Little Mermaid and Kolob

We only did one thing in September that is worth mentioning. My dad, the awesome, totally modest, above and beyond lawyer that he is, had a client that really appreciated the work he did for her, and gave him and all of his family plus my grandma, tickets to go see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn, which was sold out. She also fed us dinner before the show. Oh, and by the way, she lives in a mansion. Not joking. See for yourself:

The front - you can't even see the whole house in this shot

Dining room. In case you can't see, the ceiling and walls are completely covered in gorgeous wood paneling

Pic #1 of my dream Laundry/craft room, probably any woman's dream Laundry room

Pic #2 - the other side of the room

Pic #3 - The center of the room. In case you can see it all (extreme amateur photographer), there is a sewing machine right under the window, and a 2 PC computer on the right side, and a sink on the left. . Oh, and on the wall that you can't see, there is a 2nd fridge for the main kitchen. I would kill to have this room!

The Living room, I think. Honestly, there are so many rooms like this, that I am not sure what this room is, but it is gorgeous.

Pic #1 of the kids play room. Actually, it is better named as the Fantasy Room

Pic #2 - of Fantasy room

Pic #3 - the playhouse under the stairs in the Fantasy room. Yes, that is one of those split doors, that apparently has a peep hole in it

Inside of the playhouse under the stairs. And yes, that is a very real looking fireplace.  I don't know if it really works, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Girls bedroom off of Fantasy Room - It had 2 beautiful double beds in there and some secret closets, just to make it a little more cool.

My dream bathtub

This is Matt's favorite room/rooms. It is a full size kitchen just off of...

the theater room, complete with stage and piano for the family talent shows.

Matt was drooling

Here is the Entrance. Unbelievable!!

Other side of Entrance

Who can guess what this room is?

That's right, a bowling alley in their basement. So awesome!!!

The puppet theater. Not joking. I missed the puppet play my kids put on. So bummed

Kitchen #2 - you can see it in the picture above, way at the back

Covered playground. I so wish Ogden had these. Also, there were two tramps in the ground to the right.

What mansion wouldn't be complete without it's music room.

The office. Complete with wood paneling on the ceiling like the Dining room and Entrance

Beckett's favorite thing about the house.

Dining nook off of the main Kitchen. It has an amazing view of their own personal lake, complete with swans!

Pic #1 of Main Kitchen (That is 3 kitchens). The Dining nook is right behind me. Also, those two sets of doors on either side of that dish cupboard, are doors into a secret pantry behind that wall. I want a secret pantry. Also, there are drawers in the bottom of that cupboard that actually are their FREEZER. This place blew my mind with all of the secret little nooks and crannies you could put into a house.

Pic #2 - This is their totally awesome, professional stove. How cool would it be to cook on that?!

Pic #3 - The main sink is located in front of the window, but as you can see, there is another small one right there on the right, just in case you can't make it to the main one. The cupboard and nook are to the right of this picture.

Things I didn't get pictures of were the Lego room. Yes, an entire room dedicated to playing with Lego's. And it had two thrones in there, just for fun. Also, there is an Elevator to take you to all of the 3 levels and the basement. There were iron baby gates built into the walls for the stairs, so you don't have to use those ghetto, plastic baby gates, which would totally ruin the look of the house. I didn't even bother counting all of the bedrooms and bathrooms. She has several large collections of figurines and Christmas villages. The lake had paddle boats to take a little joy ride in. There was a massive grill in the backyard. I mean, you could run a restaurant on that grill. They had a full basketball and tennis quarts, possibly 2, I can't remember. There was a ginormous tree house in the front yard that would even tempt an adult to want to play pirates or Swiss Family Robinson. The art work she had in her home was unreal. So beautiful. It was the most amazing, mind-blowing place I have ever been in. This is totally cliche, but the pictures really do not do the size, nor the place justice. An incredible experience to just be in the home. And then they fed us dinner, which were delicious, Cafe Rio style burritos, so it got even better. Imagine that.

