My kids are so great

 I just look at these pictures of my kids and I see bright futures.  I hope I can teach them how to be contributing members of society.  They sure light up our world! 

 Zac-9  Finley - 1 and a half

 Riley-4  Sadie-11

 Emery-7  And I love it when these girls want their hair to match!  It doesn't happen often, but when it does, I love it!

Also, Zac is sad that he grew out of this coat.  ha ha!

Rob's trip to the ER

 This was a month or so ago, but Rob's back has been giving him problems.  He had been home from work for a week and the pain wasn't going away, so I drove him to the instacare.  When we got there, he couldn't get out of the car.  So instead I got back in and drove him to the ER.  It wasn't busy, so we got right in. 

Before we went to the ER, I had walked down the street to pick Riley up from a friend's house.  I chatted with the mom for about 15 minutes and then headed back home.  This is what I walked into the house and saw:
 

I guess Rob had ventured out of bed to make a some lunch and as he was walking back to bed, he had a huge back spasm and fell to the ground.  Fortunately, he saved the sandwiches.  :)

He spent about a week in bed.  The sitting position was the hardest for him so one day we had dinner in the bedroom. 

This was at the ER.  Basically they told us they wanted him to get an MRI, but he would have to wait hours to get one, or we could go home and wait until Monday.  That's what we did.  

After everything basically the doctor said he has "degenerative disc disease" which some people have and it doesn't ever give them trouble, and other people have and it gives them problems.  So he has been trying to strengthen his back with some exercises the physical therapists gave him.  Anyway, it was kinda fun being back at the ER(not for myself this time!).  I saw a familiar face or two.  And hopefully Rob can get his back figured out because he hates being stuck in bed! 

Zac turned 9!

 

Back in April, Zac turned 9 years old!  He got to go to kung fu on his birthday and do 9 birthday pushups.  He is such a funny, kind, game playing boy.  He really doesn't like to do Saturday chores (typical kid) but he loves to do work when it is his idea.  He came up with the idea to sweep off people's driveways for money.  Him and Emery did it one Saturday.  They only did one driveway, but I thought it was cool that he wanted to do it.  

One thing that Zac had been wanting to do was go to Tepanyaki for dinner.  So I took him out with Finley and we enjoyed some yummy food.  He loves the part where they throw the shrimp and you try to catch it in your mouth.  Also, lucky for him, another lady at our table had a birthday and got free ice cream at the end.  I informed the lady that it was also Zac's birthday and she gave him some too.  :) 

Zac got some fun Nerf guns from grandma and grandpa and also from Aunt Crys and Uncle Alan.  He has been loving it!  We also went to his school to drop off some treats to share with his class and Zac was loving having Finley there to show her off for a while.  

The girls helped decorate his cake and it tasted great.  We sure love having Zac around.  He is the perfect brother for his 4 sisters. 

The story of Riley and a BB

One night I put Emery and Riley to bed.  I read them books, sang them songs and tucked them into their beds.  As I gave Riley a kiss goodnight, I noticed that she was holding a little BB (the ones that they kids find all over the place from air soft guns) in her hand.  I tried to take it and tell her she could have it back in the morning, but I could tell that it was going to cause a breakdown so I told her she could hold it for the night.  I've been trying to not let little things get to me lately and I figured this was something I could let go of.  I told her not to put it in her mouth and then left the room. 

About 15 minutes later I heard some noise coming from their bedroom.  It sounded like arguing and then crying, which is not uncommon coming from their room.  So I didn't think much of it.  Then I see Emery guiding Riley down the hallway toward me.  Riley was upset.

I went over to figure out what was wrong and Riley said "the BB is in my eye!"  I looked in her eye and it wasn't there.  I told her she probably just dropped it in her bed somewhere.  But I could tell she was really scared and her whole body was shaking.  So I looked again and I briefly saw the outline of the tiny ball behind he eyelid and then it disappeared. It was BEHIND HER EYE!!  I tried to stay calm...all the while Rob was laying calmly on the couch saying "just have her look to the left" and other really helpful things.  :) In my mind I was planning out the trip to the instacare but I decided to try one more thing first.  I lifted her eyelid with my fingers but still couldn't see the BB.  So I told her to look really far to one side and out popped the BB!  It bounced across the kitchen tile.  Phew! 

Lesson learned: Don't let your 4 year old go to bed with a little BB.  ha ha

Things that are cool

 This rainbow that I saw on my way home from grocery shopping.  It was amazing.  So I pulled over at the kids school to take a picture.  Nature is beautiful.

