Fun in Logan

As I mentioned in the previous post, Russell has applied for a full-time Firefighter/Paramedic job in Logan, UT.  After passing the physical test on July 21, he qualified for the written test and interview.  After returning home from the Morwood reunion, we unpacked, did laundry, worked for 3 days, and repacked our bags to head back up north to Logan for the interview.  We made great time traveling especially with two kids.  I swear it used to take like 8-9 hours to get to Logan from St. George but we made the trip in 5!  We left at one o'clock or so and made it up to Logan around 6:30 or 7.  We were amazed!  Any way when we got to Logan we stopped at the famous Angie's and ate dinner with Russell's Uncle Paul and cousin Bryson.  The food was great.  Even Colby ate every bite of his spaghetti.  After dinner we headed to Paul and Charlene's house where we were staying for the weekend.  We watched a movie and headed to bed, tired from travelling. 

The next morning (Friday July 27th), Russell headed to Bridgerland Tech at 7:00 am to take his written test.  He said he thinks he did okay on the test except for one part about calculating hose lengths because he missed a vital part of that group of questions.  Other than that he said it was a good test.  The test lasted 2.5 hours so he came back to the Phillip's house around 10:30 to get us.  We spent the rest of the day playing with my friend, Trista, and her cute little girls, Jaydee and Kaycie.  Our first stop was the Willow Park Zoo:

The kids had a blast walking around seeing all of the different animals.  We saw a bobcat, tortoises, bald and golden eagles, emus, elk, porcupines, raccoons, little turtles, monkeys, parrots, and a whole bunch of different birds and ducks!  The kids ran from fence to fence looking at each different animal and saying how cool they were.  I think the most favorite part of the zoo was the duck feeding area:

We could purchase duck food (or fish food as the sign said but we really think it is just dog food!) for 10 cents from the little machine and throw it to the ducks and watch as they ate it.  We probably spent a dollar in dimes just buying food to feed the ducks.  It was so much fun.  Colby's favorite animals at the zoo were definitely the ducks.  We would run to the fences and point in and say "DUCKIES!"  He loved looking at them he didn't want to leave to see any other animal.  I tried to take him over to see the big tortoise but when I wasn't looking he ran back over to the duck pond to see the ducks. 

It was definitely a fun trip to the little zoo but as you can see, the kids were tired by the time we were done.  All they wanted was to get drinks of water but they tried to be good sports as their crazy moms tried to get a picture of all four of them together.

After the zoo, we walked over to Willow Park which is right next to the zoo and had lunch.

Once again the kids had a blast playing on the slides and swings.  Even Colby thought he was as big as his sister and climbed to the top of the jungle gym to go down the biggest slides.  This boy has no fear!  I did have to help him go down this big red slide though because it was a little too steep for my liking.  Unfortunately I think slides used to be bigger when I was a kid because the slide was a tight fit for Colby and me to go down together but we made it out alive.

After the park, we decided we should cool off by getting some ice cream.  Trista took us to the Gossner cheese factory and we not only got some yummy huckleberry ice cream, we also came home with a case of flavored milk boxes.  We got every flavor imaginable: Orange cream, strawberry, chocolate, banana, cookies & cream, mango, and even root beer milk.  They are all really tasty and the good thing about it is Colby can drink these without getting sick!  Yeah maybe he will outgrow this milk allergy someday!  All of the kids we so tired by this time that we all decided to head back home for a nap.  That night we met back up with Trista and her husband and went out to eat a Firehouse Pizza.  Also a very good restaurant. 

On Saturday (28th) Russell had his interview with the fire department.  During the interview he was also given a medical scenario test to test his paramedic skills.  We waited outside in the car while he had is 20-30 minute interview so that we could head back to St. George when he finished.  Russell said he felt pretty good about the whole interview and he felt very confident about the medical portion as well.  So now we just wait and see if we get the job.  If we do, that will be great because the pay is almost double of St. George but the bad thing is we will have to move again.  If we don't get the job it will be a bummer but it was definitely a good experience testing and getting used to the way fire/medic job interviews work.  So we will see.

We headed home and made good time on the way down too. 

On the way home, we stopped at Wendy's to get some lunch and we couldn't resist taking a picture of Colby with his hamburger.  He loved eating that thing and he looked so funny with this big hamburger in is hands eating like a grown-up!  We also made one other stop in Orem for our traditional stop at Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  We got a dozen of their yummy doughnuts and headed the rest of the way home.  This was a fast trip but definitely a fun trip.

Morwood Reunion

The Morwood Reunion was over July 20 - 24 this year.  We all met on Seven Mile in Fish Lake.  It had been a long time since I had been to Seven Mile camping.  It was a lot of fun.  We went up a day early on the 19th.  July 19th is Russell's birthday so after we got the trailer leveled and camp set up, we celebrated his 29th birthday on the mountain in the trailer.

