Faith and Family Night at the Naturals Game

Glovers organized a final summer hurrah (fun fact: we did like ten “hurrahs” and it did not make going back to school any easier. It did give us many super fond memories of the summer of 2018, though!) and we found the Messick, Shaw, Stewart, and Pezley boys along with Glover and a Ratsachak families for Christian music night at Arvest Ballfield.  We arrived as David Dunn was finishing up a live performance. We started listening to KLRC and Air 1 Christian radio stations in our cars on a temple trip the weekend after we met baby Wren. It’s been a highlight of many car rides to have uplifting music playing, and a few songs in particular have really helped me find peace during drives to Fayetteville for hearings and visits.  The kids were excited to hear the familiar “I Wanna Go Back” as we entered the park. 

Highlights of the evening: 

-Aunt Kasey coming over and putting the triplets to bed. They would have only lasted so long at a 7pm ballgame. Instead, we got to stay for fireworks! 

-front two seats for $7 bucks, baby. 

-It was really weird and oddly liberating to have free hands and lap most of the evening. And kids I could hand cash to and send them to get their own ice cream from concession stand.  

-Speaking of concessions: ballpark nachos For. The. Win. These babies are one of life’s great simple pleasures. 

-Watching little Bradley P devour an ice cream, savoring every bite. Nothing cuter in the world.

-Except maybe for Andrew G who beamed when a player walked by and put a baseball right into his open hands. Oh my. Cuteness overload. That ball stayed cradled in his arm the entire night. Pretty sure he fell asleep with it, 

-Kids getting their tickets autographed by players...from the other team 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

-coupons for free queso and kid’s meals at tacos for life. 

-a guy on our row wearing a Team Jesus jersey. Right on, guy. I love living in the Bible Belt. People are not ashamed of their faith. 

-waving hi and shining our phone lights to the patients in the children’s hospital windows across the street. 

-high fives from Strike the Naturals’ Sasquatch mascot. 

-An evening hanging out with Saeng and Tia. That’s gold, that is. 

-Corbin running back and forth down our entire brow after every single ball that csmenour way, hoping to catch a fly ball in his hat. He really believed he might catch one and I love his determination. 

-Naturals win! 

-a really good fireworks show, timed to a medley of our favorite Christian radio hits! 

Goodbye, Summer. I really really love you. 

Utah 2018: Olympic Park

We began our anniversary at Olympic Park watching super talented downhill skiers test out new tricks soaring into the air from metal slopes and splash landing in pools of water. This. Place. Is. Awesome. The stunt exhibit featured Olympic medalists and athletes training for future games. They really wowed the crowd with their jumps and flips! 

Corbin caught an autographed poster that was tossed into the crowd. It’s now on display on his bedroom wall.  

After the show, we tried out the simulators inside the museum. 

Rogers Aquatic Center

My neighbor friend texted this morning that she put something out on her porch for my kids. 

They dashed up the street to find punch cards to the aquatic center with enough unused passes for our family to go! Tomorrow we have 3 separate back to school nights, and I’ll be in court for hours. On Friday, the twins have a 2 hour recertification appointment at the county health office and a play therapy family counseling appointment. 

So that left us with....today! I took the twins to  occupational therapy and told the big kids to get chores done and get dressed. I hired a sitter to come over and stay with babies during nap time and we played and played while they slept. It was perfect distraction from useless worrying about tomorrow, and  a super fun spontaneous “last hurrah” with friends. 

We picked up the Thompson abd Allred boys in the fun bus and spent a couple hours living it up.

These kids know how to have a good time! Not 10 minutes after we got into the water (via water slide of course), the whistles blew and everyone had to get out. Lightening alert. Darn! I thought the kids would be sad but they just shrugged, laughed at the inconvenience, but the concession stand, and sat around a table laughing over nachos. 20 minutes later, the water was back on and we were back in the pool. Fortunately for us, half the crowd was scared away by the weather wait, so there were no lines anywhere and it felt as if we had the place to ourselves! 




