4th of July x2!

A few months ago, we bought some plane tickets to Virginia. Soon we started counting down to July! It had been 3 years since we had been in Virginia, and it was definitely time to return. Jared grew up in Richmond, and most of his family is still there. It was going to be a great, big, fun family reunion!! My awesome parents drove us up to the airport REALLY late on Sunday, July 3rd. Our plane was leaving just after midnight on the 4th of July.

We landed at Patrick Henry Field in Newport News, VA around 10:30 am on the 4th of July. After a little nap (atleast for me) we got ready to go to Dogwood Dell in Richmond for the annual 4th of July concert and fireworks.

We parked quite far from the amphitheater and took a shuttle bus. You should have seen us dragging a huge cooler full of food on board. We got a few strange looks, but we were ready to eat some KFC and see some fireworks!

It was fun to see all the family there waiting for us. The kids were excited to see their cousins! The concert started out great!

...and then it happened. Clouds rolled in (thick, black clouds) and the rain began to fall. Not just any rain. The kind of rain that makes you grab everything you can and try to find shelter, because otherwise you will be soaked to the bone within SECONDS. With so many of us, and some of us carrying some seriously heavy objects (remember the cooler?), there wasn't anywhere for us to get to very quickly, so we picked up the tarps we had laid out under the blankets, and held them over our heads. I'm sure we were quite a sight to see. Imagine: Jared's mom, her ten kids, their spouses and kiddos all huddled underneath a couple of tarps. We were enough to draw the attention of a news crew! We were not aware of that fact yet, however. Jared decided that we needed to make a mad dash to the nearest building - a carillon about 100 yards away. We breathed a sigh of relief as we entered the unlocked doors. Phew!!

Jared and a few of the other guys decided to walk run through the driving rain the long distance to the cars and bring them back to pick us up. Meanwhile, the news crew found us! They interviewed Jared's mom and a few of the grandkids. We got home just in time to see our story on the Channel 12 news!

Since the concert and fireworks had to be cancelled, they re-scheduled it for the next night. We debated about whether or not to go, but decided that we HAD to go. We came for the 4th of July for a reason, so go we did! We spent most of the morning just hanging out, though. Our girls wanted to go outside and take a few pictures. We saw this cute little blue lizard just outside Jared's brother's house, and Kaitlyn thought these little daisy-like flowers were just so cute!

Then afternoon came, and we loaded up again. This time MINUS the cooler. We decided to just eat before we went. You know, just in case! LOL. The kids played for a while at a nearby playground, while some of the adults stayed by the blankets to make sure our seats were still saved.

Then as we were walking back, my sister-in-law saw the same news crew again, and stopped to let them know that "Grandma Nancy Stafford and her 10 kids and 17 grandkids" were back. Of course they wanted to do a second interview! This time, I pulled out the camera to capture the moment.

Then it was back to 4th of July festivities. Hanging with the cousins, listening to great patriotic (and movie score) music.

And of course, the amazing fireworks!

I loved the glow of the fireworks lighting up my kids' faces. Eryn trying to capture some with her camera, and Bryson in absolute awe.

It was a fun and memorable 4th (and 5th) of July, and only the beginning of a very busy two week trip. There are TONS of pictures to come, so stay tuned :)

Six? Has it really been that long?

Happy Birthday to my little buddy Hayds!

It's so hard to believe that my sweet, crazy Hayden was born a whole SIX YEARS AGO!! I remember walking into the hospital for my scheduled C-section, with my brand new pink diaper bag, and a cute little pink "going home" outfit. I remember stepping onto the scale, and nearly fainting when I saw the really high number that came up, but feeling grateful knowing that number would soon be going back down. I was retaining a ridiculous amount of water, to the point my ankles no longer really existed at all. I could only wear flip-flops a size too big, so it was a good thing it was summer time. I was more than ready to meet my sweet little baby girl, Madisyn.

Fast forward just a little bit to delivery time. I remember hearing my new baby cry, seeing a strange look on Jared's face, and hearing the nurse say "That's not what you were expecting, was it!?" Then Jared answering "NO." Oh boy. What on earth was going on? Luckily the nurse knew I was confused and peeked around the drape to tell me that I had a brand new, healthy baby BOY!

BOY!?

It only took a minute for it to sink in (it took a little longer for Jared) It just felt right. I had thought at the beginning of my pregnancy that it was a boy, but then was a little confused when the ultra-sound looked like a girl. I questioned it about a week before delivery... "What if this is not a girl? What if I wash up all these girlie clothes for nothing?" Apparently someone was preparing me! I could not have been happier to have another little boy. I was ecstatic!

