Warning: Do Not Let Your Children Watch Movies at My House

Rob and I love to buy old movies that we watched as kids and show them to our girls. We first found Superman a few years ago and I was so excited for our girls to see it. Right after I first turned it on, a few girls in the neighborhood showed up. They were all sitting in the family room watching the movie while I was cleaning in a different part of the house. All of the sudden I heard all of the girls laughing hysterically. I went in there to see a naked toddler Superman standing by a car. Luckily my girls were the only ones without a brother, so they were the most shocked.

Pollyanna is another movie I loved watching as a kid. After all, it is rated G so I thought I would be okay showing it to my girls and Avery Mallett (who was one of the girls at my house when I showed Superman). Once again, it showed a naked boy, who this time was jumping into a lake.

Today I just showed another movie to guess who...Avery Mallett. This time it had a naked statue of David that had a certain part of his anatomy broken off. I didn't remember this part so we kept watching. Much to my surprise, we then watched as the boys tried to glue the part back on. We ended up turning off the movie before we were shocked any further. I would like to know what a PG-13 movie looked like back then because there were obviously not many rules for PG ratings. Sorry Steve and Jenn. I promise I will screen movies before showing them to your daughter again!

And Summer Begins...

I love having my kids home for the summer! I love our new slow-paced life! I can't wait for swimming lessons to be over with so that we can be responsibility-free! I love that I can go on a vacation and not have to count in my head how many days the kids have already missed of school:) Today was our first day of "Summer Movies" at the theater. We saw the Pirate Veggie Tales movie which I had absolutely no interest in seeing. I didn't pay attention to one word for the first 30 minutes, but after I started watching, I actually enjoyed the movie. After that we went home and made playdough with the girls and Brooklyn's friend Allison. That kept everyone busy for quite a while. Poor Alyssa ended the day at the dentist to get a filling. The poor kid is dying to eat something, but she is still numb! Maybe over the next few days something more exciting will happen...as for now, this is it.

What is Memorial Day?

Support Our Troops!!!



In years past, I have spent Memorial Day doing the following:

Enjoying Rob's day off of work
Having a BBQ
Doing yard work
Mourning family members that have died

And the list goes on...

I have been guilty of forgetting the real reason that we celebrate Memorial Day. We are supposed to be honoring those men and women who have died serving our country. Luckily, I don't know anyone who has died in the military, but I do (for the first time) have a brother who is a marine. He isn't at war yet, but will be soon:( I hope that we can all take a moment to pray for those who have died and bless those who are now serving. If you would like to email Dave, click the link to the right. These guys give up everything to protect our freedoms! He has only seen his wife and 1 year old daughter once since Feb, he gets paid very little and never complains...all this because he loves his country. I love you Dave!

Part 2-Boston, Kennebunkport, Maine and Salem

Boston is such a great city! There is so much going on and we loved all of the old buildings. It seemed like there was a Red Sox game every night. On Monday when we drove past Fenway Park, a game was just getting ready to start. Rob asked if we wanted to go and try to get tickets. I said no because there was no way Hunter would be able to sit through the whole game. That was the game that the pitcher pitched a no-hitter. Too bad I was such a party-pooper! Bostonians are die-hard Red Sox fans!

Our first stop on the Freedom Trail was the Bunker Hill theater. We were the only ones there for the showing of the movie about the Revolutionary War. It is the same production that Rob saw over 20 years ago. It wasn't very hi-tech, but it was still informative. I swear boys are born to love war movies-Hunter kept oohing and awing! I think he loved it most! We then went to see the U.S.S. Constitution. That was neat to see. Apparently it is the oldest working U.S. commissioned boat in the world.

Next to the U.S.S. Constitution is an old World War II Destroyer. It isn't owed by the military anymore so we could touch and see more of the boat. FYI if anyone plans to swim in the ocean off the coast of Massachusetts, we saw about 50 jellyfish swimming in the ocean by this boat. Yikes!

Rob, fulfilling every man's dream!

Hunter, fulfilling every boy's dream!

