New York

I have absolutely no idea how to do one of those slide show thingys where you can condense all your pictures into one cute little sitting. My only other option was to post quite a few pictures into this little blog..bare with me. Kev, Connor and I took a trip to the big apple last week to soak up one of my favorite destinations. I love love love New York and the fast moving pace that keeps my ADD quite entertained at all times.





This was Connors first trip to New York so we tried to do most of the New York "have to's".


We hit broadway and went to a show a day. Does it get any better? My favorite was Legally Blonde...seriously hilarious and a must see if you can.

We did the empire state building...of course... but I definitely could have done without it...too crowded!!

We went to the restaurant where the waiters sing and take turns performing as you're eating...very fun. Does anyone remember the name of this restaurant on Broadway?

FAO Schwartz...of course

The Today show a must...

Dylans Candy Bar was quite the treat...get it...quite the treat...man I'm good

The bike cab was awesome...



And Connor really wanted to check out the Museum of Natural History....let me cover my yawn...BORING...
Central Park...another "must see"...


And of course we had to eat and eat and eat and eat and eat...



and eat and eat and eat

and chow and eat and scarf

and inhale and munch and gobble

and slirp and sip and so on and so on and you get the point...

But through all of the New York hustle and bustle, one of my favorite moments was when Connor and I were waiting in line for Lion King tickets...we had a mother- son moment where we whipped out the camera and took candid shots to pass the time.

It may seem silly but we laughed and had the best time just enjoying one another. Some say Connor and I are alot alike and I just reply Thank you, I am proud to be like my awesome son.

Thank you Kevin for an amazing trip.

Navajo Trails

One of my greatest friends, Miss Jenny Sampson and her hubby Dan own and operate an adventure camp for kids in the gorgeous but small town of Bicknell, Utah..if you can call it a town. I believe the population is around 350 people. A couple of weeks ago, I sent Connor and Jackson to this camp to spend a week rock climbing. Yep, rock climbing. Connor tackled his fear of heights all week and came out a winner. His instructor said he tackled every one of the climbs without too much hesitation. Jackson also did great except for the little incident where he dropped his instructor. Oh well, I'm pretty sure insurance is provided..we hope.

The boys bought themselves a disposable camera and took these beauties...they went to a cliff by Moroni and learned to belay and rappel down cliffs during the day. At night, they layed out their sleeping bags and slept under the stars. The camps motto is work hard play hard..they definitely did.

They have a zip line on their 112 acre property over a little lake. The boys loved it!



I drove down Wednesday morning to spend some time with Jenny. We also worked hard and played hard. Thursday morning Jenn woke me up at 6 in the am and we went on a hike through the gorgeous red rock cliffs above her house..what a way to wake a girl up!




We then decided to paint her living room and fireplace...



And I whipped out a frame to go on her newly painted wall...




When the boys got back Friday afternoon I had to take a couple of pictures of them actually working "hard".. Gotta love a 12 year old washing dishes with bright yellow gloves on.



The ranch also offers weeklong horseback riding trips...




Kevin drove up with Dan on Thursday and on Saturday we took a drive into Capital Reef National Park which is about 10 minutes from the ranch.

Thanks Jenn and Dan, the boys had a great time and made memories to last them a lifetime. Now hurry home..we miss you!!

Photos by Carrieshinphotography

My sister Carrie bought herself a new camera and has decided to start a little business doing photography. She asked if she could take my boys out to Wheeler Farm last week and take their pictures. I knew I would get some great photographs but I had no idea that they would be so amazing. My problem now is deciding how big I want to enlarge these and which ones. Thank you Carrie, you have an amazing gift!!

A day at Snowbird

Last weekend we decided to get out of the blazing heat of the city and we headed up to the lovely and gorgeous and cooler Snowbird. If you haven't been up there this summer, do head on up, it is absolutely gorgeous. Last year we took the tram up to the top of the mountain and hiked back down with a backpack of food and water, it was fantastic. So last week we decided to do the same little trek.





Anyone want to take a guess which one of my children is afraid of heights? hmmm...

