Power Outages

Last week (sadly I don't remember the day, I want to say Tuesday) it was windy and at about 9:00 I was just getting ready to make myself breakfast. I was opening the pantry door when the lights went out and I hear Hannah yell from my room (she'd been watching a Barbie movie and was so mad at me because I had done something to make it turn off.) Ben had been downstairs playing Lego's and didn't notice the missing power. He came up a few minutes later and mentioned the wind was blowing a lot outside. I told him to try and turn the lights on. He tried and tried, but of course nothing happened. We had a little talk about how the power had gone out and so anything that took electricity were not working. (We didn't have a lot of power outages in Virginia so this was fairly new to him.) He, of course, being a 4 year old boy, had to try everything he could to see if it needed power. He opened the fridge, tried the ice and water thing of the freezer door, tried to open the garage (he panicked because he couldn't get his bike out) turned on the TV and many other things. It was so cool to him.

About a half an hour into the power outage I decided to go ahead and give the kids the bath they needed. Because their bathroom has no windows, I let the three of them (Sarah Kate was at school) take a bath in my tub. They played for awhile and then I got the two little girls out. Ben wanted to stay in and fill the tub with more water. We filled it up just past the jets and I had to explain that the 'bubbles' wouldn't work because there was no power. He had to try them anyway and announced that I was right, the 'bubbles' didn't work. I dress the girls and made Gracie a bottle. I was standing in the kitchen when the lights all came back on. At the precise moment the power came on I heard a deathly scream from BenBen in the tub. I knew immediately what had happen and had to laugh to myself as I went to calm him down.

By the time I reached him he was laughing. He said "Mommy, I turned the bubbles on to see if they had power, but I didn't push them to turn them off." The jets had come on while he was sitting there peacefully in the bathtub. I think it would have scared anyone half to death. He was a good sport about it and we both had a good laugh.

Our New Hobby

So, apparently the wind blows a lot in Idaho Falls. I don't think it's blown that much (not more than it did in Virginia) but I'm told it'll get worse with winter. I don't mind so much, at least it's not humid. Besides this wind has allowed us to adopt a new hobby. In Virginia Kenny bought a nice trick kite that he really wanted to fly. The wind blew often in Virginia (especially by our house which was near the Occoquan River) and it was fast, but it was often accompanied by rain and sometimes thunder and lightening. I've heard it's not a good idea to fly a kite in rain, thunder, or lightening so most of the time Kenny was unable to fly the kite. The few times there was fast enough wind with no rain, by the time he got the kite to a good place to fly it (away from all the trees) and set it up, the wind had died. It was very discouraging.

Kenny's trick kite.

Anyway, long story short, the wind in Idaho Falls has not been accompanied by rain so we've been able to fly kites. It's actually a lot of fun to fly a kite. The kids finally got to fly their Walmart $1.00 kites they got for Easter and they really enjoyed watching them soar in the sky. Sadly they all got a little to close and a little to tangle. I wasn't willing to spend hours untangling 3 dollar kites so they were retired. Luckily we still had Daddy's trick kite that is very loud, but very fun to fly.

This is a video of Kenny and Sarah Kate flying the trick kite. It's quite loud when the wind is really blowing, so loud that it scares Gracie (you can hear her cry a little in the video.) It's very fun and quite powerful. I think if Kenny wasn't helping Sarah Kate, the kite would have taken her away.

BenBen flying his kite!

Ben and Sarah's dollar kites. They held up much better than I expected.

Sarah Kate really enjoying flying her kite. She had the most patients for it and flew hers the longest.

The First Day of School

The fist day of school has come and gone and I'm still amazed that Sarah Kate is now a first grader. Kindergarten went so fast and so did the summer. Now she's a first grader and sometimes it feels like next week she'll be in high school. Anyway, Sarah Kate had an amazing first day of school and is very excited to be at her new school with her new teacher.

