Birthdays are a big deal in our family. But they've always been an intimate big deal. We've occasionally had parties for Charlotte and Lydia, but our preferred way of celebrating is to have cake with just the 6 of us and then do a family activity.
Well, this year I told everyone the family activity for their birthday's would be Lagoon. We ended up having scheduling conflicts with Derrick's birthday Lagoon visit so it didn't exactly work out that way. But Veronica's birthday was on a Saturday and she was ADIMANT that we would celebrate her birthday at Lagoon.
And from there the birthday plans just kind of snowballed.
Veronica's birthday was Saturday and my niece Juniper's first birthday would be Monday so I asked my sister Emily if we could do a combined celebration on Sunday. She said that sounded like a great idea.
She had a pretty big landscaping project happening on Saturday so I volunteered to help with that.
The plan was that my whole family would come to Emily's on Friday night. We'd sleep over there and be ready to help with the landscaping early on Saturday morning. Then when that was over we'd go to Lagoon for Veronica's birthday. Then we'd sleep over again and have the party on Sunday.
And that was the plan for a long time.
But the jeep broke down two weeks earlier and was ultimately towed to Brandon's parents house. So the plan changed slightly. Brandon would go to his parents house and get the jeep fixed. I'd still help Emily with her project. And we'd all meet up again once the Jeep was fixed.
So on Friday night we drove from our house in Idaho to Brandon's parents house in Utah. I dropped off him and Derrick and then drove 30 more minutes to my sister Emily's house. We got there at 10:00 and my girls were SO tired. They each found a couch and went straight to bed.
I stayed up talking to Emily and blowing up balloons to surprise Veronica. Usually we just put the balloons on the floor, but I didn't want to do that will a billion people in the house and baby Juniper. So I'd bought these balloon sticks. They turned out so cute.
Emily has been playing "Musical Vans" for most of the summer. Here's the run down.
Round 1. Old 7 seater Chrysler Van with high mileage
This was Emily's van for YEARS. It was getting pretty old and also didn't have enough seats for her family of 8. Emily had been looking for a replacement van ever since she was pregnant with Juniper.
Round 2. Newish 7 seater Chrysler Van with 80,000 miles
This van had belonged to Emily's father-in-laws mother. When she passed away the van went to Emily's father-in-law. At some point he suggested switching vans with Emily. He'd take the old one and fix it up. Emily could take the newer one. It still only had 7 seats. But it was in much better condition. So in June they switched vans. They also started coming up with ideas for how to install an 8th seat.
Round 3. 2008 8 seater Honda Odyssey with 261,000 miles
This van belonged to my sister Lindsey's mother-in-law. (I feel like I need a family tree to help illustrate all the different people involved in Musical Vans.) Lindsey always uses this van when she comes into town. Lindsey's in-laws received their mission call to New Zealand and would be leaving in October. They told Lindsey they'd sell the van to any of her sisters for $1000.
Lindsey told me about this when she was in town in July. I was slightly tempted by that offer, but Brandon had just got the jeep running again and I was like, "We don't need three cars."
Plus Emily really needed a van with 8 seats. Emily decided to buy the van.
Round 4. Emily's father in law offered to buy the newish Chrysler back from her. So she wouldn't have two vans. But I'm not sure if that ever happened. Emily and David started thinking about selling their third car (with only 5 seats) and then they'd each have a van.
And that's where the game stalled because Emily ran into a big problem with the Odyssey. It had a check engine light on. She couldn't get it to pass the state emissions tests. And since they couldn't get it to pass the tests she couldn't get it registered. Her father in law was in town helping with lots of projects and he took a look at it. Basically it had a bad oxygen sensor. And it would be a $7000 fix. For a $1000 van.
We talked about how stressful that was. I joked that she should move to Idaho because we didn't do emissions testing. She said they had been tempted by a job in Pocatello recently. We talked about how great that would be.
