Exceptions to the Rule

If you know me you know I am all about following the rules. I have to know what the rules are and then I will follow them (most of the time). OK... all of the time. And I expect my kids to do the same. But as we all know many rules have exceptions and we need to be willing to extend those exceptions to ourselves and our kids. We just got back from a trip to the lake and one of our rules is no video games at the lake. You can play during the long car ride down and the long car ride back but not once we get there. Boy did we have a couple of exceptions. But I'll get to that later. We should have known that this lake trip was going to be different when on the ride down Sheriff said to Brett, "hey dad, where'd your boat go?" In a panic both Brett and I checked the side-view mirrors and discovered that the boat we were towing was ... just fine. So after a brief lecture from his father about not saying things like that because they are not a joke we continued without incident. Of course if he had said that to me the lecture would not have been brief. hahaha!!! My lectures are not known for their brevity.

Wednesday:

Driving and getting settled.

Thursday:

This day we had to go into town to buy some supplies from Walmart. Grandma and Grandpa arrived in the afternoon, only Grandma was sick with the flu having caught it from her parents. :(
Brett worked on naming our new boat.

While Brett and I unpacked the supplies the kids battled with Pokemon cards, and played pretend laser tag.

They couldn't pass up a chance to swim and Giggles found some accessories to become a water monster.

While running from a game that sounded like a bomb, Wannabe ran into some metal on the boat and cut his leg open requiring a long wait in the hospital and 14 stitches. According to his brother you could see his "meat". And yes, I have the photographic proof (taken later at the hospital of course during our 5 hour wait). I'll spare the squeamish from the "meat" shot however and just show you the stitches.

Swimming was out for the rest of the trip and in came the video game exception for child #1 as he rested his leg for the next couple of days.

He was a real trooper through the whole thing...very brave, patient and bounced back quickly.

Friday:

We found a place for the houseboat to stay and tied off.

The kids set off to add to their collection of rocks and shells. This day was also spent playing with blocks, watching movies, swimming and enjoying the new boat.

In the middle of the night Giggles christened the new boat with the taco dinner I made earlier in the evening. He threw up twice and I have proof positive that he really doesn't chew his food as his grapes from dinner are still whole. Seriously... whole. Try swallowing a grape whole without choking.

Saturday: Giggles spent most of the day laying down with a sick tummy and the video game exception kicked in for child #2 who was too sick to go out and play.

Wannabe ventured out however and caught a lizard. He even created a habitat for him.

Sunday: John kindly pumped up a tube for the kids but in the process the pump exploded and shards of plastic shoot out slicing his thumb and cutting his arm, even giving him a giant bruise on his arm. Frightening to say the least. Smiley was later convinced that he was standing next to grandpa when it happened and had to jump out of the way. Smiley was in the kitchen at the time and not even close but I guess he wants to feel a part of the action of the week. John was brave enough to pull out another pump after he was patched up and finished blowing up the tube.

Sheriff and Smiley went for a ride.

Twelve-year-olds are a little more daring than seven-year-olds but I don't think that Sheriff looks very comfortable.

We also had to play one of our favorite family games...Apples to Apples. Only this was the sour version of the game.

Denny's was on the menu for the evening and Giggles was brave enough to try to eat.

Monday: Nate and Lisa got a flat tire coming down and Roxy received a phone call from back home about a busted window at her home. But no one was seriously hurt this day. Yeah!!!

After telling my husband that I would never sleep inside our boat (I sleep up top on the benches that convert into a bed), I had to eat my words. As we got ready for bed, Giggles pointed to the arch of the boat and said, "is that a spider?". Yes and no. It was half the size of my hand. And it was waiting for me to go to bed. Can you call something that is half the size of your hand a spider. Spiders are supposed to be much smaller things that you can kill with your shoe ... not big enough that they could take drag your shoe away if they wanted to. So I kindly offered my bed up to Brett for the night. He didn't want it either.

Tuesday: Packed up and returned home. :(

We've never had a trip with so much illness and incident but despite all of it we still had a great time. Wannabe, even with his 14 stitches said, "this was the best lake trip ever."

A special thanks to John and Roxy who always go the extra mile to make things special and lots of fun!