When we got to the top of the mountain we realized that there was still snow on the easy trail so we debated on whether to make the trek down using a different trail that follows the ridge of the mountain or take the tram back down. I voted for the tram but I was quickly struck down by all four boys who felt like being the Von Trapp family climbing the Swiss Alps.. so off we went.

Happy Von Trapp boy number one

Happy Von Trapp boy number 2

Happy Von Trapp boy number 3 who's fear of heights suddenly goes out the door when he's scaling a mountain...go figure.

The view and the hike was fun and gorgeous and quite relaxing for the first hour...until...

our trail suddenly came to an end at the ridge of a steep cliff...a very steep cliff!! Well...the boys decide that this is not a problem and proceed to make their way down...straight down...the side of this steep ridge. Rocks are sliding from underneath us and I cannot seem to get any sort of footing to keep me on this mountain. At this point, I proceed to have a major panic attack, start crying, and yelling at everyone to get their butts right back up that cliff cause I am not taking one more step. Connor then proceeds to call me a wuss, Jackson sweetly gives me a sympathy pep talk and Kevin seeing that I am not joking proceeds to climb back up holding tightly onto Ethan.

After that little incident, we realized that the only other option was to turn back around and hike back up and up and up to the tram and take it back down....which is exactly what we did. I know that at times I am a definite girly girl stuck in the middle of 4 adventurous boys and I do act like a friggin wuss, but i must say that I really don't care. If I'm going to chose my demise it will not be rolling down a mountain, screaming and cussing all while praying to the almighty to save my life. Oh well, I like to think that I gave my boys an excellent workout hiking back up that trail and my thighs can always use the extra mileage!!

A week alone..well sort of

Ok Ok already...I am updating my blog...finally. I guess most of you don't realize that when I say my life is consumed with baseball you all think I'm just lying. Well I'm not...I'm really not. But this last week was a little different. Kevin and his two best friends took a little trip to Omaha to the College world series baseball tournament and Connor and Jackson took a trip to Reno with their granparents to visit cousins and my nephew who returned from his mission. This left me and little Ethan all alone...so very alone...and we lived it up!!



We started off the week with...hmm...yep...a little baseball but this was his very last game...woo hoo...woo hoo...woo hoo...oh...did I say woo hoo too much...woo hoo. It was the championship game and Ethans team took first place in his entire age group. Can we all say..extra large trophy... but he not only got an extra large trophy..he also got a...

nice big metal award necklace or whatever you want to call it to go with it. This is Ethan singing "We are the champions" which he didn't stop singing for the next 24 hours..yeh me.

We then had a little belated birthday party which I have been postponing since May 24, which was his actual birthday. Hmm, why you may wonder...well it's a little thing I like to call baseball..we haven't had a day or night to spare for the little guy, so we finally fit it in when everyone was gone. We went to my alltime favorite spot...Classic (stinky sweat smelling) Skating..

The kids had a great time, and Ethan was just happy he finally got his party...even though I put it together at 6:00 pm the night before..notice the lack of children...oh well..it worked out great for me and my pocketbook.

Ethan and I spent the rest of the week playing hard and working hard. We organized our closets and toys and took 8 bags to DI... I was going to throw most of it away but Ethan informed me that there are poor children that would love his old toys...very cute and thougtful...thank you Ethan. We rented two movies and stayed up til midnite watching them. The best part of having everyone gone is just enjoying each other.. and sleeping in til 10:00 doesn't hurt either. I have definitely decided that I need to have a little one on one with each of my boys more often.. whether it's a weekend in Park City or a night on the town. Love those boys but loving them all alone is so great and oh so QUIET!

Is dribbling a talent?

