Raft River - Part 2

Last Monday, we headed up to Raft River for part 2 of fun at the sod farm. My mom was out of town so we took Tony with us and headed to Idaho. There weren't as many people this time, which was good and bad. You hardly had to wait to go down the slides, but there weren't quite as many people to chat with. They had a second slide running too, which was way fun. We refer to them as the black slide and the white slide for obvious reasons. Tony and Dylan pretty much entertained themselves all day. We're not sure, but we think they must've climbed those hills hundreds of times. Preston played on the slides, but had a good time hanging out by us, which made it a lot more relaxing this trip - not so much chasing involved. :) Nobody camped this time and most people headed home between 3 and 4. We're die-hards so we stayed until about 7:30, which turned out to be perfect. We had the slides to ourselves for almost an hour, which is when Marcos and I rode the most with the kids. All of us piled on a tube together and zoomed down the hill at mach 5. :) The poor kids were exhausted when we headed home, although they were not ready to go. Preston dozed off before 8:00 and the other two were out just before 9. It was a nice, quiet drive home for the two of us. What a great day!

Happy Birthday Marcos!

Stupid Murphy's Law never fails. Today was Marcos' birthday and Marcos had a pretty chill, fun day planned. He was going to play tennis with his brother in the morning, have a lunch birthday celebration at my mom's and then I was going to take him out tonight. Well, it rained last night so he had to postpone tennis. He went over to his brother's house anyway and while he was gone I walked downstairs to get something. It felt really hot so I went upstairs thinking one of the boys had been messing with the thermostat and turned on the heater. Nope, not that. We've had a pipe break in the basement before and leak through the wall and onto the carpet so I immediately started feeling around to see what was leaking. It was not only hot, it was humid. I could hear water running and it took me a minute to realize what was going on - the water heater had rusted through on the bottom and water was leaking out pretty fast. Crap! Now what? I called my brother-in-law to figure out what to do and got the water shut off. Then I had to turn it back on just long enough for all of us to get ready for the day. I turned it off again and we went up to my mom's for the party. Marcos played tennis this afternoon with his brother and I picked out a new water heater. Pretty exciting stuff. Luckily Justin had time tonight to help us get the new one installed. It took longer than expected, but I think we're good to go if we don't end up with any leaks. So poor Marcos spent most of his birthday running around helping my BIL install a water heater. Hopefully we can go out next week and celebrate together.

Marcos really is an incredible man and I'm lucky to have found him. He's the yin to my yang and the best teammate I could ever have asked for. Here are just a few of the reasons I love Marcos.

1. He has a kind heart. He was just born that way - it's who he is. He genuinely cares for other people.
2. He has a crazy memory for events. He can remember things he did when he was like three years old. And he can remember so many details of stories he has heard from other people. If you have ever told him a story about your life, he'll remember. He remembers jobs people had, things they did, where they lived, etc. The only thing he might forget is the name. He'll tell me every detail imaginable trying to get me to remember the name of the person he's talking about. It's insane, but an incredible skill that I wish I had. He truly listens when others speak to him (unless the TV's on ;)) and pays attention to everything. He is really good at remembering sports stuff and other completely random facts too.
3. He's a good Papi. I can honestly say Marcos is one of the best dads I've ever met. He loves spending time with our boys - teaching them, playing with them and just taking care of them. I could not ask for a better father for my children.
4. He's sporty and athletic. Marcos is great at a lot of things, but is pretty good at sports in general. He is awesome at soccer and tennis and can hold his own in church softball and turkey bowl games. :) He can hike up a mountain like there's no tomorrow and can run pushing two kids in the jogging stroller faster than I can run on my own. His endurance is incredible and he loves to be my athletic motivation.
5. He is content with life. Marcos pretty much enjoys everything he does. He's never had a job he didn't like (and trust me, they weren't all great jobs). He is just okay with wherever he's at and he's good at finding the positive in most situations.
6. He is passionate about life. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. He reacts strongly to situations at times, but puts his heart into everything he does.
7. He's a big tease. He drives me CRAZY sometimes, but it's something I love about him. He wouldn't be Marcos if he didn't poke and prod and try to get a reaction out of me. And he wouldn't be my Marcos if he didn't repeat everything over and over. He is infamous for repeating the same thing over and over (a story, a question, a joke, etc.). Again one of those things I love to be annoyed about. :)
8. He is very generous. Even at times when he has very little to spare, he is the type of person to give his last dollars away. He would do anything for anyone without ever thinking twice about it.
9. He is thoughtful. This one is an art that he is gradually perfecting. Marcos is an early riser by nature and me...well, not so much. Our kids, particularly Dylan, take after him. When he is home and doesn't have to leave for work, he'll get up with the kids and let me sleep a little later so my day gets off to a better start.
10. He is really helpful. Part of this is training so those of you who haven't been married long may want some pointers from me. ;) I try to keep up most of the things around the house because I feel so privileged to be able to stay home with the kids (hard as it is) and I want to be able to enjoy the time we have together when he gets home. But he is awesome at helping me out whenever I can't keep up with my list of things to do. Sometimes I have to ask and other times he just notices, but he is always willing to help.
11. He is forgiving. Marcos can get over most things with very little effort. If I ask for forgiveness, he gives it to me. It's actually something I've learned from him during our time as a married couple. He's good at saying sorry and good at forgiving. I wasn't very good at either...but I'm getting better.
12. He loves me. I know it sounds lame, but I love him even more than I would because I know how much he loves me. I never thought someone would care for me so much. I don't think I deserve it, but I'm sure glad I found him!