And then we realized it was super late and we needed to go to bed.
In the morning Veronica was so excited to see her balloons and her presents. Here she is eating breakfast.
This has been a BIG project for weeks. Emily didn't want to worry about watering all the grass in her yard so she'd cut out all the grass except for a small shape in the middle. They'd been hauling away sod for weeks.
Emily had applied for a pollinator program and had received 90 free perennial plants. The plants needed to go into the ground this weekend. That what I was there to help with. Here is the before picture.
Emily had everything mapped out on a paper. I would follow her around with the plants and she'd say, "that one goes here, and this one goes there" and I'd put them down where she told me. I liked just being a grunt.
My kids were being helpful with the younger kids in the house. So Emily and I could just get stuff done.
After all the plants were placed we started digging holes and planting the plants. Emily's brother in law John came and helped dig holes.
At 9:30 Emily had to get her kids ready for the Primary Program Practice for her ward. So she went into the house. I kept digging and planting. I was so glad I was there to help. I'm not sure when Emily would have got these in.
At 10:00 she took most of her kids over to the church. Charlotte went with to help with Juniper. Lydia stayed behind to help with Vance (who was old enough to be in the program, but was adamant that he wasn't going to do it.)
I got the rest of the plants into the ground and watered them. Here's the after picture. (I'm excited for the real after picture next summer when they are all bigger.)
Here's everyone enjoying the food.
The birthday girl.
Then they went back to the play place. Here's Lydia up in the rocket.
The kids really could have played in that play place for hours, but we reminded them that we were planning to go to LAGOON next. So they got out of there and we drove to Farmington.
I had Veronica come outside and help pick up all the planter containers. Then we drove to Walmart. The week before we'd ordered a cake online that we'd pick up at this Walmart. We've never ordered a cake before. Veronica had so much fun picking out the different colors and flavors.
We were both super excited to see the cake. Here's a sneak peak for you.
When we were back home I called Brandon for an update on the Jeep. In theory all that was wrong with the Jeep was a bad computer board. Brandon had a new one and switched them out. He also switched out the cover thingy for the spark plugs. (I'm not sure what it was called. It wasn't the distributor cap.) He could get the jeep to turn on and the engine to turn over, but it was not running. Something was off, but he couldn't figure out what.
This was not good news. I was thinking, "there are at least three things happening next week where we NEED two cars. I was really counting on the jeep getting fixed this weekend."
But I didn't say that. I told Brandon to keep trying, but not to stress. We'd get things figured out. I told him I'd come get him later that day if the jeep still wasn't fixed.
Emily was home from the church by this point. As soon as I was off the call she said half joking half serious, "You guys should just buy the Odyssey from us."
And I was like, "Oh my gosh that's the solution to both our problems."
Emily couldn't sell the Odyssey to anyone in Utah because of the emissions problem. But I could easily get it registered in Idaho.
I called Brandon back and floated the idea past him. He wasn't jazzed about the idea of buying a mini-van, but it was a vehicle that ran and that was more than what the jeep was at the moment. He said he'd think about it. I said I would too.
And I really did think and think and think about it.
For so long my thought process has been this.
1. We need a new vehicle because the Honda Pilot is getting up in miles and the kids are quickly outgrowing the third row seating. Three hours was about our max travel distance before Derrick started complaining that his legs hurt.
2. If we are going to buy a new vehicle it should be something that we will use for the 5-10 years. We've had the Jeep since 2008. We've had the Pilot since 2013. I wanted a vehicle that would last us a long time.
3. I wanted a vehicle that would fit all 6 of us comfortably. We did NOT want a mini-van so we were looking at a large SUV or a Truck. (We were really partial to the idea of a 4 door truck.)
4. BUT any large vehicle is going to come with terrible gas mileage. Gas was over $5.00 a gallon this summer. Did we really want to buy a SUV or truck?
