Where's the Mute Button?

A few days ago one of the stickers came off the bottom of Jacob's motorized bobcat. At first Jacob was putting the sticker on me, but I didn't want it so it ended up on Ephraim's head.

When I actually got close enough to read the sticker I laughed out loud and had Joe read the sticker. He had a good laugh at it too. Then I had to go get my camera and take a photo.


Unfortunately when I removed the sticker there was no mute switch to be found! If only it worked that way, right?

Saucy Saturday

If I had known how busy I was going to be today, maybe I wouldn't have stayed up past midnight last night while Joe finished some work he had to do before going to his conference in San Francisco (I can't even remember the last time I stayed up so late!).

So what I did today?

*fed the boys breakfast
*folded a load of laundry
*ironed Joe's shirts
*cleaned up the kitchen
*made homemade spaghetti sauce (with tomatoes from our garden)

After helping daddy wash the car this morning, Jacob wanted to help me make the spaghetti sauce. So I let him help me squish the tomatoes in my awesome strainer. Of course Ephraim wanted to participate too.


*then of course I canned 21 beautiful pints of homemade sauce

Don't these look yummy?

*ran to the grocery store and did a little shopping (alone!)
*made a steak dinner (with potatoes from our garden, squash and salad) for Joe since he is leaving tomorrow to go to a conference in San Francisco for a week (*sigh)
*cleaned up the kitchen (again)
*cut Joe's hair
*gave the boys a bath and put them to bed

*took pictures of my sauce so I could blog about it!

Now I think I will go upstairs, get a bowl of ice cream and RELAX!

Children's Discovery Garden

Yesterday the boys and I took advantage of the last $2 Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point and went to visit the Gardens. We got to go to the Children's Discovery Garden and the gates to the other gardens were open as well.

I should have paid better attention to the location because it took me a while to find the gardens. We actually ended up at Thanksgiving Point Proper before I figured out that I needed to get back in the car and drive down the road a ways. I don't think the boys noticed at all. They probably would have thought this was the Gardens if I hadn't told them otherwise!

As you might have guessed, there were lots of pretty flowers at the Gardens.

I will spare you all my nature photos, but the boys were great at looking at the flowers and smelling them with me. They also thought the man-made waterfalls were pretty cool... especially since we got to walk on top of them and through them.

Does this look man-made to you?
Check out the view from the big waterfall amphitheater.

This isn't even all the waterfalls you could see from here!
We walked around quite a bit, but probably didn't even cover half of the places you could go in the various gardens. We just ran out of time and Ephraim needed his nap!

The boys' favorite part of the Gardens was definitely the Noah's Arc water sculpture near the entrance of the Children's Discovery Garden. Too bad I didn't really plan for them to get wet... oh well!

They had a great time. Of course Ephraim, my little water boy, got completely soaked.

I ended up putting him in the car without his clothes on, and Jacob only had his shirt on (which was still dry). At least they had a good time.


The silly thing is that I never even stepped back and took a picture of the entire arc! I guess I only had eyes for my little guys!

We were going to go with the Smiths, but our schedules just didn't mesh that day. So later during Ephraim's nap, Jacob got to go with the Smiths to the Dinosaur Museum. I hear that Alyssa and Jacob had a spectacular time. Isn't Jacob a lucky boy?

Then we went to Orem that evening and took Daddy to dinner because he was going to be working late. It was good to see him and have dinner with him. He has been working late a lot, but school starts today, so hopefully things will calm down for him a bit. Then again, he is going to a conference all next week, so maybe it will be a while before we get back to our normal schedule!

Pre and Post CASVAR

So over the weekend we headed to Star Valley for CASVAR (read the post below!), but we had some adventures on the way there and at Grandma and Grandpa Heiner's, both before and after the big ride.

One thing I like about traveling is that the car usually lulls the boys to sleep. So during our travels Joe and I usually get some "alone" time. We were having a good drive that afternoon. Ephraim had fallen asleep and Jacob was having a good time "pretending" that he was asleep. He was even making snoring noises for our benefit (in between giggling fits). Check out this face.