Happy birthday, kid! I love you more and more every day. Thanks for being my everything! From here to Argentina and back.....till I die and forever more!

Reflections

It's been a hard couple of weeks. Not necessarily for myself, but for everyone else it seems. The father of two of my young women passed away last week. Even though it was expected, it's been hard. As a new leader, my heart just aches for them. I know it's going to be a difficult road to healing, and trying to figure out what I can do to help them makes my head spin. On the plus side, we had a very spiritual sacrament meeting Sunday on trials. Two people gave really good talks. Then a lady in our ward sang an awesome song she was inspired to sing about trials that says something like "after the rain, after the pain...you'll find what you were really meant to be..." I wish I could quote the lyrics because they were great. And then the 1st counselor in the bishopric gave a talk written by the man who died. He was inspired to ask him to speak in sacrament meeting, but put it off not knowing what to do since he couldn't be there for health reasons. They finally talked and decided either the counselor in the bishopric or the wife would read the talk if he would write it at home. Holy cow, there wasn't a dry eye in the congregation. It talked about his life and story, but mainly about faith. We went over by 10 or 15 minutes and nobody cared one bit. The kids were even noisy and it's like you could just tune them out to listen to this inspirational talk. It sounds weird, but I can see the potential good that could come from his death - the bonding and unity that was there that day is amazing.

I gave my first lesson on Sunday to two very quiet Beehives. And I was so prepared too. Man! The Beehive advisor wasn't even there to help answer questions, although the new secretary in YW did sit in with me so I wouldn't be totally alone. Um, yeah, pretty sure I heard crickets. I went home wondering if I was cut out for this "job" or not. Let's just say I'm feeling pretty inadequate. The new YW president is truly amazing. I had talked to her a couple of times before I was called, but as I am getting to know her better, she just blows me away. She's the type of person I would like to be some day. She always seems to have the spirit with her and knows just what to do - even in tricky situations. And the 1st counselor has been in YW for awhile now so she's totally in her groove. I'm like a fish out of water right now. So yeah, overwhelming and emotional moments - and much spiritual doubt. It seems like any time there is a change or just that I'm trying harder and working to be more spiritual, I feel the adversary right there pushing against me. A few too many crazy wife moments in the Uboldi home this week. Gives me hope that we really must be doing something right if Satan thinks he needs to work so hard on us. So that's why I haven't been around. It's been crazy busy - between playing too hard, needing to catch up on my household chores, new calling responsibilities and my own deep thoughts, I haven't had time or desire to say much.

And off the subject a bit...this private blogging thing is weird. We'll see how it goes. I invited just the people that requested and ones I know read, but probably hadn't seen the post yet and I'm getting close to the limit. Why is there a limit anyway? So you either have to have less than 100 friends and family or you can't be private. Weird. I'll try not to make any new friends I guess. :)

I'm Going Private

I hate this. I've thought a lot about it and have changed my mind a million times. I have found so many friends through other blogs and links and I don't want to discourage that, but I do worry about privacy. Since I seem to share every detail about my kids and their lives (sorry to those of you who are sick of reading about them), I think it's best to go private. Some day, I might start a blog that's just about me and my thoughts and doesn't drag the fam into it. But for now, my concern is being able to say what I want and need and not worrying about saying too much and possibly compromising their safety. I hope my "readers" will still check in with me and the fam. I love it when people read my blog and I look forward to your comments. They keep me going when I need a boost. Please leave me a comment with your email and I'll send you an invite to the blog.

Mohawk Brothers

My nephew, Mason, is 7 and sporting a mohawk this summer. Marcos thought he'd copy the do and gave the kids mohawks after their baths the other night. Dylan usually won't let you touch his hair so this was miraculous. I didn't realize how much my kids really do look like each other. If there was ever any question as to whether or not these two are related, the doubt is gone now. Cute little stinks!

I know it's blurry - you should see how fast he moves :)

A Day at the Lake!

