Last Minute Vacation

Since Shari is starting 1st grade on Monday and Jamie is starting Pre-school in a couple of weeks we decided to take one more last minute vacation to Park City. We have wanted to ride the Alpine slide for awhile so we finally did it. It was a lot more fun then I had expected.

This is Jamie and dad wanting in line to go down the slide.

Josh and Jamie at the bottom of the slide. They are on the middle slide in the middle of two other people. They had a good time!

At the same place as the slide are some other activities too. Below are pictures of the girls jumping on trampolines with bungy- cords. Shari was brave right away and stared doing back flips she even did a double back!! And since she is starting gymnastics in a couple of weeks she thought this was pretty cool!!

Jamie was happy to just jumped up and down!

Getting ready!!

This was riding up the lift to go down the slide.

Next year Shari will be old enough to ride by herself but this was just getting ready. Jonas wasn't old enough to go on the slide so we just took turns

Jonas LOVES to push things, anything he can find that will move; chairs, laundry baskets, boxes, well I decided why not get some use out of it! He really did vaccum a lot of the front room. After awhile he just got frusterated though because he couldn't pull it back very easily.

Part of a toy being used as a hat!! What a cutie.

Camping at Bear Lake

A couple of weeks ago we went camping at Bear Lake with some really good friends. We had a GREAT time. I hadn't been to Bear Lake since I was little and I really didn't remember much about it, but it was even better then anything I did remember.

We went to two caves. This is the minitoka cave, it was really neat. It was 421 steps in to the cave and 421 back out and 1300 feet long. It is 40 degree's year round it there so it was pretty cold. Shari liked it, Jamie liked it but got cold, and Jonas feel asleep and poor Josh carried him most of the way.

Jamie and Grace coloring!

Shari and Megan coloring, with Jonas finding a spot in the shade!

Happy Campers!

We also went the Ice Cave. We went there first so we were not disappointed by it in comparison to the Minitonka cave but it was really nothing compared to that. We had fun though. Because of a book I had read that had the Ice Cave in it (Wrong Number- highly recommend!) we knew there was a little hole that opened up into a bigger cave. It was alittle scary to crawl through at first but eventually we all made it.



The beach was BEAUTIFUL! and so much fun. You can walk out into the water forever before it gets deep. The beach was my favorite part.

The kids played in the sand for hours. Shari spent most of the time along the edge of the water looking for sea shells. What she found was snail shells but that was good enough for her. She filled half a bucket full.

Jamie spent most of her time in the water but alittle time building sand castles. Her favorite thing was to try to jump over the waves, or just to run out into the water and then fall onto her knees.

We brought Jonas's walker because he loves pushing things and sure enough he loved pushing his walker in and out of the water. He would push it into the water as far as he could and then he would turn around push it back out and do it again over and over.

The kids must be on their knees here because they never went out far enough to go above their waste.

This was the ride home. I was alittle sick and Jonas was alittle sad so I just kept handing him food to keep him happy, finally I turned around to check on him and this is what I found!

My Uncle Paul

Yesterday my Uncle Paul passed away and I felt like I should write down some of my wonderful memories of him. I have alot of fond memories which is kindof ironic because he always lived far from us but when we would go to visit he always made it so much fun.
My first memories are from when he lived in Seattle and we would go visit him and his family. The first thing we would alway do is sit down and plan out what we were going to do. We planned in great detail of what time we would leave, arrive at destination, stop for lunch, and arrive home. I always loved this part. In fact a few years ago Uncle Paul was at my mom's house and I was doing some planning of my own and Uncle Paul said something about me being a girl after his own heart! When we visited Seattle we always when to the ocean and would ride a ferry.
Years later Paul and Janice moved to Arizona and we we able to visit them there a few times to. We always had fun when we went to visit them. They always had fun things planned for us to do. Janice had all boys but when we came to visit she always had fun places she thought us girls would like to shop.
Then a few years ago Paul lived here. I had the pleasure of taking him dinner every night for awhile. I always enjoyed the few minutes we spent together every day. Some days were really quick drop offs but some days he would tell me all about his day and show me some "trinket" he had bought. My girls usually came with me to take dinner and they enjoyed it to. One time he gave them a little stuffed animal or something (I don't quit remember) but they thought that was really cool.
I really love my Uncle Paul and Aunt Janice and imagine they had a wonderful reunion in heaven yesterday!

Comments

THANKS to all of you who have posted a comment on my "thoughts on Sharing." I have really enjoyed reading what each of you have had to say about this. I had a good discussion about this topic with my kids as well and we came up with a few things...
1. It okay to choose not to share but it is never okay not to be nice. When they don't want to share their toy they have to be polite in the way their tell someone and then they have to try to help the other person find something they can play with.
2. The reason we share is so that everyone can be happy. So if they choose not to share they still have to make sure everyone is still happy. Kind of goes with #1, they will probably need to find a toy the others can play with.
Now this works fine when you are at home or somewhere there are a lot of toys BUT I find that the problem is usually when you are in a more public place and your kids can just go find another toy to make their friends happy. So this is when the parents jump in. We have to teach our kids to share but just as important we have to teach our kids how to respond when others choose NOT to share. (this may be harder then teaching them to share?) I think we have a tendency to think someone who is not sharing is being mean and we relay that to our kids when trying to console them. But we need to teach our kids that it is okay for someone to choose not to share with them (just as it is okay for them not to share), they are still good friends but it is still their choice.
Well, after I had this discussion with my girls a funny thing happened. Jamie said, "mom can I have a friend over so I can do that."
"Do what," I asked.
"Share my toys!"