 Riley loves to play.  She sets up her toys and can play for a long time on her own.  Here, she set up all her little pet shop animals along the computer desk.  Cute.

 These guys were just hanging out on the bar one day.  Just chatting up there.  With Riley in the background on the trampoline.  ha ha

 One morning Rob fed Finley.  He gave her a bowl of cottage cheese and then went to take a shower.  A few HOURS later as I was cleaning up around the house and found this.  Finley's bowl of cottage cheese.  I was grateful that it landed like this and not upside down.   ha ha!  I guess she was done.

 We took the kids to Fiiz and got them a very sugary drink.  

 Our friend Lucy came over and when she was getting her shoes on to head home, Finley plopped herself down right in her lap.  It was really cute.

I have discovered the awesomeness of Crumbl Cookies.  So yummy.  And now there is one even closer to us.  We went to the grand opening and stood in the rain for a free cookie.  It was worth it!

St. George Trip

Some friends of ours invited us to St. George with them over spring break.  We have driven through St. George so many times, but we had never spent any time there.  So we drove down there on a Wednesday night and stayed until Saturday.  We usually only go to visit family on vacation, so this was a first for us to be with just friends.  We went with our friends the Caywoods and the Naegles.

The first morning we were there, we headed over to a park and played.  There were a ton of these little blue caterpillars.  The kids thought they were cool. While at the park, mine and Zac's allergies started up.  Fortunately for us, my friend Rosalyn had eyedrops in her purse that saved us! After the park, we went over to the temple and walked around in the visitor's center.  Look at Zac's poor eyes!

Then we walked around outside for a while.  The kids ran up the stairs.  It was pretty nice weather, but it was kind of a shock to our system.  Coming from 60s to 80s and 90s we weren't really prepared for that.   But it was nice.

Zac took a moment to lay down on the stairs to try to get his allergies under control.

Emery and her sweet friend Stella.  Later that day we hit up the splash pad.  The water was really cold, but it was so hot that it didn't stop the kids from running around getting wet!

These three pictures crack me up.  You can see Emery put her foot on the water sprayer and then it got Stella in the face. ha ha!

Rob being brave.  The water just barely cleared his head.  And the kids had some squirt guns. 

The next morning we explored some more around St. George.  We went on a couple hikes and the kids did great.  We tried this thing where Zac was partners with Riley and Sadie was partners with Emery.  They had to help each other and stick together.  I was really impressed. It worked out really well. Zac took his responsibility very seriously.  I caught him giving Riley a piggy back ride a couple times.  :) 

This was actually right outside the house we stayed in.  The kids loved climbing and playing in the dirt.  All of their shoes were red from the dirt by the time we got home.

Finley caught a ride with Rob.  

The kids loved climbing on all the rocks and hills.  

My kids plus Stella.

I thought it was funny that the kids found this tiny piece of shade and were crouched down in it.  It was pretty hot out.

Zac being an awesome big brother!

These two stuck together.

It's great when you have a photographer with you.  Your pictures all turn out great.  

Riley was getting tired and hot, but Zac stuck with her and got her to finish the hike.  Then we went to see this other hike.  It was so much cooler because it was in the shade of the rocks.  And it was super short.  Win-win!

Finley was getting tired!  And so were the rest of the kids I think!

Being so close to huge red rocks was really cool.

That evening we went to this big rock to watch the sunset.  It was terrifying!  ha ha.  It was a huge rock that there were lots of people on and I was so worried that my kids were going to fall off the edge.  So I made my kids just sit down in the middle with me.  They weren't too happy about that.  ha ha.  But the sunset was beautiful.

This picture looks like we all enjoyed out time there, but Emery was really mad that I wasn't letting them all wander around.  Zac was just wanting to leave and Riley was tired.  oh well.  It was an experience.  

My friend took this picture of us.  I don't know why I was so scared.  I actually walked around the big rock with the kids for a bit before we headed back down.  I guess I'm just really scared of heights.  I think if Rob were there, he would have been much more relaxed than I was.  But he stayed home with a sleeping Finley. 

See that cliff in the sky?  That's where we were.  I actually saw someone propose on the rock while we were up there.  She said yes and then they started kissing an hugging and all I could think about was "You guys need to open your eyes!  If you lose your balance, you are going to fall off the edge and die!!"  ha ha.  Fortunately they didn't fall.  And they seemed really happy.  So congrats to them!

We had such a fun little trip to St. George.  Thanks to our friends for inviting us!  We had a group picture taken while we were hiking, but it's really blurry.  I'll try to get a better version and insert it here!