The day started out like most school days. I was running a little behind and wasn't quite prepared. Sarah Kate was all ready to go, but the bus came a little early and when I discovered that the camera was not on top of the fridge like I thought it was, I was out of time and couldn't get any pictures of her. She ran out the garage as the bus was pulling away and the bus driver was nice enough to stop in front of our house for her. She jumped on and sat with Carina, a neighbor girl who is in her church class. She didn't seem to care that I didn't get a picture, but I was really bummed. I went inside all sad and Kenny told me I should just go to the school and take pictures of her getting off the bus. What a great idea, so I left him with the other three kids and went to the school to take her picture.

Showing me that she's in 1st grade

The bus beat me there so instead of watching Sarah Kate get off the bus, I found her at the playground with her friend Carina. She had a great first day of school and really liked her new school and teacher. (Read the next blog and I go into details about my time at the school.)

Playing at the playground

When school was over Sarah Kate told me she got to go to recess 3 times and they got to play on the playground each time. She also said her teacher never yelled at them and she didn't even have a whistle. As a parent I can't explain the gratitude I have for the fact that she had a good experience at school. I felt so bad last year with all that she had to go through, but this year looks so promising. She's smart and I'm not worried about her learning abilities, I just want her to have a normal, fun school experience.

Getting off the bus! It pulls right in front of our house which is really handy.

She's so excited to be home.

Idaho Schools Are So Much Better Than Virginia Schools

Here are just a few differences between Virgina schools and Idaho schools. Sorry to all you Virginians who may like the way school is done out there. I personally prefer the way it's done here. Maybe that's because I'm from here.

When I got to school to take Sarah Kate's picture I was amazed at the number of parents going in and out of the school with their kids. At Sarah's old school we were told that dropping the kids off at the curb was better for the kids, so the parent's were not allowed in the school on the first day of class. I much prefer the Idaho way of doing the first day of school. Being able to see the classroom and help your kids meet their teacher can go along ways for the kids and parents.

I found Sarah Kate at the playground and she was so happy to see me. The first thing she said was, "Mommy, we get to play at the playground everyday when we get off the bus and we don't have to go in until the bell rings." What a perfect way to start the school year. In Virginia she was lucky to get recess at all during her all day kindergarten and if she got recess she went to the blacktop behind her classroom for the last 15 minutes of school, no joke! I could probably count on my fingers the number of times she played at the playground the entire year. So she was very trilled to be able to play at the playground.

The bell rang and I showed Sarah and Carina (also a first grader, but in a different class) where their rooms were. I was able to walk Sarah Kate into her classroom and help her find her seat. I talked to her a little, helped her meet the kids at her table, and then wished her luck and turned to leave. Her teacher, Mrs. Ramos, stopped me and talked to me for just a minute. She seems like a nice lady who actually likes kids. What a change from Ms. Gast. This is another big change, a nice teacher. I realize Ms. Gast was not necessarily the norm for Virginia teachers, but she was our experience and I'm glad not to have her teaching my kids any more.

Virginia wasn't all bad, but I'm very glad to be in Idaho. I'm so excited for this school year and all the possibilities it holds. We have back to school night tonight and I'll learn a little more about the school, Sarah's teacher, and where Sarah fits in her class. I'm hoping this year will be a positive experience and that Sarah Kate will learn that school and learning can be fun.

Dancing Gracie

The kids and I love to dance around the house (I already talked about this with Hannah's dancing post.) It's fun to turn on the MP3 player and dance circles around the kitchen and living room. Recently Gracie has decided to get in on the fun. She loves it when I pick her up and swing her around or bounce her to the music. Last week she decided to dance on her own. She's still not standing alone or talking any steps, but as long as she has something to hold onto she'll just bounce and sway to whatever music is playing. What a cutie.

Technology! Love It Or Hate It?

So, I've had all these blogs I've wanted to post over the last week or so, but most of them have video in them. This probably isn't a problem for most people or most computers, but for me and my computer it is. I don't know if it's the fault of the computer, video camera, or me, but I do know that it's very aggravating. I've been trying for over a week to get Sarah Kate's tooth video on the computer so I could post it for Grandma, but it just wouldn't work. At first it was really jumpy and then I managed to get it smoothly on the computer, but it didn't have any sound (kind of important when Sarah Kate is talking about how she lost her tooth.)

