More Florida.

...A few more that I got a chance to import today.

Featured:
Papa and Matilda
Ali's Birthday
Kid's treasure hunt
All 12 grandkids

My favorite though-- is this last one. A few of us talking and laughing our guts off the planet. Steve was telling a story about when an Irish stewardess noticed he didn't listen to her speech about the safety features of the airplane and she marched over and reprimanded him. Steve was born in Ireland, and knows how to throw the accent around just so... he had us all dying laughing.

Florida and an Anniversary.

I don't know how to say this in a new and different way. So I'll just say it in the old one.

I love these people so much. They've been my some of my best friends for over 9 years now. And we just spent a couple weeks with them in Florida. To sum it up: we had a great time. As usual.

Now we face the start of a new school year. And fall, oh fall, I can already feel you in the air.

Ruby lost her top front tooth on take off from Tampa. It had been loose for awhile and as the front tires of the plane lifted and the back tires were still on the ground, she squealed the good news! She looks so cute and you should hear her say "seashells".

Speaking of the plane, I flew with all four girls by myself on the way to Florida. It wasn't too bad, at least I knew Jake would probably fly with us on the way home. I booked Jake's ticket last minute and his return flight was the same day as ours (August 14th), but his flight time was different. The flight me and the girls were on was so much more expensive by that time that I booked him on a cheaper one a few hours later hoping that Southwest was as nice as they always are and would let him fly with me anyway.

Well they didn't.

So. August 14th was our anniversary. 9 years married. And how did we celebrate? I trudged slowly down the jetway with all four girls in tow and Jake waved goodbye to me and mouthed, "Happy Anniversary" as he started up a game on his iPhone and waited for his flight to board.

Oh man, it was quite a moment.

Flight(s) weren't too bad. I got to Salt Lake with a daunting task before me. Get us and all our junk onto the street, onto the shuttle bus and find our car in the parking lot. I made it to baggage claim and what was the surprise that awaited me? Oh,,,, I shall tell you. Be patient! Here it comes! 

Around the carousel what should appear? Not one large suitcase and a car seat, oh no, what appeared was one large suitcase, one car seat and Jake's suitcase that was accidentally checked on my flight. Oh, the pain! The insult!

But we lived. We always do. And people were so helpful to me. I made it to the car. And not only that, I made it to McDonald's, to the grocery store and finally home. My brother and his wife were gracious enough to pick up Jake from the airport at 10 p.m. after which Jake and I toasted to our marriage, smooched quickly and went to sleep. 

Don't let the romance singe your eyebrows.

Vacation.

We'll be in Florida for the next ten days. Jake's family is one of the best group of people on this planet. I can't wait to see every single one of them.

Sack of Potatoes learned a trick!

Sunday Photos

There's something I've always been horrible and lazy at. Something that I'm always very conscious of, embarrassed about, and constantly trying to improve. That one thing is getting my picky eaters to eat normal food. 

They hardly eat any vegetables, don't like to experiment with any new food, don't eat hardly any kind of meat... I'll spare the details.

Let's just say, it's getting ridiculous. So we started making them eat every single thing I cook. I have the meals planned out so they know what to expect. I kindly help them along, encouraging, coaxing.

Usually the "kindness" plan doesn't work well. Eventually we leave the table and let the girls stay until they've eaten some dinner. And we don't give them anything else to eat. That's the kicker. That's what I've always been bad at, what I've always given in to. But not anymore.

Let me stop explaining and show the girls' depiction of what goes on.

First Grace's drawing, then Ruby's.



(Those are forks in their hands and Ruby says on the forks is "meat, ech")

We had a particularly hard time today with a pork roast, carrots and potatoes. Let's just say there were tears. And the girls drew these unprovoked. Jake and I laughed so very hard.

From what the picture depicts, Jake points, standing up, yelling super loud. Oh, if only they knew how easy they had it.

And I haven't even busted out cauliflower, brussel sprouts or salmon...

Such little trouble makers.