Lagoon With Overstock

Today was Overstock Lagoon Day!  We look forward to this all year! Too bad the kids are still in school.  We waited until Stockton was finished with 2nd period because he was taking his CRT science test.  I didn't send Maysen to school.  We checked Jorja out and Preston finished before it was time to leave.  We had a great day.  The weather was perfect.  Just a slight bit chilly, but not enough to be uncomfortable. My dad and Max came with us.  Mike was able to get two extra tickets. Max will be with his mom when we go to Lagoon next week with my family, so this way my dad was able to go to Lagoon with him.  We all love not waiting in any lines.  It makes for such a fantastic day.

Stockton on the teacups.

 Max and Jorja on the swings

 Dad, Preston and Max on the Merry-Go-Round

 Jorja on the Merry-Go-Round

 Jorja with a different frog

 The only half-way decent picture of Maysen.  Whoops.

Preston and Maysen on Musik Express

 Preston, Max, Jorja on Musik Express

 Preston and Jorja on Odysea ~ They got SOAKED!

 Preston & Jorja on Jumping Dragon

 My dad riding the jeeps

 Jorja & Stockton on the jeeps

We got my dad to ride the Spider.  It was awesome!  I love that ride!  I almost got him on Wicked, but when we went to the ride, there actually was a line!  And it was long!  We were planning on coming back later, but my dad somehow got out of it.

Mike had a lot of fun with his co-workers.  They made a picture bingo game.  They had a list of about 30 random things to find.  For example:

Mullet

Cameron happened to be there with his girlfriend.  Thanks to him, we were able to get a couple of things on our list crossed off.

Cameron & his gages

 Tattoo sleeves/wife beater

I was hoping to get extra credit for his Angel of Moroni tattoo.

Other extra credit hopes included:

Blue Beard

 And my personal favorite:

Sad Clown on the Sky Ride

I didn't want to include too many of those pictures.  White socks with sandals, wallet chain, various piercings, fanny packs, over-sized basketball jersey, animal hat . . . . funny to find, not too interesting to look at.

Anyway, we stayed until the bitter end, of course.  Preston and I were the last ones to ride Dinosaur Drop and Lady Bug.  Preston was so sad that he wasn't tall enough to ride Spider or Wild Mouse.  He did not like it when we were on those rides AT ALL!  He did great the rest of the time though.  Successful day.

Afternoon With Authors

That was the title on Preston's invitation.  He wrote, "Please Come" inside.  So cute!  I was able to go to Preston's Kindergarten class today. He showed me a collection of his writing and art work.  My favorite was his 'Frogs are amphibians!' page.  He wrote: My frog has wings.  it livs Above The clawds.  My frog Has a house.  The house is Red, Yello, Blue  Haha!  Love it!

Preston was excited to see he was wearing the same shirt as he was on the picture in his book.  He had me take a picture of him holding a book with a picture of him holding a book.

Preston

Preston wanted a picture with his teacher.  He looked everywhere for the perfect place.  He has loved Kindergarten this year.  He loves, loves, loves Mrs. Moon!

Preston and Mrs. Moon

Jorja's new frog came in the mail today.  It is a flower frog.  She has named her Ivy.

Jorja & Ivy

This afternoon was super busy!  After swimming & diving I took some of my beehives to see Nicole dance.  She did AMAZING!  It was great!  She was so happy that so many of us came.  I got back pretty late.  It was the National Spelling Bee today.  We recorded it.  We weren't able to watch it, but we did see that Vismaya was in the TOP 11!  She made it to the finals!  Actually Stockton recognized her parents first.  I hope she did awesome.  Well, obviously she did awesome if she is in the top 11.  We won't be able to watch until Saturday.....AAHHHH!!!  We are so excited!  How crazy it would be if she won!  We would LOVE to see that!

Abby's THREE!

Maysen started tennis lessons today.  I should have got a picture!  She didn't absolutely hate it, so it was a success!  I have her doing individual lessons with a guy named Josh.  He seems really nice.  I hope she will find something she loves that will give her exercise.

