Rebecca – Andelin Adventures

My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, and I decided that I wanted to go explore a National Park today. There is a new program this year, where fourth graders can obtain a pass to get into ANY National park, along with anyone else in their vehicle, for free, for the whole year! So I decided that we should go and get started on using that pass.

We got all the kids loaded up in the van along with their thermos’s, Kyle handed me a present (Victoria’s Secret lotion, and See’s) and we were on our way. We went to Daylight Donuts to get some donuts, but they didn’t have anything good left so we got some donuts at Macey’s instead. Then we went to the Uintah National Forest. We traded in Jeremy’s paper National Park pass, and got a more durable plastic one to use throughout the year. We drove into the forest a bit and found a place to park, and decided to go for a bit of a hike. The reservoir that we parked by was beautiful.

I didn’t really like that the hiking path was so narrow, and that it was being used by people on foot, people on bicycles, people on dirt bikes, and could even be used by people on horseback. The problem was that it was so narrow, there was really nowhere to go to get out of the way when a dirt bike or a bicycle wanted to pass us.

After awhile the kids started their complaining, “I’m tired”, “I need to go potty”, “This is boring”, “I’m thirsty and my thermos is in the van”, “Can we go back to the van and finish watching the movie?”…. Adam reached a point where he just didn’t want to go any further.

We pushed on just a little bit further.

Adam protested more.

Then we started working our way back the way we came.

We left the forest, and made a quick stop at Costco for a few things, then we went home. I made dinner and finished making my cake while the girls all took off to the neighbors house. Dinner was later than usual and we had to round up the girls and get them back home before we could eat. We didn’t have time for cake before the adult session of stake conference.

Kyle and I made sure the kids were ready for bed before we left for the adult session, and we left Ethan in charge while we were gone. Ethan was to make sure Adam stayed on his bed, Tyra was to make sure that Lydia stayed on her bed, and the others were to make sure they stayed on their own beds (Seth was in the crib so we weren’t worried about him wandering the house). We came home from the adult session to find them ALL asleep!

We served my cake tonight.

I made a Mounds cake. Chocolate cake, with coconut filling, a coconut buttercream frosting and chocolate ganosh to top it all off. It was very good, and quite rich. A little bit went a long way. 🙂

Wisdom Teeth

My wisdom teeth were trying to work their way out some more, but because I wouldn’t be able to close my mouth if they were all the way out there just wasn’t any room for them and they were causing me a lot of pain. After dealing with the pain for several weeks, I finally broke down and made an appointment to have them removed. I had them pulled one week ago now. And every fear that was causing me to put it off has happened. The pain, the bleeding, the not being able to eat, the hunger that comes with not being able to eat…. I’ve been on an ice cream shake and smoothie diet, and that sounds GREAT until that’s all you are able to eat and you really just want some real food, but can’t eat real food because it would get stuck in the holes in the back of your mouth and cause more pain. I can’t wait until I can eat real good again!

Spa Party

For Girl Scouts we had a spa party tonight. We had the girls help each other put mud masks on, and then we did their nails before they washed the mud off their faces. Chloe looks like she wasn’t too sure what to think about the mud mask.

Stylists

Dinah, Chloe and sometimes Lydia, have taken a fancy to doing my hair. It is kind of a weakness of mine, and they may have figured that out. I enjoy having my hair played with, and so when they are doing my hair, it’s harder for me to put my foot down and insist that they go to bed, or clean their room (for example). Not to mention that when they are playing with my hair, its wiser not to move or get up because then they would end up pulling my hair and that would be painful. So I usually just let them. Here are some pictures of the better hair styles they have come up with:

Blast from the Past Girl Scout Day Camp

Tyra, Dinah, Chloe spent the last three days at day camp. I helped out yesterday and today. This year’s theme was “blast from the past”. Wednesday they got to make some bracelets from ancient Egypt, and necklaces from ancient Rome, and they came home with some constellation charts. I really don’t know too much about those activities because I wasn’t there. Yesterday we had activities from the medieval period. They got to participate in a Shakespearean play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

I got to help girls with a catapulting game, while my companion supervised the jousting.

Today the girls got to do activities relating to the 1920’s forward. I was at a “20’s games” station so the girls got to play hopscotch and jump rope.

Partway through the day, I was asked to help at the photo-op station. I guess the person taking the pictures for the first part of the day ran out of space on their SD card, and they saw that I had a camera and asked me if I could take over. That was fine with me and it ended up being a good thing because it meant that I got to take the pictures for Tyra’s and Chloe’s groups which also included some of the other girls from my troop. 🙂

Dinah’s group must have had their pictures taken before I was asked to take the pictures. We finished each day with a friendship circle:

The girls had learned the Charleston and practiced it as one of their stations today and after today’s friendship circle the girls got to do it all together.