Food Habits

The other day I bought a cantaloupe from a produce stand down the road. It was so juicy and sweet--one of the best I've ever had. Ian, typically my more adventurous eater, loved it. Merry Grace took a lick and that was it for her, while Elise gamely took a bite, then put the rest on MG's plate. =) I was relating this story to Cory when he got home and in summation said, "Elise is kind of a picky eater, but I used to be, too, when I was little, and I've turned out okay." We had sort of a laugh over that, because while I'm not exactly a picky eater, you might call me a food snob of sorts. I like my food how I like it. =)

I was thinking about this again this morning while I fixed pancakes. As a child, my dad would always eat his pancakes with butter and sugar sprinkled on top. Of course, being the picky eater that I was, thought this was strange and disgusting. (Just keep in mind we are talking about straight sugar. Hard to believe it could have been that bad, isn't it?) So fast forward to my life as an adult. Guess what--I prefer my pancakes with butter and sprinkled with white sugar. Who would've thought? I love the crunch of the sugar and the taste of the butter (slightly salty) and the sweet sugar is so good.

But it just reminded me how funny our food habits are. I think about the many things I hated as a kid--green beans (I thought they were so horrible I had to smother them in ketchup to choke them down), italian salad dressing, squash, cantaloupe, hot dogs (couldn't bear them, and on the rare occasions when I would roast one over the fire and attempt it, I could never eat the last bite. The "end" was so gross to me. =)....and the list goes on. Most of those things and many others are things I love now and eat frequently. Thank goodness our palates develop and change and we grow up and realize those horrible things our parents made us eat, really aren't so horrible after all.

Red Letter Day

I thought this event deserved its own post. I made it through a trip to Wal-Mart without taking any of my children to the bathroom, even once! This is definitely a red-letter day in our family. =)

The Water Buckets

Emmy, Elise, & Kyleigh were standing under the water buckets to see if they could get wet. I think they miscalculated a bit. However, this is the way I would like to do them. They are too cold for me. =)

The Dive

You have to watch this closely, but notice that Ian totally dives headfirst into the pool.

Spoons

Here is the ending of a round of spoons. Cory's cousin Tony ended up across the table going for one. Unfortunately, Neal came out the winner. But as you can see below, the spoon was the loser. =)




Here's the crazy bunch playing spoons. The adults would stay up every night playing spoons. This is actually a fairly mild round.

Jumping off the Dock

Uncle Jacob stood here forever helping Ian get back up on the dock to jump off. I bet Ian jumped off 50 times!

The Water Slide

Cory and Jacob make a run down the water slide. It's killer!!! I tried it last year, but that time was enough. These guys are either braver or crazier. =)

Cheetah Girls

The "Cheetah Girls" thing comes from a disney channel original movie of the same name. The girls love the movie, but they love being the real cheetah girls even more.

We got the Beat

All week the girls did these "hand jives". Who knew there were so many, but they seem to know them all!

Going Home

Going Home is never the fun part. It's always sad to realize that vacation is coming to an end for another year. I'm pretty sure these faces are the proof.

But like any good vacation, there is always the aftermath. A few miles down the road from camp and the kids had crashed. They were so tired. But it also means they had a great time!

Vacation Stuff

Each day, we planned a craft for the kids. Friday was my day and we did tie-dye t-shirts. They turned out really well, even if it was a lot of work.
Each night, those who had the energy stayed up and played spoons. It is violent and vicious and competitive--so players beware!
Here are Cory's parents with all 13 of their granchildren (there is also one on the way next month.)

The Water Park

Here Cory and Elise are taking a break from swimming. It had been chilly and overcast most of the day, but finally warmed up and turned out to be a really nice day for the water park.
Merry Grace tried on my hat. The water really was too cold for her to do much more than wade around in, but she had fun anyway.
Elise enjoys standing under the buckets that fill up with water and spill over on you. BRRRRR!!!!
Cory and Uncle Neal took turns pretending to be "sharks" and chased after the little swimmers. They would swim from the edge to this island, screaming and shrieking, but loving to be chased the whole time.
Ian jumping off the edge. He and Elise were like little fish out there. Thank goodness for water wings. =)

More Vacation

One of the highlights of the week was the sandy soil all around for the kids to play in. They built sand castles, dug holes, and had all sorts of imaginations out there.
This is one cute baby. What more can I say?
Ian liked the handicapped shower stall in the bath house, mainly because he like washing off with the "telephone." =)
Every time Elise wrapped up in a towel after swimming in the lake, she would take off running, yelling, "Superwoman." Here she is with Katie and Emmy.
Because there were so many of us at camp, we didn't have to cook every day. We ended up having to cook one day plus one meal. Here is Cory doing perfectly browned grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast.

More Vacation

Here is Elise at the lake. You can only imagine what happened next. =)
Here are four of the girls, posing for the camera. =) Kyleigh, Emmy, Katie, & Elise
Vacation was a great time to catch up on some sleep. Lucky for Merry Grace, Cory was willing to put the baby down for a nap. ;)
I brought glow bracelets for the kids each night. It was so cute to see them running around camp, glowing up a storm.
Merry Grace enjoyed everything, too. She really liked digging in the sand, especially since the water was a little chilly.

Vacation

Last week we went on vacation with Cory's family. It's at a campground complete with cabins, bathhouse, and mess hall. We spend the week at the lake, the nearby water park, doing crafts, and just being together. It is lots of fun for everyone. This is Elise walking down the dock. We walked down there our first night at camp. It is so relaxing an peaceful.
Here are most of the kids from camp. After we grown-ups tired of chasing kids down the dock, preventing them from falling in, and a couple of almost heart attacks from a few near-misses, we corralled the kids here for a picture. =)
Sarah, Elise, and Katie--Elise with her cousins from the bayou. Being with family is what this vacation is all about.
What a mess this baby is!!! She's too adorable. She loved the independence of camp and being able to chase after the big kids. She really didn't realize that she was a little bitty thing.
We went to the lake every day. It was beautiful weather, even a little cool for summer. But not too cool for the kids to jump right and and get down to the fun!

From our house

Here are some pictures from around our house this week. This first one is of Ian. This is why boys are great. He helped me with some cleaning around the house--like spraying out the trashcans, cleaning the dustpan off, and other dirty jobs. But he was so helpful and had a blast in the process. After he would clean out one thing he would come back and say, "Mommy, I need something else to wash!"

Here are Elise and Ian with there bargain bubble guns. They work really well and they had soooooo much fun. Merry Grace thought it was pretty neat, too.
This is a new sign Elise has on her bedroom door. She made it all by herself. I'm pretty sure it's directed at either Ian or I, but I'm not sure which. It's so cute and funny. And doesn't she have nice handwriting? =)
Here is my dress-up queen. If she finds an item of clothing around, she must have it on. Here she is in a pair of Elise's panties, over her shorts. And she is so pleased with herself. Yesterday for a while she wore a bathing suit over her entire outfit. It makes her happy and I think she can pull it off. =)

Samuel was a...prophet-ary?

Here is a video of Ian singing the verse from Book of Mormon stories called, "Samuel was a Lamanite." I've included the translation below, since that makes it even cuter. =)



Samuel was a Prophet-ary
with Samuel was a on the city wall.
Arrows could not hit him
For of God was he.
In the God, In the land,
Righteously!