Seriously gross spider

Dallin spotted this huge, enormous, freaky spider right outside the back door today. Yes, it was on my PATIO!!! I was afraid if I got too close it might grab my camera and take a few pictures of me screaming. I have never seen a spider like this in my entire life. The pictures don't do him justice. He was all silvery and hairy. Ewww!!!

Just for some perspective, the little Mayfly in the bottom corner is about double the size of a mosquito. This spider is big enough to be my uncle!!!

American Idol Concert

Last week Jason took me to the American Idol concert for our anniversary. It was so fun. We left all THREE kids with my in-laws overnight. Jason tried to surprise me with a night at the Anniversary Inn, but of course I had to ruin the surprise earlier in the day by guessing where we were going. Don't get me wrong, I like to be surprised, I just like to KNOW that I'm going to be surprised, and then I'll stop guessing. He just told me that his parents were taking the kids, and I was like, "Oh! We should go stay somewhere! Like the Anniversary Inn!" So he tried to cover it up and say, "Well, maybe we'll stay somewhere like the Howard Johnson or something," and then after the concert he headed over to 6th South, and I was like, "Why are we going this way? Are we going to the Anniversary Inn?" "No, the hotel I booked is on 6th South and 9th East." "Well, that's the Anniversary Inn." "How do you know?" "Because we stayed there 7 years ago, hello." "Well, who remembers the address, Rainman? It's the Howard Johnson, just be quiet." "There is no Howard Johnson over there, just the Anniversary Inn." So then we pulled into the Anniversary Inn and he was like, "Surprise!" and I felt bad for being difficult. Sometimes I should just shut my mouth. So should several other people we saw that night, like Chickezee for example. I'm not even going to look up the proper spelling of his name, he was that bad. I didn't even take a picture of him. The Idols performed in order, and he was number 10. The first few were just terrible. But, once they got to Brooke White, it was actually worth watching. She wasn't my favorite on the show, but I really liked her performance. I think it takes a lot of talent to sing and play the piano (or guitar) at the same time. Here's a small recap of the concert:

Terrible.

Um, decent.

Okay.

Not great. Put on a shirt.

Really good.

High, as usual.

She should have been #9, not #3.

David A. sang his little heart out, which I could hear in bits and pieces over the crowd that would not stop screaming the ENTIRE time he was onstage. He was really good, though.

I have to apologize to David Cook for the rude things I have said about him in the past. He was actually a really good performer. David, I'm sorry I said you look like a hot dog with hair. Your rendition of Lionel Richie's "Hello" was really good and I actually enjoyed it. I think we can be friends, but that's all. I still don't find you attractive.

Our Mini-Vacation

Last weekend we took the kids on a "mini-vacation" and had so much fun. We stayed at my in-law's awesome cabin above Rockport Reservoir, which is past Park City about 10 minutes. It was so nice to have somewhere peaceful to relax and hang out and just go with the flow. Saturday we took the kids to the zoo and did a little bit of shopping at the outlets on the way back. Then we had tin foil dinners and s'mores (not necessarily in that order). Sunday we thoroughly disrupted the Wanship Ward sacrament meeting (sorry, I can't help that I have three kids and they are bad, all you people who think church is supposed to be quiet and keep glaring at me over your shoulder...) and just hung out. We headed home Monday morning. Here are a few pics of the trip:
I think we have pictures of Dallin in front of this gorilla thing every year since he was born!

Yes, my boys' underwear is always showing.

Abby pulled out her pigtail, as usual.

I was so excited to see that the zoo finally got a sloth! I don't know why I love sloths so much, probably because I can relate to them. "I know I should get up and do something, but it's just so much work... I think I'll just hang here for another minute and let my claws grow a few more inches..."

It wouldn't be a Yates family trip if we didn't stop and fish out of every ditch between here and Kamas.

The three boys tromping through a meadow (illegally, I'm sure) to find their next fishing adventure.

The beautiful view from the cabin.

A little friend (on the right) smelled our tin foil dinners...

came in for a closer look...

a little bit closer,

...and totally dissed my cooking! RUDE!

These two were much more polite. I love that little baby with the spots!

"Mom, please can I feed him?"
"No! He was very rude and I didn't appreciate it."

Luke was so excited to go on a 4-wheeler ride and be just like Daddy with his sunglasses and "blonklers,"

But the excitement must have been a little too much. Who falls asleep on a 4-wheeler? I'm not complaining, he stayed asleep and slept all night. Maybe we should try it at home.

My goal in life is to someday live in a pretty little valley like this. Where I can yell at my kids and no one can hear me. That would be heaven. Well, minus the yelling part. I'll try to do better.

7 Years

Happy Anniversary, Jason! Thanks for the best seven years of my life. I love you!

