I guess I'm not an outdoor girl

We had a nice memorial weekend, we decided to camping together as a family, we haven't done that it a while, usually we have other people with us. We thought it could be a nice family bonding time. We didn't have a camping spot reserved, so we just hoped we could find something last minute. I can't believe how much work it took just to plan food, clothes etc for 3 days. I also had to pack the stroller and portable crib for Adam. I made this big pile of stuff that needed to be loaded in the van, Tad would just get my pile packed an come back in and there would be a bunch more stuff, he said he didn't know if he could fit it all in, but somehow he did and we were on our way. We drove out to Vernon Reservoir, it's about 45 min SW of here, we got really lucky and found a fairly nice camping spot, it was kinda close to the road and a little far from the closest potty, but it worked. We got our little camp set up, by then is was about 8pm and we were starving so we cooked some hamburgers and hot dogs, then roasted marshmallows for dessert. Sitting around the fire talking and roasting marshmallows is my favorite part of camping. We were all really tired so we went to bed about 10pm. The next morning Tad and Jason went fishing on the lake, the rest of us tried to sleep in , but there were ATV's speeding by making tons of noise, that was the only bad thing about camping by the road. Since Tad and Jason were gone fishing we didn't really have much to do, plus I neglected to pack any form of entertainment, except for a few games and Adam kept trying to play too, and that didn't work out so well. I wish I had remembered a ball or frisbee or something. I didn't even bring a book to read. So the 4 of us were pretty bored all day Saturday. I kept trying to get my kids to talk to me about stuff, but they said they already told me everything, so we just sat there staring at each other, finally Adam went down for a nap so we took a nap too. Saturday night we ate dinner and had some more marshmallows, Dayna and I tried to convince Tad and Jason that we needed to go home on Sunday cause we were sooo bored. Jason didn't want to, but Tad said maybe. After we went to bed, it started raining and raining and raining, it was so loud on the top of the tent that I couldn't sleep. Of course Tad and Jason got up early again and went fishing, it was raining still so Dayna, me Adam and Ryan got in the van and turned on the heat, we listened to music and then started playing hang-man and the dot game, cause we were so bored. Finally Tad and Jason came back and said it was ok with them if we went home. So we packed everything up, just as we were ready to put the tent down, it started down pouring and then it started hailing. Me, Dayna and Adam stayed in the van, but the other 3 got soaked to the skin. They just had the throw the tent in wet. We finally got everything in and headed home. On the way everyone was calling out who got to take a shower first. We made it home unpacked, took showers and relaxed the rest of the day. Monday we decided to take the kids swimming at the Scera swimming pool in Provo. It was a little cool outside, just in the low 70's but it was still fun. Afterwards we got lunch and ate it at the Scera park. It was really nice. I think our family had some nice moments, but I was sure disappointed about the whole family bonding thing, I wish it had been better. Next time we will have to plan a little better. I wish I was more of an outdoor girl, but I don't enjoy camping that much, expecially if it's raining. I'm just glad that Tad and Jason had a lot of fun fishing. Tad doesn't get much time to do the things he enjoys. so it was worth it to go for him

Date Night

Tad and I finally got out for a date last weekend. It was sooo much fun. We usually just go out to dinner and movie, but we are getting kinda of tired of that, so we decided to go miniature golfing. We used to do that all the time when we were dating and always had a lot of fun. We always went to the 49th street Galleria, but it was closed down a long time ago, we just hadn't found a new place to go. I've seen this place called Boondocks just off the freeway in Draper several times, and have wanted to check it out, so we decided to go there. I couldn't believe how nice it was, there are tons of things to do besides miniature golf too. There's go karts, paddle boats, laser tag a big playland for the kids, some kind of 4D movie thing and a huge arcade. Our kids would have loved it! So anyway we paid for the miniature golf and went outside, there were two courses to choose from, we started golfing and it was so much fun! Even though we both pretty much suck at golfing. Tad beat me of course, but thats ok. At the end of the first course, we decided we just had to do the other course too. They we both really cool, they had caves and volcano's and all kinds of cool things. We had so much fun, it brought back some of those awesome memories of when we were dating and why we fell in love. Sometimes it's easy to forget when all the crazy things in life get in the way, and make you forget what is really important. I feel so lucky to have such an awesome husbans. We will definitely be going back to Boondocks (maybe we will even take the kids one time).

