Harvest Days

In the first part of August is Midvale Harvest Days.  We were told way ahead of time to plan on going down to Ryan's parents house for the whole day, first for the parade & then for a big surprise that Ryan's parents had planned for all the grand kids. 
The kids LOVED the parade mostly because of the candy but they also love hanging out with their cousins.  Each of my kids are lucky enough to have at least one cousin that is pretty close to their own age to make it fun.  Mason was not too excited about how loud everything was especially the fire engines.  He is such a cute kid with such a kind heart.  There was an elderly lady sitting behind us & Mason made sure that when he got candy he would take one piece back to the "grandma" sitting behind us.  He said that he was fast & she needed to have some candy too.  How cute is that?
After the parade we went back to the Granquist homestead where a large blow up water slide was being put up in the back yard.  Well the kids freaked out.  Ethan & Holly were all upset because they thought that they couldn't play because they didn't have their swimsuits, but of course I had all the stuff they needed hidden away in the van.  Again, much freaking out.  The hard part came telling them they had to wait until it was put up all the way & that they had to eat lunch first.  We had to take them away from the site of all the excitement it get them to eat lunch, but they were happy because we got Astro Burger, a big treat in our household.
They played in the water for 8 hours!!  Almost straight.  We had to make everyone get out & eat dinner.  You have never seen so many kids eat so fast in your life.  I think Holly ate in 10 minutes flat & that includes dishing up her plate.  That 10 minutes I think was the only time the whole day that Holly & her cousin Rachel where out of the water.  Let me tell you she & all the kids slept good that night.
Mason had a hard time getting warmed up to going down the slide.  The kids kept running over him to get up the slide & then when he would take too long they would pull/push him down.  So he spent most of the day crying & being held by Mom.  Uncle Kay helped Mason to be happier by giving him a ride on his Jazzy & even letting him drive it. 
Latter in the day while everyone was taking a break to eat I took Mason to the slide & let me take his time.  He soon got his sea legs & was going up & down so fast he was the one running over the other kids. 
It was such a fun day & a great way to say good bye to summer. Thanks Rhonda for such a fun day!

Spring & Summer

After our trip to Canada from my Grandma's funeral we had Easter, of which I didn't take a single photo.  I know, my bad.  Easter was low key & quite.  Nothing big, just small Easter treats for the kids, no new clothes & a ham w/ funeral potatoes for dinner. 
Then in May we had Holly's 6th birthday.  I know it was my birthday too but once Holly came along I think of it as her birthday.  She got a scooter for her birthday with a bell, which I regretted as soon as she was off and riding it.  The good thing though is that once she got the hang of the two wheeled scooter she decided that she could ride her bike.  Ryan took the training wheels off it last year & tried to get her to try & learn how to ride it but never would.  She didn't have the confidence to do it but once she got her balance riding that scooter, off she went on her bike as well. 
Her birthday was a low key event at home & then we had the big birthday family party with Ryan's family.  We have 6 birthdays in May with Ryan's family so it it easier to just have one big party. 
Just two weeks after Holly's birthday, her scooter was stolen.  She left it out on the front sidewalk one night & some dishonest person took it one night.  She was heart broken.  But fortunately Toy's R Us had pink scooters on clearance and we were able to replace it.  Holly will never forget to put her stuff away again so I guess in the long run it worked out Okay.  She learned a lesson & I didn't have to hear that bell ringing all the time.
In June Ryan's sister & her husband got a great surprise.  They adopted little Titan & welcomed him into their family.  He is so dang cute & we all just love him to bits.  Ethan is especially taken with him 7 fights to get a turn holding him, but I think that is they way it is with everyone in the family.
My Mom also came down from Canada to spend some time with us & my brothers family as well as attend the Utah Highland Games as she does every year. The kids love their annual trip to Toys R Us & to have some fun with Grandma Bo. 
On the 21st of June Ryan & I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.  We didn't get to take a trip or do anything big.  Liz was nice enough to take the kids so we could go see the last Harry Potter movie & then we got In-Out Burger.  The kids loved it because they got to go to Mike's (Liz's son)  championship baseball game which they won.  So a good day all around. 
July was uneventful & Hot. 

