What a Productive Day

Yesterday started off pretty normal as I headed off to work at 6:30 am. In fact, the day was going pretty normal until Michelle sent me a text message telling my that Grandma and Grandpa Petersen were coming down to help us with work around the house. I had just signed up to work a double when I received this text message so I quickly called back and removed my self from the work schedule. That's when the day went into overdrive.

Michelle had already been busy chopping down the sucker branches and cleaning up the lilac bushes in the back yard. I went up on the roof and fixed the swamp cooler pads so that it wouldn't leak into our house. Next was work on the new bicycles we found at the DI. I still need a tire for Michael's bike but we'll try to find one off another bike at DI.

Michelle was prepared with a list of tasks and jobs for us to accomplish during this work spree. After fixing the bikes I checked the list for the next job. The Petersens arrived and went straight to work. Grandma Petersen started with (finishing) painting the kitchen while Grandpa Petersen started on the vehicle maintenance. We replaced the gas filter on the suburban and the oil filter and a windshield wiper blade on the Geo. Next we did a quick adjustment on the lawnmower, planned a small electrical upgrade for the basement and evaluated needs for several other projects. Of course we had to make the obligatory trip to the store to get needed parts for the afore mentioned tasks. Michelle keep the family running while Grandma finished the painting in the kitchen. We had a dinner break for spaghetti, green beans and orange jello.

Grandma and Grandpa Petersen had to head back home before it got too late but we were able to take advantage of the extra help to get a lot of small tasks completed. After they left I was still able to get in a small exercise session. After a quick shower we were able to go to bed feeling very good about the tasks we were able to accomplish yesterday.

Grandma and Grandpa Petersen, thank you so much for your help!

Miniature Golfing at Trafalga

Today was a beautiful spring day and the boys were anxious to get out of the house. Michelle had a doctor's appointment so I got to take the boys miniature golfing. The 4 oldest boys came with me and Michelle took Quinten with her.

Since it was nice outside the boys unanimously choose to do an outside course and the majority chose to go to the north course. (I guess next time we'll go south.) The boys were off and running and not really interested in miniature golf lessons. They knew that the ball goes in the hole and you want to put the ball into any cool thing along the way because that is better. I did manage to get a tip or two across but I don't know if they were really paying attention.

In the end it doesn't really matter. We had a blast. The boys were temporarily distracted by the cute teenage girls in the group in front of us but mostly they just slowed us down. The boys can't wait for the next round of golf.

First Campfire Cook-out of the Year

In a way it's kind of sad that we are just barely having our first campfire of this year. In years past we've had campfires in March but this year we have started in June! Oh well, we do what we can.

The boys were so excited to have a campfire and roast hot dogs. All five of them we're on site to help get wood ready, split logs, get newspaper for kindling and fire up the matches. Even though we've had this wood for a while now it was still quite difficult to get burning. (We haven't had such a smokey fire in quite some time.)

But all's well that ends well. The wood burnt down to some good roasting coals. The boys did a great job roasting their own hot dogs (except for Aleky who gave a valiant effort and then let me take over).

It was perfect weather and we enjoyed our dinner on the patio. After eating the required amount of food (they didn't necessarily eat all of their dinner) the boys roasted marshmallows. Aleky is still perfecting his technique but at least he did it all by himself.

Quinten finally started getting tired and just wanted to go to bed. Even though the sun was still up it was an hour past his bedtime and he was done for the evening. The other boys, however, thought it was absolutely fabulous that they were able to stay up. The night was extended by showers to wash away the smoke smell. So the boys didn't get to bed until after 9:00 pm! But that's summer for ya.

Dewinterizing the Swamp Cooler

After a prolonged and quite rainy spring there have been definite signs that summer may soon be here. While is the first week in June it has actually been hot enough to want the air conditioning as a working option. So the older boys got a lesson in swamp cooler management tonight.

David and Donovan got to climb up on the roof to help me get the swamp cooler running. They could hardly contain their excitement and had to be reminded repeatedly that they had to wait for me to be on the roof before they scrambled up there (we didn't want them having too much fun on their own).

The boys were big helper doing just about everything that needed to be done with a little coaching from dad.

Before long we'll have these boys trained and then watch out world!

We now have a functioning swamp cooler! Thanks for your help boys.

