Crosby Family Get-Together

With my parents being busy on a mission the next few years, the Crosby family vacations will remain small. We decided to gather in St. George this year, the first week in August-specifically so we could attend Cove Fort days and include my parents in some of the festivities! Here's the Reader's Digest version of our goings on.


Monday Night- Minute to Win it games, put together by Jenn. Such a fun, relaxed night. Favorite moments were watching Lindy pulling the tissues out of the tissue box, Richie dominating the rubber-band shooting game, and watching people do the game where you put a tennis ball in pantyhose, on your head and try to knock down water bottles. Classic.


Tuesday- Downtown SG day- We met at the splash pad and let the kids run around, rode the carousel, treated them at Judd's, and then met Russ, Nat and co. at this yummy smoothie and sandwich place for lunch. Later that day, some of the adults did a session in the temple (I barely made it in by the skin of my teeth. Didn't bring temple clothes or recommend!) while some of the young adults in our bunch did some baptisms that morning. That night it was so fun to see Erma perform in a play out in Washington.



Wednesday, we hit up the classic Veyo Roller Rink. However, it wasn't as "magical" as I remember it. Everyone made it work, despite the no AC, and lacking skate selection, and had a good time.


That night we swam at a pool provided by the Lamb's and had a talent show. I love these family talent shows! It's so neat for me to see that side of my nieces and nephews. Miles showcased his artwork on an "art cart", and was over the moon that people started buying his drawings. He made $2. Art and Money are his two major passions, so I'm sure he was in heaven. Gwen did one of her recital dances for us, and Lindy eventually danced. We tried to group all of the littles together at the end to do a group dance. When Lindy realized it wasn't a solo, her world was shattered, and she did the best pout/walk off the stage. She was eventually persuaded back by her adoring fans.


Thursday- I had heard incredible things about this new park near my parents house. So we decided to spend the morning there. However, by this point in the trip, I'm pretty sure I'd already sweat off half of my body weight, and this awesome park didn't have the water feature working. And week 1 of August in SG is bound to be a scorcher. So although it was a really cool park, my favorite part was the air conditioned ride home.


That night we went swimming at Sand Hollow Pool, and then continued the swimming at Russ and Nat's house after dinner.


Friday was dedicated to the Sand Hollow Reservoir. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was nice and overcast. We rented a boat which kept most everyone busy. Those of us who stayed on shore tried out a paddle board, spike ball, and watched kids. I love my kids getting a nice healthy dose of that red dirt! The only downside to this day was that Miles got a wicked sunburn. He lost his swimming suit somewhere along the way. So he didn't have his normal rash guard on. Although I slathered him with sunscreen, he got one of the worst sunburns I've seen. It took him a full week to recover!



On Saturday, some of the men-folk played basketball in the morning. By the afternoon we were headed to Cove Fort. Everyone just kind of wandered through. There was so much to do! My Mom, although she would never take full credit, went all out. You could see evidences of her efforts everywhere. The "hay bale slide" was specifically a nod to the giant slides her Dad, my Grandpa Hinckley, would make at his farm. We were able to see Mom and Dad briefly here and there, but they were pretty busy running things. We would have loved to stay longer, but Miles's massive sunburn was making him sick, besides just being massively uncomfortable.



Highlights of the trip for me:
*Finally getting the DVD player to work in the van on the way down, so I wouldn't completely lose my sanity.
*Being introduced to Spike Ball
*Watching Lindy jump off the ladder into Russ and Nat's pool over, and over again, with her little bum hanging out of her shorts.
*Watching the lightning show off the back deck with Belen.
*Hearing the Richie held his own in basketball with all of the very tall men in the family. :)
*Catching a glimpse of one of my all-time favorite landscapes on our way out of SG. It's always my favorite part of the drive. :)
*My kids getting to sleep over at the Lambs on Friday night. It's become kind of a tradition that is hands-down, the highlight of any trip for my kids.
*Getting to hang out with the Ben Crosby's a little longer when they stayed over at our house Saturday night, before they made the trek back to Iowa.

It's always a good time when we get together. So grateful for this family of mine. :)

Pioneer Day

With Cove Fort being relatively close to us, and with Richie having Pioneer Day off from work, we decided to make a quick day trip down to surprise my Mom and Dad. Turns out, we were the ones who were surprised! They were gone, participating in a parade in Monroe! Luckily we didn't have to wait to long before they came back and we were able to spend some time together. It was a busy day at the fort, so Mom and Dad were kept pretty busy, but we were glad to sneak in whatever time we could. It's fun to see my parents in this missionary element. They are glowing and energetic and full of purpose.

Camping in July

Miles is an enthusiastic new scout, and Richie wants to capitalize on that. So they sat down one Sunday and planned a camping trip for our family and the James family. I didn't do much camping growing up, as in, none at all. The times I have been camping (As a single person, or newly wed) I generally enjoyed myself, however, camping with 4 small kids sounded torturous to me.

We loaded up, and only went about 20 minutes south to "The Willows" campground, to play it safe and close to home. About 2 minutes into setting up camp, Gwen got her first hornet/wasp/whatever sting. I was kicking myself I didn't bring any first aid, but we did ok with constant ice on it. The James family got there, Grandpa Garner came to help us and we made tinfoil dinners. We did a little star gazing, a little nature walk, learned the art of the walkie-talkie, and made peach cobbler. Yum!

