Summer

I had started this post and then was going to add pictures but my on the ball husband got it done and posted. Included is why there is a picture with the car on its side.

I can't believe it has only been 3 weeks since I last blogged. So much has happened in that short time that it seems like it has been months. We've had near death experiences, summer heat with swimming, gardening, a new calling, a destroyed and partially replaced kitchen, and family to help enjoy everything. As a result there are a lot of pictures that I would like to share but won't to save everyone from Mower overload!

Grandma and Grandpa came for the yearly 4th of July visit. We had decided to spend it in the tiny town of McCarthy and visit the ore mine of Kennicott. McCarthy is a very interesting place located in Wrangle- St. Elias National Forest. It is an 8 hour drive from Anchorage and 60 or so miles is gravel road, not a very wide gravel road. On our way in a large truck, going very fast pushed us off into the soft shoulder and we started to slip down the embankment. I am so glad that Matt was the one driving and not me! He was so much calmer than I ever would have been. Our angels were working over time as we hit the lone standing clump of trees that kept us from rolling all the way down the side. We had so many people stop and offer help. Nobody was hurt, the air bags didn't deploy and we became very well known. It's hard to forget our crew! As we offered a prayer of thanks, Carsten kept assuring us that the gospel would help us. The sweet spirit that was there despite being stuck in the middle of nowhere with our car turned over was so calming to each of us. Luckily there was only a minor dent in top of the car and some scratches.



Our visit to the Kennicott mine would be pages long but the short and sweet version is, it was AWESOME! The boys were giving the tour by the end and we couldn't have had a better guide. He went right along with my little inquisitive group.


It was HOT! I know 85 doesn't sound hot to most lower 48'ers but up here it may say 85 but feels closer to 95. Our theory is that you are closer to the sun and the since the sun doesn't go down it just gets warmer instead of cooling off in the evenings. So we brought out the pool and made slip and slides and ate lots of popsicles. As result my garden and flowers went nuts. It's been so much fun having soo many flowers. I've also been enjoying the fruits of our garden.


I have a received a new calling to work with the Young Women. I'm very excited but very nervous. I often times feel not much older than them. I've felt my self being prepared and the promptings to do better at my scripture study and prayer. It's funny how this happens, the preparation for something that will truly change you and your family. As we look at our schedules for the next school year and I think back to those early days in Pullman when I was longing for some things to do. What was I thinking!!! My calender is already full for August.

Along with the full calender in August, school will start! Now I'm not excited to have Sophie and then Benjamin gone all day but the fighting has become too much! The kids do really well together but they have their limits. Sophie wants to do her thing and the boys aren't always game for that. The noise level always seems to be on high all the time. I might be able to catch up on some laundry and have the bathroom clean for at least 2 hours before the ring around the tub appears again.

Weekend Get Away

A slide show of our weekend together sans munchkins to celebrate 10 wonderful years together.

Awakenings

The boys have been very observant lately.

Benjamin: " Mom I'm starting to have hair on my arms. Do girls get hair too?" Sophie replied, "Yeah and I'm getting it on my legs too!

This one is a bit PG but so funny. Carsten holding up his shirt and points, "Mom what are these?"
Not one to beat around the bush I reply, "those are your nipples."
Carsten: "Do all boys have 2 nipples?"
Mom: "Yes"
Carsten: "MOM!" (with wide eyed wonder) "Do girls have them too?!"
The conversation continued with what do nipples do and why do we have them. Since I wasn't really sure how to answer told him to ask his Dad.

We've had several of these types of conversations lately with Carsten as he's becoming more aware of the differences and similarities of the sexes.

Benjamin came with me to softball practice out in the "country". It's really just down the street from the High school but we take a back road that seems to take you out to the middle of no mans land. On the side of the road there is a huge wooden boat that has been retired. Benjamin called it the "country boat".

The boys were making me another flower bed today. Carsten kept asking Matt if this was mom's new bed and was she really going to sleep out here?

A girls night out- Gull Rock

A great friend decided to organize a girls night out. The kind of girls night that got our husbands really excited for us to fully participate in. They were so excited in fact that they did most of the packing and willingly took other people's children so that everybody who wanted to could participate. With lots of sweat, great food and even better company we had a great backpacking trip to Hope Alaska. I know every girl dreams of this night out. 3 of us had our daughters, ages 8 and 5, we carried 35lbs of gear, went 10 miles round trip, crossed streams, filtered water, set up tents, started a fire, and strung up our food in a tree. It was again brought to my attention how "lazy" I've become having a wonderful husband around. I haven't started a fire on my own in 10 years!

We only had two near accidental run ins with wildlife. The scariest being a very large animal (bear we assume) crashing through the forest as two of us had lagged behind while helping our daughters on a potty break. We had just asked the girls to come hold our hands (a prompting) when the crashing began. We started speaking very loudly stating that we were humans, not a very tasty meal and the additional food we were carrying would be of no use to it. It was the first time that I have ever had to take the safety off the bear spray and have it in the defensive position. After a few more crashes it finally stopped. We never saw it.

Then very shortly there after catching up with the rest of the group a baby moose was spotted. Even scarier than a bear is mama moose. Moose are not the world's smartest animal and when they have their little ones they can be especially testy. Which would also explain why a bear would be in the close vicinity.

I was especially impressed with our little girls who hiked the whole way carrying their own gear and food. This is going to become a yearly activity for us.

THANK YOU HUSBANDS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!!!!