Anyway, to make a long story short, after over a week and a couple dozen tries I decided to give it one more shot knowing that if it didn't work I'd just post the blogs without the video. Amazingly it worked. I don't get it, but I'm thrilled to finally have it working again. I did notice that some of the video is dark and sometimes the sound goes out, but I'll take it. After all my trying, what I got is good enough for me.

Toothless in Idaho

Recently Sarah Kate lost her last front tooth. She was very proud of herself because she pulled it out all by herself. What a shock! She's normally such a baby. Now she's missing her top two front teeth which make it hard for her to say her S sound. She's gotten much better, but I must admit it was very cute while it lasted. She would have looked real toothless if her two bottom teeth hadn't grown in yet, but they do make it much easier for her to chew, so I guess it's OK.



Sarah telling Grandma all about how she lost her tooth.

With her tooth!

Putting her tooth under her pillow for the Tooth Fairy!

Hannah the Girly Girl

One of Hannah's outfits!

Hannah Beth is such a girly girl. She absolutely loves to wear dresses. I mean LOVES to wear dresses. Most days I've stopped dressing her in the morning, unless we have to go out of the house, because it seems that 5 minutes after she's dressed, she has undressed herself to put on a dress. I mostly mean dress-up clothes, but church dresses, skirts, and even nightgowns will do. She just loves to be able to dance and twirl around. As annoying as it is to be unable to keep shorts on her, it's so cute watching her dance around singing songs. Her favorite movie is Enchanted, though she has started liking the 2 Barbies movies we have. Whenever I put one of them on for her she has to wear a dress so she can sing and dance along. I'm surprised at how well she can mimic their dance moves. She definitely doesn't get her dancing ability from either of her parents. I've added some pictures and a short clip to give you an idea of her girliness (is that a word?)

This is my favorite (she's dancing if you can't tell.) She chose this outfit all by herself and she insisted on wearing it. A skirt and her dress like shirt, it couldn't be more Hannah, too bad it doesn't match. I let her wear it around the house and then convinced her to change the skirt in order to go outside.



This is Hannah singing and dancing in her princess dress. We get to experience this almost every day. She's singing "Happy Working Song" from Enchanted. You can tell because in the middle of her dance she says "Hey! Keep Drying!" I know, to everyone else it sounds like she's just babbling, but notice the pause and that's when she's saying it. I guess you get so see her cute singing and dancing along with her talking, which believe it or not, has improved since moving to Idaho. (Our computer must hate our video camera because I can't get it to work right, so this isn't the best, but you get the idea.)

Hannah watching Barbie's "Princess and the Pauper." She's wearing the flower dress Sarah Kate wore for my cousins wedding when she was 3. She loves this dress when she watched Enchanted, I'm assuming because it's just like Giselle's wedding dress. Notice her hair isn't done, she put this on first thing in the morning. Luckily she kept her clothes on underneath, a rarity.

It's important to note that while Hannah is very girly she's also got a tomboy streak. She loves to wrestle Ben and Sarah Kate, she loves climbing, running, playing with swords and other boy activities, she'd just like to be doing them in dresses. :)

Getting Back to Basics

Our life is finally slowing down a little bit, I hope. Not that I haven't enjoyed the past month and a half, but I'm ready for some structure again. School starts for Sarah Kate in less than 2 weeks, and we have no more major activities coming up. I've decided now is a good time to get back to basics. I've covered so many trips and activities lately that I feel I forgot the fun little things the kids do daily. I've decided to try and focus on the things that make my kids so wonderful, that make them who they are. I'm trying to make this a journal of sorts and I'm not doing a good enough job of documenting my kids everyday life. Hopefully I'll do better and my kids will keep doing funny, and sometimes not so funny, things so I can blog about them. As always, thanks for reading my blog and feel free to comment anytime.

