The Summer Tea Party

Some things never change for kids in the summer: lemonade stands, running through the sprinklers and tea parties.

I think the girls have had this tea set since Lauren was 2 or 3. Cam is a great sport and happy to join in with Makenzie in just about anything... Cam and Kenzi have spent most of the summer playing together ... and for Cam an added bonus if the beverage is hot chocolate.

Be Honest with Me... is there anything about me that resembles a garbage can?

I know moms are a lot of things... maids, cooks, taxi drivers, referees and more, but if I had to call myself one thing based on my kids actions it would be a garbage can.

I kid you not, we could be at Lagoon or any public place and there would be a garbage can one step away, and I could be sitting 10 steps away waiting for them, and my kids would come and hand their garbage to me rather than putting in the can right next to them.

My pants pockets, purse and car are always full of little wrappers and garbage.

I asked Lauren today and she was passing off a paper plate with leftover bread crumbs to me... yes she is almost 14 and no I wasn't remotely near a garbage can ... what part of my face resembles a garbage can! She and my niece just laughed... only I wasn't joking!

I'm Just Exercising Dad... at 12:30 am

Last night about 12:30 am Dave and I could hear something in Cam's room. Dave went in there to see what was going on.

Dave: Lights are off. "Cam, what are you doing?"

Cam: "Just exercising."

When he woke up this morning I asked him what he was doing last night at 12:30 am.

Cam: "Oh just doing push-ups and wrapping my leg around my neck. Dad came in and told me to go to bed but I just kept exercising."

Not even sure what to say. Seriously Cam, will you ever be a normal sleeper?

How can you tell he's a Bevan?

Bevans are known for waterfighting... and I definitely can tell Cameron hung out with Grandpa Bevan before he came to earth. Since he was about 2 he has loved to pour water on people... and doesn't even care if he gets drenched back.

I had a great time squirting him for about 1/2 hour the other day -- and he just laughed and laughed.

Boy Cousins... and Cam

Josh is down for a week golfing with Toph -- so we've had a chance to have a Mueller Park night and some lunches with him and Grandpa. And Josh even went out on a hot date!!!

I've always thought Cam looked like Scott and his boys and Cam loves being around boy cousins (even if they are 10+ years older) so he has loved seeing Josh (and Jordan who just came into town last night). On the Wall side Cam is definitely outnumbered with girl cousins and I'm coming to realize how much he admires his older boy cousins. Adam was one of the few people beside Dave and I that Cameron wasn't shy around and he loved Gavin the minute he met him.

Last weekend shopping he saw a "Doug" shirt and wanted to buy it. When he got home Lauren and I had also bought him some "Doug" shoes. (Ihadn't realized how much Cameron noticed everything about Doug.) He then put on some "Doug" pants and was so excited because he looked just like Doug.

Yesterday at lunch Josh had convinced him ... with very little effort... that the U was better than BYU. He just smiled and said that was right.

Scott, Jordan and Josh called him on Friday morning to see if he would go to the U of U bookstore with them and he spent the day with them. When I got to grandpas that night my sweet little guy was in a U of U shirt and proud of it. Toph then convinced him to put on a BYU jacket. (I was afraid he was going to start crying trying to decide who to have allegiance to.)

Fortunately Cam's older boy cousins are all pretty fabulous so if you turn out 1/2 as handsome as Doug and Josh and Jordan and Adam and Scott and Toph and Gavin you'll be ok Cam -- even if you become a U fan.

Camo if you end up 1/2 as handsome and nice as Josh and Jordan you'll be great!!!

End of School... Just a Little Late

In an attempt to get caught up before I print my annual Birthday present, a few end of school pictures. It seems like between all the kids end of school parties there was a two-week long celebration. Cam had a big end of school bash this year rather than a b-day party and that kind of kicked off the whole summer fun.

They then enjoyed the first lazy days of summer with night games, finding a bird and trying to nurse it back to health, Lagoon, Jacob' baptism, new summer haircuts, lemonade stands, Kenzi's cooking lessons and Cameron discovering it is ok for boys to sleep without a shirt and wander around the house with just PJ bottoms on. (Gratefully when he has asked Dave to walk around without a shirt too he declines!)