What a faker!
Then we stopped at the Kirkham's house for a potty break before starting the second half of our trip. I was surprised when little Ephraim did not instantly fall asleep again in the car. I could tell he was SO tired. As we drove through Mink Creek and down towards Ovid on the other side Ephraim started whimpering. I should have known something was up. Instead I told him, "Just close your eyes and go to sleep, buddy".

Then I heard it... the sound that is every parent's nightmare, especially in the car... the squishy sound of a burp that is more than a little juicy.

"STOP THE CAR!" I told Joe, just as Ephraim started to throw up.
I had forgotten that a one year old can't exactly say, "Mommy, Daddy, I don't feel so good!"

Luckily the vomit was mostly contained to Ephraim, his clothes and the carseat. Unfortunately it was the nasty, milky-smelling, chunky kind that makes you gag when you breathe (or look at it).

I got Ephraim out of his seat and started to take his clothes off while Joe dealt with the seat. Fortunately we had stopped in front of a lumber business, and they had a bathroom and lots of paper towels. I also had a plastic sack handy to put the yucky clothes in, which was definitely a good thing!

I got Ephraim's face, arms and legs all cleaned up in the restroom and returned to the car. Joe got the car seat as clean and dry as he could get it, and I was impressed that he had done so well with it (even when he told me later that he gagged a couple of times).

It was then I realized that all Ephraim's spare clothes were packed in the trunk... the trunk that had a bike rack and two bikes strapped to it. So there was no way we were going to get to his spare clothes, but I didn't want to just strap him to his soggy car seat in just his diaper.

Luckily Joe had thrown an extra t-shirt in the back seat last-minute, so Ephraim got to wear it the rest of the way.

He fell asleep nearly instantly and slept until we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house. He was fine the rest of the weekend, so apparently it was just a bout of carsickness. Just look at this picture of the boys in their matching pj's and you can see that both the boys had a great time.

Aren't they so cute?

There was also a bit of excitement the night before the ride. My dad noticed that one of the hills to the east of the house had caught fire.


He called the fire department and they sent some firetrucks and firemen out to see what they could do. If you look closely at this next photo (click on it!) you can see the men on the hill and just how far they had managed to put the fire out.

Jacob was watching all of this out the window and was even more excited when they sent out the helicopter later that evening:

The helicopter dropped some firemen off at the top of the ridge and then dropped it's bucket and started relaying water from a nearby pond to the fire. It was pretty neat to watch.


It turns out the fire was started by some kids who were careless with fireworks, so it's a good thing they managed to get it put out so quickly and without any damage to the houses at the bottom of the hill.

So that was the Pre-CASVAR excitement. The boys seemed to do fine spending the day with Grandma and Grandpa. We heard that Ephraim took a bath and then when they got him out and got him dressed he took a second bath fully clothed! He sure does enjoy the water, silly boy!

There wasn't much excitement post CASVAR because we were too tired! Joe and I did make it to the temple dedication for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple on Sunday morning, which I really enjoyed. Then it was all we could do Sunday afternoon to pack the car and drive home. Ephraim was watching our every move... he didn't want us to leave without him again!

It was a LONG drive home. Luckily it was also and uneventful drive home!

CASVAR 2009

Can you believe that it was only a year ago that Joe and I started cycling? A little over a year ago I bought him a road bike and then he got me one for my birthday. Then we did our first tour together, which was CASVAR. I was so proud that I accomplished that 45 mile ride on my beautiful new road bike.

What a difference a year makes!

This weekend we returned to Star Valley to once again participate in CASVAR. This year Joe and I both signed up to do the 100 mile distance.

I have been cycling a lot more this year and had already completed my first century ride at Little Red Riding Hood, so I was geared up and ready to ride! I was excited to get a chance to ride with Joe on my home turf.