Rob's quest on this vacation was to find the best clam chowder in New England. Rob's boss told us we had to go to O Ye Union Oyster House. This was one of Pres. Kennedy's favorite places to eat. Booth 18 is actually named after him because that was his favorite booth. Too bad we didn't get to sit there:( This is also the oldest restaurant in the country. The walls and floors aren't level, but it is very cute! Anyway, Rob's boss told us that this restaurant has the best and the thickest clam chowder. He said that it is so thick that it will hold your spoon up. This is a picture of Alyssa doing the "spoon test". This clam chowder came in 2nd place for Rob. The Weather Vane on the pier in Plymouth, MA came in 1st and The Ramp in Kennebunkport, Maine came in 3rd.

As we were leaving this restaurant, the man at the seafood counter grabbed us for a little magic show. He showed the girls how the lobster could hold a spoon, a napkin and a postcard, and then let each of them hold the lobster. Once they got over their fear of this underwater creature, they had fun.



This is Ben Franklin that we had to pay $3 to take a picture with. He gave some big speech on why we had to pay him and then prided himself in reciting just about every city in the country. I think he really believes he is Ben Franklin:)

I don't have any idea who this is a statue of, but the girls thought it was cool. Ash enjoyed hanging from his hand.

Our last stop on the Freedom Trail was at the Bunker Hill Monument. It is a smaller version of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. The girls begged us all day to walk to the top of this monument. By the time we got to it, Hunter had fallen asleep. We got him out of his car seat and Rob put him on his shoulders, but he still couldn't wake up. He was such a trooper!

This tower has almost 300 steps to the top. Of course the girls ran most of the way and weren't even winded when they got to the top. Rob had to carry Hunter the whole time and I was just a whimp. Rob and my calves still hurt from hiking those steps!

We were so relieved to finally make it to the top that we rested for probably 20 minutes. Isn't that shameful???

This is the view of Boston from the top of the tower.

See how big this thing is!

We had passed a lot of homeless people by this point of our trip. When we were going back to our car, we came upon this cute little girl who was saying, "I need money, I need money..." This trip was a bit of a culture shock for my girls!

The Old North Church where the lanterns were lit to let everyone know the British were coming.

This is a little memorial that someone set up with an i.d. tag representing all of our troops that have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq:( The war has a different meaning to me because my little brother is going to be deployed to Iraq in Sept. or Feb. I guess having Obama elected as president may not be so bad after all! Just kidding!!!

This is Paul Revere's home that we had to look long and hard for. Apparently we aren't very good at following the red line that goes around the city for the Freedom Trail:)

Kennebunkport, Maine was one of the highlights of our trip. Thanks to my friend Sarah that suggested we go here. It is a small little port city that is so quaint!

This house is called the Wedding Cake House. Isn't it adorable?

This is the Ramp restaurant on the pier in Kennebunkport. It is frequented by the Bush family. We asked if Pres. Bush Jr. comes to Maine a lot and our server said no because everytime he comes there is such a big protest against him. Isn't that awful?

Hunter loves french fries!

If you look closely, you can see George Bush Sr. and Barbara's signature on the wall.

I guess in the summer the fisherman on this pier will let kids help catch lobsters. We are definitely coming back sometime!

This is the Bush compound. Those of you who know me know that this was one of my favorite things to see!

Downtown Kennebunkport

Rob and Hunter wearing their new Red Sox caps.


This beach is incredibly beautiful but not one with many seashells. All the girls found were a bunch of rocks. Rob is such a good dad that he actually let them bring some of them home with us.

No trip to Boston is complete without seeing Harvard. I wish we could have gotten out and walked the campus, but it looked so big I'm sure we would have gotten lost!

We ended our sightseeing in Salem, MA where the witch trials took place. Cool town, but this was the only city where the people were really weird. This was a re-enactment of the witch trial of Elizabeth Proctor. Afterwards we got to go downstairs into a dungeon that they made patterned after the original where they jailed the suspected witches. That was freaky!



This trip was awesome! Hopefully my kids all learned something to compensate for their excessive absences from school this year!