It was then quickly off to swimming lessons for Cam, voice lessons and gymnastics for Kenzi, Girls' Camp for Lauren, Space Camp for Lauren and Kenzi, a week long visit/party with Mandy, tennis lessons for me with Misty, and late night Perry Mason-I Love Lucy-My 3 Sons. (Can I just say I love that they love watching those... just wish they weren't so late.)

I guess that is why summer seems to have flown by...

Happy Birthday Fat Nat!!

I love the "talk" words by Mary Schmich about sunscreen (I will post it later).

One part I really love is "Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young."

I got really lucky on Friday night... got to spend an evening with "Fat Nat" on her birthday. As you can tell from the pictures Fat Nat is anything but fat... it is just a nicer version of one of her old nicknames.

I've known Natalie my whole life. In fact I don't remember ever not knowing Nat.

We went to Elementary, Jr. High, High School, 1 year of BYU together. We spent every summer playing growing up playing night games, running back and forth between each others houses, we vacationed with each other's families, skied together every weekend for 2 years, girls camp/youth conferences/EFY, good double dates and bad double dates, went through multiple broken hearts and boyfriends, sicknesses, adoptions, sealings, parents dying, family stress and more. At BYU everyone thought we were sisters -- I guess we just as well could be sisters. Somehow through the years and living in different states we've managed to stay in touch -- a lot of that is thanks to Nat. My kids always thought they were relatives.

I remember when we were probably 4 and 5 and we were sitting on her wall and she got red ants in her pants. I remember her mom's chocolate chip cookies. I remember when we went skiing in Park City and stayed at a condo and I got the world's worse case of strep. Unfortunately I'll never forget our Ward Campout at Cherry Hill and our 1984 National Championship Football "friends." (Nat I don't share the details of those stories.) When Lauren was adopted she came down and spent the weekend for the adoption and sealing. I remember her sitting and listening to all my stories... it kind of felt like my mom was actually here with me!

There really is something comforting about someone that has known you forever, knows everything about you and still loves you anyway!

Brent and their kids are moving to Virginia at the end of this month. I'm really hoping/planning for a trip out to see them Spring 2013.

Happy Birthday Nat!!!

The Drive-In Movie

Pre-Movie Relaxation

Cam practicing "The Smolder"

Saturday night we took the kids to see the Smurf Movie at the Drive-In. I haven't been to a drive in movie since my sophmore year of college. I must admit I was a little scared about the adventure (I was really expecting a Lisa/Steph disaster since it was Lisa's idea and then they couldn't even come) but Dave and I were both pleasantly surprised. I think it is something we would add to an annual summer activity and invite a few more people to come next time.

Ironically with the 1000s of cars out there Chelsea Hawkes and her cute little family pulled up right next to us so we had a fun time visiting with them.

It definitely brought back good and bad memories for both Dave and I.

• My worst date ever .. BYU sophomore year when Simone and her boyfriend Dave talked me into going out with their friend (who had asked me out 10 times and I had already said no). We went to a drive-in and sat in the back of a truck with Dave tickling my dates neck so he thought it was me. All of the sudden he started to try to kiss me because he thought I was tickling his back. It went down hill from there. Not sure what was worse, the hair that came off his mustache when he tried to kiss me or when he told me he could tell I was going to be fat when I was 40 because I had fat arms. (Can I just say I had about 10% body fat at the time and had toothpick arms... any wonder why I had told him no 10 times before I consented to go out with him!)
• Dave said when he was little they went to a drive-in and he looked over at the other screen to see a naked women... ok a drawback of the drive-in.
• Our 1st apartment in Orem was right next to a drive-in movie theatre and Aracnaphobia. Every night at 11:15 pm there was massive screaming!

Happy 4th... Ok a Little Late

Along with the fun ward 4th of July breakfast, Street of Fire BBQ and firework show with friends we added a new twist to the 4th of July and volunteered at the Stadium of Fire.

It was great to watch all the teens and pre-teen girls sing along with David Archuleta and I loved Brad Paisley. The fireworks of course we the best!

Probably the best part was being out on the football field after when it was quiet and imagining what it might be like to play football there -- Cam and Uncle Mike even practiced some tackling.

We added a before and after cabin night, threw in a hike and picnic at Bridal Veil Falls, 17 Miracles movie and turned it into a tiring, fun weekend.

Braces, Braces Everywhere!