Monday we headed down to Sydney's house (Marcos' cousin's wife). There were 14 kids all together. Insane! But there were 6 adults so we were okay. The kids actually got along really well and there were plenty of kids to play with in case some didn't feel like being your friend at the moment - a common kid theme. Joel and Sydney live in a community that has a man-made lake that was AWESOME! It didn't get deep very quickly so the kids could all touch and it was much easier to watch them than I thought it would be. Preston was my little escape artist, as always, so I put the floaties on him and kept my eyes on the bright green balloons moving around ;). He made Marcos' aunt pretty nervous though. It was so much fun to play on the sand, in the water and on the cool playground they had. We stayed as long as we could until I needed to leave to get Anthony back to his dad. I was a couple minutes late, but so was he, so it was perfect. AND...all three kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. Peace and quiet for over an hour. BEAUTIFUL!

I stole this one from my SIL, Amy's blog.

I didn't get any pictures of the spider web playground but wanted to remember it.

Fun, fun and more fun

Such cute kids!

Exhausted from a day at play!

Dylan woke up before I could take his picture,

but he looked just like the other two the whole drive home.

Birthdays Weddings & Fun, Oh My

Last week was crazy! It seemed like we were constantly running to a birthday party, a wedding reception or some other fun event. Friday was my sister-in-law, Laura's, 30th birthday. We didn't celebrate it until Sunday though because Friday was her father-in-law's wedding. We went to the wedding reception that night and wished her a happy birthday, knowing we would be getting together in a couple days.

Saturday was absolutely insane. My sister, Alicia, threw a surprise 30th birthday party for her husband, Nate. I was in charge of music and the cake so I ran around trying to get a bunch of stuff ready on Saturday morning. Getting naps in before the big event was also a challenge, but very important. The party turned out great. He had no idea and was pretty surprised by the whole thing...and maybe a little disappointed. :) He was blindfolded and I think he thought it was some exciting surprise date. Maybe next time, Nate. ;) We helped clean up from that and then rushed down to a neighbor's wedding reception. We had two we were going to try to get to on time and decided to stop at the one in Layton and then the one in Bountiful. Big mistake! We were in line over an hour at the Layton reception. We could've hit Bountiful and been back for the one in the Layton for sure. But it was great to see the happy couple, a bunch of friends from our ward and former ward...and I ran into a good friend from college who happened to be the girl's cousin. What a small world! We had to leave earlier than I wish we would've, but we wanted to try to at least say congrats to the other couple. They were having a dance at the end so I figured we could maybe hit the end of it. That's exactly what we did. Food was gone, stuff set up, but the people were still there boogying the night away. We gave them a hug, found the guest book and then tried to pull our children away from the fun.

Sunday was my first day in YW and it went really well...mainly since I didn't have to teach. :) The new President gave the lesson and she did a great job. I felt the spirit the entire time. I don't know how I'm going to teach the way she does. But I know I'm supposed to be there so I'll be guided somehow. After church, we attempted but failed to take a nap and then headed down to Laura's house for her birthday celebration. We had a delicious BBQ and we all ate way too much. And...I forgot my dang camera. So those of you who know Laura will have to see the pictures on her blog when she posts them. Sorry, some days I just don't have it together.

This week will be some more of the same. We've got a BBQ this Friday at our house and then a wedding Saturday. And I do have to teach Sunday - YIKES! And then another adventure Monday. More pictures to come! Gotta love busy summer days! :) Here are the pictures from Nate's surprise birthday party.

BBQ at Mike & Mary's

Last Monday, we were invited to a BBQ at Marcos' aunt and uncle's home. Mike and Mary have always been so kind and generous to us. And they throw a great party! They cooked up some mean hamburgers and hot dogs and had all sorts of delicious BBQ food to go with it. They also had a pinata with goodies inside for the kids. The kids LOVED every minute of it. Not only did they get TONS of candy, but there were little pieces of paper in the pinata too. They were numbered and the kids got to go in order of the numbers and pick cool prizes. Dylan came home with an awesome dart gun, a helicopter and an airplane launcher. And Preston got some bubbles (perfect for his little lawn mower) and a spiderman squirt gun, which he was in love with until it dropped and his head cracked open :(. Luckily it was his toy and not Dylan's. He forgot about it a few minutes later. At the end, Marcos and Esteban were chasing each other around. I'm not sure if it was a water fight or not, but I just love the way those two brothers play. They crack me up. Esteban is the younger brother that happens to be much "bigger" than Marcos, but Marcos is the wiry older brother who is a complete tease and never gives up. Either way, it's pretty funny to watch them, although our kids sometimes think they're fighting for real. Poor Dylan, he's such a protector by nature. :) Thanks so much to Mike and Mary for hosting such a fun evening. It was fun to catch up with Mike, Mary, Alli, Jeff, Dallin and Amy. We had a great time!