During dinner, we found out what my did to help this family. The house/mansion was getting close enough to completion that the family was about to move in. They went on a vacation prior to moving in. While they were away, plumbers were working on the mansion. One was in the basement, and the other on the second floor. The upstairs plumber, hadn't quite been able to finishd his job of capping off two pipes in a bathroom before he left. The one in the basement, finished up and thought that everything was done all throughout the house, so before he left, he turned on the water to the whole house.  Both plumbers were leaving for the weekend. So, on Monday morning they came in to find the Entrance and Dining room just destroyed from all of the water that had been spraying out of the two pipes. Other rooms were ruined as well, but those two rooms were the most devastating because they had expensive wood paneling all over the walls and ceilings. The plumbers felt horrible, and their insurance only covered $200,000 of the damages. But that wasn't even close enough to pay for the wood. The woman's home insurance was with State Farm (my father has had major lawsuits with them and they are the devil), and they went to HOME DEPOT and got an estimate for the wood replacement from there and then added a little more and said that was all they would pay. Are you kidding me? I think the wood was from Brazil or something. So, the woman and her husband, who has since passed away, called my dad and hired him, who got them their money. I can't even imagine what the house looked like after all that water damage. It would have been so sad.

After dinner, the woman escorted us all to Tuacahn for the show, she even got my parent's the closest parking space you could get (I got to be one of the lucky people to ride in their car, it was so sweet). It was really cool. This woman went above and beyond for our tickets. We had the best seats in the house. I'm afraid she might have put some people out of their seats in order to get us all into the show. It was a wonderful production. The underwater characters wore boots that had wheels for heels. Then there would somehow be water on the stage, and they would skate around on the stage to give the swimming look. It was so good. There weren't enough tickets for everybody to go to the show, so Matt and Beckett decided to be the ones not to go. Beckett would have had a panic attack, especially if he didn't get to swim in the Hotel pool, and Matt hates musicals, so he was more than happy to go back to the hotel and swim with Beckett. Anabelle and I almost had a good time. We were pretty sick and very tired, so we couldn't really enjoy it as much as we should have. We were on the verge of downright miserable, but after all the trouble the lady went through to get everybody tickets, how could we not go to the show. Poor Anabelle was laying on the floor for most of the 2nd half, and I couldn't watch what was happening on the sides of the stage, because my glands were so swollen that it hurt to turn my neck. We were pretty pathetic.  It really was a wonderful show and lots of fun, I just wish we could have enjoyed it more.

That night in the hotel was unforgettable. The room slept 5 people in beds, and we had my mom, my dad, my grandma, Matt, Me, Beckett, and Anabelle. So, the children and I slept in one bed, with Matt at the foot of the bed, my parent's in the other double bed, and my grandma on the cot. My grandma is right next to the A/C unit for the room. She pulls on a blanket on a sunny day in July, so my dad thought it would be best to turn off the A/C for the night, so my grandma wouldn't freeze. It was a miserable night for everybody. Just in case you don't know where Tuacahn is, it is located in St. George. So our room was sweltering. No one really slept because we were so hot. And no one dared to turn on the A/C for fear of turning my grandma into an icicle. The next morning at breakfast, we were all complaining about the miserable night, when my grandma said, "I know. It was very warm. I tried to turn on the Air Conditioning, but I couldn't figure it out. So I just went back to bed." All we could do was laugh. We laughed so hard. It was like something out of a movie. I love my grandma.

On our trip back home, we decided to pull of the road and look at Kolob Canyon. It was gorgeous! If anyone is headed towards St. George, I highly recommend you take a little detour and go see it. It is breathtaking!

Beckett and I survived the first month of All-day kindergarten. There was, and still is, a learning curve, but we are doing it. Every morning after the first week of school, we would go through the battle of him not wanting to go to school and me begging/making him go. One day I had to literally drag him out of the house. He grabbed onto the stove, and then the door frame as we were going outside. Not fun. But that only happened once, so that's a good thing. Now he only says, "I don't want to go to school." 2 times a week, instead of everyday. So we're getting better.

Nothing else to really report about September. Hopefully I can get all caught up by Christmas.