Newbry Family Campout

As mentioned in my previous blog, we were able to go to the campout this year thanks to my sister-in-law and her husband. They came and got around 10:30 on Wednesday night and we didn't make it to their house in Logan until about 4:30 in the morning. For those of you who don't know, the drive from Idaho Falls to Logan is only about 3 and a half hours, but when you have problems with the hitch and have to go to Walmart twice because of it, one time getting lost, and then loose 3 sleeping bags, a tarp, and one shoe out the trailer on the freeway in the middle of the night and have to go back for them only to find one sleeping bag and the tarp are salvageable, it adds about 2 and a half hours to the time. Or trip didn't start out the best, but we were still very grateful that we got to go. The next day, Thursday, we replace our 2 shredded sleeping bags, got some more food and headed up the canyon. The family wanted to stay in Tony Grove, but when we got there we discovered there was not an empty sight to be had. Instead we went to Wood Camp Campground and found a wonderful spot for all our tents.

The campout was wonderful. We played in the river (it was very, very cold) ate lots of great food, went on a hike, watched a movie from our Disney Cruise, played on a great big swing, and just enjoyed being together. We missed Kenny's sister Mindy and her family, but everyone else was there including his Uncle Patrick and their family and his Mom's cousin Connie. It was great for all and I was sad to see it over on Sunday morning, minus the fact that I got to go home and take a shower. Here are some pictures I liked from the campout.

Sarah Kate and Nikki sitting in the river. Do the faces give away just how cold the water was?

Kenny took the big kids on a hike to area 385, one of the climbing areas in Logan Canyon. We climbed up in the rocks and down the other side.

In the slot of two rocks. A giant slab of rock about 60 feet tall split from the rest of the rock face, creating a tall narrow corridor right through the mountain. The kids had a blast and thought this was particularly cool, being inside a mountain.
This is a picture of the rock we climbed into shown off by me, my brother-in-law Cory, and Connie. It was quite the hike for little kids, but they all did very well.

The hikers! Ben said his favorite part was sliding down the mountain on his bum. It was surprisingly fun, I must admit.

Gracie's baby prison! Kenny designed a baby prison for Gracie so she had a place to crawl around without getting too dirty. It consisting of a large bamboo mat, two large white coolers, and two long poles. The funny thing about it was that he never had to put the other pole up. Gracie never notices her prison only had 3 sides.

The little girls really enjoyed the camping bath. They stayed in it for about an hour.

Sarah Kate love to play with her cousins. Nikki did a beauty parlor in her tent and all the little girls got their hair and makeup done. Sarah Kate was in heaven.

Kenny made a gigantic swing that was a big hit. I love this picture of Hannah getting ready to swing. I wish it was bigger so you could see just how cute her face is.

Hannah in mid swing, giggling the entire time.

Ben in mid swing. BenBen got more swings that anyone else, because it was a boy thing to do. His cousins Travis and Trent had to leave for most of the day on Saturday and Ben got a little girled out.

Nikki and Maddi taught the kids to dance. It was very cute to watch them sing and dance, and then strike a pose.

Ben sitting around the campfire trying to suck those dirty finger.

Hannah Banana eating a strawberry shortcake, minus the strawberries. Despite her bath she got the dirtiest.

My Stupid Van

I'll just start out by saying, I HATE MY STUPID VAN! Was that harsh? Let me explain. Kenny's family was having a campout over the weekend and our cars have never been fans of the Newbry family campout. The last time they had a campout was 4 years ago when we were moving back from Virginia the first time. We were suppose to be in the west in time to go to the campout, but a few hours into our drive, Somerset Pennsylvania to be exact, the transmission on our car went out and we were stranded for almost a week while we wait for a new transmission. This lead me to the current camping trip and the current van that must hate Newbry camping trips as much as our old car. Don't worry it wasn't our transmission that went out, instead it was our engine. What are the odds? Two family camping trips in the 9 years I've been married to Kenny and both times something major has happened to our car just days before the trip.

Here's the story. Tuesday the 29th, Kenny got up to go to work and heard the car making a not good noise. He called me and told me we may have a major problem with the van. He got home from work that night and changed the oil and played with the spark plugs. We both new that wasn't the problem, but we were hopeful. The next day the noise was still there and we were nervous about taking it in to be looked at. We were nervous for a good reason. I'm not good with cars so this may be wrong, but Kenny said something about the piston rod and the engine not being serviceable. Whatever the reason, we were told we needed a new engine. Having to put a new engine in your car is never good news, but with the Newbry camping trip the next day we were overly upset knowing that we were going to have to miss it. The mechanic found an engine in nearby Pocatello and told us he could have it in our van by Tuesday for around $3000. Ouch! I hate my stupid car!

