Sean Turns 15

Circus Adventure: Sand Hollow. Always.

If you haven't discovered the beauty that is Sand Hollow yet, all I have to ask is why not?

The beaches are soft and red.

The water is clear and warm.  In the fall, that is.  In the spring they're clear and cold.

This reservoir sits in the dessert in Hurricane, Utah.  Pronounced: "Hurrikin."

I know, it doesn't make any sense, but I didn't make the rules, I just follow them.

We've been visiting Sand Hollow at least once (but usually twice) a summer for several years now.  It doesn't matter if we're camping right on the beach, or parked in a paved camping spot with hookups.  It doesn't matter if we've brought the rzr's for riding, or the jet skies for pulling people on tubes and knee boards, or if we've brought or scuba gear for diving, or if we've just simply brought swimsuits and sand toys.

We love this place.

I think that's the part of the beauty of this place. How accommodating it is to different outdoor hobbies.  The Man likes to ride his rzr.  Great.  Sand Hollow has it's own mini sand dunes set aside for just that.  As well as several trails just outside the park and rocks for climbing around in.

Papa Mike likes to take his jet skies out.  Great.  You can do that here.

Grandpa Brent is all about scuba diving.  Great.  There's a section of the lake buoyed off limits for boats specifically for scuba diving.  They've even planted an airplane, a VW bus, a toilet, as well as platforms, tubes, and different shapes for swimming around in.  We even found an old missile.  And the canyons that are made by the natural rock formations are amazing.  The lake isn't very deep.  We only hit 40 feet at our deepest, and generally stayed around 30 feet, but that just means we're open to dive all day long if we so desire, and if we have the air left to do it.

The Circus likes to swim from rock island to rock island and jump into the water from the higher tips.  Great.  There isn't anything too high that it makes me nervous for them to be doing that, and the rock islands are inside the scuba diving area, so there aren't any boats around while my kids are out swimming and jumping.  The area is good for them to practice their snorkeling as well.

(My camera got fogged up with moisture on this picture, but it shows how Cali spent the whole weekend so I included it anyway)

I generally like to sit on the beach with my feet in the water, reading a good book, enjoying the sun, and hanging out with my kids.  Great.  The beaches are incredible.

This trip we loved have Grandpa Brent and Grandma Julie hanging out with us.  We also had my good friend and her kids join us as well.  Plus, we let Sean bring a friend on this trip in lieu of a birthday party.

 But even if we have to go it alone, we think Sand Hollow is a pretty great place to land for a few days.

Brynn Turns the Big 1-2. Happy Birthday B.

My phone is being stinky and won't let me email myself my pics of yesterday, so I'm going to have to add those later, when my phone has an attitude adjustment.

Brynn turned the big 1-2.

This means she gets to go to Young Women's now.

We followed the birthday rules with Brynn, the same as we followed them with Sean the day before.  Rule #1: no chores.  Which meant the dishes didn't get done.
Rule #2: Lunch on Mom and Dad.  But because Brynn is in middle school this is a little harder to do then with the kids who are in elementary school.  I decided last year with Cas that lunch would just have to be left in their lockers as a surprise for them to find when their lunch time comes.

All Brynn wanted left in her locker for lunch was a Jamba Juice.

So I did.

And then I decorated the outside of her locker with spiral ribbons and a happy birthday sign.

Classes changed while I was there (Brynn showed up right as I opened her locker to put the Jamba inside) and as kids darted off to class I began taping ribbons to the outside of Brynn's locker.  The hall emptied and the tardy bell rang.  I was just about done when a boy walked down the hall, staring at me.

"We're not supposed to decorate the outside of our lockers," he informed me.

What I wanted to say was, "dude, you're late for class, get going."  But what I actually said was, "it's okay, she can take it down later."

Brynn had only one thing on her wish list for a birthday present.  An iPod touch.  She refused to give me any other options because she didn't want the chance of getting something other than the iPod.  That's all she wanted.

When we asked Sean what he wanted for his birthday, and told him not video games, he came up with a zipline from his bedroom window to the treehouse...

Given that we had nothing at all to work with from Sean, and only one option to work with from Brynn, we decided to get them both an iPod.

