Catchin up Again!

I really have been awful at blogging lately, but we're a little swamped as usual. Cai has been playing basketball, and he's been learning alot. It is so funny to watch 1st and 2nd graders play. Cai could barely dribble the first game but made a lot of progress. I realized I really stink at getting out and playing sports with my kids there were a lot of players that really knew what they were doing out there. Maybe I ought to learn too. We have a goal for next summer I guess.

The addition is coming along these pics are actually kind of old, we now have shingles on both roofs, all the doors and windows, soffit and facia on the addition and half of the siding on it too. The inside has all the electrical done, and insulation blown in, sheet rock is supposed to start tomorrow. My old laundry room is now a mudroom with a large cabinet to expand my pantry and a bench with storage compartments beneath and a ton of hooks for jackets and backpacks. Cai and Cole's old room is now a fully functional laundry room with cabinets and countertops. I am so loving my new laundry system. My bedroom used to be laundry sorting and folding central and now I have it back. The hardest part is still having all the kids in Cate's room, but we're making it work. The new garage has a little offshoot for a kids play house. We wanted the garage to look like a little house back there, since we'd be staring at it out those southern windows forever. We decided to go for the 12/12 pitch live in trusses so that we could have a ladder in the playroom and the kids could play in the "bonus room" above the garage too. Then when they're older it would be great for storage. I'll have to update the new pics, it's kind of hard to tell with just the trusses up.

We also got to go down to Salt Lake over UEA. Chris had to sit at the convention, so I went to my sisters and we hit the scarecrow festival. The kids had a ton of fun. They had all kinds of free games and blow up rides. The blowup rides were finally our downfall however. They were so large that once your kids headed into them you couldn't see them inside and never quite knew when they were coming back out, and after a while you started to wonder if they had already come out and were lost, or if they were hiding inside. My 3 year old nephew got lost for about 10-15 minutes and my sister was hysterical we combed the grounds and finally found him. He ran into a blowup ride and sat in a corner waiting for Cai and Cole. Then we decided we would hit another ride and Cate and the boys sat in line while Kerrie and I talked. We looked at the line a moment later and the boys had gone in, but Cate was a little nervous sometimes so I wasn't certain if she went in also. I peeked in and around but couldn't tell so I sent a worker in to look. He didn't see her so I started panicking. I searched the other rides and the worker gave her description to the other operators. No sign of her. Kerrie and I split up again to search. I went to the bouncing castles she had been wanting to go into and no sign. I went behind them just in case she wandered back there and saw an exit. I totally freaked and knew I had to get help right away so I went to talk to their EMT guys by some four-wheelers and just broke down bawling trying to describe her to them. We all started looking around and I saw my sister coming across the field with her. She had made her way all the way over to the stage area, and was climbing around on the bleachers when Kerrie saw her. I can't tell you how relieved I was. When they're lost you just start imagining all kinds of terrible things, wondering if you'll ever see them again. Needless to say after losing two kids we were DONE with the scarecrow festival! Those blowup rides were our undoing. It was impossible to be sure where they were, and there were so many kids. Anywhere else you would go with your kids on a ride, but those you just trusted they would come out the other end someday. YIKES! I forgot my camera that day so here's a cute pic of Cate I took the other day. No more giant blowup rides for her until she's 10!