Sunday, July 7th.
We went to Sacrament Meeting in the Rock Creek ward. Actually, we sat out in the foyer and as soon as the Sacrament was over, we busted out of there. I was kind of sad to miss church that day, because the new mission president and the area 70 was there, and I really wanted to see/listen to them. We drove through the mountains and heat, making our one stop at the Oregon Welcome Center, to arrive in Weiser in 6 hours and 50 minutes. Yes! I shaved 10 minutes off! No one puked. There wasn't a ton of complaining. We played the alphabet game. It was a good trip.
We drove straight to my brother Scot's house and his family had Sunday dinner for us. We stayed there until way too late and came to Grammy and Papa's and went to bed.
Monday, July 8th.
The girls started swimming lessons. If you are the only people that I didn't amaze with this, here is how much a week long semi-private (3 kids) swim camp cost us in Maple Valley per child: $100. Last summer we shelled out $4oo to have the kids be in swimming lessons for 5 days. Heidi had been taking them since late spring, so she didn't do the camp. I called the Weiser pool last month and asked them about swimming lessons. They apologized that it would cost so much for me to enroll 4 kids. $25 each child for two weeks. The poor little lifeguard I talked to probably thought I was crazy when I started laughing. I figured the classes would be big-- who wouldn't put their kids in with this deal?!-- but that was okay. Nope. Malynn and Alison are in the same class (a fact that makes Malynn mad and yell at me every time we get ready to go) with two other kids. Sophie's class has four as well. Heidi's only had one other little girl, but on Tuesday she panicked and won't get back in the pool, so for most of the week, Heidi had a private lesson.
Tuesday, July 9th.
It was the Simplot appreciation picnic. Simplot is the local agribusiness company and they invite everyone in Weiser that works with, for, etc them to this picnic where they serve the tenderest steak you've ever had. Completely cooked and tender. That's some good beef! They serve up the usual sides and have a big vat full of roasted onions. Yum, yum, yum! Alison went back for seconds on the meat.
Afterwards, I dropped the girls off at Scot and Angela's and Mom, Dad, my brother Mark, and I went to the Boise temple. I haven't seen it since they remodelled it. It seems grander, but smaller. I love going to the temple. I love being there and feeling the Spirit. I love the feeling of communing with my Heavenly Father in a focused way that I rarely seem to maintain anywhere else. I missed Dan.
Wednesday, July 10th.
Or, in other words, the day my girls shamed me in to honesty.
Shame on me. I had promised the girls we would go see Despicable Me II when we came to Idaho-- $6 a person, $6 a person!!!!! I had some movie theater-type candy, so I thoughtfully put it into little baggies and hid them in my purse. I told the girls I had it for them, but that they were not to say a word until we got in to the theater. Of course, they asked why. I tried to explain that we were breaking the rules that there could be no outside foods in a theater because their candy was so expensive. They looked at me a little shocked. "What? Is it because they are already cheating us with their prices, so we can cheat them?" asked Malynn.
I realized that I was in the midst of teaching my children a bad lesson. We agreed to take the candy inside with us, because if we left it in the van it would melt, but that we would not eat it until we got out. Everyone felt good about that decision. We laughed through the movie-- Gru, the girls, and the minions are delightful. We came out to the van and the on-dash thermometer read 111 degrees. As we moved out it lowered to 104. I was kind of glad I hadn't left chocolate and crayons in there.
Thursday, July 11th.
AM swimming lessons. Making salads to take to the Farm Bureau picnic. Weeding the back lawn. My sister Sara and her 5 kids came.
My Dad put in an automatic sprinkler system in the backyard. They tilled under the weeds and planted new
Friday, July 12th.
We got back from swimming lessons and decided to go on a picnic up to Manns Creek reservoir, a favorite place to go-- it has a nice rocky creek to trip and slip through and a pretty nice and bumpy lawn area. It was slightly cooler than down in the valley. While I took my kids and the cousins to fall in the creek, Mom, Sara, Dad, and Mark set up the food. My girls would have spent much more time in the water (it's becoming second nature), but the cousins had enough and luckily, food was ready, so we headed back. After eating, we played a great game of hide and seek. Two things I learned. Hiding in plain sight is most effective. If "it" sees a person just sitting there, the consensus is that said person is not playing the game. Ha ha! The other thing I learned is that my bladder has the holding power of a paper towel. I cannot run and laugh without suffering the consequences of having 5 babies. I know. I should have done those Keigal exercises.
In the evening breeze and shade, I weeded some more and wondered why we couldn't have weeded onions and zucchini at night instead of in the heat of the day when we begged for a stray cloud or breeze to cool us off.
Saturday, July 13th.
We never did make it to the rodeo. Rats! Towards late afternoon, Grammy needed the quarreling girls out of the house, so we went over to Scot and Angela's so they could quarrel with their 4 girls and I could love on baby Joseph (or Giuseppa as he will be known). I made some lemon curd, accidentally tripling the recipe-- I blame the heat again, because this is becoming a particular problem.
We are getting eaten alive here, one small blood drop at a time. The mosquitoes love our sweet, juicy, untouched arms and legs. Tonight Malynn counted 21 and Alison has 14. Heidi has been wailing and Sophie's have her signature swelling going on. The West Nile Virus is knocking at our door. Mom read us some interesting facts today about mosquitoes. They love smelly feet. They love sweaty bodies. They smell the CO2 we expel and that is what draws them to animals, not the blood. All very interesting, but not as helpful as copious amounts of Benadryl and hydrocortizone cream. We are getting serious in our bug defence. There may be DEET involved because I'm tired of playing nice.
That's our first week.
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