Cruise Benefits...

We have the greatest girls ever! They are always trying to do something to "surprise" us. They sneak in to make our bed in the morning if I haven't gotten to it yet, they empty the dishwasher without me knowing, and sometimes we even get "turn down service" at night...

(Saige likes to turn on our lamps to the lowest settings and then says, "we even have "mood lighting" for you."... ???? That's kindof weird.... I assume she means "sleeping mood"!)

My favorite is when they make towel animals to go ALONG with the "turn down service"! I would say this is a great benefit of cruising... they were so excited to see what animal would be on our bed each night on the Disney Cruise. So when we saw that they offered a class on it they were pumped! They learned lots of fun tricks... right down to the dime eyes... (but I think they came up with the flower and necklace on their own!) Oh and on REALLY good days they do all of the above AND give us massages from "Saige's Magic Finger Salon" with her three assistants... Tayler, Kenna and Jadyn!

I'm sure you're thinking this... but no... our girls are not for sale... or for trade!!

We love you guys! You're the best!

This is what I discovered last night after tucking them in!

Family Reunion

This past weekend was the "2nd annual Wegener Family Reunion". Missy spearheaded it last year and this year was my turn. My family seems to grow bigger each year and it was fun to get ALMOST all of us there for at least some of the time. (We missed you Becky, Grayson and Jacob.) Since so many of us could make it we decided that fitting 23 of us into my parents fabulous 3- bedroom condo at Bear Lake would be a little tricky so... they rented a second one - a nice place that made us all nostalgic thinking about the first condo that we all grew up in. The same orange chairs, wooden lamps and tables etc. It was fun reminiscing. But we all love mom and dad's "fancier" remodeled condo, and have had the greatest of times building new memories with our own children.

The event started with dinner at Bear Lake Pizza... 2 "Old Ephraim Pizzas" were no match for our family!

Abi and Jadyn

Skye and Tara

Paige and Kenna (Kenna's favorite buddy!)

The next morning was our "Family - Amazing Race" I can take very little credit for this, because Shelby had set this up for her ward YM/YW so she twisted stuff around to make it work for our family. What a girl! (I owe her big time, especially since I stood her up TWO mornings this week for walking... I didn't hear the alarm, or her phone call! SORRY!) But the amazing race was lots of fun. We split into three teams and performed things such as... stilt races, frisbee throw, bean bag toss, dice game, potato sack races, etc The best was at the end when each team had to pick someone to eat something sweet, sour, salty or spicy. They didn't know what they were when they chose... and were not excited about eating a 1/2 of a 1/2 gallon of ice cream, a lemon, a bowl of sunflower seeds or a hot hot pepper. The following video is of that act. Yes I am the one dying laughing... probably because I wasn't shoving a pepper down my throat. Andy didn't love that he had to... but I sure got a kick out of it. (Later my brother Dan got back from hunting, saw an extra pepper on the counter and asked if he could have it... he ate it in two bites... on purpose... and liked it!)

We also did all the regular stuff at Bear Lake... like swimming, playing at the beach, hanging out, etc. We made time for a craft project, but the hit of the weekend was our new balloon launcher. We went through two coolers of water balloons and everyone had a blast. It could shoot close to 500 feet... Luckily there were no serious injuries - a few large welts left on people... but everyone still seemed to enjoy trying to catch them!

Shane and baby Skye

Andy and Missy

The kids participating in our Family History Activity. Thanks Mom for all your preparation, it was great to be reminded of our ancestors heritage and faith. What amazing sacrifices they made in their lives... we should all remember that we have truly been blessed because of their strength and foresight.

Kenna and Logan

This looks like it's going to be a belly-flop to me!

