Riverton City Town Days - 4th of July

Riverton City does a city celebration over the 4th of July weekend. Katy was taking her girls to do a hay dive and invited us to bring Ammon. It was kind of like the city Easter Eggs hunts, only there were bigger and better prizes.
The kids were divided into age groups so Kylie and Ammon had their turn while Carolyn watched and waited. She was able to go the next round.

Ammon got all sorts of fun things but I still think the funnest part is just the hunt itself. Some of the prizes were just there in plain site, but a lot of things got burried into the hay and you had to get down and really look.

When it was all done, Ammon was excited to come and show me what he had gotten. The first thing he did was pull something out of his bag that he said he had gotten for Peter. What a sweet and thoughtful big brother. I thought it was neat that the gift for Peter was the thing he was most excited to tell me about.

Shadel Family BBQ - 4th of July

On Father's Day, Andrew's dad mentioned that he wanted to have a family BBQ on the 4th of July. Unfortunately, when it came down to it, neither of Andrew's siblings were available to come. So it turned out that we had a fun BBQ with just the four of us and Andrew's parents. Derrick grilled for us and the kids had fun playing out in the back yard.
Andrew made the only kind of salad he will eat - Snicker/Apple salad. It was very yummy. We all ate way more than we should have, but it was fun...

Ammon was pleased to help bring the "salad" out to the deck where we were eating.

The boys enjoyed munching on their food at their very own table, and the adults enjoyed our time together as we ate. It was a fun start to our day.

Leatherby's and a Movie

Leatherby's is a long time favorite place of my family. I can still remember the first time went. We sat in amazement as we watched all the icecream dishes being brought out to the tables around us. We were anxious and excited to see what ours would look like, but never impatient because the wonders were constantly around us. Finally, our dishes came out. I don't even remember what I had, but I remember my brother Joey. His eyes were popping out as his order was placed in front of him. The icecream dish literally sat taller than he did - he was in over his head with icecream!

Andrew and I decided that as part of our holiday celebration, we would share the magic of Leatherby's with our boys. I wanted to get the biggest thing on the menu to share that "wow" factor with them, but with recent illnesses, we decided it woud be better to each get our own smaller dish than share the big one.

Individual orders turned out to be a good thing since the boys both wanted "playdough" icecream. Not my favorite. Ammon ordered a sundae with playdough icecream and pineapple topping. That boy beats to his own drum - but he was happy. Peter just had the scoop of icecream that comes with cookies. It looked a lot like Ammon's minus the toppings, so he was a little bit disapointed. But I gave him a strawberry off of my banana split and after that he was good to go.

After eating our icecream we walked over to the dollar theatre to watch Monsters and Aliens. We were a bit early, which worked out well because the boys love "playing" the car driving arcade games.

This is the first movie we have taken Peter to, and he sat through the entire thing! I was shocked. When we had about 15 minutes left, Peter decided to switch seats. He just went and sat in the row in front of us. Overall, this was a great kick off to our festivities and I can't wait to do it again!

Peter's Shoes

Over the Summer, Peter has had two pairs of shoes. Both were new - bought just for him. Both look like this! He has had fun learning the art of the bigwheel. In that learning process he used his toes as breaks. We are grateful for his shoes - every once in a while he would sneak out on his bike shoe-less. The result was that his toes became bloody stubs. It is fun to see the differences in my children. Ammon never wore through any of his shoes like this. Maybe Peter will be better about holes in the knees of his pants? Or maybe not.

Bike Repairs

Andrew has recently discovered an interest in biking. He started with repairing his old bike of 20+ years that he used as a pre-teen/young teenager. The project had its ups and downs, but finally turned out successfully and he uses it to ride to work and school a few times a week.
As he looked more into the sport in general, and found an interest in competing in triatholons, he realized that he really wanted a road bike. Last week he found one in the newspaper ads, went and bought it and was thrilled beyond belief with his early birthday present.

He was so excited to have his new road bike that it didn't occur to him to strip it down and clean it. As a result, he experienced a pretty serious bike accident in the middle of State Street his first day out. He completely ruined the derailer.

It was pretty devestating to him until I reminded him how much fun he had fixing up his other bike. Now he has a bike to ride, and a separate bike that gets to be his "project" bike. He is having fun using his spare time to take the bike apart, clean it and make any necessary repairs. He is looking into painting it and getting it spiffed up exactly how he wants it.

He is planning on riding a triathalon in September, but just discovered a race that is actually going to be on his birthday! He is definitely planning to enter it and is hoping to have his bike ready for that race. It may not be possible to get everything done in time between work, school and family. His spare time is few and far between. But one way or the other, we are excited to celebrate his birthday, and in the mean time, he is having fun re-building his bike.

Summer Rain

It wasn't too long ago that we were caught in slot canyons in a rain storm. After observing us adults react to the storm with some level of concern and even panic, our children have been a bit frightened of rain since then. My mom has been great about working with Ammon. He is now quite confident in the rain, loves to explain that he is waterproof, and will even go out to run around, play in the gutters and jump in puddles. Summer storms are just too much fun to miss out on!

Oquirrh Temple Open House

We had planned to go to the open house as a group with a large portion of my family. That was before we realized Andrew wouldn't be able to come due to his school schedule. Then we found that many of us needed to stay home due to swine flu. Some weren't feeling well enough to go - others just didn't want to spread the germs.
But my sister Rebecca was nice enough to take charge of Ammon and let him attend the open house anyway. She is a fun Aunt!

