Shailyn's Field Trip

Today Shailyn's 4th grade class had a field trip to the State Capitol and Pioneer Museum. I volunteered to go along (before realizing it was a 5 HOUR field trip!), mainly because I don't get a lot of alone time with just Shailyn. We got up this morning and I got the girls off to school, Chelsey came and picked up Austin (She is doing carpool while Tim is out of town ~ THANK YOU CHELSEY, you are a life saver!!). As I was getting myself ready, my neighbor came over to complain about "that barking dog" which would be Navy, the newest addition to our family. So I put Navy into her kennel for the day and headed over to the school. Let me just mention, that is not the best way to start your day when you plan on spending hours with 100+ 9 / 10 year olds! The bus ride is always my least favorite part about going on field trips, and come to find out Shailyn doesn't like them much either. By the time we got to the Capitol, Shailyn and I both had a headache, but decided we would try to make the best of it, and we did! There were so many parent volunteers (WOW!) that each group only had 3 kids which made the day very enjoyable! We were dropped off at the Capitol, and then walked down to the Pioneer Museum. We only had an hour to spend there, which was not enough time! Afterward, we walked back to the Capitol and got to go on a tour. What a great experience for the kids! They took us on a tour of the main parts of the building, which is absolutely beautiful! Then they took us through the House of Representatives, the old Supreme Court (It has been moved to the Matheson Court House), the Governor’s office and then to the Senate. Senate President Michael Waddoups took the whole class on a tour of where the press meets during the senate session, and he took them into the room where the sessions are held. I was very impressed with him and how he handled all the children and besides that, he let us take pictures! -Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

More Baseball...

Yes, we are that crazy!

Tim's brother Don invited us to go with them to Lagoon today for Skylar's birthday.  Well, this morning it was pouring rain and Tim and I really did not want to go... However the kids were extremely excited, Austin was excited just to see his best friend Tyrel, who was also going to Lagoon.  So we decided to attempt a rainy day at Lagoon.  My Mom and Dad bought us season passes for Christmas so I thought worse case scenario we get up there and turn around and come home.  We all had a BLAST!!  We stopped at the dollar store on our way up and bought some ponchos (Or as Tim kept calling them our glorified garbage bags) and we headed north.  We were able to go on all of the rides the kids wanted to (I think all but 1 ride!) and the longest line we waited in was about 5 minutes, it was AMAZING!  We were there for about 7 hours and  decided we would go on the water rides and head home.  After the water rides, we decided to leave Lagoon and take the family to dinner (Okay, honestly I was starving, and when I get hungry I am not a very patient person).  So, we headed to my favorite Mexican restaurant, La Hacienda, in our not so dinner appropriate attire (Picture a family of five, looking similar to drowned rats, walking into a restaurant, wet pants and all!) Dinner was delicious, and by the time we got home, the kids were completely exhausted!  They changed into their pajamas and got ready for bed.  What an amazing day! 

Take me out to the ball game....

Yesterday we started our long weekend with a barbecue, swimming and a family baseball game!

The Domgaard's against the Polad's!

Austin did a tremendous job at keeping track of how many strikes, balls, and outs all of us had.  He successfully made a home run (Although we were yelling for him to stop at each base! Against the odds he made it home, way to go buddy!) He was also our score keeper but lost interest mid-game,  so we don't even know who won; I guess we will have to have a rematch!  After Shailyn made her first hit her shoes flipped off as she ran to first, she ran the rest of the bases without them and made it to home plate!  Kaysie made quite a few hits, unfortunately for her I was up to bat after she was and kept accomplishing our 3rd out!  (Sorry Grace!)  I apparently need ALOT of practice!  I hit the ball once, caught the ball once, and struck out all but once (The one time Kaysie got to run the bases).  Tim on the other hand did very well... He hit our only home run!  I also need to thank Miss Molly (Anika's friend) for joining the Polad's in our attempt to play ball!

Carnival Fun!

Today was the girls school carnival, and I have to admit I did not want to go, I was not excited, but of course the kids were... So of course we went.  The kids had a blast!  For the first time ever my kids were able to go off with their friends and go do the things they wanted to ~ as long as they came to check in every ten minutes or so.   (Okay, truth be told, they all wanted to do different things and it was just me with them.  I couldn't be in 3 places at once!)  It was surprisingly pleasant to see them running around and doing what they each wanted to do with a group of their own friends.  Of course, Austin doesn't attend their school but he still joined in the fun, he had Shailyn's friends almost sick from spinning them on one of the rides.  (Notice in the picture they are spinning so fast the cover is coming off the ride!)  To be a kid again! I am pretty sure if I would have been on that ride I would have been very, very sick!

Austin's Crash!

Today, I took the kids swimming at my Mom and Dad's.  Poor Austin slipped on the diving board and slid on his chest into the pool OUCH!  As a result he is covered in what looks like road rash.  Good thing this kid is so tough!  Right after he came up from his fall the first thing he said is "I'm Okay!" I am not one who can handle watching accidents happen, luckily I didn't see the actual fall, just the aftermath.  We got his wounds covered in vaseline and he stayed out of the pool the rest of the afternoon.  My poor Mom! I thought she was going to pass out.  She does not deal well with accidents, or the aftermath... 

