Oh! The Places We'll GO!!

Since my last post we have been on many adventures. Some of them unforgettable and some of them U.N.F.O.R.G.E.T.T.A.B.L.E!
All of them are noteworthy. As I was going through my pictures I realized that there are so many I will have to do a scrapbook of our "Summer OH-Nine", there were over 500 pictures of our vacation to Utah alone. So without anymore small talk, lets get to the pictures. I will try to keep them in order.
I know this is cruel, but it is so typical of the kind of adventures that we have. I had to put in in here. We always seem to end up in some of the most knee slapping situations. I guess it goes with the territory of having 4 kids...
The yellow bucket had many uses on our trip, all of which were employed by Gavin. He's the car sick boy. The squatter picture was a funny one too. We stopped in front of this ramshackle old saloon that was boarded up, thinking it was a safe, private place to make a pit stop, but it turned out someone lived there! Who would have known!
Lake Powell-One of our most favorite places on EARTH!

Finally! We made it to Utah! They were so happy to see each other, hence the cousin kid pile!

Fun at the splash pad. We went here a bunch. Free fun!

Of course we all had to take a spin in the 'Vette!

Our day trip to Zion. The kids had so much fun hiking. We miss the mountains!


Story time after long days of play. Just precious!


We went to the park on the 4th of July to watch fireworks.

Noah's Pirate party at Pirate Pizza. Take a gander at Martha's, I mean Amy's, cake masterpiece!

We went out to the Sevy farm and rode horses and donkeys and played with the chickens and gathered eggs!
My good friend, Melissa from Salt Lake drove down just to see me! It was so fun seeing her and her cute girls. They were with us at the farm too, and we had fun teaching her to play Mah Jong!

So I grew up in Utah and this was my first trip to the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful and awe inspiring! I was a nervous wreck on some of those narrow paths!

A day at Sand Hollow reservoir, it was hot! The kids had a blast!

And of course no trip to St. George would be complete without a dinner at Ernesto's.
Followed by a birthday celebration for Dad, Amy, Grandma Hebertson, Noah, and Kylie! They all have a birthday in July or August so we just had one big shindig for everyone.
And at the end of the day, I think the kids jumping on the bubble wrap would be what THEY would remember the most!

So there you have it. A VERY condensed synopsis of our trip to Utah. It was super fun, and just looking at these pictures all bunched together in one place, its no wonder I'm POOPED!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Ever since I was a child I have been terrified of tornadoes. I remember as a child whenever I would kneel down to say my prayers I would always pray that there would be no earthquakes or tornadoes. Whenever the Wizard of Oz would come on TV I was bizarrely drawn to the part where they had to run into the tornado shelter.
When I met Scott I was horrified when we drove into Arkansas to visit his parents and I actually saw tornado damage and all those little mounds of dirt with a door on top in everyone's front yards that served as their tornado shelters.

When Scott and I decided to move to Texas I was terrified that I might actually see a tornado or be in one. I have always had a reoccurring dream of being somewhere and seeing fifteen tornadoes in the distance all headed my way(its never just one).
The first week that we lived here I got caught in a really severe storm while I was driving down the street in my little Honda Civic with my two babies in the back seat. I don't think I had ever heard thunder quite so loud or been as scared as I was that day. It was my first taste of Texas weather and I was totally blindsided by it.
As the years have gone by, I have grown a little more numb to the severe weather and even a little (or a lot) morbidly intrigued by the storms. I think it is all those bad dreams, they gave me tons of practice for the real thing and desensitized me.
Now when we have a storm I want to check it out. I want to see the thing coming!
I know, its really strange. I told Scott the other day, if I didn't have little kids and a husband I would take off and be one of those storm chaser people. Like a moth to the flame.

So when we had our house full of company and all the tornado sirens started going off, what did we do? We ran outside! Well, we made the little ones get in the closet and then the rest of us ran outside with our cameras in hand.
Sadly I didn't see a tornado that day, but it was an adventure! And seeing 12 people pile into that little tornado shelter that we have designated, was like piling clowns into a Volkswagen. It was so comical! It made the stressful situation kind of a fun adventure for the kids and we all laughed at the sight of ourselves.

Here are the pictures of the craziness!

This is what it looked like about 20 minuets before the storm hit us. The wind was dead calm. The picture doesn't do it justice, but the sky was Coke bottle green!

This is the last picture I snapped as Scott was dragging me into the house. It was about 5 minuets before the really heavy winds hit. The sun hadn't set yet. It was only about 7:00 pm.