The day started out a bit cool, so we were wearing our jackets and long sleeves/tights... but it warmed up fast. Especially after we finished climbing up south end (which if you recall is 7 percent grade for 3 miles or so!). Here we are at the top!

Joe was nice enough to wait for me, even though he does hills much faster than I do!

Grandpa and Grandma Heiner were kind enough to watch the boys for us so that we could ride most of the day. Grandpa did sneak out once in a while to take some photos for us. He also took this really fun video of us going down the big hill. If you listen closely you can hear Joe tell you how fast he is going:



You heard that right... he was going 43 miles per hour! Yikes! I was a little more conservative than that, and topped out around 40 mph.

We had a good time riding together. I practiced drafting so I could keep up with Joe. This basically meant I spent a good portion of the ride looking at his rear end... not a bad view at all :o).

Actually, Star Valley is really beautiful and we enjoyed riding around it together. Here we are a little further down the hill (going much slower).

As the day progressed, the weather got hotter and hotter. It was in the upper 80s, which it HOT when you are working as hard as we were. I think I started to get a little overheated, even though I was trying to drink tons of water. It didn't help that the water stop in Etna mysteriously disappeared. Luckily about that time Deanna caught up with us and she brought us some lovely cold water (some of which I poured on myself).


I was really starting to struggle at the end of the ride. I was blazing hot and I kept pouring water on myself to keep cool, which only helped a little. Plus I completely ran out of energy, which happens when you don't take in enough food while you are burning over 7000 calories (Joe says that I "bonked"). I basically didn't eat enough throughout the course of the ride, especially since there wasn't really a lunch stop (they just had the fixin's for PBJs at each stop, and I only had 1).

About 10 miles from the finish I was completely out of energy. So I told Joe to go the last few miles without me and come back and get me. I kept pedaling and managed to finish 100.1 miles before I stopped because I could not go any further. There were only a couple of miles to the finish, but I was DONE.

It was still a good experience for me, even though the end was tough. I learned a lot about what I need to do next time. Yes, there will be a next time! Joe and I are doing another century (100 mile) ride the day before my birthday in September. Then I will have done 3 century rides before I turn 33!

Swimming with the Smiths

I forgot to mention that Friday (after my fun visit to the dentist's office), we had the Smiths over to play in the pool. It was a really nice, sunny day and we figured that the temperatures would be getting cooler and soon we wouldn't be able to play outside in the water.

So we took advantage of the weather and the kids had a great time getting wet! Here are Jacob and Alyssa playing "ring around the rosies" in the pool.

Ephraim had a great time just splashing around... and getting in and out of the pool (while dumping out half the water!).

Jacob and Alyssa are very creative when they play together, and I think they are so cute! I think here they are "putting out a fire" with the watering cans.

They were also practicing their water skills. They were blowing bubbles in the water, laying down in it, and kicking with their feet.

Don't you just love how Jacob and Alyssa have their eyes shut tight while they splash with their feet? After all, you don't want water in your eyes!

Then Jacob told Alyssa to lay down so he could wash her hair. Isn't that hilarious?

Ephraim was having a fun time playing in the water too.

He was evening having a great time out of the water. I didn't really mind him playing in the water on the porch, except for when I caught him with his lips down in the water! Yuck!

Silly boy!

We had a great time playing with the Smiths. I love that Jacob and Alyssa are such good friends. They are so cute together and have so much fun.

What a pair of cuties!


The pool kept many small people happy when it was "too hot" to want to do anything else. Now the swimsuits are washed and the pool is all rolled up.

It's a bit sad that summer is almost done, but now we get to look forward to playing outside... even in the middle of the day!

Playing in the park, riding bikes around the neighborhood, digging in the sandbox, running around the yard, taking walks ... the possibilities are endless.

What Did You Do Today?

It was a busy day at the Devereaux household.

First we got up and I made eggs, toast and sausage for breakfast. It was all rainy outside, so we decided to have a warm breakfast. Then we got everyone dressed for the day and went and did a little shopping.