Colby and Emily helped me make the cake the day before and Emily even reminded me to bring the candles so I wouldn't forget.  Russell was surprised to have a birthday cake on the mountain. 

Friday (20th) Russell travelled up to Logan, UT to test for the Logan City Fire Department.  They are offering a full-time Fire-Medic position and he couldn't pass up the opportunity to apply.  He completed his physical test in 4 minutes which qualified him for the written test and oral interview next weekend.

While we were camping, it rained pretty much every day.  It always does this every time we go camping at Fish Lake so we were used to it.  Luckily, the sky cleared up and was sunny for our Family Olympics on Saturday (21st):

We all gathered around Janet (who was in charge this year) and listened as she told us all of the obstacles we had to go through to win the Family Olympics.  We were all divided into about 7 teams and it was fun to be put with some cousins we don't get to see or talk to that often.  We were on the purple team.

During the Olympics, we races on Fun-Noodles like stick horses, played crochet with an orange in a nylon tied to our waist, hopped in gunnysacks, three-legged race in a gunnysack, tried to run with and orange between our legs, and finally had to find a gumball in a plate of whipped cream and blow a bubble to end the race.  I don't think our team won but we sure had a good time while we were at it.

Colby was a little too small to participate and Emily said she was too tired so they hung out with Great-Grandma and cheered for everyone else as they ate their suckers.

The next day, Sunday the 22nd, we all went fishing at Mill Meadow.  This was Colby's and Emily's first time fishing.

Emily got a new Barbie fishing pole and had a lot of fun casting and reeling it in (mostly reeling it in!)  She especially loved catching her blue fish!  Colby loved finding rocks and throwing them in the lake the best of all!  We didn't catch anything which made it a great fishing trip!  

  After fishing, we headed back to camp because it was starting to rain again.  When we got back to camp, we had a family craft where we covered little Books of Mormon.  They turned out really cute.  I made one for Colby and Emily.  Emily has us read out of her book every night. 

Monday 23th we headed home.  Russell had to work on the 24th.  It rain during the night and was still drizzly in the morning while we were cleaning up camp.  The ground was so slick and muddy that all our truck did was spin its wheels so we had to have Clint hook up to our trailer and use his four-wheel drive to pull it out and down to the gravel road.  Then he had to pull our truck up to more solid ground so we could get a grip and quit spinning.  There are benefits of having a four-wheel drive truck!  Thanks Clint we would have been stuck for good.  We finally made it home and got everything cleaned up.  It was a fun reunion and it was so nice to get out of the heat and cool off in beautiful Fish Lake.  It was also really nice to be with family and see cousins we only get to see once a year it seems like.  Colby and Emily also had a blast playing with all of their cousins and getting dirty outside all day.  Colby was having a hard time walking on the uneven ground but by the end of the weekend he was a pro at walking over bumps and rocks.  We all had a good time.

Family Pictures

We had Farnsworth Family pictures taken about a month ago before Jen and Rick moved up north.  I think they turned out really good.

Here are a few pictures of the siblings:

Of course they can only be serious for one shot and the rest of them were silly like this one!

We also got pictures of all 5 grand kids:

Colby 1, Emily 3, Paul 5, AnnaLynn 2 months, and Alex 3.

Here is a fun family picture of Russell and the kids:

Russell was mowing the lawn one night and Emily wanted to help him.  Colby didn't want to be left out either so he helped out too.  It was so cute and fun to watch I had to get a picture.

Happy 4th (and 5th) of July!

Happy 4th of July!  We are so "Proud to be an American where at least (we) know (we're) free!"  I love that song.  Any way thank you to all the service men and women that keep this country free. 

