A Bad Case of Fête Day

For Fête day, we have done every color in the rainbow, plus grey, black, and black and white. It was time to branch out a bit before going back to basic colors. So stripes it was. (I've been wanting to do stripes for a while. That and polka dots.)

Fête Day is always a great day. We invited some of our closest friends, one of which has been celebrating Fête Day for years, just never with us. In fact, I believe the Moses' had Fête Day with us and then had Fête Day with their family the day after. Of course, you can never have too much Fête.

Robyn painted our window in honor of the holiday. It looks lovely.

I decided to do an oversized board game this time around. Candyland seemed like the perfect choice. Easy to find paper to make the colored squares. The candy squares were drawn by Robyn. I believe we had Take 5, Snickers, Three Musketeers, Starbursts, and Crunch. There were also a couple licorice squares. You played like the normal game by pulling cards and moving forward. Each team brought their own game marker. This was ours. (Thanks Mom for helping put it together.)

Here you can see everyone sitting around and sending members of their team to pull cards and move their marker. The Dargan's were on our team, and I'm sorry I kept calling our team only Cazier. (I just couldn't remember.) Oh, the pool noodle was our short cut and you'll see rocks on some of the papers because there was a bit of a breeze and we were losing our game board.

The trick was that when a candy square was pulled there was also a mini competition that was done. For instance, with 3 Musketeers, we played 3 Deep. I really love that game, although it isn't for everyone. It is loud and crazy. I think Maggie almost cried when we started and she was more content to watch. Look at these crazies willing to squish Henry to win. (I would too for the record.)

We whittled down the people until we had a smaller group. It was still plenty loud.

But it came down to three winners. Good job guys. They were the only ones who got the candy.

Other games that came up but that I didn't get pictures of were Electricity that went with the Crunch bars. That is the game where you hold hands and flip a coin and you squeeze hands and grab a cup at the end. (Sorry, that wasn't a very good explanation. Check out the web for more detailed instructions.) That was a combined game with all three teams split between the two sides. I just remember that our side won.

We also did a five minute plank with the Take 5 candy. Teams were allowed to choose four people. One would start in plank position and hold out as long as they could. When they gave up, the next person would go. As a team, they had a to go for five minutes. Everyone easily made it!

For Snickers, we did Speak Out. That game is hilarious to watch. Each team had two people use the mouth stretchers and give their team phrases. I think the Cazier team got the most. Mainly because we have such big mouths.

By the time we played our last game, we were losing light. For Starbursts, you had to create teams and toss balloons back and forth. By this time, we didn't really keep score. If you participated, you were a winner. I really like how the light looks in the second picture.

Sadly, our team landed on the licorice right before the end. That meant we all had to eat a piece of black licorice. That is truly an awful punishment.

I think the Moses' were our big Candyland winners, but since it was a fun game with minimal cheating, we were all winners. :)

We all went inside to open our stripey gifts.

And eat our stripey ice cream cake. Yum.

It was a great Fête Day and stripes won the day.

Funny that a couple of the men got the same socks. Great minds think alike...and look great in stripey socks.

Thanks friends and family for coming to play with us. Until next year, may all your dreams of Fête come true.

Monkey Highlights Twelve a.k.a. Raccindians Forever!

We were very lucky to have the Dargan's come and visit right before school started. It had been such a full summer, but there is always a little more room for family.

My mom had enjoyed the pictures of the Paint Nite we had done with Vicki. So we chose a night she was going to be in town for the two of us to go out. She chose the painting and I came along for the ride. It was actually not a painting I would have chosen myself. Here is the original. I always take a picture so I can see it at my seat.

This was the first time I have been to a place that serves alcohol. I've only been to Pier 49 which is non-alcoholic. But it wasn't too bad. Plenty of people were drinking there, but it wasn't too crazy and mom and I had our own table. We are ready to do this.

It is amazing what you can do with only four colors. White, Black, Red, and Yellow.

We have our sky in. I really do love a sunset scene.

Here we are a little further in, with some landscape done.

