Ides of July

I just was instructed to smell my 4 year old's bum to make sure I did a good job of wiping him. How did that become my life? If I was telling this story to my mom she would shake her head, roll her eyes and say "Oh brother" like I was gross and who would admit to that kind of thing. Only thing is, she had nine kids, I KNOW she didn't get through that experience without at least one weirdo child like Danyo. It wasn't me though.

We got back this week from our great little, first time ever, family vacation. I'm not one to brag...yes I am. My kids were AMAZING travelers. There was no whining about being in the car, and only minimal questioning about how much longer from Bo. In fact, the only real complaining that happened, was me, wishing I didn't have to listen to Weird Al, yet again. We have a dvd of 25 of his videos and the kids watched that dvd probably 5-6 times. Our first day back, Danyo spent most of the morning begging to watch "Weird Owl, just one time again." I pretended to be deaf. Although, it is kind of funny to hear him playing with his toys and muttering, "I lost on Jep-odee".

We spent 5 days in the SLC area, and that went by fast. We got to have lunch with Jay's two younger cousins who are BYU students, and my niece Hannah, who just started there. We went to J's all time favorite Thai restaurant in Provo. I handed my menu to him and said, "order for me". And he did. Like a fat man on no budget, that boy ordered. It was tons of food, and surprisingly, there was very little left over. That's so interesting Nobody. I know.

We went to J's reunion. There was an amazingly good turn out. I was mostly interested in seeing J's best friend and his wife, but managed to meet some other cool people who's names I've been hearing for 10 years. I still made fun of the reunion though. It couldn't be helped.

Oh yeah, I meant to write a little about our trip to Utah, but now that we're back, those details seem boring and inconsequential. We made it to Laramie just in time for me to take my final. I had until 10 pm to finish it and started it a little after 9 (Iowa time). It made J really nervous, which I thought was really cute. I got an A. AND I had to take the test in the lobby of the hotel because they didn't have wi-fi in the room. We found a Pho place for Avee, I got a cake for J's birthday at Safeway. It said, "Party Laramie style". The people of the Laramie Safeway Bakery did not think I was as funny as I thought I was. Oh well.

I just yelled at Avee and Danyo for fighting and now they are hugging to console each other about their mean, yelling, mom. Whatever works.

Our time in SLC was packed with visiting family and some friends. That is one thing I love about Utah. So many cool people to visit there. This was probably one of the first times I've gone there and didn't kind of wish I lived there. I felt like an outsider, and I was okay with that.

J took the two older kids to see his grandmother in a nursing home. She will be 95 in September. She didn't really know who any of them were, but apparently her dining mate at lunch was more than happy to pretend they were there to see her. Great-Grandma told them she was 64 years old and Bo thought that was pretty funny. I can't wait to get away with that kind of math...

I got to hang out with Mrs. Organic for an afternoon. My kids lost themselves in her pool the entire time and it was a great little visit. Danyo was thrilled because there were no height or weight regulations for him to go down the slide, so he probably did that 562 times.

I met Mrs. Organic a little over a year ago, in person. I got to chat with her for a bit, and I'll be darned if she was so fun to talk to, I've been waiting and waiting for a chance to do it again. I was not disappointed. :)

We had a fantastic three days in Cedar where three of my very good friends live. I think the traveling or something caught up with me because I was completely wiped out a couple of the days there. Oh yeah, I'm pregnant, in case you didn't know. I'm 4 months along, so it's not my first thought when I jump in a car and drive a bajillion miles in a week---but I've learned, it should be considered a little more. I laid around a lot in Cedar, and it was nice to be able to. One time I got up and started emptying the dishwasher of an almost always immaculate house and my friend yelled from the other room for me to knock it off. I don't get that. First of all, immaculate doesn't happen in my house. Ever. And second of all, when people come visit me, all I can think the entire time they are here is, "Why don't you get up and make yourself useful, like, do my dishes or scrub my floors?" so I don't know who or why JJMac operates the way she does. Weirdo.

We spent a day at the lake and it was probably one of the most perfectly gorgeous days I have ever experienced. It was sunny and warm and a breeze that just kept me from getting too hot. At one point I came out from under the shelter and sat in the sun. I kept telling myself to get up because Southern Utah, early July, pasty white skin...you know. Even 50 spf is no match for that. I could not get myself to get up---the sun felt sooooooooo good. I'm not sure I've ever experienced that before. A week later, I still have a very very odd sunburn on my legs. I missed some spots.

Bo got to go knee boarding and I think he pretty much died and went to heaven doing that. He loved being on the boat and in the water. All the kids got to be pulled around on a 3-seater raft and had a blast. I even tried it with Avee and Danyo. Avee totally freaked out on our ride though, and I couldn't figure it out because I KNOW she went faster other times when I wasn't sitting right next to her. It took a couple of days but I finally got the truth out of her---she was certain Danyo was going to go flying out, and that had her all worked up. In the meantime, I was laughing maniacally at my little tiny kids bouncing 2 feet up into the air... Poor Avee.

We took the scenic route home and went through KC to visit our families briefly. My kids loooooooooooove visiting there, so it was a perfect end to a perfect little trip.

Well, I started this yesterday but nobody was respecting my needs, so I stopped. :) Now it's 6 am and I've been up since 2. I don't know if I've ever had insomnia this bad. I only get it when I'm pregnant. It's the weirdest thing because I don't really know what it is about pregnancy that makes me unable to turn my brain off. I mean, I have plenty of issues that consume me when I'm not pregnant and I have no problem ignoring them for 7-8 hours every night then. It's stupid and annoying, but at least I know it'll go away.

Today would be my cousin Josie's 32nd birthday. Hap' Birthday Joze.