When we got home from the store we unloaded our purchases. Then Joe and I picked, sliced, peeled and canned 14 quarts of peaches. While we were working on the peaches, I also made a raspberry peach cobbler. We were glad for the cooler weather so we didn't heat up the house. Just before finishing the peaches it was lunchtime.

After lunch Joe gave the boys haircuts. Then when Ephraim went down for his nap I went on a two hour bike ride up to the top of Suncrest. It was a nice ride because the sun had come out, but it wasn't too warm. When I got home it was Joe's turn to go for a ride.

While Joe was out riding I went for a walk with the boys. We were going on a "bug hunt" with Jacob's butterfly net and bug jar. Of course we were looking for bugs so we didn't really find any, except for a silly pill bug.

When Joe got home we had dinner and then cleaned up in the kitchen a bit. Then we had our yummy cobbler before sending the boys off to bed. Whew! What a day!

Laughing Gas Does NOT Make the Dentist's Office More Funny

I have a confession to make... prior to this week, I hadn't been to the dentist in about 6 1/2 years. I don't think I have been to the dentist since Joe and I got married! I know you are probably appalled, and I can't say I have a really good excuse. Sure, I have some excuses like:

(a) I just hadn't found a dentist for us to go to when we moved here (yes, that was over 6 years ago).

(b) The only time we went to the dentist growing up was when something was wrong. I've never been in the habit of having regular check-ups.

(c)The dentist's office is home of many yucky sounds, needles, and pain. I don't enjoy any of those things.

I can't even say that we didn't have dental insurance because we do (and we have for a couple of years)! Well, this week I finally had no choice but to go to the dentist. On Sunday after I finished breakfast, I noticed that a little chunk of my premolar seemed to be gone. No big deal, I told myself. One of my composite fillings probably just fell out because it doesn't really hurt and the tooth looks fine besides the little hole.

So I finally asked around and found a dentist that a couple of my friends recommended (Thanks Melinda and Karyn!). I was able to get an appointment for Friday and went to see the dentist. (cue scary music)

Ok... the dentist wasn't scary, but the X-ray sure was. Apparently the little hole in my tooth was the tip of the iceberg. The dentist said he might have to do a root canal, but he'd try to avoid it if at all possible. I've never had a root canal, but I know I don't want one.

Then I had some laughing gas (which Melinda recommended) and then some numbing shots, all the while hoping for a cavity that could just be filled. Before long I felt all fat-lipped and they started the drilling. I swear, why do dental drills have to sound so awful? I should invent a silent dental drill because then I would be filthy rich.

I have to say that I like my new dentist, but I didn't like the news. I have to have my very first root canal and crown. The doctor was really surprised that I hadn't been in pain because apparently I should have been. The decay was all the way down to the pulp (doesn't that sound gross?).

So they prepped me for the root canal and put me on antibiotics. In about a week I have to go back and have the procedure. I put my appointment back a few days because I thought that having a root canal the day before I ride 100 miles on my bicycle is probably not a good idea.

So now I am shaking in my shoes. On the bright side, apparently I don't feel pain in my mouth as much as most people (which apparently can be a bad thing too). So hopefully it won't be too painful. I guess it is also good that I have insurance because the estimate of how much it will cost with my insurance almost knocked me over!

I shall probably be seeing more of the dentist in the near future. After fixing this tooth I guess I'd better get the rest checked out. I guess one good thing that has come of this is that I am definitely going to be more diligent with my kids so they don't ever have to go through this!

Two Dollar Tuesday at the Dinosaur Museum

This month they are having two dollar Tuesdays at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Even though we went last month with Emily, I knew we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go again, especially since Jacob enjoyed it so much. So we invited my friend Stacy and her son Caleb to go to the museum with us.

Last year the lines were crazy, so we didn't make it to the Museum. This year we got there a half hour early, and were close to the front of the line. It's a good thing too because look at what the lines looked like when we left at around 11 a.m.