It was a very enjoyable evening. Mom got creative and added some animals and I shamelessly copied her. It was such a good idea. She had a snake and an owl, and I did both of those and also added a coyote. I was so proud of my coyote. It turned out better than I was hoping. I think we did a great job, and I can happily say this is my favorite painting that I have done. Great choice Mom!

We did a lot of stuff with Tim and Grandma while they were here, including Fete Day, but you should know that gets a post of its own. We played a lot of games. On one of the last nights they were here, we played games but also tried out a facial product.

Everyone got involved (well, not Grandma) and we looked like a tribe of warriors. So we named ourselves the Raccindians. (Ra-kin-dee-ins)

Tribe, look up.

Now make the Raccindian sign. Raccindians forever!!

It is so much fun to spend time with the Dargans. We sure wish we lived closer. And don't be fooled by Grandma's expression. She was thrilled to be playing games with us in our tribal paint.

Monkey Highlights Eleven

Phew, we were back from the great adventures of Texas and trying to get back into a somewhat normal routine. Of course, this is where I lost all semblance of order and didn't blog for months. It was just so busy.

We jumped right on eye exams because we wanted to get new glasses before school started. You can tell we were still in weirdie mode, even at the eye doctor's.

Daisy and Robyn both got a new pair but it makes me laugh because you can barely tell a difference. Here are the before and after.

Our friend Sharon was passing through Utah on her way to Texas and I was very worried that we would miss her entirely. Luckily, she was around just as we got back so we got to see her briefly. She was driving to Texas with her friend Shannon and they came over for dinner and games. We played a bit more Caveman telephone (mainly because I had so many booklets left over from camp) and it was hilarious. Shannon was quite a great drawer and I think her picture of a dragon getting a swirly was classic.

Here is Sharon on the left and Shannon on the right.

Mutual the week we got back was a huge production. Tyler had planned one of his disaster days. This usually means the Young Men try to use their first aid skills to save people in disaster scenarios and they usually end up killing a third of the people. It is tricky because they have to use leaders and sometimes the older boys as the victims as the younger boys practice their expertise. Well this time around we had some young women who wanted to practice their makeup skills. And by makeup, I don't mean mascara and lipstick...these girls have tons of cool special effects makeup to create injuries and realistic wounds. I suggested that since a couple girls wanted to do makeup, they should just use the Young Women for victims. That ended up working out very well, but it meant a lot of kids in one place. The girls came first to prepare and I stopped in briefly to take some pictures.

Jenna is choking...

Robyn has a nasty gash on her leg...

Abby has heat stroke at a BBQ...

Maycee has burns on her arms and singed off her eyebrows...(her makeup looked pretty good until they added fake blood right at the end. Then it looked a little more like ketchup and mustard on her arms)

June has a snake bite...ouch

And Eva has some kind of puncture to the arm...

It was a great evening, although I'm pretty sure that the boys still killed off a third of the girls. It's bound to happen. The good thing is that they probably learned some very important skills at the same time.

The week we came back was also our orthodontist Seven Peaks week. There is a Thursday each summer in August when they let you go for free after five p.m. It is really fun and nice because I am unwilling to pay to go there. (Too Expensive!) However, the last couple times it has been cold and overcast. This was the same way. It is fun but not as enjoyable when you are waiting in line and rapidly losing all feeling in your limbs. It is probably hardest on the little ones that have no body fat. Poor cold Pearl.

Daisy and Ivory had a blast together. Can you see them out there? I lost track of them for a while and it was really hard to find them amongst all the chaos.

Daisy is a little water baby. She will play in any area. Here she is in the kiddie section dipping in the four inches of water.

Somewhere along the way she got a scrape. Here she is showing me her sad elbow.

Ivory and I took a cold selfie. Ivory had such a funny face that when I took the picture I had a funny face because I was looking at her.

We didn't stay for the fireworks. We were just too cold. And I think it was book group, although I didn't make it. By the time I got home, I just wanted a warm bath.

That same week, Grandma received her mission call and opened it on Saturday with all of us skyped in. We had been waiting all summer to hear where she was going. Everyone was very excited.

Here is the video of her opening her call.