Part 1-Philadelphia, Plymouth Rock, Plimoth Plantation & Cape Cod

This past week we took the kids on a trip to the northeast. I say the northeast because we drove through Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. Over 1200 miles later, and what seemed to be $1000 in gas and toll fees, we had an awesome vacation! It all started Thursday morning at 3:30 am. Rob was in Florida for a golf tournament and so he planned on meeting us in Philadelphia. I wasn't too worried to fly alone with all 4 of my kids because we make 10 hour drives to Utah all the time and they do fine. I had definitely said my share of prayers that all would go well, and for the most part, it did. We left for the airport at 4:00 am without incident. We were all excited and happy to be going on the trip that we had planned for weeks. Rob had told me that we were flying Continental which was a relief because they fly out of the smallest terminal at Sky Harbor Airport. We got the car parked and I was feeling so happy and relaxed that I decided to also take Hunter and Ashley's car seats to save myself $100 for car seat rentals. I loaded up the double stroller and each kid had a backpack and suitcase in tow. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:00 am where we would have a layover in Salt Lake City. When I got up to the Continental desk to check in, they asked me what my destination was. I told them Philadelphia through Salt Lake. The attendant looked perplexed and said, "You mean Houston, right?" I said,"No, Salt Lake." She then informed me that they don't go to Salt Lake so I must actually be flying Delta. (Makes sense since we were using our Delta miles, but that is not like Rob to be so unorganized.) To make a long story short, we then had to go back outside with all of our luggage and wait at the curb to ride a shuttle to a different terminal. Lucky for me everyone felt sorry for me and they were all very helpful. We barely made it to the gate in time to board. The kids were fabulous! I have never had such an easy time traveling with my kids! The flight home was not so pretty!!!

The beauty of having 4 kids is having to rent a minivan when you travel. Some people are minivan people, Rob and I aren't! (Nothing against minivans:) They are a very nice ride and very easy to get the kids in and out!) When they first told us we were going to have a black minivan, Rob and I both looked at each other and said,"Do they even make black minivans?" I couldn't think of a time that I had ever seen one. Rob was so sure that we had the only minivan, that he even tried to get into a few cars that weren't ours. He just automatically went to the nearest black minivan.

The girls think these are the greatest cars ever!

Unfortunately Alyssa and Brooklyn's braids didn't stay in very well this year. I had to take both of their braids out the first night at the hotel:(

I have been to Philadelphia 4 times and for some reason I never get tired of seeing the Liberty Bell. Since we took all of the kids there last year, we only spent half of a day there. Good thing we had seen everything already because it rained so hard! We were all dripping wet by the time we got back to the car.


This is a picture of Independence Hall. You have to have tickets to actually go in this building so this was the first time we got to go in. The only thing in this building that is original is the chair that George Washington sat in with the rising sun on the back. I still enjoy seeing replicas, but Rob loses interest the second he hears that it is a re-creation.


The kids inside Congress Hall.

This is all of us drenched as we are going back to the car.

Saturday we went to Plymouth Rock and Plimoth Plantation. Apparently there weren't any rules for spelling back in those days:)


The Mayflower

This is a tiny boat that had about 140 people on it for 2 months. It was so dark and smelly!


This is the cabin below the ship where all of the people slept and spent most of the day.

Plimoth Plantation is a little village a few miles from the Mayflower where they have an Indian Village and a village for the colonists. The colonists there act like they live in the 1600s. The Indians will talk about their people then and now.

A hut like one the Indians would have lived in.

Isn't that a great view! At least the colonists settled in one of the most beautiful parts of the country! Massachusetts is incredible!

Brooklyn using an old broom to sweep the dirt floor. I don't know what they would have been sweeping, I would be trying to get rid of the dirt:)


The girls feeding goats in the garden of the colonist village.

An Indian making a boat.

Hunter playing on a beach in Cape Cod. We never actually got into any of the little cities on the Cape (we got a little lost:) Too bad because this was the day all of the Kennedy's were at their compound on Hyannisport:(



Kids can find a way to entertain themselves anywhere. Brooklyn spun the kids around on this chair in our hotel room for about 10 minutes. Hunter thought it was hilarious until he got down to walk and fell over. Then it wasn't so funny:)

I will try and do another post tonight with the rest of our trip.