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Yesterday was a busy day and I didn’t get a chance to catch a shower. I was looking forward to a bath this morning, so I sent Emma out to get some water on to boil and make some oatmeal for the kids while I enjoyed a bath. I knew instantly things had gone wrong when I came out of my room. The smell was overwhelming and I started to panic. “Emma, where’s the oatmeal you made?” “Mom the water never boiled!” “Arggg” We have been over this so many times, I really didn’t think that I would have to remind her to light the stove, sigh… is it me, why can’t she seem to solve some problems of a common sense nature? Anyway, 30 minutes of the stove spewing gas, so I opened the doors, sent everyone outside to jump on the trampoline and got things under control. How do I get her to figure things like this out. After a few minutes and the water isn’t boiling I would think she would run through some problem solving things, like, is the pan hot, or is there a fire under the pan, I know we think differently so I can’t expect her to think like I do, and I have years of experience that she doesn’t have, but it seems to me that she needs to be learning some life skills and that boiling water should be something she is capable of. Sigh… I love her so much and she is so smart is so many ways, I’ll just keep working with her.
A general question to those of you with kids older then lets say 8, what should they be able to master. She can change a diaper, although it’s not something she would volunteer to do. She can dress the baby. We’ve been working on doing her own hair, so she can brush it out so that I can do it but she can’t actually do her hair. She of course can operate the DVD player and is really good at the DVR. She can fold laundry and put it away, and she can sort laundry, but she refuses to touch the washer, although I she will switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer. Does this sound pretty standard for a 9 year old? Am I expecting too much from her?
Well, onto my own mistake this morning, just to remind myself how imperfect I am. Yesterday afternoon I put a chicken in the crockpot, and before bed it was finished, so Danny unplugged it to let it cool a little before putting it in the fridge and well, I fell asleep and left it out all night, such a stupid thing to do, no I have to toss my chicken, I guess it’s on par with gassing out the house. So I guess tonight we’ll have beans in our tortilla’s instead of chicken…

Many years ago Danny and I explored Donner Lake and the visitor center that is there. We have always loved the lake up there and have taken the kids a few times. The kids love to hear the story about the Donner party, but this is the first year that they really understood the desperation that these poor people were in. In the years past it’s been an “Ewww, they ate each other”, but it has grown into “can you imagine being so hungry that you would be able to do that”. We explained to them that the people involved were embarrassed by the whole thing and refused to ever talk about it afterward. I think Emma and Tanner understood the situation a whole lot better this year, there is definetly a reverent feeling about the place.

The visitor center has a museum and a self guided walk that shows cabin sites of the pioneers that stayed there, and has a large monument that shows the deepness of the snow that year. There are many stories of survival and as many sad stories as well. Maybe we’ll have to camp there next time.

The top of the monument, not including the statues on top is the depth of the snow the year the Donner Party was stranded here. I believe it was 22 ft.

The kids were taking pictures of wildlife, National Geographic Kids is having a photo contest and they are going crazy with taking pictures of wildlife. I’m not sure that a chipmunk is too exotic, but there were signs up that said that they carried the plague, now that might be a little more exciting…

We went down to Donner Lake, and found a wonderful place to put a blanket and lay in the shade. The kids played in the water, this is a very cold lake, but it didn’t keep them out of the water. Lake Tahoe is known for it’s crystal clear water, and Tahoe is very clear, but Donner Lake might be even more so. I was amazed at the clarity of the water, we were standing out on a pier, and I could easily see the bottom of the lake 6 ft down. The water is cool and refreshing, and just gorgeous. We saw some really fun cabins on the lake, in my delusional world we own one…
We didn’t wear swim suits, our intent was not to swim, but everyone of us got in the water, the little girls didn’t even bother to leave their clothes on, but then again they are cuter then I am naked.
The lake was more crowded then I have ever seen it, and I think I have a theory as to why. Last year Lake Tahoe banned two cycle engines and I think they all moved over to Donner Lake. There were a lot of Wave Runners, and Jet Ski’s they looked like a lot of fun. I think I’ll have to look into a cabin rental it would be a close and easy vacation for the family.

Tanner takes his pocket knife with him everywhere, he quickly found a stick to whittle on.

Emma skipped a couple of rocks.

There was a little hopping on pop.

Of course there was some reading and relaxing,

and plenty of playing in the water!

I stumbled upon a fun blog today. It’s all about fun hair dos for girls. Thought I’d share the link!
http://www.cute2tryhairdos.blogspot.com/

I really hate it when I get behind on my blog. I’ve become a blog junkie, and find it almost impossible to catch up on lost time, and then I have to wonder what have I not recorded from years past.
I’m going to play some catchup here, and try and summarize the trip after Danny got here, he must be my distraction…
The day before Danny came which was Thursday July 17, I went with my Mom up to Sundance. I instantly fell in love with Sundance, almost as much as my obsession over Yosemite. The kids and I took a ski lift ride up the mountain, I’m not sure which mountain, but it was Ray’s lift. It went on forever, and well this will sound corney, but I understand the statement of a “natural high”. I called Danny from the lift, I was so wishing that he was with me. I knew that I’d have to bring him up there.

I took this picture from the seat in front of Emma and Tanner, it’s little off because I was trying to keep Alyssa from jumping…

Alyssa loved the flowers, and the fact that I let her pick as many as she wanted.

Grandma bought the kids suckers, they were delicious, they all wanted to try each others flavors there was a lot of spit swapping that day.