Ethan had his very first talent show at school last week..woo hoo. He brought home a paper a couple of weeks ago which stated that the first grade was having a talent show and to please help your child pick a talent to perform. Well...let me tell ya... the Bolingbrokes do not have talents. We don't play the piano, or an instrument, or sing, or dance or whatever it is that talented people do. So...as I'm pondering what it is that my little one can do, I decided that he can do what he does best...play a sport. On Friday Kev and I showed up to watch our youngest outshine all the other children. We were entertained by the other children singing, lip synching to their brothers CD recording, perform back handsprings across the entire floor, perform a Brazilian tai chi dance (not kidding)..and listen to a child who read an entire story that they had written and illustrated themselves. Blah Blah Blah...talent shmalent. Ethan..of course...went last and stood in front of all the other kids and started to dribble like he had never dribbled before. He dribbled in a circle, and in a straight line, and even dribbled under his leg once or twice. We were so proud. Who needs to have impressive musical ability, or have the gift of flipping backwards 50 times, or sing to your amazingly talented musical brothers CD. Ethan can dribble people...that's right...dribble!! Good job son!

Baseball or die

So my little sister Carrie sent me an e-mail telling me it was time to update my little ole blog. It has been a month but I swear it feels like a week since I wrote last. My problem isn't that I don't have time to update, the problem is that the only thing that is going on in my life is a little sport called baseball. I know I wrote about this a couple of blogs ago but this sport absolutely consumes my life. When my friends call me on the phone, the first thing they ask is "are you at a baseball game?"...and 80 percent of the time I am. This last weekend we spent our days and nights in a pleasant, peaceful, tranquil, quiet city I like to call Poci...which is short for Pocatello...as in Idaho. Yep...we had a lovely baseball tournament there and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to watch your boy play on a field that looks like it was built by third graders for a class project. I also love when the field is smack dab inbetween a farm and a working railroad track...very soothing. But...all in all it was a pretty fun tournament.

Notice the amazing field...we were lucky there was dirt to and from each base...

Connor playing in regular season...

Jackson playing in regular season...

Ethan playing in regular season...

Debate

In December of last year, Connor came home from school and we had this little conversation.

Connor: Hey mom, do you want to help coach debate for my class?

Me: Umm, well I have never done debate Connor, so I don't think I would be that much of a help.

Connor: You would be great mom, and besides, you would have help from some other moms.

Me: O.K..well let me think about it.



1 Week Later



Connor: Hey mom, so did you decide if you would help coach debate

Me: Umm, if your teacher needs help then I would be happy to help, but remember I have never done debate so I hope the other moms know how.

Connor: Cool, I'll tell my teacher you'll do it



Next day



Connor: Hey mom, umm so I told my teacher you would help with debate

Me: O.K.. so who are the other mothers helping me

Connor: Well, ummm.. you're it

Me: Excuse me, what did you just say?

Connor: Yea, I guess no one else can do it, so you're it

Me: Say that one more time, because I could have sworn you just said that I am the only one who can coach debate, and as we both know, I have never done debate, so therefore I couldn't possibly coach by myself, so please tell me you are joking.


Connor: Uh.. nope..not joking, but if you don't want to do it, you don't have to...but if you don't do it, we can't have a team, and I really want to have a team.

Me: ................this is me saying nothing.......................Fine, I'll do it but..........oh.........fine.


So here I am 3 1/2 months later, still alive and kicking and nearing the end of my volunteering. We ended up meeting once a week for 2 months, twice a week the last month and every day for the last 2 weeks. Not quite sure how to describe it except that it was moments of pure agony mixed with moments of wanting to murder 7 six graders, followed by some great times getting to know these great kids. Long story short...2 out of my 4 teams won region and are now heading to the state competition on Friday. I guess I can follow a debate manuel...who knew? Actually Kevin says he knew..apparently I am pretty good at arguing, debating and getting what I want...hmmm...aren't most wives and mothers? Wish us luck...we could really use it!!

Take me out to the ballgame.. or 9

This past couple of weeks has been a roller coaster of baseball games and baseball practices and baseball everything. Just this past week I counted 5 practices, 9 games and 1 rain out. Now I am not complaining...not really...but when 4 of the games are held in Spanish Fork, Utah and they are umped by Spanish Fork High school baseball players and you end up playing a Spanish Fork baseball team, tensions can surely get the best of me. Lets just say I blew a cork at the ump and it wasn't pretty people. Anyhoo...this week should be a tad bid better, I think I only have 4 games and a handful of practices...love those boys!!!