We spent the afternoon/evening with 1/2 of South Davis County at Cherry Hill at our orthodontists' Summer Party. Great weather, fabulous prizes (an IPAD won by a 6 year old -- my kids were so jealous) and a lot of fun.

Also... a disproportionate number of 7-15 year olds with braces or crooked teeth just waiting to get fixed. And when I say disproportionate, I mean probably 200-300 kids. I felt really bad for the paying customers.

It cracked me up -- everywhere I turned there was a big smile with braces. Happy, laughing, wet braces!

Glad my kids enjoyed it -- we paid a heck of a lot of money to enjoy our Cherry Hill party and be among the metal-mouthed, darling kids.

A Hunting they Will Go...

Net -- check
Carrots and Celery -- check
Reflective Vest -- check
Race for the Cure Pink Capes -- check
Leis -- check
Flashlight -- check
Hard Hats -- check

I arrived home from an evening at Lagoon last night to find Lauren dressed in a very strange outfit, heading out to catch a rabbit with Emily.

The night before we had been walking and saw a little wild rabbit hopping down the street. Last night Lisa saw it and told Lauren so at 10:30 pm Lauren, Emily and Kenzi -- in their very strange rabbit hunting outfits -- set out to catch the rabbit. Not sure what they are were going to do if they found it. Apparently they saw it, came close to catching it, but had no luck. They were a little irritated I made them stop hunting at 11:30 pm.

(Hopefully this little bunny has a better fate than last year when our cat Max, unfortunately got to a little wild rabbit in the middle of the night faster than I did. Let's just say the kids had a funeral the next day.)

The kids rabbit hunting brought back several kid memories:
* Playing night games/chinese tortue with picnic benches as a kid.
* Selling green corn bread we made in our easy-bake-oven.
* King Muimui under the waterfall in the backyard with Jenn, Nat, Rona and Steve.

Oh to be a kid in the summer again!!!

The Smolder ...

• Cam (and Dave's) recent favorite movie is Tangled. Cam loves Flynn Rider and "the smolder."


• He even did the smolder on his Lagoon season pass. While this isn't the "smolder" look he is practicing for the "love of his life" 20 years from now -- love this picture Becca took of him on the 4th of July.


• And Cam... you have to stop growing. I measured him at the 1st of June, and we measured again yesterday -- 1 inch taller!!!

It Just Takes One... Thank you cute girl at Space Camp

You always hear "it just takes one person, or you never know what just a smile will do" etc.

In the last week Lauren has been the giver and recipient of this.

To Lolo -- I am so proud of you for reaching out and caring -- phone calls or visits may not have seemed like a big deal to you, but to the recipient, you were making all of the difference in the world.

.. and can I just say to the sweet girl at Space Camp who will never know how much that smile and "hey weren't you here last year -- come on!" (and just so happens to be in the same group as Lauren) -- thank you, thank you, thank you!!! You just made all of the difference in the world to the next 4 days for Lauren and were the answer to my really quick silent prayers!!

Book of Mormon in 100 Days

Our YW were challenged to read the Book of Mormon in 100 days -- before girls camp this summer.

I am happy to report that all 3 Hess Women have completed this! I've read the Book of Mormon lots of time, but never in a short time like that. Amazing how it feels so much more of a continuous story and how much the stories and verses would come to my mind during the day.

Kenzi doesn't start YW until August but was at New Beginnings and begged to do it. Sweet Jenny brought her over one of the booklets and I have to say she was the 1st to complete, the most diligent about it and the most excited. I am so proud of her -- reading the entire Book of Mormon by herself at 11.

Lauren did great too and was done a few days before camp. Great idea Barton Creek!

Potty Time

Cracks me up. This week Kenzi did a paid studio recording (most are volunteer and they do it for fun/service and maybe get a little gift card -- she wasn't super happy I made her stop at the bank on the way home and deposit a little more than 1/2 in her savings account.)

The Theme.... Potty Training. "Flush, flush, flush, flush the toilet. Watch, watch, watch, watch it go. Mom or Dad can help you." Not sure of the real words, but that was 1 of the 5 songs.

It was the back track for Signing Time DVD for potty training. Definitely the funniest recording she has every done. I told the girls they could hire themselves out now to neighbors to do their potty training and they will never forget the songs and can use them when they are moms!