be the fireworks. My kids have never seen the up-high-in-the-sky kind. It had been a long fun day, with both kids basically disappearing with their friends and interacting with them much more than with myself for the day. However, as it became evening and we drove up to sit on the lawn of Misty's sister, it was dark and late, and we were just sitting down on the grass. The first big boom happened, and of course Bitty burst into tears and Stomper even panicked a little. I gathered them in my arms and we snuggled up, and within a few minutes all three of us were captivated. They were right over our head, and the show was a long and good one. So beautiful. I just love those moments when you suddenly get to be reminded of just who is a part of your own wonderful family. After the whole loud exciting day, it was just wonderful to sit there and experience my kids' first big fireworks show with them, all snuggled up.

They zonked on the way home, which was good, because the next day was another big one - Troy's big brother Rick put together a Preslar family gathering at the folks' house, with dutch-oven cooking as the main attraction, possibly second only to the spectacle of all the little boys running across the yard and jumping into the blow-up pool we brought:




Highlight #3:
Campout in Oma and Apa's Backyard

I'm not sure how this got started - it was probably my fault. Somehow, with Adam and Whitley being in town, we decided that having a sleepover in my parents' back yard would be a good idea. This, of course, was the night before a camping trip for me. It was a little crazy, but we did set up a tent in the back yard. I'm not sure how much sleep anyone got, of course, but it was fun. My sister and her three girls, me and my two kids plus Adam slept outside. Smith was also slated to sleep out with us, but he kind of wandered back in with Whitley around midnight. A little crazy, a lot of bug bites, and very little sleep. Sounds like fun, right?

Highlight #4:
Mom-n-Kids Trip to Bear Lake

I guess I'll say that next year, either the dads are coming too, or the kids aren't invited. What that means is that we do hope there will be a next year. Four of us; Emily, April, TL and I, went up to the KOA campground in Bear Lake. This is a historic campground in our family because when Troy was 14, he and his best buddy Mike Tuckfield got dropped off there to live for about a month. They had a job picking raspberries every day, but spent their free time biking around the lake, jumping in every time they got hot, and getting incredibly tan. Can you imagine doing that these days? Just dropping off your kid at a campground for a month? Me neither.

Anyway, we had a great time, although it was also rather exhausting. We did find the KOA cabins to be great - clean, cute, good amenities. I'd totally do it again. Except the kids either have to get older or stay home. Or we need more help. I think the low point of the trip was probably the tin foil dinners....need I say more? Probably not. Those things never really work out. Especially when you have ten hungry crying kids on your hands. That explains why we ate s'mores before we ate dinner. A great memory from the trip: being sound asleep in the front of the cabin in a bed with my kids, when suddenly I opened my eyes because the light had been turned on. Also, there was a strange man sticking his head through the door, looking shocked and horrified, and mumbling something about, "I'm so sorry! I guess I'll go find my own cabin now..." Remind me to lock the door next time. Potentially scary, but he and his family turned out to be very nice neighbors. Almost as nice as the sweet lady who loaned me her swimming suit when she overheard me say to TL, "Oh my gosh! I forgot my swimming suit!" Of course, she eventually needed it back, which is why I ended up in the pool the next day wearing some strange turquoise swim trunks and a lavender t-shirt plastered with flowers and the phrase, "Property of Camp Cutie." It was the best I could do at the local KOA market. A keepsake, for sure, though you'll never catch me in it again.

Sorry, can't help but post another slide show here - there are too many great pictures.

If you actually made it to the end of this very long post, then ...well, sorry about that. But you can't know how happy I am to be able to cross off FOUR things off my to-blog list! Yay!