The Great Outdoors

This weekend we headed for the canyons for some good old camping. We went with our good friends the Elletts and the Burton's as well as my bro and his wife. I was a little nervous taking seven-week-old Summer but she was a real trooper! She might as well get used to it now because we love the outdoors in our fam. We had some good times roasting mallows, teaching the kids about "blue darts", off-roading and just relaxing in the beautiful mountains. I organized a treasure hunt for the kiddies and made up a cheezy legend about a pirate named Ebekaneazer. Yeah, I know, when have you heard about Utah pirates? That is why it is a legend folks. Besides, they had fun and soaked up every bit of it.
The fun was a bit interrupted when we realized we were in the same area in which a boy was drug out of his tent by a bear last year and killed. There was a time I was alone at our campsite with Trace and Summer when I suddenly heard rustling in the bushes. Now, not to toot my own horn, but I don't scare easily and I was FREAKING OUT! I have learned that you are supposed to make a lot of noise to scare off black bears so Trace and I started banging sticks and yelling out. Part of me thought maybe it was a hiker and they were getting a kick out of our ridiculous behavior, but I would rather be safe than sorry. Well, I put Trace behind me (the cars were all gone) as I saw a glimpse of light brown in the bushes. Now I was like "Oh, crap! It's a mountain lion and my kids are lunch-size." I was ready to kick some lion butt when I saw two large ears poke up through the brush-it was a DEER! I felt like a total idiot, but at least I could breathe again.
The rest of the trip was fun, but we got dumped on the last night. It was peaceful to fall asleep to the rain, but packing up our stuff was quite messy. I guess that is just part of the camping experience.
I wish I had gotten some pics of the trail we had to drive up to get to our campsite. It was CRAZY! My car is great off-road and Mike is an experienced driver, but my poor Disco came home with some damage. :( I am finally talking to Mike again, but I am still sad. It isn't that bad, but it is bad enough to need a little body work. At least we are all safe-right?

Happy Birthday to Me!

On the 23rd I officially started the last year of my twenties. The big 29. It was a fun weekend with family, dinner at Asian Star, Kung-Fu Panda with the kids, yummy cake, and puke! Tracy got sick and threw up all over our patio. It was a great birthday present! My favorite part was hearing the boys sing "Happy Birthday" to me. It made cleaning up vomit at my own birthday party seem bearable.

Go Jags!

I Got Tagged -- HIGH SCHOOL

I have been laughing at all my friends memories who have been tagged with this one, but now it's my turn and it is not so funny. I suppose it is only fair I subject myself to the same embarrassment so here it goes. Don't judge me too harshly. I was not always the mature shining example I am today. (Hee-hee)

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yeah, on and off for about five years. He was the varsity basketball "star" and his coach hated me for distracting him.

2. What kind of car did you drive? I didn't.

3. What was the most embarrassing moment of high school? I have spent a lot of money in therapy trying to forget these. Just kidding. I am sure most of High School was embarrassing but I can't remember anything specific. If anyone can think of anything let me know. I will go look through my scrapbooks and come up with something.

4. Were you a party animal? Every day was a party, but NOT with drugs or anything. We managed to keep ourselves entertained with speedoman, trains(I won't go into detail about this one. If you were there you know why. We were really stupid.), sleeping in cars (you are a good snuggle-buddy Jami), Spring Break, Drill camp/Nationals, spying on people....so many fun times.

5. Were you considered a flirt? No, I was a faithful girlfriend. Although I had plenty of crushes on the side.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? No

7. Were you a nerd? One word: POPULAR! (refer to Kristen's post) What makes one a "nerd" anyway. I was in honors classes and was a yearbook staff editor so does that make me one? Maybe the fact that I actually enjoyed school makes me a nerd.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? I was on Drill Team. I really wanted to do track but had a conflict in my schedule.

9. Did you get suspended/ expelled? No, but I should have been once. Sorry Jami and Val, you guys got all the blame (thanks to your future husbands) for our little stunt.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? I'm not so sure that I could even sing the whole fight song when I was in high school -- I deferred those responsibilities to the 'popular' head cheerleader (that would be Kristen).

11. Who were your favorite teachers? I don't know that I have one, or can remember their names. I will look in my yearbook and get back on this one too.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? Thanks to Kristen and Amber, and Jen I now remember that we usually sat at a certain table to eat and then moved to the stairs to chat.

13. What was your school's full name? West Jordan High School

14. School mascot? Jamal the Jaguar

15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? My boyfriend, Ben

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? No thanks. I enjoyed High School, but I would not want to do it again. I still see all my closest girlfriends and we relive old memories enough.

17. What do you remember most about graduation? I sort of liked mooning people back in the day, so I remember one of my teachers having me prove I had a skirt on under my gown. As if I was going to moon the entire crowd! My mooning was tastefully thank you very much. (Perhaps this is why nothing from high school comes to me as embarrassing. If I was willing to show my butt in public, why would anything else seem embarrassing?)

I also remember we wore our graduation collars around our necks and called them "popularity sashes". It looked much cuter too.

18. Where did you go senior skip day? Every day was Senior skip day. Especially before I got my press pass taken away.

19. Were you in a club? If you look in my yearbook I am in several. But, I wasn't really. Because I was on the YB staff, a group of us thought it was funny to pose in all the club photos. My editor was not very happy, but I was so awesome he didn't kick me off.

20. Have you gained some weight since then? Yep. I don't mind the gaining weight part. It is that it has all turned to fat.

21. Who was your prom date? My boyfriend again- I was so boring. Even more boring is that we barely caught the tail-end of Junior Prom. He had to play in some basketball game to get his scholarship. I missed out on most of the fun and I had been a nominee for Prom Queen so I missed out on all that excitement too.