We wrapped them up  in different sized boxes and on Sean's birthday West presented the wrapped boxes to the two of them and said, "either present would work for both of you, they're something you would both like, so you guys pick which box should be whose."

When Sean opened his present on Wednesday and Brynn saw what it was she was beyond excited to open her own present.  It didn't matter that it was a different size, she was certain, she hoped, that it too would be an iPod.

We were "mean" and made her wait until after school and work oh her own birthday to open her present.  Even though she now knew what it was, the anticipation and excitement of opening it was as good as if she had not known and wondered what it was.

For Brynn and Sean's birthday dinner family met us at Olive Garden where the birthday kids got free mini desserts with candles in them.

Grandpa Dick, Canyon, Ayden, Garrett, Ella, Asher, McKell, Jayme's head

Brynn, who is the popcorn queen, will be having friends over tonight for a movie and some popcorn from her fancy popcorn machine.

Easy enough.

Pajama parties are fun.

And it motivates Brynn to clean up the toys in the basement :).

Sean Turns 11. The Secret Birthday Party Surprise.

Birthday Season for The Circus begins September 4th and runs all the way until April 28th.  And then we get the summer off.

For every month from September until April we have one or more birthdays in our immediate home and/or a major holiday.

Yesterday we kicked off Birthday Season with a bang with Sean's 11th birthday and the fact that I keep forgetting to take pictures of stuff is a testament to how busy I am lately.  (Hello math class.  You make me tired.)

So yesterday Sean got out of doing chores because that's a rule at our house.  No chores on your birthday.  And another rule is Mom and Dad check you out of school and take you to lunch for some quality time.  But we only do this for the elementary kids.  It gets trickier in middle school because missing a little school is missing an entire class.  I've come up with a plan for that and will cover it tomorrow when I talk about Brynn's birthday (which is today).

So anyway, I went and checked Sean out of school five minutes before his scheduled lunch.  He comes sauntering down the hall and looks at me with a grin on his face.  "I forgot about this part," he said.

And then he chose Chinese food because that boy loves orange chicken.  Plus, also (have any of you read Junie B. Jones?  She's ruined me with "plus, also") he got not one, but two special fortune cookies that were dipped in chocolate, and one was also dipped in crushed oreo.  Totally spoiled.

After lunch we swung by a store to pick up fun napkins and a treat for his class and then I dropped him back off at school and I headed back to finish out my work day.

The reason Sean forgot about the traditional birthday lunch is because he was so preoccupied with what his birthday party would be.  The Man and I planned it for him (usually they get to pick) and we wouldn't tell him what it was.  He was so curious and so excited to find out what we had up our sleeves for him.

After school his friends showed up, we fed them pizza (what he asked to have for dinner) and the minion cake I made.

And then... "Hey Sean, it's time to head out to the front yard."

He and his friends spilled out of the house and looked expectantly around... and nothing.

"What's going on?" he asks.

"Just wait a second," he's told.

The kids slowly walk to the curb and look up and down the street wondering what was happening.

And then at the end of the street a truck appears and sirens start to wail and lights start to flash.

And his friend cries out, "they got you an ambulance!"

And I laugh, "Yeah, Sean, we got you an ambulance, isn't that cool?"

And he looks at me with a bewildered look and then gazes intently back at the truck at the end of the street.

And then he sees it.

The giant trailer behind the truck.

And the excitement and disbelief kick in.

Because, ladies and gentlemen, Sean has the coolest parents ever.

And we booked time with...

the Gamin' Truck.

If you know Sean, you know he's addicted to video games.  It's all he talks about.  It's all he asks for.  When we asked what he wanted for his birthday, but not video game stuff, he came up blank.  We usually limit the amount of time he plays and we don't buy him video game stuff for holidays anymore (he's so obsessed...) but when we found a groupon deal for the Gamin' Truck we knew it would be the perfect surprise for his birthday party.

And so we booked it.

And for an hour the kids sat outside in a trailer decked out with video game chairs, big screen tv's and game consoles and played multiple player games with each other.

And my house stayed clean.

Let it be known that Sean's 11th birthday was a giant success in his eyes.

And that's all that matters.

For information on Gamin' Rides go here.  I was not asked to write this post, I received nothing for doing so, it's simply how it fell together for Sean's birthday and it really was a lot of fun for him and his friends.