"Shelby"

Has one of your kids ever begged and begged for something they want so earnestly and for so long that you finally give in? Well that's what happened with my son Jason, he's been wanting a dog for as long as I can remember. Lately I've been telling him we can't get one until we have our backyard fenced, but since we've lived here 5 yrs and it's still not done, I think Jason figured that it never would be, so we couldn't use that as an excuse anymore. I finally told Jason that if he earned half the money for a dog, then we would go look at some. Jason did various yard work for us and other people, plus some babysitting to earn the money, so then we had to take him dog shopping. We went to the Humane Society in Salt Lake. I told Jason he needed to look for an older dog, since we've had puppies before and they are a big pain. I also told him that it had to be ok with Adam touching it. It didn't take long to find the dog he wanted it's 4 yr old golden lab retriever, it's info said it was already housebroken, loves kids, easy going temperment , the only thing it doesn't like are cats. They let you take the dog outside and play with it, it loved Jason, didn't mind Adam playing with it and it's not one of those hyper dogs that jumps up on you. So if we had to get a dog, this one looked like the best choice. She was already named "Shelby" so we decided to keep her name, she has grown up with it, I guess she lived with a family before, but they had to move and couldn't take her with them. We've had her for about 5 days now and she is doing pretty good, she's had a few accidents, probably cause she is getting used to her new surrounding. Overall she is a good dog, and Jason is sooo happy to have her. Some things you just have to do for your kids, even if you don't really think it's a good idea. Hopefully it was a good decision.











SHELBY

Easter at the Olson's

I'm a little slow getting this posted, but we had a really nice Easter this year. Even though my kids are getting older they still love to dye eggs, Adam wasn't sure what to do, he just kept squishing the eggs in is hands and breaking them, then he would say "eeew". My kids wanted us to tell the Easter Bunny to hide the eggs really well this year, so it would be really hard to find them. They woke us up at 7:30 to go find eggs, Adam wasn't awake yet so we woke him up. The hunt was on. The Easter Bunny left some easy ones for Adam to find. He sure had fun putting them in his bucket. He saw the candy though and wanted to open every wrapper. It only took the kids about an hour to find all the the eggs, I guess the Easter Bunny didn't hide them as well as he thought. The kids all got new Sunday clothes. We went to sacrament meeting and then left church early. We had Tad's brother Russ and his family here, they live in Colorado so we don't get to see them very much. We had an yummy ham and potato dinner and visited while the kids played together. When it got dark, Tad and I hid eggs outside. We had the kids all get a flashlight and they had to find all the eggs in the dark, they had lots of fun, there were about 80 eggs and they found them in less than an hour, boy they are good!We had Russ & Melanie's two boys sleep over Sunday night, I don't know if there was any sleeping involved though. The next day I took all the kids to see Escape to Witch Mountain. Then we had to get my nephews to their parents so they could catch their flight home, so we met them at Southtowne mall. After they left we went in the mall, we took Adam on the Merry Go Round, he loved it. Then we mostly window shopped, we did end up buying a few T-Shirts from Aerapostale the we buy one get one free, so it was a good deal. It was nice just spending time with my kids. We went to lunch after and then went home. It was a really nice Easter weekend.

My Favorite Easter Story

Every time I read this story it makes me cry. I am so grateful for the atonement in my life, it's so sad that so many people don't realize what a gift it is.



DONUTS


There was a boy by the name of Steve who was attending school in Utah.
Brother Christianson taught at this particular school. He had an
open-door policy and would take in any student that had been thrown out
of another class as long as they would abide by his rules. Steve had
been kicked out of his sixth period and no other teacher wanted him, so
he went into Brother Christianson's class. Steve was told that he could
not be late, so he arrived just seconds before the bell rang and he
would sit in the very back of the room. He would also be the first to
leave after the class was over. One day, Brother Christianson asked
Steve to stay after class so he could talk with him. After class, Bro.
Christianson pulled Steve aside and said, "You think you're pretty
tough, don't you?"

Steve's answer was, "Yeah, I do."

Then Brother Christianson asked, "How many push-ups can you do?"

Steve said, "I do about 200 every night."

"200? That's pretty good, Steve," Brother Christianson said. "Do you
think you could do 300?"

Steve replied, "I don't know... I've never done 300 at a time."

"Do you think you could?" Again asked Brother Christianson.

"Well, I can try," said Steve.

"Can you do 300 in sets of 10? I need you to do 300 in sets of ten for
this to work. Can you do it? I need you to tell me you can do it,"
Brother Christianson said.
Steve said, "Well... I think I can... yeah, I can do it."
Brother Christianson said, "Good! I need you to do this on Friday."

Friday came and Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the
room. When class started, Brother Christianson pulled out a big box of
donuts. Now these weren't the normal kinds of donuts, they were the
extra fancy BIG kind, with cream centers and frosting swirls. Everyone
was pretty excited-it was Friday, the last class of the day, and they
were going to get an early start on the weekend.