22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Been there, PLANNED that. It was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to planning the next one.

23. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself?I would have stayed single. I think I missed out on a lot because I dated the same person the whole time. I also wish I had tried harder to make track work out as well. Ultimately I would tell myself life gets really good so RELAX!!!

Hope you all enjoyed my high school experience! I tag 4 people: Troy, Kristi, Alicia and Hayley

Sweet Moment

It is no secret Tracy absolutely adores his baby sister. It is hard to take pictures of her alone because he is always by her side. He takes his role as big brother very seriously. Yesterday Summer had hiccups and he grew concerned. He put his hands on her head and said, "I'd better give her a blessing." I thought is would be a good teaching moment so I asked him, "When do you get blessings?" His reply was, "When I am SIX (rather than sick)." I think something was lost in translation when he learned about the priesthood.

FUN IN PARK CITY.

Melody was nice enough to invite us to her Ernst and Young work party up in Park City. I love the heat, but the cool mountain air was a refreshing change. We had a great time on the Alpine Coaster and Alpine Slide. Tracy liked calling them Speed Racer rides.

Everett is so light I was worried he would fly right out of the seat, but he was safe and had a blast.

Little factoid: When I was little, my older brother and I overturned our sled on the Alpine Slide and I got ripped to shreds. He and the sled rode down on ME for several yards and it was wicked painful. My mom thought it happened because we had gone on a Sunday. I think it was because we were being stupid kids. Anyway, I was wrapped in gauze for about a week, but we stopped at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on the way out for truffles. Chocolate is the best medicine.The incredible black Spiderman!

There was a lot of speculation as to what Everett was supposed to be. He loves Kung-Fu Panda. I think he looks like someone from the cast of "Cats", but either way he is a cutie.

Return of the Randalls

We are beyond excited that some of our very best friends have finally made it back to Utah!!! Greg and Tonya have been in Ohio and Arkansas for the the last 6 years for Dental School and they are finally done! We are so proud of all their hard work and look forward to spending lots and lots of time with them.Greg is holding their adorable little girl Kylee and Ton is holding my cute little Summer. It is so great to have you guys back! Although we will miss our long road trips across east coast historical sites. Nothing has topped Greg getting peed on in the subway. We all had some great moments on that trip. Good times. We need to make many many more.

New pics of our quickly growing baby girl!

She is a great eater and I am so excited that I may finally get a fat baby for once! Oh, I just love her.


We can't believe how fast our little Summy is growing up. She is smiling and holding her head up and already outgrowing clothes It's bittersweet to watch your little tiny baby grow up so quickly. We are all still so in love with her and now Tracy says he is going to marry her one day. She is such a sweetheart and such a huge blessing to our family. We have all grown closer and we appreciate our children for who they are and love their similarities and especially their differences. Mike and I feel so lucky to be blessed with our family. We are all good pieces in the Bollinger Family puzzle.

Happy 24th of July fellow Utahns!

The boys began their day bright and early with Daddy at the Days of 47 Parade. Mommy and Summy decided to sleep in. Tracy loved having the "Princesses"(city royalty girls) wave to him while Everett was fascinated with the police motorcycles.

ALL AMERICAN GIRL! Summer looked so cute in her patriotic stripes. Too bad she slept through most of the excitement and fireworks.

We went to the Burtons for dinner and fireworks later that evening. While we were setting up dinner, Mike and Troy came up with a fun game for the kiddies. They lifted the top of the trailer up while Oakley, Tracy and Everett sat on towels. Once the trailer was at its peek, they'd release the kids and they went flying. The towels slid down the back at a greatly fun speed. They thought it was radical and did it over and over again. Only Everett came out with a battle wound. Derrick was trying to catch them all and Ev slipped through his legs. Everett didn't cry and kept sliding down. Only later did I see the big bruise on his behind.

Stake Lagoon Day.

Our kids had a blast at Lagoon especially because we went with the Sullivans. Everett, Bailee, Tracy and Kennedi loved riding the rides together. They almost look like two sets of twins because they are all little blondies.
Oh my boys, and how they love their toys! They are in their element driving/riding in the car. Tracy takes it very seriously.

JOSHUA wins it all!

While I was on bed rest Mike and I joined the reality TV world by becoming addicted to "So You Think You Can Dance". Our favorite was Joshua Allen. He is so amazing to watch because he has no professional training yet the boy can do anything: samba, Broadway, baliwood, contemporary, hip-hop, waltz etc. Mike and I both fell in love with him (especially when he wore really tight pants to show off his larger than life bootay). He is a such a great entertainer that we actually voted this week. I am sure he woudn't have won without our help. :) Mike even bought us tickets to see them next month when they come on tour. I am so excited!!! I have always thought reality television was silly but now I get it. Charity, Kristen and all you other fans know I mean when I say Joshua's dancing is "BUCK"!

BREAKING DAWN

Yes, I am a crazy Stephenie Meyers fan and I went to the midnight release party at Gateway. It was a fun girls night out too. Rachel, Lizy, me, Melody and Summer (sleeping in the car seat behind us) had dinner and pigged out on yummy Cheesecake(from Cheesecake Factory, of course) before heading downtown. I haven't accomplished much since I started reading it but I am finally finished! It is so good. I especially loved the ending when Bella drives a stake through Edwards heart for cheating on her with a Zombie. Bet none of you saw that coming. I won't really ruin the ending for you fans, but I will say that I was not disappointed. I am extremely sleep deprived but it is well worth it. Thanks gals, it was a lot of fun.