Roadtrip 2015 - Camping with Grandpa & Girl's Night Out

I can't believe I'm STILL blogging about this dang trip. We've been home for two weeks. This is ridiculous.

Due to the rain on Monday, Grandpa ElRay took the boys camping on Thursday the 6th instead. I don't know much about the actual trip, other than there was crawdad catching, hot dogs, and s'mores. Oh, and rain. Because it ALWAYS rains when the Madsens go camping. Even in the desert.

Dad was nice enough to send me a few photos from the trip. They were up at Strawberry Reservoir. Apparently fried chicken is great bait for crawdads. Who knew?

Cole caught the biggest one but apparently didn't want to pose with it.

Dad was also nice enough to help Spencer check off a few things for his 2nd Class for Boy Scouts. (Dad is an epic scouter and an epic camper.)

In the planning phases my dad told Susie and I that he was going to make this really yummy chicken dutch oven dinner for the boys. It sounded great to me, but had to tell him there's no way my kids would eat it. He'd be better off with hot dogs and chips and soda. I was right.

So where were the girls during this adventure? First we sat on the porch for a while and contemplated life. I thought it would be a cute picture of Tess with the mountains in the background.

Tess had other plans.

That night we took Tess to a splash pad in Highland. We had a little drama at first - for some reason the water is turned off every day from 3-4pm, and we got there right when the water was turned off! Oops. After calming a very upset Tess down we found a Sonic and had some half priced drinks (which always taste better). Tess even got a short nap, which is always a good thing.

Tess happily played in that water for quite a while! There were lots of other kids there to play with and watch.

The boys would've been bored with this pretty quick, but Tess was the perfect age.

After the water we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Zupa's. (Man, I love that place!) Then I left Tess in the very capable hands of Susie so I could go pick up Lance from the airport. Tess was excited because she got to sleep at Grandma's house. I was excited because Lance was finally coming! I didn't get to pick him up until midnight, but we had a hotel room nearby so we didn't have to drive back really late.

Josh's Eye Adventures, Part 2

I don't know about your family, but in mine whenever a kid is sick it's almost always on a busy day. I'll have appointments or big projects to work on or somewhere I just really need to go. And then that kid comes out of their room and moans and groans and you get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Because a sick kid trumps all other stuff.

Josh wasn't sick yesterday, but his eyes were STILL dilated. Like, all the way. The doctor had said that sometimes dilation lasts up to 24 hours, but it's unusual. Well, Josh is an unusual kid. He was still really sensitive to light and things were still blurry. There was no reason to send him to school because he wouldn't be able to read or write.

Of course I had a couple of big projects I had planned to work on and an appointment to get the van serviced. Dang. After I got over the pit in my stomach and soothed Josh because he was really disappointed about not being able to go to school, we made a deal: He'd stay home this morning. If his eyes were better by 12:30 then I'd take him to school. Otherwise, he'd get to come with Tess and I to wait for the car.

Poor Josh's eyes didn't get back to normal until around 1:45, while we were in the waiting room at the car place. So school was out. (Mainly because we were stuck at the car place.) After the car was done we went to our local optometrist to order his new bifocals, and then finally headed home. (The wait for the van was quite a while.)

When we got home Josh ran outside to play with friends, happy as a clam and not worried or bothered by his eyes one bit. Let's hope this really does end his eye adventures!

Josh's Eye Adventures

As you know, Josh has always had issues with his eyes. During his annual exam in July his optometrist decided that adding more prisms to his lenses (which helps with the cross eyes) just wasn't cutting it and that we should go visit a pediatric eye specialist.

So today we drove down to Indy to the Midwest Eye Eye Institute. (Talk about a fun drive. I-65 (the main freeway between Indy and Lafayette) is closed between Lafayette and Lebanon, so we had to take Hwy 52 half of the way there. Plus parts of 52 are under construction. And so is all of Carmel (or so it seems), which is where the optometrist was. All of this to say - it was a pain driving there and back.)

It was a little weird at first - we shared a waiting room with some place called InterFace, which does elective cosmetic surgery type stuff (like Botox and permanent make up and such.) So we were in this waiting room with kids with eye problems (several with other disabilities) and their average, normal parents and several blond, well-endowed, well-coiffed women. The thing that really got me was that all of the these Stepford Wives were in TALL heels. Seriously. I started feeling a little frumpy, but then decided I much preferred my comfy maxi skirt and sandals.