Family Night by Provo River

It's Memorial Day, a national holiday, but I had to go to work. So Michelle and I wanted to do something with the boys when I got home. The fact that it was raining and hailing meant that our boys had been stuck in the house all day and we needed to get them out (the tomato plants appeared to have survived the hail). But when I got home I was tired and had a headache. Michelle felt similar and we had to pool our energetic resources to come up with a plan.


We decided to run over to Maceys grocery store for their soft-serve twist ice cream cones. After that we were going to visit the mall's playground for some fun. And with 5 minutes notice to the boys we were in the car and on our way.

The ice cream was great and we have plans to go back for more (later). As we left the store we drove down State Street in Orem looking for a sporting goods store that a friend of ours had told us about. The boys had so much pent up energy that they were nearly uncontrollable and certainly embarrassing in both stores! (We love our boys but sometimes...!)

As we walked out of the store and the store clerk "yells" at our kids so that they don't run and play in State Street we changed our minds about the mall and decide that an outdoor venue is needed for our children (thankfully it had stopped raining by then). So we headed for the mountains.

We stopped at the first park we came to and decided to let our boys throw rocks in the river, one of their all-time favorite activities. As we approached the river we noticed that it is much higher and fuller than normal. Because of the increased flow of water I didn't want my boys getting to close.

(Of course, we still let them climb on the bridge...go figure!)

After throwing lots of rocks and a few tree branches in the river we spent our last few minutes of our family night at the little playground. Our boys ran all over the place and were climbing on everything. The last of the pent up energy being released before we had to go home and go to bed.

As we were driving home we asked the boys what their favorite part of the activity was. "Throwing rocks", "Pooh Sticks", and "The slide" and sounded from the back of the suburban. Finally, "Everything!" summed up the family feelings as we headed home for the night.

Wrestling With Dad

Wrestling dad has become a family favorite. The boys believe that any time they have an attitudinal advantage they have some prime directive to jump on me. This is especially true around prayer time were I am often humbled by the occasion.

Amazingly, the boys are starting to learn teamwork. Once they figure that out I'm really in trouble. At least we're all having fun, right!?

Hex Bug in the Lego Maze

David got a "hex bug" for his birthday and the family was excited to help him test out his new little toy. So we brought the legos into the kitchen and built a little maze on the table for the bug to explore. Everyone contributed (except Quinten, he just tried to pull the maze down to the floor for closer examination) and helped to create the maze. We included bridges and turns to make the bug feel right at home. The boys loved it and could have kept playing if it wasn't already bedtime.

Geo Trax Fun

Grandma Petersen was sending some Geo Trax to the cousins, or so we found out. But when Uncle Kyle dropped them off at our house we thought we had hit the jackpot. The boys immediately set to work to build an awesome trax course and they had all sorts of fun. It's pretty amazing what you can do with all these trax!

Fortunately, Michelle had identified the new stuff from our stuff and wrote down the inventory list. So when it was time to surrender this awesome addition we were able to figure it out pretty quickly. It was sad to see them go but we had fun while it lasted.

(posted 5/30/11)

Visit to the Dinosaur Museum

The other day we received an open invitation from my cousin Jessica that she would love to go with us to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. I think she was just a little surprised when we called her up 2 days later and said we wanted to take her up on that offer. They didn't have previous plans so they agreed to meet us there.

While most of the museum was dedicated to dinosaurs, there was a opening exhibit that we were able to visit first. The exhibit was hands on and talked about light (including the physics behind light, light rays, reflection & refraction, etc.). I don't know if the boys are experts on light but they had fun checking out each station in the exhibit.

But the fun really began with the big dinosaurs. They boys could hardly control their excitement as they raced around the museum.

Having their cousins along made it that much more fun. Here they built a dinosaur from the various heads, legs and tails that were hanging on the wall. Who knew this dinosaur would turn and eat them!

We spent a significant amount of time learning about errosion in this hands-on exhibit. The kids built dams and canals, hills and valleys and then watched them get washed away. I'll admit I had a little fun myself at this exhibit.

Here the boys learned all about digging up dinosaur bones. They had fun getting in lots of practice, using paint brushes to carefully excavate these ancient bones from the sand.

This was a shocking exhibit, especially coming around the corner and not expecting it! Definitely a big fish.

