This Girl Can Shake It!

Rain, Pioneer Day, and Bubbles

It's been a couple weeks since I've posted, but we haven't stopped having fun! Well, okay, I sorta have. I'm admittedly pretty ready for school to start. (Two more weeks! Two more weeks!!) Don't get me wrong - I LOVE my girls and I ADORE being able to stay home with them. But listening to them whine about being bored and having no one to play with 24/7 would wear anyone out! Sooo....needless to say.....I'm really hoping these last two weeks of summer don't drag on and on and on and on....... Okay! Back to the point of my post! MONSOON!!!!!!! The last couple weeks of July and the first few of August is Arizona's ONLY summer redemption. Cause let's be honest - it's hotter than H*** here! Sucks the water right out of you! But when those clouds start blowing in, it's a time to REJOICE!!!

Another fun thing my little family and I have enjoyed is Pioneer Day. It was yesterday for those who don't know. =) Our ward had a very fun Pioneer Day activity last night. And we are such a fun, rockin' family - we dressed up! lol Yeah....we were pretty much the only ones. Oh, well. It was fun anyways.

Last thing on the "blog list". BUBBLES! Remember when a small thing of bubbles kept you entertained for hours? No? Well, maybe you were never a little Cresap girl. Too bad for you! Hahaha!

I love how Milo's even getting into the action!

More Fun Swimming

So basically all we do around here is swim. The pool is finally clear and blue - and we're definately taking advantage of it! And since that's pretty much all we do, that's all the pictures I have right now. I figure, it's my blog, my family, my pictures - so if you don't want to look at them, don't! Hehe! Enjoy.....maybe. =D

This is from last night. Paisley LOVES the water and has no problem putting her face in and trying to swim. Here's a short clip for you to enjoy.

A Very Fun Weekend

This past weekend, my cousin Sharon came up from Tucson to visit us! It was soooo great to spend some time with her and her entourage (her 4 and her sister's daughter)! I've always thought of Sharon as my big sister since she lived with us for a few years when I was 8-ish. It's funny, cause we were raised on opposite ends of parenting strategies - yet we are quite similar in our own techniques. A lot of the rules and consequences her kids have are pretty darn close to the ones my own have. I think it made keeping all 8 kids somewhat under control a whole lot easier. Anyways, they came up Friday afternoon. Now, when the girls and I got home Wednesday, the pool closely resembled pea soup - in color and viscosity! It was green green, thick, and had a weird smell to it. Gross! Knowing we had company coming in just 2 days, I panicked a little (okay....a lot!) and quickly got in touch with our housing manager who directed me to have the maintenance guy (he lives 2 houses down) come take a look at it. Well, one of the holes for the vacuum - the main one - was completely clogged so there was absolutely NO suction. Which is why I couldn't vacuum any crap out and why the algae growth exploded. But the whole at the bottom of the skimmer had wonderful suction - but had been closed the whole time - so we plugged the vacuum hose into it, dumped 3 bags of shock in the water, waited for things to settle a little, then vacuumed and brushed and vacuumed and backwashed and added more shock and brushed and vacuumed and added ph minus (the ph levels were waaaaay high! talk about acid water! lol) and backwashed again. So by Friday after dinner, the water was definately clearing up. And even though it was still on the acid side......we went ahead and swam for a little while. And rinsed everyone off with the hose afterwards. lol

Saturday I wanted to let the water rest so we loaded the kids up and went to a fun FREE splash park. Soooo fun!!! All the kids - including Pie - had a blast running through all the water sprays and waiting for buckets to fill then pour over their heads. We were there for a good 2-3 hours before we needed to get back home and start dinner. I will be taking the girls back soon for sure!

After church on Sunday, and after baking a not-so-yummy pumpkin pie (I forgot the sugar!!!! Oh, no!!!) and getting a pork roast in the oven, we all jumped back into the pool. And this time, it wasn't acid water! Hahaha! Paisley is a FISH! She was all over the place jumping in off the step! She kept putting her own face under the water and came up giggling every time! So cute! We all had tons of fun and look forward to seeing our fun cousins again! Thanks for coming, Sharon!

 

Virginia: Day 9 -a.k.a- All Good Things Must End

Our flight home left at 7am. Mom lives 1 1/2 hours from the airport. Mmmmm.....we had to get up at 4am and leave by 4:30 to get us there with enough time to get checked in and through security. Too.....EARLY!!!! Mom sat in the back with the girls and they all slept. Kevin and I were in the front and did not. Zzzzzzzzzz....... We got to our plane just fine and in plenty of time. The first flight was just under 2 hours and took us to Ohio. Paisley was okay. Not great - but not monster baby either. We had a full hour to sit and wait in Ohio so I released Pie and told the girls to follow her and not let her get too far away. So by the time we got on our next flight, she was pretty tired and fell asleep during takeoff. And of course only slept for about 1/2 hour of our 4 hour flight. Grrrr!!!! However, this plane was a bit bigger than any of the others. The armrests lifted up and there was more leg room between rows. So Paisley had fun sitting on the chair between Jade and I and also enjoyed playing on the floor in front of us. Amber slept pretty much the entire way. And Jade complained about being bored. The flight was long, but at least everyone was pretty well behaved. David picked us up at the airport and ALL of us were very happy to see him. Amber and Jade ran to him and gave him giant hugs. And even Paisley gave him her cheesiest smile and attempted to leap from her carseat (which she wasn't buckled into) to get him. =)

All together again!

Virginia: Day 8 -a.k.a- Our Last Full Day =(

Tuesday was our last full day in Virginia. And unfortunately, both Mom and Kevin had to work (but Mom just in the afternoon). We went shopping in the morning after visiting a friend of theirs. The girls and I packed and cleaned up while we waited for Mom and Kevin to come home. And we spent our last evening together.....Fishing! Amber was able to catch a good one right before it was time to go in. Hooray!

Amber putting a worm on her hook

Me attempting to do it. My worm was too squirmy and kept trying to bite me. lol

Amber's last catch

Virginia: Day 7

You know.....some things would definately be more fun without having to drag kids around with you. For instance, Monday we went to Williamsburg and Jamestown. Williamsburg was sooo cool and would have been 100 x's more enjoyable without listening to the constant whine coming from my oldest two. Yes, it was hot. Yes, we walked a lot. Yes, we're all thirsty and hungry. No, we aren't buying everything you ask for. No, we can't go home yet. No, you can't sit in the stroller. No, I'm not going to carry you. Please stop kicking up the dust. Please leave your sister alone. Please don't pull on my arm. DANG! I would have loved to eat in historic Williamsburg in one of the super old homes converted into a restaraunt, but my lovely children would NOT have appreciated it. Sooo.....we walked around quickly and gave in to the whining. And went to find a McDonald's...again. Darn kids.

After a recharge, we went to Jamestown which was much better suited for kids. It was actually pretty cool there. There were different areas for the English fort (which had several buildings set up with replicas of life in the 1600's), the Powhaten village (where Pocahontas lived. It also had several "buildings" and activites from life back then), full-scale replicas of 3 English ships we were allowed to explore, and a couple Indian canoes. We also went to a glass-blowing demonstration and watched a guy make a glass pear - leaf and stem included. Very cool.

We took a ferry over James River on our way home. I took the girls up to the top deck so they could see pretty far out.