Anyway, our optometrist here in Lafayette is pretty good, but these guys were fantastic. Just great with kids! They took lots of time on him and worked his eyes over pretty good. They even had to dilate his pupils, which I know from experience is no picnic. Josh took it like a champ!

*Side Note: it must be mentioned that while waiting in the exam room I had the sudden realization that the reason why I wasn't more stressed about this trip was because Cole wasn't with us. Isn't that crazy? Tess was there, but she was really well behaved. If Cole had been there it would have been a nightmare. (He HATES any sort of waiting. At all.) At first I felt a little guilty. But then I realized he is much more happy in Kindergarten. Which means he doesn't have to wait for appointments like this much anymore. Life is good.

So Dr. Sprunger came to the conclusion that Josh had been misdiagnosed earlier, and than he wasn't only near sighted - he was also far sighted. And that was making his poor eyes work doubly hard. This is not that unusual in patients his age, especially with optometrists who don't deal with a lot of kids. (Ours had been recommended to us for being great for kids, but he does not specialize in pediatrics. I don't think there are any optometrists in Lafayette that do.) He recommended getting bi-focals for Josh and seeing how his eyes do with them for the next 3 months. Hopefully by then his eyes will adjust and stop crossing. If they do, great, then we'll work with his lens prescription to perhaps wean him off of the glasses for good. If not, we might have to go a surgical route. Obviously, no surgery is better, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

*Side Note: If you're interested in reading more about just what's going on with Josh's eyes, go here for more information about Accommodative Esotropia, and here for more info about Esotropia.

Josh's eyes were pretty blurry and sensitive after leaving the doctor's office. We decided to keep him home from school since he wouldn't be able to read (or really see much) anyway. We also decided that lunch at IHOP would also help him feel better. (And by "we" I mean Josh.)

Josh was pretty excited with all of the attention and double chocolate chocolate chip pancakes. But after being home for a while he's gotten pretty bored. I've offered to read to him, find him podcasts to listen to, all sorts of stuff, but he's turned it all down. He even had a tantrum about being bored, reminiscent of his toddler days. *sigh*

He can tantrum all he wants - I'm just glad we're on the right track now!

(That's a lie. I'm so over the tantrums.)

Mommy-Tessie Day

During the middle of the summer, when Tess begged and begged to go back to the Children's Museum (even though we had just gone) ((it might have even been right when we had gotten home from a trip there)), I told her that when the boys went back to school we would have a Mommy-Tessie day and go the museum together. Just the two of us.

Tess held me to my word.

On the first day of school Tess was devastated when she realized we weren't going to the museum RIGHT THEN. Please keep in mind that we had just gotten back from Utah and I hadn't even gone grocery shopping. Please also keep in mind that I had completely forgotten my promise.

So, today, FINALLY, we had our Mommy-Tessie trip. I didn't tell her about it until about 20 minutes before we left. During those 20 minutes I heard "Is it time to go yet?" approximately 19,393 times, which is why I didn't tell her sooner. This ain't my first rodeo, kid.

I told Tess we would do whatever she wanted, whenever. We went all around that museum, from top to bottom. At the beginning of the school year is a good and bad time to go - good because it wasn't crowded at all, bad because they were starting on lots of remodeling projects for new exhibits and such. (What I'm saying is, there was less to see than normal. And that was okay.)

At first Tess loved all of the attention from me. But I think she soon realized that she had more fun with her brothers around. We only ended up staying for a little over 3 hours, and a good 40 minutes of that was eating lunch. (Tess was very excited to have a lunchbox lunch packed just for her!)

We topped it off with a trip to the Museum gift shop, where I let Tess choose a stick of rock candy and pay for it herself. Very exciting! (I never buy stuff there because anything x 4 = more than I want to spend. But $1.40 for rock candy and the love and adoration of a little girl? Sold.)

I'll have to work on finding some other Mommy-Tessie dates for this school year. This is the last year I'll have a child not in full day school and I want to enjoy as much of it as I can. Any ideas for something a 4 year old girl (and her mom) would enjoy doing?

Roadtrip 2015 - Tubing (and Surviving a Squall) with Uncle Bryce

On Thursday evening my Uncle Bryce took the kids and I (and three of his kids: Kate (16), Ben (14), and Delaney (10)) tubing out on Utah Lake.

It was so much fun!

First of all, my Uncle Bryce is awesome. He's just a fun guy and is great with kids. He even handled Cole and all of his bossiness and grouchiness like a champ. Second, his kids (my cousins) are really great, too! Happy and friendly and willing to help out. What a great family. (We missed you, Aunt Janee!)