Not to think that the boys and Josette were left out of anything they had a great time with Dad. After a movie and milkshakes on Friday they went on their own hike up Baldi. Baldi is not a nice easy flat hike. It's up a mountain and the boys made it all the way to the top. Benjamin's comment about climbing to the top, "I could see Fred Meyer Mom!" Forget the lakes, ocean and trees that make it a spectacular view.

Memorial Day Weekend

We dreamed of a nice camping trip at the lake. Biking with friends and hiking around in the beautiful sunshine. What we really did was.....

First of many Soccer practices.

A dance recital...

that the boys survived with out any outbursts. It's just a good thing that Benjamin's little crush Jordan was dancing in most of the dances. (She's 17 and used to be one of my MiaMaids that Benjamin has loved since day one.)

Matt built one of these. For all those garden tools that we use but 3 months a year. And the huge snow tires that take up most of our garage.

While I built one of these....and loaded and unloaded 20 bags of sand to fill the box.
Worked on my garden and mowed the lawn.

Had a bar-b-que with close friends. Roasted marsh mellows, ate yummy food and put our feet up for a little bit.

Meanwhile, the kids ate a lot of popcicles and did a lot of swinging.

Sunday which is not included in the photo story was filled with Matt speaking in two wards and feeding the missionaries, always a treat for the kids.

And of course a classic Sunday conversation during the passing of the sacrament between Matt and Carsten.

Matt: "Carsten why don't you draw a picture of Jesus or of something Jesus did?"
Carsten: "I like drawing bugs."
Matt: "Yes, but we need to try and think about Jesus during the sacrament. Bugs don't help us think of Jesus."
Carsten: "Dad, Heavenly Father created the bugs."

What are you supposed to say to that?

Pink Couch, 4 min., Cindy Lou Who

Our own little Cindy Lou Who. Her hair has gone into this crazy growing stage and we can now get the two that stick up. She is so blond and curly that we get comments all the time. It's almost like being in Hawaii again.

This is a quilt I made for my newest little niece. It was the largest one I've ever completed and the first time I really did free motion quilting. After a few fights with the machine and finally taking it in for a tune -up I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

On to the legacy of the pink couch. This couch has been in the Mower family since the beginning of it's life 25 or so years ago. The pink couch was a bed for many a family members, provided good jumping points for my boys and had been just an all around great couch. In fact it had been soo loved that you could feel the boards in the back and the boards at the bottom. It finally found a new home outside of the Mower family and I even got 10 bucks for it! It has been replaced with some very comfy leather couches that we got from some friends who were moving. Matt can't wait for football
season to start.

Keeping our garage sale open an additional 3 hours really paid off. We sold the couch and an old mattress that was just
as old as the couch. I love cleaning out stuff but it made for a very long couple of days. Thankfully the next day was Mother's Day and I got to take the day off.

Preschool is officially over!!!! I had an end of year party at the house for both preschool groups. ( I had done a different group for Benjamin and Carsten.) Of course the battery to the camera was dead but I got one picture of the kids doing the parachute. We had face painting and a bean bag toss. I'm not much of an artist so it's a good thing the kids just thought it was cool to have something on their face. We also had homemade pizza with other salads. It was a fun year but I must admit that I am very happy that I don't have to worry about it for a little while. Doing two different groups was really tiring at times but well worth it for the boys to have their own times. I'm just grateful that I had so many other moms who helped pick up and drop off while I was teaching the other group. Next year it will just be the C man to teach.
With that little bit in mind there are only 3 days of school left. HOORAY! The weather is still holding and I can't wait to get out biking and hiking with the kids and not worry about having to get back in time. I'm also so excited to have Sophie home with me again. I really miss having her around during the days. It's going to be really hard once Benjamin starts. They are all growing up way to fast. But the flip side is that I am starting to get some of those little other goals done. Like I might be able to run a long distance race next year. My body is starting to return and will get to stay one size for a while. It's the little things that I look forward too.

Matt and I have been trying really hard to get in a date night at least every week. This week was a bike ride out a Eklutna. Beautiful weather and not much mud made for so great riding. Now Matt has a bit of a history with this trail. 3 years ago he came out to pick me up from a girls camp. Mile 1 flat tire, Mile 5 another flat tire and on the return trip another flat tire. 3 flats in one ride! So we began our great date and 4 minutes and 3 seconds into the ride... a flat tire. We were right before the 1 mile post. After 10 minutes of trying to get the spare pumped up we called it good and made it 4 miles before having to turn around.

Throwing the watch away

We have had 4 days of 70 plus weather and as a result the kids have been outside from 8am till 8pm. I extended that until midnight getting yard work done. I also realized that I didn't take a single picture during this time. But we did run through the sprinklers, wear sandals and shorts, and get some color on our cheeks.

It was also my week to drive kids to school. I decided that I am more than ready for school to be over with! I'm so tired of having to have everyone up, dressed and fed by 8am. Out the door shortly there after and running around making sure that I'm everywhere on time. Now mind you I limit what we do and have been saying no a lot more lately. I am ready to throw the watch out and let the kids wake-up when they are ready to get up, take our time with breakfast, get the breakfast dishes done, a load of laundry going and beds made before I leave the house. I also realize that I struggle being the good homework encourager when it's the nicest weather we've seen in 2 years. How do I make Sophie stay inside and do her homework when that's the last thing in the world I want to do. We did get it all done but this is another thing that summer break brings. All I can say is 12 days of school left and no more fighting mornings (to get up), afternoons (to get homework done), and evenings to get to sleep so that we can start all over again. HURRAY FOR SUMMER BREAK!!!!! Now out to tempt fate some more and try planting my garden 3 weeks early.