This will be quick!

    So this week wasn't that exciting unless you like spiders, messes and cake because those were the highlights of my week.  First on Tuesday Brock came in from out back with McClane and told me that McClane had a huge spider on him.  I was hoping he was exaggerating but oh no, it was true and it was a huge wolf spider all brown and hairy crawling on my babies back.  I HATE spiders and the idea of touching one with my bare hands has got to be the most abhorrent idea ever but this is my baby were talking about and I know now I really do love him because I swatted that huge nasty spider off of him with very little hesitation.  I did scream and carrying on after I did it for a second and realized I was freaking my poor baby out and quickly calmed myself down but Brock seemed the most upset, bawling hysterically after the ordeal was over.  Luckily the one swat seemed to put the spider out of commission pretty quickly and after another smack with a shoe and then vacuuming him up I'm quite confident that nasty spider is gone for good.  (You'll have to forgive me but I didn't take time to photograph the spider incident.)
    So that was Tuesday's excitement then it was Micheal Jackson's birthday.  I only know this because Kayli made a grand production about the whole thing.  This is her tribute to M.J. on his 54th birthday.

Seriously I don't think she'll go to this much trouble when I'm dead;-)
 

   And after the cake, singing happy birthday and blowing out candles Kayli watched "This is It" which she's seen several times but I have not and still haven't but I was watching for a few minutes that night and I won't lie, it was almost painful to see him in his final days.  He was so skinny and just messed up from all the plastic surgery and whatever else that I could hardly stand to look at him.  I won't deny he was a talented singer and dancer but how I wish we could have seen him in his natural body over the years instead of his own distorted image.
    Ok, so back to my week.  Have I mentioned we have a near two year old in the house?  Well we do and his name is McClane and he can wreak some havoc when left unattended even for a minute.  I took a couple of pictures of what he has done this week but the worst ones I didn't.  So picture for yourself salt poured all over the couch, chair and kitchen counters and floors, or all three bins of GeoTrax dumped out all over the floor.  Here are the messes I did manage to photograph and obviously these are quite minor compared to some.  But this is what can happen when I decide to shower without making sure he's engaged in some time consuming activity.

Sock boxes dumped.

Pillows every which way.
 

    Now I know these are minor and not much effort to fix but when they're done all in a short period of time it can become quite annoying but I wouldn't trade my life for anything and I'm going to do my best to enjoy these "terrible two" years because I know they'll be over before I know it.

Hike to the Pipe!

  So Greg wanted to go on a hike Saturday morning and after thinking about it for a bit I decided I might as well go and get a little extra weekly exercise.  Mark was also happy to tag along, at least he was happy until we got about 10 minutes into the hike and then he decided a short hike might be the better option but he survived and stayed with us for the most part.
   Greg had a hidden goal in mind.  He told us he just wanted to be out until around noon.  We left a little after 7 a.m. so I didn't think it would be too hard and it wasn't REALLY hard, but it wasn't easy and not having an ultimate destination made it easier in my mind to agree with Mark about keeping it short but we stuck with Greg and ultimately ended up at the top of the steel pipe that was installed on the mountain well over 100 years ago and Greg was quite tickled about discovering this without anyone showing him the way because we did have to leave the trail to find it but thankfully it wasn't a lot further off the trail.  Here are several of the great photos Greg took.  He took a total of 80 but I'll try to keep it at a dozen or so.

Starting out!

Not too long after we started we came upon this huge bolder and Mark had to climb up.

Here's one of the first visuals we got of the pipe along the hike.  In some places it's buried and other's it's exposed like this.

An area of the mountain where the fire was.  This tree was like paper.

It's August and the leaves are changing, sad but pretty.

This was the highest point we hiked too.  It was a pretty meadow with these trees lining it.

Here were are deciding whether to keep going up or head to where Greg thinks the top of the pipe might be.  I think we were all happy to go Greg's route which meant going down not up.