The story does end happy, well parts of it. Kenny's sister Karen volunteered to come get us Wednesday night so we could go to the campout. They drove all the way up from Logan just so we could go camping. We were very grateful and were so thrilled to be able to go (I'll save that story for the next blog.) We dropped our car off at the mechanic on our way out of town Wednesday night and when we got back we discovered the engine in Pocatello wasn't ready and so our van won't be done until at least Friday. We got a rental car for the week and hopefully we'll have a van by next week.

As much as I hate that van and all the stuff happening right now I do have to be grateful that it happened when I was here and not in Virginia by myself or worse on the drive across the country. It's nice to have Kenny here to know what to do.

WaveRunning

After six years of being in storage, we finally got our waverunner out and working. We took it into the shop a few days before my reunion knowing it wouldn't be back in time, but hoping it wouldn't cost too much. To our amazement all it needed was a new battery, new spark plugs, an oil flush and more fuel. We were so shock and thrilled to have it back the Wednesday after my reunion having cost us a fraction of what we were expecting. Of course we had to take it out the day we got it back. We took it to a calm area of the snake river where there's a nice park and a boat launch. The last time we used the waverunner Sarah Kate was a few months old, so the kids were all very excited to try it out. They've been playing on it while it sits in the garage, but I don't think they had any clue how much fun it is when it's actually in the water. We had a blast and decided we needed to take it out the next day with the tube. Kenny called his boss and invited him to come so Thursday we were joined by Ron and two of his three kids. Everyone had a great time, even Ron who got thrown from the tube, and they all want to do it again soon.

Sarah Kate riding the tube. She was a little scared at first, but as soon as she saw Ben do it she decided she could also. Once she had a turn, she didn't want to stop.

Hannah pretending to ride the tube. She liked to sit in it and be drug around next to the dock. That's as much of the tube as a two year old can have.



Ben loved the tube. It was so much fun to watch their faces and see just how much fun the kids were all having.

Hannah's the brave and determined one. She always wanted to drive the waverunner, not be driven.

Bear Lake Reunion

My family had their reunion at Bear Lake this year. It's been years since I was last at Bear Lake and so I was very excited to go. We had no boat and our waverunner was still in the shop so we were worried there wouldn't be anything to do. Don't worry, when you have little kids, water is all you need.

Gracie and her second cousin Lauren. They're only about 3 months apart.

The reunion started on Thursday, July 17th, but we couldn't make it until the next day. We planned on getting to Bear Lake around 1:00 but we were quickly reminded of how long it takes to pack for camping. Instead of arriving at 1:00, we left at 1:00. We were a little late, but oh well, you live and learn.

The auction! My family has an auction every reunion with the money earned going to the next reunion.

Most of the reunion was spent down at the lake. Our campsite was pretty much treeless (the one or two tree's that were there were small) so it was very hot. The cold water was a great relief from the hot sun. Do to the drought that's been going on for years, Bear Lake's water level isn't as high as it should be. This isn't good for the lake, but for little kids it's great. The shallow area seems to go on forever. The kids had a huge play area which was great for short little Hannah.

The women suntanning. (They were all really mad I took this picture.)

We played with cousins, swam, took naps, ate, and other stuff, Grandma even got pooped on by a bird. It was great, and minus the terrifying bathrooms (they were filled with spiders and Sarah Kate really, really didn't want to go in them) everyone had a wonderful time. We found that we didn't get bored and we were very glad that we went. Neither Bear Lake nor the family has changed that much, but that's how we like it.

Hannah playing in the sand.

Gracie taking a ride in our boat. We picked up a spare tire for it, just in case. :)

Ben taking a rest on Mister Turtle.

Sarah Kate playing on her cousins knee board. She had the most fun playing in the water. I didn't think we'd be able to get her out.

Gracie discovered licorice at the reunion and she's a big fan.

Ben and Daddy playing with the football he bought at the auction.