Funny stories

The other morning Emily and I were both in a good mood and started it off with banter. At one point she said “… but you are Danny!”; referencing my self façade of invincibility. My response was a self triumphant boisterous roar! I definitely caught the families’ attention. Both Adam and Ella looked over in curiosity and the funny part was that Ethan just started crying. It was so funny! Poor Ethan is so sensitive.

When my dad was in town a couple weeks ago, he was in the car with Emily and the kids. They were on there way to soccer practice after a turn he said: “Hold on kids. Your mom is driving!” We still laugh about that when we drive around.

Fathers and Sons' Campout

Our ward had its annual 'Fathers and Sons' campout this weekend, but it was cancelled because of the wind. The problem was that I had already been talking to Adam and Ethan about it all week. I sat them down and decided to let them choose. They wanted to go camping! They had no idea what was in store for them, but they were excited none the less. I borrowed a tent from Corky and packed the Mercedes up and we left for Valley of Fire, Friday after work. We got out about 7pm. I was hoping to make it there before dark. I almost did.

The wind was blowing really hard on the way out there. I brought Emily's car just in case we needed to sleep in the car. Somehow I managed to get the tent up. There seemed to be a god sent lull in the ferocious winds. After I got the tent up I had the boys get in so it didn't blow away while I got some heavy stuff from the car. My idea almost worked. The tent blew over while they were in it. This is when the boys decided they wanted to go home.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I ain't no quitter. I told them that they wanted to go camping and we were camping! I wasn't able to stake the tent down because we were on sand covering sand stone. I got some heavy stuff in the tent and got the air mattress blown up. Ethan was quietly crying and telling me that he wanted to go home and sleep in his bed. Adam petitioned to sleep in the car, but I had already got the tent up and we were camping!!

I opened the windows on the tent hoping that the huge gusts of wind would stop blowing the tent over on us, but it just allowed the sand to get in. I zipped the windows back up and just let the tent blow on us all night. I am still amazed that the poles didn't break. The weather wasn't too cold.

Ethan fell asleep pretty quickly, probably only because Emily was praying for us. Adam stayed awake longer and whimpered every time the tent blew down on us. I held his hand for a while before the sand man took him to away to dream land. I slept as much as an adult could with huge gusts of wind.

I woke up too early and tried to sit still until the boys woke up. I should mention that we didn't brush our teeth and I had to drag the boys out of the tent and promise them that they wouldn't die to pee. And Ethan woke up in the middle of the night for a drink of water and wanted a fruit roll-up. I thought, why not, we are camping. That was a very bad idea. Apparently he put it in his mouth and that was about it. I found a huge slobber mark on his pillow and the air mattress and the fruit roll up stuck on me and the tent.

Luckily the morning was beautiful! The boys went exploring while I broke camp down. They were finally glad we went camping. I had brought some assorted bagels for breakfast. I ate one then had the boys come over, but when Ethan smelled the onion bagel, he gagged and did a mini throw up. Needless to say, Ethan skipped breakfast and Adam did too. After that we climbed on all the rocks, ignoring all the “keep off rocks” signs, and explored. We found lots of foot prints and saw hawks, chipmunks and lizards. Ethan and Adam were both great at bouldering and loved to hike and explore.

I would have to say that it was a success overall. Memories were made without too much emotional scarring. Emily even let me take a nap when I got home.

Dam it!

That's right, we did a dam tour. We took a dam drive and found some dam parking. We have never been there as a family. We need to thank Audrey for getting us out to see the dam! We did every dam thing we could.

This is our first dam picture.

Adam with a dam smile! Hopefully those front two teeth will come in.

Dam family picture

More dam family pictures

This is a huge dam bypass bridge that will help get all the dam traffic diverted away from the dam.

Adam's dam frown. Flat Stanley has a dam smile!

sorry, deleted one dam picture here.




Dam Arizona time with a dam silhouette of Emily

A dam picture of the new dam bridge. That is one high dam bridge!

That concludes the Schultz' family dam blog!

Flat Stanely

Audrey sent us Flat Stanley to show around Vegas. Here are some of the sights. We live in an amazing place. We just never get out. We had fun as a family getting out to see some local sights. The Bellagio gardens and fountains were their favorite sights.

Last soccer games of the season

I love this kid!

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooal

(I just wish it was during the game)

One of their biggest fans! Notice she has her couch stuffing with her.

The boys played their last soccer games of the year last Saturday. They both seemed to enjoy their seasons and improve. We have enjoyed being their number one fans. We are so proud of them and hope they are having fun. I think I am going to try to feed them some raw meat over the summer to see if we can get them to be more aggressive. Grandma Suzie thinks we should put them both in dance and she is probably right!

Sorry, no pictures of Adam. I had the camera and was too upset when i left to see any more soccer. Most of you can imagine me on the sideline. I am way to competitive.

The summer will bring lots of swimming! I am especially excited to see them all swim!

Ella's painted nails

Ella enjoys doing her nails with Emily. It is pretty much the only way we can get her nails trimmed.

I am so lucky to have such a beautiful daughter! I love you Ella!!!

Gardening Troubles

I have had some gardening troubles this year. One word-Ella!! She has managed to pick most of the little green tomatoes. She also likes to walk through the garden and pick little basil plants. She is SO much help. I have a feeling we won't be eating any tomatoes this year.

On a positive note we have enjoyed our spinach. We have had a couple spinach salads and I tried an artichoke and spinach dip today. It turned out pretty good for my first try. Ethan was my little helper. He came in when he smelled the bacon cooking. That's my boy!

I think that was the biggest tomato we had in her right hand!

You may notice that she has a candle with her. That is because I still let her have what ever she wants. I am in big trouble when she hits her teenage years!

I have to give here credit that she doesn't believe that she has done anything wrong!

This is my other little helper. He seems to be much more interested in the bugs! I missed putting Praying Manti in my garden this year, but luckily we have had plenty of little lady bugs. :)

I went through and cleaned up all of the lower foliage on the tomato plants sticking with my Grandpa glen method. I can't believe how much I pulled out!

This picture was a couple weeks ago. Emily tells me that she usually gets at least one tomato every time she plays outside.