And here it is.  How in the world did the pioneers get this up here?!  This was how they got the water to come down the mountain fast enough to turn the wheels down below on their other amazing industrial stuff.

Greg standing on the pipe.  I wish my scanner worked so I could show you the photo from the Alpine Yesterday book that shows a pioneer gentleman standing on this exact spot.

Don't count Mark out.

Or me!  We did it!

And on the way back we left the regular trail to get a glimpse of Horse Tail falls/creek.  (The falls are much higher up but this is the creek and a gorgeous spot I might add.)

That's it!  A fun morning with two of my favorite men.

School?!

   I can't believe another school year has started!  Summer vacation just goes far too quickly and school and homework never seem to end.  Thankfully the first week of school is always pretty mellow so there's been minor homework and everyone seems pretty happy with their teachers and schedules.  Please enjoy their "First day of school" photos.

Mark on his way to 7th grade at Timberline Middle School.  (He went a day before everyone else
 so he and his fellow 7th graders could get the lay of the land before sharing the school with the 8th and 9th graders.)

"Shut the Front Door" Kayli's a sophomore in HIGH SCHOOL!  Who said that was ok?!  Lets hope she survives and doesn't act too much like her mother;-)

Carter is headed to second grade at Westfield Elementary with Mrs. Black for his teacher.  He'll be the third Kmetzsch boy to grace this teacher's presence.

Isaac is a major 4th grader at Westfield with Mr. Wise for his teacher.  And to add to his joy the girl he finds "hot" is in his class and he can check her out in the reflection of the aquarium so she doesn't know she's being scammed on.

And yes, even Brock is attending school this year.  He's a 4 year old preschooler at Learning Dynamics, a spendy but highly acclaimed preschool.  This is our last attempt at getting at least one of these kids reading before they head to kindergarten.  And so far he LOVES it!

    So that's what our week has consisted of.  I went on a hike this morning with Greg and Mark and will post on that sooner than later but I have to wait for Greg to get back home with the camera so I can download the pictures, so look for that post either later today or tomorrow.
    P.S.  I forgot to share on McClane's week.  First he got some attention from the girls in the neighborhood and ended up with painted toes and fingernails.

   And then he really got some attention when he headed out of the house with NO clothes on.  This is what a streaking toddler looks like.

   His older brothers and the other boys in the neighborhood thought this was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.  In a few more years this would be considered criminal so believe me this won't be allowed again.

Going, Going, Gone!

   Well, it's official, this is our last weekend of summer vacation.  I had hoped to make it more exciting but didn't get too far.  We did get to Seven Peaks and all the kids came home alive so that went well.  Seriously, trying to keep track of Brock and McClane at the same time by myself is truly a challenge.

Seven Peaks is much more exciting with tubes.

McClane was feeling much more adventurous this time around.

    So that was Tuesday.  Wednesday three of our neighbors had an ice cream social to celebrate their 20 years living in this neighborhood and after only being there a few minutes this couple came with some other neighbors.

David and Josephine Dunmow

  They are from Australia and low and behold, they're in the same ward as my sister Jackie and her family and Josephine is Jovi's nursery leader!  Seriously, can you say, "Small World".  Needless to say, I was beyond excited and emotional to meet someone who has so recently seen my favorite sister and her family.  I didn't chat too long with them but they were both so nice and for whatever reason this set me into a fit of crying.  I guess it finally dawned on me that my sister is far away and I really do miss her and her family.
    So that was Wednesday.  The rest of the week was much more low-key.  Mark had his back to school night at the Jr. High Thursday night and Mark's first day of school is Monday and the rest of the kids go to school Tuesday.  I can't believe our summer vacation is officially over!  I'm not at all happy about it but of course I know I'll be glad to get back into a routine but I'm going to miss being able to run errands without kids in tow.  Starting Tuesday I'll have McClane all to myself at least for a few hours Monday, Wednesday and Friday which will be nice.  I love this little boy even if he is a bit of a trouble maker.