Cole had never been tubing before, but I figured he would like it. I was right. That boy has a need for speed - the faster the better for him! Spence and Josh had a great time, too. Tess refused to get on the tube, even sitting on my lap and even with Bryce promising to go slow. Oh well, she's still a little shy of the water.

I of course forgot my camera, but Bryce took a few shots with his phone. Spencer, Cole, and Josh are in front, and my youngest Roper cousin Delaney is in the back.

I even tubed for a while. I told Bryce to take it easy on me since I'm so old, but he must've forgotten... (hah!)

After a while Cole claimed we needed to go back to Provo because he had to go to the bathroom. We told him just to go in the lake. He refused. And thus started the Cole phase of this outing: him refusing to go on the tube, but not wanting Spencer and Josh to go either. He refused to pee off the side of the boat, refused to be distracted with a chance to drive the boat, refused to behave in any sort of logical manner. (This is Cole we're talking about here...)

I told Bryce to feel free to throw the child in (he was wearing a life jacket), but he didn't get the chance. When we were about to call it a day a huge wind storm came in from out of nowhere! A real squall! The lake is pretty shallow and got really choppy, and we were really far out and had a ways to go to get to the harbor. We had to pull the tube in really fast and get the air out of it because there was no way it would stay on the back of the boat in all the wind. We all huddled in the back of the boat while Bryce tried to get us back.

It was crazy. If we went too slow, the waves would spill over the sides of the boat, but if we went too fast the boat jumped and felt like it was going to break in half! I had both Cole and Tess on my lap. Tess whimpered in my ear the whole time and Cole yelled and bossed about wanting to go back - NOW. We were just about back to the harbor when the storm let up a little. That's when Bryce saw something in the water and decided to turn around to see what it was - from a distance it looked like a life jacket! But we finally caught up to it and discovered it was just a mylar birthday balloon.

Well Cole just thought this was hilarious. I have no idea why. He laughed and laughed and giggled and all of a sudden I felt warm water on my leg - THE BOY PEED ON MY LEG!!!!!

What could I do but laugh? Which everyone else laugh, too. Including Cole. (Only this time there were whispered threats in his ear. No. More. Peeing.) I told my cousins that this was not the first time a child of mine had peed on me, although I had thought we were past this stage.

Bryce said he understood - there were parts during that storm he might've peed his pants a little, too. (He was joking. I think...)

We finally got back to the harbor and got the kids onto the dock. Without any delay Cole started peeing off of the dock, happy as a clam. (Josh joined him, too.) Yes, there were other people around. Strange children of mine...

We celebrated our survival of the trip with late dinner sandwiches from Gandolpho's, one of my fav sandwich spots in Utah. As you can see, we were none the worse for wear.

Roadtrip 2015: The Museum of Natural Curiosity

Monday the 3rd started off rainy. REALLY rainy. I was quite impressed.

The kids, however, were not. They thought they had escaped from all of the rain back home! (Cole literally whined "Can't you just stop, rain?!")

The boys were supposed to go camping with Grandpa ElRay that night, but that was called off because Grandpa did not want to camp in the mud. (Wise move.) With nothing to do, we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at a McDonald's PlayPlace. And by "we" I mean the kids and by "treat" I mean they had been whining about going to a PlayPlace since we got to UT and I couldn't stand another minute of it.

I'm such a good mom, I know.

My kids think there's something magical about the PlayPlaces in UT. I guess they're pretty good. The grass is always greener, right?

While at lunch we got a phone call from Dad and Susie. They were done with work - would we like to go to the Museum of Natural Curiosity? OF COURSE!! So we finished up lunch and off we went to meet them at Thanksgiving Point.

Cole was NOT happy with the idea of another museum. (He did not like the natural history museum.) I tried to reassure him that he would like this one so much more, but he didn't believe me. Fortunately, this time his mom was right.

Guys, this was a GREAT museum! We all had so much fun! If you're ever in central UT I highly recommend checking it out.

This room with weather and water displays was pretty cool.

At this display you could program your own sprinkler show.

Oh no! Spencer is trapped in a tornado! (Doesn't he look so scared?)

The  section with optical illusions wasn't that great for little kids. Cole started acting like his Coley self here.

He kinda reminds me of Hannibal Lector here...

