Sunset

 Yesterday was my moms birthday.

We rearranged some schedules so that Bruce, me and all the kids could go to the cemetery to bring my mom flowers and wish her Happy Birthday.  We went right before sunset.

We found this cute bird figurine on her headstone when we got there.  We don't know who put it there, but it was so sweet.  My mom loved birds.  Sophie held it the whole time we were there, then put it back before we left.

 Dallin played for her so beautiful 
"Here Comes the Sun", "Blackbird" and "Safe and Sound"

We cried.  I cried the whole drive there and the whole time there and many times yesterday.  Such a sad full heart.  When we were driving home in the car 3 yr old Sophie said, "When is grandma coming back?" :(

Happy Birthday Mom

♥♥♥

USS Midway

While in SD-CA we took a tour of the huge 

USS Midway (Navy Aircraft Carrier).  

Which meant lots of this:

narrow steep stairs and narrow passage ways.

And of course Mace-the-Ace came... because thats what she does. 

We are figuring that since Macy has no younger siblings and Sophie cried almost the entire way in the car and on the ship.... that she's prob'ly not gonna want to take that tour the Vernon way again.

And I keep trying to tell Emma that ugly face pictures are not cute...

Emma-nem, Loge the Poge & Lilly-squill worked really hard to answer all the little questions in the booklet so they could officially earn their flight wings...

They had some cool planes the kids could go in and simulate flying.

And if it looks like a wonderful outing.... you are......

wrong.

I am kidding, it was OKAY.  But we all got kind of nauseous being in those narrow passage ways with lots of people on a really warm day..... and OH YES, I remember now, Sophie cried almost the whole time.  {We still love her though.}
It was crazy to imagine how many months people live on those big ships out at sea. Worth seeing.

Discoveries...

This week I was suppose to be writing everything negative I say down.  This is an attempt to keep me accountable and noticing how often I make negative comments (especially to my children), as a motivation to SHUT MY MOUTH and instead look for more positive things to say.  The first couple days worked awesome, I felt so happy because I was positive in everything I said all day to my family.  Then life got so busy I kept forgetting to write things down... then after a while I just forgot about it all together.  GRRRRRR.  I am starting again tomorrow.  I want to praise my children more than I criticize them. Because I KNOW that will help them more... but UGH.... it..... is.... so.... hard..... to..... do!!  {Especially when they do so many annoying things... ha ha.}

I am getting caught up on my blog... and remembered our lovely trip to Solana Beach in June.  As I looked at these pictures of the looooong beach walk some of us did. I was struck by just how many things we discovered on that cute beach walk... that day seems so far away amidst all the busy-ness right now of new house decisions and the looming "big move" next month (that I am dreading).

Look at everything we discovered in that precious walk: 

mossy green rocks, little crabbies...

the awesome bridge where water flows under from the ocean and forms a still pool of water, so cool...

 the Del Mar fair....

Dallins squishy cheeks...

dead JELLYFISH washed ashore...

rock formations and caves....

Aaaaaaaaand tomorrow I am going to re-discover how wonderful it feels to spend my day looking for things to praise in my children.  It is going to be beautiful like this beach walk.

A day at the Pueblo...

In June Logan was lucky enough to do a 3 day long day camp at the HEARD PUEBLO Cub Scout Day camp.  My friend Alisa coordinated 4 boys to go together, and 3 of us moms each took a day with the boys.  When she asked us if we wanted to I was like BLEK... all day outside in Arizona in June... sounded really hot.  But I love how much my boys love scouts.  I love scouts and all the enriching activities for boys.  AND I love Logan and thought it would be a great way to spend the day with just him.

It ended up being such a great experience.  I was soooo shocked how much these nifty water mister/sprayers along all the trails really kept us cool.  They were constantly spraying water on everyone, which was fun.  I never even felt hot.  I was so impressed with the day camp there... a perfect boy day.

 The setting right in the desert mountains was awesome.

They had so much fun going from station to station.

 Besides the archery, swimming, and lassoing, they did shooting and arts and crafts aaaaand probably one of the boys favorite things was the Snack Bar that they could go buy stuff at between rotations.  Logan didn't get home until almost 11pm each night.  When they were in my car they wanted to hear the "Boy Scout Rap" song over and over.  

Such a fun experience for Mr. Logan and me. 

 I sure love this little guy.
Is there any better reward then to see your child so so happy?
What a beautiful thing.