Dear Friends and Family,

Allison has been busy discovering my old craft supplies. A bag of scraps from her quilt and my box of old cross stitch floss has kept her very busy and happy. She was quite proud of the doll she made from her own imagination. Despite her not having them on in this picture she has been wearing her glasses most days now. I think she has decided that it is nice to see and that its just a life time of bad eyes from now on. (I feel badly that some of my genetic flaws have gotten passed on!)

We went camping this weekend with another family, the Blacks and their 2 kids. We went on the other side of Utah lake on B.L.M. land in the middle of no where. It was hot and dry but we had a great time. There are tons of quad trails everywhere and kids had a great time racing around with Jeremy and me. I drove a quad for the first time with first Robyn in back screaming "wee, go faster" and then for the second time with Spencer muttering "mom, I just don't trust you, you should let me drive, you just won't be able to handle this". Had a great time driving around at my slow, compared to Jeremy's speed. Rocky showed us his not so gentle side when he had the Black's beagle by the neck when their dog was eating Rocky's dinner. It ended with
their beagle having a bloody toothmark on his ear, Jeremy with a sore hand from sticking it in the middle of the vent and us apologizing profusely. Rocky spent the rest of the weekend sulking under our trailer. Had a huge fire Friday night fueled by a dead tree that the men with the girls cheering used their winches and their quads to pull out of the ground and felt very manly.

As we drove out to the campsite Jeremy and I realized everything we had forgotten. It seems that we aren't as on top of our lives as much as usual lately. Most of the stuff we could live without, even the lunch I forgot to pack for. Kids thought it was great to have a lunch of chips and wheat thins! Trying to do better about just doing what we can do and letting the rest go. That is the reason we drove back yesterday afternoon, cleaned out the trailer for a little bit and then locked the door and left everything else till Monday. After everyone was cleaned up the kids went with Meredith a wedding reception while we went to the temple and ALL of us crashed early, happy and sunburnt.

This week was the last week of swimming lessons for my kids. Allison was very sad that she didn't pass her class because she couldn't do breast stroke or maintain her crawl long enough. I am not sure if it was the not passing that made her so sad or the fact that when you pass you get a banana split from Mom and Dad - and Spencer did pass. A few years ago our kids were really goofing off for swimming lessons so we had to put an incentive in place. Allison's consolation prize of a single scoop was not enough in her opinion. Robyn passed her class (able to blow bubbles and not scream when they play with you in the water) and her teacher's comments on her card cracked me up. "Robyn is a very happy, energetic girl who never hesitates to speak her mind! We loved having her." I can only imagine what Robyn was like in that class.

This week was spent with me playing catch up on things. I literally filled the truck with lawn clippings and weeds to take to the dump. Our bathrooms no longer look like toxic waste sites - although our kids one probably does again as it has been a few days. I went to the running store to get new shoes. I am up to 7 miles this last Friday. Doesn't feel like I am about to die anymore but still doesn't feel great. Figure I will just keep working through it and stretching and icing whenever I can.

Spencer had 2 more appointments this week with the drug study. One was because they called to say they had forgotten to label his labs from the previous week so he had to come back up and do it all over again. It is at least a 3 hour time investment, so I wasn't too thrilled about it but Spencer was excited to earn more money for his DS. Then Friday we went up again to start him on Lamictal. I keep reminding myself that if this helps Spencer it will be a good thing but the time commitment is already bothering me. For a while he has to go up weekly. Lamictal is supposed to help with the depression/down side of things. We will see how it goes. Spencer often gets mad when he is depressed as its easier to act angry than sad so it would be nice to get that more under control.

Spencer is becoming a little book worm lately. He is into 3 really good books - fablehaven, book 2, the last book in the dark is rising series and Harry Potter 6. Don't know why but he likes reading more than one book at a time. He got his hair cut short this week and has a thin white line around his hair line that looks really cute. It was a traumatic event after the fact because it didn't look exactly like how he pictured it. But he came around to the idea that he is a guy and he should just tussle it with some gel and be happy with it. This camping trip was right next to a big rocky hill that Spencer and kids could climb up. Spencer loved trying out his rock climbing skills. Allison made the mistake of standing on a hill of red ants on the top and has the bites to prove it.

Robyn the whole time Spencer was getting his hair cut was screaming that she wanted a hair cut as well. So nice! I kept reminding her that there was no more hair left to cut! She is really liking story time at the library each week and fills a bag full of picture books to read during her no sleeping happy nappy times. Right now she is reading Fancy Nancy and can totally relate to the book. I think she has it memorized. She keeps chasing Macho around and despite his unusual patience with her holding and dragging him everywhere Robyn is sporting some great claw marks on her arms and cheeks. Hasn't slowed her down yet though!

Jeremy is bucking for husband of the year. After a horrible night of Robyn sleeping he got up early while camping to take Allison and Spencer and later Taylor out to hike and play so we could sleep. Then took down camp by himself, drove back, ran to the church to check on a funeral clean up, showered and tried not to fall asleep at the temple. This week he got for me (I say me with a smile as really we know who wants to play with it) a new phone. I think he got tired of me getting his phone calls/texts a few hours AFTER he did them.

I am looking forward to some calmer times this week. Taylor is out of school so everyone will be home more. Love to you all, Heather