Jorja was doing swimming while Maysen was at tennis.  As soon as they were done we headed to Bubs & Ange's house.  Abby was so excited to see us!  Then she knew it was cake time!

Jorja, Abby, Millie (love her face!), Sam

Sorry this cake is crooked.  I couldn't remember how to rotate it, and I'm too lazy to spend the time remembering.  Abby loved the Rapunzel on her cake.

Lincoln recorded everyone singing Happy Birthday to Abby.  As soon as we were done they watched themselves singing.

 Ange cutting the cake.  Don't worry, I got Millie. (After the picture)

Abby got a Princess sleeping bag for her birthday.  Who was the first to try it out?  That's right.  Stockton.

Stockton ~ a pretty, pretty princess

 Abby thought he was so funny!

We gave Abby a Princess story book.  She was so happy with every present.  Even when she watched Stockton put random things into a bag.  She would pull it out and gasp, "My shoe!"  Love that girl!

Abby & Lincoln

 Maysen, Mike, Abbs, Lincoln, Stockton

 Preston on Jorja & Stockton

Popcorn

It rained so hard today.  Luckily the strongest downpour was after Preston was home from Kindergarten.  I was so thankful that we were home with no plans to go outside for hours!

Preston's teacher gave me a cute present for helping in his class.  It had popcorn, a Hershey's bar, and a diet coke.  100% sure that diet coke won't be consumed by me!  Yuck!  Well, I've never had one, but they smell so bad.  Anyway, I'll have to get around to doing teacher's gifts soon.  Too bad I'm not creative at all!

Best Pirate Game EVER!

Today was a great day!  We worked in the morning.  I cleaned and Mike worked on the boys' walls.  My family came over this afternoon for hotdogs.  Our pool still is out of commission, but my dad & Matt had fun in the tree house!

Matt & Dad

It was nice having everyone over.  Millie definitely loves her mama! Matt, Preston, Mike and I played a game of Dominion.  I won.  Preston was close behind.

After the kids were in bed and our visitors had gone home Mike, Maysen and I decided to play a game of pirates.  It has been a LONG time since Mike won pirates.  Holy cow did he come back with a vengeance tonight!  He had a Galleon that was fully loaded!  He attacked ships with reckless abandon.  The navy went after him THREE times and he defeated the navy EVERY time!  He was unstoppable! I was quietly catching up, but with no real hope of winning.  Mike attacked a level 6 ship.  He sustained a lot of damage, but his victory was pretty much sealed.  I was wishing I had an attack card in my hand, or that Maysen would discard an attack card.  No such luck. What I did have was a treasure hunt card.  I had a cartographer aboard my ship.  I rolled a 3.  $6,000.  It was then I realized I could have won the game!  I was only $700 away.  IF ONLY I HAD SOLD MY FRUIT AND RUM!  It would have been the greatest comeback in pirate history! Well, in my recent memory.  I couldn't believe it!  Mike laughed and laughed at me.  Mike now takes his turn.  He has a treasure hunt and is able to reach the $25,000 goal.  Mike kept playing.  He wanted to finish his turn.  I guess to really run up the score.  He attacked a little wimpy 2 strength merchant.  MAYSEN ROLLED DOUBLES!!!  It sailed away from him!  Maysen hit the merchant with her crows nest and let him sail on.  I hit him with my crows nest and he sunk.  I rolled a 5.  I ended the game with $28,300; Mike ended with $27,900.  Haha!  I totally won!  Awesome!  Mike tried to claim that the game immediately ends when a player reaches $25,000.  I'm not sure if that is true, but because he kept playing I'm claiming victory!  SO AWESOME!  Can you tell I was excited?  Poor Mike.  It sure was funny though.

Sleeping Up High

We went to the cemetery today thinking that it would be less crowded. I'm not sure that was the case.  It was packed!  We were able to find a parking spot by my mom's grave, we walked to all the others.  It was a beautiful day, so no problem with that!  We took flowers to Jessica, my mom, Mike's mom, Mike's Smith grandparents & Mike's Hirschi grandparents.  They are all at the same cemetery, which happens to be about one mile from our house.  Perfect.

