Push to the End!

Last week was jammed pack with end of the summer activities! We will be camping all next week so I had to finish so many things this week. I went shopping three different times in Portland for school clothes. One time I even took all FIVE kids with me. We only made it to one store.

I had friends over to play and Morgan had a sleepover with cousins. I went to the late night movie with some friends to see Mama Mia on Wednesday night. The very next night Jon, my friend Julie, and I went to see Phantom of the Opera!

Morgan went to the dentist, I took Mason shopping for school supplies, and we all went out to lunch with some friends to Costa Vita! YUM my first time! We finished up swimming lessons for Maddie and Brinley.

Mason and Morgan both got new hair cuts for the new school year. Morgan wouldn't pose for this picture because her hair didn't look good!
We also hiked around Round Lake with some friends, Brooklyn went to a B-day party, went to Target 3x (twice in one day), worked out every day, had soccer practice, mutual, and stayed up late nightly to watch the Olympics! WHEW! No wonder why I'm so pooped! We will be gone all next week camping at Lake Billy Chinook! When we get home I'll be looking forward to Brooklyn's eighth birthday, the first day of school, my parents arrival for Brooklyn's Baptism, and the BYU vs. Washington game in Seattle!

First Year of Girls Camp!

Morgan just came home from Girls Camp yesterday! She was stinky and tired but loved every minute of it! They do many fun, spiritual, and crazy things at camp. Our ward has a great group of girls and they grew closer together this week. I was able to attend camp on Thursday and Friday evening. It was so fun to see Morgan and my other Beehives! Camp this year was in August to avoid any chance of rain. Well it was 95-103 every day! Some people were actually hoping it would rain! Some fun memories that I had while at camp were: Morgan's tooth getting stuck in a Starburst and coming out, she then ran to Sister Jensen instead of her own mother who was sitting right next to her, watching the girls on the huge slip-n-slide, campfire songs, crafting, watching Breanna do the robot, laughing/crying during testimony meeting with the girls and the entire bishopbric and their wives. Morgan has many more years of camp and I hope to experience them with her!

Olympics Junkie!

The Olympics have only been on for three days and I'm calling my self an Olympics Junkie. We can't get enough of them in the Jackson household. Both Friday and Saturday night we ALL stayed up until 11:30 pm to watch them, including Maddie. I got hooked on the Olympics when I was fourteen years old and they were in Los Angeles. We had just moved to Denver and I knew no one. I loved watching them and still love to watch them. Some of my favorite events are gymnastics, swimming, diving, basketball, and track & field. I will probably watch almost anything! For the past three nights I have just sat on my couch with my remote for three plus hours! That's why I'm doing this at 1 a.m. Maybe I will get to my laundry this week?!? Any other junkies out there! I figure it's only happens every four years right?

Happy Birthday Maddie!

Madelyn's birthday was August 1 but since I was out of town we celebrated it last Thursday. I had told my family not to say anything to her on her actual bday since we weren't celebrating it that day. Well, grandma was watching the kids that day and when grandpa (Larry) came home from work he said "Happy Birthday Maddie!" She was thoroughly confused because no one had said a thing about her bday! The rest of the night she kept on asking everyone "Is it my birthday today?" They all had to lie to her and tell her "No Maddie it's next week". I decided to celebrate it on Thursday August 7 almost a week after her "real" birthday. We first took her and all the kids to Wendy's for lunch and then headed to the mall to ride the carousel. When we were at Lagoon this summer she loved to ride the horses. She has said several times "Can we go to Galoon to ride the horsey's Mom?" The kids convinced me to take her to Build-A-Bear. We have a brand new one in our mall. She had a great time picking out her "Purple Fluff Bear". We then had many helpers (Morgan, Brooklyn, Brinley, Mason could care less) help her pick out the clothes for the bear including some frog jammies.

We headed home to give her a nap before we had a little family party for her. I asked her what she wanted for dinner and she picked her favorite, Chicken/Broccoli Casserole. The minute she saw the presents she wanted nothing to do with dinner. After dinner she opened her presents where she got a Bitty Baby, a couple of frog toys, and of course her new Build-A-Bear.

She was very excited to eat her frog cake that Daddy made. Jon found this cake after her googled "frog cakes". We all think it turned out fabulous!

Jon is not sure how he got the job of making the birthday cakes but he is great at it! It all started with Mason's 2 year old bday Basketball Cake. I was suppose to be helping him with the frog cake but I was drawn to the "So You Think You Can Dance" Finale! We finally went to bed at 1 am after some "small" disagreements! Maddie had a fun birthday and we all can't believe that our baby is THREE! I still call her my baby but she has been frequently correcting me by saying "I'm not a baby, I'm a big girl." Some fun facts about Madelyn:

She weighs 32 pounds, wears a size 3 and shares clothes with Brinley. She is very independent and wants to do everything herself i.e. put on her own clothes/shoes, butter her toast, wipe her bum, brush her teeth, but not make her own bed! This sometimes takes much more time than if I did it myself. I have to remind myself that she is learning! She loves to do anything her older siblings do especially B & B. All the kids want to be her "honey". Which means if she's Mason's honey he's her favorite. They play together, snuggle together,and sometimes sleep together. Mas and Morg fight over her and Maddie goes back and forth between these two being her "honey". She became a much better eater (less picky) while I was gone to NY, way to go Jon! She is still very shy and kind of a stinker when it comes to being friendly/nice to people when they talk to her. She has a ritual when going to bed: books, snuggling, and songs. Her favorite songs to sing are: Itsy Bitsy Spider, I love to see the Temple, and Why do Birds. Her friends are Shaylee Phelon, Hannah Zundel, her cousin Mark, and Brody Lake. She loves to ride her bike, jump on the trampoline, carry little purses stuffed with polly's, purple fluffy blanket, and play hide & seek with her siblings. We just love everything about our Baby Doll, Maddie!