Reese went around making sure everyone was having a good time. I’ve always recognized that she finds joy in making others comfortable, but her hospitality today was really remarkable. 

Daredevils! I went on one and only one slide and was happy to be so slow I had to propel myself along with my hands. These racing slides were crazy fast and one upped by only one other slide that everyone calls, “the toilet bowl”. 



Beautiful Quincy.  She was so delightful to hang out with today. 



After we’d left the house I realized I’d forgotten to pack Soren’s life jacket. We stopped by a friend’s house along the way to Rogers and she let us borrow a puddle jumper. Soren felt restricted at first, but eventually found his mojo in the splash pads. He was king for the day as the youngest in tow, and was delighted by the way all the big kids doted over him. He was also a good sport about being 2 inches too short to go on any of the slides and happy cheered on the big kids from the sidelines and lazy river. 

Corbin wore a smile the whole day. This kid loves to play. And I don’t think he stopped talking for the entire   time we were at the pool. 

The lifeguards at the diving board were expressionless and the kids were determined to make em crack. They tried all sorts of silly antics and absolutely cracked themselves up in the process, but finally decided that the lifeguards either have no personalities, or their personalities are defective and missing a sense of humor, since they were obviously so hilarious. (They really were though, I know I’m an easy laugh, but the kids were dang funny today.) 


A second lightening whistle blew after we’d played a couple hours. Since we were planning to get out in 15 minutes anyway, we called it early and left the park in good spirits with the promise of getting slushees on the way home. 






They call this pic the “after” shot. Bryce showed everyone how to properly “put their hair up” in a towel and they strutted out to the car proudly like this. Peyton’s little mermaid towel slayed me.  We laughed so much today. It was wonderful for everyone. Come Monday, they’ll all be in school with separate classrooms and schedules and schools and teachers.  Together was a really awesome place to be, today.  

Camp Wild: A 1980’s Summer Day

Ahhhb this post was full of a dozen more pictures and commentary about a totally radical  80’s themed day of Camp Wild. One of those posts that took forever and it all disappeared in the publishing process. 

So this is what ya get for now. Pics of the last 2 hours of the day at the retrocade. I’m calling it good enough

Amazeum

The current exhibit at the Amazeum is a feast for the little engineer brains among my children. A giant play structure and slides made with packing tape, and an impressive collection of automata. I can’t even wrap my brain around the way these artists connect gears and pulleys to animate their sculptures. The exhibit left us totally inspired to think more creatively. These pieces should be in crystal bridges. Incredible talent! 

We were so happy to be joined by the Smallwoods. Soren loves playing with them and I love playing with Jill. Win win! 

Summer Bucket List 2018: Movie

It’s a rainy Tuesday. The big kids determined that rain or shine, today was our last unscheduled summer day and therefore, “fun is mandatory”. We reviewed our list of things that we can’t easily do when I have three toddlers, and decided to carpe diem. We set out the door to go bowling, and then remembered last minute that movies at the fancy schmancy theatre downtown are discounted on Tuesdays, so we popped in and we had just enough time to get some popcorn and sit before previews began. Sloane was terrified by the high action previews, but curled up like a kitty in my lap and stayed there the whole time. This was the first time in a year that we’ve attempted to take her to a movie and I’m happy it was a success!  Christopher Robin was a slow movie, but the kids all really liked it, except for Reese, who leaned over halfway through and said, “what is this sad movie?! It’s supposed to be for kids but it’s like they’re trying to make us cry!” 

The themes were good: focus on your family, live today, enjoy today, and don’t forget to play. I’m thankful for the simple pleasure of being able to take most of my children to a movie, today. And for rainy days in August to temper this too hot of a summer, and give our scorched earth a drink. And for the root beer floats and a nerf gun battle on the front porches indulged in after the movie.