Update on Abby

So many kind people have been asking how my little Abby is doing. I love knowing that so many people care about her!!! It means the world to me. Abby is doing really well. We took her back to the eye specialist this week and she is going to have another surgery on September 10. Her eyes have improved a lot on the side-to-side alignment, but her left eye still goes UP when it should be staying level with the right eye. The doctor thinks it is because the upper-pulling muscle on the right eye is tight, so when she wants to look up she has to pull really hard with both eyes and it makes her left eye go up into space. Her right eye can't look any higher than straight ahead at this point, so the doctor is hoping that loosening that muscle will help it get aligned with her left eye. This surgery will be a lot easier on her than the first one because she will only have one muscle of one eye worked on, instead of a total of three muscles (one muscle in the right eye and two in the left) like last time. I am excited for her to make more progress. She's still kind of a little squirt and not very interested in moving around. At her nine-month check up a few weeks ago she was 14 lbs. 8 oz. and 25 1/2 inches long, which puts her well BELOW the charts and in the 1 percentile (because you can't have less than 100 kids out of 100 kids, or she would be in the negatives!!). It's so weird to me to have a tiny child. Jason and I are not exactly small people. I always figured that my poor girls would be 6 foot 5, 280 pounders and I just felt sorry for them. But, that's not the way it's looking for Abby! She's so little! I love having a tiny baby, but I am anxious for her to get on the move and start exploring her world. She can sit up and she loves to play with her brothers. She's learning lots of cute tricks, like shaking her head no when you ask her if she's crazy, and putting her head down when you tell her to take a nap. Who needs pets when you have kids, right? Here are the three little weasels that I get to chase around all day. It's exhausting but so much fun. I love these crazy kids and I wouldn't have it any other way!!!

Magical Bee Paste

So the other night I was mowing the lawn while the boys played on the play set. I made one swipe of the lawn and they were fine, then I turned around to do the next swipe, and when I faced them again they were both SCREAMING bloody murder. I couldn't hear them because of the mower, so I turned it off and ran over and saw that they were being swarmed by hornets, holding up their hands and yelling, "We got stung, we got stung!!!" I gave them what was probably bad advice, but the only way out of the situation, "RUN!!!!" It turns out that Dallin had been climbing the ladder and reached around right into a fresh hornet nest so he of course got stung on his hand, but I guess the bees didn't want to stop there because they flew right up to Luke on the slide and stung him on the hand, too, just for good measure. I feel bad for anyone who happened to be in the neighborhood at the time and had to hear all the commotion. I ushered the boys inside to survey the damage. Dallin had one sting, Luke had two. They were both hysterical, and in pain, which I can understand. Fortunately, I have a solution to the pain of a bee sting. It brings me back to a little experience I had at BYU a few years ago (Julia, I can hear you laughing right about now). I had been lounging on the lawn in front of the SFLC, waiting for my sign language class to begin. When I stood up to put my flip-flops on, I stepped on a bee and was promptly stung on the bottom of my foot. It was my first bee sting ever. Oh, the pain! I sat back down and waited for it to go away. Through my tears, I took my shoe and began beating all the bees on the lawn, hoping for some kind of revenge and/or relief. I closed my eyes and repeated, "Faith of a mustard seed, faith of a mustard seed," over and over (oh come on, that always works!). But still, nothing. Long story short, it never stopped hurting. I abandoned the sign language class (I never learned anything anyway) and hobbled my way home with tears running down my face. After several hours, I finally went to the health center, convinced that I was allergic to bee stings and was probably on my death bed. The doctor was not impressed. "It's just a common bee sting. Take some baking soda and add a little water to make a paste, and that will take the pain away." Um, hello, I'm dying here? I was so offended. I hinted around at getting some prescription pain killers, but he just sent me home. Yeah, right, like some idiot baking soda could cure this kind of agony. I didn't even try it right away, out of pride, but finally I couldn't take it any longer, so I broke down and made the paste and dabbed it on my foot. About 30 seconds later... the pain was gone. I thought it was a fluke and the sting must have been on its way out anyway. But, a few minutes later the paste had absorbed and the pain came back. As long as I kept fresh paste on it, it felt fine. So I made a little note to myself: baking soda + water = bee sting relief. That little formula has actually come in quite handy over the years. And it certainly did the other night. I grabbed a bowl, dumped in some baking soda, added a little water and stirred it around. I was rubbing it on the boys' hands when Jason came in and asked what in the world was going on. He ran into the garage to grab the bee spray and by the time he returned, both boys were perfectly calm. It was like a miracle had occurred.

The beautiful substance that saved my sanity on Monday night.
Dallin doing a reinactment of the tragic event. No children were harmed in the making of this photo.

I love this stuff because it creates a big foam ball that weighs the bees down so they don't get you after you squirt them! Watch out bees, I'm on a mission...
That's right, you little piece of junk hornet's nest... it's over!!!

I am considering making a book of home remedies, but so far this is the only home remedy I know of. Still, if I can save even one person from pain, it will be worth it. Feel free to share any secret remedies that you know of. And I will try to post more often.