It was around 9pm, I had already sweat about half of my body weight, and decided that Benson was probably tired enough. Thinking I was so smart, we went and laid down in the tent before everyone else, hoping to help Benson fall asleep before everyone else piled in. It was a lost cause. We worked with him till 3 in the morning with no success. Then Richie said the most attractive words he has ever said to me, "We are getting you out of here!" He maneuvered the truck around trees and other parked cars in the pitch black with expert level skill, and I drove back to Riverton with Benson. We crashed for a few glorious hours, and then went back to participate in the festivities the next morning.

The kids went kayaking on the river, they made cool crafts with Aunt Makenna, we made some lunch, and then packed up. Overall, it was a good experience. That's been a constant theme in my head these days. Parents sacrifice all sorts of things, in hopes that their kids will "have a good experience." I want my kids to experience camping and all that goes along with it, so we make sacrifices, right?? That being said, I think I'm good for another...year or so. :)

The rest of July

Another herb class with Grandma Garner! It's been really fun watching the kids pick up on these things.


Miles had his first scout day camp. I don't think he could have been more excited than he was. He came home completely dirty and tired both days, so I'd call it a success.


Lindy loves Benson SO much. Sometimes,(more often than not) it's hard for her to contain her love. Multiple times a day, enough times to drive me crazy, I have to pull her off of him, remind, scold, redirect...repeat.


Gwen made me this magformers heart one night while I was at the gym. But before I got back, Lindy had smooshed it. So she made me another one the next day! Now that's love. :)


Uncle Tanner gave his farewell talk. That meant a big dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house and getting to see Ross, Amanda and Emerson! We went over the day before he went into the MTC to say our official goodbyes. We're planning on taking the same picture with all the grandkids when he gets back to see how much everybody's grown!


This picture just fill my heart up with gratitude. Long story short, it had been a long morning. After the library, the kids begged to go to the park right next to it. Being the "nice" mom I am, I said, "FINE! But you only have 10 minutes max to play. We have to get home." I put Benson and Lindy in the swings and was pushing them both. It wasn't long before Miles and Gwen volunteered to take over the pushing duties. They even did all the animated things you do while pushing a swing, that Mom was too tired to do. Lots of people tell me that things will get easier as my kids get older. That the older ones will help out more and become more capable. I really want to believe that...but most of the time I can't see any evidence of that happening now...or ever. So this particular instance was special to me, because I actually saw a light at the end of the tunnel! Not that I'm wishing away this stage of life. It' just tiring. And it's nice to see that certain things will get easier.


Another night in the cul-de-sac with neighbors! Kickball, whiffle ball, pie face, treats, and good company.


Splash pad day. I had tried to get some friends to come with us, but no one responded, so we went anyway. Miles was upset that there were no friends there to play with. So I suggested he try making friends with some (rowdy and older) boys playing there also. They had brought water guns and were involved in some sort of "war". He tried his hardest, but the boys made it clear, multiple times that there "game" was closed to outsiders. Even after Miles offered them free gum! Can you imagine? :) I couldn't help but scowl a little at these boys moms for not interfering, and at the same time realizing that they can't micromanage everything. It was just heartbreaking to see him try so hard and fail every time. Gwen even stood up to these boys on her brother's behalf, which made my mama heart proud. We talked about it at length, and the point I tried to make was that now they know how it feels to be left out, and how they wouldn't want to make anybody else feel that way. Hopefully that sinks in.


Gwen is a master bike rider now! She was hesitant to keep trying, because she's so comfortable on her scooter. But now that she's got it, you can just see the pride in her eyes when she rides! Yay Gwen!


Richie was transferred to another school in West Valley this year. Hunter high school. His big joke is that when they came in to tell him about the transfer, they also took his measurements for a bullet proof vest. It is a 51% ethnic school, (Poly, Mexican, and Asian mostly) and 49% Caucasian. He's really looking forward to it and can't wait to start teaching. I took the kids to check it out the other day. It's always fun to visit dad at work.


Speaking of Richie's students, some of his past students from Murray high asked him to teach a swing dance class. A student's mother had a venue for us to use and actually paid for us to come teach! A date night that we get paid for?? Yes please! We haven't taught swing in years, but it seemed to come back pretty easily and was so fun to be back in that setting. They liked it so much, they set up another class for us and hope it make it a regular thing! Yay!


Dad and Gwen went on a date to the outdoor movies at Thanksgiving Point. They were early, so they got ice cream and then watched Trolls. The best part of these dates it that it becomes clearly obvious how special the kids feel.


And speaking of dates, Richie and I snuck away on one. Christy called the day before and said she would take the kids tomorrow so we could get to the temple. It was much needed. The Jordan River is closed for remodeling, so we went to Oquirrh Mountain, but it was closed for cleaning! So we went to the Draper temple, which I believe was my first time being inside! How cool that we have 3 temples within 10 minutes of each other!


Making ice cream at Grandma and Grandpa Garners!


Caught a sweet moment between Gwen and Benson. :)