My Baby is 13 - Pickle Present

I hit a milestone recently. My Princess number five is now a teenager. How this happened, I don't know.....

It really is making me feel old. 

I was on the phone at the store buying her a large jar of pickles for her birthday when my sister (on the phone) told me to skip buying them and she would bring over a case of pickles for her birthday.

Princess number five and my nephews birthdays are only a few days apart so when we sang to her, we lit the candles again and sang to him letting him blow out the candles as well. 


Here is the reaction to the case of pickles from my sister to Princess number five. She LOVES pickles. I have to say that Princess number six, our exchange student, wasn't so excited about the pickles. She actually didn't like them at all. It wasn't something she enjoyed and we even had her try some sweet pickles and some home made pickles and she didn't like any of them. 


It was a fun day with a busy schedule and company but in the end, she had three different days where she got gifts but the milestone for me is that I no longer have any babies. She is officially a teen now. 


It is so fun to watch her grow and develop into the amazing person she is becoming. I am truly blessed. Glad you had a Happy Birthday Princess number five!

Tee Pee's and Tractor Crossings

I laughed and laughed when my sweet exchange student and her group leader told me they wanted to visit a reservation to see tee pees. I explained that you would need to visit a tourist shop or a "Western Town" to find that. I then went to several places where I knew there used to be a tee pee so she could see one but they no longer had them. 
 
 Another day, she was visiting WalMart and asked me what "Ped Xing" was. I explained pedestrian crossing to her and then another day we were driving and she asked me what "Shoulder Work" meant on the sign. It was so cute to explain that to her. 


On one of our road trips, we passed this tractor crossing sign and took pictures of her with it and Princess number four wanted one as well. 


We were driving to one of our many destinations when we came across a tourist diner with tee pee's. I did a quick u-turn and got some photos with all the kids inside the tee pee. 


They then saw a spider and Princess number four jumped out very quickly. Still, I was glad I was able to show the exchange students a tee pee. 
It was a fun "Western" thing for them. Anything having to do with "western" movies has them really interested.

Cave Store - Hole in the Wall Literally

Short post but I thought this was fun. on our road trip, we ran into this place. The entire store is inside a mountain they hollowed out. It seriously reminded me of a Disney ride with all the fake rock they use. The bathrooms and the entire store was inside the place. 

It wasn't a small store and bathrooms either. It was very large. I think everyone should have the experience of buying something in a hole in a mountain at least once. 

If you have claustrophobia, perhaps you could just buy gas and pay at the pump! lol

Bat Cave, Dragon, Goblins and Reefs. Best Road Trip Ever

I took four exchange student on a road trip and saw some amazing things. I had visited most of them but many of the places we went, my girls hadn't been or didn't remember. The exchange students obviously hadn't been there so it was all new for them. 

I took them to see the San Rafel Swell. It was a beautiful view and there had been lots of rain and I had never seen so much water in the area.  
 
I then took them to a bat cave and some pictographs. However, with all the rain, we got stuck in a foot of mud crossing a wash and I was stressed having 8 minors in the car in the middle of nowhere stuck in the mud. 

I said a quick prayer and was able to put the car in 4 low and reverse out of the mud. We had to four wheel drive to the bat cave pictured above. It was a bit of a climb to the cave and my out of shape body let me know it wasn't happy with that hike for a day or two.

We were going to explore a mining town and some other pictographs but with the mud washing out the road, I didn't want to take another chance at getting stuck in the mud off road.


We revisited where we were going due to the rains and the mud so we ended up taking a longer road trip through the southern part of that state. 


We found this cute rock formation and took a photo and then I blogged about us stopping at Goblin Valley were they played "hide and seek" so well.


All in all, it was a wonderful trip. My only suggestion would be to take more water. We ran out and it is a HOT place.

Billy Goats Gruff on Steroids

So, yesterday's post was about parasailing. When we finished taking pictures and headed down the mountain to go and pick them up, we were shocked and a bit startled by a HUGE amount of goats in the road. 

I couldn't have been more surprised.

We honked our way through a huge amount thinking we were about through it. Nope. For about 10 minutes down the roads twists and turns there were goats every which way. We saw some sort of sheep dog with three legs, one at the beginning with a bell on and finally at the end, we saw a "shepherd" with a staff and another dog. 

Down the mountain a bit further, there were a few stragglers heading down the wrong road.  Later, we were told by her father that the heard has 2,000 goats. I am not sure what they are for but it was sure interesting to see that many goats in all sizes of development. That was a new one on me. I have seen sheep, cows etc before but never goats and not in such a huge number either.

I think I will investigate and find out more. I am sure it can't be for the meat. :-)

Parasailing Off a Perfectly Good Mountain

One of Princess number 3's friends has a father who is an instructor for parasailing. When he heard that we had an exchange student, he offered to take her on a tandem flight. 

Of course, that isn't in the "exchange student handbook" so in a way, we were lucky to be able to have her do that. 

ATV's, Seadoo, and motorcycles are all on the "Do not do" list as well as guns. So, thanks to that, after she got a written "ok" from her father, she was off and running literally. 

There is a small fee to "train" and when Princess number three had her turn, the flight was all of 5 minutes or less. So, in my head, I was expecting more of a "hill" for take off.
 
I guess since the weather was in good form and "Perfect" for take off, Princess number 6 got the ride of her life. 

Off they ran, after about two steps, she was lifted off and there they went..... 
 