Birthday Bash at Airborne

We've had a birthday whirlwind of a week.

 

We came back in town from Moab (here) on Monday.

Tuesday was Toad Man's birthday (here) and since he'd be spending the evening with his mom, The Man and I stole him from school to take him out to lunch.

 

A new tradition I plan on doing with all the kids.

 

Sean picked Sizzler's for his lunch just so he could order the salad bar and get a giant plate piled high of little ham cubes covered in ranch.

 

That's all.

 

What do you do?

 

 

 That evening was crazy was busy.

 

Tayler and Brynn told me about a Mommy/Daughter book club meeting an hour before it was supposed to happen.

 

I knew they had an Activity Days meeting.

 

I didn't know that it included Moms.

 

So I was rushing about trying to get Casidee's music book for her orchestra class, I had to go pick Cali up from a friend's house because The Man forgot to and now suddenly I had to join Tay and Brynn for Activity Days.

 

Imagine my surprise when we show up 15 minutes late because of all  my other running around, only to discover it was a book club meeting.

 

Needless to say, I didn't read the book...

 

But they had fun activities and fruit and dip.  I loved hanging out with the other moms who were there.  We have super cute families in our neighborhood.

 

Wednesday was Happy Birthday Brynn. (here).

 

The Man wasn't able to make Brynn's birthday lunch because of work, but I picked her up and she chose Chuck-a-rama.

 

Seriously.

 

What is up with my children wanting to eat lunch with the fine senior citizens of our community?

 

But Chuck-a-rama it was.

 

She ate more than just ham and ranch.

 

 

 Since Sean was back with us for Wednesday we had a few of the grandparents over for dinner.  Grandpa Dick and Grandma KC were making a trip up to our neck of the woods anyway, but they extended their visit to come a couple of days earlier so they could be a part of the birthday fun.

Papa Mike and Granny Suzann dropped by and with a couple of extra friends, plus Cas needing to leave for Young Women's, we had complete and utter chaos.

 

And Swedish Pancakes.

 

I currently hold our family record for the number of Swedish Pancakes eaten.

I hold the record at 12 in one sitting.

 

Sean has challenged me and my record, and though we didn't have enough batter to take that battle on Wednesday night, I feel that this should happen next weekend when we have all the kids again.

 

He's so going down.

 

Thursday night was the friend party.

 

I've made a list that uses a general budget.  We've allotted a certain amount of money to be allowed for birthday parties and keeping that in mind, I put a lot of effort into some research for various types of birthday parties.

 

Simpler or cheaper parties like home parties or the dollar movie allow for more friends.

 

More expensive activities might only be for family only, no friends.  Like Boondocks.

 

This way, they can choose, big activity, limited friends, or smaller activity, more friends, all being allowed the same price range.

 

Brynn and Sean both wanted to go to Airborne, which is a two friend party (this is above and beyond our six kids) so we booked the party for them together, which they were cool about.

 



I like doing parties with Airborne.  We went there for Cali's birthday (here) too and we've always had such a good experience with them.

Active jumping and flipping on trampolines + my old point and shoot camera = not such great pictures.  They're really blurry, but it's proof that kids were having crazy fun.
Jayme and Cas on the new zip line:


Brynn:

Tayler:

Jayme:

Brynn:

Cali:

 

Sean:

 



The Dodgeball Pit was a popular attraction for The Circus, The Man included:

At one point a group of older boys gathered to have a turn with the Dodgeball Pit and somehow or other The Man told our kids they should take these boys on, which, of course, The Circus thought was a great idea.  The older boys laughed and jumped in.

You'd think it would be an all out slaughter, but it wasn't.  Our kids hung in there and even beat those boys once. 

I was so impressed with how cool those boys were with playing with our kids.


Jayme, Skyler, Tayler, Tanner, Sean, Cali, Casidee, Hannah, Brynn, Marlie

The kids took it easy on me with cakes this go 'round.
Brynn just wanted purple cupcakes with sprinkles, and Sean wanted an ice cream cake but with nothing on it since they messed it up last time (at the end of this post).

These two birthdays open up our "birthday season."  From here until the end of April, we have one or more birthdays and/or holidays every single month.

It's time to gear up for all the festivities that are coming.