We had to come up with a name really fast, and Hayden was pretty much the first one that came to my mind. We had it on our list when we were expecting Bryson, but never really told anyone. However, when Jared's parents came out for Bryson's blessing, Jared's dad gave a prayer before we ate lunch saying "We are so thankful for Hayden coming into our family." I remember my eyes popping open, wondering where on earth that had come from. Our new baby at that time was BRYSON. I guess it was meant to be ;) The nurses were actually quite impressed by how fast we decided on Hayden's name.

Knowing Jared's teasing manner, my family didn't really believe him at first when he went out and announced that we had a baby boy. It took them hearing it from my mouth to believe it.

The last six years have been such a joy. I still can't believe it's really been that long! Hayden is such a bright light in our home. I can't imagine a world without him in it! He is smart and funny, and incredibly creative. He can build almost anything out of legos, including the Titanic, school buses, temples... you name it. He's happy as can be just building all day long. And those darn blue eyes? Sheesh! I can hardly say no to them. Luckily I have lots of practice in the "saying no" dept!

We are in Virginia right now, and will be celebrating Hayden's birthday during a big family BBQ. His little cousin Kylee shares a birthday with him, and she's turning three. It should be a fun time. I'll make sure to take tons of pictures... and when we get home next week, I'll have some MEGA catching up to do here on the blog.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAYDEN... WE LOVE YOU!!

Glass Slipper

We have the most amazing and awesome preschool teacher in our neighborhood. She taught both my boys, and every year she does fun little camps. One week for boys, and one for girls. Each one is 5 days, and it is so fun and creative! This year, it was PRINCESS CAMP. Each day there was a theme, and the activities and crafts they did had to do with that theme, or princess. On the last day, the theme revolved around Cinderella, and she asked Eryn to BE Cinderella for her, and even brought her the whole outfit to wear - complete with one glass slipper. Eryn was so excited! When she got there, she was supposed to just walk in, and start talking with the little girls... AND mention that she happened to be missing one of her slippers. The little girls in the morning camp thought she REALLY WAS CINDERELLA! She loved seeing and hearing their reactions when she walked in and they saw her. They helped her find her missing glass slipper, and she read them a story and did a craft with them. She loved it! The afternoon class was a little more difficult to convice, because a few of the girls know Eryn from the ward or babysitting, but they still thought she looked beautiful ;) Kaitlyn got to go each day and be a helper, too, which she really enjoyed.

If you need a preschool (and seriously, this one is THE BEST), it's called Let's Learn Preschool. Or if you need something fun for a little one to do at the beginning of next Summer, her camps rock! Since this year was Princess, next year will probably be Fairy Camp... and the boys would be Pirate Camp next year, since this year was Superhero camp. And speaking of Superhero camp, Hayden attended this year and loved every second of it. Unfortunately I didn't take one single picture.

Dalmation Day

Every year, in Kindergarten, there is a special Dalmation Day! The kids all dress as dalmations, they do fun crafts, eat ice cream from a bowl without using their hands, and have a ton of fun. All three of the older kids had done it, and I kept wondering if Hayden was going to get to do it, too... but I hadn't seen a note about it. The last week of school finally came, and I figured that they just weren't doing it this year. I got Hayden all ready for school, and he was about to head out to wait for the bus, when I said, "Hey! I forgot to look in your backpack on Friday." I unzipped his backpack, and pulled out all the papers... including a note. The note said that Dalmation Day would be THIS VERY DAY!!!

Oh no!

My first instinct was to say "Oh well, buddy. We don't have time to come up with a costume. The bus is going to be here any minute." How could I do that, when all the other kids had been dalmations? I couldn't send him to school with the possibility of being the only kid not dressed up! So instead I said "Okay. Let's do this!"

I found a white shirt and some black felt. I quickly cut out spots (with a pair of scissors that did NOT want to cut that felt), heated up my hot glue gun, told Hayden to hurry and find a hat that we could attach some doggie ears to, searched frantically for a black sharpie to put spots on the craft-foam ears I had cut out (only to find one that was nearly dead), then told Hayds to go grab one of daddy's socks... all the while feeling my heart wildly pumping out of my chest. I heard the bus pull up, and then pull away. SHOOT! Hurry, hurry, hurry!!

Hayden quickly put on his costume, and I ran to the bathroom to grab my eyeliner. Soon we were out the door, pulling out of the driveway, and on our way to the school. We walked in just 5 minutes late!

WHEW!

I literally flopped onto my bed exhausted when I got home. It took a little while for my heart to slow down! The smile on Hayden's face when he got home just a few hours later, and the joy in his voice as he told me all about Dalmation Day were priceless. It was worth every heart pounding minute. I'm just glad he's the last official Dalmation.