Here is 10 of the 12 of us in the closet. Scott and I had to open the door so we could step back to take the picture. Isabelle is hiding behind Stacey, you can just see the top of her head.
Here is the sunset after the storm.

The Summer of '09

So here are some of the first pix of summer that I promised.

We are having a blast with our friends the Mansell's and wish they could move back to Texas!

The week wouldn't be complete without a girls night out! I don't know who's having more fun on this trip the kids or the moms!

The kids enjoying the pool and "Ariel's Grotto" at the Bills' house!
Such fun memories. We are so fortunate to have such good friends.

Schools out for the Summer!

Well, we made it though another year. The girls are so excited to get out of school this week they are beside themselves. Ill have to say that I'm anticipating it just as much. I have gotten so sick of the routine of getting up at 7:00am every morning and making lunches and doing hair and riding herd on kids. I'm really excited for the no agenda thing. I'm sure that by the time August rolls around I will be more than ready for a change BACK to the routine, but I'm ready for a break from the norm.

We are having our best friends come for a visit at the end of the week and think that it is the perfect way to kick off summer. The kids cant wait for them to arrive and neither can I! I have missed my best friend! A couple short weeks after they leave we will head for Utah for a three week stay. I'm super excited about that too. I have missed my family and the kids are dying to go see their cousins.
The girls will start some swim lessons when we get back from Utah and then tennis lessons in August, through our neighborhood tennis pros at the country club. I'm going to have to find a new piano teacher, because our current cutie is leaving for school. But I think the girls will have enough to keep them out of the bored category.

The twins are going to be fun this summer because they are such KIDS now. No more babies. :) :( I'm mixed about it, but they are such a hoot when they aren't being difficult. It will be fun to see them play and explore this summer. They will be the stinky little recess kids on the block. All the neighborhood kids live to play with them and carry them around. I will have to round them up like a herd of cats at the end of the day. We all love our new neighborhood and our street really makes me think of the street I grew up on as a kid. There are so many children and always someone knocking on the door to see if they can play.

So here's to the last week of school (which is a joke, I think even the teachers are ready to call it quits) and a fun and safe summer! Ill be posting some pictures soon of our latest adventures!

Rude awakening....

So last night about an hour after I decided to stow Breaking Dawn and hit the hay, we were LITERALLY blasted out of bed by the fire alarms. It was so loud and so abrupt we literally flew off the bed into standing positions. I don't think Ive ever seen Scott or myself move quite so fast, even when there was a tornado coming last year.
I was in such a dead sleep, it took me a second to think straight. I of course was sleeping in my underwear, and so I was thinking, if this really is a fire, do I run outside in my G's? I decided against it in a split second decision, so I was fumbling up the stairs trying to dress on the way. Of course the kids were blasted out of bed just as thoroughly as we were and were already on the move.

By the time I got to the top of the stairs, I knew we weren't in imminent danger and that there probably wasn't a fire. But the alarms just kept going off and it was LOUD! So I took the kids outside to the curb and waited while Scott investigated the problem. My poor kids were literally quivering with fear. You know how you get the shakes when you are scared.

Turns out it was a possessed smoke detector and even continued to sound even after we had unplugged it from the ceiling. Once one goes off, it sends a message to the rest of them and they all go nuts.
We finally did get everyone calmed down, including the possessed alarm, and said a quick family prayer then tucked everyone back into bed. Of course, I couldn't sleep a wink after being blasted awake like that so I seriously doubt that I got more than 4 hours of sleep.
I did discover a few things out of this whole experience though:
1. Definitely sleep with a robe and cell phone next to the bed. (the house phone was far away and I wouldn't have been able to call 911 if I would have needed to, I was tempted to go look for my phone)
2. At least the kids didn't hide when they heard the alarms. ( I was a little worried that they would mistake it for a tornado siren after our family night lesson on safety. The whole alarm thing threw them off , and they had a lot of question after that lesson. It was good to see that they knew what to do. The fire drills paid off)
3. I'm really glad Scott wasn't out of town when this happened. I would not have known to investigate for a faulty alarm. I would have called 911 and that would have made for a REALLY long night. On the other hand, him going back into the house to check was kinda risky, what if the fire was concealed. (it was pretty obvious that last night there was no fire, but that one needs to be filed for future scrutiny)

As always, something can always be learned from our experiences, but it was good to see that our preparations that we had made before the emergency had paid off.
Above all, I'm glad that Heavenly Father was watching over us and keeping us safe!
But I do have to wonder, WHY do those kind of things ALWAYS happen in the middle of the NIGHT????