On the Road..

We are finally in Oregon. We rolled in around 6pm tonight. We stayed in an awesome RV park last night in Meridian Idaho. It was fun. We swam, we watched movies, then we used the public shower, got ready and back on the road. (Maybe a 13 hour drive to Oregon w/ 3 kids wasn't one of our best ideas....) We have been watching movies, and trying to keep the kids from beating each other up. Bailey resorted to putting a blanket up between her and Alex. Oh well, builds character right?? We have had a fun time so far and have seen some beautiful scenery. (Well, I saw most of it. Kev was getting a smidge annoyed with me because I have had my nose in the "Finger Lickin' Fifteen" Janet Evanovich book - he said he didn't understand how I can read while we were passing such awesome things to look at. My response - you obviously have never read one of these books. Then I put it longingly back down and looked out the window..wondering how much time I have to wait before I should pick it up again. Needless to say, it's late, everyone is asleep and with some luck, I'll finish it tonight!! Thanks Jaime!!!!!!)
Anyway, back to my post. So being the awesome mom that I am, I actually remembered to get the camera. I did however, forget the little thingy to download the pictures. I'll have to post them when we get home.
We are having so much fun. Tomorrow we are off to ride the train downtown and go to the Japanese Garden, then to my cousins house for a big family dinner. Can't wait!

Birthday Boy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!! Our boy turned 7 today. We feel old!

This Kid...

This kid...it's a good thing he's so stinkin' cute and makes me laugh because yesterday he pushed me right to the edge of the cliff. I have to just blog about my day yesterday because I lived it and I am still not sure we experience what we did in one 24 hour period. Our day went like this.
Got up, got the kids in and out of the bath. Got ready for church. About 30 seconds after I put Luke's shirt, he found chocolate and managed to wipe it all down the front of his shirt. I whipped that one off, found another and out the door we went. After church, we picked up McD's and headed to Kev's parents for a visit before they headed off to Oregon for a month. The kids ate great and we stayed for about 1 1/2 hours. Then we needed to head to the Mall to pick up Kev's gift for our Anniversary. On our way, Luke decided to put a pen down his throat. He managed to throw up all his lunch all over the back seat of the car. And there was A LOT! We pulled off, and luckily I had 2 towels, napkins, and some baby wipes in the car. I mangaed to get most of it cleaned up. Back in the car and off to the mall. (I almost gave up at that point, but what the heck - we were already out!) So off we went- and Luke's saying how hungry he is! I talked to the kids the whole way up saying that we aren't buying any toys, but if they behaved, we would go on the Merry-Go-Round. So, we get into Dillard's and of course Luke has to go to the bathroom. We hit the bathroom, and then we head down the escalators. I am reminding the boys - hands in the pockets, don't touch anything, and just give me 5 minutes to get dad's gift then we can go ride the ride. They turn w/ their little Angelic faces and say "ok momma". No sooner did we get to the counter, did Luke spot the glass jar that held the coffee beans on the counter. He picked it up and before I could tell him no, he dropped it and it shattered on the floor. Needless to say, I made my purchase fast and we got outta there. Then we went to ride the ride. No problems there! As we were walking out of the Mall, I wanted to stop at the T-Mobile store and see if there was any deals. I asked B to keep an eye on the boys for a minute while I looked. (There was a fish-tank across the path that they were looking at.) After a few mintues, I turn around and B is standing next to me....not watching the boys. I said where's the boys - she pointed out of the store. They were climbing all over the gum ball machines. I didn't want to wait around for the crash of one of those, so we loaded up and left. We had to stop at the store for a few groceries. Again, I gave the schpeel - no toys. Every time I turned around, one of the boys was laying on the floor, or they were chasing each other around, or throwing fruit around. About this time, I am done. At wit's end. We get to the checkout and Alex starts in about a toy. I tell him no repeatedly. After about the 50th time, I just ignore him and get everyone out to the car. We play the quiet game the rest of the way home and 2 sets of Legos are in time-out. As we pull into the garage, Luke somehow manages to fall out of the car and hit his cheek on the door. He sobbing - like the not breathing sobbing. I bring him in and console him. He's fine, starts running around and chasing Alex again. I get the groceries and the "vom" towels from the back of the car and start putting everything away. The boys are jumping around upstairs. No one is crying...yet, so I am not too worried. I have everyone get jammies on. It's 7:30 pm. Too early for bed, but close enough to get ready. They are all still playing upstairs, so I continue getting things done around the house. Then I hear it...cries of pain. Alex comes down the stairs and says Luke just kicked him in the eye. Sure enough he did.. Alex got it right in the corner of eye. Just enough to make it black and blue. That's it...EVERYONE to bed. I am done. Someone is going to get beat if he doesn't get to bed NOW. He was out cold about 5 minutes later. I quite enjoyed the rest of the night in silence. What a long day!

