Grandma's visit

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Adam's mother came for a visit last weekend. We always enjoy having her and the kids LOVE it! They won't leave her alone. She told me she tried to escape to the guest room in the basement but they followed her downstairs anyway. On Saturday we all went to lunch at Chuck-a-rama for Father's day. Apparently it's the favorite lunch spot for the Senior community. All the grandmas and grandpas oohed and aahed over our kids. They are pretty charming. I'm sure Adam's mom was busting her buttons with pride. Afterwards we went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. Pretty cool! The kids loved the robotic T-rex battling with the Triceratops and her two babies. Sabrina wants to go back and see the "robot dinosaur with the spikes". (a.k.a. Triceratops) They also loved walking through the acres of park with the huge replicas of dinosaurs. Some were even fighting and killing and eating their prey. The sound effects creeped them out a little bit. I imagined myself experiencing the "Land of the Lost" as I wandered through the underbrush hearing dinosaur roars just over the next hill. Surreal! We had a lot of fun despite the mild heat exhaustion we experienced.

Camping trip

We went camping last weekend with our friends the Atkinsons up at her family's cabin. Very rustic conditions, no running water or heat. And it rained half the time. But the kids had a GREAT time! They loved it and begged us to come back soon. They even dealt with the outhouse situation OK. (And Moira is still potty-training, now that's miraculous!) The cabin is right next to a small river so Adam and Greg Atkinson went fly-fishing to their hearts content. They both caught fish, but Adam accidentally released Greg's fish and out of penance subsequently released his own because he felt so bad. Guys--sheesh.

Meantime the girls--Sabrina, Moira, and the Atkinsons two oldest girls went wandering around the property (a couple of heavily wooded fenced acres) and scared themselves by imagining a bear coming out of the trees. I had just walked out of the cabin to check on them when I heard them shrieking at the opposite side of a large grassy area. I saw Ellie (5) and Abby (3) running towards me and doing that make-believe screaming (any mom can tell the difference) followed by Sabrina (4) who was actually screaming. And trailing significantly was Moira (2) who by this time was screaming and crying in earnest, looking behind her and fully-expecting a bear to come lumbering out of the trees. The poor kid was hysterical! I was expecting one too based on their behavior and raced to get Moira. And as I was running back to the cabin carrying her I scolded the other three about leaving her in the dust while they ran for their lives. We all calmed down enough to realize that Ellie had been pretending and fueled by Abby and Sabrina had started running and screaming, thus creating a real crisis in everyone's mind. Hilarious. I'm just glad there wasn't a real bear. I'm not sure how I would have handled that one.