Missing Pieces

~~~~~~~~Yuck Warning~~~~~~~~~

I recently read The Missing Piece by Shel Silversten to my kids and they seemed to enjoy it as much as I did when I was a wee lass. Now Rory is thrilled to be missing a piece.

And Simeon is not so thrilled to be missing his piece. Darn piano bench landing on his toe.

Bee Crazy

On our way home we took a side trip to my brother Uncle Russell's home. My kids love their uncles! Rory call his home a tree house which isn't too far from accurate. I wish I had taken a picture of his cabin!

We took an easy hike next to his place. It was beautiful and buggy. Simmy was nervous crossing this bridge so Rory helped out. Simeon asked "Are you nice to me now!?!" She said yes but later let him know she would not be nice all the time. What a realist.

On our way back Roger and Rory raced back to Russell's cabin. Roger went inside while Rory hid behind a tree to scare us when we got near. She did scare us but in a different way. Before we were close we heard her scream. And scream. And Scream! It takes a lot to get me worried, she screams all the time but this was scared or hurt or something. We guessed she saw a snake until she was not stopping screaming. She screamed and ran into the cabin.
I bolted after her and when I was close to his house I was hit, in the back, by something sharp. That clued me in that she was attacked by bees. I ran into the house and saw her on the floor grabbing multiple spots with Roger checking her out. I asked him to take out my stinger because it felt like something was in me. No stinger on Rory or me. By then the boys had caught up and we realized we were still under attack. Multiple bees were in the house and they were MAD! Roger got stung in his arm. No stinger. Rory was attacked again. Roger and Russell attacked and killed those bees. We won! Well not without wounds. Roger 1, Kelly 1, Rory 9. Here are 7 on her back. Yes I realize this is the 2nd nudey picture in 1 month.

What had Rory done? Apparently she stepped on a hive on the ground behind the tree. My photographer brother took this picture with my camera (Well technically Roger's work camera because I lost mine a year ago Remember?) He also saved the day by taking a stick and throwing her shoe out of the pile risking his own physical well being. She was desperate for her $5 shoe!

So what we have come to realize is that this was no bee but a yellow jacket that has a hive in the ground and does not lose its stinger or die when it stings. They are also obviously very aggressive. Aggressive except Russell has never had a problem with them before. Rory just happened to be in the wrong spot. This is the yellow jacket.



This is a bee. See.



We are so grateful that she is not allergic. I had a hard time falling asleep worried she would stop breathing. What would we do? We were deep in the forest with no phone service. She slept in in the morning causing me more worry. She was fine when she woke up though and we had some more good fun.

PS- this has been one of the hardest posts to write. All the words and few pictures were erased 3 times then I had fights with videos changing when I moved them. I also had words turn blue and become underlined which took some work. I think blogger is changing some things and has therefore made my life harder.

Visiting Family

We decided to take one more trip before school starts. The kids needed cousin time and we sure had good fun!

Lost

Here we are with Roger's family. The kids have plenty of room to roam and run free with cousins. There are 14 people in the house talking and playing. One of those people is an old neighbor absorbed in teaching me about his beloved flowers. I am listening when I realize I have not seen Simeon for a while. I try to ask some passerbyers if they know where he is. Nope. Another 10 min goes by before I have to excuse myself and start looking. Last I remembered, he was in the hot tub. Nope. I ask for more help. We search the house, the trailer, the tree house, the cars, the orchard, the street, the everywhere. No Simeon. I jump in the car to start that kind of search when they yell they found him.

Apparently he had asked Grandma if he could take a bath. So glad he was ok. I had started to panic and it takes me a while to get to that point.

Some August Fun

Visiting Roger at work

Swim Team Awards

Fun at another local park

Good Fun!

I Need a Hero

Hero Camp came and went again for the 3rd year and we loved every minute. Here is year 2 and year 1 (scroll down for this one) for reminders. I was able to be much more involved this year and co chaired day one. Roger was amazing and made our Goliath for the week. If you want good details of this year's, my friend posted an entry on her blog that describes each day well. Here are some videos from the last day's songs that the kids had been working on all week. The "I Need a Hero" Song has been used and altered each year making it the Hero Camp song. I don't know how well clicking on the link to the right works. It should take you to a Web Album of the pictures I took and the rest of the songs. As soon as I get a slide show of the week I will post it.
Videos
"I Need a Hero"- Whole Group- I could not find Rory and Simeon until the end so don't try too hard
"Always Remember"- Whole Group
"Go Go Go Joseph"- Rory's Group
"Jonah was a Prophet"- Jt's Group
and um Simeon's Song- Simeon's Group
o C

Fear of Heights

We have a new park in Orange County that has a giant balloon ride. The conditions have to be optimal to let anyone ride. We have unsuccessfully tried to go a number of times to find it is too windy or there is not enough visibility. Last Friday while we had our friend's kids over for a normal date night swap so we decided to take them all to the balloon. I have been excited for the ride. My girlfriend went recently and blogged about how the experience was OK, not exceptional, but good for an adventure. So off we went





We had to wait a little bit for weather to improve and to wait our turn but no problem, Roger brought his trusty frisbee. Then it was our turn.

As my title suggestions, somebody found they had a fear of heights and that someone ended up being. . .me. I have been on top of the Empire State Building and that was no big deal because something was under me. In a balloon, there is nothing below except a few ropes. Panic rose in my chest and sunk in my belly. I would have never let on to my fear if one of our guests did not start jumping 400ft into the air. My feet were planted and I had to distract myself with taking pictures. Truly that is what got me through. As soon as I was about to start screaming I would just take a picture.

As we came back down the kids were all asking to go back up. Ain't no way. Good Fun in a sick sort of way

Future Chemist

So Josh is a future chemist. He is always trying to come up with experiments. I don't like them at all! I often find weird things in the freezer and in his room. Once I asked him to run all experiments by me. He came and told me after the fact. He asked to do an experiment today. He wanted to combine Vinegar and Fish oil and heat them up. Nothing happened so he added ice and dish washing liquid of coarse. In the mean time Roger asked me to make him a lemon slushy. Time passes and I come down stairs in the kitchen and finish some left over "slushie" on the counter. Oh no, it was not slushie. Should my throat be burning right now?

Savior of the World

I don't like being dependent on other people for pictures but sometimes that is how things work. While I am waiting for pictures from last weeks Hero Camp I will share pictures I just received from our Stake's production of Savior of the World. Josh and I were part of this amazing production that took place last March but took up a lot of time from January on. We were able to be on stage for a little bit and were part of the amazing angel chorus. When our stake does anything they do it big. We have a lot of professional people in our area coupled with the amazing spirit that was put into it it was amazing.

They built out a stage to have theater in the round and built a colonnade around the audience that the angels choir stood on. The Spirit penatrated.

Roger was a champ watching Simeon and Rory during so many rehearsals. Simeon and Rory did have to muscle through a few rehearsals in the nursery. Good Fun