Bro. Christianson went to the first girl in the first row and asked,
"Cynthia, do you want a donut?"

Cynthia said, "Yes."

Bro. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do
ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?"

Steve said, "Sure," and jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten..

Then Steve again sat in his desk. Bro. Christianson put a donut on
Cynthia's desk. Bro. Christianson then went to Joe, the next person, and
asked, "Joe do you want a donut?"

Joe said, "Yes."

Bro. Christianson asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can
have a donut?" Steve did ten push-ups, Joe got a donut. And so it went,
down the first aisle, Steve did ten pushups for every person before they
got their donut. And down the second aisle, till Bro. Christianson came
to Scott. Scott was captain of the football team and center of the
basketball team. He was very popular and never lacking for female
companionship. When Bro. Christianson asked, "Scott do you want a
donut?" Scott's reply was, "Well, can I do my own pushups?"

Bro. Christianson said, "No, Steve has to do them."

Then Scott said, "Well, I don't want one then."

Bro. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked "Steve, would you do
ten pushups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?"

Steve started to do ten pushups. Scott said, "HEY! I said I didn't want
one!"

Bro. Christianson said, "Look, this is my classroom, my class, my desks,
and my donuts. Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it." And he
put a donut on Scott's desk.

Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. He just stayed
on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting
up and down. You could start to see a little perspiration coming out
around his brow. Bro. Christianson started down the third row. Now the
students were beginning to get a little angry.

Bro. Christianson asked Jenny, "Jenny, do you want a donut?"

Jenny said, "No."

Then Bro. Christianson asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so
Jenny can have a donut that she doesn't want?" Steve did ten, Jenny got
a donut.

By now, the students were beginning to say "No" and there were all these
uneaten donuts on the desks. Steve was also having to really put forth a
lot of effort to get these pushups done for each donut. There began to
be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face, his arms and
brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.
Bro. Christianson asked Robert to watch Steve to make sure he did ten
pushups in a set because he couldn't bear to watch all of Steve's work
for all of those uneaten donuts. So Robert began to watch Steve closely.
Bro. Christianson started down the fourth row.

During his class, however, some students had wandered in and sat along
the heaters along the sides of the room. When Bro. Christianson realized
this; he did a quick count and saw 34 students in the room. He started
to worry if Steve would be able to make it.

Bro. Christianson went on to the next person and the next and the next.
Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time. He was
taking a lot more time to complete each set.

Steve asked Bro. Christianson, "Do I have to make my nose touch on each
one?"

Bro. Christianson thought for a moment, "Well, they're your pushups..
You can do them any way that you want." And Bro. Christianson went on.

A few moments later, Jason came to the room and was about to come in
when all the students yelled, "NO! Don't come in! Stay out!"
Jason didn't know what was going on. Steve picked up his head and said,
"No, let him come."

Bro. Christianson said, "You realize that if Jason comes in you will
have to do ten pushups for him."

Steve said, "Yes, let him come in."

Bro. Christianson said, "Okay, I'll let you get Jason's out of the way
right now. Jason, do you want a donut?"

"Yes."

"Steve, will you do ten pushups so that Jason can have a donut?" Steve
did ten pushups very slowly and with great effort. Jason, bewildered,
was handed a donut and sat down.

Bro. Christianson finished the fourth row, then started on those seated
on the heaters. Steve's arms were now shaking with each pushup in a
struggle to lift himself against the force of gravity. Sweat was
dropping off of his face and, by this time, there was not a dry eye in
the room.

The very last two girls in the room were cheerleaders and very popular.
Bro. Christianson went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda,
do you want a doughnut? Linda said, very sadly, "No, thank you."

Bro. Christianson asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so that
Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?"

Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow pushups for Linda..

Then Bro. Christianson turned to the last girl, Susan. "Susan, do you
want a donut?" Susan, with tears flowing down her face, asked, "Bro.
Christianson, can I help him?"

Bro. Christianson, with tears of his own, said, "No, he has to do it
alone, Steve, would you do ten pushups so Susan can have a donut?"

As Steve very slowly finished his last pushup, with the understanding
that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350
pushups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.

Brother Christianson turned to the room and said.