5. Also a problem was the fact that most reliable SUV's and trucks were outside our ability to pay cash. I didn't really want to take on a car payment at the same time we were starting to pay for braces.
6. And so it was probably just a good idea to keep using the Pilot and the Jeep and wait until we had to buy a vehicle. We wouldn't be able to go on any long trips because the kids just didn't fit that well in the Pilot, but it kept us out of debt.
I'd started telling people that we had a Catch 22 on our hands. We couldn't go on any long trips because we didn't have a big enough car. But if we bought a big enough car we wouldn't be able to afford any long trips.
The "Buy the Odyssey" plan was like a whole new thought path. It wasn't a long term solution, but it was a good temporary solution. I trust Hondas - even with high mileage. The Odyssey had only 1000 more miles than the Pilot so I felt comfortable buying it. And it helped that I knew the previous owners. This wasn't some Honda that had been abused for years. Lindsey's in-laws had taken good care of it.
And even though I didn't really like the idea of a mini-van I did like the idea of how much leg room the kids would have. When Lindsey had been in town they'd all BEGGED to take turns riding in that van. It also had a ton of storage space. If we bought the van we could go camping again.
And $1000 was a great deal for the van. It would keep us out of debt and allow us to keep saving up for another car in a year or two.
Plus it was running and I could think of at least three things that week that we'd need two cars for.
After I thought it over for a while I was like, "yes, we should buy this van."
Brandon wasn't able to get the Jeep running so I did have to pick him up. Around 3:30 I left the girls with Emily and went to get Brandon and Derrick from my in-laws.
The whole way back to Emily's Brandon and I talked about buying the Odyssey. It really did seem like our best course of action at that point.
But we put that aside when we got to Emily's. It was time to get back to celebrating Veronica's birthday!
She wanted to eat at Burger King for her birthday so we drove to the one in Layton. I'd just picked it because it was close, but it had the COOLEST play place. The kids had so much fun playing in there while we waiting for the food.
We got there a little after 6:00. Lagoon was open until 11:00 that night for Frightmares so we had hours to spend in the park. (Though I had my doubts the kids would last very long past 9:00.)
The first thing we did was the swings.
Well the kids and Brandon did it. This is one of my least favorite rides so I just watched.
Then we split up for a bit. Brandon and the kids went to ride the colossus while Veronica and I did the Musical Express. She was so much fun to stand in line with. She kept yelling really loudly and saying, "It's my BIRTHDAY! I'm so happy it's my BIRTHDAY." Here we are together.
We wanted to do a selfie. I was like, "we look so alike."
And then I took off my glasses and we were both like, "Oh wow, we look exactly alike."
Here we are when we first sat on the Musical Express. We were pretending it was going and squishing us.
We met back up with Brandon and the other kids. We were getting a little cold so we decided to head back to where we'd stashed our backpack full of jackets. On the way we admired all the decorations. This one had spots where we could pose and make it look like our heads were in jars. this is Charlotte, Lydia, and Veronica.
This is me, Brandon, and Derrick.
Then we walked through a whole tunnel of Jack-o-lanterns.
This was sooo cool looking.
Here's Charlotte modeling her jacket. We'd brought cookies in the backpack and so we had a sugar break with those. Then we were back to the rides.
We went on our favorite ride, Flying Aces. That was was fun to do in the dark.
Then we went to ride the Spider, but the line was super long. I've never been to Lagoon for Frightmares before. I was not prepared for how many people would be there. The lines were all super long.
The Wild Mouse had a shorter line so we got in line for that. It was fun to stand in line with all the kids and Brandon. When we rode the ride I was with Veronica. We had a blast. It might have been my favorite time on that ride.
Veronica had been talking about how she "might" go on Cannibal when she turned 9 so we went over there, but the line was ridiculously long. Same with the line for the Rocket. So talking Veronica onto those rides now that she was 9 became a non-issue.
The kids took turns posing with this prop. Here's Charlotte and Lydia.
Lydia and Veronica.