Unfortunately, we were kind of boring this year though.  Russell was working because it was one of his required holidays this year.  I was in bed sick with a lovely combination of mono and morning sickness.  (Yeah!)  So Colby and Emily missed the parades and the hot dog barbecue we normally have and got to watch movies as I was trying to feel better.  We have been hit with what seems like our share of sickness lately.  A couple weeks ago, we found a rash all over Colby and we found out it was that stupid Hand, Foot & Mouth disease the is going around.  We kept him home from church and everything for about a week when we found the same rash on Emily's feet too.  So they were both Quarantined to the house and Russell and I (well mostly Russell due to my before mentioned circumstances) sanitized all of the toys and the house and locked the toy room door so they couldn't re-infect the toys.  Luckily Emily's case was very minor compared to Colby's and they should never get this again.  After about another week, they are finally feeling better and their appetites are back.  Colby is so funny, he is eating everything he can because he didn't eat hardly anything for like two weeks.  Now that is appetite is back, he seems to always be hungry.  He will go to our cupboard and bring me cans of beans or fruit or even mushrooms so I can open it and feed him.  He is so funny.  Then to top it off, I went to the Instacare last week to be checked because my throat was killing me and I thought I had Strep and I wanted to get better fast for the baby.  Well, no I didn't have Strep, I had Mono (don't ask me where I got this because the only person I have been kissing is Russell and he is fine!).  Mono is a virus so there is nothing you can do about it except wait it out.  So mono and pregnancy really explained my constant fatigue over the last few weeks and then there was my enlarged spleen, and my tonsils that had swelled to the size of golf balls (literally!).  Yeah I spent last week in bed trying to get over this thing and at the same time trying to keep the baby safe too.  The Instacare doctor said mono wouldn't hurt the baby but I wasn't taking any chances.  Russell has been great in taking care of the kids and fixing meals. Thank You!  And like I said before, I have awesome primary counselors that have stepped up to the plate in my absence.  Thank You!  Thank you to my mom as well for coming over and fixing lunch for my kids, putting dinner in the crock pot, bringing yummy cinnamon rolls, and vacuuming and sweeping my floor while I slept and Russell worked.  My work has been great too by letting me have a few weeks (or more) off.  I am feeling a little better.  My tonsils are back to normal size and I am not sleeping all day and night anymore.  I am still tired and taking it very easy but for the most part better.  Thank You to our Home Teacher for helping Russell with a blessing and to his wife (also my secretary) for bringing us a very delicious dinner.  Any way enough of my sob story because I am blessed to have great helpers and a great family. 

And on to the 4th of July:  I was feeling much better by that night so Colby, Emily and I drove up to the old airport to see the fireworks.  Emily had been looking forward to this for days or even weeks.  Russell was doing his first assignment as a fire fighter and was watching standby in case the fireworks started a fire.  Because of this, we got VIP parking up on the old airport away from everyone else.    

The city set off fireworks in three different locations, the red hill, the Sun bowl, and the old airport.  It was really cool but I wish they would have done one location at a time instead of all together because there was no way you could watch everything at the same time without missing something.  We were about 200 or 300 yards away from the fireworks on the airport so it seemed like we were right under them!  I thought it was awesome but Emily hated it because of the loud booming.  She cried every time the airport fireworks went off.  Colby was mesmerized by the whole thing and didn't make a sound.  I did have to cover his ears when the airport fireworks went off because they were kind of loud.  I love watching fireworks.  When they were over, we spent close to a half hour getting home due to the traffic.  It seemed the entire city of St. George was up on the airport road trying to get home.  Emily and Colby fell asleep almost as soon as I started the car which was perfect.  Russell got home at close to 1 am after having a blast chasing fires with the other firefighters.

The next day was my 27th birthday! Yes I have come to the realization that I am getting OLD!  Despite my circumstances, it was a good birthday. 

Russell, Emily and Colby had a blast making my birthday cake.  Colby loved chopping the cake instead of spreading the icing.  We all laughed at him.  For my birthday, I got a new folding table for the camp trailer; we have been needed one of these forever.  Also for my birthday, Emily put on her dance outfit and shoes and did her own special dance for me.  Then Colby joined in on the dance and they had such a good time.  It was so cute to see them dancing together.  Definitely a great birthday present.

After dinner, my parent and Russell's mom, Traci and Tyler came over for cake and ice cream.  It was fun to have them over and I was glad I was feeling well.  After everyone had left, we went outside and lit our fireworks:

We lit Sparklers and Russell stole two Flowers from Tyler and he lit those.  Emily loved waving the sparklers around.  The neighbor kids Taryn and Trayton even came out and did some sparklers too. 

I tried to play with the shutter speed on my camera so we could write things with our sparklers but it requires a little more practice I guess.  I did get some cool pictures of the sparklers though.

Colby's favorite fireworks were the little poppers.  He would throw them and they would pop.  It was so cute to watch and so fun.  Finally we used up all of our sparklers and poppers and it was time to go inside for bed.  What a great day.

I had to put in these pictures because who said Colby could grow up so fast?  He is getting tall and is at Emily's shoulders now.  Look how big he looks brushing his teeth:

And Russell is trying to potty train Colby but I think he is still too young.  He is only 16 months!  But on a hopeful note, Colby went to the bathroom in the toilet for the first time today!!!  Russell was so proud of his efforts.  Who knows maybe he will be potty train at 18 or 19 months like Emily was.  Colby does like sitting on the toilet but mostly he thinks it is a fun game.  He will tell me he wants to sit on the toilet but it is usually when I taking him in the bathroom to change is diaper.  What a funny boy.  Russell says he needs to be potty trained before the new baby comes which I totally agree with because I don't want two kids in diapers but I just don't know if Colby is ready yet.  Who knows.