"And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, plead to the Father,
"Into thy hands I commend my spirit." With the understanding that He had
one everything that was required of Him, he collapsed on the cross and
died. And like some of those in this room, many of us leave the gift on
the desk, uneaten

--- Author Unknown

Sweet 16

Well, I can't believe it but I have a 16 year old daughter now, how scary is that? Dayna wanted to have a boy/girl party of course so she invited 3 girls & 3 boys to her party. The 3 girls came, but only one of the boys, it was her favorite boy so it was good. We had everybody meet here where we had cake and ice cream. Dayna wanted a pink cake with polka-dots, we used white and brown chocolate chips and turned them upside down to make the dots. After they were done eating we opened presents. We were then on our way to Trafalga, none of the kids had ever been there I don't think so they were all excited to go. Dayna didn't want me to stay and hang out with them, I don't know why aren't I cool? So I just when in and paid for them, as I was leaving Devin (Dayna's boyfriend) put his arm around Dayna and told me not worry and that he would take of my daughter. Boy did that FREAK me out! I told them just to call me when they were done, and I left. 8 hours later they finally wanted me to come get them it was about 10pm, they were all starving so we stopped at Wendy's on the way home. Dayna said they had a ton of fun, it was the best birthday party she's ever had. On Monday her real birthday I checked her out of school at lunch time and we went to the Olive Garden, it was sooo yummy. Then I took her to Walmart , she wanted to get her nails done. She has never had nails, cause she always bites them. This nice asian guy did a french manicure for her and they look really nice. That night we had one of her favorite meals, BBQ Pork Chops and for dessert we had cherry cobbler. It was a great day. Now that Dayna is sixteen she has already been on a date, she went to MORP at the school Saturday night with Devin. They had a great time. I know they got pictures, so when we get them back I will post them.

Disneyland!

I'm sad it's over but we had a great trip to Disneyland. The first day we traveled to Las Vegas, none of us wanted to go to the strip so we stayed at a nice hotel in Henderson. The boys played in the pool and we relaxed after driving for 9 hours. The next morning we headed for California we wanted to go to the beach since it was Sunday. We were trying to get to Huntington beach since we heard it was one of the nicer beaches, somehow we got lost, but we kept going west and knew eventually we would have to see the ocean, when we finally did it didn't matter which beach it was, the kids just wanted to go. We ended up at Redondo Beach which is quite a bit north of where we wanted to go. It was kinda cold and windy there, but the kids still had fun playing in the water, even though it was freezing, Adam just wanted to throw sand everywhere. Jason wanted to be buried in the sand so Ryan and Dayna had fun doing that. Tad tryed to build a sandcastle but the tide kept washing it away. The kids had never been to the ocean so they though it was awesome. Next we headed to our hotel, some friends of ours let us use their timeshare at the new Worldmark by Wyndham, we got a two bedroom. It was so nice, not only did it have two bedrooms it had two bathrooms, a full kitchen, a washer/dryer and two flat screen tv's. The hotel has two jacuzzi's up on the roof and chairs up there so you can watch the nightly fireworks at Disneylad it was sooo coool!! Downstairs they have a heated swimming pool, two more jacuzzi's and a kiddie pool. I wish we would of had a full day just to play at the hotel, but we enjoyed it as much as we could.Monday morning we headed for Disneyland, you get in free on your birthday, but i already had a 3 day pass, so they gave me a $70 gift card to buy anything in the park, they also gave me a button with my name on it, so that the workers would wish me Happy Birthday all day, it was awesome. We went on lots of rides that day, I can remember all of them, but it's amazing how every ride is a big production. The next two days we spent in going between the two parks, my kids liked California Adventure, since they had rides for older kids, I can't tell you about all the rides, cause that would take forever, but I'll tell you about my 3 favorite ones. My most favorite was "Soarin of California" you sit in these chairs that are in front of an enormouse screen, and it feels like your flying, you "fly" over various parts of California, like the orange trees and the coolest thing is they spray something in front of you that smells like oranges, so you feel like your really there. It was awesome!! My next favorite ride was California Screamin, it huge, at the beginning there's a countdown and that you shoot up like a rocket, sooo fast! It goes upside down and everything, it was sooo coool. My third favorite ride was Space Mountain, I love how your in the dark and there's stars everywhere and you go you go so fast, I loved not seeing where I was going, it really like you were flying in space. I loved it!! We were so tired at the end of the second day, that when we woke up on the third day we couldn't believe we still had another day, our legs and feet still hurt. But we toughed it out, it was sooo worth it though. If we go again I would schedule a day in-between just to rest instead of doing three days in a row. When we left we drove to St George and stayed at a Days Inn , the kids kept saying how small and crowded it was in that room, we were so spoiled at the other hotel. We drove the rest of the way on Friday and got home that afternoon. We had such a great time, we feel so lucky that we got to go. Here are a ton of pictures we took.