Another dinosaur dining experience.


It's no wonder why the dinosaurs were eating our kids. They weighed in at a whopping 300 hundred pounds! Not bad for 6 energetic boys.

We had a lot of fun at the museum and want to go back. We loved it so much we started calculating costs of a year family pass. We didn't buy the pass but we are certainly glad that we could have a fun family outing with our Wycherly cousins.

Visiting Party for the Gibbons

We were excited to find out that the Gibbons family would be in town to visit around the Pioneer Day holiday. The headed out to Virginia last year for Shae to attend law school. It was sad to see them go and so we were excited to visit with them as they passed through town. When we invited them over it seemed natural to invite our neighbors, the Simmons, and our good friends, the Johnsons, at the same time to visit with the Gibbons as well.

Michelle jumps on the phone to see what schedules are like and if they could make it down. The Gibbons said they could come over on Wednesday or Thursday but we were going to be out of town on Thursday so we just told everyone that Wednesday was the day. Everyone could make it at some point so we called the Gibbons back to find out what time they would be in town. One thing lead to another and our little dinner or dessert get-together turned into a pot-luck dinner party!


Michelle loves parties so she called up a list of friends who also knew the Gibbons. We knew we couldn't get everyone but whatever we didn't get on the first go-around the Gibbons could visit individually later. As it turned out, we had a lot of people show up and it was a blast. Everyone seemed to know everyone and the kids just ran around the yard at mach 2.


We didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this party. We had gone hiking with some other family friends so we just cleaned up the yard (a little), made a salad and hamburger buns and patties and set up some chairs and tables. No one seemed to mind and everyone had seemed to have a good time. We are grateful that the Gibbons were back in town so we could have such a fun party. We want to wish the Gibbons the best of luck as they finish up their final year of law school.

Stewart Falls with the Bruschkes

An unexpected email last week indicated that some dear family friends would be in town this week and wanted to get together to do something. With no set day, time or activity we weren't sure quite what to expect or how our friend's time would work out. So we took a shot in the dark and named 2 different days and 3 different activities hoping that at least one option would work. Luckily for us today was the day and hiking to Stewart Falls was the activity. This hike isn't too difficult and it's been a while since we've been there but we've been talking about it all summer. And the Brusches hadn't been there yet so it turned to be an excellent choice for an activity.

The Bruschkes were coming down from Park City so we decided to meet just past Aspen Grove at the parking lot (at the trail head). As soon as we got our group picture we headed up the trail. With 4 adults and 10 children ages 7 and under, we figured that everyone could keep up, moms and dads included. The older children naturally headed down the trail first and the little kids hung back with mom and dad.

The last time we had hiked this trail David had gotten so far ahead that we "lost" him and I had to run to find him. So we got smart and decided to bring walkie-talkies so we could at least maintain contact with him. The idea was good but the execution of this plan didn't go quite as we anticipated. I don't know if we have bad equipment or bad operators but we lost contact with David before we made it half-way up the trail. In fact, the rest of the older kids met us as they were walking back up the trail, they also having lost contact with David. We did finally find David, relaxing on the far side of the stream/waterfall, exactly where we didn't want him to be without supervision. As a result, David had to relinquish control of the walkie-talkie, and could past the first adult on the trail (which happened to be me, but that was better than having to wait for mom at the end of the group!). This was absolute torture for David but he needs to learn a lesson about staying together.

When the rest of us arrived at the falls we discovered about 2 dozen other hikers who had already arrived before us. That wasn't too bad, all was calm and relatively quiet. The boys immediately took to throwing rocks in the river and we needed to remind them to be careful and not launch rocks all the way across the river and hit people sitting down on the other side! Aleky had to be reminded multiple times.

While we were enjoying our lunch we noticed some guys coming down the trail at a full run, without shirts on. We assumed they were cross country runners because they were skinny as rails. Then the next group arrived...and another...and another...! Before we could finish eating the falls were swarming with cross country runners (we're guessing they were from a BYU summer camp). Some of these kids couldn't get their clothes off fast enough so they could run through the falls.

Seeing these kids run under the falls put ideas into my boys heads and before we knew what was happening we saw David entering the falls. The Bruschke's kids notice this right away and more ideas began entering young heads. In the end we had David, Donovan, Brett and myself pass under the water fall (through the chilling waters). Bailey approached the water fall but decided that she didn't have anything to prove and retreated.