August Rush(ed)

I will try to keep this post as brief as possible. August was pretty calm. It started out with a "Princess Retreat" that only I got to attend (Anabelle wasn't quite old enough). Matt had to work while I was gone, so that meant Grandma Jill got to come out and spend a few days with the kids and go to all the yummy food places that Matt loves. I had a great time with my mom, sisters, sisters-in-law, and nieces learning about our divine nature and how special and important we are. It did feel a little weird with no one to watch over, but I didn't complain. I am pretty sure the kids had a blast at home with Grandma Jill and I know Matt loved getting to go to Zuppas and Bajios.

The next week we house/dog sat for my brother. We loved having TV and Netflix at our command. I was reminded why we don't have either one of those at our house, because it would be on 24/7 and nothing would get done. We are easily television junkies. Oh, Matt and I had our 7 year Anniversary while we were there, but we didn't really make a big fuss this year. We didn't really do anything, except watch "Soul Surfer" with my sister-in-law's sister and her family, who stopped by to crash for the night. It was a little weird. Watching "Soul Surfer" was more than we had planned to do though, so win win. Also, my brother's neighborhood has a pool and we went a few times while we were there. Beckett was a swimming fiend! He hated to get out. Anabelle has usually been the one to be in the water constantly and Beckett would just sit on the steps and firmly tell us he was very happy where he was. But not anymore. Now I really wish I had enrolled him in swim lessons.

After that we had a nice break which we used to get ready for Matt's last year of school (confetti and fireworks are going off as I type this) and Beckett's very first. Huh? I hadn't thought about that. That is kind of poetic...or ironic...or coincidence...or whatever the correct English term is for that kind of thing. It was really weird to go school shopping for the first time. I kept thinking, "No, that isn't cool enough." It is kindergarten for pete's sake. Next year, we might have to really worry about it. But kindergarten? Seriously? I can be such a weirdo sometimes.

The first day of school was Aug. 29, and it was a pretty calm morning, even exciting.

There wasn't any difficulty in getting Beckett to school, we were on time (there was the big shocker), and I didn't cry. I was mostly worried about how Beckett was going to handle it. He did so much better than I thought he would. They had the children line up outside and then follow their teacher into the school. I had to walk with Beckett into the school because he would go if I didn't, and then another mother and I had to quickly leave the room and shut the door because a melt down was beginning for both of our kids. I am pretty sure that was the hardest part.

When I stepped outside, I noticed all of the parents were still there. So I asked what was going on, and they said the children would be coming outside again to practice lining up and go in one more time. I knew that if Beckett saw me, that would be the end and he would not go back in. So, I hid around the corner of the school watching. I stuck around for like an hour and a half, waiting for his class to come out. I felt kind of like a creeper peeking around the side of the school, waiting, but I really wanted to see how he was doing. As I was there, a friend of ours, Ken, walked up to me. I was shocked to see him there because doesn't have kids and he doesn't live in the area. So I asked him why he was there and he said that he was subbing for the playground monitor. How awesome is that?! I had an inside spy to keep tabs on Beckett for me. I decided I could leave and have Ken watch out for my little guy for me. Ken ended up being there the whole first week. It was so nice to have updates each day of how Beckett was doing.

When I picked him up at the end of the day,

Beckett was happy as could be. He had a great 1st day. When we got home, I looked in his backpack, and there was his lunch I sent with him. Luckily there is a program at school where no child goes hungry, so he had school lunch, but I realized that I didn't tell him to get his lunchbox out of his bag for lunch. I thought his teacher would say something, or maybe she did, but Beckett didn't know that meant for him to go get his lunchbox. He understood it on the 3rd day, but I think I had to mention something to his teacher. There hasn't been a problem since. I am finding that I need to be a lot more specific in my directions and give more directions than I think I need to. Things that I think the other kids understand quickly, like giving their folder to the teacher, I think he doesn't get. I find his homework still in his backpack when he gets home. We are both learning.

