Strawberry Days - 2011

Every year we have a great time during the week of Strawberry days, and this year was no exception. Since most people in PG are related in one way or another it's really less of a city celebration and more of a really big family reunion.

The Carnival- Most people aren't aware of the dress code at the carnival. for those of you who are unaware I've made a simple math formula to help out. You take the amount of clothing you would wear to be modest and subtract your body fat percentage to get the square inches of clothing you can wear (example: 60 in sq. - 45% bf = 15 in sq. carnival outfit) So the fatter you are the less you have to wear. The Carnival is always a big highlight for the kids . Luckily our kids aren't too interested in trying the games that they scam you, they are just interested in riding rides. Kalli went on some scarier rides than Lindsay, but Lindsay's face looked like she enjoyed them a little more, but they both had fun. Kade was grinning the whole time, he didn't care if he was riding the park bench. At the end of the night Lindsay convinced me to let her buy a funnel cake. Everyone helped her eat it before it was paid for. After I had a couple bites of the funnel cake I used the previously mentioned clothing allowance formula with my new body fat percentage and figured out I could rip the sleeves off my shirt, I fit right in.

 

Kalli, kade, Crew, Random Girl

Kade, Crew, Dax, Briggs (Scary glimpse of the future)

The Rodeo -The rodeo was also a lot of fun too. In case you're wondering the dress code at the rodeo is the same as the carnival except you also get to wear boots and a hat. It's okay if they're not authentic, because apparently you can wear moon boots and a Crocodile Dundee hat and you'll look just like a real cowboy. In fact anyone can look like a real cowboy as long as they have boots and a hat. I've added some photographic proof.

Any way the kids loved it. Kade kept letting me know that the horses were "freaking out". And at one point he told me , "That clown isn't very funny". Kalli had fun, but she did get a little concerned when one of the cows got a bloody nose during the wild cow milking. In fact she brought it up about every 15 minutes. Lindsay was just happy because there were cousins to talk to. She could have fun at the DMV as long as there was someone to talk to.

The Mammoth Parade - Jackie hasn't made me go to the parade for about five years now. I'm not sure if it's because she loves me so much, or if she's just tired of listening to my smart @$$ comments the whole time. Don't get me wrong I love to see every Jr. High cheer squad in the valley, followed by every karate school in the city, but that seems like a lot to sit through just for a piece of saltwater taffy and bag full of flyers. After the parade we get together with Jackie's family for big potluck lunch. It's always a lot of fun and it's good to catch up with all the relatives. It really is sad when it comes to a close, thank goodness we can drown our sorrows in the strawberries and cream.

The land of Kimber and Jason - Arizona

I keep forgetting to write about our visit to Arizona a couple months back because I wanted to load some pictures with it, but I figured it would be best to write down some of the highlights before I forget them.

To start out. we thought it would be fun to surprise the kids by not telling them where we were going. This turned out to be a lot of fun and we learned some things in the process.
1. I have a much easier time lying to our kids than Jackie does.
2. Our kids are pretty gullible.
3. Our kids have no idea how Utah and Arizona fit together.
4. Our kids are pretty funny.

We told the kids we were going to Scipio to get ice cream from my favorite ice cream place. They got a little impatient after about 2 1/2 hours of driving. Kalli who was initially very excited soon let us know that our trip to get ice cream "sucked". Eventually we told them that my favorite spot was closed so we settled on a dairy queen in Beaver. As we left Beaver we told them we were taking a shortcut home. and I told them if they were good I would take them to my favorite french fry place, that's when Lindsay said "Oh yeah, and where is that? France?" After another 3 hours of driving we told them that we were lost and had to stay in a hotel for the night. Kalli started giggling and said that she was going to tell her teacher that we got lost getting ice cream. As we carried Kade in he told Jackie "That was a long shortcut!"

The next day we had fun misdirecting the kids attention every time we would come upon an Arizona road sign. Eventually we made it to Phoenix where we told the kids I had to pick up some papers for work and that they could use the bathroom if they wanted. When Kimber opened the door they were totally shocked.

We spent the next three days playing, swimming, zooing, and BBQing. The kids wore themselves out each day and had a great time. Us grownups even pulled a reserve of energy from some unknown place to have a late game night. It was definitely worth the sleep deprivation. We were pretty sad to leave when the time came, even though I'm sure Kimber and Jason were ready to get back the 7/8's of there house that we took over.

I'd like to say the ride home was a lot more fun, but really it was just a lot more whiny. We did stop at Lake Powell on the way back which was pretty cool. In the end we had a lot of fun with the Gray family and appreciated their hospitality and patience.