Goodbye Texas you will (not) be missed

Will I miss Texas? No.

Did I hate it? No.

Am I happy to be back in Utah? Yes!

It was not a horrible summer but it wasn't fantabulous either. I always enjoy being with my own little family for awhile. It's always a great bonding experience. And I will do anything to be with Kyle. Even live in a hotel for 3 months in the blazing heat ;) The hotel bit wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We decided to stay there because there were not enough month to month apartments available, and while we were checking them out they seemed a bit sketchy. All in all I felt much safer at the hotel! Texarkana is half way in Texas and half way in Arkansas. Pretty much it just didn't fit my lifestyle. Nothing against it but I really missed my organic, all natural food choices, farmers markets, families everywhere you look, things for kids everywhere, my family, and lastly being able to actually take my kids out to the park etc without melting! Utah just fits my lifestyle and I'm glad to be back!

I came home 3 weeks early so that I wouldn't miss out on our family trip to Island Park, ID. I'm not going to lie as excited as I was to come see family I was tempted to just stay with my hubby. I hate being away from him! I was strong until we were all packed up to go and he looked me in the eyes... I couldn't hold it is anymore, I cried a little. But then I had to stop so I wouldn't make the kids sad :) We drove to Tulsa because My wonderful Dad flew to Oklahoma so that I wouldn't have to drive home alone! I will post more on our trip home with pictures.

Party & Packing bleh

Kalel's best friend Abigail had a birthday a few days before we left. We went to Chuck-E-Cheese to celebrate. I remember that place being much more fun when I was a kid. The kid loved it though! Morgan gave them a million tokens and they had fun doing whatever they wanted!

The next day we spent PACKING. I am so sick of packing!!!!! We have done it FAR TOO MANY TIMES! :)
Laylah is still a box lover. I don't know why. As soon as we pull the boxes out she gets in and lays, eats, slides, sings etc.
I went in to find the kids cuddling one night. I thought it was cute.

Hunting for Diamonds!

We were all packed up and ready to go to the zoo 1.5 hours away. Our (Heidi and myself) husbands helped us bring stuff down to the car when we noticed that one of our tires was bulging. Instead we all jumped in and went to get new tires. Lame. We no longer had time to go to the zoo so we went to Crater of Diamonds instead. It ended up taking about the same amount of time. However, It was fun and something we can't do in Utah!

This was us before going in. They used to mine here. I guess it has changed hands a lot and there are always weird reasons that make them close. So it is now a state park. You pay to get in. You can rent things or just take a bucket and shovel. Anything you find, you keep! On average there are 2 diamonds found a day. Ranging in sizes of course.

The kids had a blast. There was some definite complaining at first because of the heat, but we were lucky enough to get some rain! That was fun and helped cool things down.
Here are the treasures they found. No diamonds :( However if you ask Kalel he still thinks he found some and couldn't wait to go home and show Dad!
She loved the rake, and maybe eating some rocks too...

July, coming to an end...

Chalk!

Chalk is always a fun activity. I didn't know if the hotel would approve or not, so I just decided to go for it and see what happened. I brought my cooler filled with water so I could clean it up afterwards. And I bet they never knew! ;)

Laylah was smart and got in the cooler... It was blazing hot! She also started to copy her friend Clara and started crawling. I had to teach her not to eat it... I don't understand if it doesn't taste good, why does it keep going in her mouth?

There was some occasional exercising, which was always difficult due to a certain someone feeling the need to be attached to me! And she wore her brothers shirt to bed, so she is looking a bit like a boy!
Of course more and more swimming, some mornings Kyle would join us. Always fun for the kids. No one is more fun to play with in the pool.
Rides at the mall. Look at that face. She is still oh so yummy!

This was always my goal ;) To just wipe them out!

Sang as they walked and walked and walked

Being in Texas we had to arrange our own activities to celebrate Pioneer Day... Being in a hotel we had to get creative - yet again!

So my friend Heidi and I had boxes, ribbon, hats, closed toe shoes and the bare essentials...

We learned about pioneers. Kalel was very sad to think about only picking one toy to bring.

His box had water, dehydrated apples and his toothless dragon.

Laylah's box had water, rice cakes and her toy microphone.

We 'walked and walked and walked' across the field outside our hotel. Let me remind you, we live in Texas it is HOT HOT HOT!!! Kalel did really well going one way and on the way back when I was trying to get pictures he started to get irritated. Then when we were almost done he turned to me and said, "Mom I never want to do this again." ha ha ha It was just very matter of fact, he wasn't complaining just letting me know. Laylah did well, but as it got hotter she started to whine. So we talked about how sometimes the babies needed to be carried.

We had a couple people dying of curiosity to find out what we were doing. I had one housekeeper take a picture of my kids because she thought it was so cute. I don't know if any of them really knew what we were doing, but it was fun!

This may not look that appetizing but I made a pretzel shaped like a wagon wheel and it was actually really good and a fun treat!