Griner Family Get Together

Isn't this what you do at your family get togethers? Funny thing is, this doesn't seem strange to me at all. Oh, and this is the day that my brother brings his girlfriend over to meet the family for the first time. If she can get past this, she can get past anything!!!! Lucky for us, she joined right in!

My Family

As many of you know, I am the oldest of 8 children. I have 5 brothers and 2 sisters. My parents had 5 of us in just under 6 years, waited 10 years and then had 3 more. I am 18 years older than my little sister. Then, to boot, we all of our names start with "D," have two syllables in them and none of us have middle names! How is that for fun! Here we are listed by in our birth order: Darci, Derek, Devan, Dustin, Downi, Dalton, Daynon, Danza. Can you say that even one time fast???

This picture is of most of my family. I do have a brother, Devan, that lives back East with his wife and new baby son. Everyone else is in the picture though. Here we are in the picture from left to right:

My mom (Michelle,) Creamy the cat, Dustin, Derek, Kyra, Daynon, Dalton, Me (Darci,) Kaeson, Downi, Danza, Kelton, Harvey, My dad (George)

Outside

After coming home from a warm weekend in Moab, we were bombarded with snow. Lots and lots of cold and snow. If you know me at all, you know how much I HATE snow. I can handle it on Christmas and that is just about it.

Well, today the sun was out but it was still rather cold but, I couldn't keep the kiddos inside for one second longer or there would have been mutiny here in Francoville. We headed out to the front yard to ride scooters and play soccer. I was freezing (nothing new) but the kids loved it. We had to come inside once to warm up and get a snack. However, it wasn't long before we were all out again!

I let the kiddos use the camera again and these are the shots that they got! (Don't mind the state of the yard! I PROMISE that I am going to work on it this year!

Red Cliffs Lodge

I found something new to put on my bucket list. When we were down in Moab this past weekend, we passed a lodge nestled up in the hills. What a fun place. This lodge is made up of a series of cabins that line the Colorado river. Each cabin has it's own private deck that looks over the river. It seems like such a fun, romantic hideaway. I usually don't get excited over hotels. However, this one certainly caught my attention. It got me excited to go stay there someday. I am definantly putting this on my someday list.

Hiking in Arches

Moab Half Marathon

Atleast once a year we head on a road trip that is completely based around one of Harvey's runs. We have been to the St. George Marathon more about 5 times. This year Harvey decided to join Lou on the Moab Half Marathon. I have never been to Moab so despite the fact that these road trips are extremely stressful for me, I was excited to go.

I was up until 4:00 a.m. Thursday night finishing laundry, packing and getting stuff together. That sounds terrible until I tell you that I was up watching a movie with a friend until 1:30 a.m. So, I was tired from the getgo. I assumed the kiddos would sleep on the trip down. NOPE! Not a wink. We ended up with some cranky little kiddos. One of which has an ear infection. I will also admit that I was starting to walk on the cranky side too!!





The scenery was beautiful and the drive down was peaceful. Last night was not as much fun. Kelty would not go to sleep and was up forever crying. I finally had to take him on a walk at 11:30!

Today couldn't have been prettier for the run. It was beautiful and just the perfect temperature. See, I need to move to a place like Moab. I have had it with the snow! Harvey and Lou did great on the run and came in sooner than they had expected.








Then, we spend the rest of the afternoon at the pool. That was certainly fun for the kiddos. They loved every single last second of it. I am now hoping that they will fall asleep EARLY and let me get some rest tonight!!! I am not holding my breath though!!

Being a Mother of 3

My mom brought this over to me and could barely contain herself she was laughing so hard. I do have to agree with her though. A lot of times, this is a very good example of how my days go.

Teaching Them Early

As a mom, you rarely get a moment to yourself. That is true in my case atleast. I often feel like I am running like crazy and trying to work everything into a single moment.

Lately, instead of waking up an extra half hour earlier, I have been fitting my shower in after I drop the kiddos off at school. This means that Toad is on the loose. Well, he generally just stands at the shower door and cries until I let him in. Sometimes he even hops in fully clothed.

I hadn't realized how much of a habit this had become until yesterday when I noticed that he was copying my "shower routine" nearly to the T. Yes, I have a routine. I am a bit OCD on shaving my legs and do it every day. I usually give Toad a bit of shower foam to play with while I am in there. Well, yesterday, I noticed that Toad put the foam on his legs and was trying to shave them using a plastic Winnie the Pooh tub toy. Yes, I am getting the hint that I now need to get up a half hour earlier and get my shower done before the kids wake up. The last thing that I need is to have Toad grow up and thinking that he has to shave his legs to go to kindergarten.

TMI? Who knows. Just thought that you might enjoy this part of mommyhood.

My Awesome Brothers

Today I got a phone call from my mom who asked me if I would like to get my car detailed. She was offering up my brothers who needed to earn some money for prom. I jumped at the opportunity.

They not only cleaned it out but they made it sparkle! They took so much time and made it look amazing. They made my day! I had to get the car cleaned before we went on our trip tomorrow and I certainly didn't want to do it by myself. So, in my opinion, worth every last penny.

I am now thinking that I should offering them college tuition to clean out my garage.