Total Eclipse of the Heart

A friend of mine posted this on facebook. I laughed so hard...I had to post it here.

Goats

There's a nice couple in my mom and Barney's ward who owns goats (and chickens and all sorts of animals). There are also llamas that live a few houses down. Dylan gets so excited when Grandpa takes him to feed the llamas or go up to see the goats. The other day, Anthony and his dad came up for dinner and they all went up to see the goats. One of the goats had baby goats this spring so they even let the kids milk the goats. They did a great job and had so much fun. No one remembered a camera, but Dave (Anthony's dad) snapped a couple on his phone.

24th of July

Pioneer Day was pretty chill for us. We just had a barbeque at my mom and then did some fireworks afterward. Grandma got each kid a flashlight to keep them happy and entertained outside. Preston LOVES flashlights and kept his next to him the whole night. Dylan followed Tony around trying to be a big boy and I kept on eye on the wanderer. Preston seemed to enjoy the fireworks, but thought some of them were just too bright. Of course he had to be independent so he sat to the side of me. When I looked over a few times, this is what I saw. Funny boy!

Trying not to look at the fireworks

Shielding his eyes, but still watching

Dylan - Tony's official nighttime shadow :)

The fam - this was the only moment we had all sitting next to each other.

At least we have one picture of our family together that night

Cherry Hill with Lisa

We went to Cherry Hill with my BFF, Lisa a couple weeks ago. We had so much fun that I was lucky to get this one picture of my kids with "Aunt Lisa". Too much catching up to do to worry about snapping pictures. The same thing happened this week with my mom. She was shocked that I didn't even remember my camera. Hey, I had three kids, picnics, four towels, sunscreen, snacks, goggles, sunglasses and our passes to remember. I think my mom did manage to snap a couple pictures when both Anthony and Preston fell asleep. It was PERFECT! My mom sat with the younger sleeping ones and I went on the big "scary" slide with Tony and Dylan. Good times! We really have been playing hard and neglecting our household chores a bit. But hey, it's summer and you've got to take advantage of the time you have with family and friends. So the house is a little out of order, but my kids have a million memories from the past two weeks alone. :)

Children's Museum and Fountains

Last week I braved the children's museum and fountains by myself with three kids. We were there for almost 4 hours. I can't believe we all survived with very few melt-downs. We played at the museum for almost 2 hours and then went back to the car to change into swim suits and get our picnic. You should've seen me in the parking garage. I got out the stroller and locked up my escape artist. I changed Anthony, slathered him with sunscreen and put him on the backseat of the stroller with his sandwich. Onto Dylan. Clothes off, swimsuit on, sunscreen on, sit in the trunk with your sandwich. Then I unstrapped Preston and got him ready. The two older kids were finished with their sandwiches before we even started walking towards the fountains. I loaded up the back part of the stroller with the cooler and towels and we were off to the fountain to cool down and finish our lunch. The kids had a blast and took a nice nap on the drive home. :) Some days I can be super mom, other days I'm completely lazy. I should shoot for a little more balance every day. Oh well.

My own little Bob-the-Builder in the construction area

Making horse shoes for his horse on the farm

Climbing the rock wall

Preston playing in water - need I say more?

He could play with these little balls in the water forever

Cashier Dylan

Making some pretty good music - NOT! :)

Water or balls and Preston is pretty content

Dylan loves sitting and waiting for the steam to come on

Eating their lunch while they dried off after a good run through the fountains

Anthony LOVED the fountains!

He's come a long way - he used to be terrified of water.

Zoo

I didn't take many pictures at the zoo last week, but it was super fun. Marcos' mom, Mercedes (abuela) called to invite us spur of the moment. Sometimes it's so fun to do something spontaneous like that. Dylan, Anthony and Preston all enjoyed themselves so much and the time flew by. We could've stayed another couple hours easily. Here are a couple pictures I managed to snap during our outing.

Splash Pad

I don't know where I've been really. Certainly can't say I've actually been productive. Just busy playing way too hard and slacking on my chores. Gotta love summer. I'm a bit behind on posts of what's been going on so I'm going to attempt to catch up with some pictures. Plus my mom told me the word to picture ratio on my blog is way off. This should help even things out a bit. :)

A neighbor of mine tipped me off to this awesome place. It's just a park so public and free, but happens to have a water feature built in - yeah way cool. So one of those crazy hot July days when the swamp cooler just couldn't keep up, we headed out to cool off. Marcos and I melted in the sun, but the kids had a fun time in the water and on the playground.

This is how Dylan likes to warm up - right on the hot cement

Preston had fun on the playground after getting soaked

Dylan learned the monkey bars earlier this year, but still has to concentrate. He is always thrilled every time he manages to make it all the way across. :)

Very pleased with himself