Notice the stools are actually up on the counter but yet he still has managed to get up to watch TV.  And yes, the volume is double what is normal:-)

And then there are these moments that are just too cute for words.

   Oh, and I almost forget to mention Brock's milestone this week.  He learned to ride a regular two-wheeled bike and all without any help at all.  I came out side Wednesday afternoon and Mark asked if I'd seen Brock and there he was cruising down the street on his friends bike.  It was just the perfect size which made for a perfect transition from his Stride bike to a regular bike.  That Stride bike was definitely worth every penny we paid for it.  No training wheels is definitely the way to go.

GO Brock!

Goodbye summer, hello school year 2012/2013.  High school, Jr. High, Elementary and Preschool here we COME!

Very Little!

     So this week was not that exciting.  Made a few more trips to the Orthodontist, got to go to the Orthodontist appreciation party last night at the pool in Lindon, Utah and this morning was the Alpine Day's parade.  It was also the annual Alpine 5K this morning and I decided I'd give it a whirl along with Mark.  My very first race of any kind and I feel pretty good about it.  I actually enjoy jogging and exercising but I've never had any desire to compete.  I'm very good on my own.  I do walk with my friend regularly but we only walk.  She has bad ankles and walking is good enough for her.  We do walk pretty fast and do a lot of hills and other exercises in between so I feel pretty good about my calorie burn each day.  So in preparation for this 5K I thought I should at least jog a few times this past week and make sure I would be ok and I did ok but never ran a complete three miles without stopping to walk a couple times.  My shins would BURN the first mile or so and I had no choice but to walk it off.  But today, first thing in the morning I felt great and I jogged the entire 3 miles without having to stop and my shins weren't bad at all.  I definitely think my body prefers morning exercise to evening but both isn't bad either. 
     So I finished in just a little over 31 minutes, which isn't too bad for not being well trained and Mark just barely beat me at 31 minutes excactly.  I would have beat him but he had enough energy to sprint at the end and I did NOT.
    Here's us after the race.

   So that's about it.  Our parade this morning was pretty good.  They had an extra amount of fire and rescue vehicles on the parade route as a tribute to all those who helped fight the fire on the mountain which was pretty cool and our ward had a cool float with flags representing all 27 different missions that we have Elder's serving in from our ward.  The rest of the afternoon we're hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the bike riders from the Tour of Utah that will be riding through Alpine in just an hour or so. 
    Only a week left of this summer vacation and lets hope we can find something to do to make it memorable.

Braces, Retainers, MONEY, OH MY!

   Remember when I was at the Orthondontist Wednesday morning not once, not twice but three times all within a four hour block of time.  First Mark got his braces which took 1and a 1/2 hours.  Then it was back home with just enough time to do a little laundry and then take Isaac to get expansion retainers put in.  And just when I thought we were done I come home to find out one of the brackets on Mark's teeth had come off so right back in the car to have that cemented back on.  Thankfully the Orthondist office isn't too far from our house or I would have been going nuts.
    So now we're about $6,500 dollars poorer but if all goes as planned Isaac and Mark will have some pretty nice smiles when all this is done.
     Here are a few photos of Mark getting his braces in place.  I didn't take photos of Isaac because you really can't see his retainers but eventually he'll get braces for us to take photos of.

Doesn't that look comfy?!  You should have seen the "tongue garage" he had to deal with.
(His arm is up trying to block my camera.)

Brackets on, now he just needs wire and the rubber bands.

All done with his "free" shirt and lime colored bands.

   I ended my week on a very happy note, an hour long phone call with my favorite sister Jackie clear down in Australia and then a visit with this little cutie, Piper Elizabeth Lewis. 

    This is Greg's cousin Rebecca's first baby and she's too cute and nothing gives me more pleasure then holding a newborn baby who just sleeps and snuggles. (Baby number 7? I think YES! Greg would just rather not think.)
    So that's my weekly report!  Summer vacation is winding down all too fast, next week Alpine Days and then only a week more before school will start, NOOOO!