so glad

I am so glad we decided to put Dax in karate this summer. It has kept us busy during the hot days and he has loved it!! In two weeks he'll be tested for a rank advancement...yellow belt here we come! But, there were other reasons for enrolling Dax. It's been teaching him hard work, good listening skills, social skills, and discipline, and helped him out with coordination, technique, and practicing lots. He's learned about self-defense and stranger danger. His sensei is strict, but fun, educated, but so good with the kids, patient, but firm. I especially loved it when he taught the kids how to do the sleeper hold last week. That was fun! (insert sarcasm here). In case you don't know what that is, we'll show you! Dax's cute opponent? Wyatt of course...who else?

1. Get behind your opponent and "put your claws in". That means to wrap your legs around their waist and secure your feet in their legs.
2. Wrap your arms around your opponents neck pressing the bicep against one side of the neck by grabbing your right bicep with your left hand.
3. Use your right hand to push your opponents head towards the crook of your elbow.

4. Lay back pulling your opponent with you and squeezing the neck extremely tight.

5. Make sure your opponent is a good sport and knows how to "tap out".

6. Last but not least, always always remember Sensei Bernie's rule that you get kicked off the team if you practice these techniques at school or at home. They are only meant for bad guys and bullies, not friends, brothers or moms! I promise...you're kids are still safe to come play here! Look at this face...he wouldn't hurt a fly!

4th of july

We go camping every year. To the beach. Not to the mountains or forest, but to the beach. And we'll go to the beach in a few weeks, but compare beach camping with wilderness camping and there is a big difference. Instead of sand, there's dirt. Instead of flushing toilets and showers, there's a portapotty. Instead of the sounds of ocean waves breaking along the beach in the middle of the night you hear.....nothing. Total silence. It really freaked me out. Especially when I had to run like the wind to the bathroom at 3am all the while scaring myself silly because I can hear something along the dirt path and think I am being chased by a small animal. I was sure I was going to have an awesome story to tell in the morning how I braved a huge...chipmunk or something, but, come to find out, it was just my untied shoelace and I'm just a little ol' scaredy cat like I've always known I've been.

But, the one thing that's the same not matter where you camp is the good times and family. We headed up to Canyon Point last Friday to camp with my side of the family. It was so much fun! We had wonderful, open campsites that were covered with pine needles, logs for jumping over, tree stumps for climbing on, lakes and rivers a few miles away for fishing and a firework show in Heber that goes down as one of the best I've seen in history.

The big boys went fishing almost every morning and took the kids almost every afternoon. There was not much success, but they had a blast anyway. In fact, the only two things caught were by two of the kids. Way to go Cole and Kobi!

I had to take pictures of the boys in these silly hats. We went to the dollar spot at Target before we left town so they could pick our some festive 4th of July things, and this is what they came up with. They are so funny and wore them all day! The fireworks were amazing. It was so fun being cuddled under a blanket rather than sweating back in the valley watching a firework show.

The kids loved being with their cousins. My twin sister and her family were with us for the whole week and Dax loved being with his cousins who he hardly sees. This is Jamie's oldest, Gabriella. Dax and Gabriella have the same birthday one year apart.

The weekend was perfect....as long as you don't count the incident with the axe. It has nothing to do with Austin. Or his foot. Nope, nothing.

Good thing there is a doctor in the family...and my poor husband is okay thanks to some butterfly bandages and a technis shot on our way home. Besides, what's camping without some sort of good story to come away with??