My Mom's Only Getaway

Last week I got to go on what we like to call our FGEG which stands for (Boy's close your eyes) Frost Girls Estrogen Getaway. Every year my mom and 2 sisters and I take a vacation together. We don't take any kids that aren't tiny baby's or in the tummy. This is our 3rd year doing this. The first year we drove my sister Kaci home to Lubbock TX. Last year we went up to Park City. This year we went all out. We all flew to San Antonio TX. My sister Kaci picked San Antonio because she loves it there. But I think it was for a different reason. She and her husband have had a bit of a hard time getting pregnant over the last three years and it seems there is something special about San Antonio for Kaci because every time she goes there she has been pregnant. And she didn't fail this time! So we were happy to spend 5 days in the Texas heat if it means that we get to have a pregnant Kaci. I did remember my camera this year but you know when you have having a family get together and you take pictures and they are so funny at the time, sometimes the "inside joke" doesn't come across in pictures. I will do my best at trying to explain what is going on. I do have to say that we didn't do a lot. The purpose of these trips are to let down our hair and just be girls. Not moms or caretakers (although we were all over taking care of Kaci's baby bump) or wives or even employee's. We were just girls and sisters and our mom. We giggle most of the time, we play card games and pretty much make fools out of ourselves. It is all together the best time a girl could have. Oh and we shop and shop and shop, because there isn't any kids or husbands trying to hurry us along. That is sheer bliss!! I recommend this kind of trip to all women out there. You really do come back refreshed and ready to do it all again.

Day One: My sisters and I just starting our craziness!

Our first day we went to the wax museum and the Ripley's believe it or not Museum. This is me and Kara in front of this enormous tire. There were so many weird things in this place some of which are just disgusting!!Kaci and my mom. Kaci is showing off her baby bump!

We took a ride on the boats at the river walk. This is Kara and Kaci just being silly on the boat.

Me and my mom on the boats being less silly. We got crazy as the heat started to mess with our minds.

This is what we looked like at the end of the day. Kara had run 12 miles that morning so she was totally beat by the end of the day.

Day 2: We shopped till we dropped at the outlets in San Marcos. They have two outlet malls across the street from each other. A shoppers dream!!! I found some great deals and I also made it so I had to be really creative trying to get everything I bought back into the 2 bags I brought. I don't know if you noticed but we are wearing our hand made (by Kara and myself) FGEG T-shirts! Kaci's says on her belly "I'm kind of a big deal" referring to her baby. And over my mom's FGEG there is a crown, noting that she is the Queen!That night for dinner we went to, as per tradition, the melting pot. It is really expensive so it has to be a special occasion for us to go. But boy is it the best food especially the chocolate! OH MY GOSH!!! Too good, too too good.Day Three: We walked around San Antonio. We went to the Spanish Market and as you can see from the picture made our way to the Alamo, just in time for them to close the gates! We laughed so hard!! We had walked so far to get there it was just soooo funny that we had just missed it. But it still looked like an old building even from the outside.We then shopped some more. This time at Target. By day three this is how Kaci shopped. She was soooo worn out by the end of the day. They had some KILLER deals on uniforms!! Still more stuff I had to shove into my bags!Day Four: We went to Sea World. I can't tell you how nice it was to wander around see the things to see and ride the rides without having to worry about little ones complaining. We saw the Shamu show and the dolphin show. Kara and I went on a couple of roller coasters. One that I literally was off my seat most of the time! We ended the day with feeding time for some of the animals. We went to the larakeets first.

These birds were not shy! They landed all over you!This is my view of my arm. This bird was screaming in my ear because it was seriously right next to my ear!! You can see my mom in the back ground. She totally handled it better then we girls did. We were giggling the whole time and sometimes we let out a little scream. My mom was solid the whole time.This is after all the food was gone and they were still all over me,and Kara!!!Can you see the surprise in her face. The bird had just barely landed on her head. One landed on mine just after I took this picture which caused us to roar with laughter.As soon as we left the birds we went and fed the sea lions. We weren't sure how to get their attention but as soon as the first fish hit the water they swarmed. They started doing tricks and one even sat right under us with its mouth wide open.This one kept looking up at us and slapping the water. It was sooo cute. When we started to pack up our last day and get ready to go we were so sad!! This really is one of the greatest times of our year! I can't wait until next year. We plan to go to the north east. The opposite of the Hot Hot Texas weather. But I have to say we loved San Antonio, we loved Texas. It really is a great place!!!

I have to say before I close the post how grateful I am for my husband for taking the time from his regular routine to stay home with the kids and make it so that I can go every year and for letting me use the money that should be saved for fences etc. to go. Also I use his frequent flier miles and hotel points so that we can all spend a little less. Thanks Honey you are the greatest husband!!

Camping "Dickson" Style

If you have read my blog from the start then you have read my camping story from last year with reference to our camping story from a couple of years ago. Here is the link if you want a good laugh

click here.

And if you have read these then you know that we consider ourselves camping cursed.

When I told Jeff and Melissa Dickson our friends and neighbors they decided to take it upon themselves to prove me wrong.