Veronica and Derrick.
Derrick and Charlotte.
Derrick wanted to do the bumper cars and so he and Brandon went to do that. The girls and I decided to take the sky ride to the other side of the park. Normally I hate the sky ride, but I was so excited about a chance to sit on a longish ride. The sky ride sounded AMAZING.
Veronica rode with me. She was still her goofy, loud self.
Veronica was still having a fabulous time. All evening long she had been saying, "This is the best birthday EVER!"
We got off the sky ride and met up with Brandon and Derrick who had walked over. Everyone wanted to go on the Wooden Roller Coaster. Well almost everyone - Veronica suddenly wasn't having much fun any more. I'm not sure what changed. Maybe it was because she was still wearing shorts and was getting cold. Maybe it was because we'd just passed 9:00 PM and she was tired. But she suddenly was asking to go home. I was like "what happened?"
She came along with the rest of us and rode the wooden roller coaster. I think she had a good time on the roller coaster, but she was not happy in line.
After we were done with the roller coaster we decided to ride the train. Derrick ALWAYS wants to ride the train, but the rest of us usually say no. This time I was like, "Sitting on the train sounds AMAZING right now." We we went over there.
We just barely missed getting on the train, but that actually turned out to be really nice. We were able to go into the little waiting room building that had a HEATER and a BENCH. I was like, "This is the best place to wait in the whole park." Veronica and I sat on the bench and got warm. She seemed to perk up a bit but was still asking to go home.
Derrick, Charlotte, and Lydia wanted to sit in the very back of the train. Veronica, Brandon, and me sat in the section right in front of them. Here we all are.
When we got off the train the kids had fun playing with a fog machine. These would randomly go off all night.
This was the best picture I could get of it.
And this one too.
It was about 10:00 by this point. We had such a good time.
I really wanted to ride the Spider. Veronica had wanted to ride it earlier, but all she wanted to do was go back to the car. I was willing to take her to the car and let Brandon go around with the older kids, but he told me I could go on the Spider and he'd take Veronica (and Derrick who was now tired too) to the car.
So Charlotte and Lydia and I went to the Spider and Brandon and the other two kids went to pick up our backpack and then go to the car.
On the way to the Spider we passed the Cliff Hangar. They had skeletons in every chair on the cliff hangar.
The Spider ended up being CRAZY. Charlotte and Lydia went on a car ahead of me. I was riding with two other girls. Their mom had waited in line with them but planned to just not ride the ride. I said to her, "Oh you can ride with me. It will be fun."
So we rode the ride together. I love the spider in the daytime, but I've never been on it at night. It was a completely different ride at night. I couldn't keep track of where were were. It was just a blur of spinning lights.
When we were done I said to the other mom, "I am so sorry I talked you onto this ride. That was way different than I expected."
The girls and I headed out to the car to meet up with Brandon and the other two. On the way we took this picture.
We drove back to Emily's and I helped get the kids to bed. Earlier in the day I'd realized that I'd completely forgot to pack an air mattress for me and Brandon to sleep on. I'd told Brandon, "let's just sleep on the trampoline."
We'd tried sleeping on Emily's trampoline earlier in the summer. But we'd been rained on and gave up on it around 3:00 am. This time there wasn't a cloud in the sky. So we decided to try again.
Charlotte said the trampoline sounded really fun. So she came out with us. Emily supplied us with blankets and pillows.
We made it through the night and in the morning I took this victory picture.
Brandon and I had told Emily and David that we were thinking about buying their van. So we took it on a test drive that morning. The drive went really well. And in a lot of ways we realized this minivan would be an upgrade. For one, it had a working air-conditioner. There were also like a billion cup holders, seat warmers in the front seats, and sliding doors.
When we got back to Emily's house I said, "Yes, we'll buy it." But we didn't really have a chance to talk much about it because there was so much to do that day.