Danny flew to SLC on Friday night. I took the kids to the zoo on Friday morning, it was so stinking hot. How come when I was kid the heat didn’t bother me and neither did the stench. The zoo was always delightful when I was young, but I’ve lost my innocence, maybe I can’t hear bells ring at Christmas either. Why do lizards and snakes smell so horrid? And the birds… I’ve never been a bird fan, maybe it has something to do with my first job at a pet store changing the bird cages… NASTY. I was really just killing time until we could pick up Danny. Alyssa wouldn’t look at Danny for probably 15 minutes, it was pretty funny, she just avoided him, but then warmed up and forgave him for his absence. We went out to eat and then went and vistited with Mom and Dad before heading back to the apartment.

Aubrey comparing herself with the gorillas!

When we got up on Saturday morning we headed straight to Sundance. Danny agreed with me on the beauty of Sundance, now if we could only afford a home up there. He says it reminds him of Hatchers Pass in Alaska. Yes it is that beautiful. When I took the kids up there on Thursday we road the lift up and down, but with Danny there to help with the little kids we decided to take the hike down. It was 3.5 miles down the trail was small, and over grown with plants, but so worth the scrapes and scratches. We crossed multiple rivers, went across the middle of a waterfall and finally came to Stewart Falls. It was uncrowded because the hike to get there is a little brutal. You wont find that in Yosemite, the crowds just don’t go away there. Tanner and Emma both enjoyed standing in the waterfall, I was worried about the force of the water, but they faired well. Alyssa and Aubrey played at the base of the falls in the water. I should have taken more pictures, but a lot of the hike was cliff on one side and I didn’t feel like I could stop and take pictures. The wild flowers were abundant and the butterflies were everywhere, I tried my hand at some close up pictures of bugs, but they aren’t very photogenic and they kept flying away, the nerve. After a rest at Stewart Falls, we continued down the mountain. I lost Alyssa’s hat somewhere along the way…sigh, I loved that hat, it’s been a summer staple through multiple children, and I’m not sure if I will beable to find another one.

The last picture I’ll have of my favorite hat. The trail went through a nice meadow so we let Alyssa get out of the back pack and walk a little ways. She couldn’t wait to pick more flowers.

Well this brings me to the end, we spent the last week with Emma at Gymnastics camp. The camp met and exceeded all expectations, Emma is starting to out grow the camp though and will need to move on to the all day camp for higher level kids.
Tanner spent the first week of our trip at Soccer camp. He also had a great time I’ll post some pictures from
That also.

My future gymnast!

Tanner giving his coach a high five after scoring a goal!

This is a good one…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071100813.html

We are all missing you. I don’t realize how much you do, not just the big things like diapers and dishes, but the little things too. Alyssa comes up and puts her little head on your pillow every morning and says Daddy’s pillow, I think she just wants to confirm that there is still a Daddy. Two weeks when planning doesn’t seem like too long, but in reality for someone I love so much it’s an eternity. Your family is missing you and we are counting the minutes until your plane lands on Friday.

This is the same picture from the othere day. I’ve been wanting to try and make the colors a little more radiant, but I might have gone a little over the top… I’ll keep playing.

The kids are missing Danny today. Aubrey really seems to be struggling. I’m so glad that they love their father so much, I’ve tried to explain to them that even if we are home that he wouldn’t be there because he is out of town for work. We worked it out so that he would take his work trips while we were gone. I must admit I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the kids and all the activities that we are doing, I could use a few hours to myself, but I do so love them and they are being fabulous.
Aubrey has been saying some funny things lately. She asked me if teasing is lying, we’ve been talking a lot about lying lately, around three all of my kids have gone through a little experimental phase with lying, so I’m happy to see that she is thinking about it. Is teasing lying? I guess from a three year old perspective I could see how some teasing could be lying… I’ll have to give it some thought. Today she picked up a rock and asked me why Jesus wants rocks on the earth… I told her that it gives us something neat to look at and study, I asked her why does Jesus want mosquitoes on the earth, she didn’t have an answer for me. I love that little troll.
Today we went swimming at a local pool in Orem, it had slides and a large very warm shallow pool and the kids had too much fun. There was something for everyone at a very reasonable price, why can’t Nevada have somthing like that? I know the grass is always greener, I’ll try and find something green about Nevada.
After swimming we went down to the lake to go fishing. A sail boat caught our lines and ripped all of our line out of the poles, we were all frustrated, big booger, couldn’t he see we were fishing there? There was plenty of space to go around us… Frustrating. Since fishing came to an early end I couldn’t resist the breath taking sunset, the wind was blowing which kept the mosquitoes at bay, and so we ran over to the rocks and I saw picture opportunities. So I’ll share a few of my hand at photography, which really isn’t that great, but I’m trying.
Lets hope tomorrow isn’t such an emotional exhausting day. Danny will be here in 6 days, I think we can all make that. I’m thinking that I’ll go to the zoo on Friday morning and then head over to the airport to pick him up.

Oh I don’t have any photo editing software with me, so therse are unedited photos.This is how Tanner fishes… at one point I caught him looking at the world through gum drops over his eyes. At least he can keep himself amused.

Grandpa Titcomb showing us how it is done!

Alyssa’s cookie face. Grandma was bribing her with cookies to keep her out of the lake the kid is going to have to detox when we get home.

Practicing with my camera. There are lots of shots, I tried to just pick a couple.

One more, when I look at this picture I can see how tired her little eyes are. I got a lot of great shots and if I had more time and well energy I’d play around with some of them, but I know when I’m beat, and I’m beat!