Roller Skating Fun

On Wednesday, Calissa decided that she wanted to go roller skating. I asked her if she wanted to just go with me, or if she wanted to invite a friend. She decided to invite a friend, which made me happy since I got to read my book while they roller skated. Calissa has only been roller skating once, but really wanted to try it out again. Doesn't she look happy? She was struggling the first half of the session, but I gave her a few pointers from my experience in roller skating and she got more confidence and started skating better. I think she'll want to go back again. She and Kaitlyn LOVED it when they turned off the lights for 3-4 songs and turned on all the disco lights. She thought that was so cool!

Nothing like a friend, some fun music, sweaty bodies and over-priced food to put a smile on her face!

On Our Way

We've been talking about changing our backyard for years, but hadn't gotten around to doing anything about it yet. My brother, Kevin works for Lifetime Products and promised us a great deal on a in-ground basketball hoop and shed. The only problem is getting it to California from Utah. My dad heads back once a year in his truck for his fishing trip and he was going again in June. We decided if we didn't get it then, we would have to wait another year. My dad brought them back to us the middle of June (thanks dad!) and the pestering from the kids began. The last week of June I finally started calling around to get some quotes for concrete and for the demolition of our rat trap, I mean shed. Quotes were obtained from four different contractors (which ranged in price by $1500). We ended up using our neighbor. I called a few companies just randomly out of the phone book. He asked me for my address to set up a time to come over and when I told him, he said, "I live a few houses down from you!" He was a nice guy and seemed to give us a fair price. I told him we'd like to use him on Thursday, June 30th and he told us he'd come by and have us sign the contract on Saturday morning. The kids and I started cleaning out the shed on Friday and Travis and I worked a little early Saturday morning. He had told me that they would most likely start on Monday so we thought we had all day Saturday to finish up and make a trip to the dump. When he came by on Saturday morning, he informed us that he was planning to knock down the shed and break up the existing concrete that day! We needed to get moving. Conner had an all-star game in Alameda that morning and we woke up the kids to come and help us since we only had about 45 minutes until we needed to leave for his game. We took off the fireman's pole from our play structure, moved our patio chairs, cleaned out behind the shed and finished emptying out the inside. We showered and got ready in about 8 minutes and headed out the door.

Conner's team won the game and when we came home we saw this! (This picture makes me realize how green my grass was and how dead it is now!)

The kids were kind of disappointed that they missed all the excitement!
What a mess!

All of our belongings from the shed, now on the patio. The joys of not having a garage!


Monday (July 4th) they came and loaded up all the concrete. Tuesday, they made three or four trips to the dump to take everything away. Tuesday night, he started grading the dirt. Wednesday and Thursday, they delivered the rock and he framed it. By Friday, they were almost done and ready to pour on Saturday morning. Saturday, July 9th we left at 5:00 am for our trip to Utah and hoped for the best as they poured the cement that day! We got a call about 1 PM saying it was all done and then later heard from my dad who went over to inspect it and finish paying him.

Needless to say, the kids were so excited to get home and set up the new hoop. Monday morning could not come fast enough. The kids and I started bright and early putting it together. There are a lot of pieces and pages and pages of instructions! We only had to re-do about 3 things that we had done wrong and only had one injury. (I got hit on the head by one of the poles .... OUCH!) About noon, I sent a SOS text to Uncle Drew for help. We were to the point that we really needed another adult. It took about 45 minutes for him to help us finish up and then it was time to mount it. It said that you needed three adults to put it up, but Drew assured me that the kids counted as one adult. Somehow we managed to get it over to the right place (with Andrew carrying more than his fair share of the weight!) and install it.

Parker and Conner could hardly wait to play!

Parker .... so excited!

Tuesday morning we started on assembling the shed. The kids and I worked about 7-8 hours total on Tuesday and Wednesday and made it pretty far. We had installed the floor, all the walls, the front gable and the doors all by ourselves. The next step was the roof and we needed 3 adults again. We decided to wait for Travis to help us finish up. Friday night, we put the roof and back gable on (what a pain!) and then Saturday morning we installed the sky light across the top of the whole roof and finished up all the finish work. It was a bit harder than we expected, but we finished it and it looks great. I got to climb up on the roof and give the people walking on the trail a show, Parker got hit on the head by a falling hammer as he was moving the ladder, and Conner got his fingers smashed quite a few times, but we ended up with no lasting injuries and lots of memories!

After we finished building the shed, we went to Sam's Club and bought some metal racks to store our crates on. We put two of those together and started moving things back into the shed.

Looks pretty good, huh?

Today is Tuesday and this is what I have left on my patio. I am VERY ANXIOUS to finish that up and get it all cleaned up. I've cut up more cardboard that I know what to do with, filled the garbage cans quite a few times, have taken paint, etc. to the Household Hazardous Waste Facility and have a load to take to DI. We have one more shelving unit to put together for the carport and a few odds and ends. Hopefully we can finish it all up on Saturday. I'm proud of all the hard work my kids put in last week helping us put it together. We got farther than I thought we would on our own!