You lost what??? Part II

Remember when Brett lost his ring at Lake Powell? That's not all he lost at Lake Powell. Actually come to think of it we lose a lot of things at Lake Powell. My sister-in-law tossed her anniversary ring to her husband right before waterskiing and, well, he didn't catch it. We lose bathing suits, towels, beach toys and water shoes. Of course we gain tans (or in my case burns), great memories and come home with lots of sand in our bags.

On our last Lake Powell trip Brett gained a concussion and lost his two front teeth. Sorry Brett. Yep... I did it. Me. The driver of the boat who hit the waves that threw him from the molecule that resulted in said loss of teeth. He has already had 3 oral surgeries to work on his teeth. He has one more to go to get permanent teeth put in. Right now he has a gap where his teeth SHOULD be and fake teeth that he can wear. He plays with his fake teeth all the time driving me and his brother nuts. "Will you knock it off?" I'm always saying. He leaves his teeth everywhere; on the couch, on the counter, on his bedside stand and then says to me, "have you seen my teeth?" I keep telling him not to leave his teeth lying around.

That leads me to last night when again he left his teeth on the counter. Sunshine was coloring at the counter and it came time to put her to bed. Brett put her to bed and shortly thereafter went to get his teeth. They were gone. Suspicious. You bet. We searched and searched and searched. No luck! I didn't even have to say "I told you so." All I had to do was make the sound, "hmmmmm." The best part was when I heard him go into Sunshine's room and ask our little 2-year-old "where did you put my teeth?" as if she would answer him! hahaha!!!

Serves him right for hiding his mom's keys in a heater vent when he was three. Now that's payback. I wish I could be in all of his meetings for the next month as he tries to hide his gap. I know, I know. That's kinda mean isn't it? I'm trying to be nicer... I really am. But sometimes being right feels soooooo good. Terrible isn't it?

Time to Say Goodbye

There are days when my kids pose such challenges that I tell my sister that I wish I had a fast forward forward button to bring me to the day that my youngest leaves on his mission so I can breath that sigh of relief - no more yelling upstairs to tell boys to stop messing around in the bathroom when I have given what I thought was a simple task of brushing their teeth, no more telling boys to give each other "personal space" at the counter, in the car, on the couch, around the house, in the pew at church, no more silly tattles like "he called me a Pootah!" when they don't even know what a Pootah is (neither do I for that matter).


My sister, I think, wants a rewind button as her youngest son is leaving next week for a mission. I can't believe he is already grown up enough to go but it is true. Two years he will be gone. I know my boys will miss him and miss his teasing. We will miss his funny expressions and his model poses for the camera.




He will do a wonderful job though in South Carolina and I'm sure that the two years will fly by. Lake Powell won't be the same without him but he'll be back in no time to show us more awesome moves on Pirate Island.
Good luck Broc!

Broken Boat Can't Ruin Our Fun!

We just got back from this year's trip with Brett's family to Lake Powell. What a great week we had (even though our boat broke AGAIN!) We just can't seem to get our boat working. I'm starting to think the darn thing is cursed after having a terrible time with repairs last year and now this year not working. Brett even took it for a trial spin a few weekends ago at Utah Lake and Lake Powell and all seemed to be in working order (he forgets that he is married to me and that if something is going to go wrong it will).

Despite the boat not working we still managed to have a great time as others had boats for skiing and tubing.



Brett's dad always seems to come with an idea every year for the kids. This year's idea was to make a giant slip and slide out of plastic sheeting. It didn't work but it was a great idea. On the day we packed up they had to fold up the plastic sheet and it was really windy. We realized that the plastic was making a better kite than slip and slide and it took Brett off his feet and knocked him to the ground.



Brett also celebrated a birthday at Powell and I made him wear a Burger King crown (a Twilight one) he would kill me if I posted it though so you're out of luck on that picture.

The kids enjoyed swimming, launching water balloons at wave runners, eating pancake breakfasts, hiking to high places, exploring places they called Pirate Island, Scorpion Island and Coco Moco Cave (all names they made up).







It is a lot of work taking a trip to Powell but well worth the good times we have. Hopefully we will be able to figure out what is wrong with the boat so we can use it soon. My fingers are crossed.