Rain, Bricks, the New Birthdays, Two Camp-Outs, Mirror Lake and a Long Walk

Last week we had a couple of torrential downpours.  Apparently torrents of rain are irresistible.  The kids were instinctively drawn outside and into a frenzy of activity--riding bikes and scooters up and down the soaked sidewalks and through the flooded gutters, laughing wildly.

Hallee on her bike

I've been loving the sporadic heavy rains--just enough to keep my lawn from crispifying so that I don't need to turn on the sprinklers.  (I'm feeling frugal, knowing that we have a $7,500 maternity deductible coming up.)

This is what kid-joy looks like.

Zeke--soaked and happy.

Last week Casey invited us to join him at Interstate Brick for lunch and a tour of the brick-making facilities there.  It was customer appreciation day and I had no idea what we were in for.  First of all, they fed us a fancy steak lunch.  We were the only family there--it was mostly a bunch of worker-guy and burly mason types.  Somehow we got the golden ticket and they let our family tour the brick-making facility.  Apparently they used to take school groups on tours but haven't for years because of the liability involved.  We donned hard hats and entered the production compound.

Sophie, posing next to a pile of un-fired bricks that didn't make the cut.

Our tour group was just us, one architect, and a guy who'd worked for Interstate Brick for over 30 years.

They showed us everything, allowing us to get up close, and it was way more fascinating then I'd ever suspect.  There is a lot of science that goes into their process.

Zeke and Hal, watching automated robotic arms slicing long extruded sections into individual bricks before drying and firing.

One worker guy let Zeke push a button that started two robotic arms stacking bricks onto giant pallets to dry and fire.  He was in man-heaven.

The guy who gave us the tour was pretty laid back.  It wasn't until we were walking past the giant industrial kiln (largest kiln in the United Sates) that I realized where we were.  The tour guide hadn't even given my kids a safety speech, and there we were--walking within arms length of an active kiln firing bricks at temperatures near 2,500 degrees.  Legit.  I quickly briefed my kids about the importance of keeping their arms at their sides.  It was immediately apparent why they don't take kids through anymore.  It was a special gift for them to let Casey and I take our kids through and they all loved it.

Casey in front of the kiln that runs the entire length of the north end of the production warehouse.

Two weekends ago, Casey took the kids to the stake park for the annual ward camp-out and I stayed home to clean and paint.  Not a good idea for pregnant women, right?  Especially that painting thing.  The reason: A couple of weeks ago I started "seeing" my bedroom.  You can see something everyday, but since you see it every day you stop realizing how totally ghetto it really is.  Casey and I moved into our downstairs office a couple of years ago, leaving Zeke in our upstairs room.  The room we've been sleeping in had our desk and computer as well as my sewing table and walls plastered with a hodge-podge of pictures, Navajo blankets, climbing posters, cycling posters, and random junk.  Envision that with a bed wedged in the middle.  Oh yes, and lest we forget, the entire basement (including the room we've lived in for the past two years) is carpeted in orange-brown 70's shag carpet.   Since we really only slept there, it hasn't been a big deal.  Quiet, dark and cool--ideal for sleeping.  Then I started "seeing" it.  Thinking about adding a baby and a pack-and-play into the mix was making me anxious and I started day-dreaming about a more beautiful space.  Certainly it was that nesting mechanism (and knowing that I'm going to be spending a lot more time there soon) that made me think it was a good idea to gut the room, paint it, re-carpet it, and make it livable.  Yes.  I am in my 8th month of pregnancy and I spent several days doing just that.  Casey taking the kids to the ward camp-out two weeks ago was the day of genesis.  Pictures will be posted soon.

Zeke and Issac Miller at the camp-out

Casey took these pictures, so I'm not sure what Zeke was up to, but they had a great time camping out together with the girls and their absence gave me time to start my project and to go on a Saturday morning hike and lunch with my friends, Sarah and Carlynn, the next day.

Last week, the kids decided that their stuffed animals had a mass birthday coming.  August 12th was the appointed day and they demanded a celebration.  So in honor of the birthdays of all things stuffed in the house, we blew up balloons, dressed up the menagerie, and made homemade strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream for the occasion.  The celebration eventually blossomed to include the outside animals too--the bunnies and chickens that is.

The kids, ready to blow out candles for the stuffed animals' birthday.  After we had our fill of strawberry shortcake, the kids insisted on taking pieces to several of the older people on our street.

Last Friday, I took the kids up to the Uintas along with some other homeschooling families.  We settled in at Mirror Lake for canoeing, picnicking, relaxing, and playing.  We even caught a fish sans rod, unexpectedly.  (It was caught on a hook with a broken-off piece of fishing line tangled around a stick.)  

Lunch on the lakeshore.

Mirror Lake.

Sophie with Lauren and Liesl, two homeschooling friends that are in the Liberty Girls club.

Hal, eating one of our home-grown peaches.  Yum.

Last weekend, Casey took Zeke on a man camp-out with the Hendersons (Uncle Derek, and cousins Jack, Hank, and Tom).  The went down to Gooseberry near Fairview and manned out Friday and Saturday.  Here is their bounty:

Hank, Tom, Jack, and Mr. Zeke

Since the boys were off for the weekend, the girls and I decided that we needed an epic adventure of our own.  Casey had the van, so we decided that we'd go on an epic journey and walk all the way to Temple Square, which we did on Saturday morning last.  It was so much fun to spend three hours "urban hiking" with the girls.  They ask so many questions and we had constant interesting conversation.  We plotted our route to pass by Rubios, where we stopped for lunch.  After making it to Temple Square we read part of a book that we've been reading as a family (The Rose Cottage Tales) in the cool of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, touched the temple (a Sullivan tradition), did some low-cost shopping at City Creek ($15 limit), then went back to the JSMB to watch the film in the Legacy Theater.  We had half-an-hour before it started, so we wandered down to the Family Search Center, where the girls played in the kids area while a genealogist granny helped me collect some more family names for temple work.  It was a gloriously fun day, partly because it was impromptu, but mostly because I was fully present with two sweet girls the entire day.