Aleky didn't make the hike back. Michelle had sent me with the advanced hiking party before Aleky gave up so I was cruisin' with Quinten and the older kids (Spencer, Natalie, David, Donovan and Michael). As a result, Michelle had to pack Aleky out with the remains of lunch, sun screen and other hiking essentials she was already packing out. Fortunately Rachel assisted with packing Aleky out (who was sleeping most of the way!).

Having successfully completed the hike we decided to celebrate and headed to the Creamery on 9th for some ice cream. We had so much fun interacting with the Bruschkes on this little adventure and look forward to the next time we can do something together. The next time will probably be a California adventure of some sort but we'll wait and see.

Celebrating Independence Day

Today we celebrated Independence Day. The first thing that our boys noticed this morning were lots of hot air balloons rising into the sky. You could see them from Michael’s bedroom window and over our neighbor’s house. However, the festivities started with all sorts of commotion as the police lined our street. Shortly after the police arrived there began a stream of people, first running and then walking. We can only assume it was the Freedom Run passing our house. The boys were so excited that our scripture reading this morning lacked a certain level of spirituality.

After we finished reading scripture the boys got dressed and quickly ate their breakfast (or didn’t eat at all as the case may be) because they were so excited to see what was going on outside! The pre-parade was passing our house and we first noticed it when Darth Vader and the various Jedi Knights and storm troopers were passing by our house. That was the final straw that broke the boys anticipation backs. It would be only minutes later that we would notice the back gate unlocked and open to the park and the 4 older boys were missing.

Imagine, for a moment, 4 boys running off into the social mayhem that we common call a parade! Luckily the boys had taken their wheeled toys to get a closer look and were coming back to the house when Michelle went to look for them at the back gate (I still had to get dressed first). The second attempt didn’t fare much better. While distracted getting the stroller and the jean blanket our boys escaped out the back gate again! This time we caught up to them on the sidewalk of Center St. (at least they stayed together).

We found a spot near the 700 E roundabout. Some older kids had set up blankets and then decided that they would take up seat in the median and left their blankets unattended. Hey, at least we got an unobstructed view of the parade! The pre-parade was still going when we arrived but then there was a significant lull before the real parade finally reached us. While we were waiting for the real parade to reach us Cheyenne and Autumn found us on the parade route! That was an unexpected surprise and we’re glad that they were able to join us. The boys were excited to see the various entries but we decided that all the entries fell into 3 categories: (marching) bands, political statements, or commercial advertisements (especially banks). The parade lasted about 2 hours.

Here are some of the better entries in this year’s parade:





After the parade Autumn and Cheyenne came over to the house to allow the crowd time to dissipate. So while they waited we all sat down to lunch. Abby had an enjoyable time playing with Michael and Aleky. Once the crowd finally thinned out my sisters were able to head home. We put Aleky and Quinten down for naps and we decided to take the 3 older boys to Grandpa Jones’ house and shoot his pellet gun.

The boys thought it was great fun to shoot the pellet gun. It’s a semi-automatic rifle and has about a dozen shots per clip. David was getting pretty accurate at hitting the pop cans across the garage. Donovan and Michael’s arms aren’t quite long enough to allow them accurate aiming so they didn’t get quite as much thrill (mostly because they were missing more shots than they were hitting).

After shooting the boys headed back in the house to play with the rest of Grandma’s toys. Michael started on the computer but David quite appropriated it for himself. Donovan and Michael spent the next couple of hours playing with the various cars, blocks and parking structure in the living room. They were disappointed when it was time to pack up the toys and head home for dinner. Before we left Grandma Jones suggested we take the movie “E.T.” for the boys to watch. So the boys started watching the movie as soon as we got home, while dinner was being prepared. After a short pause in the movie to allow time for eating, we finished watching the movie together.

David had a couple of funny quotes while watching the movie. First he said, “I don’t like this movie because the alien is getting the boy into trouble.” The second quote was, “I think this movie is going to make me cry because the alien died.” How wonderful to have such great kids in our family. It has been a wonderful family day. I probably haven’t gotten enough work done but I’ve had fun with my family. It has been a great Independence Day holiday.