So we got outta there and headed to Kidopolis or something... I think it was called that. Anywho, it was like this little town where kids could go to different buildings and play with things based on those buildings. (You know, music studio, bank, laundromat, building blocks, etc.) It was really well done, kinda reminded me of Disney.

Here Tess plays a bubble pipe organ.

There were cameras and you could watch yourself on tv and you could make music and build buildings and climb around. Lots of fun stuff!

As you can see, it was crazy crowded.

We decided to take a break from the crowds and go outside to a park area. Lots of cool playground equipment and - funnest of all - a zip line. So fun, there was a long line for it. This wouldn't have been a problem, but Cole decided to cut in front of everyone and catch a ride. I caught him and had to drag him off of the platform and across the playground - kicking and screaming the whole way. His tantrum lasted a good 5 minutes, which doesn't sound that long but is when you're the mom. Or the kid, for that matter.

Finally... FINALLY he calmed down and was able to go on the zip line a few times - with me waiting in line with him to make sure he behaved. That boy...

Then we decided to go through the hedge maze, which wasn't nearly as hard as the corn maze we went in last fall, but far, far drier.

We stopped at this koi pond and even paid for some fish food for the kids to throw. It was amazing and disgusting at the same time - SO. MANY. FISH! The kids loved it.

Then we finally went to the Rainforest section, which was really just a huge indoor play area. The kids LOVED it. Seriously, the museum was worth all the money and effort just for this one section. Tall slides, long rope ladders, and tons of other climbing or falling equipment.

Even Tess was brave enough to go on the rope bridge!

Well... with my help. (Going across a rope bridge while holding hands? Not so easy, my friends.)

Here's the falling part. There were 4-5 levels of these elastic bands stretched every which way, and the kids would jump and fall through them and then land on a trampoline at the bottom. The boys were on this for at least a good 45 minutes, if not longer!

Colie on the rope bridge. This boy was in heaven. No yelling, no screaming, no misbehavior. If he's doing something fun and physical, he's alright. Unfortunately, life isn't always fun or physical. This is a hard lesson for him to learn!

I may or may not have shaken the bridges when the boys were going across...

That's what moms do... put a little fear in you!

There was this pretend plane linking some of the bridges that all of the kids were crazy for.

I kinda wish I had a cage like this at home...

We'd be the most popular house on the block!

By the end the kids were worn out and hungry, a good sign of a great day!

Roadtrip 2015 - Parade and Natural History Museum

On the 1st of August we went to Grandpa Viggo and Grammy B's house to watch the Highland Days parade. The parade staging area was right in front of their house, which meant we were the very first on the parade route. (We were the "practice spectators", as Viggo said!)

It was a really hot morning, so after this shot we went across the street to the neighbor's lawn, where there was shade.

My kids don't really have much experience with parades. The only they have around Lafayette is always the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so we never go. They weren't sure they would like it at first - until the candy came. So much candy was thrown to them! And all sorts of coupons and trinkets and necklaces. Spencer and Cole both got Orem Owls baseball hats and Tess got a stuffed monkey from a lube place called Grease Monkey. And me? I totally caught a Brick Oven frisbee, one-handed while holding Tess in my other arm, thrown by non other than Cosmo Cougar himself. It was pretty great. (Go Cougs!)

After the parade we went to the Natural History museum at Thanksgiving Point. We had three things working against us: 1) Even though we had a late breakfast, the kids got hungry early on, 2) none of my kids are really into dinosaurs right now, and 3) Cole.

Still, I thought the museum was pretty cool. Just look at the size of that Supersaurus!

Those shin bones are bigger than Tess! (Cole was yelling - in a museum - throughout all of this. "WHERE'S JOSH?! HE'S LOST FOREVER! WAAAAAAA...." The joy.)

Still, everyone has fun playing in sand and water with plastic dinos. Even tired 4  year old girls.

And big 11 year old boys.

And 8 year olds just a tad too tall for the toddler entrance.

(Cole did, too. But he wouldn't let me take a picture.)

Then we got attacked by giant sharks, which was pretty intense. (I love my boys hamming it up!)

After the museum we had a late lunch at the Pizza Pie Cafe - another all you can eat place. The kids were in heaven, and I enjoyed chatting with Lauri and getting to know her better. The museum wore Grandpa and Grandma out, so after lunch they went home to rest. We decided it was a great time to go see the new Minion movie, and practically had the theater to ourselves. (Verdict: pretty fun summer kid movie!)

This kids were a little put out that we didn't have treats, but considering the amount of pizza they had just consumed I figured they would survive. (I was right.)