Here is the font of the building:


And here is the line snaking all the way around the building. Crazy, huh?


We waited for a half hour since we got there early, but we got in right away. We had a great time looking at all the dinosaur bones again. It was amazing the things that Jacob remembered from being there the last time.

Since Jacob enjoyed the erosion table so much last time, we made sure to go there first before it got too crowded. This time I let Ephraim give it a try too. I was worried that he would try to eat the sand, but he did just fine.

Ephraim could barely reach the sand and the dinosaurs, but Jacob helped him out a bit. They had a good time together.

I guess we just need to add water to our sandbox, and the boys would play there forever! Maybe I should move some plastic dinosaurs outside and get some plastic trees and throw the hose in there, huh?

When it started to get really crowded at the water table we headed off to look at other things. It was fun to look at all the exhibits with Stacy and Caleb. She took this nice picture for me.

Just before you leave the museum you get to play in the sand and uncover dinosaur bones. The boys think this is fantastic. They love using the little paintbrushes to brush all the sand away from the bones. Here are Jacob and Caleb digging up dinosaur bones.

We let Ephraim play in the sand too. He did ok for a while, but then the next time I looked this is what I saw. (You might need to click on it to get a closer view).


That's right... Ephraim resisted the sand at the erosion table, but couldn't resist this time. All I have to say is YUCK! He lost his sand pit privileges after that, and had to wait for Jacob and Caleb to finish up.

We had a great time at the dinosaur museum. We might end up going with friends again before the month is over!

100 Miles of Riding Could Give You An ULCER

Yesterday Joe completed the Utah Lake Century Epic Ride (ULCER). This was his second century (100 mile) bike ride this year! So far I have only done one century ride, but we are going to be doing a century bike ride together in Wyoming next weekend. Wahoo!

The distance Joe completed was actually 111 miles- which went completely around Utah Lake. I wished that I could have gone with him, but luckily he had some friends from UVU to ride with. So the boys and I just followed him around in the car... for the first 50 miles or so.

The route went all over the place in Utah County. Joe and his friends were so fast that I would hop ahead of them to find a place to take a picture and before I was even ready they would speed by! I did manage to get a couple of nice shots though.

Here is a nice picture that I got of Joe near some railroad cars.

Go Daddy, Go!

The boys were really patient, even though I basically had them in the car for a couple of hours so we could cheer Daddy on. It was actually hard to find him at first because there were about 2000 cyclists on the ride that day! So once we found him we kept a close eye on him.

Not bad for a photo I took from the car, huh? (Not that I was driving and taking pictures at the same time... that would be bad, right?)

These last pictures were taken just before Joe's lunch stop. After this one we abandoned him to head home so I could feed the munchkins and let them get out of the car.



Joe and his team were fast! I think their average speed was something like 18.8 miles/hour! He was tired and a bit sore, but he says he is still ready to go another 100 with me on August 22nd (especially since we won't be going quite that fast!).

We are going to be doing CASVAR in Star Valley again this year, and I think it will be tons of fun!

Temperatures and Teddy Torture

Why is it that my kids don't get sick until it is the weekend?

Saturday morning Ephraim did not seem like his usual rambunctious self. So I checked and sure enough, he was burning hot. We gave him some ibuprofen and he spent a large portion of the day sleeping and cuddling on Mommy. I seemed to be the comfort item of the moment.

I also spent a large portion of Saturday night being Ephraim's preferred cuddly comforter. I didn't really appreciate being up most of the night, but I did enjoy the cuddles. My boys are not terribly cuddly babies. Usually they prefer to cuddle with their teddies.

Sometimes Ephraim even tries to jailbreak his teddy from the crib.

Too bad Tan Teddy is too tubby to fit through the bars!

Ephraim's fever continued through Monday. I called the pediatrician, but since he had no other symptoms and the fever was "low-grade" there was nothing to do but wait. Happily today the fever is gone.