Monopoly!

Dalton came home from his friend's house a few weeks ago and excitedly said, "I just played the funnest game ever! [pause for dramatic effect] Monopoly!"

Since then the kids have played it a couple of times a day. They especially like playing first thing in the morning down in the boys' bedroom.When the kids play, the following usually happens:

1. Sicily never notices anyone is on her property, so she never makes any money.

2. Dalton only wants to buy the orange or green properties, and once someone else buys one of them, he threatens to quit.

3. There is a lot of general hysteria and fighting.

I think Monopoly is a bit painful. Once all the property has been purchased, it's just a slow painful death for all but one, and that one never happens to be me.

Bigger and Better

Ethan, Dalton, and Cousin Carter played a game called "Bigger and Better" today. It's pretty simple: you start out with something small and go house to house asking if they want to trade for something "bigger and better."

Here's how it went:
They started with a Sharpie,
traded for a golf ball,
traded for spaghetti and sauce,
traded for a 12-pack of Mountain Dew (they drank one each and then traded the remaining 9),
traded for a model ship,
traded for a 10-plug power strip,
traded for a shovel,
traded for a midevil weapon (?!?)
traded for a backpack, alarm clock, and baseball bat,
and ended up a with a Honda lawnmower, which the owner says works.

They were planning to sell the lawnmower and split the profit, but they already took off to find something "bigger and better." They said they're hoping for a go-cart.

Minivan LOVE

A few weeks ago, we sold our much-loved Toyota Sequoia and bought a new (to us) Honda Odyssey. Why would any sane person do this, you ask?

One word: GAS.

I am in love with my minivan. True love. I say that boldly, without any embarassment. I had a minivan before and always thought, "Oh, poor me, I'm driving a lame minivan." But this time, maybe I'm a little older and wiser (Ha!), but I just can't help bragging about its gas mileage, its comfortable seats, its smooth handling. And it doesn't hurt that it's black.

Smoothies

We love smoothies around here. We usually just throw in whatever we have in the fridge. But for Father's Day, we tried a recipe from Barefoot Contessa called "Sunrise Smoothie":

1 c. strawberries

1 c. watermelon

1 c. frozen peaches

1/2 c. orange juice

1/2 c. raspberry sorbet

Blend together and serve with a watermelon wedge. It was delicious!

Wasatch Back

Friday and Saturday was the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. If you don't know about the Wasatch Back, it's a 192-mile relay from Logan to Park City with 12 runners and 36 legs.

Let me introduce you to Van 2: Kade, Katie, Amy, Erin, Jason, and Dave.

Kade was our Captain. If you ever need a nagivator to Ogden Canyon, he's your man. He powered up the hill to Snowbasin like it was nothing! And the downhill leg into Park City? Watch out to all you 60-year-old ladies!

Katie was tough. She took the hardest leg, Ragnar, a 4-mile steep climb up Guardsman Pass that you would think twice about hiking, let alone running! She leapt over cow patties in the dark of night and kept us all laughing. She also knew at least one person on each the 1200 teams that participated.

Amy won our unofficial Name That Tune game with her knowledge of eighties music. She's married to Bon Jovi, I mean Dave, I mean Branden, who wasn't with us. During her last leg, when we were all dragging, she was doing cartwheels - literally! We always knew where to find her during her first two runs - we just looked for the shorty shorts. Woo hoo!

Erin was a little bit of a diva during her legs. She insisted on having someone squirt water into her mouth every quarter mile on the last leg! She also had a few moments with the headlamp during her night run that left all concerned about her mental status.

Grandpa Jason was the oldest in the van. If we woke him up in time and let him swallow Tums whole before his legs, he did fine. With enough encouragement, he was able to FLY through his 10-mile leg. This guy was built to run. Words like "gazelle" were thrown out while watching him.

Dave was our chauffer. When he put on his spandex, he got a little wild. I mean, running backwards?!? Thank goodness Katie and Amy brought enough swiss cheese for him - it kept him going through his consistently tough three legs. He took leg 12 and was always waiting for us all to finish before he could finally get his leg over with.

We had perfect weather. Sunny but not hot. This was during our van's first break in Morgan. We stretched out on the grass of the seminary building.

Jason plowing up Guardsman Pass.

Jason handing off to Katie to finish the run to the top.

At the top of Guardsman Pass. They had to plow the snow up here the week before the race so we could use the road, but it had mostly melted by Saturday.

The finish at Park City High School with the whole team. It took us 32 hours. Katie's brother, John, the tallest in the back row, injured his leg (turns out he had a stress fracture) during his first run and the rest of Van 1 had to take his next two runs in addition to their own. That was impressive!

Summer Job Chart

Summer is well under way, as is the infamous Job Chart. The Job Chart goes way back; it's based on the job chart my mom made for us when we were little. There are four jobs (for four kids), such as "Kitchen and Dining" and "Outside" and they rotate them every week. In addition to the "Daily" duties of each job, there are additional duties for each day.

We had a burst of initial enthusiasm. The following statement even came out of Dalton's mouth: "Mom, I don't really mind doing the kitchen. If I just get up and do it quick, it's kindof fun." He may deny having said that, but I swear it's true.

The honeymoon period is over and "job chart" is turning into a bad word around here. But the house looks pretty nice - until about lunchtime.

You may wonder if I really wash all the outside windows each week. Shhh, of course not. But how else am I going to keep four kids busy each day with about an hours' worth of jobs?