Eight is Enough!

Last Thursday we met up with Morgan's friend Victoria and her family. They moved last summer to Long Island, NY. We had previously arranged to stay with them for two days after we did New York City with my parents. About a month ago Victoria called Morgan and asked if we wanted to go to Six Flags in Trenton, NJ.

We of course said "yes" and so we made our two hour drive there on Friday morning. I know now what I didn't know before is that Six Flags is "known" for having great roller coasters! I was in heaven!!! Ten plus roller coasters to choose from and no little kids to entertain. We proceeded to hit almost every major coaster that was open the entire day! After about the first three I had a throbbing headache! But I took some Advil and pressed on. We went on The Dark Knight roller coaster, Batman the ride

(the girls loved this one so we did it TWICE), Great American Scream Machine, Congo Rapids, Superman Ultimate Flight (I think this one was the scariest b/c you're on your stomach the whole ride looking down at the ground), Rolling Thunder, and we saved the best for last Nitro!

This was our last ride of the day and I had to bribe the girls to go on it. It has a 250 foot drop and goes 80 mph. They had terrified looks on their faces as we climbed the first hill, but they loved it! I have to say that a 38 year old body is not quite the same as a 20 year old body! After being flipped, slammed, and spun around at 70-80 mph all day long I was DONE! The only thing I was bummed about was the fact that we didn't go on Kingda Ka. It is the tallest (45 stories/456 ft) and fastest (128 mph) roller coaster on earth. I finally convinced Morgan to come with me but when we got to the line it had closed down for technical difficulty. Victoria's mom said "Maybe we are not suppose to go on this ride today!" We all had a great time and I think I am done with roller coasters for about a year!

New York Trip Recap!

We had such a fun time in NYC that I wanted to quickly document what we did each day so I won't forget!

Day 1: Monday July 28

We arrive in NY at 6 pm after our 2 hour delay in Denver. We get checked into the New York City Athletic Club. This was a very nice place to stay and there is a required dress code to walk in the front door. We ended up using the back door several times! After getting a quick dinner at Whole Foods Market we took the subway to Times Square. We were all amazed by the lights, people, and honking taxis. We went to a few stores but our favorite was the M&M store. After a couple hours of walking, people watching, and shopping we were tired! We eventually made it to bed at 1 am after getting on the wrong subway!

Day 2: Tuesday July 29

We took the subway to Battery Park where we stood in line to get on the ferry for the Statue of Liberty. The line was long and it was hot but it was worth it. It was so cool to see the Statue up close and to be able to go to Ellis Island.While on Ellis Island we were able to see many displays about the immigrants that came to the United States (one of them was my great grandpa). We returned to Battery Park and walked up to Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, and Ground Zero. There isn't much to see at Ground Zero because there are huge fences around the site. There's going to be a monument built there and is to be completed in 2012. We went to Serendipity for dinner,dessert, and their famous frozen hot chocolate. The dinner not so great but the desserts were tasty!!!

Day 3: Wednesday July 30

We got up at 5:00 am so we could head down to Rockefeller Center where the Today Show is broadcast! We were there from 6-9 am and were shown several times in the background. I even met Natalie Morales! We walked around a ton this day visiting many stores: The American Girl Doll Store, the NBA Store, FAO Schwartz, and the Apple Store. We also went to the top of the GE building. They call it the "Top of The Rock." There is a great observation deck where we saw all of the New York Skyline including the Empire State Building!

We went back to the hotel to take a nap since we got up so early! That evening we went to our Broadway show of The Lion King. We all loved it! The costumes, sets, music, and dancing was fabulous! After the show we walked in Times Square until we found a little cafe to have some NY cheesecake!

Day 4: Thursday July 31

We woke up early again to make it to the Manhattan Temple by 8:00 am. We walked a few blocks from where we were staying and it was right there in the middle of town. There's no grass, flowers, or grounds at this temple. It was great experience for Morgan to do Baptisms for some of her ancestors. We walked to Carnegie Hall to show Morgan where I performed with my High School Concert Choir. I was bummed because it was under construction and we couldn't see anything but the lobby. After breakfast we finally made it to Central Park which was right across the street from where we were staying. After taking a short tour in this carriage we went into the park to eat our pretzels and people watch.

We took a taxi down to Little Italy to have an early dinner. It was amazing to see all the little shops and restaurants. We had some good Italian food at Puglia's and then hit the shops. There were many people wanting to give us a "good deal" at their shops. We found a place on the famous Canal Street where we bought some inexpensive purses.

Some of my observations about New York: Lots of people, always in a hurry and have to keep up, when waiting at a crosswalk you must stand in the street so you can get across first, many New Yorkers Smoke, it is very humid in the summer time, I still can't understand the subway system and I'm amazed at how many people know exactly what they are doing, lots of people speak foreign languages, I'm glad that I only had one kid to keep track of and no little kids, food is expensive there, there are no Caucasian taxi drivers, walking is a must in the City and there is never enough time to do everything you want in New York!

It was one of my favorite trips and thanks to Mom and Dad for letting me tag along!