Nate, Megan, Saige and Dad

After the reunion the good-byes began... Paige and Tara are off to spend the school year with their Mom in Texas, Shelly and her kids were getting ready to head back to their home in Minnesota. And Jeff and Kimi had a huge trailer loaded up ready to head to their new home in Pittsburgh PA where Jeff will be attending dental school. We will miss you all dearly. The kids loved having extra cousins here and we will miss all their giggles and play time. Shane and I will dearly miss those late nights playing games with Jeff and Kimi. And I will miss having my only sister here to visit with. We look forward to when we can all get together again.

How old am I???

Do you ever forget how old you are and have to figure it from your birth year? I do that quite frequently... but I am fairly certain that I am not as old as someone thinks I am. I just received my second letter today (both from two different companies)... which begins with... "soon you will turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. Now is your chance to decide how you will receive your future healthcare benefits." Apparently my "soon" and their "soon" are not the same... I guess it gives new meaning to being prepared!!

The Treehouse Museum

Shane has been working down at the Ogden Temple for the past couple of weeks. He is amazed at how long he has been doing "temple carpet", especially since he is now "re-replacing" Ogden's carpet. I guess that is a good sign right? I call it "job security"! On a whim I decided to take the girls down to do a little school shopping, and since their cousin Megan is still here, we took her along too. We didn't have much time to fit it all in, but we were able to spend some time at the Treehouse Museum... the kids thought that was a blast and ran from place to place doing just what kids should be doing... playing, exploring and imagining. Then we did some shopping, had dinner at Texas Roadhouse (with Shane and his guys) and headed home.

Jadyn doing her very best impression of Giselle (calling her animals in on Enchanted...) Ahhh-ahhhh-ahhhhh-ahhhh -ahhhh

Tayler thinks this chair is a hoot! She remembers it as being soooo big. The last time we came with some friends she was telling them on the way down about the humongous lady that was like 100 feet tall. When we got there she saw this chair (which is admittedly quite big), but not nearly as big as her little mind had remembered from being 5. She looked at me and said - "boy it has been a long time since we came here... or I was just REALLY little... because that chair is no where near as big as I remember!"

Raspberry Days Weekend

Our Booth!

Ahhhh.... Raspberry Days is over... Kim and I had fun, sold a lot of stuff, but came home with only 2 boxes less than we went with.... I'm hoping it's 'cuz we packed lighter coming home... We didn't get rained on... at least during the day. The storms hit at night when we sat in the condo hearing the rains pour down and the winds howling, and wondered if our tent would still be standing the next morning. It was... with only a leak confined to one area... what a relief! People ask if I will do it again... I think I will... I don't think that those three days were really worth it, but I have tons in my basement when people start pounding down my door wanting pre-made Christmas gifts, so that part of it will totally be worth it, and save my sanity during the fall enrichment rush. As far as Kim goes, she says no way to doing this again next year... but offered to have me pay her an hourly wage to come sit with me if I'm that crazy! Poor Kim sold 1 thing the first day... (did much better the next 2 though!) while her 12 year old daughter sold hundreds of cute little magnets that took her 1 day to make, as opposed to our all-nighters! Tayler sold lots of her magnets and Saige sold quite a few scrunchies so over all it was a great weekend for all.


You may wonder what our children did during this time... we actually wonder the same thing! They pretty much ran wild and unattended at Ideal Beach. No this wasn't what we had planned, Shane was in charge of our 4 and 2 of Kim's... but... work called and he left them for the ENTIRE day on Friday... by themselves! Tayler 11 and Kelsee 12 did a great job... but I can't say that Kim and I weren't a tad bit concerned, and happy to see each one survived! Our only catastrophe was when we were driving back to the condo one night and Kenna's "glow stick" (that she had caught earlier at the parade) was obviously bent back and forth too many times... it burst and splattered all over her. I don't think I will ever forget the scream and turning around to see her face and EYE glowing green from the stuff inside. We obviously freaked out and rinsed and rinsed that eye. (Truthfully if anyone had heard me rinsing that eye I may have been called in for child abuse... just imagine the scene... not many 5 year olds want you pouring water in their eyes over and over again!) According to poison control they get 100's of those calls??? She had a red eye but they said she would be just fine...