In the end, it was my parents, my sister, and my brother Joe with his family who were all able to be there with Ammon. It was the first thing he told Andrew about that night, so we take that as a sign that he enjoyed it.

Last night Andrew and I were out riding bikes and looked over to see the temple. It really is beautiful and lights up in such a way that it looks translucent. How fortunate we are to have so many temples near us!

Yesterday at church our Sunday School lesson was about the Holy Ghost. As I listened, I remembered that one of the first things I was taught in preparation for attending the temple is that the temple is a place where we can learn and practice listening to the Spirit. It is a peaceful place where meditation is easy and communication between self and the Lord is strong. I love temples and I am so glad that Ammon had this opportunity to walk the halls of the House of the Lord.

Rainbow

We had the most beautiful rainbow show up after a fun summer storm. I have never seen anything like it! I wish I were better able to really capture the image and do it justice. It was a double rainbow that made a full arc from one end to the other - it never just faded away anywhere. All over the valley, people rushed outside to look in awe. It was amazing! And then, just as quickly as it had come, it was gone.

One, Two, Three

We had a rare opportunity to go hang out at the park with just the guys. Ammon adores his girl cousins, but is having fun now that the boys are getting bigger and more able to play and interact with him. Isaiah had fun sharing his bubble wand and the three of them had a grand 'ol time.

Father's Day FHE

We enjoyed a fun Family Home Evening style gathering with Andrew's brother and his family on Father's Day. We had a fun lesson by my SIL Jennifer who just got called to be a primary teacher. She is always an impressive person to be around, and she did a great job keeping the children's interest and making it fun for them.
We had a fun time listening to her talk about father's in general, our specific father's, and of course, our Father in Heaven.
There were three father's in attendance, and she had each of them come up to the front of the room.
Then the children had a chance to join their dad. They thought that was pretty cool.
Later, we had fun taking a stroll down memory lane and telling stories from the past.

Three Generation Bike Ride

After dinner on Father's Day, we spent some time at Andrew's brother's house. Ammon, Andrew and Derrick (Andy's dad) decided to bike there. Having a five year old join the 4+ mile bike ride was much more complicated than anticipated. There was the difficulty of getting the shoes, bike and helmet all out for Ammon (the ride really needed to get started for them to be there on time). Then there was the MAJOR issue of 2-year-old brother wanting to join the fun. Not happening! But I decided to follow Peter down the street and let him ride to the corner. Derrick started off, then Ammon, then Andy. They were in the street. Peter and I stayed on the sidewalk. Suddenly, I looked up to see Ammon crashed in the middle of the road. And then, before anyone could stop it, Andrew's tire was on his head!

Andrew literally rode over Ammon's little noggin. It was frightening to see - one of those slow motion moments.

Ammon was screaming and I ran to him as quickly as possible. Andrew was similtaneously caring for Ammon and looking at me in panic saying, "Did you see that! I just ran over his head!!!" We got Ammon to the side of the road, still trying to figure out if his head was hurt. We quickly realized that all of his screaming was actually due to a simple skinned knee. In fact, he was completely oblivious to the fact that his head had been trampled on. Yay for the helmet! It definitely did it's job!

At this point, we loaded up Peter into the car, and the three other Shadel men began their trek on the bikes. I kept parking just ahead of them in case Ammon needed me to pick him up. But that boy just kept going. I waited for him at various locations along the way, but he never even seemed to consider the option of getting into the car. Finally, over a mile later, he told Andrew that he was done. I was nearby, and met them at the South Jordan city post office.

Peter, Ammon and I drove the rest of the way, and Andrew finished his bike ride with his dad. I can't think of anything he would have enjoyed more for Father's Day.

Muffin Men

For Father's Day, the boys worked hard to make muffins for their daddy. They each had their own kind to make - Ammon set to work on Lemon Poppyseed and Peter did the Blueberry. They are both great cooks, but to make it even better, Ammon decided to sing as he worked. We listened to him sing, "Do You Know the Muffin Man". Peter thought it was fun, and sang the song himself. (Video clips were posted on Facebook). I just love watching my boys working together and having so much fun.
Of course once we had the muffins baking, the boys each enjoyed sampling their batter.

Just before church, we also made a pudding pie for Grandpa. Ammon ran the beaters all by himself and didn't even get his church clothes dirty. (That just seemed a bit miraculous to me.)

Parades and Football

We had a fun time attending the parade for South Jordan's Country Fest. It was a last minute plan and we met some great friends there. I didn't take my camera, but we had great seats and enjoyed watching all the floats and vehicles go by.

The boys got TONS of candy and we received lots of coupons. One of the things that were handed out were tickets to a football game. I don't remember what league it was for, but that night Andrew bundled up the boys and went to watch the game.

Ammon had fun running away so they came home at half-time. Not the night Andrew had hoped for. But still, a memory was made... ;-)

Birthday Bouncing!

My niece just turned two and had a fun party in her backyard. I even got up in the bouncy house long enough to take a few pictures.

Ammon had a blast at the party. Kambria has a cousin on the other side who is a little older than Ammon, but they hit it off and had a blast together. They played in the bouncy house, went down the slide and even snuck off to the park together. (Yeah, a couple of angry moms at that one...)

Peter went on the slide as well, but actually ended up with a bloody nose. What a mess that was! It was all over him and all over the slide. Luckily there were lots of people there who were able to jump in and help get everything cleaned up.


Krista also had a fun craft for the kids to do. Ammon loved it! It was just so thoughtful of Kambria to have a birthday. It provided us with a great excuse to party!