Obviously, that was a few months back. She is currently in Minnesota and doing well. We are so proud of her. I got to drive her out there and we had great adventures on the way, but I haven't gotten there yet. Hang in there. The blogging is happening folks...

Wrapping Up Our Texas Adventure

Sunday was a very special day. We were able to go to church with Virginia. She is one of the most devoted followers of Christ I have ever met. She is very religious and has an entire wall of crosses in her home and makes her own rosaries. She is Catholic and it was truly a great experience to take our kids to her service. Her church building is beautiful. And the people there were so kind. It was certainly different than the type of church service we are used to, but you could feel the truth of many things that were said. We obviously did not partake of their communion, but it was still an amazing experience overall.

Here is a picture of us before church. You can tell we have been taking over Ginny's house and that we feel right at home. Why else would Daisy be sitting around in her skivvies?

After church we got a group shot. This is the picture we took before Virginia got a better one. At least, I'm hoping it is better than this one.

Pearl drew on her face. I'm not even sure why? She looks pretty sinister.

In the evening, Virginia invited Rodney and his wife over. Do you remember Rodney, or shall I say Rod the Bog? He came and visited with us last year during Directions? He is the owner of Dalhart Federal Bank. (I finally figured out why this picture was so blue. I somehow took it with a blue filter.)



In Texas, Rodney and his wife came over and we played some Caveman telephone. It was pretty funny. I can't even remember what this was supposed to be, but this is Rodney's drawing of the Stallion. (a.k.a. Raging Stallion. It even has a little C for Cazier.) It was a great time and we forgot to get a picture of them. :(

Monday dawned bright and early because we Cazier's get up before the sun to drive. Even Virginia got up early with us to see us off. She is so amazing. We miss her!

Because we were road tripping again, it was time for more weird things. We may have found the strangest thing of all in Colorado. It is an alien lookout. Apparently there are two vortexes in this certain area and they built a watchtower to overlook them. You can read about it here:

This is the view from up above. I'm not exactly sure where the vortexes are supposed to be, but there is a 'garden' or sorts built in an interesting shape.

We walked around and viewed all the weird stuff people have left.

Super strange. Look at some of the treasures we found.

We were there a little early in the day. No one was at the gift shop, which is a shame, but the local aliens were friendly enough.

And we seemed to fit right in.

Wait, there is a UFO as we speak. I knew it was all true.

We also left a donation and asked for special protection on the future husbands of our girls. (You are welcome guys...whoever you are.) Look at our awesome green pen by the octopus.

And we took a picture in the strange alien coach. Might as well do it all while you're there.

This is how the place looks from the highway. Who wouldn't be drawn in by the alien beach beauty??

That place may have had more of an effect than I thought. Ivory is looking rather alien.

Other weird things...we saw another bank Tyler works for. That isn't weird in itself, but the picture took itself backward. That is a little weird.

We saw this cool dinosaur but he was in the middle of a roundabout so we just drove around several times instead of getting out.
 

We did stop at another place to see a war memorial, but before we even got there one of my favorite memories happened. We passed these three colored fire hydrants. I thought it was funny they would be clustered together, so I told the three kids next to me to go stand by one.

Then I told them to make a funny face.

Then I told them to stand on them and jump off on the count of three. One...Two...Three...

Wait, what happened to Robyn?

Turns out her hydrant fell right over. Oops. It took almost all of us to put it back up. It was really heavy. Once we put it right, we quietly snuck away while giggling uncontrollably. Right over to a war monument where you are supposed to be reverent.

We pulled it together. I'm not sure about these statues. Something is wrong with their arms.

This flag is really cool.

Group shot everyone.

In that last picture, you can see a Rib City Grill in the background. We thought it would be good to stop for some cheese fries and snacks there. And then to take weirdies of Daisy.

Anything else? Not really. Just a lot of driving. We saw this McDonald's that couldn't be bothered with the second arch.

June had a parade of animal crackers crawling across her.

Dad stretched out in the car to give his long legs some space.

And I found an awesome dragon cloud. Can you see it??

We arrived safely back in Utah to our house and beds that we missed so.

There is no place like home. Thanks Virginia for making this one of the best summer trips we have ever had!