Well, good luck to all of you. Please feel free to continue to post on this subject I like having this "discussion" with you. I really appreciate the advice I get from those of you who have "been there, done that" and I enjoy the comments for those of you who are in the same stage as me just trying to decide how to do the right thing.
I will say one more thing. The past couple of weeks I have really tried to remember that my kids are just kids and not be so hard on them, and I have thought a lot about the balloon story and tried to remember that if it's important to my kids, even if it seems unimportant to me, it is still IMPORTANT. As I have done this I have gotten along better with my kids and have had more fun with them!

LOTS of pictures, LOTS of fun!

Here we are at the 4th of July parade, and yes, that is a blanket wrapped around Shari and Jamie. I think it was around 55 degrees when we first got to the parade. It was also the first time I ever remember wearing pants to the parade.
The whole gang waiting for the parade to start!

Later it did turn out to be a really nice day. So we enjoyed afternoon at our cousins new pool. The kids had a lot of fun swimming with their cousins.

Jonas didn't get in the pool but I think he had more fun on the little scoooter anyway!

Jonas has finally decided to WALK!! He has been able to walk since his birthday but instead of walking he pushes everything, even Jamie! But the other day I stood him up next to the couch and he hasn't stopped walking since, he loves it!! He tries to keep up with his sisters but it is kindof hard sometimes.

Last month Jamie turned 4! We had planned to go swimming but because it was to cold we decided to go to the park instead.

Jamie got a slip and slid for her birthday so one day her cousins came over to try it out. They had a great time!

Since the last time we took an actual family picture was last year after Jonas was born I decided it was time to do them again. The kids were pretty good sports about it and after almost 100 pictures we got a few that turned out pretty good. After photo shop we got a few more!! Here are a few...

A Word on Sharing

Tonight I can't sleep because I feel like today I let me kids down and the worst part of all is that I am now just realizing that I do this all of the time.

Why is it that we FORCE our little children to share? We think "its just a toy its no big deal" but do we ever stop to look at things from a childrens point of view? To them IT IS A BIG DEAL. To them its not "just a toy".

Do adults share? When you buy a new laptop, car, bike, or anything you really wanted do you let all your friends "play" with it. NO, we don't share things that are important to us maybe with our immediate family but not with everyone. And as adults that is perfectly exceptable most of the time we wouldn't even ask to take someones car, computer, etc. but when our kids have a new toy we demand that they share it with everyone.

Okay yes, our kids have to learn how to share expecially in our own homes with there siblings or when they are at church or Grandma's house and they are playing with a community toy but why do we FORCE them to share something that is special to them.

Tonight Jamie got a new bike (well an old one but new to her) and we forced her to share. Why? Why can't she have something special that she doesn't have to share with everyone? So instead of standing up for my own child I got after her for not sharing her toys. And I'll tell you why I think we all do this, get after our kids for not sharing, it is so that the other parents around us will think that we are good parents and are teaching our kids the things that everyone thinks we should. WELL, I AM GOING TO BE A BAD PARENT FROM NOW ON. I'm not going to make my kids do this anymore.

I once heard a story that goes like this. A child gets a balloon and it is big and beautiful and they think it is the greatest thing ever but accidently the child lets go of the string and the balloon floats way. The child starts to cry and the parent says don't cry it's just a balloon. So then someone takes the parents wallet and throws it into the water. The parent gets mad but that person says don't get mad its just a wallet.

I think sometimes we forget the things that are important to little kids. We think it's just a toy you have to share even if that makes you cry. But what if someone took your wallet and used your money, maybe our kids think, it's just money what's the big deal.

Now I haven't lost my mind I know I still have to teach my kids to share but I am going to do it differently from now on. I am going to have my kids put up any toys that they don't want to share before their friends come over AND I'm going to take my kids side once in awhile and worry less about what others might think of me if I do.

Our kids are young and still learning yet we expect so much perfection from them, EXPECIALLY when other parents are watching.

I know most of you don't look at blogs as much anymore but when you do finally read this I would like to know what some of you think, that is if you agree in any way. If you think I have totally lost my mind and that my kids will turn into the "mean" kids on the block, well I don't care and I don't want to hear it but I have a feeling that some of you get what I am saying. So lets say it together, MY KID DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE TO SHARE EVERYTHING.

Elder Hales recently came to our Stake Conference, it was amazing but that is an intirely different post, anyway he talked for a moment on judging others. He said how bad we are about judging others and how we have no idea what it is like in another persons shoes. I think we are expecially horrible about judging each others when it comes to parenting. I am sorry that I have been a part of this. So please don't judge me about this post. If you agree great, if you don't that's fine to.

1st Birthday and 1st Steps

Jonas turned 1 on May 30th. I can't believe my baby is a year old and I can't believe what a good baby he has been. Jonas has been such a wonderful addition to our family. Up until Jonas's b-day we have not had any "boy" toys but when he opened these he knew just what to do with them!

Jonas didn't really know what to think but the girls were more then willing the help! I don't know who was more excited Jonas or the girls.

Thanks to Aunt Liz Jonas has a cool pair of sunglasses

I think he liked the cake?!

Jonas has also started taking her first steps. A week before his birthday he started walking between me and Josh but we have a toy that he can push and walk around with OR should I say run around with. It gets him everywhere he needs to go and he gets there in a hurry so he is not very anxious to start walking on his own.

And since I never posted his funny crawl that is what the next video is. After a few weeks he learned to crawl normal!