ice skating for ava's birthday.

every other year our kids have a family birthday party (where no friends are invited) and this year was ava's family birthday.  when we asked her what she wanted to do on her special day she said she wanted to go ice skating.  it was an interesting request considering she has never been ice skating and neither had jason and i within the last 15-20 years.  but, yeah, why not?  let's do it.

so, we showed up in our warmer attire (even though it was 100 degrees outside) and we got our skates on and made a run for it to the ice.  i don't think jason or i had really thought much about this whole thing until we were actually in the moment.  none of our kids could skate and there are four of them and two of us.  i had kids on each hand and one grabbing me from behind.  jonah had to be carried most of the time and i was starting to realize my back was going to be sore following this little activity.  but, seriously, it was hilarious.  the kids were slipping all over the place and falling down on their butts, knees, backs, stomachs... it was quite a show.  they had absolutely no control of their little bodies no matter how hard they tried.

in the beginning, there were lots and lots of falls and holding on to the side but each time we went around they got a little better and little more daring.  by the end, jack was skating all over and ava could finally make it around without falling or holding onto anything.  even eden could do it almost on her own.  i would say huge progress in a short amount of time.  i was really proud of my kids.  they never complained or cried and by the looks and sounds from some of their falls, i think i would've been crying.  they never gave up.  it was a great day at the ice skating rink and i think we will be going back again very soon.

ava's seventh birthday.

ava turned seven over the weekend and i think she had pretty good day.  it started out with a pancake breakfast complete with a strawberry and banana smiley face.  from there it kind of went down hill because it was saturday which meant saturday chores had to be done.  she wasn't very happy that she had do to chores on her birthday but that toy room was a mess.  after a few hours of pleading with her and the siblings to clean up, the saturday chores were finally over and we could get back to celebrating.

after lunch, ava's request for the day was to go ice skating.  so, we pulled out some warmer clothes and headed over to the ice skating rink (which i am saving for another post).  let's just say everyone had the best time.  when we got home, we let ava open one of her presents.  it was a magic 8 ball.  she had been asking for one ever since she saw her friend's sadie's in wyoming.  later on, we went to her favorite mexican food restaurant, mi amigos, for dinner.  i think she likes the food but really she just likes the sombrero she gets to wear when they sing happy birthday to her.  back at home we finished off the night with cake and ice cream and another present.  it was girl legos and she already knew that since her little sister eden "accidentally" told her the day before.  note to self, don't take eden along when birthday present shopping.

i would say it was a perfect "ava" day except for the saturday chores part.  we are so happy that ava is a part of family.  she brings us much joy and is so easy going.  happy birthday sweet ava!!

our last stop...salt lake city.

our last major stop on our big summer road trip was salt lake city.  i hadn't been there for some time and my kids had never been there expect for jack who was like barley one so that doesn't really count.  i forgot what a beautiful place utah is and how special temple square is.  there is so much (mormon) history in that one little area and it makes me a teensy bit excited to maybe start doing some research on our church history myself.  but it probably won't happen any time soon even though i am fascinated by all of it.

we had a good day in salt lake.  some of our highlights were finding the one and only dunkin donuts for breakfast, walking around the temple grounds, taking an elevator to the top of the church offices building to get a view of the whole salt lake valley, eating at the lion house and enjoying some of the best rolls of our lives, touring the beehive house (aka brigham young's old home), and doing some back to school shopping.

we finished off our day with some swimming at the hotel pool which is always a kids dream and then trekking in our pj's to the olive garden to get some take out for dinner.  one of the many bad parts about traveling as a single parent with four young-ins is you have to take them everywhere regardless of what time it is at night.  for example, the night before, we arrived in salt lake and it was close to midnight and we hadn't had dinner yet.  so, i gathered the troops and we took to the street to see what was open this late at night.  we found a pizzeria that was filled with loud drunk college kids who looked a little scary and stared at me as i walked in pushing my stroller and had three other kids trailing behind.  bottom line, we got our pizza and it was actually really good considering the awkward situation i had to encounter in order to get it.

so, there we sat in our hotel room on the last night of our almost three week road trip eating olive garden and watching the much anticipated premier of disney's teen beach movie.  i think it was the perfect ending to our big adventure. (my kids had been counting down until the showing of this movie and since then i think we (they) have seen this movie over a hundred times.) thank you disney for bringing so much joy into my children's lives.  i cannot compete with you.

next stop.....HOME!