Summer (June, July, August)

Ryan is out of town for a few days and so I feel like I can let the house go to hell for now, and I can FINALLY take the time to get the rest of the summer happenings posted. 
We start with June, a big month.  My Mom came down to visit and took all her US grandkids to Toy R Us for their annual shopping spree.  This covers all gifts for birthdays and Christmas so that no one has to spend extra on postage and so my Mom can watch all the kids enjoy their gifts.  My kids for one talk about it all year even though I say that it is more important to spend time with their grandmother rather than just the trip to the toy store.  As always my Mom is running all over the place doing all kind of things, visiting everyone she can so we only got to see her for a few hours 3 days out of the 14 she was here.  She says it's because she is allergic to my cats but I get the feeling it's something more.  I always give her the benefit of the doubt as I know she often tries to do too much and to please too many people, but we do enjoy her while we can. 

Then latter in June we got a trampoline.  The kids have been begging us for one since we have lived in this house but not until Mason started escaping down the street to a neighbour's house, to jump on their trampoline, while they where not home I might add, did I break down and get one.  We set it up one night but didn't get the encloser on as we figured out too late that we had put the legs on wrong.  So we had to take it all apart the next night, put it back together and then put the encloser up.  Mason jumped, and jumped and jumped until it was dark.  The poor little guy was so tired that he was asleep before his head hit the pillow that night, which in my book is worth every penny we paid for the trampoline. 
In July we had a trying time.  For the Independence Day weekend we decided to just light a few small fireworks with just our family as it fell on a Sunday this year.  Ryan had gone with the kids and picked some out at our local fireworks stand the day before.  The kids were all excited and could hardly wait until dark, so they got all ready for bed before we went out.  All was well as we went along but then went wrong.  We lite off a firework that shot a little GI Joe figure in the air then came down to earth in a parachute.  Ryan had got one for each of the kids, and the first two were great except they drifted down into our neighbour's yard who lives kitty-corner across the street from us. 
So for the last one Ryan moved a good 50 feet down the street in the opposite direction before lighting the last one, in hopes of not disturbing our neighbour's who where lighting their own fireworks.  Well this time I guess part of the inside of the firework came out of the main barrel, shoot 100 feet down the street, hit the sidewalk in front of our neighbour's house and hit one of their friends square in the nose.  Blood everywhere.... of course we felt awful.  Ryan went down and talked to our neighbour to find out exactly what had happened, gave him our information, retrieved the firework casing and came home.  That put an end to our night.  There was really nothing we did wrong as the firework was legal, we took every precaution we could but in the end it was a freak accident.  The injured man turned out to be Okay, thank goodness but the stress that the incident caused was incredible. 
Ryan ended up having a little bit of a breakdown, but in the end it was good because he was able to have a full physical with his doctor and some needed adjustments to his blood pressure meds' where made.  So all worked out Okay, although we did have to deal with the insurance investigation and claims that followed. 
Finally in August the kids enjoyed the Meteor shower with their Dad on the front lawn under lots of blankets.  They had a blast and I'm sure it earned a special memory in their hearts. 
The end of August the kids started school again with Holly starting Kindergarten, which she LOVES and Ethan entering the 2nd grade.  His biggest challenge is the pack of girls that chase him and his friends around the playground at recess trying to tickle them.  Ethan my little ladies man. 
That covers our summer and just about brings us up to date.  I have a few other things to get caught up on like our trip to Idaho last month, Holly losing her first tooth and our Canadian Thanksgiving which are coming soon.  I will post it tomorrow before Ryan gets home from St. George, UT.  He is there on business for just 3 days but I'm sure that he will have lots for me to do once he gets back so I will get everything posted before he comes home if it kills me.  So check back.