Grandkids (Week 1)

June 22-Today I picked up Jodi's boys from Grandma C. I was so excited to see them and relieved that they felt the same way about me. I dropped my phone off at "Bad Apple" to see if they could bring it back to life. It has been encased in a bag of rice since last Friday. We met Justin, Kenzee, Nolan and Ezra at noon for a day at Lagoon. Ezra and Jack were too short for many of the rides but Nolan wanted to go on everything. Rocky was a little more hesitant this year. Jack was happy going with Ryan on the kiddie rides. Justin insisted that we all go on the log ride as a family but Jack cried all through the line. I could tell that the others waiting in line were pretty disturbed about it all. I wasn't sure what to do. I wanted Jack to face his fears and was sure he would love it if he just gave it a chance but on the other hand I felt horrible that he was so scared and traumatized. When we finally reached the log Jack stepped through it and waited on the other side. I wasn't able to go on many rides since I had to watch the kids but all in all we had a great day. It was Nolan and Ezra's first time and I think they loved it. They ended up staying until it closed. A big thanks to my niece Myndee for saving us money on discount tickets!

 I borrowed Sarah's extra flip phone in order to coordinate with Justin and Kenzee but I couldn't figure out how to use it. Not sure which was worse, not having a phone or having one I couldn't use. Ug. I'm so techno impaired and desperately missing my phone!

June 23-Today we went to the "Curiosity Museum" at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. It was better than I imagined (if you're a kid) but a nightmare for a parent. There were hundreds of wound up children all running amok through a maze of obstacles, experiments, and displays all set up for the purpose of kids doing whatever pleased them. Some of the play areas included a bank, theater, audio studio, library, climbing course, vet clinic. Everything was set up to be realistic but the kids were allowed to have "hands on." I spent most of my time looking for a child that I had arrived with. At first Ryan took off through the maze of tunnels and nets. He was barely big enough to climb up the first platform so I had to go with him to keep retrieving his shoes that would become stuck in the nets. I was the only "grown up" in the maze and could barely manipulate it myself. Finally I just let him run amok with the others. I couldn't find him for a very long time but then saw Jack helping him and another time David. They are such good brothers. 

Ryan checks the heartbeat of a critter. You could even take x-rays.

Jack had fun doing on marque on the theater. Notice "Jack is ok." 

While they all seemed happily occupied I found the quietiest place I could to call Bad Apple to check on my phone. I kept getting put on hold but couldn't because we pay for minutes. I finally got through to a tech who explained the situation. I could hear him speaking but due to the background noise the only word I could make out was his last word which was "unfortunately." I was devastated. I had kept 3 back up I-phones but when I moved I gave one to Rocky, one to Sarah and the other one to Amanda. Once I had rounded up Jack and Ryan, we spent 2 1/2 hours looking for David. I found everyone's child except mine and finally went to the front counter to report him missing. Just as I was giving a description I spotting him darting across a far away room from the corner of my eye and took off after him. I was so relieved. We could have stayed a couple more hours but by then my heart couldn't take anymore. We calmed down with some ice cream which was surprisingly affordable. 

Diesel is a surprisingly careful ice cream licker

We made it to Bad Apple just before they closed to pick up my dead phone. Of course just as I finally found a parking spot all 3 boys were sound asleep. How do people raise kids anymore? I dragged them into the store to retrieve the little dead iphone body and much to my surprise the tech handed me my working phone and said the screen just has a little water damage but it works fine. He also told me I didn't owe anything!!! I floated out of there with all 3 boys intact and my phone. 

June 24-We met Kenzee and the kids up Big Cottonwood Canyon to hike around Silver Lake. 

It has always been my goal to get a picture of my grandkids but I can never seem to make it happen when they are all looking at the camera at the same time. We sat them on a rock and both Kenzee and I took several photos. I deleted all of mine but Kenzee had ONE that turned out. Nobody is really smiling because we had put them through hell just trying to get a decent picture but at least we can see their faces! 

Jack 7, Ryan 3, Lucy almost 2, David 9, Ezra 6, Nolan 8

That night we went to play at Sugarhouse park with Amanda. We had so much fun watching a dog going down the slides and wading in the cool water. Amanda soon realized her phone was missing. What is it with phones lately? I tried to call it with mine so we could find it and my phone wouldn't work. Ug! We rushed home and I called her phone from the landline and a guy answered it and was nice enough to wait at the park for Amanda to go get it. After turning mine off and on it started working again too. All is right with the world once more. 

June 25-Today we parked the car at Little America and then took the Trax train in to Temple Square. We got to listen to an Organ recital (one song) in the old tabernacle, visit the museums and watch the movie, "Meet the Mormons" in the JS Memorial building. The funnest part of the day though was killing some time in the children's play area at the family search library.

There were a few costumes and Ryan found some long red satin evening gloves that he was sure belonged to Spiderman. His brothers thought adding a lovely pink satin gown with ruffles would complete the outfit and they convinced him it was a spiderman suit. He would clench his fists and get so angry if anybody insinuated that he was beautiful or a princess. He would yell, "I'm not a princess, I'm Spiderman!"

Ryan didn't like the hat. Spiderman doesn't wear that kind of a hat.

Ryan with his cousin James

 We were definitely laughing at him and not with him. It was good entertainment though. After turning him back into our Diesel we walked around City Creek Mall, took a couple wrong trains but eventually made it back to our car in time to meet Richard's family at Chuckie Cheese. The kids had fun playing all the games with their Sorenson cousins while I enjoyed consuming a large pizza by myself. I turned them over to Coralie for the weekend.