My daughters friend has helped with many of these tandem take offs and said she had never seen such an easy take off. 

Sometimes, they have to back up and run again depending on the sail getting lift.  


Had I known she was going to go off a mountain, I probably wouldn't have been so "OK" with the idea. I figured the hill my daughter went off wouldn't have killed someone if they fell even but I was a bit spooked when they dropped really fast after taking off. 


His daughter assured me that everything was ok and that it was normal to have that much of a drop. I think I was expecting it would lift some with the breeze updraft of the mountain. It actually dropped more like a parachute would at the beginning. 



After a few seconds they were out of our sight so we had to head from the take off zone to the top where I was able to snap these pictures.  

Her flight was about 20 minutes and she learned to fly the parasail and learned some about using updrafts to get lift over some hills. 

It took us much longer to drive down the mountain and pick them up than for them to fly down.

They had the gear all packed up and were waiting for us for some time.  


I asked Princess number six if she would rather have gone to Disney as two of her group did and she said, "I've been to Disney, Paris before so this was much better."


Perhaps all the girls will get a chance to go sometime. It really was a "once in a lifetime event."  Thanks Stacy!

Bigger and Better - Fun Group Game

Twice over the past week, we have had kids come to the door playing "Bigger and Better" asking for a bigger and better item than what they have. The game is very simple. You start with a small item. 


You can play with one team or many. I've seen games start with a penny which usually ends up with people giving bigger sums of money. 


I've seen the game  start with food which usually ends up with people giving you bigger and better edible items. 

I have seen the game start with something like a shoe lace and once I ended up with an original framed piece of art and once they ended up with a tv.

We usually set up some rules before they play. No entering houses. If teams are playing, they need to make sure they go in opposite direction so they don't hit the same people twice.  


Most people generally like helping the kids out and sometimes the items they give are items you may like. This week we ended up with a game and a container of icing that expired in 2008. :-)

Our exchange student mentioned the other day how much she enjoyed my girls and their friends that they could have so much fun playing different games all the time and not having to drink to have a good time. 


We asked her if she would like to play "bigger and better" and she was so excited. We started with two small fridge magnets that you see at the top and the two groups of friends went in opposite directions and the girls asked Princess number 3's friend as she arrived and she ended up trading for a cute air freshener. I laughed and laughed when in the end, both groups ended up with a chair! They actually looked similar. 


A fun variation of this is to do a food drive or something at the same time. My eldest princess was here today and told of how she did a toilet paper drive for their local woman shelter where she worked. They would tell the people they needed something bigger and better and were collecting toilet paper for the shelter if they would like to donate. They ended up with 200 rolls of toilet paper to donate. 

Wedding Day - Missing One

 I have a nephew who got married this last week (thus the road trip) and thought it would be fun for Princess number six to get to meet my family. 


We had a great day enjoying family and the beautiful weather and each other. 


Princess number one came along with Prince number one and made it so nice to be able to visit with them and for Princess number six to be able to spend more time with them and get to know them a bit better. 


We were able to spend some time shopping at a fun shop where most of the princesses found something they liked. Not often in our family does there come a store where each person can find something they like. Even Princess number one found some cute things for work. 


I think it will be days like this that will flood through my mind at the end of my life making me look back and ponder at the grace of God in giving me such a wonderful family.

Second Try at Goblin Valley - Hide and Seek

 So, yesterday was quite funny on my blog. I can't tell you how tired I am getting up before dawn for days and getting home at midnight or so being so busy and having taken some road trips and not sleeping well is not helping the blogging situation. 


When I read what got posted last night, I laughed and laughed. I kept falling asleep and dreaming funny things and then started blogging them. I apologize for my post. 


Who would have thought I could be so tired. Obviously the sleep apnea machine hasn't worked for me. 


So, I took four exchange students on a road trip and this destination was their favorite. 


I don't know that it would have been their favorite but I suggested they play hide and seek. They did that for one round and we decided it was easier for them to have one person hide and then the others "Seek" them and when they find them, they hide with them. It is called "Sardines in a can." 


Everything was great until Princess number 6 asked to play one more round. We looked for over 1/2 hour and no one found her. They walked and walked in the hot sun looking and we kept calling and calling and started to get worried she had passed out with heat stroke or something. 


Just amounted to she was a REALLY good hider. I think we gave her too much time to hide as she went off farther than we thought. 


The kids all said that was their favorite of all the places we visited. However, if you decide to go.... Take a 5 gallon cooler of water with ice. We drank all our water and our drinks after being in the hot sun which kept us from being able to do the narrows hike which is just about 7 miles from the state park. It is extremely hot and don't forget to take a camera. 

The princesses all found shady spots to sit and enjoy while they visited. I am grateful for Princess number 6 coming into our lives as it has made me realize that I haven't taken my younger girls to enjoy the things the older girls got to enjoy and having her here was the incentive to take them. We are all enjoying it.

Hide and Seek at Goblin Valley - Pass

I

I took four exchange students on a crazy journey and will probably blog about some of them next week when I am busy but for today, I am tired and as that seems to be a running thread, I am planning to write about one of the stops on our journey. 

Goblin Valley is a state park in Utah and I don't know What I am waiting for and I don't knowa what I am writing as my inercssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

I fell asleep at the computer  and this is what I woke too. I need to get some sleep and still need to shower. I will repost this later but for now, see khosd