Anabelle had her 1st day of preschool on Aug. 31. She was very excited to go because she had earned it by getting potty trained. I was excited too because I would get 2 whole hours all to myself. The first day didn't go quite like I had planned it to go though. I had agreed to watch a friend's little girl, Paige (the one that got Belle potty trained), on Thursday of that week. Anabelle's first day was a Wednesday. The morning of her first day, Paige's mom called me and told me that she had made a mistake and wondered if I could watch her that day. I said yes, but she would be really bored with only me to play with. They dropped Paige off, and I finished getting Anabelle ready for school.

I had such a hard time getting pictures of her. She was acting all embarrassed in front of her friend. I could almost hear her saying, "Oh Mom, you are embarrassing me! Stop taking my picture! This is so not cool in front of my friend, Mom." Such a teenager! But I finally got her to smile, the last picture. Paige and I dropped her off and went back to my house to play. This little girl is seriously an adult trapped in a toddler's body. She wanted to play "Grandma", which is where one of us pretended to be a grandma and then we died and the other person had to take care of the body. It was actually kind of relaxing but creepy. When it was my turn, I just laid there with my eyes closed and she would gently move my arm or leg. She would also say nice things about me, like "I'm going to miss you." This girl will make a wonderful funeral home directer some day.

After Paige left, I picked up Anabelle from preschool. She loved it, as I knew she would. This girl is made for social settings. She is also picking stuff up so fast. I can't believe it! She is one smart cookie. The funny thing is, she has a hard time with me dropping her off at preschool and nursery. I don't know why. She has a fun time while she is there and I know she wants to go, at least to preschool. I don't get it. Go figure.

There is August in a nutshell.

Pake Lowell

But most people like to refer to as Lake Powell. The kids and I went to Lake Powell with my family and had a great time. I was pretty scared to go all by myself on a trip without Matt to tag-team it with me, but I had so many people there to help out, especially young girls that live to play and take care of little kids. So actually, it was a wonderful trip and I had to do hardly anything, except handle the meltdowns that come with riding on a speedboat, not being allowed to eat candy for dinner or after brushing teeth before going to bed, and peeing in a toilet that isn't allowed to be flushed unless someone goes #2. That last one was a really hard concept for the kids to grasp, which is a good thing I guess. Also, sorry if that disgusts you, but that's how we roll on the ol' Humpherys' Houseboat.

We started the 5+ hour drive at about 8:30 in the morning. Beckett freaked out every time the boat, which was pulled by my brother's truck, would disappear from view or even get more than 20 ft from the car we were in. It was an unpleasant first couple of hours. We put a movie on in hopes of distracting him, which worked to keep him from crying about it, but my dad caught him in the rear view mirror the rest of the way checking on the boat every few minutes or so. At least we know that we will never lose anybody on a road trip with Beckett around.

Other than that, the trip down was rather painless. I guess that is one of the blessings of having older siblings with all of their kids older than mine. I had 2 babysitters in the car, plus my sister and her friend. It was very nice to sit in the front seat and let them handle everything.

Once we got there, we loaded the speedboat with as much luggage, food, and children as we could without sinking it, and headed to the houseboat. It took two trips, but once luggage and persons were all accounted for, we set off into open waters.

Anabelle loved every minute of being on the boat and being with the big kids. In fact, I hardly saw her all week. Even when we were both on the speedboat at the same time, I didn't see her much because she was always up front with the other kids having a great time bouncing on the waves. She is such a dare devil and teenage-wanna-be.

Beckett was nervous about riding on both boats. He was freaking out the whole mile long trip from Bullfrog Marina to the houseboat. Then he was a little uncertain about the houseboat moving. He had to have the doors shut so he couldn't hear the wind (another one of those Asperger things), and for a while, I had to sit with him and help him adjust to the new experience. After about 15 or 20 minutes, Beckett noticed this:

Look at my brave girl, front and center

 
He realized he was missing out on some fun, so he manned up, braved the wind, and ...

I was so proud of him! He rode up there the rest of the 2 hour drive to where we parked the boat.