Princess Kaysie - The Frog Prince

Today Kaysie's class did a skit on The Frog Prince.  Kaysie got to be the princess and she was very excited!  She has such a natural talent for acting, she just amazes me!  She has been blessed with such a great teacher this year who has gone the extra mile to make sure the kids in her class continue to progress academically and socially at their own levels.  I wish all my kids could have such a dedicated teacher like Mrs. Duckworth!   Great Job Kaysie!  Keep up all your hard work!

Mother's Day Weekend

Today I woke up a little after 8:00 AM, which is very unusual for a free day to sleep in! My kids were all angry because they wanted to give me breakfast in bed, but they were still excited to help Dad cook breakfast! It was great to start the day sitting around the table enjoying a nice breakfast. Kaysie made me a picture at school (A picture of myself!) and her and Shailyn both gave me home made cards (Those are my favorite, I had to share!). This year Tim did something totally different and gave me money to go get new clothes! It was so much fun, I don't usually splurge on myself so it was a very nice gift.  After breakfast, we headed over to Tim's Moms and enjoyed spending a few hours with her.  From there we headed to my Mom's and spent some time outside in the nice weather... (Okay, with the exception of the cold breeze that caused me to put on a jacket!) My Dad cooked us all dinner! Barbecue, Yum!  

Saturday we went with Tammi and her girls to Lagoon to get our season passes-Thanks Mom and Dad! What a great gift! It was extremely busy; there was a dance competition going on, and I don't know how many school's were there. We only went for a few hours but we all enjoyed it! I think the funniest part of the day was going on "Re-entry", Kaysie, Shailyn, and Kyra screamed the whole ride! Then we had a brilliant idea to go on the water tubes, and then since we were already wet, we went to Rattle Snake Rapids... We were all freezing! That made a great excuse to go and enjoy a treat! We went to the bakery in Pioneer Village and got ourselves a nummy snack. We did manage to ride the Spider, Colossus and the Screamer before I said it was time to go. When we got home our pants were still wet so we all changed into our nice dry comfy clothes and warmed up!

Fifths Disease

This Morning we woke up as usual, and just as I am getting out of the shower Kaysie starts complaining she doesn't feel well. (Let me just add this is not unusual for her). I tell her to get ready for school, and if she is not feeling better by lunchtime to call me. She went and got dressed and was looking for the hairbrush when I noticed her cheeks were flaming red! I felt her forehead and cheeks, she wasn't warm - how odd I thought! So I asked her what didn't feel good, and she said her ear felt like it was going to blow up, and her neck hurts. I felt horrible! Here I am thinking she is playing the sick card, and she really does feel horrible! I called into work and made her a doctor’s appointment. When we got to the doctors office, they tell me she doesn't have an appointment (Hello, I just talked to them this morning!) They were able to see her right away because the next appointment was late (in all honesty I think that was her appointment and they put the wrong child in the timeslot). The doctor came in and ran a strep test, looked in her ears, and all the other basic tests they do at each appointment... Then the doctor tells me she has Fifths Disease - Wow, that sounds serious I thought - Well the doctor reassured me most kids get this and parents just don't notice because it looks like a sunburn, it is contagious before the rash shows up, but not now. And then her ear... Her tube is swollen but not infected (How does this happen? I was so worried about the word disease I didn't think to ask) so the only thing we can do is give her ibuprofen and eardrops. Poor Kaysie! I hope she is feeling better soon!

Is it really this time already?

Today was my Dad's birthday, and he opened the pool! The kids were ecstatic. We weren't there more than 5 minutes and all of them were in the pool. A great start to another summer! The girls were arguing about who would be the first one into the pool, when Austin comes flying by and "SPLASH" he wins!

This year I have decided to live an extremely busy schedule, I am working full time, going to school, and enrolled my girls in dance and theatre classes. Last Friday they had their Up with Kids theatre performances in "Enchanted". They both were absolutely amazing, I am so proud of them. They learned numerous songs, dances, and various lines to play their parts; Shailyn's main part was Dr. Beinstein (You have to check out the glasses, they made her costume!), and Kaysie was Mo (I wish I had a recording of her voice, just imagine her saying in her most robotic voice "Foreign contaminant"). Both of them also played the parts of pigeons and brides. They learned one of their songs in sign language, which was my favorite song they performed. I have to send a special thanks to my parents, despite Shailyn commenting she wouldn't be able to find Grandma and Grandpa Williams in a crowd of seniors, they still came to support both of them at the Taylorsville Senior Center performance. Shailyn was excited that despite her earlier fears, she was able to find her grandparents in the crowd ~ it was very entertaining! After a very long day (we didn't get home until after 10:00), they came home and crashed. I must say, there is nothing better than being a Mom!