Friday, August 5, 2011

The joy of sisters...

So we have this older sister in our house who likes to give makeovers.  Only one problem.  She only has one other sister who isn't always around when Bailey gets in her makeover giving mood.  Caleb thinks it is hilarious to comply.
 While mom and dad don't find it all that funny for their nine year old to put on a dress and let his big sister style his hair and makeup, we do admit he makes a pretty cute girl.  The only saving grace in this scenario is that we used to do the same things with our brother growing up.  Hopefully it's just a rite of passage...
 However, Peyton is around often enough that she gets made over as well.  She LOVES having Bailey do her hair and makeup.
 Of course Bailey gets out the camera and makes her "clients" model their makeovers which they love as well.
 I love that my kids like each other and play so well together.  They don't know it but they really are the best friends that each one of them has.  They can play longer and have funner with each other than anyone else. 
How did we ever end up so blessed?

Summer Vacation...CHECK!

We aren't much of a summer vacation type of family.  We prefer to vacation during the winter when lines at amusement parks aren't as long and use the summer for camping.  We want the excuse in the winter to escape the cold and head to warmer weather as well. 
 A couple of years ago however, Mat had work up north and we took the kids to Park City for the first time.  We loved it then and have been back every summer since!  We couldn't let this summer pass up by with out a trip to the cooler weather and all of the awesome rides.  We were planning on spending most of our time in Park City but our first morning there we woke up to a ton of cloud cover and rain.  Knowing the rides in Park City don't run in the rain we headed down to Lagoon instead.  It turned out to be a perfect day at Lagoon.  The rides were minimal and it didn't rain once.  It stayed cooler in the morning and warmed enough in the afternoon for the kids to play at Lagoona Beach.
 We found out that Peyton was in fact made from the same mold as the rest of the kids and couldn't get enough of the fast rides.  Every ride was followed by her asking "Again? Can I go again?"  She was able to get on a few roller coasters and older kids rides and loved them all the more.
Bailey had asked if she could try out the sky swing so we told all the kids they could go together.  Easton was still a bit uneasy about it so Mat had to face his fear and go with the older two.  Of course after Easton watched the three go by he wanted to try it out as well.  Next time for him.
 We were able to go on as many rides as we could handle at Lagoon and we even ended up staying until an hour before close.  We never last that long.
We stayed up in Park City the following day along with the rest of the world.  It was packed for a Tuesday but we got day passes none the less.  We love the alpine coaster but the line was super long so we only rode it twice.  Of course the kids loved the Olympic bungee and made it look easy once again.  All three older kids were able to work in triple backflips and awed the crowd with their skill.  Peyton particularly loved it.  She got a really good operator that let her bounce really high and she didn't want to stop.
 We had one minor hangup during the trip.  Mat stayed back with Peyton while I took the kids up one last run on the Alpine slide.  There was a moose nearby that caused us to get stuck on the lift.  It would have been fine except we had another rider with us and my kids were getting super antsy and it started getting cold.  By the time we reached the top the moose had left so we started of on our sleds.  While I was sliding down the hill my cell phone came loose and was sliding around on the sled.  I tried to grab it while I was still in motion and took a tumble (in my skirt) on the slide.  I came down the mountain a tad scraped up and quite humiliated.  No one saw the crash thankfully but Mat and the kids had a great time laughing at how clumsy I am.  We gathered up the kids and started walking to the parking lot and I started to feel itchy...
By the time we got into the car I was really itchy.  By the time we got to the hotel I was MISERABLE!  It felt like the inside of my skin was on fire.  I quickly dashed up to our room and showered to tried to get whatever I was allergic to off me and it got worse.  Mat was gone to buy some allergy medication and I could feel my throat starting to close off.  I looked in the mirror and the bottom half of my face looked like the joker from batman.  My lips and ears were very swollen and I was in fact still miserable.  Bailey was freaking out wanting Mat to come back and all the kids were worried.  I took some medication and just tried to calm myself down. Mat stayed close by ready to call an ambulance while I kept saying it would be fine that he needed to take the kids somewhere else so they didn't have to see me like that.  Mat gave me a priesthood blessing and about 10 minutes later I started feeling some relief.  I was still talking funny but I started to be able to feel part of my tongue and could tell the worst was over.  I took another shower and realized that the medication was making me very drowsy.  I went and layed down and within the hour I was almost back to normal.  Seriously, I was scared.  My kids were scared.  I've never felt so out of control in my life.  I am very grateful it did not become more severe.  We decided that when my skin scraped along the slide that I must have gotten fiberglass particles in me and had an allergic reaction to it.  I felt 100% better the following morning. 
We had such a fun time I felt awful to ruing our last night in Park City.  At least it will always be a memorable vacation right?