Soaked

Here's me and Cristy. We are wet. Not just wet, but SOAKED to the bone. We signed up to do our Vendor Booth at the Saratoga Splash. We were busy selling our jewelry and bam, we got nailed with rain AND WIND. By wind, I mean 60 mph wind. We just about lost our tent! Luckily our Chief and one of our other Officer's were there and they quickly helped us gather everything up and loaded it into Cristy's car. It was hysterical to watch and participate. There was one point that I couldn't even move because I was doubled-over laughing so hard. The poor Chief almost blew away with our tent. Needless to say, we have a lof ot sorting to do because we litterally "threw" everything in the back of Cristy's car to get out of the weather. Once we saw the lightening overhead (and screamed like little girls - literally) we knew we had to make a fast get away. What really sucks is that we were actually selling a lot of stuff and making some good money!! Oh well!! Lehi Days is next weekend. Hope there's no more rain in the forecast!

Adrenaline

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6758657

This is where I spent my evening last night with Kevin. Not the evening we had planned. Debbie and Paul said they would take the kids for us because Kev and I had some training on Tuesday that started at 7 am. So, we dropped the kids off at Debbie's, picked up our friends. We headed out for some dinner and a movie. Well, we got the dinner - the movie was a bust! We have been waiting for a month to see this movie too, so I was really torn. We got our drink, hit the bathrooms, and were heading into the theater as Kev's "super magic" phone went off. It was a SRT call-out. Not a drill - full call out...me included. (I was asked to join the SRT team as the record keeper on calls. I keep a time line of the incident as well as who's on the call. Lots of little details, sitting, and listening; but a totally amazing experience/opportunity). Anyway, we told our friends we had to leave (sorry Rob and Simone - but thanks for waiting to see the movie with us!) and we rushed back to their house to get our car. We ran to our car, and Kev peeled out and we were rushing back to our house to get some gear and I needed shoes. (I love shoes, but I really couldn't go to a tactical operation in 3 inch wedges!!) So we grabbed our gear and headed to the meeting spot. Kev got changed and all the guys put on their tactical gear. (What an awesome sight to see everyone dressed out in their gear!) Then we waited for an update - barricaded suspect. Wife and kids had made it out; not sure his status - but 2 shots were fired. A full County SWAT call out now. Our SRT team goes in first. I stand at the perimeter and take notes - as best I can. (I haven't been fully trained yet and this is my first tactical operation - I was flying by the seat of my pants!) As more of the county guys showed up, we set up a Command Post up the road from the target location. I sat in the CP with the other guys running the County SWAT team and took my notes. I recorded everything that came over the radio. Kev was down with our SRT Team, right in the middle of everything. Once all the county guys were in place, our SRT team was relieved and came back to the CP. Kev is a Bomb Tech and they have robots with cameras. The robot was ready to be deployed - Kev went down to help drive it. As the minutes ticked by, I was nervous for our guys (although I knew they were well trained and would absolutely not let anything happen to any one of them), but I was also so proud to be a part of something this huge. The outcome was not what we all hoped for, but we did help a wife that was battered and she was able to get her children out of the house before he turned the gun on himself. It was a sad outcome, but for our SRT Team, we got to put our tactical experience to use. We did a great job and I am proud of not only myself, but my team. What an experience. I am pretty fortunate as well because I got to see my husband in full swing of what he does best. We rolled in around 3 am and got to bed just to get up 3 hours later for training. What a long night/day/night. My adrenaline is coming down. I am ready to crash!

Karate Kid

Alex had a HUGE night tonight. My big boy has started Tae Kwon Do. We have tried for the past 4 months to get him into this class. Well, as luck would have it, there was a spot this month and his first class was tonight! We are so proud of him. It was great to take him in and see how much he's matured from the last time he did Tae Kwon Do when he was 4. He's much more disciplined and way ready to take on this challenge. He asked his teacher at the end of class what he has to do to earn his belt. I was excited to hear exactly what he needed to hear - practice, come to class, listen. Alex has his eye on the prize...a new belt. We are super proud of him and can't wait to see him move forward with this!

Camping with the Fam

We went camping at a place called Mud Creek - and it was just that. MUD everywhere. But it was fun. We survived 2 thunderstorms - thanks to the TV and some movies, a BB gun being used by all the kids, pocket knives, a dog fight, and a good book. It was a lot of fun and we are looking forward to lots of weekend camping over the summer. It was a great way to celebrate all the kids hard work at school and the end of the school year.