Paige to Dad: "You're Ruining My Life"

So here's what happened with Paige and the school paper.

After she signed up to be the editor, it was a while before we heard anything more about it. She didn't get the editor gig but she was told she could be a photographer. She was elated.

However, when we were finally able to track down the details, we found out the school paper was a more or less a class project for the 6th graders. Traci and I talked about it and decided that probably wasn't the best idea for second-grade Paige.

When we broke the news, she was displeased at best.

"Dad," she stomped. "You're ruining my life!"

I felt bad about ruining my daughter's life.

Pretty bad, actually.

And then I had an idea. What's the next thing to working for the paper? Having your own paper, of course. (And it's probably better.)

"Paige, what would you think about having your own blog?"

She looked at me quizzically.

"You could write about the stuff you do. You could put pictures on there. And drawings. And funny stories about Curtis."

Her eyes got wide. And then so did her smile.

"When can we do it?" she asked.

"Let's wait until school gets out and then I'll help you set it up."

But she couldn't wait. A day or two later, the blog was created and she had already written a post about our trip to Vernal.

Here's my version of the story.

And here's what Paige had to say about it on her blog:

On the weekend of Memorial Day, me and my family went to Vernal, Utah on a vacation. It took 3 hours to get there. But then we FINALLY got there. We stayed in a hotel called Springhill Suites. It was one of the best and fanciest hotels I’ve ever been to. (To be honest, I haven’t been to very many hotels because we are very low on travel.)First, we went to KFC for dinner. Then, we went swimming in the indoor pool at the hotel. In the morning, we went to dinosaur land. But in the blink of an eye, BOOM! We had to go home. I’m sure we all had one of the best vacations EVER.

I think her version was better.

We've since purchased her a little digital camera and she's been documenting the whole summer. Now when it comes time for her to really be on the school paper, she'll be ready!

Paige Learns to Drive Four-Wheeler, Almost Kills Me

Paige quickly got the hang of the gas pedal. It was the brakes that were the problem. I had to cut the video short in order to prevent the imminent death of Tate and me.

Paige, however, was unfazed.


Luckily, all were unharmed. Well, except for the tripod that holds the sprinkler. Paige ran right over that a little while later. Oh, well.

Back to School

The kids have survived their first week of school (and Traci survived another summer with the kids - barely).

Paige is a big third grader. Basically running the school.

Curtis has made the big move from Kindergarten to first grade, which means all day at school, navigating the lunch line, and getting three recesses (Paige spent all last year telling Curtis how sweet it is to have three recesses!) 

Even Tate will be a school kid soon. He met his preschool teacher this week and will become an official big kid next week. Until then, he's been running the house all by himself.

"Tate," I said. "Do you miss Paige and Curtis when they're at school?"

"No," he said flatly. Then he told me to get out of the way so he could keep playing Punch-Out on the Wii.

Family life.

The Annual St. George Trip

Salt Lake City summer in August, with its blazing sun and rising Mercury, means one thing: Time for an escape to even hotter St. George.

It's what we do.

The vacation was filled with the usual St. George stuff - swimming, an evening at Fiesta Fun, a trip (for Paige and Traci) to Tuacahn to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, cooling down at the splash pad, and a bunch more swimming.

And we even got in a little education, with a trip to Frontier Homestead State Park in Cedar City on the way there.

Still struggling with the effects of strep throat, I skipped out on some of the fun to hang out in the InstaCare. (It wasn't all bad; I got to speak some rusty Dutch to a vacationing Rotterdam family visiting Zion. Plus I got some throat medicine that was almost exactly like swallowing hand sanitizer. Dee-lish.)

Traci's parents are very kind to let us stay in their condo. My little family stays in one bedroom. It works out nice because it has a walk-in closet. When Tate was a baby, we would just put him in the pack 'n play, stick in the closet, and we'd all sleep peacefully. When he started walking and talking we just told him it was his "St. George bed in his St. George room." He thought that was pretty cool.

Until this time.

"Dad," he said, "Why is my St. George bed a closet?"

"Uh," I stammered. "Because it's awesome?"

That wasn't good enough.

So Traci and I slept on the bed, Curtis and Paige doubled up on a twin-sized air mattress, and Tate lay next to them on the floor. It's amazing how they could sleep that way--at one point, Curtis was lying perpendicular, with his head on Paige's back and his feet across Tate. No one seemed to mind. The next night, Traci noticed that Paige was curled up next to Curtis, using his butt as a pillow. Whatever works, I guess.

I'm not one to say, "Oh, isn't age so-and-so just the cutest?" But I do think I'll miss it when my kids are too old to think sleeping on an air mattress on the floor is the best thing that could ever happen to them.

Hooray for vacation.

Mowin' the Lawn

Chores are better when you have a helper.