Preston

 Jorja cleaning my mom's grave

 Jorja

Jorja helped me clean Grandma Honey's grave.  It had a lot of bird droppings on it from being under the tree.  I noticed that on Saturday when I ran down here, so we made sure to bring wipes to scrub it away. Mike told me that she wouldn't care.  I said, "I'm pretty sure she would." Sharen was so clean when she was alive!  Plus, I can't do anything for her now, so this made me feel like I was helping in a small way.

Jorja & Stephanie

 Mike by his grandparents grave

The kids have been wanting to sleep in the tree house since Mike finished it.  They decided that today would be as good as any!  Hopefully it doesn't rain on them.  Mike is up there with Stockton, Jorja & Preston.  I don't think it would fit more sleepers.  Maysen and I are more than happy to sleep in our nice cozy beds.

Tree House

 Preston & Jorja (Preston is sleeping over the trap door.)

 Stockton

I hope they have a great night!  At least if it gets too cold they can come inside.  They will just have to wake up Preston first!

Backyard Concert

I woke up at about 6 this morning.  I did a 6 1/2 mile run.  (At least I hope it was a 6 1/2 mile run.  It might have been a little more or a little less.  I tried to drive the route with my car later to see, but the cemetery has orange cones everywhere in preparation for memorial day.) Anyway, I ran for about an hour and 10 minutes.  I was exhausted when I got home!  I wanted to clean the bathrooms before I took a shower.  (We don't make Stockton clean a bathroom when he has a camp out, so I thought I might as well clean all the bathrooms since everyone went camping but me!)  I had just started cleaning the first bathroom when the kids came home.  What the?  They must have packed up mighty early!  Actually, it makes since.  My kids are such early risers.  The thing Stockton hates most about camps is waiting for everyone to wake up.

Mike worked his tail off today.  He got a wall finished in the boys' room. He had to take down the wood he put up in order for it to line up right. He now has two walls entirely finished.  Well, no finishing touches, but it looks awesome.  I should have taken a picture.  I did take a picture of a new drawing on the wall.  Preston's picture of him inside a hammock, over a trampoline.

We had a backyard concert at our neighbors house with Athena tonight.  Athena has an awesome voice.  She had this concert to raise money for her sports fees at high school, and if there was enough it would go towards college.  Athena just took State in the javelin.  Besides being windy, the weather was great.  I went by myself.  The kids didn't want to come.  Mike was working on sprinklers.  At least Mike was outside and could hear the concert from where he was.

Athena

I accidentally got some lemon oil in Maysen's eye tonight.  Not a pleasant experience.  I wouldn't recommend it.

Fathers and Sons and Daughters

The first year we were here Seth Bradley got put in charge of the Fathers and Sons camp out.  He saw that as a cruel joke, he had four daughters at the time and his wife was pregnant with twin girls.  The camp out quickly became Fathers and Sons and Daughters.  I don't think Mike has been able to go before, he was always on call.  He was on call this year again, but luckily someone needed to switch.  Perfect.  Jorja was thrilled.  She has begged and begged and begged to go camping.

Stockton and Jorja

 Jorja, Maysen, Preston

 Mike & Stockton

 Camping

 Maysen enjoyed reading

 and reading

 Preston loved the hammock

 Especially being pushed like crazy!

(Jorja & Presley)

I spent my time trying to sign Jorja up for the Chinese summer school program.  We were told to register before May 31, then the program would be open to others.  I tried to register today and it was already filled.  I wanted to sign Jorja up this morning, but she begged me to wait until she talked to Jazzie.  Jazzie got in and Jorja didn't.  Sad.  One day I will learn not to procrastinate!  Jorja has got to be at the top of the waiting list since Jazzie signed up a couple of hours before we tried. Hopefully family vacations will get in the way and someone will drop out.

Stockton's math teacher sent me an e-mail.  She is trying to help me decide what to do for Stockton next year.  Hopefully we can get it figured out, but it looks like we will have no good option.

I spent the rest of my free time dropping off library books and buying socks at Walmart.  Living it up!  I did buy some food at Zupas and watched a movie.  Too bad the movie was extremely boring.  Oh well, put me to sleep!