Now, we just need to figure out what to do with the rest of the backyard! Hopefully it doesn't take us another 4-5 years to decide.

Heigh ho! Heigh ho! It's off to camp we go!

Monday morning the boys headed off early (4:30 am) for a week at Camp Wente.

They are loading up the van the night before.
Conner ready for his first experience!
Parker ready for his third!
We were really missing Grandpa Romer as we tried to get their fishing poles ready for camp. We loaded on the fishing line (hopefully correctly) and put on a hook. I think we probably needed to add a weight thingy. Hopefully someone at camp will take pity on them and help them!

See you on Saturday!

Utah Trip

July was once again time for the Burr Family Reunion. We made the trek to Utah on July 9th (our 18th wedding anniversary) This is not the first year that we've been driving on our anniversary and probably won't be the last! We had a nice drive to Utah (besides the construction on I-80) and got there about 5 PM. We arrived to an empty house, but shortly met Trav's parents and Chan, Jen and the boys down at Salt City Burger for dinner.

The kids were so excited to see their cousins! Jarom was leaving for Boy Scout Camp on Monday morning, so the boys went and spent the night at Chan and Jen's so they could have a little more time together. Sunday, we went to church and had all the family over for dinner. Monday, we headed to the park to play some basketball, baseball, lacrosse, and tennis. The kids had a great time and then we enjoyed dinner together again that night. After dinner, we headed down to South Jordan to see Kaisen play in his all-star baseball game. We also got a chance to see the Pulu's and play at the park for a while with them!

Tuesday we visited the Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine (which is on the list of Historic National Monuments I learned for Parker's merit badge). This picture does not do it justice. It is massive! Those little specks down at the bottom are giant dump trucks. You can see in the next picture how massive just the wheels are. We visited the visitors center and enjoyed a movie about the mine.
The Pulu's joined us there for the tour.

Naomi, Noah and Calissa in front of the giant tire

Great friends!
Eisley, Conner, Eli and Parker
It was pretty windy up there!

After saying goodbye to the Pulu's, we went to Gateway in Salt Lake City to play in the fountain, stop by our favorite chocolate shop for cookies and Carmel apples and do a little shopping! Then, we went back down to South Jordan for another of Kaisen's games.

Wednesday was Grandpa Burr's birthday and we celebrated by going to the Hogel Zoo in Salt Lake. (I'm sure that was what Grandpa wanted to do on his birthday, don't you?)

We had a fun time finding our favorite animals.

Most of the kids with Grandpa (and a dinosaur in the background).

Cute little baby elephant!

Calissa, Conner, Parker, Kaisen, Kylee and Eisley

Taking a break for an ice cream cone!

They had a special dinosaur exhibit and had dinosaurs all around the park. They moved, their eyes moved, and some even sprayed water. They were a little freaky, but pretty cool!

Calissa's favorite animal, the lemur.

That night we had yummy pulled pork sandwiches and homemade Oreo ice cream!

We also had fun lighting fireworks (which we can't do in California)!

Thursday morning we got up bright and early and went to visit my Grandparents in Layton. Conner and Calissa had fun playing with their dog, Tipper!

After catching up with Grandma and Grandpa, we met everyone at Lagoon.

It was a fun-filled, long day.

Parker with his shaved ice that was huge and turned his mouth blue!

MiQuelle taking a little snooze.

Having a snack and a short break before dinner.

Grandma and Grandpa Burr

Calissa loved the rides.

Conner didn't love the rides so much! He was a trooper that day and never complained as he held our bags and followed us from ride to ride. He enjoyed chatting with Grandma and Grandpa. We went on several new rides there, but our favorites were the Spider (A spinning roller coaster with two facing front and two facing back. It's locked into place until it makes its first decent and then you keep spinning and changing directions - Tons of fun!) and Wicked (8 people ride at a time and go straight UP a 110 foot track over the top and back down and then into loops, etc. It seriously goes STRAIGHT UP - Wicked fun though!).

Friday morning, Parker and Travis went golfing really early. Once they were back, we headed out to get pedicures.

Calissa's cute nails.

After lunch we pulled out the slip and slide and the kids had tons of fun. The fun lasted until it looked like we might damage the grass (and we wouldn't want to damage grandma and grandpa's beautiful grass!)

Logan, with a big smile!

Maddie, so excited!

Patiently waiting their turn.

Conner

Calissa

Parker looking scared?

Uncle Jordan decided to join in the fun.

His imitation of a seal was fabulous!

He even did tricks.

Friday night after a dutch oven dinner, we made one last trip to Nielsen's Frozen Custard to get Concretes. The boys had been waiting all week for one and asking every night! After our yummy dessert, we went outside for one last night of fireworks. It gets dark really late there. (Like 10 PM)!

Saturday morning we were spoiled with yet another yummy breakfast from Grandma, packed up and headed to Layton to visit Kevin, Kellie and kids, and see their new house (which is beautiful). We visited with them, had lunch and then headed home about 1 PM. We ended up driving all the way and made it home about 11 PM California time. We had a great time, like always but it was nice to come home and sleep in our own beds again!