Last weekend we went up to Strawberry Reservoir to camp "Dickson Style". I say that because I was raised that when you camped you camped in a campground or KOA with running water and a bathroom that at the very least had flushing toilets and sometimes a shower. The fire pit was made out of cement and if you got the right campground it has a covered picnic table.

To camp "Dickson Style" they go as far away from a campground as they can get, there are no such things as toilets or tables, and the fire pits are just holes surrounded by rocks. (To be honest what we did wasn't even considered true Dickson style camping at all. They said that we were too close to the major road and where we stayed was even too much like a campground for them)

Having said that though, I have to now say that we had the best time camping "Dickson" style!!!

We didn't really do much but sit around, relax, talk and spend time with friends and family. But we loved every minute of it. Our big events were a drive through the trees where the kids could reach out and grab leaves off the trees. We went for a very short fishing excursion. It didn't last very long because it got really hot and we lost all our hooks at the bottom of the lake. :-[

And Mikayla got to shoot her very first shot gun and I shot my very first hand gun.

Here is Mikayla shooting. It was a small gun that is Aubrie's gun.

Here is the can that Mikayla actually hit. It was a nice lesson for my kids that guns are not toys. They all came away from the experience with a healthy respect for guns. Which was what I was going for.

Here is Troy shooting it. You can see how small it is.

This is what happened to Aubie's can when she shot it.

After I shot the hand gun the girls wanted to see if they could find the bullets. Here they are trying to dig them up.

I want to thank my parents for letting us use their camper,

it was very comfortable and we will never go back to a tent. Of course Jeff and Melissa had to show us up and this is what they decided to bring. . .I won't complain because we ended up having a toilet for one of the days, and for that I will be forever thankful!

Thanks Dickson's for such a great weekend. We loved getting to spend time and have fun with you guys!!!

Our 4th of July Weekend

I said weekend but it was most of the week as well, I figured you could give me a couple of extra days in my weekend since Troy didn't have to work and so it felt like the weekend! Our weekend was filled with family. Troy's family had a family reunion which started with a temple session on Wednesday night. It was so neat to do a session with all of Troy 's cousins and Aunts and Uncles. They are some of the neatest people I have ever met. Troy's mom worked like crazy to find enough family names for everyone to do. She thought that she might not have enough so she asked me to bring my family names for me and Troy. So I did my own family. It was such a sweet spirit there that day. This is a picture of Me and Troy in front of the temple
This is Troy's mom and her sisters and one brother.

The next day they held the reunion it started with a golf tournament "best ball" style. Troy's team won!! (They had Uncle Giff though which is basically cheating since he has his own gold tournament back in Texas!)

Everyone then met at Troy's cousins house for yummy food and fun. They had a huge playground/sand box which kept my boys happy. Troy and I played kickball, boys vs. girls, GIRLS WON!! I even made it home once, which was a task since the boys crowded the bases!! When it started to get dark we went over to the church to watch a DVD that Troy's mom had put together with pictures and memories of his Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa has been gone about 20 years now but Grandma just died about 3 years ago and we all still miss her tremendously so it was very emotional. But I have to say that Stan and Lois (Grandpa and Grandma) have a legacy to be proud of.

This is our family after the DVD and the obligatory group photo which I don't have because it was taken by Troy's moms camera. I hope to have a copy someday.

On Friday we went to the 2nd Annual "Summer Splash and BBQ" party at Troy's mom and Dad's house. They get out the big blow up water slide and we let the kids go crazy. Then we ate yummy food yet again. We ended the night with another game of girls vs boys kickball (boys won :-[) and root beer floats. Then as if to give us a gift grandma and grandpa had a big sleepover with the grand kids (above the age of 4) in their backyard so we left with a very tired Sam and went home.

On Saturday we woke up early and went boating with Troy's mom and dad. They just bought a new 3 man tube at Costco and we took it out for its maiden voyage. And boy did we have fun!!

My Mr. Happy Sam. I am sorry he is just the cutest thing!!

Here is Sam in his favorite spot. Getting ready to watch the people on the tube.

Troy, Mikayla, Morgan and Owen swimming. Owen didn't know if he liked it or not. It was his first time swimming with a life jacket on.

Troy, Mikayla and Zach ready to go.Shelley, Owen and Zach. I was so surprised that my kids were so willing, let alone excited to get on the tubes. This was there first time. I promise you it won't be there last!They were doing "NO HANDS!" on the tube so this is Sam and Troy doing "no hands" in the boat.

Me, Troy, Sam and Owen. Sam was so excited to finally get his turn. It was getting kind of choppy at this point so Sam didn't get to stay on all that long. But he loved being on while it lasted.

I don't know how I didn't end up with a picture of Morgan on the tube. My best guess is that she loved it soooo much and was on there soooo long and eventually got really brave and they started to go out of the wake and "catch air" I was pretty nervous and wasn't thinking about pictures.

We ended the night with my parents and cousins from my moms side of the family at the Riverton City park for their fireworks show. It was Awesome and a nice way to end the weekend.

I am so glad the we got to spend so much time with family. I want to thank Troy's mom and dad for taking the time to put together a great weekend. It was a blast!! I do want to say really quick that I am so grateful for my family and my country. I am grateful for those who have fought so hard to for my liberties. I just want to say that their efforts do not go unnoticed!!