You Too!

Last year, our good friend bought tickets for he and his wife, and Jared and I, to go to the U2 concert together. Jared and I are big U2 fans, and were super excited about it. This would be the second time we have gone to see them together. Unfortunately, the concert ended up cancelled and postponed. No worries. He kept the tickets so we could go when they rescheduled. Well, they rescheduled, and we were all excited to go, when we found out that our friends would have to be in New York on business at the same time as the concert! We were bummed. They ended up giving their set of tickets to another couple. We really missed our friends :( But we made sure to text them a picture of the stage (although seeing some of the sights they saw was probably even better).

We made our own "concert shirts" (I guess I was feeling kinda crafty) and headed up to Rice-Eccles stadium at the University of Utah. It was suggested that we take Trax to avoid parking headaches, and although it took a little longer to get there, it was kind of nice to just get off the train and walk right into the stadium.

The stage was HUGE, and we heard it took them DAYS to set up. We were actually just as excited about the opening act: The Fray. I really enjoy their music, and they did not disappoint. U2 was crazy, loud and fun as usual, and we had a super fun time. The only non-highlight of the night was riding Trax BACK home. It was a long wait, a long ride, and we didn't get home until after 1 a.m. Not too fun on a weeknight (a Tuesday!) Luckily, Jared's built-in alarm woke him up in time to groggily get to the bus stop to ride to work the next morning! Would I do it again? Probably. Honestly, we are kinda cheap, and buying concert tickets isn't something we do, but it really was fun. I would just hope it was on a weekend instead. LOL!!

We made Eryn snap a pic of us just before we left. Notice that the tickets are dated for last year... they just honored the original tickets to get in this year. May 24 of this year, actually! 

The GIGANTIC stage. It was CRAZY!

Annie Oakley

I came to a brilliant conclusion this May. Not that I haven't sort of noticed it in Mays gone by, but this year it hit me HARD. May is the month that teachers try to cram in as much stuff as is humanly possible. I love my kids' teachers. They are AMAZING, but I don't love the amount of crazy they added to my May this year. Choir concerts, Ballroom dance concerts and competitions, Wax museums (as seen in this post), end of year dance festivals, parties, reports, projects... and then there are the sports. Unrelated to school, but busy still. Soccer tryouts, soccer tournaments, soccer everthing! THEN, I had lots going on business-wise, PLUS a U2 concert that Jared and I had tickets for. (EDITED TO ADD: Talk about De Ja Vu... apparently I posted that first paragraph nearly word for word in a post a few weeks ago. See? My brain is kinda fried!) SHEESH!! I tried to make visiting teaching appointments at one point, then had to cancel them due to unforeseen insanity. Oh. My. Goodness. Somehow we survived... mostly. I'm not sure my brain is functioning fully at this point, but I'm trying!

One of the FUN things Kaitlyn did during May was the annual 5th grade Wax Museum. Each student had to read a biography about someone from US History, do a written report on them, make a poster, and BECOME that person for their living wax museum. Kaitlyn originally wanted to read about Milton Hershey. Not sure why she wanted to be a guy, but we had some sweet ideas for costumes. However, when we had a hard time finding a book for her to read, she changed her mind and went with

ANNIE OAKLEY!

The wheels in my head started turning, and we came up with a costume from items we had around the house. We were planning on borrowing a toy rifle (since ours have somehow gone missing) from my sister, and the outfit would be complete!

Day of the Museum: I headed out, got in the minivan, and made my way down the road. I had a few errands to run (including going to pick up the rifle) before I would actually arrive at the school. Suddenly, the van started lurching. It was acting REALLY crazy! I called Jared, left a frantic message about how "Something is SERIOUSLY wrong with the van!", then had an idea of what it could be. I jumped out and walked around to the other side to find a FLAT TIRE! Crap! I know how to change a flat (mostly), but it could seriously cost me some precious time. Like hours.

Luckily, we have AAA, so I called them and they had a guy at my house within the 1/2 hour. Phew!

Unfortunately, I now only had about 10 minutes to get up to the school! I drove straight there (without her rifle, by the way) and made it just in time... without my camera. So, while I don't have any pictures of her standing by her desk and poster in her cute Annie Oakely-ness, or video of her "coming to life" when we pushed her button, and telling us all about "herself" just trust me when I say it was AWESOME. She did a fantastic job, and the other kids in the 5th grade were super cute too.

She was very patient and stayed in her costume after she got home so that I could snap a few pictures... still rifle-less. Oh well. I love my little Annie Oakley.