This was Sunday and we planned to have the combined party for Veronica and Juniper's birthday. The party would be after church. There was a lot to do to get ready for it.
I asked Veronica what she wanted to eat at the party. She wanted tuna noodle casserole. So I'd brought everything to make that. I also wanted to try to duplicate an Asian Chicken salad from the women's retreat. So I'd brought all that too. I spent a long time in the kitchen working on all those things.
The kids played on the trampoline.
My kids got ready for church and Lydia realized she forgot a skirt. So Emily loaned her one of hers.
At noon we went to Emily's church. It was their ward's Primary Program. So we were able to watch Bridger, Titus, Hazel, and Vance sing and say their parts in that. At the end Bridger and Titus had solos during the last song. They all did a great job.
Emily's kids stayed for the second hour, but my family and my parents went home. My mom sat in the kitchen and talked to me while I figured out how to frost Juniper's cake. Emily had baked the cake and made the frosting, but didn't have the time to put it together. So I did it for her. There was a serious crumb situation, but overall it turned out really cute.
Emily's family came home and we decided that all the kids were super hungry so we should go ahead and start eating. Almost as soon as we were done with the prayer my in-laws arrived. Emily's father in law came over with her Brother in law and his family. Later my sister Hillary and her family came. And another one of Emily's sister in laws came with her children. It was quite the crowd.
Juniper was really close to her nap time so Emily wanted her to do her presents and smash cake sooner rather than later.
Then Emily took off the top of the little cake and gave it to Juniper.
She was so adorable.
Veronica also loves money so she was excited when her Bestemor and Bestefar gave her a cup full of candy and $1 bills.
One thing she'd wanted was a crown. Like a real crown. And thanks to Amazon we found one.
She also got a 100 piece magnet building set.
I had her pose a bunch of different ways because it was just so fun.
We cut the cake. Here's Walter and Veronica eating together. Even though Veronica is about 4 years older than Walter they are like best friends when they are together. 
Here's Derrick playing on the slack line Emily has in her yard.
People hung around and talked for a while. I tried to be in some of the conversations, but I was wearing down. I ended up taking a nap on the couch and when I woke up everyone had gone home and Hillary was giving Brandon a hair cut.
She also got a piggy bank shaped like a safe. Another gift was the book the City of Ember, it's sequels, and the movie City of Ember. Veronica's second grade teacher read her this book and Veronica had been talking about it ever since. So I bought her the books and the movie. We'd finished reading the book earlier that week and I really enjoyed it.
When she was done opening presents we put the crown on Veronica's head.
Hillary (who has experience wearing a crown in an official role) helped pull up Veronica's hair and secure the crown with bobby pins.) Here's Veronica with all her presents.
And with the cake.
Veronica had created a fort made of pillows and presents.
She was quite happy in there.
I was like, "Um are we buying the van?" We kind of needed to know soon.
Brandon said, "I think Emily and David are talking about it right now."
And a few minutes later Emily came into the room with the van title and started signing it over to us. I paid her via Venmo. Brandon and David cleaned out the van. And soon we were putting out stuff into the van.
So yeah, we bought a mini van. Here it is.
Brandon drove the van back to Idaho with Charlotte and Lydia. I wanted him to drive it so he could feel if there were any engine issues to be aware of. He didn't have any problems. He also discovered it had amazing gas mileage.
I drove the Pilot with Derrick and Veronica. We didn't try to stay together, but our bathroom breaks happened to be at the same places so we saw Brandon twice on the way home.
We made it home after 10:00. We were all so tired. I was like, "this is going to be bad tomorrow." I had a 7:30 PTO meeting scheduled for Monday morning I was pretty certain I'd be late to that. (And I was so happy that I wasn't in charge of the meeting anymore.)
I was happy that I'd been smart and already bought the cupcakes for Veronica class. They were waiting in the fridge. At least I was prepared in some ways.
And that was the end of Veronica's birthday weekend.
Thanks for reading.
