Raspberry Days

We went to Raspberry Days at Bear Lake the first weekend in August. The kids and I are pretty good at distracting ourselves while Jeff unpacks - and packs for that matter. I tend to use the excuse that someone has to watch the dwarfs. It's a sacrifice, really.

The first thing we do to avoid unpacking, is turn on the sprinklers. Ok, so Jeff was the one who turned the sprinklers on. Then Cole takes his shoes off (I don't know why we even buy that kid shoes), finds the sprinklers and proceeds to get soaking wet. We end up taking off our clothes at this point. Wait, just Cole stripped down. Pearl was in her swimming suit about 3.5 seconds after arriving, and I remained fully clothed the entire time. Finally, we continue to avoid all chores by playing on the slide, dumping all the beach toys on the lawn, and filling up the pool.Eventually my husband's gentle pleas to start cooking dinner before every starves to death get to me and I start pulling my weight a bit.

As tradition, the women and children packed up Saturday morning (bright and early... ha!) and headed into town for the craft fair. I must say, I was a bit disappointed with this year's vendors. I walked away with nothing. Pearl and Ruby on the other hand, each got an I Spy book (Pearl chose a fairyland themed one and Ruby a monster one) and then whined and pleaded their way into getting me to buy them both a puppet. Pearl picked a little dog, whom she lovingly named Maddox Aggie. I know, huh? Ruby picked a horse. The awesome thing about the puppets, and honestly, the selling point for me, was that you could take the strings off the wooden dowels to untangle them.
And as tradition stands, at some point the kids are DONE with the craft fair. I thought it would be Cole who couldn't take the shopping any longer but it was the girls. I don't blame them. Like usual, we got separated from my mom and sister about five minutes after getting there - they move a lot slower window shopping without kids than Emily and I do - and by the time they had gotten their loot they were done. Both wanted to go back to the parking lot because they had a climbing wall and bouncy houses. So we finally gave in to the screaming and went to the climbing wall. Ruby is all muscles. She didn't know how to use her feet so she simply pulled herself up the wall with shear arm strength. I was impressed. Pearl figured if Ruby could climb it, so could she. Uh... she wimped out, wasting my $3. Oh well.

Emily needed a Diet Coke, bad, after our meltdown at the craft fair. Don't tell Jesse... he gives Emily so much crap about "how many Diet Cokes have you had today?" He has seemed to forget that our own Grandmother had a Diet Coke in every room of the house, always half full, so she had one with her at all times. Meanwhile, the boys had plans of their own to stay entertained. Kurtis got left alone to babysit the puppies. Jesse went mountain biking with a friend. And my Dad and Jeff went 4 wheeling. My Dad must be stressed out because it was Jeff, not my Dad, who hit what we call "ugly hour" first. After exploring trails, dead ends, and finding a new trail to take me on, Jeff was starving. My Dad would have driven all over the mountain all day had they packed more than a granola bar and Gatorade between the two of them. They came back dusty and dirty, well mainly my Dad. He followed behind Jeff for most of the ride.
Lunch does wonders for too-hungry, too-tired, too-hot, and too-bored kids. Pearl devoured my Mom's sloppy joe's. She requested them for lunch and dinner for the next three days. I love her sloppy joe stained smile!