The next day was a big day. Beckett caught his first fish ever. I don't know if anybody remembers the "Monster Fish" episode we had last year at the cabin, but I was afraid we were never going to get Beckett near another fishing pole even if it meant he wouldn't starve. But he did it. He was really excited about it too, as long as it didn't touch him.

Since we came home from the trip, Beckett has watched this video over and over again. I think he still is pretty excited about it. He actually caught two fish that morning. I guess he realized there are no such things as Monster Fish. :)

Belle and I went on a boat trip with half of the group later that day, and when we got back, this is what we saw:

He surprised me so many times on this trip. Belle did too, but I will get into that later. I am a chronological thinker.

The next day, all 20 of us piled into the speedboat and went to Rainbow Bridge. My dad's boat says it's max capacity is 18, but we figured that the three youngest people put together equaled one whole person, so we were good. Going into Rainbow Bridge it was smooth sailing. There was hardly anyone there and a park volunteer helped us dock our boat. As he saw all of the people in this one boat, he told us that we better be careful, we can get a citation for having more than the recommended amount of people in the boat. Freaked me out a little bit. We then proceeded to hike up to the Bridge.

If you have never had the opportunity to go to this amazing world wonder (no really, we have one of the 7 natural world wonders in our state, how cool is that?!), you really need to go. It is incredible. You can no longer hike up underneath it, because it is a sacred place for the Native Americans, but you can get close enough that you realize how freaking tall that thing is and that nature is incredible. There was another park volunteer at the bridge that told us about the history of the place and how it was discovered and the legend the Native Americans have of how it was made. They are neat stories, but I wont bore you by posting them on here. You can just go there and find out for yourself (incentive).

When all piled back into the boat, there were more people that had shown up to see the Bridge. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but we forgot about this one spot in the canyon that Rainbow Bridge is located in that is super narrow and can only fit one boat at a time. The problem with us being so full is that if there were big waves (which are really big if there are tour boats going through that spot, which isn't a rare occurrence.  Those things are massive, I've seen speedboats catch air off those waves), there was a real possibility of water coming up over the front of the boat, which would be so very bad. We were all holding our breath as we went through, much like in 7 Brides for 7 Brothers when they are going through the pass during the winter and don't want to start an avalanche. Obviously we made it through, but I have to put some kind of thrill factor into my story.

After Rainbow Bridge, you have to go get ice cream at Dangling Rope and make the fish smoke (aka - feed the fish ice cream and it comes out there gills and it looks like they are smoking). Beckett thought that was just the best thing ever. First, the carps there are huge, so that was pretty exciting for him. Second, he thought it was hilarious to watch the fish fight over the food and to listen to the sucking sounds they make in the process. Anabelle loved it too. In fact, I think there was one point where I was afraid she was going to fall in, she was so engrossed in watching those fish eat. Kids make everything seem new and exciting.

Afterwards, we stopped in a canyon half way to the houseboat and went swimming. We had a blast. Beckett didn't last long in the water, but he did get in (a success in my book). There was a small sand dune, and that is where he spent most of the time during the pool party.

Belle did a little of both. In the sand, in the water, you know, typical kid stuff. She had so much fun with her cousins. All of my nieces and nephews are older than my kids, most of them by at least 5 years, so Anabelle just loved having them play with her and getting to act like one of the older girls.

After the swimming party, everyone was all tuckered out.

You will notice that Beckett is riding in the front. I was absolutely floored that he rode up there. I had to force him onto the boat. I tried to trick him into getting on, but he saw right through it, so I had to just drag him on (that was one of the more difficult moments of the trip, I wanted to give up and just stay on the houseboat, but luckily everyone was super supportive and we made it onto the boat). He was crying and really hated the loud sound of the boat. I had to hold his head against me the whole 2 1/2 hour drive to Rainbow Bridge. For him to ride up front, that he decided on his own, was amazing and I just couldn't believe it. I was, and still am, so proud of him.

The next day was a chill day, full of games and water fun, especially for Anabelle, the Thrill Seeker.