Shane did do lots for them, carting them back and forth to the park to see how "their" sales were coming, taking them to the parade and even swimming a couple of times. The highlight for the girls was finding a tiny frog swimming around with them in the pool. They were so excited to show us that a nice lady had gone to get a #10 can for them to bring it home in. Shane convinced them that they could keep it for a day or two and then release it back to it's mommy who was surely missing it! They had fun with him, named him hopper, then hopper hopped out one morning (when they were outside...) and was never seen again. So sad....

Jadyn is kissing her first frog!

Our family enjoyed the pancake breakfast Saturday morning at the church (I love those!) And a couple quick meals at the fair. But that was about the extent of our togetherness, so staying up on Sunday was a nice break and relaxing time to be together... until we got home and it was time to unload the WHOLE trailer! And get back to work doing on those custom orders that I got... And getting my girls ready for a new school year... which is coming up way too fast!

Enjoying their treats from the Chocolate Bear!

Little Things...

Another busy week has passed me by again. Thank heavens for Sundays and the long awaited nap. After a week of only 4 hrs per night I am exhausted. (But the end is in site because Raspberry Days is this weekend... pheew... except that rain is forecasted from Wed - Sun... not excited about that!!) I took one nap right after church... I thought I was fairly relaxed and nice... but Shane offered to take the girls out to his parents so I could have "another" nap later this afternoon. I think it was fully out of concern... but maybe I wasn't as laid back as I thought...

It's during a week like this with thousands of things of my own going on that I start to feel guilt. Guilt that maybe I am focusing too much on myself and what I need to get done and not enough on my own family and their needs. (Perfect example... I only fixed one meal this week... we did eat, but the pizza man came, we went out, or Shane brought us home stuff... oh and my kids fixed their own breakfast and lunch too... ) Sure I stop to play with them, read a book, clean up messes etc., but sometimes I find myself thinking that I don't have time for that... when really that is the only "time" that really matters. Of course it's not always like that, and I probably justify doing vinyl more in the summer than I should... but my girls play SOOOO good together and are always happy to include Jadyn in everything... it is so fun to watch their love for each other. Squabbles truly are few and far between. What a blessing!

Somehow the inadequacy of being a mother is still there a little. We have sweet dear friends who long for the opportunity to have a child of their very own. They will make wonderful parents someday and have had a huge impact on my own children's lifes already. Unfortunately their quest for a child has been a long process with way too many heartbreaking experiences, but their faith remains strong, as does their love for each other. Recently this friend wrote on her blog about caring for our children and the joy that it brought to her and her husband, but the part that really got me thinking was what she wrote at the end of that post...

"I just have to add that it was fun to pretend to be a parent for a few days. I hope that every mother and father out there doesn't take a second of it for granted. I hope you cherish the fact that your kids prefer you. I hope you love the feeling of those little arms wrapped around your neck. I hope you take the time to really enjoy your kids for who they are and their cute little personalities. I hope you take the time to play with your kids, make them laugh, and want to be with them. I hope that every time you see your spouse helping with the kids, you thank the Lord that you have him/her. I hope that you reach down to take their little hand as you walk down the street. I hope you cherish every moment.... and when we get our own, I hope I never forget, ever."

Do we as parents cherish our children as much as we should? Do we take what we have for granted because it came so easy to some of us? I know that I would lose my patience less frequently if I truly thought about what a blessing it is to have these little people in our home... but sometimes I forget. I printed this quote of hers out, and I read it several times a week just to remember... that life truly isn't about "things", it's about moments... and the little stuff... it's about love and faith and an eternal perspective... it's about friendship and service and family. But most of all it's about making the most of whatever situation we are given, not just suffering through our trials, but truly APPRECIATING our blessings... and one of the hardest parts of life is being able to recognize the difference. I get to caught up in the "things" that need to be done and sometimes procrastinate the things that are most important. As this new school year gets closer my goal will be to do just that... take time for what really matters most.