Can you believe that?! Those are two different times that she got on that. Granted the boat went slower than molasses, but she did it. She is braver than her mom. I wouldn't even do it. I am blown away by this girl and how adventurous she is. I am so proud of my little Thrill Junkie.

The next day was Escalante day, my personal favorite. Escalante Canyon is the most beautiful of all the canyons in my opinion. Case in point:

My brother and his wife offered to stay on the houseboat and watch Beckett for me. So Belle and I went and had a great time in one of my most favorite places on earth. We saw Cathedral in the Desert and La Gorce Arch (pictured above). We also did a little exploring trying to find some Native American ruins in the canyon and discovered some beautiful arms in the canyon we had never seen before. I wish we could have explored more. I do need to show you some silly pictures from our trip. Here is Belle's ensemble for our trip that day:

I love when kids do that. Too cute! And now I have to put one of me because it is only fair:

My head was hot and I did not want it to burn, and then it got out of control from there. This is one of the more normal pictures we took.

When we got back to the houseboat, my brother that had stayed with Beckett told me that Beckett was playing on the inner tubes tied on the back and fell in the water (life jacket on, no worries) and that my brother quickly got him out and told him that he floated because he had on his life jacket. Apparently that was all that needed to be said to him because Beckett just kept on playing on the tubes. In fact later that night he played with Anabelle and some cousins, and they all had a blast.

He wasn't even phased by that fall either. I panicked and made you all sea-sick for nothing. He got right back on the inner tube and kept on pushing his cousins off into the water. Belle had tons of fun playing on there too. She would jump from the houseboat to the tube and was so cute. I wanted to post a video of Belle being super cute on the inner tube, but it is a little long and this post is long enough as it is. Oh well. If you really want to see the rest of the videos, you are welcome to come over. Beckett will be more than happy to put them on. He loves to watch them. He even has them memorized.

One more thing about them playing on the inner tube. I am so sad I didn't catch it on the camera. Beckett had pushed Jessica (the older cousin in the video) and she was going to climb back on the tube, but first she said to Beckett teasingly, "Now you aren't going to push me off, are you?" Beckett said, "No." So she climbs on and he says, "SURPRISE!" and then pushes her in. I still laugh hard every time I think about it. Who knew Beckett could be so witty.

One of my other most favorite thing about Lake Powell is the stars. They are incredible. You can see the Milky Way and at least one shooting star. I loved to just lay on the top deck and watch them until I would fall asleep. It didn't happen much on this trip. I kind of had to go to bed when the kids did. Lame. But I did attempt to take a photo to show you blog followers.

Beautiful aren't they? You can see all of the stars.

Early the next morning, Belle decided to throw up. As most of you know, Matt and I have a deal, I change poopy diapers, and he takes care of throw up. He does not like poop but isn't bothered by throw up, I gag at the sound and smells of someone puking but have no problem with stinky diapers. Everybody wins. Unfortunately, I had to deal with this all by myself. It was not fun. Also, it was my last chance to go fishing. I had bought a fishing license (not cheap) and had not caught a single fish. The mornings that we had gone, there were boils all around, but I got nada. (Boils are when striped bass "corral" small fish at the surface of the water and then just start attacking them, with the fish jumping out of the water giving the appearance of boiling water) Most of the other guys had caught at least one. I really wanted to get one that morning. I couldn't leave Belle alone, and I didn't feel right about waking someone else up to take care of my sick child. She was acting better, so I took her with. She did fine. She only threw up once or twice while we were out, which is actually pretty good considering we were on a boat, stopping, going, turning lots, chasing those boils. Typing this out makes me feel guilty. Oh well. I think she had a good time. I don't think she was sick sick, I think something was just upsetting her tummy, so it was fine. And I did catch a fish. Only one, but mission accomplished. So it was all worth it. Right?

After we got back and had breakfast, we packed up to go home. Then we all loaded up in the speedboat and headed back to Bullfrog Marina. 

I told you we loaded up the boat. There was no leg room. We were all crammed in there with all of our bags and stuff. Tons of fun! No really. It really was one of the better trips to Lake Powell I've had. I wish Matt could have come, but maybe next time.